Day 17 - Halloween for Sega Genesis & Masquerade
00:00I'm John Grills from Creepy, and I listen to the Be Afraid Podcast Network.Creepy presents the 31 Days of Horror.Day 17.No.This is creepy.A podcast dedicated to sharing the most famous, chilling and disturbing creepy pastors and urban legends in the world.Whether these stories truly happened or not simply fabrications is for you to decide.These stories may contain graphic depictions of violence and explicit language.
00:48Listener discretion is advised.Oh my God, yes it is.Will someone tell this guy he doesn't know what he's talking about?Whoa, John, what's going on here?I think they're going to call the bouncer over.Oh, come on.fine, here, next one's on me, but this isn't over.John, maybe you should come over to the table and cool off.
01:22I'm fine, Risa, really.Was that guy's fault, not mine?Why don't you take a few deep breaths and tell me what happened?It's really not that big of a deal, okay?It's going to sound a little stupid if I say it out loud, but it was over video games.I didn't think you played any video games newer than Halo.I don't.We're just having a nostalgia off, and it almost turned into a straight-up beat-off.
01:50Wait, that didn't sound right.Uh, what's a nostalgia off?I'm glad that's the one you asked about.It wasn't anything.We were just talking about video games we played when we were younger,and it escalated when he claimed that one game didn't exist.Uh, like Polybius?No.
02:11This game was real.Seriously.Why does no one remember Halloween for Sega Genesis?Like a lot of people,I've spent more than a little time lately thinking about nostalgia.The way McDonald used to be.Not just the prices, but just being designed for kids.Pizza Hut reading programs promising free personal pan pizzas.
02:39The music, the style,the sense that life just felt easier instead of this constantimpending doom.That meme about the reason there are no time travelers is because they all just went back to1984 and stayed.Just recently, I got into a fairly heated argument, at least by my standards, about Sega Genesisversus Super Nintendo.Listen, I get it.
03:05SNES has a lot of great titles.Star Fox, Street Fighter 2, Super Mario Kart, Link to the Past, Donkey Kong Country, II get it.But honestly, if you take Mario out of the equation, that system is completely different.And personally, you just can't convince me that any Mario game is better than Sonic the Hedgehog 2.Heck, I still remember that my orthodontist had this stand-up display in the waiting room that had a Genesis in it with Echo the Dolphin.There was a timer in it so kids could play for like five minutes at a time and there was always a line.and don't even get me started on Mortal Kombat.
03:47Nintendo changing the blood to sweat,taking away basically all the fatalities,weak, real weak.Still, I was scrambling for some good examples of great gamesafter he countered my claim of Castlevania Bloodlineswith the SNES Castlevania 4.So I wasn't entirely expecting much when I mentioned Halloween,figuring he'd just counter with F0 or something.
04:15But the guy just kind of scrunches up his face and repeated the title.Halloween?Like the movie?Yeah, like the movie.John Carpenter, 1978, starring then unknown Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode,one of the most influential and important horror movies of all time,there was a game about it.But I'm not talking about the old Atari game.
04:40I'm talking about the one on Sega Genesis.And no, this isn't some Shazam Mandela effect thing.I played that game for the entire month of October one yearwhen I was in middle school because I had pneumoniaand I could barely walk up the stairs without taking a break.My brother had gotten it from a friend, which,and that I think about it,was a strangely nice thing for my brother to have done for me.
05:05Very uncharacteristic, especially at that age.Like I said, I played it every day.We didn't have a lot of money and my parents worked,so our actual stock of owned games wasn't muchand I wasn't going to be able to make to the video store to rent new stuff.I swear, even now, I think I could draw the first level from memory.It stands out so much because it was first person.I'd played first person games before, like Star Wars and those old maze computer games,
05:36but never a horror game.I can even remember the cartridge.It was black, like any other Sega Genesis game,with a white label that simply said,Halloween in large orange letters.Not John Carpenter's Halloween or anything like that,which now makes me think it must have been an unlicensed game.But at the time it looked like the movie,
05:59so why would I think anything strange about it?The game started with the title screen showing Michael,or an approximation of Michael,standing at the end of a suburban street.It's supposed to look like Haddonfield, I guess,but it just kind of looked like a generic street to me.There were no recognizable buildings from the movieor anything as landmarks.
06:21The music was simple,which was a little weird for Genesis,who used to have really good music from what I remember.But Halloween just had a few notes on repeatwhile the screen occasionally flickered.Then the game started.You played as Laurie Strode,though you never actually see what you look like because of the first person thing.
