AURA
-- It was about 5 months ago, I was in my neighborhood checking out the people selling their junk in the garage sale. I was browsing the stuff when I saw this cool stand selling video games. My eyes gazed upon a weird envelope thing. It had AURA written with a reddish tint of sorts. I felt the round, cold shape of a CD just loose inside the package. I looked for the person running the sale to purchase it. It was a man who looked like the last person you would imagine selling a video game. He had pale-skin, was short man, very thin and had a haircut sorta like an old monk. I asked what he wanted for AURA. Suddenly, like lightning just hit him, he took the envelope from me and ran off to the inside of his house.
   I was intrigued, perhaps the old man had put the game out on accident or something, So I dropped by my regular video game store and inquired about the game to see if they might have a copy, but the only response that they gave me was that it was a very obscure game made by some man who hung himself in the mental asylum he was in.  I asked if they sold it, but the only response I got was: "No, Nobody sells it". The man shrugged and returned to the back of the store. I left the store with a feeling of discomfort.
   After thinking it over several times I had the feeling that perhaps the gamed was banned or something due to the nature of  the game and who the creator was. I figured I probably wouldn't see it because it's probably illegal to have it, which is also maybe why the man ran back inside with it.. Suddenly, I felt a breeze and a man in a huge jacket ran by me, almost slamming me to the ground.I realized he dropped something. When I saw what it was, I felt my stomach drop.

..It looked like the package from the garage sale....

 I ran home, thinking about how unlikely it was for someone to have something like that. I figured that perhaps he stole it from the old man; Or perhaps there is someone in my town that is distributing copies of this illegal game. I had to know why. What is in this game?
   I took the CD from its shaggy package, which upon further inspection was just like the one I found at the garage sale. That made me think that perhaps the man in the large jacket stole it from the old man at the garage sale. I inserted it into the slot eagerly. The game just started, like it hard-wired itself to my hard drive without even asking for autorun. The game had a title screen with a single button, written in the Comic sans font. It said Enter.
    I clicked the button, thinking it would be some Telefang crap of some sorts. But as the stage rendered, I was presented to a town from the times of the Bible, I saw many merchants and even Roman legionaries walking around. I wandered around aimlessly exploring the old city. I clicked on people to see if there was any dialogue but nothing came up as the npc's turned to face me. They just stared blankly for a few moments and a dialogue box came up saying [ . . .] and then returned to their routine.
     I went into one of the houses and found a mother sitting in a chair holding a child. I clicked on her to see if I could interact with her, surprisingly an action type script showed up but only had one highlightable text. [PURGO]. I clicked it. My character bent over and picked up a rock from the ground, he then turned and struck the woman repeatedly on the head. I sat there in shock as the brief cutscene played out. The woman didn't see it coming, she screamed briefly before the first blow to her skull cut her off. After several blows she fell out of the chair dropping the baby to the floor. Blood pooled around her head and I sat there stunned at what had just happened. I turned to look at the baby that lay on the floor wrapped in the blankets and went to inspect it to see if it was dead too.
     The baby was wrapped in blankets and it seemed alive, I clicked on it and an action/ dialogue box came up, except this time it had two options.
[SALVO]
[PURGO]
I debated what button to push. I didn't want to see the baby die so I clicked SALVO to see if it would have a different effect. My character walked up to the baby and stomped on the baby's face violently before kicking it away.I was once again stunned for several seconds. My character stood there before the gruesome scene. My choice didn't matter.
   After the shock subsided a little I decided to see what else my violent and disturbing character could do in the game.  I walked into several houses and found miscellaneous npc's inside, and attempting to interact with any of them led me to the exact same options. [SALVO] [ PURGO] and the occasional [PER FORTUNA AD AURAE]. Each of which led the NPC's to similar grisly fates, with the last option being the most violent of all. My character seemed to have multiple scripted ways to kill the NPC's, some of which gave me a new weapon, like a piece of wood, a crude axe, or even burning oil. Using [PER..} with burning oil/lamp oil made your character burn the npc's to death. I even burned down a whole house once with it equipped, but this isn't to say the NPC's didn't fight back. An occasional male would run at you with a stick or an axe or a club of sorts so you would have to quickly click him and click an option. With instances like this I learned my character could take damage, the screen would turn redder depending on how bad you were hurt but it would regenerate over time.
   As I explored the city a bit, checking every nook and cranny, and unfortunately/disturbingly murdering a lot of people, I found that none of the NPC's regenerated. They all stayed dead on the map, littering their homes with dead bodies. On a whim I decided to follow an NPC around on his route and found that if I was the only one around his {...} text changed to the other two options that resulted in murder. I clicked them in curiosity and my character bashed him over the head with the club he had equipped knocking the NPC into the wall. My character then proceeded to beat him to death savagely, leaving a bloody corpse. The man had a dagger on him and I picked it up and moved on. I soon found that I could murder the roman guards too if I could separate one from the groups of patrols they wandered around in, which was extremely difficult. It required pestering a single NPC a bunch of times and dealing with his blank text until he would follow you for some reason. After taking the guard by surprise in an alleyway and killing him I got a sword that he dropped.
    I exited the alleyway and wandered around the town some more. As my character killed more people and more guards I found that NPC's would turn their heads to look at me suspiciously as I wandered. Soon the guards began to do it too. I wandered through the winding streets of the map until I found an obscure are that had a floating image in it. It was totally out of place, it was a picture of a golden crucifix. That's exactly what it was, a picture, just floating there in mid air. When my character touched it, it warped me to a location, which showed me a disgusting image.
     It was Jesus, on the Cross, his brains spilling out the top of his head, his bones ripping through his skin, his guts piercing through the belly, spilling acid, blood and other fluids. The model was very detailed and, it looked realistic as hell compared too all of the other scenes it had shown me before. I was sickened and felt nauseous and lightheaded, then finally one of the Roman guards approached me and said these  words:

