Blood.
I’m a huge Newgrounds fan. I love digging through the portal, playing quality games for about 3 hours, 56 minutes, & 4.83 seconds each day. My favorite series is the Negotiator series. I loved how the characters looked, and the animations looked even better. Then came the Ambition series, which was brilliantly done. I was sitting at my computer playing some Darkseed 2 one day, when suddenly a rock flew through my window. I was kind of pissed, but not only because of the broken window. The rock made me die, which made me tear up a bit on Mike Dawson’s behalf. I went over to the rock, only to discover that a disc was tied to it. It wasn’t broken somehow, and it came with a note attached. The note read:
“Why did I break your window? Because the voices made me do it. They told me to spread the word. The bloody word. Filled with blood. Hyper realistic blood. That’s hyper realistic. And when I say hyper realistic, I mean that it looked as if your finger would get wet if your touched it. I’d tell you to destroy it, but you’re just going to play it anyway. Because you’re an asshole like that, aren’t you? Beware the laugh. Oh God, that laugh. Whenever it plays, there’s blood. Lots of blood. And it usually plays for about 6.66 seconds. And the last time I heard it, it was slowed down, the pitch lowered, and played in reverse. Anyway, just try to resist the voices once you do. Especially the one they called “EE”. There’s something different about that one. He said that he was a te-“
Strange, but it didn’t lie. I was too tempted to play it once I saw what was on the disc. It read “AMBITION: SECRET FINAL CHAPTER”. I couldn’t believe it. I had dreamed of this day. Ambition ended without a proper ending, which made me sad. I had always wanted to see a fitting end to the nuanced and lovable cast of Ambition. I also wanted to know what would really happen to Duke, who was my favorite character. I remember that the last thing that had happened in the series was that Yale was being framed once the lawyer character was threatened by Duke, who haunted the player wherever he went with tire iron. So what was the conclusion to this masterpiece story? I had to know. Even if I would supposedly be berated by voices of unknown origin, I had to know. I popped the disc in my computer, which took about 3.72 seconds. Immediately, it opened up to the title screen. Something about it was off though. The moon was a crimson wheel, and it looked hyper realistic. The water was pool of blood, which also looked hyper realistic. This really scared me, as I had never seen blood this realistic. Hyper realistic. The silhouette of the tree was normal, save for the bodies hanging from with what appeared to be smashed-in skulls. One was very noticeably Yale’s. I kind of teared up a bit because Yale was one of my favorite fictional characters ever. I kind of saw him as a role model. The title screen stayed up for about 14.63452 seconds, with an eerie choice of music. It appeared to be Metal Man’s theme from Megaman II, but played in reverse. The title was the last thing I noticed, and I wish I had never seen it. It read “Ambition: An Interactive Murder by EE”. It looked like it was scratched into my computer screen, and it was also written in cherry red, that is if cherries are made of blood. I tried to piece together who this “EE” was. I couldn’t think of who had those initials in the cast of people or characters. Maybe this was a new character that would cause another murder, and then it would lead off into a spin-off series. I was so wrong. So horribly wrong. Anyway, once the title screen went away, the episode title card popped up. What it said shook me to my core. All it said was “You know what your problem is, David? You have too much ambition”. How did the game know my name? And what did it mean I had too much ambition? It also didn’t help calm my nerves that the writing dripped hyper-realistic blood, and I could swear that it was coming off of my screen. I shook it off, and thought it was just a glitch or something. The scariest part was the music though. It seemed to be “Deep Ambition” from Resident Evil 5, only played in reverse and slowed down. Once the screen faded away, I heard a laugh that sounded an awful lot like that Jedah guy from Darkstalkers. That really freaked me out, and it was the scariest thing I had seen and heard at that point. It was about to get much worse. It cut to an interrogation room, where the light was very dim, with two silhouettes inside. Once they both spoke, I could tell they were Duke & Yale. But something seemed weird. They talked very different from how they usually did, and the mic quality was now hyper-realistic. Yale now spoke in a down-trodden tone and seemed very apathetic, as though his soul had been sucked out by Thresh from League of Legends. Duke seemed very agitated with every word, and his eyes seemed to reflect that he was in a foul mood. His eyes almost looked bloodshot, which they also had in a previous episode when talking to Rolf. I heard that laugh again, and it seemed to last for about 6.66 seconds. Just like the note said. He also said to watch out for the voice that is “EE”. Whoever this EE character was, I would have to be cautious around. Anyway, the scene played out with Yale being barely audible, and he barely moved on screen as well. The animations were now hyper-realistic, and it made it look amazing. So maybe Yale not moving was just an animating issue, and they made him apathetic to make it seem intentional. After all, Yale was being accused of murder he didn’t commit, so I guess being sad would make sense. But why was Duke so intense? He was acting more intense of an interrogator than Revolver Ocelot from Metal Gear Solid. He was screaming at Yale, hurling curses and threats at him. The music was “Otherworldly Foe” from Earthbound, only in reverse. Duke continued to humiliate Yale for about 36.84784 seconds, until a conversation finally began between the two.