06:41Probably saved them any likeness rights.The first level was her house.That was the first thing that stood out because it definitely wasn't the same house from the movie.I'd been watching that movie since I was seven.I knew better.Anyway, he started in the bedroom upstairs and the objective was simple.Get downstairs without being killed.Of course, this wasn't really like the movie.
07:05but honestly there weren't many video games I could think ofthey were even remotely like the movie or TV show they were based on.And honestly, I thought it was a pretty good idea for a game anyway.I might have added a prologue or something from young Michael's point of view,but still.Unlike Jason in the Friday the 13th NES game, Michael couldn't be killed.If you saw him, you had to run.If you had in a closet or behind furniture,
07:31he'd sometimes walk past you.You could even hear his footsteps getting louder than quieter.This game had a weird rule, too.Michael only moved when he weren't looking at him.Seriously.If you were facing him, he's still completely still.If you looked around, he'd suddenly be closer, like a weeping angel or something.I don't know.
07:52Maybe it was supposed to be another game, and they just co-opted it for the Halloween movie.Like how Super Mario Brothers 2 was actually supposed to be a different game completely,hence why it'd feel so different from anything else in the series.It wasn't until I've been playing it for a while that I noticed something weird,something that's probably the reason that I really remember the game as much as I do.Lori's room in the game was set up exactly like my bedroom.Well, not exactly.The walls were a different color.
08:22The furniture was kind of different.There wasn't a computer desk, but the bed was against the same wall in relation to the door,the closet in the same corner.even the window looked out onto a backyard that kind of looked like ours.And there was a small nightstand beside the bed, just like mine.And on it was a digital clock, just like mine.And it displayed the same time.I mean, whatever time I played the game, the clock in the game had the same time.
08:53These days, that sort of thing is probably simple enough to program into a game, but at the time,I can't think of anything like that ever happening.The realization made me feel uncomfortable enough to turn the game off and sit there for a while,just kind of listening to my own harsh breathing.I blamed the pneumonia, but I know it was a game.Still, I was a bored kid,so it wasn't long before I turned the console back on.Like all older games, there was no save option, especially at the start of the game.
09:25So I had to go through the title screen and all that.But the moment the room loaded,I noticed the time on the clock had changed.It hadn't been a coincidence.It actually was updating with the current time.The shock of it all had worn off by that point,so I continued with the game.Over the next few days, I started to notice more and more
09:46about the subtle details in the game.It was a hard game to play,not Silver Surfer Hard or the underwater level of TMNT,but it took a while to figure out any kind of patternto get from room to room without getting caught.And because I was hiding behind furniture and closets most of the time,I didn't get a lot of chances to really look at the details in the game.So I didn't notice the family picture in the frame on the coffee table at first.
10:13How there was a mother, father, and what looked like two boys.It was heavily pixelated, but it was shockingly close to the same picture we had in our living room,when we'd taken at Sears the winter prior.At least that's what I thought.By the next time I played the level, the picture was gone.I chalked it up to being sick and just not having a clear head.Maybe that horrible medicine was messing with me.Maybe it was just being a teenager or being bored or who knew what else.
10:45That carried me through until I was finally able to get to level two.The second level was outside.Lori had to cross the neighborhood and reach the house at the far end of the street.Like I said, the street was supposed to be Haddonfield, but it wasn't.It was my neighborhood.Whoever the game developer was had to have been from my hometown,or at least visit it, been inspired, seen pictures,because there at the end was the store where I bought candy after school.
11:19There was the bus stop.There was my friend Brian's house.Even the locations of the cracks on the sidewalk in front of my house look.the same. As I got toward the house at the end of the street, Michael appeared again, and I had tocircle back towards Lori's house, the house that looked like my house. Only it didn't anymore.It looked different, more like in the movie. The second level was insanely difficult.Every time I got close to the end, I'd have to run and hide another direction. I could feelmyself getting exhausted as if I were the one actually running around.
11:58And just then, the screen went black.Before I could reach for the console, the words,You Should Rest, appeared on the screen and stayed there.I didn't think much of the timing of it all,my character needing to rest at the same time I was having issues keeping my eyes open.Eventually, I turned off the game and fell asleep.I woke up to my mom calling my name.I had a really bad fever and she brought me to the doctor.
12:28He switched my medication and had me stay there for a while to watch over me while my fever broke.He told me to rest and make sure to let my mom know before things got so bad.I mean, that explained the game, right?It's just my exhausted mind confusing things.I didn't turn on the game for a while.Actually, I thought I'd put it away in favor of something a bit less intense,but one morning I woke up and not only was the game in the console,but the TV screen in my room was on, showing the title screen.
