I love this world. The land, the lakes, the animals; everything.
The only thing that ruined it; the people.
The people that cut down trees, skinned animals for their hides, polluted the lands and other horrible things.
But...there is one thing I can say I like about the people.
The video games they create.
————
I've played video games for quite a bit of my life. It was a leisurely activity that I enjoyed, like many others did. It was my way out of this ruined reality.
However, it all changed in one day.
It was the year 2006. My Father bought me the Nintendo Wii that had recently come out.
I turned it on, and he guided me through it. He quickly left once I got to the Mii Channel, though.
I customized my mii, naming him Austin; after myself.
When I exited the Mii Channel, however, I saw that there was another mii.
This second mii was a female mii named "Sam", according to the bubble when I hovered over her. She had her dark brown hair tied into a ponytail and a white dress.
That's weird. I thought. I decided to leave her be, as I didn't really care that Sam was there, and I really wanted to try Wii Sports, the game that came along the console.
So, I exited the Mii Channel, and went to play a bit of Wii Sports.
An hour passed, and I got bored. I thought about what I should do, then decided I'd make miis of my family.
I exited Wii Sports, and prepared to enter the Mii Channel to create the best copies I could of my family members.
When I did, however, there were three miis.
I raised an eyebrow. What was going on? Where did these miis keep coming from?
I hovered over the new mii; Kyle. He had flat, brown short hair and wore an orange shirt.
Again, I didn't do anything despite being slightly creeped out. Maybe this was just some weird bug or something. Well, I hoped so.
I decided to think about this all later, and began to create miis representing my family members.
————
The next day, my friend, Mike, visited my house.
Honestly, I'm not even exactly sure how we became friends. He just happened to partner up with me one day in class, and the rest was history.
To be honest, I'm still surprised that he decided to stick with me. I didn't exactly act friendly at first, and I wasn't really liked by my classmates, nor anyone in the school.
Once Mike stepped inside, he quickly noticed the Wii console I got from my Father.
"Woah, you got a Wii?", his eyes widened with surprise as he walked over to it.
"My Dad got me it yesterday.", I responded, following him.
"Perks of having a Dad that has a high rank in Nintendo, he's like...the manager, right?", Mike picked up the remote, "Well, can we play it?"
I nodded, "Sure, what sport do you wanna try first?"
Mike pressed on the Mii channel, "We'll decide on that later, first, I wanna make a mii!"
Fair enough. I sat down on the couch, waiting for Mike to finish.
Once he entered the Mii Channel, however, he frowned.
"Uh, Austin?"
"Yeah, Mike?"
"Who are Sam and Kyle?"
Oh.
How am I supposed to explain that?! I pondered what to say.
"Well, uh, this might sound a bit weird, but, I don't know myself. They just...appeared."
Mike glanced at me briefly, confused, "What?"
He looked back at the screen, and clicked on Kyle. Kyle immediately started squirming around.
"You can delete miis you know, I think the button's this one.", Mike dragged Kyle over to the delete icon.
"I didn't really bother deleting them.", I answered.
Mike shrugged, deleting Kyle, "Oh well, it's pointless to have them here, so let's just keep the miis to your family and me, sound good?"
"I guess."
Mike proceeded to delete Sam as well, then began to create his mii, naming it his own name like I did.
But, when he saved the mii, Kyle was back.
"Wait, what?" I got up, walking closer to the screen, "Why's Kyle back? Didn't you just delete him?"
"Yeah..?" Mike responded with an uncertain tone.
He clicked on Kyle, and dragged him back to the delete button. But then, Sam reappeared with a worried expression.
"What the-!" Mike dropped the remote in surprise.
If things weren't weird enough, then it got even weirder when a female voice spoke.
"Wait! Stop deleting us, Ky-"
Sam didn't get to finish what she was saying. She stopped abruptly briefly before Mike's mii fell down, an axe in his back.
Slowly, Kyle walked back into the Mii channel, his eyes shadowed.
Sam ran over, grabbing his arms, "Kyle, no!"
I wanted to look away, but I couldn't. I was in shock from what was happening.
Kyle forcefully shook Sam off, leaving her helpless for a few seconds on the floor as he grabbed the axe and chopped Mike's mii in half.
I couldn't force myself to speak as Kyle dragged the upper half of Mike's mii to the delete button, but I quickly snapped out of it and pulled the plug just as Kyle began to drag the lower half of the mii's body.
Once the screen shut off, I loudly sighed in relief.
"What...was that?" Mike whispered in horror.
"I don't know..." I shook my head, forcing myself to think about anything other than what we just experienced.
I took a deep breath as I picked up the console and it's chord, "Mike, I...I think you should go home for today."
Mike nodded, "Yeah, I'll...I'll see you at school tomorrow."
Mike exited my house, locking the door as he left.
