Ocarina of Dreams

I consider myself an esteemed gamer. I've been playing video games since I was six years old and I've never given up that habit or love. The fantasy worlds that games provide had really helped me escape reality when times were tough. Whichever way you look at it, video games are a part of my life and they always will be.

I've stuck with many of the traditional series, such as Mario, Zelda, Sonic, Star Fox and Kirby. Very rarely did I allow myself to get into other series. I'll admit that's rather closed minded of me, but I was very specific and picky about what I played. I mostly stuck to my childhood. And the game series that remains the most important to me is the Zelda series. One of my first video games on the Nintendo 64 was The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. I received a second hand cartridge when I was nine years old from my mother and my sister and I were immediately struck with the game's content.

Now I know what you're thinking. This is a creepypasta and I'm talking about a second hand cartridge. Obviously it was hacked or haunted. Well, not quite. Let me explain.

There was already a file that was completed on the game, which my sister and I saved. It was simply called 'LINK' all in capital letters. We played around with it and spoiled ourselves a little before actually beginning a game of our own where I would be the player and she would watch me and give me advice. We were a team and there were even points in the game where I had refused to go on without her (particularly when I first encountered a ReDead down in the Bottom of the Well).

Before we did start our own game, we went into Ganondorf's castle and we beat the game. The ending scenario awed us and we were so excited to see the sages seal Ganondorf up and peace return to Hyrule. The party at Lon Lon Ranch got us singing the Lost Woods theme music and humming other tunes. Getting to see Zelda and Link in the castle courtyard was also exciting as well. The only thing we noticed was that, instead of THE END appearing where Link and Zelda froze in sienna, red lettering appeared and spelled out a different message.

DON'T DO IT AGAIN.

We thought that was odd but since neither of us actually played the game completely, we figured it was normal. Eventually I began my own file and started playing it. It took me a long time to get past the Deku Tree and even longer for me to finish Dodongo's Cavern. Eventually I got past Jabu Jabu's Belly, which excited me because I love the Zora's Sapphire. By this time I was around ten and a half (my birthday came after a few months of us getting the game) and still playing obsessively with my sister by my side.

Now that I had the spiritual stones, I had to get the Ocarina of Time. We flew through the cutscene, became an adult, got Epona rescued from Ingo and the Hookshot from Dampe's ghost. It was time to head to the Forest Temple.

Unfortunately, it was also time to go to sleep for us. I shut the game off and went to bed, hoping tomorrow would pass quickly so I could get back to playing more Zelda.

That night I had a mysterious dream. I was playing the game and I had just started in the Forest Temple. Link was in the elevator room with the four torches that get stolen by the Poe Sisters. The flames were there, but the elevator was in the ground. I made Link walk around to some of the surrounding doors, but each door I approached was quickly sealed with iron bars right away. The ground began to shake and boulders began to fall from the ceiling, like when you travel up the path on Death Mountain and it begins to erupt. Farore's Wind couldn't be used, since I didn't set a warp point. I tried using the Minuet of Forest to warp out, but I got a message in red that said, "You can't warp here!" which you can only get in the windmill/Dampe's grave area and the Gerudo Training Grounds. The earthquakes got more violent and I had no ways of escaping. I could still hear Link screaming each time a boulder fell on him. I could also hear Ganondorf's laughter in the background, even though he wasn't visible. I woke up shaking before my dream could go any further.

The next day I was nervous to play the game, but my sister urged me back to the Nintendo 64. Since I loved my sister dearly and wanted to have fun, I went back to it. We started up the file and started to venture through the Forest Temple. It was completely normal and the only thing that made me scream was when a Wallsmaster grabbed me and sent me back to the entrance (I HATE those bastards). Once again, with my sister by my side with her support and advice, I kept going. We got the four flames back to the elevator room and braced ourselves to fight a boss.

Only the elevator never came up from the ground.

"Hey, what's going on? We got the four fires back. The elevator should come up!" I said.

"Maybe you forgot to do something," my sister suggested. "Look around."

So I did. I approached each door and, everytime I did, iron bars would slam down, effectively locking me in. The ground started to shake as well and I panicked. It was just like my dream!

Sure enough, boulders started smacking Link on the head. The warp songs on the ocarina had no effect and Farore's Wind was useless, since I had no warp point. My sister and I stared in shock as the hearts began to vanish and Link started to pant.

That's when we also started to hear Ganondorf's laughter. He never appeared on the screen but I knew he was there. Normal text appeared at the bottom.

"I let you run around once before. Did you really think I'd let you stop me again? I learned from my mistakes, but apparently you didn't. You let me out so you could have another 'adventure'. Your adventure ends here, kid. You're not saving any sages or rescuing that princess. You're not returning peace to anywhere."

In horror, we had to watch Link die in front of us. Instead of getting a Game Over screen, we also got clips of more monsters appearing in various places around Hyrule. Ganondorf had found Zelda and took her Triforce piece as well as Link's piece. The sages were nowhere to be found. The people of Hyrule suffered more and more until the land itself became as barren as Ganondorf's desert. No one was left alive. We turned off the game and didn't go back to playing it for quite some time. When we did finally resume playing it, nothing like that had ever happened again. I beat the game a few months later without a problem. DON'T DO IT AGAIN was replaced by THE END and we had our usual happy ending.

To this day, I'm still mind boggled about all of it. I thought what I had was a simple nightmare, a product of my overactive imagination and the result of too much video games. But it wasn't. I saw what Ganondorf was going to do. However, I was only a child...ten years old, just like Link. What could I have done anyway? It was a game.

Just a game right? It was just a coincidence...but it still frightens me, even to this very day.