Eric



Animal Crossing. Animal Crossing is a game where you play as a human living in a town full of animals. A game where responsibility really shows, from helping out your neighbours and paying the debts of your house. When I first heard about Animal Crossing I thought it was really stupid. The game looked like something a 7 year old would play. I was about 13 when I discovered Animal Crossing so my opinion on a game like this would make sense. One night while visiting my friend I saw that he had copy of Animal Crossing. I made fun of him for owning the game, but he told me that he liked the game and he kept saying good things about it, but all I did was laugh at him about how much he was praising it. We almost went into an argument over the game, but before we did, my friend offered me a bet to play the game for a whole week. I assumed that he wanted me to see why he loved it and expected me to enjoy it just as much as he did. I accepted his offer and went off home to play the game. A week. Only a week I got this game till.

I started up the game and laughed right away at the title screen for how "babyish" it looked. My brother even snickered at me when he took a look at the game. After he left I just went ahead and I hit the start button and started playing the game.

After spending a couple of hours on it, it was not long until I got hooked onto the game. I was so hooked on the game that during school I couldn't wait to go home just to play it. Hours became days, days became weeks, and weeks became months. I had the game for two months, yes... I did forget to return it to my friend. When I visited my friend he mentioned about the game since he had forgotten that he lent it to me, I told him that I was going to give it back to him but he was kind enough to let me keep it, I gave out a huge sigh of relief to hear him say that.

I spent about two years playing this game and I ended up hearing that it had a sequel (Animal Crossing: Wild World) and it was already out. I was ready for this game and I even heard it was out for the DS, which I already have. I ended up getting it as a gift for my 15th birthday, it was a gift I did not regret. During my life I also bought Animal Crossing: City Folk, but sadly though I didn't spend too much time on it, I later then found out that I mostly like Animal Crossing on a handheld better than on a console. In 2011 I got a 3DS for Christmas and also got Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D with it, but I didn't get a lot of games for the system itself until in 2013. I have mostly been waiting for the new Animal Crossing game "New Leaf" since hearing about it back in E3 of 2010. It is one of the only games I wanted to get along with Pokemon X and Y for 2013. So after saving my money I managed to get New Leaf and started a new and exciting life.

I started the game and I found myself sitting once again in a train. I sat there and saw a blue and white cat walking up to me, it was Rover, I laughed at how many times people had to run into THIS guy before they got into their town. Anyway, Rover did the usual Animal Crossing beginning steps; Ask for your name, ask what your gender and asking what the name of my town is going to be. It took me a while to name my town, the reason why it took me long was because my past town names I gave out in the earlier games were mostly based off other game's like; "Hyrule", since I am a big Zelda fan. Yes, I wasn't very creative back then. After sitting there thinking I finally came up with a name; Everlast. That name came out of nowhere in my head and I liked it. Rover then proceeded to show me some maps just to show how the layout of my town is going to look. After completing everything I was told, we were arriving in my town. As I exited out of the train station I was met with something different than past games, this time I didn't meet Tom Nook, no, this time I was surrounded by the animal villagers and I was talking to a dog. She and the other animals said "welcome" and the dog told me that I was the new mayor of this town, (funny how they think that the mayor they want just had to be a fucking human of all things). We talked and I mostly told her that; "you got it wrong" and everything, but she just ignored me and I just went with it. She showed me where the town hall was, so after I talked to her I headed down there. I wanted to talk to the other animals but I needed to get this done as soon as possible.

