Ben the Drowned (Fan Story). Creepypasta: stories of Ben the Drowned comic

Surely many of you have been to children's pioneer camps or gathered around the fire every weekend, telling each other terrible stories with a predictable bloody ending. Today he is doing the same thing, but within the Internet. Interesting? Do you know what the “horror stories” that are circulating on the Internet are called? Creepypasta. “A strange and unfamiliar word,” you might think. But now this is a fairly popular slang, which in its meaning conceals a certain “discussion thread” where the authors, without knowing each other, tell terrible stories that have ever happened to someone, somewhere. The goal of creepypasta is to give the reader goosebumps. In our article we will discuss one of these horror stories, which is most common on the Internet. This is the story of a certain Ben the Drowned.

This character is quite popular; he is also commonly called the ghost of Majora's mask. Judging by the numerous stories that are circulating on the Internet, we can say with confidence that this “computer ghost” brought a lot of horror to users, especially with the stories of some authors about how to summon Ben the Drowned. Of course, after reading about this creepy character, lovers of “creepy stories” urgently want to check the authenticity of the stories, and many, despite the “bloody” nature of the presentation, take this step. We will try to tell the most daring people an interesting story about this character, and we will also take upon ourselves the responsibility to explain how to summon Ben the Drowned and how to behave with him further? Scary? No?! Well, then, let's go!

Who is Ben Drowned?

As you know, this character is a kind of computer virus, which is an elf from the game “The legend of Zelda majora's mask”. Until now, no one can explain where he came from and how Ben the Drowned penetrates into users’ computers. First activity The virus was noticed in the same game “The legend of Zelda majora's mask”, which simply went crazy with the appearance of this character. The players talked about incomprehensible and threatening messages coming from a certain Ben, after which frightened users hurried to disconnect the computer from the network, but this turned out to be useless. The virus remained and continued to spread throughout the computer, slowly destroying its operating system. Therefore, before wondering how to summon Ben the Drowned, think about whether it is worth doing this and why do you need it?

What does Ben look like?

There are many stories about the appearance of the Phantom. Some disagree about his age. Some say that this is an elderly man, others say that this is a young man. But the opinion is unanimous regarding its appearance. Judging by the information from users who allegedly saw Ben, it is safe to say that he is wearing a T-shirt and a green baseball cap. He is hunched over, his eyes are black, from which, according to eyewitnesses, scarlet blood flows.

Ben's Challenge

If you are very interested in how to call Ben the Drowned at home, use the recommendations below.

As it turned out, this is absolutely not difficult to implement; the question that remains is whether it is worth doing. If you decide yes, let's get started. So, take a pirated version of the game “The legend of Zelda majora's mask”, a bowl of water, 4 sheets of white paper, red, green, yellow and blue pens, and also download the “Song of Healing” on the contrary on the Internet. The water should warn you about Ben's appearance. Next, turn on the game and on different sheets of paper write with a red pen - “how”, green - “did”, blue - “you”, yellow - “die”. Literal translation: “What is the cause of your death?” bowl of water next to your computer monitor, turn on the Healing Song backwards and start playing.

What should happen before Ben appears?

Before calling Ben the Drowned, check out what can happen before he appears:

Screen flickering;

A glimpse of the mask seller's face;

Flashing of a statue.

Remember, if the water starts to bubble, it means the Ghost has arrived. In this case, immediately attach the sheets of writing to the monitor, this will prevent Ben from leaving. The last thing to do is to say: "Answer my question." This will be the last action. Remember, there is no turning back.

What do the people who called Ben say?

Before you summon Ben the Drowned through cleverbot or any other resources, read what consequences people who dared to summon Majora's Phantom experienced.

Some said that the glued sheets fell off, and the multi-colored inscriptions turned scarlet - the color of blood. The words “I drowned” in English immediately appeared on the monitor. Many people got scared and disconnected the computer from the network, but the inscription continued to appear on the monitor, and after a while it disappeared. Computers simply stopped working after such incidents. Therefore, is it worth resorting to such actions for the sake of curiosity?

The consequences described above are the most insignificant things that happened to those who summoned Majora's Phantom. Some paid with their lives. The proof is one story that was never completed by the user. Many do not believe this and claim that this is a fictional creepypasta. “How to summon Ben the Drowned through an old cartridge?” This was the title of the story of a certain anonymous person who acquired a worn, ill-fated game cassette from an unknown old man. To celebrate, the guy came home and started playing. The first thing he noticed during the game was that not a single character was there. But curiosity exceeded fear, and he continued to play. After some time, the guy received a threatening message from a certain Ben, but did not pay much attention to it. In all subsequent days, the messages became more creepy and even smacked of the sadistic inclinations of the writer. The guy started posting them online, feeling that everything was coming to a bad ending. A few days later, the young man wrote that he constantly felt someone’s presence in his room. The last message that the guy posted online was that Ben asked for his freedom. That was the end of it. It's not hard to guess what happened to him. Therefore, from everything described above, we can draw a simple conclusion: never, under any circumstances, get involved with otherworldly forces, otherwise not only you, but also your loved ones may suffer.