Y: “I didn’t murder her. She was too good at catching pencils.”
D: “You’re a lying sack of shit! You murdered her because you had to make sure you didn’t use your diamond necklace, your get out of jail free card basically, on such an event. Well you fucked up buddy.”
Y: “But that’s not true. I have 2 diamond necklaces at all times. Just in case, you know?”
After this line, Yale did his classic smile, which made me feel a lot better. At least Yale was acting like himself again. But then Duke barked back up
D: “Ah, but the diamond necklaces lead to the real reason. You knew you couldn’t stay with her because there was no way you could resist Helen’s pastries! I got you good, you motherfucker.”
Y: “As good as Helen’s pastries are, I wouldn’t murder her over them. Maybe someone else, but not Angie.”
D: “You’re straight-up lying to my face. Do you know what I do with liars? I kill them.”
With that, Duke flipped the table and cornered Yale in the room. Yale started to whine and beg for his life as hyper realistic tears began to stream down his face, and it went into a close-up of Yale’s face. He looked starved and beaten. The dim light had hid his real state of homeostasis, which revealed the he had been chained to the table and starving. He also seemed to be incredibly tired, and he probably hadn’t slept for days. Duke was revealed in all his horror. His coat had stains of blood all over it, and his tie was made of someone’s arm. His hair was disheveled and messy, and it looked as those he had a head wound. His eyes were the worst of it though. He had these black and red eyes that dripped hyper-realistic blood all over the place, and the black seemed to lead into an abyss of horror. His eyes were red and black in the most horrifying fashion. His smile suited the red and black eyes, as it stretched across his face. His teeth were splattered all over with hyper-realistic blood, and it looked like he had bits of meat still stuck in them. He slowly approached Yale as his hand started to wander. In a slow and graceful motion, he pulled out his weapon of choice: his tire iron. He brandished it and looked down upon the cowering Yale. The camera zoomed in on his face, and it showed a look of disgust. He was embarrassed at how much of a wimp Yale was being. Noticing that Yale was still in utter shock and not paying attention, he whistled for Yale’s attention. It was like his regular whistle, only slowed down and played in reverse. With that, Yale slowly looked up at Duke. He saw all the horror that was this Duke, which was a sick, twisted version of the original. As Yale looked up, the light in the room turned to a deep sanguine, and pointed directly behind Duke. It was like the green light that would appear behind him before, but now it was blood red. That’s what that light was all along. It was his beacon of death, but now that he had revealed his demonic identity, it changed to a blood red to suit him. It pointed behind him, and the camera went to a POV from Yale’s perspective. Duke stood there, foreboding with those red and black eyes. His eyes glowed a lot like Wesker’s eyes from Resident Evil. He stood there, ready to do his deed. He raised his tire iron, which was caked all over in hyper-realistic blood. He raised it, and he did his classic gangsta-style execution. That guitar riff that played now sounded as if it was a satanic roar. It went back to the player character perspective, and I watched in horror as the room exploded into a lake of hyper-realistic blood. I heard that creepy Jedah laugh again, and I was now starting to get scared. I felt as tears rolled down my cheeks. How could he have killed Yale? I then heard the Arsenal Gear theme from Metal Gear Solid 2 start to play, although, much like everything else, only played in reverse. Duke then pried himself from his lifeless victim, and he had the most sickening smile I had ever seen. Those hyper-realistic teeth were horrifying. He then noticed the player character, and I damn near pissed myself. He looked right at me, not the character, ME, with those red and black eyes. He slowly trudged to the door of the room, and I had never felt such fear. But, to my surprise, the screen just faded to black. The screen stayed black for about 5.467 seconds until a message popped up, saying:
“i SeE yoU!”