I entered the Town Hall and talked to the dog, the dog's name is Isabelle. Isabelle told me that I needed a house and she asked me to head to the main street to a place called, "Nook's Homes" in order to get one. I exited the Town Hall and proceeded to the Main Street. I saw a blue building on the left of the post office and as I entered I saw a familiar face; Tom Nook. I talked to Tom about me being the mayor and I asked him for a house, after the conversation he went outside with me into town to make a house. I told Tom that I wanted to have my house built just in the middle of nowhere away from the other houses. Nook then set me up a yellow tent and told me that my house would be built by tomorrow morning. I went off to Isabelle to tell her that I finished what I was supposed to do. Isabelle asked me for my birthday and gave me an ID card, afterwards she told me that I needed to head down to the "event plaza" for a ceremony. I arrived at the plaza to see a dirt area and I was standing in front of Isabelle, once again we were surrounded by the animal neighbours. Isabelle handed me a sapling and I planted it. Afterwards Isabelle left to do her original work and I was standing there in the plaza. I had nothing else to do so I went and talked to my animal neighbours. The neighbours I had were one cat, two dogs, one eagle and a wolf.

After talking to my nieghbours I went back to Tom. Tom told me that I needed to pay my loan in order to pay for my house, the amount he wanted was 10,000 bells. He told me that I could get this much money by doing the usual thing when starting out in Animal Crossing; shaking trees to obtain the fruits, getting seashells, hunting bugs and fishing. I did this for about ten minutes and I manged to make about 12,000 bells. I paid Tom the money and he told me that my house could now be made. Now that I finally paid off the debt I turned off my game since it was nearly 11 at night and I had school the next morning. I saved the game and went off to bed.

I got into the game after I finished doing some homework for school and as soon as I entered the game I saw that my house was finally made. It was small on the outside and pretty damn small inside, also as I went inside the house, Isabelle came in behind me. She gave me a wallpaper and gave me instructions on how to design the inside of my house and on using the camera. When she was done, Isabelle headed off back to the Town Hall. I was left standing in my house and I went off to hunt for some more bugs and fish just to be ready for my next loan for the house. I spent about two hours catching bugs and fishing for fish. During those sessions I talked to my animal neighbours and I had to do errands for them, mostly doing it to get free items for my house and for myself. Looking for bugs and fish I managed to make up to 12,000 bells once again. I went off to see Tom and he told me that my next loan for the house would be for about 39,800 bells. As I was done talking to Tom I went off to town to find my bugs and fishes to make it up for the loan. I managed to make up about 9,000 bells from bugs and fishes and had about 21,000 bells in total. It wasn't enough but it was better than nothing. Once again it was getting late and I had to get ready for school in the morning. I saved the game and went off to bed for school.

~Two days later~

One of the best things in my opinion of the Animal Crossing games is the online play. The online feature was something that really got my interest, it first came out for Wild World and it was something I was really interested in at the time. The fact that others can come into your town, help you with your house and maybe give items that you don’t even own, it was very ambitious. Unfortunately for all of its ambitions I did not use it in Wild World since I didn't have good internet back then. When I got City Folk, I also didn't use the online option at all, since to be honest I didn't really have a lot of friends. Now the moment I got New Leaf I had a good internet and I was ready to use the online feature on it, so I decided to have my town open just for others to see. I didn't really expect a lot to enter my town, but it would've been nice to see other people instead of animals all the time. I didn’t have a lot of friends so this would be a good opportunity to meet new people who have the same interests I have.

One night though while I was doing a assignment for an animal I got a notice about someone that just entered my town. I stopped doing what I was doing and ran to the train station. Upon walking up to the station I stopped and I saw someone. It was a guy. He was wearing a striped green shirt, his face was the default face for the character and he was holding a slingshot. I said “hello” to him, and after I said hello he just ran to the left off screen. I gave chase after him and he stopped in front of one of the animals' house as he put his slingshot away. He finally said to me “hiii!!” I kind of laughed at that, I thought this person was a child, younger than me. I just responded, saying “what are you doing here?” Once again, he just ran away, and again, I chased him. He stopped in front of one of my ponds and spun around in place. I asked what he was doing in my town again. He stopped in place while he was spinning. He looked at me. “u got globe??” I just stood there in silence as he just continued to spin in place. “No I don’t”. After I said that to him he once again ran away. He instantly stopped by a nearby river. He looked at me and spun in place again. I started to laugh in real life. This guy was funny to watch. He stopped spinning around; “i got sumthin for u” he then proceeded to spin again, “What do you got for me?” He stopped again, facing his right. He dropped about 22,000 bells below him, and he once again did a spin.