In 2009, I was 10 years old. I was the shortest in the class. It's not fair, everyone called me a "gnome". My mother told me that I would still grow up. I had few friends, although one guy was still friends with me named Denny. He was the "nerd" in the class. He had vision problems and wore glasses. I asked him many times to play games, such as Minecraft, but he replied that he did not have a computer.
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I'm sitting in the classroom and counting pigeons outside the window, simply because counting crows is too primitive. And then the door that serves as the only entrance to the classroom opened with a noisy creak. A 10-year-old boy entered the classroom. The teacher introduced the whole class to the new kid, Jim. We I got along well with him, and Denny liked him. I was glad when I found out that Jim was just as much of a “nerd” as I was. He recommended “Majora’s Mask” to me and I started playing it. I liked it a lot, and that’s all I I did what I did to play it. But, unfortunately, I never finished playing it, since the disc that Jim gave me was only the “Alpha” version. I pretended to be “Link” and made myself his costume, played a role-playing game with my cat, that supposedly she was "Zelda". It was a fascinating activity. At least that's what I thought. My little brother Jacques liked it, although he was only a "Mask Salesman", although you can imagine how good a "Mask Salesman" a 3 year old can be a child, right? So, as the years went by, I started reading fan fiction about Majora's Mask, became a fan of this game, and when on my 16th birthday I received a disk as a gift from my grandfather Henry, I immediately began to play. I I thought that I would finally find happiness, because there was a lot of stress in our family. My parents divorced when I was 12, Denny took off his glasses, became a bully and stopped being friends with me. Jim completely disappeared somewhere the next year after joining. I felt like my life is gradually being destroyed, and the game has become my life. One day I spent the whole day at the computer and did not go to school. In the evening, my mother returned. I was supposed to pick up Jacques from school, but I didn’t, and I shouldn’t have missed it myself. Well , what else could I do?! I was still the shortest. There were no friends. They made fun of me. My mother took the game away from me and said that I would get it back when I deserved it, or rather IF I deserved it. I went outside with Jacques when he did his homework. In the park I saw Denny and his new friends. I lowered my head down and walked in the other direction, grabbing Jacques by the hand. I looked at my red sneakers as I walked away from Denny and the others. Then I felt my head buried in someone’s stomach. I raised my head and saw “him.” This asshole was standing above me head and smiled maliciously. I bared my teeth. “Jacques, go home, I’ll join you soon,” I said. The house was only 5 steps from the park, and an 8-year-old boy could easily cross the tiny road. Finally, Jacques left. I stood stupidly in front of the three bullies and my pupils ran over them. Finally, Denny moved and swung his fist in my direction. I got hit in the face by him and felt a bloody tooth on my tongue. I spat it and turned around. I was about to leave when Denny grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled me towards him. All the people in the park were looking at us. “He” and his friends took me somewhere. It was dark and deserted there. They began fight with me there. I came home covered in dirt and bruises. My mother scolded me. She said that I fought with Denn again. “He started it first, and you should have finished it, you’re already an adult, Ben.”
I told everything to my grandfather, because only he protected me, only he understood me. Sometimes he played with me and pretended to be “Zelda”, and I saved him. It was quite funny. A couple of weeks later, when I was returning from school, I decided to take a walk first in the park. I walked around it for several hours. And then, when the sun went behind the houses, I smelled a strong smell of alcohol. It was Denny. Drunk, with his friends. I went in the other direction, and then I noticed that they were following me. I started to run away. And they were getting closer, closer. Soon they caught up with me and two of “them” grabbed me by the shoulders. “Oh, look, it’s Princess Zelda!” “Zelda is the princess, and I am Link, the hero, “and you’re a pissing idiot,” I grumbled. Perhaps if I hadn’t angered him, I would have been alive, but I couldn’t help but say this. Then they threw me to the ground and started beating me in the face. Then I felt terrible pain in my eyes. I realized that They are digging them out with something sharp, most likely a knife. I started yelling and apologizing, calling for help, but there was no one. “You have beautiful eyes,” Denny snorted sarcastically. I felt like I was bleeding, then they put me in the car.” Where are we going? To the lake. Why? We'll drown." My heart started beating faster. "Don't, please, I won't tell anyone, I promise, don't drown me, I'll come up with an excuse about my eyes, just don't kill me!!" But they They didn’t listen to me. Then, when I was pushed out of the car, one of Denny’s friends grabbed me by the legs, and the other grabbed me by the head. “Last words?” Dan asked. “Yes,” I said. And a wide smile stretched across my face to my ears. The most terrible laughter echoed throughout the street. “YOU ALL WILL DIE, I WILL REVENGE, I WILL BE BACK HAHAHAHA” “Dan, he scares me. Nonsense, drown him.” A moment later, I felt water. It began to fill my lungs. I tried to break the rope whom these bastards tied my hands and feet. I tried to surface, but nothing worked. Soon, I drowned. Nobody knew that Denny did it. I remember how my mother cried, I remember the bitterness in the eyes of my grandfather. I think that he knew for sure that it was Den. But no one believed him. Then I came up with a plan. It was a little dishonest but... revenge must be done, right. I had to force my grandfather through suggestion to give "Majora's Mask" to Dan. "He" was very I’m glad about this. “You shouldn’t have done that,” the mask seller told him. My statue followed him everywhere. I watched him through the eyes he tore out. Then I called him into the cloverboat. After a couple of days of madness, I called him “the culprit,” and he apologized. But I knew that he was not upset and, moreover, he was not sorry for my death. He just wanted to live BY HIMSELF. After a while, he went to the kitchen and started cutting his wrists. His parents were not at home. I appeared in front of him, only I was in Link's clothes, but otherwise it was still me. I looked at him with my blue eyes. Then they turned black and black blood flowed, but my smile did not disappear. He apologized to me, now sincerely, begged for forgiveness, while cutting his wrists. After which he died from loss of blood. “The game” came by mail to his friends, and, Thus, I soon avenged my death. They themselves destroyed themselves from the inside for a long time and painfully. Then I realized. This is dishonest. Why me? WHY ME? The whole world was against ME. Now I will take revenge. It will be a long, long, revenge ha ha ha.
Policeman: Kevin Merrick, right?
Kevin:.....Yes....
Policeman: what did you see when you went into John's house?
Kevin: I just went out to the store to buy cola and stuff. And when I came... God... He cut out his eyes, ripped open his stomach, cut off his tongue and... cut off one arm and two legs. .And also.....on the wall in blood he wrote “I’m really, really, really sorry.” Of course, I noticed that he had been missing school for the last two weeks and generally looked scared and lethargic, but I didn’t expect THIS.
Policeman: Anything else?
Kevin: This may sound strange but.....he was playing a fairly popular game "The Legend of Zelda, Majora's Mask" and after I saw his...corpse, I looked at his computer screen and....well. ...there was an inscription there. It was hesitant, but you could read “You shouldn’t have done that.”

