*Original* The Devil's Heart

If you are a fan of the Final Fantasy series, chances are that you have heard of Kingdom Hearts.

It was the summer of 2007. Kingdom hearts had come out for a little while, and a friend of mine had just told me about it. I had never heard of it before. He told me it was a game like Final Fantasy, and had starred Disney characters. Now come on, who doesn't like Disney? When my friend told me about the game i was dead set on getting it. I asked my mom for chores around the house, and jobs helping her to get some money to pay for the game. After about a week, i had enough for a brand new copy of Kingdom Hearts!

I begged my mom to take me to the store as i had been obsessed with getting the game. She accepted, and drove me to the store. I bought the game brand new, still in the wrapping, and brought it home. I quickly ripped off the shrink wrap, and openned the case. To my surprise, there was no manual for the game. Just the game itself. Brushing it off, i popped the disk into my PS2 given to me by my now deceased Grandfather. 

When i started the game. I had noticed it was a little strange from what i had seen from the gameplay online before. 

The title screen was darker, tinted red and Sora's back was turned. I couldn' help but feel like something strange was happening. 

I decided to turn off the PS2, and restart it, but it wouldn't shut off. I finally got it to turn off after i unplugged the system completely. After i plugged the system in again, i started it up, and it came up like it was supposed to. 

I selected new game, and oddly enough, I wasnt prompted to select a difficulty, and the opening cutscene didn't play. It just took me straight to Destiny Island. I figured it was just a glitch, and pressed on. 

I went to talk to Riku at the tree on the small island that was connected my the bridge, and the cutscene started like normal. The strange part about it was, there was no dialouge coming out. The cutscene played, and the subtitles came up on the screen, but there were no speaking parts playing. I turned the volume on my TV up expecting to see it was turned down, but I had it at the sound it was at for all of my video games.  I also noticed the more I turned it up, I could hear static in the background. 

I decided its probably just another glitch, and i continued the game. 

I played through the entire game, noticing that some NCPs in game were saying very odd things. Some would say things like "He is watching..." And "Why are you here?... He will find you..." 

When i finished the game fighting Ansem, the screen froze. I pressed all of the buttons, and in a fit of rage, threw my controller, unplugging my controller, and almost unplugging my PS2. I plugged my controller back in and tryed pressing buttons again. The game unfroze, but i heard static again. It progressively grew louder and louder, to the point that i had to mute my TV to stop it. 

Feeling weirded out, I looked at the screen, and noticed i was in another area, one i had never seen in the online videos of the game I have watched. 

I was in an area that looked somewhat like the inside of Monstro, the whale level. 

The floors and walls were the same shade of red, and music started playing. 

I watched the screen as the one-winged demon emerged from the ground. His eyes, glowing red. His body, dark black. His face, disturbingly scary. 

When he came up. He spoke and had speaking dialouge out of the TV and said "I've been waiting for you to arrive...

Now, show me what you've got."

A battle was started. He flew around the screen with his single wing in a circular motion. He stopped mid air, and flew towards me. Panicked, I used thundaga thinking it would harm him more since he was flying. (I know, pokemon logic.) 

The attack hit, and did almost nothing. At that moment, he grabbed Sora, and bit his head off. 

He spoke and said 

"Heh... Now there is no way for someone to kill me..." 

The demon turned his face to the screen as if he were facing me, and said: "You're next..."
The game immediately shut off, and the PS2 refused to turn on.

That night, I had a nightmare... The one winged demon grabbed me and scratched my chest with his huge, claw-like fingers.
I woke up in a cold sweat, checking my shirt to see if there were any marks even though i knew it couldn't hurt me in reality through a dream.

After that dream, things were pretty normal. I was able to play the game normally again, and every so often i would have a nightmare of that creature again.

It has been 7 years since that incident, and last night i had another dream... The demon came to me... he said: "Well well well... Didn't I finish you off seven years ago? Hahahahaha... HAHAHAHAHA! NO MATTER! I WILL FINISH YOU OFF HERE! But before I do that..."

At that single moment... he took his hand... dug his hand into his chest... forcing his thick, red blood out, and ripped out his heart...

The heart that made me rethink everything... One look at it, and i knew it wasn't just a normal heart. It had a hole in the middle of it, and had turned completely black.

I called out hoping to gain some re-assurance, and knew he wasn't done. He then took his hand, and ripped straight through my chest. He gripped my heart, and ripped it out. As soon as he did, he replaced mine with his, and said "Now you will see how it feels to have the shadows be your only ally..."

I woke up noticing it was very bright out. I had never hated the sunlight before because of the brightness, but today i woke up absolutely hating it. The lights in my room are all out, and the blinds in my room cover my windows to escape from every inch of light caused by the sun.

The only thing left to wonder is... What's going to happen to me next?...