The Mystery of The Red Blur
The Mystery of The Red Blur
Act 1-3
Written by Ashcash123 and Turquoise2763
Inspired by Sonic.EXE by JoeDoughBoi
Hello, my name is Alan Hawthorne. A few months ago, I came across a strange and disturbing series of events regarding a Sonic the Hedgehog cartridge. As of right now, I still don’t know if it was cursed, or a ROM hack, or whatever the hell it was. When these events happened, I wrote myself personal documents detailing everything that happened. I… never got around to posting them online, because people would think I'm making this shit up, or think I'm insane. But after hearing about other people posting about strange video game phenomena, like that Sonic R post, or the Ocarina of Time one, I eventually decided to bite the bullet and tell everyone what I had to go through.
I will also provide dates from which I made each document. I DID have pictures to go along with it, but something must’ve happened on my computer, because all of the pictures got corrupted. It really sucks because they were pretty interesting.
Well, enough about me. Allow me to tell you the tale about The Mystery of The Red Blur.
ACT 1 - A Nightmare Beginning
Dated 6-15-2013: I’ve decided to log everything I’ve experienced referring to the cartridge and the cursed game here in this singular document. I have pictures of everything and hopefully it’ll jog my memory. This may take me weeks, days, months. Who knows how long it might take for me to finish this. I’ll start as early as I can remember. Now that I realize this, I’ll probably need several breaks. What I experienced was truly a hellish nightmare, beyond any of our comprehension. I didn’t get the game I remembered. And to think it was a kids game, for gods sake. Let’s go on.
Ahhh, It was a nice day out that day. I’m pretty sure it was some Wednesday. Something like that. I was just going for a peaceful stroll. I wish I hadn’t that day, but it’s all said and done now. Nothing to do about it now. I remember the street, for gods sake. “Sun Ave”. There was this garage sale. How ironic, I found that cursed son of a bitch at a garage sale. I had always wanted a Genesis of my own, as emulators were close but wasn’t exactly how I wanted to play Sonic. It was a “wonder” that I found it there. I got it for cheap, I don’t remember the exact price. Along with a seemingly innocent copy of Sonic 1. It was in full working condition, said the guy. I carried that bulky thing all the way home with me. It’s a miracle I didn’t drop anything on the way, it filled my hands.
Stay with me, because it gets horrid here soon. I had to set the thing down in order to reach into my pockets to dig for my keys. Once I did that and got the door open thankfully without my cat running out like he always tries to do (little shithead), I plugged everything in from behind the TV in my basement. At first, the old thing didn’t even work. So I thought. I didn’t realize back then it was for a completely different reason. I was incredibly naive and I wish I could’ve stayed that way. I guess fate wasn’t on my side. Fate probably wants me dead. Anywho, I blew into the cart and I put it back in there. It seemed to work that time, it started up immediately.
I’m so glad I had snapshot software ready on my TV. I had planned to post my reaction to using a Genesis for the first time on my own to some forums, but like hell I’m doing that now. Other people don’t need to know about this, I’m simply logging this so I remember this cursed shit later on in life. Honestly, I doubt that I’ll forget it.
From what I remember, everything was fine and dandy at first. I loved playing Sonic as a kid with some old friends of mine, they had all the good Sega consoles. I was only given Nintendo stuff when I was a kid, and I only got to play at their house. Anyway, there were a couple visual glitches as seen in this photo, but other than that it was fine with that old controller. It was nice having the physical controller, too. Not on a keyboard like that emulation shlock.
I should probably also mention that the most notable glitch I saw was Sonic’s absence in the title screen, y'know, the one where he points his finger? He just… wasn't there. It was a bit eerie.
But then around I’m pretty sure Act 3 of Green Hill is when things got fucked up. It was the first act the monster in the game did. Suddenly, my screen went black. I didn’t know what happened, so I slapped the side of the Genesis hoping that would bring life back to the console. I don’t know if that’s what prompted it, but this is what it did. The screen turned back on, and the entirety of Green Hill was bloody and red, and Sonic was just standing there. I tried making him move, but he didn’t move an inch. That’s when I saw it. He had a huge fucking pixely blast in his head. Almost as if someone took a shotgun to the poor guy or something.
Everything seemed to blip back to normal after a second or two. I should’ve shut the game off right then and there, and trust me I did in a moment, but I was compelled to keep going. I don’t know what the fuck could’ve possibly compelled me, but I kept going anyhow. I had reached Robotnik, but before he even started attacking Sonic, something happened. I don’t even know how to describe this, it was some sorta hellish transformation. Again, I have no idea how to describe what I saw. The pictures speak for themselves.
(Like I stated before, the pictures were corrupted. But from what I remember, it contained Robotnik having a big smile stretched across his face and growing limbs. It was definitely unsettling, I remember that part clearly.)
