I don't know what to do. I don't even know if any of this is real. I'm telling you all this so you know the truth, and so you can stay safe. Don't take this a story, take it as a warning.
Ever since I was a child, I loved pokemon. I loved how it was such a social game, and so fun. The characters, the creatures, the world, it all drew me in. So imagine my surprise when they announced you could soon be able to play in real life! Walk around the world in real time, see your favorite pokemon in real world locations, meet other people playing the same game, it sounded like a dream come true. When it became available and I started to download it, I was shaking. Thinking about all the fun I would have, the people I'd meet. Little did I know I should have been shaking for an entirely different reason.
Last night, I was in my room, messing around on my phone. I went on Pokemon Go to claim my rewards from the pokestop located just close enough to my room that I could access it from my bed. After I got some much desired pokeballs, I decided to check my nearby tab to see if anything rare was in my area. Much to my surprise, I saw this. (The three footsteps indicating it was far away)
Weird, I thought. That obviously doesn't look like any pokemon in the series. I wrote it off as either a graphical glitch (It's not like Pokemon Go is free of its glitches) or some rare easter egg in reference to the mysterious pokemon named unown.
I screenshotted it and sent it to my friend Julie, asking if she'd heard of anything similiar. Julie, who's too into astrology (and pokemon) for her own good, told me it's the symbol for the "Hanged Man". I told her she was out of her head. She insisted though, telling me it meant "letting go, and sacrifice". I definitely thought that was... weird. What was some tarot symbol doing in a pokemon game? I figured she was mistaken, told her good night, and decided to try and fall asleep. I lied down, closed my eyes, and started to drift away. That is, until--
Bzzzzzz
Bzzzzzz
Bzzzzzz
I started to regret becoming friends with Julie. Angrily, I opened my phone to see what she was texting me. "You have to check it out!" "Go pursue it, you may have made some cool discovery!" "What if you're the first person to find something completely new?" "My psychic said something exciting was in the future of someone I'm close too!" It never ended. Julie was always a little much. I muted the conversation, and tried to go back to bed. Tried being a keyword. My mind was racing with the possibilities of what it could be. Annoying as she was, what if she was right? This could be the next pokemon mystery! Slightly hating myself for doing so, I opened pokemon go. I clicked the nearby tab to see it was still there. It was, but now, it was only two footsteps away, meaning it was closer then the last time I checked. Huh I thought, Weird. In my experience, Pokemon never come closer to you, you have to go closer to them. Admittedly spooked, I closed the app, told myself I was crazy, and closed my eyes again. What's all this about? The symbol for sacrifice appears in my game, and starts coming towards me?
Since at this point I was too intrigued to fall asleep, I looked up this "hanged man". It's described as the most mysterious card in the tarot deck. It suggest sacrifice or surrender is the best option. I thought that was interesting. If surrender is the best option... should I just give up on this? I wanted too, but it was just too fascinating. This symbol completely goes against the themes of pokemon, there's no way the developers purposely would have included it. I was lost in thought, when I heard a loud gasp from parents room.
GROSS. That's probably my parents having sex in there. God knows I've walked in on them doing it before. Cringing at that thought, wanting to solve this mystery, and dying to get as far away from my fornicating parents as possible, I open pokemon go so I can go out and find this Hanged Man. I open the nearby tab, and let out a little gasp myself. It's now only one footstep away. It's now very close to me. I thought to myself, how unusual? This thing went from being very far away, to very close, completely on it's own. That's just now the game works. I got a terrible feeling, sick to my stomach. I had to get out of my house. I slipped out my door, passing my parents room. I could see from the shadows under the door that there was a lot of movement, and I could faintly hear heavy breathing. Disgusting. I felt even worse and got out of my house.
I wanted to find this thing, but at the same time, wanted it to go away. How could this be happening? It was just... approaching me. One footstep at a time, coming closer, and closer to me. I walked in a beeline straight away from my house. If this... thing was coming towards my house, I wanted away. So I walked to the nearest pokestop and rested there. I checked my phone, dying to see if the Hanged Man was still close to me. My thumb glided towards the nearby button. I wanted so badly to know. I realized how silly I probably was. It's pokemon for God's sake. And yet, I truly felt like I was dealing with something terrible.