Every day the Internet and the computer are becoming increasingly important in a person’s life. Even scary stories spread on the Internet have received their own unique name - creepypasta. For many, this word may be unfamiliar, but among young people it is quite common. On certain forums or websites, people share scary stories that are meant to create a sense of panic in the reader.

Does Ben Drowned exist?

One of the popular stories tells about the guy Ben the Drowned or, as he is also called, the ghost of Majora's mask. According to some sources, this character is a certain computer virus, appearing in the form of an elf from the game “The legend of Zelda majora’s mask”. There is still no exact information about how Ben the Drowned appeared and how he got into the computer. At one time, people playing began to receive threatening messages from some Ben, and as a result, over time, the virus destroyed the entire computer system.

As for the appearance of Ben the Drowned, history does not give a specific image, so there are several differing opinions. Some people describe him as an old man, while others are sure that he is a young guy. The only thing they agree on is that Ben is wearing a T-shirt and a green baseball cap. Another distinctive feature is black eyes from which blood flows.

The history of Ben the Drowned

In general, there are stories on the Internet from the perspective of the Drowned Man himself, telling about his life. Ben writes about being stuck in the Zelda series in 2000. The only thing missing from the collection was “Majora’s Mask”. Often the guy saw events in which he was Link and participated in all the adventures. In general, Ben dreamed that all this would be real. In real life, he was a loser, and often received from his neighbor Jack. In the backstory of Ben the Drowned, I also want to say that his family was, to put it mildly, dysfunctional. One unlucky day he received the long-awaited game “Majora’s Mask”. Even though it was a beta version, in Japanese and with numerous bugs, Ben was happy. The day ended badly, as he had to clean the whole house, go for a walk with his brother and sister in the evening, and once again get beaten up by the neighbor and his friends. The beatings were severe, and the guy lost consciousness, but he managed to hear that they wanted to kill him. It was decided to throw Ben off the bridge.

Before his death, he cursed his offenders and said that he would certainly take revenge on everyone. At the end, he swore by his favorite game, “Majora’s Mask.” The guys just laughed at the beaten Ben, tied him up and threw him over the side of the bridge. As his eyes sank, they became dark and bloodshot. The story describes how Ben the Drowned died in this manner. The guy went to another world unhappy, angry, cursing and dreaming of his favorite game. It was possible to put an end to this, but he managed to carry out his plans and avenge his death. When the guy's body was found, his mother decided to give all the games to the neighbor, since she sincerely believed that he was a friend to Ben. Arriving home, Jack turned on the game “Majora’s Mask” and there he saw a statue of Link that did not leave the screen. He saw a strange picture: Link was plunging into the water and drowning, and then a terrible inscription appeared: “You shouldn’t have done this!” The next day, Jack was found hanged, with a smiling statue of Link on the screen.

Many people, after reading the story of Ben the Drowned, will experience real horror. Some daredevils even decide to cause a computer virus and see if it's true. The rituals are in the public domain, and anyone can take a risk and invite a computer virus to themselves.