IS EST VESTRI FORTUNA

I was mesmerized. Was that some kind of code? After that, an error message appeared, like the ones on windows, saying ERROR: CLOTHES STORE.Were they mocking me? "Clothes store"? What the heck kind of error is that? The game crashed and I couldn't open it again so I decided to wait until tomorrow to mess with it again.

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      As I went through my normal everyday routine I kept pondering about why there would be such a strange error in the game. I couldn't get the disturbing imagery out of my mind either. It seemed to happen so fast. One moment my character bent over and the next second he was beating a woman with a child over the head with a rock. That first murder shook me the most. It was so cold and sort of calculated and I could hear the womans cry almost clearly. After the first one everything blurred together in an amalgem of bloody murder..fire...and screams. No wonder the game was banned. I stomped a baby's head in for crying out loud. Not to mention the various people I set on fire alive. I could watch them run around for several seconds crying and screaming before falling to the ground and slowly burning to death. I felt sort of like a child who saw an M rated game or an R movie for the first time. I was shaken.
    I decided to drop by my own favorite clothing store because I needed a new winter jacket. The man who had bumped into me the previous day reminded me quite harshly that my old jacket was barely hanging on by a thread and it was more than due to be retired. I recalled the error message from the night before and about how strange it was. Maybe I hadn't seent the CLOTHING STORE part after all and maybe it was my eyes playing tricks on me because I was tired. I decided to pin it on my subconcious reminding me about my stupid jacket and exhaustion. I milled about in the store and began to eye one particular rack when something caught my eye. I peered out of my aisle to inspect the mannequins. It looked like..It couldn't be? I looked about at all the other ones.
...........they All looked like the Jesus in the game.

I backed away slowly....I blinked and rubbed my eyes

Then suddenly my heart stopped as I realized.

They were all staring at me....The mannequins...

Every .....single....one....

Nobody else seemed to have noticed.

Why? How can this..? How did nobody see them?! HOW CAN NOBODY NOTICE!!

I freaked out and decided to bolt for the door. I turned immediately to run, but for some reason my head kept getting heavier and heavier and before I knew it I was on the ground In the middle of the store. I don't know why. Every sensation just faded away..I vaguely remember seeing the people rush to help me but my vision blacked out. ..From somewhere in my mind  I could hear a voice... I swear I had seen the same man, from the garage sale, who whispered:

"...Level two..."