I was stunned! The most money I usually made in the game is about 12,000 bells. With this much I was able to afford to pay the loan I have for the house. I just stood there watching him as he still spun. I didn’t want to take it from him, I thought he was joking and probably would take it back. “take it” he said as he did spins. I walked up to him and picked it up. Afterwards he ran away. While I was following him he started bugging out. “nicee town”. As soon as he said that he was gone. I assumed that he lost connection with my town. It’s a good thing he left after he gave me the money. I then just stood there in the place where he disconnected while other animals were walking around me with shovels and fishing poles. I now had enough money to pay for my home thanks to this random person. Afterwards, I ran to Nook to pay the debt.

The next day as I exited out of my home I saw my mail box flashing. I ended up getting four letters. Three of the letters were from my neighbours, while the fourth one… was from someone else, “from eric” that’s who the letter was from. The letter had a present with it. I opened the letter to read what was inside;

“thank u for spendin time with me i had funn here is a gift for u. enjoy ::) from eric”

Eric was his name. I was glad, since I never had the chance of asking him for his name or even say "thank you" when he gave me the bells. I wanted to send him a letter back, but unfortunately I didn’t have his friend code so I was unable to send him anything, after reading the letter I went off to start my day.

On my way to Nookling store I saw a buried item spot right beside one of my neighbours' houses, I dug and ended up digging out a slingshot. My eyes were wide open, I'd never gotten anything like this before. I then remembered back to yesterday; Eric had a slingshot when he first arrived to my town. “Could have this been his?” I said this to myself as I fixed the hole. I continued to think about the slingshot as I made my way to the Nookling shop, “Did he somehow enter my town when I wasn't here and bury this?” I shook off the thought about it as I entered the Nookling shop.

I went on with my day doing the usual stuff by helping out animals, and while I was helping them a reminder struck me; I forgot to open up the gift that Eric gave me. I opened up my inventory and went to the letter section and grabbed the present and opened it. The present ended up being an Ebony Piano, A smile was on my face and I went to my home to place it. I thanked Eric in my head as I entered my home. I placed the piano in the far left corner of my home. As for my house, it wasn't very big, it was in its second stage of development, My home had blue wallpaper and a green carpet. In the inside of my house I had a single bed in the right hand corner, a dresser that was near it that was given to me by one of my neighbours and a candle that I bought from the store. I started playing with the piano, and when I say “playing” I mean mashing the A button multiple times, after setting up the piano I went back out.

It was nearly 10:00 and I was about to get off the game, I was getting tired and bit bored. I went off to finish the night by looking for any buried items and talking to the remaining animals that were still awake at this time. Just before I was going to head off I got another notice. Someone had entered my town. "It must be Eric again." Like before I ran to the station to greet him. I saw Eric again but this time wearing something different, he was wearing a diamond shaped t-shirt and he had a green hat on. I stood there staring at him, “Hey there again,” Eric just stood there still. Then out of nowhere he spun around like before and ran off past me. I was kind of getting annoyed by this, he really was acting like a child, I then thought that maybe he was one. Again like before, I ran after him.

He stopped near one of my neighbours' house staring at the left wall of it. Eric then turned to his corner right, “where ur homee?” this caught me by surprise, “over here” I then went off to my home with Eric following behind, but he stopped sometimes, I thought he was lagging again. “Here is my home,” I stood there in front of the door, “Thanks for the 22,000 bells from yesterday.” He spun around in place and stopped to turn to his back “no prolbem” I gave out a small chuckle due to this misspelling but I was glad that he was ok with it. I was about to enter my house when Eric said “nice home” and just like that... he was gone. I just stood there while scratching my head, he did this yesterday also, but he said “nice town” and left. I didn't know if he was messing with me since he didn’t even see the inside of my house. I went inside my house anyway, I then remembered that I forgot to ask him for his friend code. Eric had already left and it was getting late, I decided to go to bed.