This chapter is dedicated to the popular computer virus - BEN the Drowned (according to the canon, the name is spelled BEN). There are only two stories. After reading the popular story of Ben, I wondered - How did Ben become a ghost virus in the first place? And I managed to find the background.

1) The story is told on behalf of Ben himself. He is a loner; He is bullied by his neighbor Jack and Ben endures it. Ben has no friends at all, but in 2000 he is stuck in the Zelda series of games. For a complete collection, he only needed the “Majora’s Mask” series. Ben had dreams about being Link. His family was dysfunctional, but one day he finally acquired Majora. Only it was a demo version in Japanese, but Ben was happy, and then the day ended horribly...

Let's look at the beginning. It's not all bad... Well, yes, a poor family, but Ben's dream came true. He is addicted to this game and finally he received the long-awaited Majora. Only the story ended badly.

That evening Ben was walking with his sister and brother. The hooligans beat him again and this time they decided to kill him. They threw Ben off the bridge into the river, but Ben did not know how to swim... Before his death, he swore revenge, but the offenders only laughed in response. Later, Ben's body was found and his mother gave all his games to his neighbor... Jack! She thought she and Ben were friends! Jack sat down to play and Link popped up on the screen. He saw a strange picture: Link was plunging into the water and drowning, and then a terrible inscription appeared: “You shouldn’t have done this!” The next day, Jack was found hanged, with a smiling statue of Link on the screen.

Here's a little backstory. I don't understand teenagers at all. Why did they kill Ben?! Why weren't they caught and punished?! And another shock - the mother thought that Jack was Ben's friend! She gave him all of Ben's games and here it is - the irony of fate - Ben drove Jack to suicide with the help of these games. What does it mean? Ben is dead, but his spirit is embittered and he cannot leave this world without taking revenge. His soul sits in this game and kills everyone who plays it.

Well, the story itself already shows how Ben drives people crazy. The story is told on behalf of some student named Jadusable. A friend gave him a Nintendo 64 console and the guy played some old and boring games. The guy himself lived in a college dormitory and was already in his second year. The boy went out into the street and came across a suspicious old man. He himself couldn’t really explain why he didn’t like this old man, but there was really something creepy about this grandfather. And yet the guy began to communicate with this suspicious old man. And the old man gave him a Majora cartridge! The boy was very happy to get the game of his dreams for free.

An ordinary student. Likes to play computer games. But what price will he ultimately pay for these games? There are downsides. First, he sees a suspicious person. In the story, he described in detail how this old man aroused his suspicions, disgust, and so on. Well, if this guy seems suspicious to you, why are you talking to him?! Secondly, don't take from strangers. This saying is taught to all children. The guy just checked into the hostel; he still doesn’t really know who his neighbors are. Why immediately take something from a stranger’s hands? And thirdly, there is another saying - only cheese in a mousetrap is free. This is just about this story and about what will happen to this boy in the future. Get a cool game for free... This is more than suspicious.

Excerpt: “I thanked the old man, he smiled at me and wished me well, saying “Goodbye to that!” At least that's what I heard. All the way home I was haunted by the thought that the old man had said something else.”

This is what needed to be proven: even when he goes home, he is still not sure whether he needs this cartridge or not. He is concerned about the old man's words, but he still inserts the cartridge into the computer.

The student started playing and saw the saved name - “Ben”, then he saw the words “Goodbye Ben”. He understood what the old man had told him and was scared again. Ben is the grandson of that old man, and by giving the cartridge to the boy, he seemed to say goodbye to his grandson. Then he was surprised: this Ben has gone a long way in this game. The guy created a name for himself - Link and began to play.

The mysterious game scares him from the very beginning, but he doesn't stop. He sees that this Ben has practically completed this game and decides to go through it himself, calling himself Link.

The beta game was going surprisingly well, but sometimes characters would call him either Link or Ben. The guy decided to remove the name Ben, but now because of this, in the dialogues with the characters, instead of his name (instead of Link), there was a space!

What's happening? Ben is a ghost trapped in his favorite game. During his lifetime, he became a record holder - he completed ¾ of the entire game. Now he is an evil spirit who has decided that Majora's Mask is just his game and therefore he will drive all subsequent players crazy. His name was erased in this game, and he made sure that the name "Link" will no longer be visible in the game.

The disappointed guy abandoned the game, but not for long. Already in the evening he completes the construction of the Snow Temple in the game. It was the “fourth day” and when the time showed 00:00:00, he was given one more day to complete the temple. He was supposed to talk to the astronomer, but instead he ended up in a boss fight room. He looked at Skull Kid, and in the real world his palms were sweating.

So. I haven’t played this game myself, and in general, when I read this story for the first time, I didn’t understand anything. Now I read each passage and understand that this story is mainly a description of the game. But, as you can see, the game does not go as it should: the name disappears, suddenly he finds himself in a battle room, although he just wanted to talk to some character - an astronomer. The guy knows the plot of the game and his palms sweat when he sees that everything is going wrong. Well then why play? No, I understand that it's interesting. I myself love many games, but if something scares me, I don’t like it, or generally arouses suspicion, it’s better to get rid of it as quickly as possible.

