I staggered back, unable to look away. As my eyes frantically darted around her, I saw that there was blood and some strange black liquid dripping from her neck and hands. I couldn't see her face, but I'm willing to bet good money it was coming from her eyes and mouth too. It was as if the wires had such a tight grip that they cut through her skin.

Vomit started rising in my throat. I tried to speak, but nothing comprehensible came out. I just made a weird garbled noise and stumbled over to where she was hanging. Small chunks of her hair were missing, and there was a series of scratches on her arms and neck.

She fought back.

And she still lost.

My vision was blurred with tears, but as my eyes passed her blood stained hand, I noticed a gray square object enveloped inside.

"I can do things, Avery Valentin. Things you wouldn't have even thought possible before now. And the funniest part is..."

Ben's voice only became more and more garbled and insane as he drifted toward me, gently turning my chin to face him.

"...you were so convinced I was a good person."

After a moment's hesitation, I slowly shook my head. My mind started to go red, and my hands curled into fists. "No. I don't think so. You're not the guy I—"

Something in my body wouldn't let me say it. Not now.

"—knew before. Are you? You're what he was talking about, that other thing that takes over. Either way, you...you're not my Ben. You're a fucking monster."

He chuckled like I was some stupid dog trying to find its tail. "Oh, no, but that's exactly the one thing you are right about, my dear. I am a monster."

I slowly stepped back, but he kept his grasp on me. I forced myself to look him in the eye as I reached back and pried the cartridge from Meghan's fingers.

"I am out for revenge."

I quickly retracted my hand and stuffed it in my pocket, praying he didn't notice.

"And now is the time, for all those who have wronged me to pay."

My anger flooded back into me, and I swatted his hand away from my face. "You—"

I stopped when I saw him looking curiously around the room like he just noticed where he was.

"In fact...there was someone in particular I was looking to go first. And, oh, what a lovely little coincidence."

He snapped his fingers nonchalantly, and I sunk to my knees. It felt like something was tying my whole body down. What the hell?!

"They happen to be right here!"

I gritted my teeth, wrapping my fingers tightly around the cartridge.

"Look, I'm sorry. Okay? I learned my lesson!" With difficulty, I lifted my head and glared at him in his psychotic glory.

"I shouldn't have given you to someone else without at least telling you. You trusted me, and I just...threw that away. But..."

He raised his eyebrows, and my eyes began brimming with tears again. I hope you feel guilty, you psycho.

"...why did you kill her? She...she didn't do anything. She didn't do a fucking thing to you. And now she's dead."

After a moment, he narrowed his eyes, and something smacked me in the head and toppled to the floor.

"Ow! What the fuck?!"

"The thing is, she did do something. To both of us. And luckily for me, since, well..."

I stared at the object on the floor.

It was a video camera, with the recording light still on.

"...for some reason, you don't seem to trust what I have to say anymore, this should take care of it."

I furrowed my eyebrows, trying to block him out.

"You...recorded it?"

"Of course not. She did."

Hesitantly, I picked the camera up and tried opening the viewing panel up. It was stuck to the rest of the camera, with what I assumed to be blood, but it opened nonetheless.

I pressed a small red button on top, and the screen read, Recording finished.

I rewound the footage. I saw flashes of my shoes, Meghan's hanging body, and her clawing desperately at attacking wires. I squeezed my eyes shut until a soft beeping sound told me I couldn't go back any further.

"Okay. So, someone gave me this—"

I saw Meghan's face, and she held the small cartridge up to the camera lens like some sort of documentarian.

"—at school. You can't really see what it is 'cause the label's gone, but it's a Majora's Mask game. And..."

She turned the camera towards a small TV set in her room; one that I could just now see in the corner.

"...it's probably fake, but they didn't charge anything for it, so, yeah."

I saw her bend down to plug the cartridge into what must have been a Nintendo 64. A feeling of dread crept into my stomach as I watched on.

She sat cross-legged in front of the small television. It had a small crack in the screen, but it looked surprisingly functional. As I knew would happen, once plugged in the game cut directly to the standard LoZ title screen, with some words horribly misspelled to the point that it was impossible not to notice. I mean..."2300 Nitnedon"? Really?

Meghan reacted appropriately, just laughing and shaking it off as the game innocently screwing around, unaware of whatever the fuck was actually going to happen.

Then it transitioned by itself to the file select screen. The BEN file.

Meg froze where she sat, and then slowly reached for the camera.

"Guys. Do you see this?"