I got into the game earlier than I normally did, about 10 in the morning. I saw that I got letters again, I got about two letters this time. One letter was from an animal and the other was again from Eric;

“i had fun agin lets han out agan from eric”

After the “lets han out agan” he actually gave me his friend code, It’s as if he read my mind… or it was just luck. I was disappointed to see that there was no present this time, but before I went off into the town I decided to enter his friend code, afterwards I then went off to start my day. The day was a bit slow, only had to do about three errands for the animals that day and shook some trees and sell the fruits to Nook. While I was inside Nookling store I decided to grab some letters, since I now had Eric's Friend Code I could finally write a letter to him. Before I even started to write out the letter I looked online to find out how to send letters to other players, I found out that I couldn't send letters to people outside of my town from within my town like any other neighbours. The answer to my question was that I had to be in HIS town to send him a letter. I guess this is how he kept sending me letters, since he did end up entering my town, which is very strange and creepy. Then again, I did open up my town for people to join in. After about an hour I had nothing to do, since I finally had Eric's friend code I decided to head to His town. I went to the train station and found Eric's name and saw the name of His town; Leafy. I entered the train and headed off to his town. To be honest I didn't want to run into him. I wanted to surprise him as he did me. I had the only thing I was able to buy, a red armchair. It was in my inventory as a gift to him since he got me a gift, so I thought of returning the favour. After about a minute of connection trying, I arrived at his town.

“Leafy”... that was the name of his town. An interesting name. Every name has a reason, especially for a town, I assumed he named his town Leafy because of… trees? I named my town Everlast because I wanted my town to “Everlast forever” … Kind of cheesy I know. Anyway, as I exited out of the station I saw that his town looked a lot more developed than mine is. He had his ground covered in pictures of sidewalks and roads, all neatly placed and he made it look like how a real town should look. I was really impressed. For someone who speaks like he is using the keyboard for the first time he sure did have a good looking town. I was actually jealous, but then again, he could have been playing this game longer than me. I wanted to go to his post office right away but I couldn’t help but to explore his town. I kind of didn’t want to look around just in case I wound up running into him while I was looking at his town. But he would have came to me since it would’ve notified him about my visit. While exploring I saw animals that I had back in my town. It was a bit creepy since they didn’t know me and yet they also lived back at my town. After about 5 minutes of exploring his well done town I went to his post office. I gave the letter to Pelly and told her to send it to Eric;

“Thank you for the 22,000 bells you gave me, it really did help me. I also wanted to thank you for the piano, It looks very nice in my home and I still have it. In response to the kindness you’ve shown me I thought of repaying you. I don’t have a lot of bells but I hope this will do. From xxxxx”

After I gave the letter and gift away I headed back to the train station still hoping that I wouldn’t run into him. I started to lag while on my way to the train station. If I ended up losing connection It wouldn't matter as long as I sent the letter to him. I managed to get to the station and headed back to my town. When I arrived I went back to my house to save since I was getting bored. As I made my way to my house I saw one of the neighbours upset. I ran up to her and she was crying and saying “leave me alone” before going off upset. I thought that she got into a fight with one of the other animals and just continued off to my house. While making my way I saw ANOTHER animal was upset. He said like “what did I do?” but unlike the other one, he wasn't crying. I thought that this animal was the one that got into a fight with the other one. Nearing my house I saw an animal who was thrashing about and looked pretty pissed, I ended up talking to her and she was just blowing steam like the other one. She said that her day was ruined. I was really confused about what was going on... maybe he got into a fight with an animal… fell into a pitfall trap?