Skull Kid followed him everywhere. He was about to exit the game, but a message popped up to him: “You don’t know how, but apparently you’ve already saved…”. The guy already thought that this game was somehow communicating with him, but this is so stupid. Was someone able to reprogram the game?

It is already clear to everyone that the game is hacked and Ben is completely in control, but that student does not know about it. He just wanted to play, but in the end he couldn’t even exit, although any player in any game decides for himself when to exit or save in the game. Ben himself made sure that the guy survived.

“Where I was sent filled me with a feeling of creeping horror and threatening fear. This is the creepiest thing I've ever experienced. The feeling that came over me can only be described as a feeling of deep depression. I'm not a depressed person at all, but now I felt like I didn't know how to exist. This feeling was intertwined with the feeling that someone was watching me.”

Ben breaks people's psyche through this game. A completely healthy person began to experience depression. This game was creepy and scared him. It was creepy not in the sense that some creepy character is chasing you, and you have to collect something and get away from him. No. The game was really creepy and most importantly, the guy became addicted to it. It seemed to him that someone was watching him... Well, it’s clear that it’s Ben, but if you don’t know any Creepypasta and just look at this guy at the computer, you can conclude that he’s already mentally ill, because computer addiction is also a a disorder in some sense.

“I showed up in some weird, dark version of Clock Town, walked out of the tower (as you usually do when you start from day one) and found that the city had no inhabitants. Usually, with the glitch of the fourth day, you can still find guards and a dog running around the tower - this time they were not there either. Instead, there was an ominous feeling that something was there, in the same area as me, and it was something watching me.”

This game gradually changes colors and becomes gloomy: a strange and dark version of Clock Town, the city has no residents at all, and instead of a dog and guards, it is watched by a creepy creature. Here's a free toy for you! I told you that only cheese in a mousetrap is free!

This game also had a healing song, but in reverse. This music greatly influenced the guy’s psyche. The mask seller smiled creepily. Western Clock Town froze and everything around seemed... Broken.

The legendary healing music was playing, but... In the opposite direction! This is no longer normal, because look at the name of this music - “Song of Healing”. It should heal and give joy to the listener, but... It plays in the opposite direction, which means that the opposite effect occurs - pain, sadness and hopelessness. All you can do is sit and continue playing this nightmare, and in addition, Clocktown is frozen. Everything seems broken to the guy, but he still doesn’t know that the game is actually hacked.

The Song of Healing played backwards for the fiftieth time. Link stood in southern Clock Town and felt lonely. He had never felt alone in computer games before. He wanted to leave Clock Town, but every time he left Clock Town, the screen would turn black. The game didn't want to let him out of there, but why was she keeping him there?

Let's look at a rather mysterious piece. The same music is playing for the fiftieth time! I found a “Healing Song Played in Reverse” on the Internet... What can I say? It’s interesting to listen to it five times... It’s impossible to listen to it the fiftieth time in a row! It is obvious that the student has already gone crazy over this game. Next, he feels loneliness. This is a rather unusual feeling for computer games, because there, in virtual reality, there is always a friend. This is why people become addicted: they cannot tear themselves away from their favorite virtual activity, but what happens here? He's lonely. He is lonely, but still continues to play and falls into a trap - he can no longer leave Clock Town. Ben locked him there.

And then he decided that if he drowned in the pool, he would wake up in another place. The Elegy of Emptiness statue continued to follow him and he was simply terrified of it. No matter how he tried to get rid of the statue, it appeared behind him. His hero - Link - began to perform actions that he had not seen before. Skull Kid continued to pursue him and he was ready to die. Link shot his arrow at Skull Kid, but... He was burned. Skull Kid laughed and Link found himself in a different place.

What can we say? Nothing new - throughout the entire story the game just drives the guy crazy. People who have willpower can stop, but this student has already broken his psyche. He doesn't need anything else other than this game.

“I couldn't move, I couldn't press any buttons, I couldn't move, I could only sit and stare at Link's dead body. After about thirty seconds, the screen goes blank with the message: “You have met a terrible fate, haven’t you?”, and the game sends me to the start menu.”

There is a virus in this game. His name is Ben. And he deliberately made Link die. And now he laughs at the player: “You met a terrible fate, didn’t you?” What's going on with the guy? He's gone crazy. He can't move or press buttons because of such nonsense! After all, if you think about it, it's just a computer game. It cannot be perceived as reality, but he did. It feels like it was not Link who died, but the student who controlled this Link. It would seem that we could end the story here, but our hero turned out to be stubborn and decided to start all over again! Read on.

He went to the menu, but instead of the “Link” file there was a “Your Turn” file. There is no choice - you have to play on behalf of “Your turn”. The guy started to restart the game and again came across the “Ben” file. After that, he did not touch the game, but decided to go to that old man and ask him a couple of questions. He went to see him, but there was no one at home. The poor student didn't play anymore. He was so scared by this game that he couldn't even sleep. And in the end, he came to the conclusion that Ben is a brilliant hacker, and if Ben is something else, then it’s scary to guess who he is.