13:02I didn't think much of it, because I was young and sick and wasn't in a horror movie.So eventually I willed myself out of bed long enough to grab the controller,before bundling myself up in my comforter and plopping down on the floor.I got through the first two levels easily enough.I'd spend enough time playing them and figuring out the pattern.but this time, once level three started, a new message appeared on the screen.Survive until Halloween.I stared at it.
13:33The date in the corner of the screen was October 27th.I pressed a button, and the game began.My character was standing outside the house from the previous levels.The street was empty.Every house was dark except mine.I mean, lorries.I moved toward the front door.Nothing happened.
13:53I turned around and looked to the street.There was a person standing beneath a streetlight,but it wasn't Michael Myers.It was the first new NPC I'd seen in the game.I couldn't make out the face.I moved closer, then they moved closer.I stopped, and they stopped.For a moment, I thought it was supposed to be another babysitter or something,
14:15and there was a jump scare about to happen.When I did, I must have unintentionally slipped backwards.and at the same time, my character backed up.I hadn't touched the control pad.I dropped the controller, but my character kept moving.That's when I realized there was something off about the view.It was lower than I remember it being.The angle had changed.
14:42On the screen, I watched as my character kept walking into the house.He went straight from the front door to the kitchen, where, on the table,there was a clown mask and a butcher knife.The pixelated hand in my character reached out and grabbed the mask,pulling it towards the screen until all I could see were two ovalswhere the eye holes of the mask were supposed to be.Then I watched the other hand reach out and grab the knife,holding it up and considering it before turning and going toward the stairs.
15:12I heard a step creek.Not on the screen.In my house.I spun my head around to look out of my door, but nothing was there, and I suddenly felt really dizzy.Sweat was turning to form on my forehead.I looked back at the screen, and the character was walking up the stairs in jerking steps.The eye holes of the mask bobbing with each step.At the top of the stairs, it kept walking toward an open door.
15:43The door to Laurie's room.To my room.What happened next isn't clear, but I swear,the last thing I remember before waking upwas watching the character on the screen approach someone from behind,someone sitting on the ground,wrapped in a blanket, staring at a television screen.The next thing I knew was morning again,
16:09and my mom was sitting on the edge of my bed with the back of her hand on my forehead.She sighed, seeing my feet.fever was finally gone.She told me I've been having nightmares and screaming in my sleep.At some point I looked over at my genesis and saw that there was no game cartridge in theslot.When I asked mom about it, she got sheepish and said that dad had taken it.Something about him being tired of the game giving me bad dreams, that I just needed to rest.
16:39I never did find out what happened to that game.If it was sold at a garage sale, thrown out, or was just packed away in somebox and basement.But I know it's out there.I know it exists.I know someone has it.And I'm not just all making this up in my mind.I'm just not sure which bothers me more.
17:03That dad might have destroyed what is evidently a really rare and potentially expensivegame or that he didn't.And someone else has to play that final level.I don't know what to tell you.you. The Mandela Effect is a hell of a thing. Like the Fruit of the Loom cornucopia.Oh, don't get me started on that one. The Mandela Effect doesn't even make sense on that one if we all remember the exact same cartoon image.Besides...And next up to the stage, we have Rissa.
17:42To be continued.No, I think I'm good. But I'm sure Jimmy or Owen would love to hear more. They're over there.Jimmy, Fruit Loop spells fruit with two O's.Hey everyone, sorry about the shouting.My story is called Masquerade.Cassie stands at the cemetery gates and fills her lungs with the frosty night air.She eagerly inhales the scent of damp leaves and wood smoke as she gazes up at the waning moon.For one night, she lives.
18:24Her seaweed green nylon wig makes her headage, and the turquoise fish scale.on her costume may have lost some of their sequence,but when she stands under the street light,she sparkles.Every year, trick-or-treaters gather at the graveyard.It's a follow-field town tradition.This year, Cassie is the first to arrive.The fixed smile on her mask is as wide as ever,
18:51but her heart beats wildly as her eyes scan the street.She checks the time.The trick-or-treaters ought to be.be here by now. What will she do if nobody turns up this year? She hears excited shouts and laughter.Panic? Over. She turns to see a witch in a cardboard hat and a taller figure in a ghostcostume made from an old sheet walking towards her. A fairy princess firmly grips the hand of atiny snowman who toddles behind her. The group pass Cassie and continue down the road. She follows them.taller than all of them. Have they noticed? The ghost looks back at her. Does he suspect anything?
