Random Little Stories

Lost Tamagotchi

So when I was growing up the Tamagotchi virtual pets were making a comeback. You know, they were really popular a long time ago and then they came back when they came up with the connect feature. I was 9 and, at least in my school, how popular you were was determined not only by how you looked but how many Tamagotchis you had. I was very unpopular previously, so needless to say this...excited me...to FINALLY get to have something considered popular...and if popularity was determined solely on the number of these...little eggs...I would have been the MOST popular kid in school. I had so many...I was completely addicted to these little things. They were my pets, my beautiful little friends...to a child whom had none...

Oh, I had an entire...little thing covered in them. I got several for Christmas, many different versions too. Uncles and Aunts and Grandparents got them for me...for my birthday it was around when they came out, mother got me two...a buy one get one half off thing. Easter arrived and I got two Littlest Pet Shop virtual pets, as they'd just come out. My favorite pets, though...were the ones my grandmother gave me...she had original pets, back from the 1st wave of popularity. She'd gone out, bought them new batteries, and gave me three for my birthday and for Christmas. Oh, it was heaven, and all I could do was thank her...but this...this...it wasn't the issue, as well you can probably guess.

When cousin grew tired of hers she gave them to me. Now I had about twice as many. Every time I could get away with it during school I would take care of all of my marvelous friends, enjoying that something for once was going my way and that I actually could have something that was reliable regarding routine. You may be wondering then, why is this here? What could have possibly gone wrong, what is it...that changed? Well, I'm getting to that...

I was walking to the bus stop one day. It was a nice day, nothing all that odd except for one thing...the virtual pet I found laying in the grass outside the abandon church. Thinking nothing of it I picked it up and looked at it. Studying the case I found that it had no marks of any company that made it. It was a simple white case with yellow buttons, the classic egg shape, nothing special. I shrugged it off, knowing that dollar stores have a habit of making cheap versions of whatever's hot at the time and decided it must simply be a knock off. None of my neighbors had any kids, and no other kids walked this way to the bus stop, so I had no idea who's it could have been it I decided that it was now part of my collection...at least until I got to school.

I got to the bus stop and proceeded to examine it closer, finding something carved lightly into the back. Not wanting to ruin it in case I found the owner, I pulled out a small paper and a crayon. Being an artsy type I always had crayons or something of the like on me, and I proceeded to rub the paper with the crayon on the back of the case. It revealed the word 'lost' and I had to force back a chuckle. "Well I know you're lost, I just picked you up!" I said under my breathe, knowing no one at the stop would pay me any attention. They never did, people have gotten rather...used to my talking to myself. I put the crayon and the paper away and tried to turn it on. Nothing happened...I sighed and just attached it to the chain with the others. Perhaps this was why it was dropped, the battery must have been dead. I then decided to start working on taking care of my others and eventually the bus came. I got on and things went normally that morning.

However, at lunch and after finding no one to claim the thing I went on taking care of the others. Greenish blue screens staring back at me happily as the little sprites jumped up and down when I played with them when I noticed something...the one I'd found this morning was on. That's strange, I'd thought it was dead. Shrugging, I picked it up to find that the screen was red instead of the normal color. Probably just the difference in whoever made them, that would explain the music too...it was slower then it should have been.

I clicked on the option to feed it and gasped. The only thing available was meat...raw looking...exceedingly realistic looking chunks of meat...when I selected one it growled and bared pointed teeth, and the sound of flesh ripping made me glad I sat alone. No Tamagotchi or anything of the sort should be making this realistic of sounds. I didn't know what to think, I quickly got out of that menu and clicked to wash it...a choice I regretted instantly as what I can only assume was blood pored from the top of the screen. I didn't know what else to do but this pet...this demented looking...twisted thing sitting solemnly on the screen staring at me as if a combination of daring me to keep playing and longing to be played with...I couldn't put it down. I had one more thing to look at, and that was the games. Usually they have a stupid game like jumping over things or something but this one was odd...it showed several other what I can assume are pets and my pet charging at them. The sound playing was like a demented scream I had to turn down. My pet was running with a knife and my apparent job was to control it to attack these other pets...I didn't really know why but it was the only game so I didn't really have a choice if I wanted to keep it alive. There was a burst of darker red and a Splat with each I ran into, and it didn't seem there was a way to loose the game it just randomly stopped at some point with a strange laughing sound. Back to the home screen, with my pet now sitting very contently staring at me with a smile, pointed teeth bared.

All of its stats were up, so I put it and all the others away and I got up as the bell rang. In the next class I hear some other girl whom I despised deeply babbling to her friends and I decide to listen in, as I'm naturally curious. What I heard was mildly...concerning...

She said that towards the end of lunch while she was taking care of her Tamagotchi the screen suddenly went red and after that it made a strange sound before it died. It wouldn't turn back on again after that, she said it must just be the batteries. I froze as I heard her friends say it'd happened to them too. Through out the rest of the day it was the same...I heard the conversation on repeat and on the bus I found myself frantically checking all of mine, thinking maybe the batteries were now reaching their limits. Oh good...none of my friends had died. Content after that I proceeded to take care of them as normal, leaving my new one for last so I would be off the bus and away from people when those sounds played again.

I continued to play with them the next day but this time doing the new one 1st, before I reached the bus. Suddenly it seemed all of those around me had dying pets and I started to take note of when they were dying...and found each time it was while I was playing with my new one, so I stopped playing the game and only fed and...bathed it, if that's what you wanna call it. When I stopped, the deaths stopped but this new creature glared at me....it's previously un-moving sprite pacing viciously across the screen and jumping at it a few times, scaring me each time it did. That lasted about two days...when suddenly it was gone one morning.

Now...I don't mean that the machine itself was gone...I mean the little beast that once stalked through it was gone. I froze, staring at it, and suddenly the girl standing next to me at the bus stop screamed and threw hers, fear obvious on her face, and it returned carrying the head of another Tamagotchi...looking triumphant as it started to eat, the familiar ripping sounds coming out of the small speaker and it grinned at me. My stomach turned and I couldn't move. I swear I heard "if you won't play with me I'll play by myself" come from the speaker. That should be impossible, they never spoke but at this point it didn't really surprise me. "If you play nice I'll spare your other friends."

From that day on ALL of my pet's sprites were still, they all looked very nervous, like they would be next as I kept playing with this new one...the food changed as it grew, it went from just unidentifiable lumps of meat to legs and ribs...at one point even a head...all of the people's pets around me died...slowly...

Eventually my other pets went back to normal...ish...they were happy, but still nervous, and they all died peacefully after the batteries finally gave...or at least...I'd thought they'd gone peacefully...but as they died I recognized their parts in the food for this creature...when I gasped I heard in the growls "don't worry, they were already dead...they won't miss a few parts." and this sentence was my last straw. All of my other pets were dead or dying, all of those in school were dead, there were even reports of new ones at the local store being bought only to show a completely red screen and then die!

I'd had enough...but just before I realized I couldn't do this anymore, I realized the creature had been gone for days...and the batteries on the machine were apparently dead. I pushed buttons but nothing happened, no lights no movement...nothing...

I still have all of my Tamagotchis...and both of the LPS ones too...I removed all of the batteries, and I had forgotten about them...after all, I'm an adult now...I only just remembered them today...when there was a new app I SWEAR I didn't download...a Tamagotchi app...and I heard that damned electronic laugh coming from the white cabinet in my room...