It was a regular sunny day where Jessie lived.
He had moved out from his parents house at the mere age of sixteen and his parents let him. He was a prodigy child after all and was loved by everyone.
Other students were jealous of him because he played video games all the time yet he topped all of his classes.
On his laptop was a list of games that he had yet to play so he decided to buy a few.
As he scrolled through the best sellers, he came across one game that stood out.
The Ominous Tune.
The game intrigued him and all he wanted to do was buy it. Of course, his parents wouldn’t mind, they loved him.
***
The game was delivered to his apartment a few days later in a proper packaging.
He wasted no time and tore off the packaging and quickly installed the game.
The opening screen was breathtaking. It was a scenery with the sky the colour purple and a bunch of trees which gave a cozy feeling. And then it started, the ominous tune.
***
After taking off layers and layers of lies and very good manipulation, Jessie was completely broken.
He had a psychological condition which disabled him to feel anything. He was not a sociopath but he wasn’t normal either.
A lot of counseling between the ages of 7 to 14 led Jessie to become slightly normal and acceptable to the society.
In one of the sessions the psychologist moved his father aside for a talk and told him that if Jessie does not take good care of himself, then this condition of his will be his damnation.
***
The idea of the game was that you had to escape any form of danger that is thrown at you.
The warning in the starting of the game about the dangers was brushed off by Jessie. But as the ominous tune began he couldn’t help but feel scared and tried his very best to avoid all the dangers.
It went like this, you keep on walking in the forest and find items that would help you survive. The ominous tune keeps playing in the background and it increases if you are heading towards danger.
Jessie played the game all day on the first day and then slept, the tune stuck in his head.
It’s very difficult to describe the tune. It has got sequential high and low notes which has a very creepy aura to it. And whenever the volume of the tone increases, you feel slight pain forming near your temples. You start panicking. The tune is a nightmare.
But Jessie is smart. Nothing can harm him.
***
Jessie was 10 when he killed his neighbor’s cat. His parents buried the cat and didn’t let the owner know.
The owner searched for weeks and then eventually gave up. 7 year olds do have a short attention span.
***
Deborah was Jessie’s girlfriend.
She was very pretty with her hazel eyes and loved Jessie genuinely.
‘Jess, let’s hang out tonight. It’s been a while since we’ve properly spent time together’
It was true, Jessie had been playing the game since a week and hardly texted or called her.
But even as she spoke, all he could think of was the tune. And how he wanted to strangle Deborah.
He loved her. At least he thinks so.
She doesn’t know that he’s incapable of love. He doesn’t want to admit it.
***
They did eventually meet at Jessie’s apartment.
They ordered pizza and watched a couple of movies, all the while Jessie wanting out of it.
She tried making conversation but he kept on brushing her off.
She eventually snapped and yelled at him. He slapped her.
She went home ‘It’s over’.
Jessie went towards his bed and as he did, the tune in his head increased.
He was too tired to notice and so went to sleep.
***
In a phase when he was thirteen, he stopped taking his meds for a week.
They had to admit him into the hospital.
He went crazy and wouldn’t speak anything, just kept shaking his head and body violently.
The doctors had to tie him up and increased his dosage. His parents got strict with him for a week and then cut him some slack.
They are supposed to be the golden parents after all.
***
With Deborah gone, a voice in the back of Jessie’s head said that he should be sad. But he didn’t feel anything close to sad.
Maybe he should be relieved?
But he couldn’t feel anything.
***
Everyone started getting worried about Jessie. Finally.
His grades started falling rapidly. That’s why.
He stopped hanging out with his friends. That’s why.
He stopped calling his parents. That’s why.
But what was the reason of him not doing this?
He stopped taking his meds. That’s why.
***
He became more and more obsessed with playing the game and the tune haunted him hours after he stopped playing.
Dark circles appeared under his eyes and his eyes became very dull. It was funny though. How would his eyes be bright if he couldn’t feel happiness?
***
A major power cut was going to take place that day. The residents of the avenue were informed beforehand.
But Jessie didn’t know. He was too engrossed in the game to know what was happening in reality.
The power cut would last for two days and residents all over had different measures planned. Some would stay at their relatives. Some would just go for a vacation which was overdue.
Call it a haunting or a mere coincidence but when Jessie finally gathered the guts to move towards the direction where the danger was, when the tune became deafening, the lights went out and so did his computer.
He screamed. It’s only natural.
The worst part was, that the tune was stuck in his head.
Panic was his driving force which led him into running to the corner of the room and crouch down, his head between his knees.
After quite a lot of time passed, he realized that the tune wasn’t going to stop.
And so he got up and headed towards the exit. He froze halfway.
With horror, he realized that the tune got louder as he moved towards the door.
***
They found his body in his apartment after the power cut.
It creeped with maggots and had an awful stench.
The autopsy revealed heart failure. Apparently, he died of something shocking that happened to him. He died of fright.
They also found the game. It wasn’t the tune that killed him. It was his own mind. He was weak and he was just a child. This was where his parents should’ve interfered, but they didn’t. If only.
***
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