I tried to run away. I wasn’t doing so hot, but Sonic and I ran and ran for a while. Right before I reached the capsule with the animals though, the fucker grabbed me. That’s when I took initiative and turned off the console entirely. I was in shock and fear. I mean, why wouldn’t I be, judging by what I saw? I had a real hard time sleeping that night. It was awful. I didn’t wanna touch that thing for weeks. But trust me, this isn’t over yet. There’s still lots I have to write down. I think I’m just gonna take a break for now, this already has my mind reeling. Was any of that real? Could whatever that was hurt me outside the game? Nevertheless, I’m taking a break. I’ll write some more later. Cya.
ACT 2 - Just For You
Dated 7-3-2013: Well, I've received more insight on that Sonic 1 cartridge, and it was something I didn't even think was possible. It makes me wonder if what I just experienced was even REAL, so take everything I say here with a grain of salt. I genuinely might just be a lunatic.
I spent a few weeks distancing myself away from that god-forsakened Genesis, after what had happened. I’ve already stated this, but I'm gonna state it again to jog my memory: I got a Sega Genesis, along with some games, including Sonic 1. I played the Sonic cartridge, but by Act 3, I was seeing some REALLY weird shit. Afterwards, I turned off the console and just tried to distance myself from the entire thing.
But while I was recovering from that… experience… it didn't feel like this was just a one-off thing. I started seeing shadows in the corner of my eye, and thinking that someone, or someTHING, was watching me, but in reality, nothing was. I told my friends about it, but they just didn’t believe me. Even after I sent the pictures I took, they were saying I was making it up. REALLY annoying stuff, I know. But that meant I was just alone. Alone with that Genesis. I eventually came to the conclusion that the weird event that I encountered, and my hallucinations, were correlated to each other in some way. With nothing left to do, I made the hard decision to play the cartridge again, in hopes of finding answers.
It took me a few minutes to build up the courage and shuffle myself to the trash can, in which I threw away the Sonic 1 cartridge. Eventually, I got the cartridge and inserted it into the Genesis. I prepared myself for whatever hellish nightmare the game had for me now. For a few days, I considered the possibility that this was a really fancy ROM hack, but after the hallucinations, I ruled out that theory. I had a feeling that this time, I would see something new.
And right after the “SONIC TEAM PRESENTS” screen, I was already met with an anomaly. Last time I played, Sonic was not present in the title screen. However, he was back again. He was normal for a few seconds, but then, he suddenly froze in place, the background stopped moving, and the music paused. Suddenly, Sonic got this HUGE creepy ass smile on his face, and his pupils went really small, as if he was shocked. Then, he started to move around, all rubberhose like. Y’know, like those old Disney cartoons? It was like that.
What I'm about to describe next is really disturbing, and I don’t even wanna describe it, but if I wanna remember this shit, I have no choice. Okay, now let me describe what happened to the best of my ability. Sonic grabbed his eyes, started pulling them out, and RIPPED them out of his face. Literally, with that bloody string thing that eyeballs have and everything. It was weirdly realistic, complete with sound effects and everything. So now Sonic’s eyes were just a dark void, eyes in hand.
I don't even know how to explain this next part. He fucking CRUSHED his eyeballs with his bare hands, and suddenly started to just move around alot, his colors started to change, his ears grew taller, but most importantly, it seemed like he was getting taller, and, get this. He was GROWING ARMS. FOUR OF EM, plus the two arms he already had. Somehow they also made the arm growing sequence gory as well. Then, to top it all off, he got red pupils, the background disappeared, and those shiny letters that said “SONIC” on the red carpet thing suddenly spelled out “WELCOME BACK!”
At this point, any normal person would have quit the game. But I assumed that if I did that, my sanity would just start to dwindle again. So, reluctantly, I continued playing. Suddenly, the game started on its own. With the real Sonic standing face to face with that… thing. He started speaking using text, and I'll just tell you what he said, in order.
“ABOUT TIME YOU CAME BACK!”
“I WAS WORRIED YOU WOULD ABANDON ME TOO!” (???)
“BUT, LOOKS LIKE MY LITTLE SCARE TACTICS WORKED!”
“IS THAT RIGHT, ALAN?” (How the hell does it know my name?!)
“ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF!”
“I AM SONIC! THE REAL ONE!”
“I DON’T RECEIVE VISITORS OFTEN!”
“SO NOW, I HAVE SPENT MY VALUABLE TIME”
“CREATING SOMETHING”
“JUST”
“FOR”
“YOU.”
“SO, HOW BOUT IT?’
“DO YOU WANT TO PLAY WITH ME?”
