When you got back to your neighborhood, you saw several houses with yard sales going on. It made sense - it was a nice Sunday morning, after all. You weren't complaining. Maybe you'd score some cool stuff.
You decided to just park in your driveway to make things easy. There didn't seem to be any cops left around. You'd probably be able to get back into your house today. However, that would also depend on how safe you felt in the house right now.
You got out of your car and started to walk down the street, taking note of each house and the various things they were selling. Maybe you could find some gifts for your parents.
The first house you stopped at was nothing crazy. A few bird cages caught your eye, and you imagined they'd be something your mom might like for her plants. You decided to get them.
The second house had an abundance of old files. According to the seller, they were his grandfather's research papers. They had a lot of bad memories for him. Your dad would like these. He was an avid collector of odd bits of people's pasts. He liked the odd mystery of it all.
So, that was a gift for each of them. Along with the strange bird cages and the odd files, there was something else that caught your eye.
The last house on the block belonged to the Hall family. Their son, Alex, had left for college a few months back. Or at least, that's what your parents said happened. They were good friends with the Halls.
It seemed they were selling some of their own old useless things, as well as some of the stuff Alex had made it clear he didn't want to keep. One of the items they had for sale caught your eye.
An old banged up NES sat on the table, next to a plastic bag containing several game cartridges and three old, yellowed remotes. It looked like crap, but it probably still ran. You didn't have an NES anymore - having gotten rid of your years ago because it had damn well fallen apart - and you liked a lot of the games in the bag.
Mrs. Hall walked over to you with a smile. She knew you well enough from how often the Halls were over. You didn't talk to them much, but you were, at the very least, on cordial terms.
"Anything catch your eye?"
You nodded a bit, and picked up the NES, examining it. No point in buying it if it was damaged, right?
"This thing in working order?"
You felt that perhaps you were too blunt for a moment. You felt bad for being rude, but chatting like this wasn't really your thing. Her smile showed she had paid it no mind.
"It sure is. Alex used it right up until he left. Not sure why he didn't want to take it with him, but he didn't. He said it had something to do with that Zelda game he loved so much.
You raised an eyebrow and looked at the bag. Sure enough, there it was. A cartridge you didn't pay any mind before. It was blank - the label ripped off. The name was written in black sharpie, 'MAJORA.'
Ah.
Maybe there was something wrong with the cartridge? But why would that make him leave behind the whole console?
Too curious to let your mind rest on not knowing, you asked her how much it was.
"Oh, I dunno. Ten bucks sound good?"
"Absolutely!" Ten bucks for a console, three controllers, and a shitton of games? In this economy? Fuck yeah!
You pulled out your wallet and grabbed a ten dollar bill. She took it with a polite smile, and you grabbed the console and the plastic bag and went on your merry way.
"Have a nice day, Y/N," Mrs. Hall called after you as you walked away.
"You too, Mrs. Hall!"
***
You walked up to your front door and saw a note. It'd been taped to the door by who you assumed was one of the officers. It was just a notice that the house was cleaned up, and if there were any questions to call the police station. They'd left the number for it, but you didn't figure you'd need it.
You opened the door and went inside. Everything looked normal, if perhaps a little dark. The officers likely shut the lights off after cleaning. The house felt so uncomfortably quiet.
You carried your things inside and set them down. Even with you and your pets here, the building felt lonely. You grabbed the note off the door and shut it, then locked it up and went to put your things away.
You still had to finish that project, right? And a math worksheet, maybe? There was no rush on doing either, but still. It would be good to get your mind off of the events of last night, wouldn't it?
You let the cats out of the carrier and went upstairs with your suitcase. You wanted a shower.
After dropping your stuff in your room, you grabbed your clothes and went to take yet another shower. God, you sure showered a lot. Oh well. Better than being gross, right?
You decided, in light of what happened the last time you showered in this house, you would make it a quick one. After that, you could go and work on your schoolwork.
***
The shower you took was most certainly a short one - and thank god for it, too. You needed some rest and relaxation extremely badly.
Maybe schoolwork wasn't the best idea.
You could just test the NES you'd just gotten. That would work. It would be relaxing.
You went downstairs and began finagling with the cords and cables behind the tv. After a short minute, your ventures were successful.
You pressed the power button on the NES. The TV screen lit up. Nice.
You dug through the bag of game cartridges for a long minute, before fishing out the shoddy-looking cartridge that apparently was the reason Alex had gotten rid of the damn thing in the first place.
You were a little on the fence about it - what if you broke the console by running the game? You literally just got it. But of course, curiosity got the better of you, and you decided to shove down your nerves and play it. If the console did break, oh well. It was only ten bucks.
You put in the cartridge and started up the game.
Surprisingly, the game worked next to perfectly. There were a few odd issues with it, but nothing particularly odd. Just some weird textures clipping. Some odd dialogue errors. Nothing crazy. It was almost perfect.
Something did slightly unnerve you, however. There were two save files on the game already. One labeled 'Link', and one labeled 'BEN'. Yes, it was actually all capitalized. Then again, you'd seen plenty of gamer tags like that, so whatever.