It was a miracle at this point that my bladder hadn’t crumbled under the terror. That insane Jedah laugh came again, lasting 6.66 again, and it was wearing my sanity down. I could feel it eroding like a rock in a river. It cut back to the same view as before, which was weird. Duke saw us, but he didn’t do anything about it? Something was wrong here. Our character looked down, and what I saw was mortifying. It was the corpse of the judge, with his face smashed in and his gavel stabbed through one of his eyes. The floor under him was plastered with hyper realistic blood, and it showed several organs spilling onto the floor from his slash mark on his stomach. When our character looked back up, the view was so much different, and in the most terrifying way possible. The walls were now oozing hyper-realistic blood in a steady stream, all of it being drained by a convenient drain in the middle which I saw when our character looked at the judge’s mangled form. Skulls hung from the ceiling, some with flesh still on them. I was able to make one out as the head of Rolf, missing an eye with his head split almost in half. I could tell that all the skulls had been from his victims, bearing similar injuries that were telling of blunt force trauma, one that would result from a tire iron. I almost vomited at this point. I almost shut off the game, but I had to get to the bottom of this. What sick, demented person would do this? The place was starting to look like Alcatraz in Mob of the Dead. Our character watched as Duke interrogated another man, who was silhouetted as well. Once he spoke, I knew it was Ted. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I knew Ted was going to suffer the same fate as Yale. I watched on in horror as pretty much the same scene played out as the one with Yale. This one had different music, though. Probably the most haunting melody I’ve ever heard to this day. It was the glorious town theme from King’s Quest V, but slowed and played in reverse. It sounded like a demented carnival. I started to cry as I saw Duke flip the table, which meant the same grizzly scene was about to play out. Ted started to cry tears of blood as he, too, begged for his life. This demonic form of Duke was far from showing any mercy. But then Ted pulled off his coat and revealed he had explosives tied to him. The classic antics of Ted would save the day. He even said that he “blow us all to hell”, which made me roar with excitement. He activated the explosive, and the whole place was blown to hell indeed. The screen went white once he detonated for about 7.4526 seconds. I found it an odd and twisted ending, but at least that was it. Or so I thought. The screen went back to the scene. It turned out Ted had literally blown us all the way to Hell. At least it looked like Hell. It looked just like Scorpion’s Lair from Mortal Kombat, complete with hyper-realistic lava. Duke lie on the ground, only to get up as if nothing had happened to him. He was covered in Ted’s gore, which he seemed to take much pleasure in. Another message appeared as he approached me with a demented smile on his face:
“whY DOn’t aNY LasT lONGeR thAn 20 MINutEs? leT’s sEE aBOut YOU!”
With that, I shut off the game. I couldn't handle this anymore. The game was horrific, and the last thing I’ll ever have seen in the Ambition series will be those demonic red and black eyes. The game wouldn’t close and my computer wouldn’t turn off, so I pulled the plug as fast as possible. The message had warned me about all of this, and I didn’t listen. But one thing from it had yet to come true. He said that voices would berate me. Was that part to come? I just kind of sat in silence for a couple of minutes, comprehending what I had just witnessed. I felt my mind warp at my own thoughts, and I just decided to get some sleep. This would be my secret, and no one would ever have to hear about this awful depiction of my favorite characters. I then started to hear what sounded like whispering. Were these the prophesized voices? One sounded a lot like Yale’s, and it seemed to be in utter agony. He kept asking for help and he sounded like he was choking on something. He also kept telling me to watch out for “EE”. That was another unsolved part of this. Who was this “EE” I had yet to meet? How could they be more terrifying than this version Duke? Maybe I should be glad I would never have to see that. The voices continued to haunt me, and sleep was a near super human feat when having to toil with those voices. They kept saying things like “You can’t sleep yet” and “This is what he wants” and more warning about this “EE”. The last thing I heard before I fell asleep was Bridget saying “HELPHELPHELPHELPHELPHELPHELP!” I then slipped away into my gift from Hypnos with open arms. But I guess Hypnos was joined by his brother Thanatos today, because this dream was the worst idea I had ever had. I started thinking about that saying “Early to bed, early to rise” before my eyes sealed. But, in this case, I guess it was early to bed, early to die. I had the worst dream as I was chained to a chair in the final room from Masque of the Red Death. Duke appeared from the darkness, looking just as he had after the explosion. He laughed that Jedah laugh, and I felt my skin crawl. Then, that blood red light appeared, almost like a spotlight on his prey, which was me in this case. He looked at me with those demented red and black eyes. The blood they dripped was still very hyper-realistic. I dared not speak, for fear of what may happen. But Duke wasn’t speaking either, just examining me as if fitting me for a hat. He then spoke to me.