19:40What would happen if the group found out what hides beneath her disguise? Would they be angry,frightened, or horrified? Or would they just accept that she's not like them? She can't risk anyonefinding out. Cassie can't risk missing out on the one night in the year when she's the same aseveryone else. So she holds her mask so tightly against her face that it hurts. The ghost knocks on thefirst house in the street. The door is covered in pipe cleaner spiders sitting on woolen cobwebs.Trick or treat? Treat, of course. The witch holds out her cauldron. Theothers hold out plastic pumpkin bowls. They wait until the door is closed and then gather around to seewhat they've been given. At this rate, the pots will be full before the end of the night.
20:39The driveway of the second house is lined with grinning pumpkins lit up by guttering candles,and the goofy Frankenstein is stacked to the door. Cassie notes that the Hendersons have built asummer house since her last visit. The treats on offer are homemade cupcakes.topped with jelly eyeballs.The group moves on to a small bungalow on the corner of the high street.The Prestons are a god-fearing family,so they won't take part in any Halloween activities,but they've left a bucket of apples on the porch with a sign saying,
21:14Help yourself.The next house has no decorations,and all the lights are turned off.But Cassie can see the curtains move when the fairy princess lifts the snowmen upto ring the doorbell.The trick-or-treaters throw apples at the garden gateand runaway screaming with laughter.The best-decorated house in the neighborhood
21:35is festooned with bat-shaped fairy lightsand has a battery-operated skeleton in the gardenthat screams and rattles its cage when anyone passes.The trick-or-treaters take turns to jump up and down in front of itto make it move until the snowman starts cryingand must be comforted by the princess with a hug.and a chocolate vampire lolly.Throughout the evening,
22:01Cassie and the otherscontinued to collect Halloween goodiesuntil they are the only costumed revelersstill on the streets,and most of the houses are dark.Eventually, they find themselves back at the graveyard,where they compare their halls of treasure one last timeand trade sweets with each other.
22:22Then one by one,they empty the bowls into the rubbish binoutside the cemetery. The snowman refuses to let go of his lolly, so he's allowed to keep it.Halloween is over. Cassie watches as the witch, the ghost, the fairy princess, and the littlesnowman vanish into the cemetery for another year. Why isn't she in there with them? Why was she left behind?she's been told repeatedly not to blame herself for what happened.There was nothing she could have done to stop the tragedy.In fact, she's been praised for her quick thinking,
23:09for lying on the floor, eyes closed, barely breathing,not moving for hours until the danger had passed.It's been almost seven years since Cassie went to the memorial vigil at the community center.She remembers clutching her mother's hand while the other parents stood in a circle holding photographs of their children.Toby, Heather, little Rory, and his big sister, Una.She couldn't look at them.Dr. Taylor calls it Survivor's Syndrome.Like it's a disease, but how is it possible to not feel guilt, knowing that you will grow older and experience life?
23:52when others will never have the chance that if your classmates hadn't gone to your birthday party,they wouldn't have been at the community center that day.She shivers as the deathly silence closes in on her before she runs home as fast as she can.Her mother opens the door too quickly.Her smile, too bright.She tells Cassie that she wasn't worried about her, that she hasn't waited up for her.But her eyes tell another story.She's left a travel mug of hot chocolate and some sandwiches outside of Cassie's bedroom.
24:31She asks Cassie if she's enjoyed herself.Perhaps Cassie can show her the treats she's collected.She used to enjoy doing that, didn't she?No.Well, maybe not.It is late.And this is only a suggestion.No pressure.
24:49It's entirely up to her.But perhaps tomorrow the two of them could come.go for a little walk, just to the end of the avenue and back.That would be fun, wouldn't it?Cassie remains silent.She avoids eye contact with her mother as she walks upstairs.Her mother stands at the bottom of the stairsand continues to stare at Cassie's bedroom long after she hears the door being locked.
25:17The plate of sandwiches is still on the landing.The hot chocolate is staining the carpet.Cassie carefully hangs her wig and mask over the towel covering her dressing table mirror and inspects the room.Her magical mermaid bedding and matching wallpaper are looking a little shabby, but everything is as she left it.Nothing has been moved.She checks that the shutter on the window is still fastened, and then, because it's after midnight, she changes the day to one.and the month to 11 on her wooden calendar.It's her birthday.
26:02She turns off the light and lies on the bed.Cassie pulls a sheet over her head,puts her hands over her ears,and holds her breath for as long as she can.For more information on this podcast,including how to submit your own story for consideration,please visit creepypod.com.You can also follow us at creepypod on social media and YouTube.
26:44All stories told on this podcast are done so through Creative Commons Share-A-like licensingor with written consent from the authors.No portion of this podcast may be rebroadcast or otherwise distributedwithout the express written consent of the creepy podcast production.team and the story's author.
There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click any sentence in the transcript to leave one.