GameBoy

The GameBoy is a sad and scary story about a young boy who goes to hospital where he meets a sickly young girl. The twist ending is quite subtle, but horrifying.

I can still remember playing Saga2 on the GameBoy when I was young. In America and Europe, they called it Fighting Fantasy Legend 2. It really was a great game and I had many hours of fun trying to complete it. However, something happened when I was ten years old that caused me to stop playing it altogether.

I broke my leg during a game of soccer and it was a bad fracture, so I had to spend three days in hospital. There were three other people in the hospital ward with me. An old man, an old woman and a young girl, around the same age as I was.

I was lay there in that cold, uncomfortable hospital bed, bored out of my mind. There was absolutely nothing to do. Luckily, when my mother came to visit, she brought my GameBoy to keep me entertained.

The young girl in the bed next to mine was very pale and sickly. She had dark circles under her eyes. That evening, her mother came to visit as well. She brought some drinks and snacks for the girl. I overheard her talking to one of the nurses and, from what I could make out, the doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with the girl. She had some type of mystery illness and they were still doing tests.

I spent most of my time playing Fighting Fantasy on my GameBoy. At one point, I glanced up and noticed the girl staring at me. Her eyes were very sad. When she saw me looking at her, her cheeks went red.

“Do you want to play?” I asked, holding up my GameBoy. “You can borrow it if you like.”

The girl’s eyes lit up, and she smiled.

“OK, I’d like that,” she said.

“By the way, my name is Ryota,” I said.

“I’m Sayaka,” she replied.

I couldn’t get out of bed, but I managed to toss the GameBoy over to her. She didn’t understand the game so I had to teach her how to play. Over the next couple of days, we became very friendly. The time flew by as we spoke about school, our movies we both liked and our favorite bands. Before I knew it, the time had come for me to go home.

My parents arrived and helped me into a wheelchair. As we were leaving, I noticed that Sayaka was crying.

“Don’t be sad,” I said. “As soon as I’m able to walk again, I’ll come back and visit you.”

Her face seemed to brighten up. “You promise?” she asked.

“I promise,” I said and I handed her my GameBoy. “Here’s something to play with until I see you again.”

A week later, I was on crutches and I decided to go back to the hospital to visit Sayaka. My parents drove me to the hospital, but when I got to the ward, there was no sign of her. The old man and the old woman were still there, but Sayaka’s bed was empty. Her name wasn’t even on the door.

“Maybe she’s been discharged already,” I thought.

I went to the nurses’ desk and asked them what had happened to Sayaka.

“I’m sorry, Sayaka is gone,” said the nurse.

“Gone where?” I asked.

The nurse had tears in her eyes. “She’s gone to another place…”

I may have been young, but I wasn’t stupid. I knew what she really meant. She didn’t need to sugar-coat it for me. I was stunned. Sayaka was dead. I just stood there, balancing on my crutches, unable to move.

“She wanted you to have this…” said the nurse.

She held out my Game Boy and I took it, not uttering a word. Then, with my heart full of sadness, I turned and hobbled off down the corridor.

That night, I didn’t feel like eating anthing. I just lay in my bedroom with the lights off, thinking about Sayaka. My heart was aching.

After a while, I turned on the Game Boy, but I was too sad to play it. The game reminded me too much of her. Then, I opened the saved game and realized that the names of the players had been changed…

1. XHELPM

2. YMOMIS

3. POISON

4. INGMEX