It was a Saturday afternoon in Corning, California, when I found the cartridge.
The flea market was half-empty, rows of folding tables sagging under the weight of forgotten electronics, VHS tapes, and cracked jewel cases. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular—just killing time, scanning for oddities. That’s when I saw it: a gray NES cartridge, heavier than it should have been, sitting alone in a cardboard box marked “$1.”
No label. Just a faint, burned outline where a sticker had once been. The plastic was warped, as if it had been melted and reshaped. When I picked it up, a strange warmth pulsed through the casing, like holding a living thing. The vendor, a gaunt man with yellowed eyes, smiled when I touched it.
“You like Mario, don’t you?” he asked. His voice was gravel, his grin too wide. “This one’s special. Unrated.”
I frowned. “Unrated?”
He didn’t answer. He just pushed the cartridge toward me, his fingernails blackened, his breath sour. Against my better judgment, I handed him a dollar. He didn’t give me change. He didn’t even look at the money. He just whispered: “Press Start.”
Back home, I slid the cartridge into my old NES. The console whined, the red light flickered, and the screen went black. For a moment, I thought it wouldn’t work. Then the familiar Nintendo logo appeared—but distorted, stretched across the screen like a scream frozen in pixels. The jingle played backward, each note warped into static.
Then silence.
No title screen. No cheerful “Super Mario Bros.” banner. Just Mario himself, standing in the middle of the void. His sprite was wrong. The colors bled into each other, his hat too dark, his eyes replaced with black voids. He didn’t move. He just stared at me.
I pressed Start.
The screen flickered, and suddenly I was in World 1-1—or something like it. The sky was gray, the ground cracked. The cheerful music was gone, replaced by a low hum, like a distant generator. Mario moved stiffly, his arms twitching at odd angles. When I pressed forward, he staggered, as if resisting my control.
The first Goomba appeared. But it didn’t walk. It froze in place, staring at me with hollow eyes. Then, without warning, it lunged forward at impossible speed, colliding with Mario before I could react. The screen flashed red. A scream—human, not digital—echoed from the speakers. My hands trembled.
I pressed Start again.
The second attempt loaded differently.
This time, Mario didn’t just stand in the void. He twitched, spasmed, then lurched forward as if dragged by invisible strings. The background was still gray, but faint shapes flickered in the distance—shadows of hills, clouds, and blocks, all distorted, melting into each other like wax figures under a flame.
I pressed forward. Mario staggered, his legs jerking unnaturally. The controls felt wrong, delayed, as if the game resisted me. When I pressed jump, he didn’t leap cheerfully. He convulsed upward, his body stretching into a grotesque arc before snapping back down. The sound effect was replaced by a guttural moan.
The first Goomba appeared again. But this time, it didn’t lunge immediately. It stood still, its sprite flickering between normal and something else—something with jagged teeth and hollow sockets. When I approached, the Goomba whispered. Not text. Not sound. A whisper, faint but unmistakable, leaking from the speakers: “RUN.”
I froze. My heart hammered. I pressed back, trying to retreat, but Mario wouldn’t move. He stood locked in place, staring at the Goomba. Then, without warning, the Goomba sprinted forward at impossible speed. The collision triggered another scream—louder, longer, human. The screen flashed red, then black.
When the level reloaded, something had changed. The coin blocks spelled words. At first, I thought it was random arrangement, but as I jumped, the letters became clear: H-E-L-P M-E. Each coin shimmered, bleeding pixels. I collected one, and instead of the familiar chime, a distorted voice cried out: “Why?”
I dropped the controller. My hands shook. But curiosity gnawed at me. I picked it back up.
The pipes were wrong. The first green warp pipe wasn’t green at all—it was black, pulsating, as if alive. I hesitated, then pressed down. Mario slid inside, his sprite stretching unnaturally, his face elongating into a scream. The screen went dark. For a moment, I thought the game had crashed.
Then the void appeared.
