Anna - The Haunted Animal Crossing Cartridge
Day 1
About 3 weeks ago, I decided to clean out my apartment because it was getting a bit too messy, and to my surprise I found my old DS. I was so happy to have finally found it and decided to turn it on and see if it still worked, and it did! So naturally, I tried to look for more games, I only found "New Super Mario Bros." and "Mario Kart DS".
I remembered how I used to love Animal Crossing Wild World for the DS when I was younger so I decided to go to the local Game store to find myself a copy. Obviously they wouldn't have any new copies so I was looking for a pre-owned copy, but unfortunately they had none, they only had Animal Crossing on the Wii, but I heard that version of animal Crossing was a bit shitty, so I still held out my hopes for finding a copy of the DS version.
On my way home, I noticed that the local Blockbuster was closing down, so I thought I would check in there to see if they had a copy, and if they did, it would certainly be cheaper, as they were closing down. As I approached the store I realised that it was closed, so I started to head back to my car.
Just as I was about to open my car door, I heard a bang coming from the store's window. I looked around and the store manager was standing there in the window, waving his hand at me, asking me to come back. As I walked back, he opened the store especially for me. I asked him if he had any copes of it, and he said "Yes! we only have one though, and its in pretty bad condition" And I said, I would take it. As he went into the store room at the back, to get the game for me, I realised a few strange things in the store, the walls were painted white, but they had mysterious yellow stains all over them, and parts of the carpet were ripped up, and there store was in awful condition. The manager returned with my copy and said "I can't find the box, but is the game on its own ok for you?" I said that would be fine and I took it. Paying only 99c for it! When I sat in my car, I noticed the game cartridge had no sticker on the front and had only a taped piece of yellow paper over the front that bluntly said "AC:WW". I initially ignored it and drove home.
When I got home I immediately put the cartridge in my DS and started playing, but when the menu started, I noticed that the music that usually plays in the menu, was getting slower, and slower, and slower, eventually stopping. I ignored it assuming it was a glitch and started playing. I made a new resident thinking there was no saved game on the cartridge and started playing. The game ran very well and I had no problems with it on Day 1.
Day 2
On day 2, as I started the game, desperately wanting to know what Tom nook had in his store today, in the character selection screen, in the bedroom, my player was sleeping in the first bed, while another player was sleeping in the second bed, and I hadn't made a new character. This character was a girl, and I started to play the game as her. Then, the game froze as I left the house. Assuming it was my DS, I restarted the game, and started to play as her again. Everything seemed normal, except the sea, was a deadly red colour, almost resembling blood...
And there was no sign of any residents, or any houses for that matter, the only other people in the game were Tom Nook, and Booker (from the town gate). Tom Nook's eyes were red, and this eyeballs had turned black, this really creeped me out. Also in his store (Nook's Cranny) There were yellow stains on the wall, along this the floorboards ripped up, strangely similar to the appearance of the Blockbuster store...
I quit the game, and started it back up again, so I could delete the mystery character, and carry on with my own character. The menu music was still getting slower, as it was on day 1 but this time it had a creepy undertone to it, kind of like laughing. But I ignored that and carried on, and tired to delete the mysterious girl character. A text box appeared and said "are you sure you want to delete ____?" it was as if the girl didn't have a name. But anyway, I clicked yes and it said "Are you sure? Once you delete ____, you can never get ____ back!" And once again, I clicked yes. The game then reset. This was strange as it had done this before when I wanted to do something with this character. I went back onto the game, and repeated the same process apart from this time, a text box came up and said "That wouldn't be wise..." Why is the game stopping me from deleting that character, and even playing as that character. I was too creeped out to play, so I put the DS down and instead played Mario Kart.
Day 3
I hesitated to play this game at first, but then curiosity got the best of me, and I picked up my DS and booted up animal crossing, but this time, the there was no menu music, at all. It was creepily silent. When I pressed play, I heard an evil laugh, but very high pitch, and very loud. It was as if it was there as some kind of jump scare?
Anyway, I arrived at the character select screen, and tried to delete the mystery girl. But once again, it gave me an error message, but this time it read "STOP.". This freaked me out, but I thought I may as well start playing with my character because nothing had gone wrong there and sure enough, my character was fully playable... blue sea, all characters, houses where they should be, and yet I couldn't stop thinking about they mystery character... who was it? Can it ever be deleted? I started to do some research, but I found nothing.
Once again I booted the game up, to attempt to delete her, but this time, She wasn't breathing. My character was beside her, sleeping, breathing as normal, but she was there, lifeless, motionless, not breathing. I thought this would be a good time to try to delete her, and for some reason it worked! The mystery girl had been deleted. My mind was finally at ease, and I carried on playing as normal, but noticed I had gained an extra 3,000 bells! I thought nothing of it, and carried on as normal.
