Wyld Isle 

I don’t know what actually caused it, or what the “entity” even was. All I know is that if I don’t tell this story I’m going to go crazy. I think it’s best to just start at the beginning and I’ll allow you to make what you will out of these words. I don’t expect many people to believe me, I mean personally I wouldn’t believe it if I heard it from a stranger. But I know at least some, maybe even just one in a thousand will believe what I have said. Those few are who this story is for and knowing even one other person has experienced anything like this will at least give me a small amount of peace.

Winter had been dragging in Maine, I lived in a small town that I won’t name but I will say it was very close to New Hampshire. I technically lived with my mom and dad, but they spent more time in their new home in Georgia at this point, so I basically lived alone. As a 22-year-old who had just finished college it certainly didn’t seem like the worst thing in the world. I didn’t have a job yet as for a while I was just focused on finishing school, and I was taking a bit of an extended break after. Like I said before winter was still going strong in mid-March and I was getting incredibly bored. I had watched every movie on Netflix and even went out and tried to hike in the snow as often as possible. After months of movies and walking in the cold, I was at the end of my rope. I hung out with friends sometimes but I didn’t have many who still lived nearby as most had moved away after college. I planned to leave soon myself more than likely within a year and I wasn’t too concerned about making any new friends here.

One day I was watching a random movie on Netflix and glanced out the window noticing it was starting to get dark out. I sighed and decided it was time for a change, I needed to do anything other than the same things I’d been doing since November. The early nights and gray days had caused me to be at my breaking point. Then it occurred to me, I still had a WII with a few games that my older brother had played more than I ever had. I didn’t really like video games as much as I used to, but I figured desperate times called for desperate measures and that anything was better than watching more Netflix. I went to the basement and found the box the WII was in along with a couple games. None sounded that appealing, so I settled on one that I didn’t even remember playing called Wyld Isle, a game where you choose an animal avatar that lived on an island with other animal avatars that all seemed very friendly. It seemed like a blatant knock off of Animal Crossing, but I figured it must be different in some way. I really didn’t remember this game at all, but I figured maybe my brother had gotten it as he bought most of the games back then anyway. I pretty much just picked it because it was the only option that I hadn’t played thousands of times. I must say I did vaguely remember seeing some ads for it years ago so I figured I might as well give it a shot.

I turned on the game and chose the avatar of a rabbit with big eyes. I went to the island to start and there were six other animals on it which were a bird, a cow, a dog, a cat, a lizard, and a skunk. All of which had cartoonishly big heads and very cheery expressions. The heads of each avatar appeared on the side showing the player how many there were. I began building my home and talking to the other animals. There wasn’t that much to the game really and it did seem a lot like a cheaper version of Animal Crossing. The island wasn’t too big either and there wasn’t all that much to do so after about an hour I decided to call it a day. I watched some more Netflix and then went to bed around 10. That night a little after three in the morning I woke up with a strange feeling. I got out of bed and walked around the house to double check everything was fine which it was. I glanced out the front window in my room down the street. The street had a house to the left about 100 feet away, with an intersection on the opposite side that was partially blocked by the house. There were another two houses on the right, the first of which was 150 feet to the side of my house and the other was directly across from it. I was about ready to get back into bed when I noticed the very front of a car pull up to the corner past the house on the left. It was at the intersection and was mostly obstructed by my neighbor’s house. I watched it for a second as it was rare to see cars out at 3am here and it seemed like it wasn’t moving even though it had waited at the stop sign for longer than they’d need to. All I could see of the car was it was very low to the ground, red and only about the first foot of it was visible. The car didn’t move at all, and it made me feel weird but realistically I figured there had to be a reason for it being there and as it wasn’t in front of my house I decided to go back to bed.