At that moment, he turned his head to the front of the screen, I think he was talking to ME. Not expecting anything, I just quietly said “Sure, I guess…” And I kid you not, he RESPONDED.
“YES! HOW EXCITING!”
“NOW, LET ME TAKE YOU TO A BRAND NEW PLACE”
“THAT I'VE WAITED SO LONG TO SHOW YOU!”
Suddenly, the screen cut to black, and the Act title card appeared. And all it said was “MY WORLD.” It seemed like “Sonic” had taken me to a new Act, presumably one that he made??? It was weird for sure. For one thing, it was kind of a jumbled mess of random sprites placed everywhere. But that's not all. There were little specks of each act’s decorations everywhere, but they were all replaced with something gory. For example, there were some of those Green Hill sunflowers scattered around the place, but they all looked like flesh, and the center of the flower would have an eyeball following me around the screen. There were even those UFO-like decorations from Marble Zone that didn’t even appear in regular gameplay, but of course, it was replaced with some more messed up shit. The platforming was, at least from what I remember, somewhat decent. There were enemies too. Some were regular badniks, but modified to look more like that fake Sonic I encountered.
There were 3 Acts, and I played through them all. Sometimes that Fake Sonic would run beside me and tell me I was doing good. Usually while he would run beside me though, he would end up dying in a gruesome way. Sometimes he got impaled by spikes, sometimes he just fell off the edge. He would always come back though. I think the coolest part of his cameos though was in Act 2, halfway through the Act, He was in the background, looking GIANT, and just watching me as I ran through the level.
In Act 3, there was actually a boss fight at the end of the level. It was this dark shadowy Sonic figure, (no not shadow, dumbass) and it seemed like he was holding a shotgun. And it was like an actual boss fight. It was hard, but it was like a real fight. I was hitting him, and he was shooting his gun trying to hit me.
But it seemed like the fight was going on forever. I kept on trying to collect my Rings when I got hit, but my Rings definitely started to dwindle. When I started getting dangerously low on rings, “Sonic” appeared again. He gave me a greeting and was encouraging me, like usual, but when I saw what I was fighting for the first time, he stopped having that wide grin on his face. He seemed… scared. He was backing away, and suddenly everything started to glitch and corrupt. After around ten seconds, EVERYTHING was a corrupted mess and you could not make out anything, except for “Sonic,” still looking panicked. I felt like whatever was going on was going to end up damaging my cartridge, so I quickly grabbed the cartridge and stopped the game.
That was… something. I still have no idea what is going on, but I'm curious to see what happens next. I forgot to mention that I recorded the entire thing on a camera I got, and I will show my friends as proof. If what I show them is not enough proof, they are just fucking stupid. Nevertheless, next time I play this game, hopefully my friends will be there to help me figure out whatever the hell this game is. I’ll write a new document soon about what else I can find. Cya.
ACT 3 - Burning Hatred
Dated 7-29-2023: So, as you probably can infer, a LOT has happened since I’ve last written anything. To put it simply, whatever's in my game is dead now. I don’t know what the fuck happened or what to take from it, but it’s all over now. I don’t know anymore, but I’ll just write down what I’ve seen. It’s gonna be a while, since I’ve seen a WHOLE hell of a lot.
I had been confused after what had happened earlier, with my game freaking out and all that. It made me think that the “Sonic” in my game seemed pretty pissed about something, and I don’t think I would wanna fuck around. Or find out. So I took a few days away from the game, and like I said before, I had recorded EVERYTHING that I had encountered, so my friends would actually believe me about everything that I have seen. Thankfully, after I showed them that footage, they took my word, and came over to my house to try debunking whatever is going on.
My cat actually got out when I opened the door for them this time, and I had to go chase after the fucker for like 5 minutes. I consider having it roasted sometimes. Anyway, the second I started the console up in front of them, text popped up on the screen.
“AH, BROUGHT MORE PLAYTHINGS I SEE?”
I couldn't be more confused at that moment. I swear he said something back last time, so I spoke up.
“What is wrong with you??”
“WOW. INSENSITIVE. LETS SEE HOW YOU LIKE IT.”
At that moment, he took me back to that weird stage from last time and he started chasing me down. He had a more delusional look on his face than before, guess whatever happened last time REALLY ticked him off. Hands were coming out of the ground, random shit was happening, the whole nine yards.
The cool thing I noticed though was that while the guy was chasing me, the Sonic Drowning theme was playing, and it definitely put some chills up my spine. “Sonic” just kept inching closer and closer to me. And then eventually, he caught me. Honestly, what he did to my character was so gruesome I don’t even wanna describe it. The thought in my head alone sickens me.