How did it all end? The fact that the game remained the same: there is not even a hint that “Link” played it - he was simply erased, but the “Ben” file remained even when they tried to delete it! And the guy’s psyche is broken. Here's a free game from a suspicious stranger, who even now is not at home. Where is he? Who is he? What kind of game is this - guess, student, yourself!

Well, then he finally found a man whom he asked about Ben. And this is what turned out: “The man’s face darkened, and he told me that about eight years ago, on the twenty-third of April - according to the man, he remembered this date because it was also his birthday - an accident happened in the area with a boy... named Ben. Soon after this, his parents left. No matter how I tried to question this man, I was unable to find out anything more.

It should be said that I had recently moved into a dorm room as a sophomore in college, and a friend of mine gave me his old Nintendo 64. I was excited to finally be able to play all the old games from my youth that I hadn't touched on at least ten years. His Nintendo 64 came with one yellow controller and a rather beat-up copy of Super Smash Brothers, but back then poor people didn't have to choose.

Of course, I got tired of this monotony and soon I started to get bored during the fight at level 9. That weekend I decided to drive around a few neighborhoods about twenty minutes from campus to check out the local garage sales, hoping to snag some "good" deals from clueless parents). I ended up purchasing a copy of Pokemon Stadium, Goldeneye (oh my god!), F-Zero, and two "new" controllers for two dollars.

Satisfied, I was already leaving the area, but suddenly the last house caught my attention. I still have no idea why this happened. There was not a single car there, there was only one table with a terrible mess on it, but something about it attracted me. I always relied on my intuition, so I got out of the car.

The old man greeted me. His appearance was, to put it mildly, unpleasant. If you had asked me why I found it unpleasant, I probably wouldn't have been able to answer. I didn't understand why - there was something about him that baffled me, I can't explain it. All I can tell you is that if it wasn't during the day and there weren't other people around, I wouldn't even think about approaching this person. He smiled at me wryly and asked what I was looking for. Then I noticed that he was most likely blind in one eye - his right eye was dim. I forced myself to look at his left eye, so as not to suddenly offend the old man, and asked him if he had any old video games.

I started to think about what I would say if he asked me what video games were, but to my surprise, he said that he kept several games in an old box. He assured me that he would be back in a second, turned around and went into the garage. I watched as he walked away, hobbling away, and looked at what he was selling. Quite peculiar paintings lay in a heap on the table... Various works that looked like inkblots that a psychiatrist usually shows at an appointment. I looked at them with curiosity - it was obvious why no one had visited this dude's sales. These paintings did not bring any aesthetic pleasure. Finally I got to the last picture. For some reason it reminded me of Majora's mask - a spot in the same heart shape with small spikes sticking out.

At first I thought that since I was secretly hoping to find this game at a garage sale, I would associate this Freudian crap with it, but after what happened, I'm not sure that was a coincidence. I had to ask the old man about it. I thought I should ask about this. After looking at Majora's spot, I raised my head, and the old man was right there, at arm's length in front of me, smiling. I admit, I reflexively jumped and laughed nervously when he handed me a Nintendo 64 cartridge. The cartridge was standard, gray, signed in black marker: “Majora.”

I got butterflies in my stomach when I realized what a wonderful coincidence this was and asked him how much he wanted for the game. The old man smiled and said I could take it for free - it belonged to a child who was about my age but no longer lives here. There was something strange about the way the old man phrased the phrase, but I didn't pay much attention to it. I was so glad that I finally found this game, and it was free too.

I thought I'd take it a little skeptically - the cartridge looked pretty weird and there was no guarantee it would work. But the optimist in me said that this was most likely some kind of beta or pirated version of the game, and that was enough to make me lose myself in my happiness again. I thanked the old man, he smiled at me and wished me well, saying “Goodbye to that one!” At least that's what I heard. All the way home I was haunted by the thought that the old man had said something else.

My fears were confirmed when I loaded the game (to my surprise, it worked just fine). There was only one save with the name "Ben". "Goodbye, Ben." He said, "Goodbye, Ben." I got a bad feeling thinking about this old man. Perhaps for one reason or another I reminded him of his grandson Ben. Out of curiosity, I looked at the save file.

I rolled my eyes at this. He went quite far - he collected almost all the masks and 3/4 of the remains of the bosses. I noticed that he used an owl statue to save his game. He was on the third day, near the tower of the stone temple, and there was barely an hour left before the moon fell. I thought it was a shame to almost beat the game but never finish it. I created a new file, traditionally calling it "Link", and started the game, ready to relive my childhood. I was impressed with how well the game ran on such a suspect cartridge - almost as good as a retail copy of the game, minus some minor bugs (like textures not being where they should be, random flashes in cutscenes, but not that bad). and bad).

However, the only thing that was a little frustrating was that sometimes the characters called me Link and sometimes they called me Ben. I figured it was just a bug, a fluke in programming that was causing the files to get mixed up, or something like that. But it still bothered me, so after I destroyed Woodful's fortress, I went into the save files and deleted "Ben" (I originally wanted to keep this file, just out of respect for the original owner of the game, but anyway, two files I don't need them) hoping that this will solve the problem. However, this did not happen. Now in the dialogues, my name was replaced by a blank space (although my save was still called "Link").