The next morning, I woke up with a strange urge to play the Animal Crossing knock off. I found this a bit odd because it wasn’t anything special, but I figured I must really just be in this big of a need of something different to do. I went to the living room and slumped down on the couch in front of the TV. I turned the console on and as soon as the game opened, I noticed something was very different. The island was no longer sunny, it was cloudy and dark for some reason. I figured it was the kind of game that would always be sunny but maybe it mixed it up. It was sunny outside in Maine though, so it felt odd that the game was so dim and gray today. I walked around the island building some stuff and hoped the clouds would clear off, but they never did. The animals even seemed different than yesterday, they all seemed paranoid. I know that might sound crazy but all of them acted like they couldn’t talk to me for long and none approached me like yesterday. I borderline had to chase some down to even talk to them. I spoke to the cow for a very brief amount of time who just said, “I wish it was a nicer day, you should be careful,” which seemed incredibly strange for one of the animals to say considering this is a game primarily targeted for kids.

After about an hour again I quit the game, and I had a weird feeling the rest of the day. The game was weird, I didn’t get why it would be so glum and depressing like what was the appeal there? I was confused but after a while I pretty much stopped caring, the whole rest of the day though I felt strange. It’s hard to explain the kind of strange feeling, similar to the kind you get in the middle of the woods when you’re completely alone and you haven’t seen anyone else in hours. It just felt so bizarre, and I decided to not play the game anymore and went to bed around ten just like last night, but I couldn’t sleep. I tossed and turned for a few hours until I finally passed out. I was awoken again around 3am, and that feeling from earlier was way worse. I quickly checked the whole house and looked out all the windows again, except the one in my room which was the only one with the view of the street out front. The backyard was completely surrounded by trees and that always gave me an eerie feeling but right now that was not even close to my main concern. When I finally checked the front window, I noticed something odd to the left. My stomach dropped a bit when I saw the same car was there and it was pulled out a bit farther than last night, but only a little so you could just see some of the hood. It was definitely an old red car but other than that I still couldn’t make anything out. I was kind of scared this time as it was the same car within 100 feet of my house at about the exact same time as the night before. I didn’t know how it could relate to me, but it just felt incredibly weird. I watched the car for probably twenty minutes and when nothing changed, I went to bed. I didn’t sleep much though as I just kept trying to figure out what the deal was with the car and why I felt so paranoid all day. There didn’t seem like there were many good ways to explain why the car would be there like that, two nights in a row but I still assumed there had to be a normal explanation somehow.

The next morning, I felt awful. I was exhausted and the paranoia was still there. I didn’t want to play the game again but after a few hours of boring Netflix and still silence, I got curious and decided to give the game one more try. I wanted to see if it was still cloudy and if the animals were still behaving strangely. I had nothing else to do so why not right. I turned the game back on and to my surprise it was still cloudy, and the animals were acting even stranger. But that wasn’t it this time either, there was a new character. It took me a second to even realize but there was another head that popped up on the side with the others. It looked like a goat, but it looked stranger than the other characters. Where the dog and cat for example had bright eyes and smiling faces, the goat had reddish eyes and a very uncomfortable smile. It actually creeped me out a bit and I got an intense paranoid feeling. The smile looked weird, like the goat had something wrong with it. I thought that this game was messed up and I questioned how anyone could make something like this for kids. I wanted to find the goat though, to see if the avatar was as weird looking as the head on the side was. I hoped that it wasn’t and that I was just creeping myself out for no reason. As I walked around though I couldn’t find him, I tried to see if I could figure out anything by talking to the animals but none of them wanted to say a word. The only one I talked to was the cat who told me simply, “run” which was deeply unsettling. The cat was also taken away from me by the cow who seemed to be scolding him. This was so weird; I couldn’t even figure out what was going on. I quickly turned the game off as I truly felt creeped out. I didn’t see the actual goat, but I don’t think I even really wanted to. I spent the rest of the day in a paranoid mess wondering if I should go to one of my three remaining friend’s houses for a bit, but a sudden heavy snowstorm made me reconsider.