When I approached my home I saw that it was surrounded by holes and flowers. I had a lot of flowers around my house... I didn't even make any ordinances for "Beautiful Town" so it was very strange to me. I saw that I had a letter in my mail box. I pulled out my shovel and fixed the holes that were around my house. The flowers that were placed around my home were dandelions and roses, all were placed in a neatly side by side order. After fixing the holes I took out the letter that was inside my mailbox, I had two letters, one from an animal, the other… Eric;

“u hav a nice town ur animlas r not nice i saw ur home it loked nice very nice pretty nice nice frm eric”

I just looked at the letter with a displeased face, I was a bit creeped out. I don’t know if it was his poor writing that did it, or it was the holes around my home that I KNOW I didn’t put. Before I went inside my home I looked around my town to see if there were any other problems with my neighbours, since he said that my animals are “not nice”. So I hoped that he didn’t piss any off or made them cry. As I made my way to their homes I saw even more animals sad and angry. “What the hell did he do?!” I thought as I made my way to their houses. I approached one of their homes and saw the same thing he did to my home. Holes and flowers, the flowers were also the same as the ones at my home.

I wanted to fix it but I needed to see if the other homes werethe same. Making my way to another house I saw more animals sad and angry. I also saw holes placed everywhere in my town's field. I ran up to the second house, same thing. Ran to another house, saw more randomly placed holes, the third house I ended up arriving at was the same. I spent about 6 minutes exploring and seeing more of the same. I was really pissed, this was going to take me forever to clean. After seeing all the damage he did I started to regret sending that letter now, hell even that armchair… I kind of wanted it now. I had a feeling that he entered my town while I was in his... creepy, It’s like he knew... Or was it just a coincidence?

The next day I felt relieved to see my town back to normal. It took me about 12 minutes to fix the damaged done by him. When I exited my house I saw that I had letters, “I wonder who this letter is going to be from?” I said in a sarcastic tone while looking through my mailbox. Only one letter… and it was from Eric.

“thnk u for the giftt it loks nicce frnd eric”

“Frnd”? I guess he meant “Friend.” Really though? He called me “friend”?! After the mess he made? He was happy for the gift, but I wasn’t happy for what he did. I saw that he sent me a gift along with the letter. I wondered if he sent this before or after the mess. The present ended up being a basketball hoop. I wanted to throw this away since the damage he had done to my town, but I kept it, just because I needed some form of decoration for my home. After I closed the letter I went off to do my daily business in my town. I ended up going to the Island to get some rare bugs, there were bugs there that can cost up to 10,000 bells. I found my lucky break for making money since I knew that picking fruit wasn’t going to help me with my debts forever. I went in and out of the island, going to the store to sell the bugs, selling all the bugs I found at the island made up to over 100,000 bells. I still needed about 20,000 bells to pay off my the debt, but It was getting late, so I went to the house and saved, then I turned off the game to relax.

It was late at night and I woke up to the sounds of my neighbour's loud dog, It was a very quiet night, I heard nothing but silence and crickets roaming through my area. So since I was up I decided to go in the game to see if there were any problems going on in my town. Upon entering my town I saw that there was no one around and everyone was sleeping. I checked the game's clock and saw that it was 3:34 in the morning, and the only sounds that I heard were the sounds of the music and also crickets. While wandering around the town I only ended up seeing one villager mindlessly wandering around the night with a shovel in his hand (creepy). I spent about ten minutes walking around the night making sure nothing has happened while I was sleeping. Nothing. Nothing was touched. No holes were dug and no random flowers were planted. It was normal. I walked past the train station on my way back to the house and ended up stopping in front of it, “should I do the same?” any person who went what I just went through would do the same damage caused to them, just to return the favour I guess. I wasn’t that kind of person. I did fix the mess and it would be mean just to do it back. Besides… I was tired. I headed to my house and saved.