   I woke up minutes later, in my house. How did this happen? Who knew where i lived? Was it the man? I couldn't think about anything else but the game now "Level two..", these words echoed in my head like a horrible broken CD.
I turned on my computer to find that the game was working again and was already loaded up on the screen
[Level Two]
  The controls were then handed over to me and I began exploring. It was a huge cave with strange symbols and ornaments all over it; it was surprisingly quite easy to navigate.  I began to notice some words written on the walls in a writing style that was all but impossible to make out. I wandered for what seemed like ages but eventually I reached a small , dark and narrow hallway which was absolutely empty. There wasn't any audio other than the echo of my characters footsteps. My character suddenly came to a slow stop. The hallway was pitch black. Then screen flashed many colors for a few seconds and suddenly an  Amnesia-like zombie appeared. However, I was weaponless, and my fists were my only means of fighting.
    I ran as fast as my character could, my pinky slamming into the shift key. He was getting closer and closer, and the game music got more intense. He was gaining on me. I dodged around objects knocking things over to try and deter the monster but he plowed right through them. The sight grew blurrier and blurrier as the creature approached...I can't get..away...no..There was no way to win..no where to hide...my gut sank as I came to this realization. The screen turned a slightly reddish tint as the monster caught me and made a screeching noise. Then..the monster spoke.
H-HOC EEEST CORRPUS MEEUS...VIVI CRISSSSTUUUSSS
   It was a horrible scratchy raspy voice..fitting of the undead monstrosity..
The game proceeded to give me a close up of my character being eaten in a crude and disgusting manner by the zombie with gratuitous gore with strange discordant music in the background. . similar to giygas or the one from misfortune.gb. It was however, of terrible quality. A chill ran down my spine..The game displayed the following text.

IST EST VESTRI FORTUNA

but with an interesting addon:

MURDER THE UNHOLY OR BURN IN HELL

I was extremely confused..but before I could do anything the discordant music turned to a screech then crashed again..I sighed. Perhaps an asylum isn't the best place to be a game designer.

A few hours Later my friend came knocking at my door. He told me that He had picked me up from the hospital ER, he told me that I had had some sort of episode at the store and then blacked out. He said the doctors told him it was some sort of panic attack and that I should be fine but they prescribed me some medication to help keep me level. He also explained that he had left me to go and pick up my prescription.

I asked him why they picked him out of anybody in my phone and he said the lady at the store said it was the first name at the top of my phones contacts list.I picked up my phone and double checked.." Andrew"

Andrew said he'd stick around to make sure I'm alright, so he stayed over at my apartment and we pretty much played video games and drank for the rest of the evening.

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 The next day I woke up with a terrible headache, "fuck"  I thought as I walked over to the kitchen to fetch the water from the fridge. I had knew I had a terrible hangover and the sooner I got to water the more relief I'd have.
   As I opened the fridge door I looked over to see where my friend was and sure enough he was sleeping in an unorthodox position on the couch with his arm and legs hanging of in strange directions. Then I hear a low thud as he rolls of the couch as well as a groan of displeasure. I chuckle but then something catches my eye and I turn back to the fridge. For a split second it looked as if the gallon of water was filled with red liquid.

I gasped and jumped back spilling the jug on the floor.

My friend leaped up to see what happened.

"What's tha matter?!" He asked as he rubbed his eyes.

I just stood there and watched as the red liquid ebbed into a mess on my floor.

"I-It's..r-red" I stutter out.

Andrew eyes the floor then looks at me.

" It's just water and YOU'RE cleaning it up.." He looks at me unamused and turns to go to the restroom.

Curiously I touch the floor to see if my eyes are deceiving me.I bring my finger to my mouth to taste the liquid.

...It's wine...

" ..A-andrew It's wine! WINE!" I say to him suprisedly.

Perhaps it was the way I said it..or perhaps the look in my eye..but..he took me to see the hospital again. I'm not sure. The water was red? The water was wine..Why? Why couldn't he see it too? I pondered as the nurses and doctors did various tests on me.

