Cursed SMW Rom Hack

'''This is a creepypasta I originally posted to the Lost Episode Creepypasta Wiki, but it was deleted twice for apparently failing to meet its quality standards. Since I don't feel like rewriting it again, I'm posting it here instead.'''

I'm a Mario fan who likes playing ROM hacks. I browse sites such as SMW Central and Romhacking.net to see what's going on and if there's anything new for me to try. However, one hack will stand out to me forever, as you'll soon learn.

One day, I was browsing SMW Central's Full Hack Releases forum for new ROM hacks when a post caught my eye. It was made by a user named "MarioHellSpawn". Their username stood out to me, but other than that, the post was typical of someone advertising their new ROM hack. Out of curiosity, I downloaded the ROM hack and opened it.

The title screen was normal for the most part, except that the "SUPER MARIO WORLD" logo was missing. I started a new save. After the intro, there was only one level, which was unusual, since ROM hacks usually have multiple levels. I entered the level.

The level consisted of a town with mushroom houses, with Toads standing outside and many coins in the air. "Cool," I thought. I finished it in about a minute. I didn't have anything else to do, so I played the level again. Immediately, I noticed that there were fewer coins and Toads. There were also some minor graphical glitches, which I ignored. I finished the level again. The third time I played the level, something was wrong. The sky was now black, there were no Toads and no coins, and the ground appeared to be slightly bloodstained. There was a faint high-pitched beeping. The fourth time I played, the houses appeared to be slightly worn-down, the bloodstains on the ground were more noticeable, and the beeping was slightly louder. Each time I played after that, it only got worse: the houses became more worn-down, the bloodstains became worse, and the beeping became louder. Finally, on the tenth time I played, the houses were now piles of rubble, revealing a bunch of dead Toads, and the beeping was almost deafening. When I got to the end, however, instead of the goal post, there was Princess Peach lying dead. There was a knife in her heart and what looked to be a note beside her. I moved Mario over to the note, and the following text came up:

"Mario, I can't take it anymore. For over 35 years, my life has been the same: I get kidnapped by Bowser, get saved, and it repeats. I'm sick and tired of it. It feels like a game. Everyone in this town has freed themselves from the cycle, and now it's time to free yourself. Do it, Mario."

I watched as Mario took the knife and stabbed himself. He slumped over Peach's dead body. It faded to black, and then to the end screen. However, Mario and Peach were absent. Luigi was alone, crying. I sat there for several minutes. Afterward, since it was 2AM, I decided to go to bed. When I woke up the next day, the file was gone from my computer, almost as if it had never existed. I decided to check the post on SMW Central, but it was presumably deleted. I tried to visit MarioHellSpawn's profile, but when I did, the entire website went down, only displaying a 500 page. "What the hell?" I thought to myself. So I turned off my computer, plugged my copy of Super Mario World into my SNES, and turned it on. However, when the game booted up, it was the ROM hack I'd just played. This time, I was playing as Luigi. How could that happen? My cartridge hadn't been modified at all. In the game, Luigi couldn't jump. He could only move right, through the ruins of the mushroom town I'd watched slowly disintegrate. Messages such as "I'm-a failure..." and "Life is-a full of pain and suffering..." popped up. Eventually, Luigi reached a bottomless pit. He looked down at it, and a message popped up, saying, "If you can't-a save them...join them." He jumped into the pit and died. The game over screen popped up, but instead of going back to the title screen afterwards, it stayed. It started slowly fading away. Then, my SNES turned off.

I still play Mario games and ROM hacks to this day. However, I haven't forgotten how SMW Central went down because of MarioHellSpawn. And now, I have several unanswered questions about the Mario universe: Is the Mushroom Kingdom a ghost town? Is Princess Peach truly happy, or is she faking it? Is there only pain in life? I may never find an answer to any of these questions.