Frustrated and forced to do homework, I abandoned the game for the whole day. In the evening I started playing again. I had obtained the Lens of Truth and was now completing the construction of the Snow Temple. Well, some of you more advanced Majora's Mask players know about the "fourth day" glitch. Those who don't know can google it, but the point is that when the clock strikes 00:00:00 on the last day, and you talk to an astronomer and look through a telescope at that time, the countdown time disappears, and, according to Basically, you have one more day to finish what you were doing.

I decided to do this trick to finish the snow temple, and my first attempt was successful - the time counter stopped. However, when I pressed "B" to exit the telescope, instead of facing the astronomer, I ended up in the Majora boss fight room at the end of the game, looking at Skull Kid hovering above me. There was no sound, just him floating in the air above me, and typical arena background music (but still creepy).

My palms immediately became sweaty - this was definitely not normal. Skull Kid never showed up here. I tried to walk, but no matter where I went, Skull Kid always hovered in front of me, looking at me but not saying a word. Nothing happened for about a minute. I hoped that these were just bugs in the game, but I doubted it myself. I was already reaching for the reset button when the text appeared on the screen: “You don’t know how, but apparently you’ve already saved...”

I recognized this text immediately. You get a message when Anju gives you a room key at the Stock Pot Hotel, but why did it show up here? I didn't laugh at the idea that the game was trying to communicate with me, and went back into the navigation room to test to see if there was some kind of trigger that allowed me to interact with something here. But I realized how stupid I was, because even thinking that someone could reprogram this game would be absurd.

Well, fifteen seconds later another message appeared on the screen, like the first one, containing the already existing phrase “Go to the lair of the temple boss. Yes / No.” I paused for a second, wondering what I should press and how the game would react, and then I realized that I couldn't choose no. Taking a deep breath, I clicked "Yes" and the screen turned white, with the words "The Dawn of a New Day" and the subtext "| | | | | | | |" below.

Where I was sent filled me with a feeling of creeping horror and threatening fear. This is the creepiest thing I've ever experienced. The feeling that came over me can only be described as a feeling of deep depression. I'm not a depressed person at all, but now I felt like I didn't know how to exist. This feeling was intertwined with the feeling that someone was watching me.

I showed up in some weird, dark version of Clock Town, walked out of the tower (as you usually do when you start from day one) and found that the town had no inhabitants. Usually, with the glitch of the fourth day, you can still find guards and a dog running around the tower - this time they were not there either. Instead, there was an ominous feeling that something was there, in the same area as me, and that something was watching me.

I had four hearts, my name and a hero's bow. I didn’t even think about my appearance, I felt that I personally was in some kind of danger. Perhaps the most frightening thing was the music - it was a healing song taken straight from the game itself, but played in reverse. Gradually the music became louder, growing, as if something was about to jump out, but nothing happened, and the constantly repeating music began to affect my psyche.

Every now and then I heard the faint laugh of a happy mask salesman in the background, so quiet that I doubted it was what I heard, but loud enough to make me want to find him. I examined all four zones of Clock Town, but found nothing... No one... The textures disappeared, western Clock Town hung in the sky, everything around seemed... broken. Hopelessly broken.

The Song of Healing played backwards for the fiftieth time. I suddenly remembered standing in southern Clocktown and how alone I felt. I've never felt so alone in a video game. As I walked through the ghost town, I don't know if it was the combination of the strange textures and atmosphere and the haunting melody, a once peaceful and soothing song that had been cut and distorted, but I was almost crying and had no idea why. I never cried, but something kept me here, a powerful feeling of depression, alien and eating from the inside.

I tried to leave Clock Town, but every time I left the territory, the screen turned black and I simply ended up in another part of the city. I wanted to run away, I couldn't be here anymore. I tried to play on the outskirts, but every time I played the Song of Times or Flight, I only saw the inscription “Your music can be heard far away, but nothing will happen.” Then I realized: the game didn’t want me to leave, but I didn’t understand why it kept me here.

I didn't want to go into buildings because I felt like I would be too vulnerable there. This terrified me. I don’t know why, but the thought occurred to me that perhaps if I drowned in a pond, I would leave this game and appear in some other place.

When I ran to the pool, this is what happened. Link grabbed his head as a happy mask salesman appeared on the screen for a moment. He smiled at me. Not to Link - to me. Accompanied by Skull Kid's scream. When the screen changed, I saw the Link statue that usually appears when Void Elegy plays. I screamed when that thing looked at me with that look on its face...

I turned around and ran back to southern Clocktown, but was horrified when that damn statue continued to follow me. I can only compare it to the Weeping Angels from Doctor Who.

At various intervals, the statue appeared behind me, in any other way, it was chasing me. Now I was already on the verge of hysterics, but not a single thought about turning off the console entered my head - it all pulled me in so much that it seemed to me as if it was all real.