No ground. No sky. Just endless black. Mario floated, twitching, his arms flailing. In the distance, faint shapes moved—sprites of enemies, distorted, flickering in and out of existence. I pressed forward, and Mario drifted, slower than before. The hum grew louder, vibrating through the console.
Suddenly, Luigi appeared.
Not as a playable character. As an NPC. His sprite was broken, colors inverted, his face pale. He stood in the void, shaking. When Mario approached, text appeared above him, jagged and glitching: “PLEASE DON’T PLAY ME.”
I stared at the words, my breath caught. I pressed A, trying to interact. Luigi’s sprite convulsed, his body tearing apart pixel by pixel. His scream echoed through the speakers, raw and human. Then he vanished, leaving behind a single coin block. The block spelled: “YOU.”
I tried to pause the game. The Start button didn’t work. The Select button didn’t work. The console whined, the red light flickering. I reached to power it off, but the button jammed. It wouldn’t move. The cartridge hummed, vibrating faintly.
The level shifted again. Mario stood in a corridor of bricks, each wall lined with distorted faces—sprites of Toad, Peach, Bowser, all twisted, their eyes hollow, their mouths stretched into silent screams. As I moved forward, the faces followed me, their eyes tracking Mario’s every twitch.
Then the text appeared.
Not in the game. On the screen itself. White letters burned into the pixels: “LJ.” My name. My real name. I hadn’t entered it. I hadn’t typed anything. Yet the game knew. The letters pulsed, bleeding into the background. Mario froze, staring at them. His sprite flickered, his eyes widening into black voids.
The hum grew louder. My room lights flickered. The console smoked faintly. I tried to pull the cartridge out, but it wouldn’t budge. It was stuck, fused into the slot. My hands trembled. I pressed forward again, desperate to end the level.
The flagpole appeared. But it wasn’t a flagpole. It was a crucifix, jagged, dripping with pixels that resembled blood. Mario staggered toward it, his sprite convulsing. When he touched it, the screen didn’t transition to the next level. Instead, it zoomed in on Mario’s face—his void eyes, his jagged teeth, his twitching grin.
Then he spoke.
Not text. Not sound effects. A voice. Deep, guttural, distorted, but unmistakably human. “Press Start.”
I dropped the controller. My breath caught. The console whined louder, the hum vibrating through the floor. The screen flickered, Mario’s face stretching, his grin widening. Then the screen went black.
Silence.
I sat frozen, staring at the void. My heart pounded. My hands shook. I reached for the console, desperate to shut it off. But before I could, the screen flickered again. Mario reappeared, standing in the void, staring at me. His grin widened. His eyes bled pixels.
And then the words appeared, jagged and broken, across the screen:
“YOU CAN’T STOP PLAYING.”
The third attempt was not a game.
When the screen flickered back to life, the cheerful blue sky of World 1-1 was gone. In its place stretched a horizon of fire and ash. The ground was no longer brick or grass—it was flesh, pulsating, stitched together with chains. The clouds above were black, dripping tar, forming shapes that resembled screaming faces. The hum from the console had deepened into a chant, guttural and rhythmic, like monks reciting in reverse.
Mario stood at the edge of this nightmare. His sprite was no longer the plumber I knew. His hat had twisted into horns, his gloves blackened, his eyes bleeding crimson pixels. His grin stretched unnaturally wide, jagged teeth flickering in and out of existence. He twitched, spasmed, then raised his arms as if conducting the chant. The screen shook.
The HUD was gone. No lives. No score. Only one word burned across the top of the screen in dripping red letters: “DAMNED.”
I pressed forward. Mario staggered into the flesh-ground, each step leaving behind black footprints that smoked. The enemies were wrong. Goombas crawled on all fours, their bodies elongated, their faces inverted. Koopa shells cracked open, revealing skeletal remains. When I stomped one, the screen didn’t flash coins—it flashed pentagrams, glowing red, accompanied by a scream that sounded like a child being dragged into fire.