I hesitated, holding my breath, closed my eyes in fear, and pressed the button. I opened them to disbelief. It was now completely gone. Nothing nearby me but a venonat and a jigglypuff. I sighed with relief, and felt like a royal idiot. It's pokemon. There was not some astrology based entity haunting me, it was... a graphical glitch. Nothing more, nothing less. Just, in-my-head nonsense. Laughing at how afraid I was a second ago, I decide to go back home, some silly Hanged Man being the last thing in my mind.
Once I got home, I drifted past my parents room as fast as possible, only to realize it was completely silent, and completely still. I put my ear to the door to confirm they were done being perverts, and much to my satisfaction, they were. I said "I'm going to bed, good night" to no response. Weird, they're not asleep since the lights are still on, and they always say good night to me. I knocked on the door. No response. Huh. The thought of the Hanged Man came into my mind, and I suddenly felt very heavy. Did something happen to them? What the hell is going on?
I began to open the door, feeling my heart beat out of my chest. The high squeaking of the door made me cringe. The gust of cool air from inside their room made me shiver. But the sight I saw when the door was completely open made my heart drop to the ground.
Tears welled up in my eyes. My vision began to narrow. My head hurt. Across from me was the bodies of my parents, laying in a pool of their own blood. I fell to the ground. Their throat's were completely slit open, blood all over the floor and wall. My mind went blank. There's no way this is real I thought. I was completely in shock. I just knelt there, staring at my dead parents, mouth agape. My body was shutting down. It was only when I looked up that I noticed it. Drawn crudely on the wall above the warm bodies of my parents, was the symbol. It all came rushing back to me. I was right, Julie was right. It wasn't some graphical glitch, it wasn't a figment of my imagination, it cut open my parent's necks.
I felt furious. I pulled out my phone. I had to call the cops. Whoever... WHATever killed my parents couldn't be far. I unlocked my phone, and it opened to my most recent app, pokemon go. What I saw next made me drop my phone in my parents blood. The symbol of the Hanged Man... it was right behind me. I clicked it, just as you would any pokemon within your vicinity. I held it up to wall, seeing if it would reveal something. Nothing. I slowly turned around, dying to see what would be there, yet dying to stash away my phone and forget anything happened. I turned, slow as a snail. terrified of what it would reveal. I quickly snapped it towards the door, where the map said it would be. The opening revealed the grim darkness of the hallway, but there was no Hanged Man at all. I lowered my phone, shaking in fear of whatever might be standing in the darkness of the hall, when two dirty, long-nailed hands grabbed me from the ceiling.
It pulled on my head, lifting me off the ground by my hair. I screamed in pain, swinging back and forth, kicking and thrashing wildly. I was a fly, helpless, and I caught myself in a spiders web. In that moment, I was the hanged man. I dug my nails into the things papery skin, piercing its flesh like it had done to my parents a few moments ago. It let out an inhuman cry, and dropped me. My hands were covered in it's cold and sticky blood. I peered up at the ceiling, seeing where it hung. It gazed down at me with large black eyes, long black hair dangling down, feet bound together and tied to the ceiling. It made a grin, revealing its sharp rows of teeth. I stared up at it, like a child standing before an abusive father. I felt smaller then I'd ever felt before. Wielding it's long, sharp nails, it cut the rope binding it to the ceiling, and on all fours, crawled out the door at inhuman speed, leaving behind a trail of it's dark blood.
I opened Pokemon Go and checked the nearby tab. One footstep away. Two footsteps away. Three. And then, like a drop of water in the ocean, it was gone.
I've just called the cops. I'm typing this from my room, as I can't bear to look at my parents bodies. I'm waiting for their arrival, nervously checking the nearby tab on my phone frequently. I think it's gone for good. So for the love of all that is holy, delete pokemon go. Don't hesitate, don't mistake my message. I know I should have never even downloaded it. So learn from me, and stay safe, or else, you'll find yourself the next victim of the Hanged Man.