“You know that not playing it won’t end it.”
“What do you mean?” I replied
“You dumbshit. It’s not over till you finish the game.”
“I’m not finishing it. All it’s caused me is torment by making me watch you.”
“I take pride in my handiwork. And if you don’t finish, then I shall haunt your dreams. Every night will be like this, and I will own you.”
I didn’t know what to do. If I didn’t just finish the game, I would be owned by this demon. I guess I had nothing to lose at this point.
“Alright, you win. I’ll finish the game.”
“See how hard that was? You’ve yet to know anything yet. Well, what do you say you get back to work then?”
With that, he pulled out the tire iron and, with those red and black eyes, looked into my soul as he let out a Jedah laugh, only this one was in reverse. He then beat my head in with the tire iron, that satanic roar of a guitar riff playing, waking me in a cold sweat. I had to finish this, or I would die a miserable death. I turned my computer back on, and it just carried on from right where I stopped. I didn’t do anything; I just hit the start button. Duke lumbered over to me, very reminiscent to my dream. The music was that Deep Ambition again, in reverse as well. Then Duke began to explain this whole thing:
“Good to see you again, bud. Get a good night’s sleep? I already know the answer to that question. You’ve no doubt heard the warnings about this “EE” character. I know that you think you haven’t found them yet, but you have. It’s me. I am EE. EE stands for Ekud Eertbarc, which is my name. I am a demon who visited Michael Gibson in his sleep and made him make this final chapter. This is how the series ends. It ends where I, Ekud, bash in everyone’s skull and drag them to Hell. I love the sight of hyper-realistic blood. It’s what fuels me. That light that follows me is the true source of my power, and it allowed me to possess this human, the one called Duke. That 'guitar riff' you hear is my true name heard by human ears. Well, it’s time to end this.”
With that, Ekud brought down the tire iron on the player character’s head, covering the screen in hyper-realistic blood as the Jedah laugh played in reverse again, and slowed down with a lower pitch. The guitar riff played, now knowing why it sounded so satanic. I couldn’t comprehend what I had just heard. Duke had been possessed by this demon and turned into EE, and EE slaughtered everyone in the Ambition universe and brought them to Hell. Now, he can play with the Ambition cast for the rest of eternity. This is how my favorite series ended; with all of them being brutally murdered so that they could be tortured for all time in Hell. I couldn't help it anymore. I puked buckets full of my last meal all over the floor. This was the most sickening thing I had ever seen. But as I looked back up at my screen, I saw static, and it then blasted out of my speakers, nearly causing ear damage. It played for about 26.4572 seconds, till it cut to the most terrifying thing I have ever seen, even more so than anything previously mentioned. It was a picture of Ted hanging from the gallows with no eyes, hyper-realistic blood gushing out of them. His skin had many stitches, resembling the Frankenstein’s monster. The walls behind him were dark and made of solid blood. The music was the most horrifying sound ever made by man. I don't even think it was made by man. It was Ted's rendition of "Amazing Grace" only in reverse, slowed down and hyper-realistic. In fact, it was more than hyper-realistic. It was ultra-realistic. There was text on the screen under Ted, but I had no time to read it. I was too distracted by the feel of breath on my neck, and then I heard the Jedah laugh one last time, only this time completely inhuman. There has never been a sound more terrifying than that last one. After that, the backwards version of Deep Ambition started playing again. I then noticed that the Jedah laugh sounded way too clear, almost hyper-realistic. I asked out loud with a rhetorical question:
“Why did you do this?”
What I got for an answer was the last thing I ever heard:
“Because I’m a terrorist”.
{{video|"AMBITION SECRET FINAL CHAPTER " by ZenScissors}}