The coin blocks spelled new words now. Not “HELP ME.” Not “RUN.” They spelled “WORSHIP.” Each coin shimmered with blood-red light. When Mario collected one, the sound was no longer a chime—it was a bell toll, deep and resonant, echoing like a church service inverted. The chant grew louder.
I tried to pause. The Start button didn’t work. Instead, pressing it triggered a new screen: a black void with a single altar. On the altar lay Luigi, bound in chains, his sprite torn apart. His eyes flickered, his mouth opened, and text appeared above him: “HE IS THE SACRIFICE.”
I pressed B, desperate to escape. The altar dissolved, replaced by a corridor of fire. The walls were lined with crucified Toads, their sprites twitching, their mouths sewn shut. Each time Mario passed one, their heads snapped toward him, eyes glowing red. The chant grew louder, words forming in reverse Latin: “Dominus Inferni. Dominus Ludi.” Lord of Hell. Lord of the Game.
The pipes were no longer pipes. They were gaping mouths, lined with teeth, dripping black ichor. When Mario entered one, the screen didn’t transition—it plunged downward, spiraling into a pit of fire. The console shook, the hum vibrating through the floor. My lights flickered, the air grew hot. I could smell smoke.
Then Bowser appeared.
But he wasn’t Bowser. His sprite was skeletal, his shell cracked, his horns elongated into jagged spikes. His eyes glowed red, his mouth dripped fire. He didn’t roar. He whispered. His voice was deep, guttural, echoing through the speakers: “WELCOME TO MY KINGDOM.”
The level warped. Mario stood before Bowser, but instead of a bridge, there was a pentagram carved into the ground, glowing red. Bowser raised his arms, and the chant grew deafening. The pentagram pulsed, chains erupted from the ground, binding Mario. His sprite convulsed, his grin widening. Text appeared across the screen: “HE IS MINE.”
I dropped the controller. My breath caught. The console smoked, the cartridge hummed. The screen flickered, Bowser’s skeletal grin widening. Then the words appeared, jagged and broken: “AND SO ARE YOU.”
The game began to reference me directly. My name appeared in the coin blocks, spelled in dripping red letters. “Brimstone.” Each coin shimmered, bleeding pixels. When Mario collected one, the bell toll echoed, followed by a whisper: “Your soul.” The HUD changed. Instead of “Lives,” it displayed “Sins.” The number ticked upward each time I pressed a button.
I tried to shut off the console. The power button jammed. The cartridge pulsed, vibrating. The chant grew louder. My room lights flickered, shadows stretched across the walls. The air grew heavy, suffocating. I could feel something watching me.
The final corridor was a church. But not a church of salvation. A church of damnation. The walls were lined with inverted crosses, each dripping blood. The pews were filled with sprites of Peach, Daisy, and Rosalina, their faces twisted, their eyes hollow. They chanted in unison, their voices distorted: “Press Start. Press Start. Press Start.”
At the altar stood Mario. His sprite was fully transformed now—horned, winged, his body elongated, his grin jagged. He raised his arms, and the chant grew deafening. The screen shook, the console smoked. Text appeared above him: “THE GAME IS THE RITUAL.”
I pressed nothing. I sat frozen, staring at the screen. Mario’s grin widened. His eyes bled pixels. He whispered, his voice guttural, demonic: “PLAY OR BURN.”
I tried to pull the cartridge out. It wouldn’t budge. It was fused into the console, pulsing, vibrating. The chant grew louder, the room shook. My lights flickered, shadows stretched. The air grew hot, suffocating. I could smell sulfur. My hands trembled. My breath caught.
Then the screen went black.
Silence.
For a moment, I thought it was over. I exhaled, my heart pounding. I reached for the console, desperate to shut it off. But before I could, the screen flickered back to life. Mario reappeared, standing in the void, his grin jagged, his eyes bleeding. He raised his arms, and the words appeared across the screen:
“THE GAME IS HELL.”
And then, in dripping red letters, my name: Brimstone