As night fell and the thick snow continued, I thought about going to bed even though it was only nine. I was so tired from the night before and a day’s worth of anxiety blended with that was enough of a mix to make my eyes really heavy. I laid down and fell asleep in a matter of minutes. My worst fear happened though as I woke up and glanced at my alarm clock to see that it was 3:13, the same time it had been every time I had been awoken. I skipped the house search and went straight to the window in my room. I took a step back as the snow was still coming down heavily and it startled me at first. I glanced down the road and thought I was relieved as there was so much snow, I didn’t see anything. But after a double take my heart almost stopped. The car was there, in the same spot except it was pulled out even farther than the first two nights and now the front window was visible.  The snow in my line of sight almost seemed to stop right at the perfect time as it literally looked like someone with horns was sitting in the front seat. I quicky shut the blinds and sat down. There was no way the person had horns, I had to have been mistaken with all the snow. Even though I couldn’t piece together what it could have been I knew it couldn’t be that. I dared to look out again and saw it was still there and even more so, it really did look like horns. To my absolute horror it didn’t even look like a person, more like an animal, actually it looked like the goat from the game, and it was staring right at me. Like if the goat somehow looked like how it would in real life if something that insane could exist. I quickly shut the blinds and started panicking. I tried to deny what I had just seen but I knew what it was. It WAS the goat from the game I’d bet anything on it. It’s an insane feeling to accept something that seems impossible, but when you know it’s not anything normal you have to realize the truth. It was clear that it wasn’t human, and it was also clear it was looking at me. I made sure all the doors were locked and I put the game back in the basement where I first found it. I decided tomorrow I’d call my brother and ask him about this game or whatever it was because none of this made any sense. How could a goat be driving a car and how could it look just like the goat from the game? I couldn’t even decide which seemed more insane. I know a goat driving a car is ridiculous but this thing it like, wasn’t even truly a goat. Its facial features were human like, creepy as you could think but with a very human element especially in the eyes and smile. It was as if you somehow mixed a goat with a very sadistic human being. Whatever you picture when you think of that I promise this thing was even worse. I stayed up the whole rest of that night but didn’t dare to look out the window until it was light out and when I finally did that thing was thankfully gone.

Once it was late enough for my brother to be up, I called him and asked about the game. He said he used to play it all the time and it was kind of dumb but everything I said sounded crazy to him. He said it was always sunny and all the animals were super nice and he had never seen a goat. I thanked him and hung up quickly once I realized how crazy I probably sounded to him. I wanted to tell him more but this seemed like the kind of thing that no one, especially not my very non superstitious brother, would believe. What he said did not make me feel better if anything it was much worse. Why was the game like this if it’s normally different? Why was this seemingly normal game so strange on my WII. I spent the next few hours trying to connect any dots but none of it made any sense at all. I fought the urge to get in my car and start heading down to Georgia because I was really starting to get scared. Something was wrong, deeply fundamentally wrong if something from a video game was also out in the real world and if that something appeared to be an evil goat for lack of a better explanation. I thought about life and what humans all accept and what it means on a bigger scale for this to be happening. The only local explanation to me was that the game had some kind of curse or something like that. You know something is crazy if the most logical explanation is a curse.

The worst part was I had such a strong urge to play the game again. That may seem nuts, but I needed to see what was going on, it had gotten progressively stranger every day and I had to see if that trend was going to continue. I also wanted to get a better look at the goat and see if I could shed any more light on what I could possibly be dealing with. I went down to the basement and grabbed the game. Even touching it made me scared, but I powered through. I turned the game on and almost jumped out of my chair. Unlike last time I did see the goat and it was standing in the middle of the map staring at the screen. All of the characters in the game were hiding and I noticed something below the goat. Lying on the ground in front of it was the cat with its head removed and in red which appeared to be the cat’s blood the word “run,” was spelled out at an angle where I could easily read it. The goat seemed to be staring into my eyes through the screen somehow and his sadistic smile seemed even bigger than before. The other animals also seemed to be looking at me and they looked terrified. All of them were hiding and peeking out from behind trees and houses. My avatar was also hiding with them even though my controller was not causing him to do that. The game was only probably on for a minute total before I turned it off. I was petrified, something was wrong with this game whether it be a curse or whatever you want to call it and I wasn’t going to sit around and think of a ‘logical” explanation. I just wanted to get as far away from this game as I could. I grabbed the game and put it in the trash and took the trash can outside and walked it to the curb. Then I called my parents and asked if I could come down there for a bit and they said that would be fine. I got ready to go as it was a very far drive and I likely would have to stop halfway and sleep in my car. I didn’t care at all, I just wanted to get out of here. I had to be smart though as it was getting dark, and the snow was deep outside, so I made the tough choice to leave first thing in the morning. I thought there was a chance maybe this was over now that the game was no longer in the house. I’m not sure if I believed it at all but it made the thought of sleeping one more night a little more bearable. I even unplugged the WII and the tv, the one in the living room and the one in my bedroom that didn’t even work anymore. After a few hours of fear, I decided to go to bed before nine as I just hoped to sleep and leave as early as possible. I set my alarm for 5:30 and hoped that would be what woke me up and not the all too familiar 3:13. That didn’t happen though. Not even close.