No matter how I tried to get rid of the statue, it constantly appeared behind me. Link began to perform actions that I had never seen before. For example, he was waving his arms or bending over in convulsions... then the mask salesman reappeared for a moment, after which I again came face to face with that fucking statue.

I ran back to the Dojo sword workshop. I don't know why, I just panicked and wanted to make sure I wasn't alone here. To my horror, I found no one, and just turned to leave, when the statue behind me drove me into the house and I found myself trapped. I tried to attack her with my sword, but to no avail.

Confused and cornered, I simply stared at the statue and waited for it to kill me. Suddenly the happy mask salesman appeared on the screen again. Link turned to face the screen and mirrored his copy, looking straight at me. He really looked at me.

All four walls were destroyed, and so I ran out of the Dojo in horror. Suddenly the game took me to an underground tunnel and the upside-down Song of Healing started playing again. Not even a moment later, the statue appeared behind me again... this time it was more insistent. I didn’t have time to take even a couple of steps before she reappeared behind me.

I quickly ran out of the tunnel and found myself in southern Clock Town. I ran wherever my eyes looked. In complete panic, he began to scream when a screen appeared with the words: “The dawn of a new day”, followed by “|||||||||”. The screen went dark and I found myself at the top of the clock tower with Skull Kid silently hovering above me.

I looked up. The moon again seemed to be a meter from my head, and Skull Kid was still looking at me in that fucking mask. A new melody was playing: the theme of the stone tower temple, only in the opposite direction.

In some desperate attempt, I took out my bow and shot at Skull Kid, and actually hit him, he began to stagger in the standard pattern. I fired again, and on the third shot a message appeared on the screen: "This won't do you any good, hehe."

I rose from the Earth, flying in a prone position, and Link, screaming, burst into flames, which immediately killed him. I jumped up when it happened. I've never seen this moment in any game, and Skull Kid himself didn't have any cutscenes. When the death screen appeared, my lifeless body was still burning.

Skull Kid laughed and the screen went dark and I found myself in a different place. I wanted to blame him for everything, but it all happened again: some unknown force lifted Link’s body from the ground, and he was immediately engulfed in flames, killing him again. This time, an inverted Song of Healing was playing quietly in the background of the death screen. The third (and final) time I noticed that there was no music in the background, only deathly silence. I remembered that during the original encounter with Skull Kid, you are forced to use the ocarina to either go back in time or summon giants.

I tried to play the Song of Times, but before I could play the last note, Link's body caught fire again and he died. When the death screen appeared, the console began to hum, as if it was processing a lot of information... When the screen returned, everything was the same as the last three times, but now Link was lying on the ground dead in a position that I had never seen in the game earlier (*that is, you were only surprised by the pose?*), and Skull Kid was hovering above him.

I couldn't move, I couldn't press any buttons, I couldn't move, I could only sit and stare at Link's dead body. After about thirty seconds, the screen goes blank with the message: “You have met a terrible fate, have you?”, and the game sends me to the start menu.

Returning to the main menu, I started again, but my save file was not there, "Link" was now called "Your Turn". "Your Turn" had 3 hearts, 0 masks, and no rupee. I chose "Your Turn" and immediately returned to the scene on the roof of the clock tower, with a dead Link and Skull Kid hovering above him, and Skull Kid's laughter in the background repeated over and over again. I quickly hit the restart button, and after updating the game, I discovered that under the file “Your Turn” there was another file: “Ben”.

The "Ben" file was the same as before I deleted it: near a stone fortress with a nearly fallen Moon. At this point I turned off the game. I'm not particularly superstitious, but this crap amazed me too much.

Today I didn't touch her at all, hell, I didn't sleep all night, the upside-down song of healing kept playing in my head, and I was overcome by a feeling of fear, like what happened in Clocktown. Today, my friend and I (I would never have appeared there alone) went to that old man to ask him a few questions.

There was a sales sign in front of the house, but when I rang the doorbell, no one was home. Now I'm writing down the rest of my thoughts about what happened. Sorry if there are any grammatical errors or anything else - I'm not sleeping at all right now. I'm terrified of this game, and now, writing this down, I'm reliving it all over again.

However, it seems to me that there is something more to this that cannot be understood at first, and something makes me think about it. I think Ben is some kind of key in this equation, but I don't know what it is, and if I could meet that old man again, I'm sure I could find some answers. I need to rest for at least one more day before picking up this game again.

I understand that it has already left an imprint on my psyche, but next time I'm going to record my entire performance, from beginning to end. Since this idea came to me at the last minute, in the video you can only see the last few minutes of the game (Skull Kid and the Statue).

Maybe you will have ideas and theories that can help me shed some light on all this? Tomorrow I'm going to open the Ben file. I have to do this to see what's going on there. Although I probably should have done this from the very beginning. I don't believe in any paranormal crap, but this is really a little creepy. It is possible, of course, that this guy Ben is just a brilliant hacker or programmer, I don’t even want to think about other versions if this is not the case. I hope that this is just a joke by the developers and that other people have also encountered such “jokes” and hacked copies of games like this. But this game really scares me a lot.