PALE LUNA
Warning: This is not based off of a made-up story. Play this game at your own risk. This is a false story, but the news report contained in it is very real. Please do not play this game.
These events happened to me about two years ago.
“Pale Luna, huh?” I said to myself. “Sounds cool.” I opened the App Store on my desktop and searched it up.
The description was pretty straightforward. Use text commands on your keyboard to move your sprite to find the treasure.
Nothing too suspicious. I had a friend recommend the game to me. Plus, I was bored out of my mind. It sounded like a pretty fun game.
I waited for it to download. While it loaded, I went on my phone and got a news notification. I opened it and found myself reading:
“Karen Paulsen, 11, was found in a forest near California. Her decaying head was found at a location which was given up in a video game known as Pale Luna, a text adventure with commands that may have led to Paulsen’s death. Police and essential workers advise the youth to stay away from the game to prevent further accidents that could result in deaths like Paulsen’s. The rest of Paulsen’s body has not yet been found.”
Great, I thought to myself. So now the FBI is probably tracking me because of this stupid game. Speaking of which, I headed downstairs.
Pale Luna was already opened up, which I found odd. The screen was blank, except for the words, “You are in a dark room. Moonlight shines through the window.”
I kept playing and found that only five commands worked: Go EAST, Pick up ROPE, Pick up SHOVEL, Pick up GOLD, and Open DOOR. Anything else didn’t work. One text especially creeped me out, though. PALE LUNA smiles at you.
Also, the commands sometimes would malfunction and I’d have to reboot the whole system. Like, I would put Pick up SHOVEL, and it would say, Not now. Or, even worse, I’d say, Use ROPE, and it’d say, You’ve already used this.
After about three hours of getting nowhere, I decided to offload the game, but keep it, just in case a friend came over and we were especially bored. However, when I tried to exit the game, it took away all of my commands and displayed a black screen. Then, the text popped up.
Congratulations! Points: 40.24248 & -121.4434
At first, I was confused. Then I did some research on what the points meant. It mentioned that they were actually latitude and longitude points to a very real treasure and fortune. Since I lived in Vermont, it seemed that I had to travel to California. So, me being the idiot that I was, did exactly that.
California for the first week was pretty uneventful, to say the least. The next week started my trek. I brought everything with me: a shovel, a rope, and a compass for me to go East, since that was the only direction that I could go in the game. I also bought a rucksack with food, water, and a map.
My phone led me to that exact point in the game. A step or two front or back changed the location, so I started digging at the very point where it told me to stop.
I didn’t expect to find anything, and I was just about to give up when my shovel hit something hard. Desperate for a fortune, I got on the forest floor and started digging with my bare hands. After my hand grabbed at something, I pulled it out, hoping to see a chest or a briefcase overflowing with cash.
I screamed.
In my hands sat the head of a child, it looked like a young boy. It was deteriorating and rotten and grey. I threw the head as far as I could reach and grabbed at my pockets for my phone. Just as I picked it up, I got a voicemail from my friend, Michael. The guy who recommended this damn game to me.
Hey dude, I tried reaching you about an hour ago. I found out that the game is linked to a series of murders across the globe. The commands are supposed to mean something, like every time you enter a command, it’s like telling the killer what to do to the victim. Don’t play it, man. So sorry.
I threw my phone on the ground. So me playing this game had something to do with the death of a child. As to how, all the commands came rushing back to me. They were right. They knew I’d come after the treasure. I had already used the rope to strangle this poor boy. I couldn’t use the shovel just yet; I could only do it to dig up the head that I found.
A serial killer didn’t kill this child…
I did.