She brought the camera up to the screen, and after a few seconds of adjustment, you could see the haunted file in all its glory.

I could almost feel Ben smirking behind me.

"No, wait, this is probably the file Ave set up to scare me. We used to be, like, super obsessed with Jadusable and stuff."

The camera stayed near the screen, though. Like she was worried that whatever happened, she wouldn't get the footage clear enough.

She decided to create a new file and ignore the original one, naming it "MEG."

I recognized most of what happened as what went on when Alex Hall played the game. But surprisingly, after enough of it, Meghan fell silent. She stopped reacting as the events went on.

After a while, maybe an hour or so, on what must have been the 20th reset of the three days, a small text box popped up on the screen.

Hello, Meghan.

She stopped moving, and I held my breath. Then, to my surprise, she laughed.

She was staring a monster in the face, and she laughed.

"Sorry, I wasn't talking. I just...wow."

A soft buzzing sound started to make the audio fuzzy, and she didn't seem to notice.

"You know, I was hoping for a really long time that something like this would happen, and make my life interesting or some shit, but..." The camera shifted back to her, almost like she wasn't even controlling it anymore. There were noticeable bags under her eyes that I could see, even with the terrible video quality. She combed back her hair with her fingers and sighed.

"I'm just gonna take this back to Avery, man. I'm not going to deal with this in the middle of the year. Ave, if you're watching..."

She turned towards the camera and gave "me" the finger.

"You know?" She laughed again.

"Oh, my god. This is, like, surreal, almost. Uh, hi, Ben," she muttered at the TV. She didn't seem to take note on how the screen was distorted and the images on it seemed almost mutilated. "Sorry if you were expecting Avery or something."

"Where are they."

Ben's voice reverberated around the room as he spoke in the video. I shivered. Hearing these two talk about me like this was too unsettling. One of them died almost twelve years ago, and the other just today.

"Where is Avery."

Meghan seemed at a loss for words. She slowly stood up and grabbed her backpack, like she was going to use it as a weapon or something.

"I-I don't know. I don't know where they live or anything."

He seemed to growl in annoyance. "Then I'll find them."

A barrage of static shook the TV set, and even the camera. Meghan stumbled backwards.

"Wait! Didn't they tell you that they were going to give you to me?"

Ben seemed to pause. My heartbeat quickened.

"No."

Meghan gulped audibly, and seemed to try putting her words together in the safest way possible.

"Well...earlier today, they gave me this game, right? They told me that they couldn't sleep for days after playing it. Maybe...they were kind of saying that they just couldn't handle this. It was too much for them. They felt a little overwhelmed." She paused. She was talking so quietly, I almost couldn't hear her without pressing my ear to the screen.

"You want help, right? Freedom?"

Ben fell silent again. Almost like he was afraid of admitting it.

"Yes." His voice grew distorted and cracked, like he was about to cry. Somehow, I felt like that wasn't the case just yet.

"Then maybe they were afraid that they couldn't help you. I...I think I can, though."

All I could hear was the static in the background as Ben seemed to think.

"What do you say? Will you let me help you out?"

"Didn't you say that you would take me back to Avery?"

The air stood still. The static in the audio grew. I couldn't see Meghan's face, but I could feel utter defeat hanging in the air.

"...I was. I was really going to. But I can't now. Avery—"

"Can handle it. They have to handle it. I can't just start over. I can't. I'll..."

Something seemed to shift inside him. After a couple seconds, I heard echoing, breathy laughs.

"I'll kill you. I'll hurt you, and then I'll go back to Avery. And I'll hurt them too. And they're going to help me. Not you."

"...Ben, please, just—"

"I'm done with being betrayed. I'm done with being recycled like this. You're all going to meet a terrible fate. For everyth—"

Meghan's hand shot forward, and she pried the game from her console and sighed. The screen faded to black, and then cracked. A lot.

She looked somberly at the cartridge and sighed.

"I'm sorry."

She glanced up at something I couldn't see. But I assumed it was some sort of dresser.

"I should probably put you somewhere safe while I figure this out."

I saw her slowly stand up and walk over, making to place the cartridge on top.

She froze.

And then crumbled to the floor in agony.

"You shouldn't have—"

I stopped the tape before he finished his sentence. I couldn't watch anymore. I already knew what was going to happen.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and flinched.

"She didn't take me back." For some reason, Ben's voice was almost normal.

"She broke us apart. She went back on what she said. She was selfish."

I glanced over my shoulder, and saw that a twisted grin was spreading across his face.

"And she only ended up hurting herself."