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Everything checked out fine. There wasn't anything wrong with me physically.They ran every test to make sure it wasn't some sort of hormonal thing that was causing my "episodes", or perhaps it was stress..Their results were nevertheless inconclusive. So I was allowed to leave, though I was exhausted from all of the bullcrap they put me through, so my friend drove me home.
   ..During the drive home I dozed off because I was quite sleepy...My dreams were ..unsettling to say the least. I dreamt that all of my closest friends, including Andrew, had been found dead in their houses..they were all crucified and disfigured.
    I saw images of the police reports in my head, their corpses strung up like the depiction of the crucifiction in the game. Their eyes looked vacantly upwards..their bodies battered and worn....I wanted to look away but I couldn't. It was a dream, how do you escape your own head? Suddenly I feel their eyes boring into me.All of them..every single one of them was looking at me..staring into me with their vacant look of death. I was frozen.
I woke up gasping and looking around nervously, quite disturbed by my dream.

"Hey you alright?" Andrew asked tentatively.

" Yeah, just had a weird dream. nothing to worry about" I adjust myself and he nods understandingly.

" With all those doctors poking at you I'm not surprised." He chuckles, but there's an empty tone about it.

I try to recollect my thoughts about the dream I had..Wait a second..12?There were twelve photographs in the report. ..12 of my friends were crucified..

Like the apostles?

  As my mind drifts off into the meaning of my dream my friend pulls up to the apartment complex.He tells me he was gonna go have lunch with his girlfriend and that he would drop by afterwards. My thoughts were already racing and I just knew I had to keep playing, I had to find Level 3.I turned my computer on and the game loaded up automatically again and level three just popped up It appeared as if Level 3 was  the last level in the game, and it was a church. What a surprise .. I was completely unamused.

I walked up to the altar and a huge light rendered on top of it and a figure clad in white robes appeared.
It showed the same phrase from  before:

IST EST VESTRI FORTUNA

And added :

LATIN TRAN IS LATE

Latin Tran is late? Who is Latin Tran? And why is he late? Why do I care that Latin Tran's late?

Latin Tran's late?

LATIN TRANSLATE?

Feeling like a dumbass, I quickly opened up the internet and pulled up the first translator I could find, and popped in the phrase that had reoccured so many times.
The output is as follows:

THIS IS YOUR FATE

As I read those words I felt slightly light headed, but I felt compelled to also try to find out the meaning of Aura...It was a derivation of "Aurae" ..It meant:

HEAVEN

This is weird. Suddenly I looked at the screen, and a name appeared

WELCOME TO HEAVEN

THEODORUS CHRISTI

FOR YOUR HOLY ACTIONS ON ELIMINATING THE UNHOLY.

As the screen finished scrolling, a message appeared:

THE FLESH OF THE EVIL SHALL BURN LIKE WAX.

THOU SHALT KNOW SUFFERING

AS THE WICKED SHALL KNOW HELL..

My breathing started accelerating and the window closed. I searched who this Theodorus Christi was. It was VERY difficult to find:

" Theodorus Christi is a priest, famous for his game, AURA, which had a only a few copies made. This game is very obscure due to its nature and the creator. Though somehow a version was somehow leaked on the web by a file hosting site and distributed illegaly. The website's server was shortly after shut down for distributing illegal content and the game was banned in many countries due to its's highly disturbing and controversial material and was generally kept out of the eye of the public, similar to other violent games such as Postal 2 and Thrill Kill. Theodorus,  shortly after making the game  murdered 12 of  his friends, and when the police caught him he was quickly put into an institution because he was clearly suffering from intense hallucinations and muttering latin phrases over and over again. Theodorus was hospitalized in a mental asylum, in which he later committed suicide by hanging himself. Supposedly if  the game is completed, gibberish is displayed as well as Latin text."

Then a picture appeared from the game window.

It was HIM!

THE MAN..

..FROM THE SALE

THE PRIEST

...My heart stopped cold.

IST EST VESTRI FORTUNA.. . .

The music played discordantly in the background and my vision faded.
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---Andrew

I came back to check on my friend after going out for a quick lunch with my GF.

As I walked back into his place I called his name and set my keys down. I didn't hear anything..not a sound. I figured maybe he had his headphones on and was in his room. I opened the door to his room and he was passed out in his chair his eyelids fluttering. I knew something was wrong.

There was a text flashing  on the screen with a disturbing image of a rotting christ and a man in the background.

QUAEQUE IPSE INFERI VISORUM INDUCERET TERGUM
PASSIO REALIS EST NON SCITUM