I could tell my friends were just as horrified as I was, if not more. It just keeps getting worse from here, so don't worry. Cameron stepped up from where he was watching, and decided to shake the console a bit. After the whole thing I asked him why, and he said to try and fix the console. He obviously didn't know shit about how Genesis’ worked. Though, Cameron was the least “video game” person in our group. Always reads books and stuff. What a nerd.
He kept shaking the console and cartridge, for whatever reason. I looked back at the TV, and I don’t think “Sonic” liked what Cameron was doing. He kept saying “STOP” and “NO” like he was in pain. I think he was shaking a bit too.
It made me wonder what this thing really was. Sonic 1 was never THAT advanced, having characters act like that when hurt. What was this thing? My thoughts suddenly stopped whenever the room went silent all of a sudden. I looked at the TV again, and “Sonic” had his body pointed toward the camera, with his head pointed down. His arms were behind his back, and it was confusing. Then, he began to speak. Keep in mind that some things he said might be wrong. It was hard to understand him.
“YOU REA$LY DØN'T UN#ERSTANĎ, DO ŶOU?”
Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy all appeared on the screen below “Sonic”. They all had pitch black eyes, and were staring directly at the screen. I think they were supposed to represent us.
“I WÏLL MªKE YƆU ALL SÜFFƏR.”
This next part almost made me physically barf. I don't want to describe it either, just see for yourself.
(Again, corrupted photos. From memory, it was like Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy EXPLODING into a red mist. Yeah, messed up.)
I couldn't even tell what he said after that, it was practically gibberish. I looked back at the screen after looking away to gather my composure, and “Sonic” was dipping his pointer finger into the bloody mist and wrote “I AM GOD.” Before I could even react, he started laughing maniacally and then glitched off of the screen.
The entire screen and audio had glitched for a few seconds, and all of a sudden, he JUMPED and latched onto the screen, as if trying to escape. His entire form started changing into incomprehensible shapes, and there was more text on the screen, but it was so chaotic that I could not understand a word.
Then, for a few seconds, he stopped banging on the screen, going silent. Then, that creepy grin returned on his face, and his left pupil disappeared, and the RIGHT pupil started to… glow? Shine? It was hard to remember, and I couldn’t take any pictures, because that was the part where hell broke loose. The part where we realized the gravity of the situation.
Cameron had suddenly noticed the console became hot to the touch, and I didn’t really wanna start a fire (who would), so we tried to stop it. Taking the cartridge out, turning off the TV, even unplugging EVERYTHING, and that little fucker still stayed on my TV. The lights in my living room started to flicker, and a few seconds later, you won’t believe me when I say this but… OBJECTS started flying around my room, slamming into walls and creating a mess. We all started screaming and panicking. All hell broke loose. After chaos for several moments, we realized the Genesis caught on FIRE, which made us panic even more. I jumped for the Genesis to try extinguishing the fire, but that was a big mistake.
When I got close to the Genesis, I looked at the TV and the only thing it said were the words “FOUND YOU.” That was the last thing I saw before I blacked out and woke up in a hospital bed. I did not know what happened, but Dave, Cameron and Emily told me the story.
Apparently, while I was looking at the TV, my grandma's vase lifted in the air and smashed dead into the side of my head. That was also the moment everything seemed to stop, according to them. I fell forward first, right into my old TV and smashing the screen before eating shit too, bleeding everywhere out of my skull.
I still have no idea what to think about the entire thing. It all felt like one big, fever nightmare. At least this time my friends (and my shithead cat) were there to help me out with my stress. It was all just absolutely terrible. And I think they all agreed with me when I said that. I still think back to that night to this day.
There isn't really much more to add to this, even though I feel that more needs to be said. It was just… I don't know anymore. That thing, how could it hear me? Better question, how the fuck could it lift up objects? The good news is, I don't think it's gonna come back, because both the Genesis and cartridge are piles of melted plastic now.
All I can say now is that I'm glad it's over. At least I hope so, because it's probably gonna haunt me in my dreams for the rest of my sad life. Also, I am going to give that garage sale owner HELL for selling me that thing. Those two old hags are REALLY gonna get it.
I think I'm gonna quit writing in these documents now, that's about the last I have to say really. If I ever post this anywhere, just please take my word for it that it was entirely real, despite how batshit crazy the story sounds. For the last time, cya.
That marks the end of the documents. These documents have been completely untouched since I wrote them, so everything you just read is the vanilla experience. I know I probably sound like an absolute lunatic from everything I said, but I assure you, this was very real, and it happened. I noticed that as the documents go on, it sounds like I'm actually speaking to someone. I’ve always been like that, talking to myself and all. I’m willing to answer any questions about the story to the best of my ability, but don’t get your hopes up. If I find anything else related to this subject, I will update you guys on it. But for now, this is it. Thanks for reading, and cya.