I can't explain how excited I was when I left that final day of highschool. I had all summer to myself because my parents were out on a business trip. To get the obvious out of the way, I am a big fan of sonic games from the First to Frontiers, and I bought a whole collection from this shady ass site, seemed sketch but they were in good condition and fairly cheap. Though I don't play them all, I kept them nice and clean, but this summer? I was gonna play every game I owned in a big ass marathon.

The first few days of the marathon went pretty sweet, I breezed through Sonic The Hedgehog without a sweat. It only took roughly 2 hours to beat, I honestly forgot how short the original games were with today's standards. I took some time to refill my snacks and jumped onto Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

Within another 2, maybe 3 hours, I beat the game. I got this feeling that (obviously) the earliest games were going to be the shortest. Though, that's not too shocking. I booted up Sonic CD, readying myself for another short but sweet run of a fun game. As soon as I had my first run in with Metal Sonic, things got weird.

Firstly, the literal moment Metal Sonic was present, the screen would be glitched, and bugged. (even though I'm pretty sure I kept these games in good condition.) The thing is, He was standing around completely still, not to mention his new colorful look. It didnt even feel like Metal. He didn't do anything, believe me on that, but the moment I tried to even go past him, the game crashed the moment he was offscreen.

I boot the game back up, and what do you know? The game had jumped to the ending. I guess this was even buggier than I thought. Regardless I had pressed on and on, but nothing seemed to happen. I even restart the game, but it would load me right back in this infinite area. I eventually gave up, guess I was skipping CD sadly.

From there on, everything seemed normal, but an hour later I got an email from some rando named Karrie Sommers. She was rambling on about giving me a "light warning and to "not mess this up for her." Don't know who she was but she probably had the wrong guy, so I ignored her, easy as. I swore I had heard that name before somewhere...

I took a break to go to the bathroom, texting my girlfriend, Carmen, who had sadly been visiting her grandparents for the summer. The conversation was pretty basic, but sweet, and In no time at all I got back to my games. It was a nice breath of fresh air from the mess that was my CD copy, but now I had a creeping feeling I was being watched.

This bug felt less and less coincidental as I played though, with each game featuring metal specifically being a total mess to play. I didnt even make it 2 games before another crashing mess. It was frustrating, and that person messaged me again.
"This Is your second warning meathead, knock it off, youre ruining my fun."

What the hell was this person's problem? I blocked her and took a break from my games, just walking outside and taking in fresh air. It was relaxing after the annoyances earlier honestly. After maybe 3 hours of watching TV, I got back on my consoles.

I went straight for Sonic Unleashed, and it was amazing not having any crashes during the game, Not to mention the playtime was way longer. I took breaks and had to take a nap for my own sake, but after a day or so, I beat Unleashed and I felt good. This was shortlived though, since I felt like playing Sonic R next.

Everyone knows the whole story of the tails doll creepypasta, I even used to scare other kids with it back in like middle? Whatever. My whole mood sunk when I saw Metal as a playable character from the start. He still looked weird, with velvet shoulder pads and pinkish grey arms or legs. I felt confident this couldn't go wrong, so I played as him and had a race or two, but whether bugs or even controller drift, Metal did NOT listen to my commands.

He'd violently steer right or left into the ridges, and always stay near sonic even if the blue quillball was in second to last place on the run. I had it to my limit, picked someone else, and tried again. To my shock, the game wouldn't let me pick anyone but Metal or Sonic, even though there were so many other options. I decided to be a smartass to this damn game and picked sonic, staying as far from metal as possible as he tried keeping close, even clipping through a section of the track to keep up.

A minute later and the screen went black, I thought the game was gonna crash but instead was that Metal Freak standing right before me on the TV. It felt like it was judging me with empty polygonal eyes. My phone blew up with messages from Karrie.
"DENNIS. STOP IT. YOU'RE NOT TAKING MY SONIC AWAY FROM ME. THIS IS THE LAST WARNING. IF YOU INTERFERE ONE MORE TIME WITH MY LOVER, I'LL TAKE WHAT YOU LOVE MOST."

Im not gonna hold it, I was scared, but before I could gather my senses, the game shut off and damn near shot the disk out. It clocked my leg, and even managed to lightly cut me. I tried texting my girlfriend but she thought I was just trying to scare her or something. I re-read the message from Karrie and wondered, How the fuck did this person get my phone number? I threatened to call the police and blocked them without a second thought.

I'm not going to let some scary coincidences stop me from having fun, this was probably just some hacking troll using my number to scare me. I wanted the night to be over and honestly, wanted to show this metal fucker what for since it was always him that ruined this marathon time and time again. I opened my last game of the night: Sonic Heroes.

I didnt stop playing even with all the bugs when Metal was on screen, even Metal Neo. The model must have been fucked up or downright angry at me, because it looked pissed no matter what happened in-game. The glitches were the worst at Metal Madness, I could barely fight it properly and by no means did the boss look normal. Nothing could have prepared me though, for as soon as I beat metal madness, the game crashed.

I got a message, somehow, from Karrie. I swear to god I blocked her, so how the hell did she text me? I checked to read what it had said..
"FINE. IF YOU WANT TO RUIN MY FANTASY AND TAKE MY LOVER AWAY FROM ME.. THEN I'LL TAKE YOURS."
I was lost for a moment, but as I turned to the TV, the game had me smack dab in Metal Overlord's fight. What befuddled me is that none of the team was super, I had to fight this thing without the super forms. My heart sunk deep as the Metal Overlord held up a new character ive never seen. They looked like Amy with brown fur and a white sundress instead of the usual cutsie skirt. Text slammed my screen, taking up nearly half the television.

"YOU RUINED MY FANTASY WITH MY LOVER. NOW YOU CAN LOSE YOURS." It took me a second, but my gasps nearly made me choke on air as I realized.. that was Carmen. Metal Overlord sneered before the TV shut off, and I couldn't get it to come back on no matter what. I slammed the screen while trying to text Carmen with no response. I waited for her to call me, text me, anything, and I got no response for hours. I called her grandparents, asking if she was okay, but they only told me that she wasnt anywhere in the house and probably went on an errand, but I couldn't wait another second. I contacted the police that Carmen had been kidnapped, even gave them the number of Karrie to hope they could trace it to a location.

Days turned months, and months turned to 3 years. 3 fucking years and this fucking game still wouldn't turn work. I was going to email the creator of the site I bought them from, but found out that the site had been taken down entirely. I couldn't even wayback it or anything. Carmen was stuck there and it was my fault. All I wanted that summer was to have fun with something I enjoyed, was that so much to fucking ask? The police dropped the search by now, and her family believes that I had some hand in her disappearance. They blame ME. I tried my best but, nobody believes that she was taken by a fucking monster. Now I lie awake at night with a withering slither of hope that she'll come back.

All I wanted was a fun Summer.