I fell asleep pretty quickly, but I woke up at 3:13 just like I feared, and I glanced around the room, barely wanting to open my eyes. I slowly did the now routine check of the house, and everything appeared to be fine. I then made the tough choice to look outside down the street and see if the car was there. At this point I figured it would be, and I glanced at my packed bag ready to run to my car if I needed to. I glanced out the window down the street to the left and I couldn’t believe my eyes. The car was actually gone. I was so relieved; I turned my head back down to the right to be safe and I almost fell when I saw our driveway. The red car was parked right next to my car, and it clearly was empty.

Just then I heard my broken tv turn on and I was looking at the same image as earlier even though the tv was broken and unplugged, not to mention that the WII was in the other room. The goat was on screen, and it walked past the dead cat and now all the bodies of the other animals. Mine was the only one left even though all of his limbs were removed, and he appeared to be crying. The goat then pointed at me through the screen and then back at the avatar on the ground. In the most insane thing, I’ve ever seen he reached towards the screen and like someone emerging from underwater, a goat’s arm came through the screen with a human-like hand at the end instead of a hoof. Once the arm came through the horrible head I had seen in the car before did also. I froze in fear as I couldn’t even fathom what was happening but then I realized it was reached for me. I snapped out of the trance I was in just as the hand grabbed my leg and began dragging me towards the TV. I screamed and fought against it, but the hand pulled me closer. The goat slowly dissolved back into the game and my leg went with him. As my leg went through the screen, it turned into an animated rabbit’s leg in the game. I kicked and kicked until the goat let go and I pulled my leg back into the real world. I picked up the packed bag and ran out the front door without turning around. I glanced at the red car as I struggled to unlock mine and saw the back seat was full of copies of the game. I got in my car and glanced back at the house. The goat was standing in my bedroom window staring back at me with that horrible smile. I gunned my car in reverse and turned down the road heading towards the interstate. I glanced in my rear view mirror every minute as I couldn’t shake the feeling of being followed.

After I escaped from my house I drove for hours and made it to Virginia, which is where I’m writing this from. I’m going to sleep at a tourist center for the night as I’m so tired from the stress and the long drive. I know my story sounds insane, but I swear it really happened and I just want to warn people about this game, and about whatever that goat thing was. I honestly can’t wait to see my parents and to be away from that house for a while. The worst part is whenever I do have to go back, I don’t know what I’m even going to do. Being alone in that house after what happened seems impossible and I don’t know how to explain to my family why I can’t go back there. I hope anyone who reads this has had a similar experience because talking to someone who can relate, even in a different country across the world would make me feel 1000 times better. Every red car I see borderline gives me a heart attack and I’m terrified this thing is following me. I’ve still been getting that strange paranoia every thirty minutes and there’s no logical reason why. I just have this awful feeling that this thing is going to show up again soon. If a red car pulls into this parking lot at 3:13, I really don’t know what I’m going to do. If anyone can offer any help or even knows anyone that can please let me know. I’m terrified that this isn’t over.