Day 4
As I booted up the game, the menu was.. different. creepier. It showed one of my residents, It was a white tiger, but I cannot recall the name, he was getting closer to the screen, with a big grin, and huge eyes. the music was running backwards, and when I started the game, that same laugh was heard, low pitch, and was longer, and seemed like it had been slowed down. That girl was back but seeing as I deleted her before, I thought I could delete her again. So I tried and I was greeted with "STOP." again. But me being the persistent bastard I am, I tried again. It said "are you sure you want to delete Anna?" So, that was her name! I finally found out her name! Anna. I clicked yes, and it said... "Are you sure? Once you delete Anna, you can never get Anna back!" which was an obvious lie, seeing as she kept coming back, but anyway I went with it, and she was deleted. Hopefully for good.
I booted up my character and... strange things started to happen. The sea was blood red, all my residents were there, but there were no houses and no trees. All of the flowers had turned black and the grass had turned a darkish purple colour. whenever I tried to speak to Tom Nook, or anyone else in my town, they'd say something along the lines of "You think she's gone? she will never go" and "why delete her? She hasn't done anything to hurt you" or "WHY, SHE WAS MY FRIEND, WHY?!" that was strange, in two ways, one, because its a fucking weird thing for a game to do, mention characters that have been deleted and especially in a kids game for fuck sake. And 2, There were no residents in her game save, so how did they know about her? I was getting pretty scared at this point, so I put my DS down for the day.
Day 5
I really didn't want to carry on with the game, but I did. It's a strange feeling, I wanted to know what would happen, but at the same time, I was scared of what might happen. It's a kids game for fuck sake, I need to pull myself together. I was having less and less sleep, the thought of a game being "haunted" was stupid, but it seemed to be the only reasonable answer...
I started to do more research now I knew about Anna, and I came across a similar story of a guy, he had a "haunted" N64 cartridge of The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask, and they are pretty similar stories, except his game save is of a boy named Ben, who took over his computer. I do have some gameplay footage, but I won't be uploading it in case the same thing happens, because BEN sounds creepy as fuck.
But anyway, I started the game up, and the menu was just black, with the reversing menu music. It was getting creepier every day. I started up the game, no girl save, but my save was still there. Same strange things were there, red sea, no houses, no trees, purple grass, black flowers etc., but in the distance, I could see.. what looked like Anna, but they figure kept running away from me. She eventually started coming towards me, and said "How can you delete, that which is un-deletable" And I was thinking "Is un-deletable even a word" and then.. a text box appeared saying "Yes, it is a word". It was like she could hear my thoughts. So I started thinking of questions in my head to see if she would answer one and luckily she answered two. One question was "What are you doing in my game" and she replied "I used to own this, until the accident. You aren't the rightful owner. Return it." and the other question was "What can I do to get you to leave me alone" and she answered "to get me to go away you must return me, but I will never LEAVE you."
Straight away I ejected the game, and went to return it to that blockbuster. The door was closed again, and no store manager to let me in this time, should I have broken in? Perhaps, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.
Day 6
Another sleepless night, just waiting for the time that the blockbuster store could be open. I went there straight away, unfortunately, nobody was there and it was closed again, maybe it wasn't the answer? I turned the game back on and there was no menu music, and just a black screen with the game options, at least there was no music.. the Anna save was back again, but her player model wasn't sleeping in the bed, it was stood next to my players bed, watching over him, while he slept, I clicked on her to boot up her save file, and see if she would answer more questions. I thought "Where do I return you" and she said in a text box "To my grave" how was I supposed to know where her grave was!? I asked her for her last name and she replied "Johnson". I googled "Anna Johnson" and found a story of a girl whos house was being robbed by armed robbers, and they shot her... for not giving over her DS. That must be it! That is why she is haunting my game! I have to return the game to her grave to get her to go away! That's the answer!
Day 7
I slept like a fucking baby. I was so happy I found out what is going on. I went to the girl's grave, to return the game, and felt so proud of myself. as soon as I got home, I felt I deserved a rest and plopped in Mario Kart DS and to my surprise Anna was a playable character in Mario Kart. What had I done wrong? She was an Animal crossing character! She didn't belong in Mario Kart! I asked her what she was doing, and she said this "I'm here to thank you for what you have done. And I'm here to say sorry for what I have done to you over the past few days. I can now pass on peacefully, knowing that game is where it should be. It was my prized possession and it meant the world to me. It might mean nothing to you, but now it is where it should be. Thank you" And with that, I closed my DS, and packed it away, and vowed I would never touch an Animal Crossing game again.
"I will never LEAVE you"