My heart pounded as I walked away from the television, I couldn't help but feel like I was being watched as I hid away the Wii and it's remotes.
Even though I had turned it off for good, I couldn't shake off the feeling that this wouldn't be the last time I would see Sam and Kyle.
———-
It's been 7 whole years. 7 years since the incident.
I haven't touched that Wii console since. My parents asked me what had happened to it, but when I tried telling them the story, they called my bluff and put it back out.
It sits there, under the television. It's chord is never connected though, I make sure of it.
Nowadays, I often find myself playing the Wii U. I wasn't going to let one single experience ruin my love for video games!
Still, I couldn't help but sometimes think back to 7 years ago. There are still some questions that I'm really curious about; like who are Sam and Kyle? How were they possessing the Wii? Where did the axe come from? How did they come back after being deleted? And so much more. None of them I had the answers to...yet.
The next thing I knew, I had set down the Wii U and was rushing to remove the SD card from the Wii console.
I looked at it, my hand shaking a bit. Was this even a good idea?
I shoved my fear down as I got my laptop. I forced myself to put the SD card in the reader after I plugged it into my laptop.
I guess it's too late to back down now. I sighed.
I opened file explorer, and clicked on the SB card. Inside it were files such as System Data and Game Memory.
I clicked on Game Memory, deciding to start from there.
Two files appeared; "sammiichannel.WAD" and "kylemiichannel.WAD".
How convenient. I thought. I got it on the first try, what were the odds?
I quickly clicked on Sam's file before I could regret my choice to investigate.
My screen went to black, and I stared at my reflection, uneasiness creeping it's hands onto my shoulders.
It felt like hours had passed until finally, something popped up.
This something was the wii menu, all glitched up and so dark I had to turn up the light of my screen.
I winced as the low quality music suddenly made a horrendously loud screeching noise, quickly lowering the volume.
My palms felt sweaty and my heart rapidly pounded against my chest, this was a mistake.
Regardless, I ignored my growing sense of fear and clicked on the Mii Channel, the icon going to static.
I clicked on the start button, bracing myself for whatever horrors, jumpscares, or anything else that might happen.
The Mii Channel was fully black, but the icons were still visible. There were no signs of my miis, Kyle, or Sam.
Freaky... I thought, Maybe I should just close this.
Just as I was about to exit, however, he appeared.
"Austin?"
"Kyle."
"I had thought you've forgotten about me.", Kyle looked at me, his expression not giving away anything related to his intentions.
"Oh, of course I had. It's not like you made me and Mike watch his mii get chopped in half when we were 7.", I sarcastically responded, biting back the urge to add more edge to my tone.
If my words meant anything to Kyle, he didn't show it.
Without betraying his emotions, he stated, "Delete me."
"Huh?", my eyes widened in shock.
"Just do it. I need to show you something very important.", A light shadow fell over Kyle's forehead.
I sat there for a few seconds, aghast. This was not what I had anticipated.
Slowly, I picked him up and dragged him to the delete button, deleting him.
Then, it appeared to crash.
I was sent back to my desktop, confused.
Wait, what?
Was this supposed to happen?
I was about to reopen file explorer, when something caught my eye; "DELETED.MP4".
That definitely wasn't there before. Is this...Kyle's doing?
I stared uncertainly at the file, but clicked on it. As much as I didn't want to, I should probably listen to Kyle, lest he gets angry and something more worse than last time happens.
A video file loaded, then static.
I stayed silent, becoming a bit impatient. Why was static involved so much?
Just get to the point!
Finally, a dark, long hospital hallway came into view.
I inspected the scene with a surprised look, were those...miis?
Life support machines slowly beeped, glowing green in the darkness. A few flatlined in the background.
What the Hell is this?
The camera panned over to one hospital bed; Kyle's.
He was dressed in a hospital gown, with wires attached to him.
Kyle looked at me and sighed, "This is what happens when we're deleted."
I didn't respond, I was slowly comprehending what I was seeing. However, I didn't understand; Why was this here? What was the point of this place?
"It's painful, getting deleted. I mean, physically painful. Imagine a hundred syringes getting shot into you. It's probably as painful as if that happened, and you had low pain tolerance."
Kyle briefly stopped, and tore off the wires that connected him to the life support as he looked at the hospital floor.
When he spoke again, he sounded...melancholic, "Only me and Sam know how to get out of here, to avoid certain death. Sam tried teaching the other miis, but they were unable to do so."
He looked back up at me, "So you better remember this, Austin. And tell your friend about this too. Don't delete miis, or else I'll make sure you remember not to in a different way."
With that, the video file ended, and I was sent back to my desktop.
I sat there, stunned. Many questions were still left unanswered, and I hadn't gotten to talk to Sam, or even see her. Where had she been the entire time?
I guess I'll never have these questions answered. And perhaps, it's best that they aren't.