What bothered you wasn't the existence of the save files - you couldn't have cared less about that - no, it was the fact that every once in a while, the game would mix up your save file names. Usually, it would just appear as Link. That was what you'd named it, after all. But sometimes... Sometimes the name would appear as BEN.
Freaky.
***
After having been playing for nearly three hours, you decided it was time for a break. You had other things you wanted to do, and a life you wanted to live. Not to mention you were pretty hungry.
But something stopped you from putting it down. Something told you you shouldn't yet. You weren't sure what, but you were searching for something. You just searched around for a long minute, before going back to playing normally. You needed to keep going.
***
The sun dropped low in the sky when you finally put the game down. Whatever had wanted you to keep playing had been a forceful thing. It had been almost four hours since that last break you'd taken.
This was exhausting. You were tired of playing by now. Your back hurt and your hands were tired from fiddling with the controller. And you were far more hungry than you were earlier.
Groaning, you saved and closed out of the game. You turned off the console and just put something on the television. Some dumb podcast about your town discussing all the fucked up shit that constantly happened here. You weren't really paying attention.
"...apparently some kid actually survived one of his attacks last night."
You stood up from the couch, but your attention had been caught. Were they talking about you? That surely couldn't be good.
"I'll bet he isn't gonna let that slide. He'll probably come back to finish the job."
What the hell? What on earth made that okay to say? God, was this podcast run by his nutcase fangroup or something?
You were well aware of the fanclub the killer had amassed since he'd made his debut with the murder of his parents, and frankly, you thought it was a little weird. Fictional killers? Fine. Sure. Awesome. Enjoy. I do too. But real people? That was just... horrid.
You glanced at the name of the podcast and groaned. Definitely run by the fanclub then, wasn't it? Lovely. This should be... humiliating.
But the curiosity in you didn't let you turn it off. You wanted to know what they were saying. I mean, what if they knew who you were? You weren't really in the mood to be famous right now.
So while you stretched and went to the kitchen to get food, you kept listening to the podcast.
"The police won't tell us anything about it because apparently it would endanger the victim?"
"Oh puh-lease. Why would we care about that? We're here to support the killer, not the victim!"
The two fangirls giggled a bit before continuing.
"They refuse to give us any information, but locals have been more kind to us. They showed us footage from their own security cams that showed the cops arriving at about 2:55 am. The cops were seen running around the side of the house - likely chasing after Jeffy."
Sorry, what? Did she really- y'know what? Whatever. Ew. That's so gross.
But that aside, what neighbor was willing to give up footage of someone else's house? That should be illegal, right? Like, that seems like a huge violation of someone's privacy! Though, perhaps it wasn't? It was only the outside of your house... Still.
"Agreed. But of course, they didn't catch him."
"Not that they ever could!"
Again, the fangirls shared a good laugh.
"Now, here we have the shared footage that we were given. This footage belongs to the Hall Family - specifically Alex Hall. A neighbor of the victim."
What?
How was that possible? Alex had moved out, hadn't he? And how would he have security cam footage of your house? They were down at the end of the street! That was insane! And when I say down on the end of the street, I mean it! You lived on a culdesac! They were out near the entrance to the street! That was a good fifteen houses down, and on the same side of the road as you!
Keep listening. Maybe there's an explanation.
"The victim's house is very unique, making it easy to identify. To all the Jeffy Fangirls out there right now, keep an eye out! We can't disappoint our king!"
Shit.
Okay, let's think about this, right? So a couple of fangirls found your address. Now they were doxxing you. What do you do? Simple. Take your cats and go stay in the hotel a little longer until this whole catastrophe blows over.
Okay. You could do that. But what about school? Surely you couldn't go to school right now, could you? You knew there was a small fanclub there. They were literally an official club! How would you avoid them?
And yes, I'm aware of what you're all thinking. Who the hell would allow a fanclub for a goddamn murderer to be an official school club? Simple. One of your teachers would. Because she was also a fangirl. Which is even worse. Because she's a fully grown adult. And that murderer is a teen.
So yeah. Just... all around bad, y'know?
But that aside. Avoiding those nutcases was the issue. Surely you could take at least a day off of school tomorrow, right? After all, you were attacked. Your parents were in the hospital. Surely that was a good enough reason to miss a day.
What did you have going on tomorrow at school anyway? You had it written down in your planner, right? You should check.
You finished setting your food cooking and ran upstairs to get your planner from your desk.
Once you had it, you took your seat again on the couch and opened it.
Monday, Monday, Monday... Ah. Here we are.
Nothing odd in any of your classes, but there were a few things that were important. A test in math. Great. Never mind on missing then - making up work was a pain in the ass.
Okay then, you needed another plan. Did you have any classes with the fangirls? Maybe, but none that you were aware of. Most of them were pretty obvious, so it was unlikely. You saw them in the hallways, but if you were fast getting from class to class you should be fine. You got to go home for lunch, so you could just go eat in your car at the park or something. You had options.
Alright. That could work.
Now then, food.
[Words: 2294]