It was a Saturday morning and both my parents were out working. I didn't have anything to do in the house. I did have my breakfast and took a shower, though I didn't have anything else to do. All of my homework was completed, but I also found out this morning that I had a massive stomach cramp, I went to grab some medicine and decided to go play some Animal Crossing while waiting for the medicine to take effect. Before I went to play Animal Crossing I heard the mail box open up, I went to open the door and to obtain the mail. From the mail box I pulled out three letters; two were for my father and the other... a blank envelope. I asked the mail man just before he went out of my sight who sent this blank letter, he turned to me he said that he didn't know. The mail man then smiled and walked away while saying "have a good day". I closed the door and looked at the mail. Like I said, it was blank. No return address, the only address that was on it was mine and a small stamp on the left upper corner of the letter. I put down the two letters for my father and I opened the other up and upon opening the letter saw it just had the words;

“nice house frind from eric”

I was nearly frozen. Everything went spinning around me. I thought this was a dream. Like… How in the hell… No… Like… HOW IN THE HELL?!! I stood there with my eyes all wide with my mouth hanging. I was breathing heavily and started shaking and my stomach cramp was getting worse as I stood there. “W-who the hell… IS this guy?!” I couldn't do anything in return, I had no address. My alternative approach was to call the cops or contact my parents… But I didn't want to. I wanted to find out who he was myself. I know this sounds crazy to do. Pretty much ANY sane person would call the cops or ANYONE for that matter when you end up getting a letter from someone in a game who knows where you ACTUALLY live. While I rushed to my room I felt a bit slow and for some reason my vision was going blurry. I felt like I was going to throw up, so I rushed to the bathroom instead and threw up in the toilet. This wasn't the best morning I have ever had, I ended up getting a letter from a guy I met in Animal Crossing and now I was throwing up, what a morning. I sat there with my head near the toilet for a good couple of minutes, I couldn't tell how long I was there since I didn't have the time with me. I pushed myself up and walked to my room, I was moving slowly to my room but the pain in my stomach wasn't as bad as before so that is a plus for me. When I finally entered my room I grabbed my 3DS and and booted up the game to hopefully find Eric.

When I got into the game I headed directly to Eric's town. I hoped that I would run into him so I could ask him how he knew where I lived. While waiting to go to his town I started thinking; “Is he an old friend of mine from school? Is he someone I once knew? Is this a prank? Or just some kid being an idiot. No. This person knows where I live". My next thought was that he must be some pervert who gets off by playing as a kid in Animal Crossing, I shivered as that last thought came across. I finally arrived at Leafy and headed to his home, funny thing is that I had never seen his house when I visited the first time, I was too busy exploring his town. When I got to his house I stopped in my place and took a look at his house, his home... was a mansion. I was stunned by this, like I said before; “For someone who speaks like he is using the keyboard for the first time he sure does have a good looking town,” that can now be said about his house. I entered his house and saw him standing there looking at me. I was really creeped out... It’s like he knew I was going to his town.

Eric was wearing a Paw t-shirt and has a paper boy hat on. Upon looking at his house I came to realise that the inside of his house looked amazing! His main room had the full Modern set look, his walls were the Exotic wallpaper and his carpet was the Regal Carpet. I wanted to look around his house, but I guess I should have done that before all these fucked up things happened. “Who are you? How do you know where I live?!” Silence. Afterwards he spun around in place. I was really getting tired of his bullshit. “Who are you?!” He stopped and looked at me, “eric.” He spun in place again. He stopped, “ur my frnd. 1st frind i had sinec” I didn’t believe him. I thought he was fucking with me. “Leave me alone! I am not dealing with this shit anymore” He stood there. Probably making another way to act all “kiddy.” “ur my friend”. He managed to say “friend” right this time. “Who are you? Tell me?” In reality I was boiling, my 3DS was shaking due to my hands that were also shaking. “eric is my namme”. I wanted to say “no shit” but then after that I would ask the same question over and over again, then I'd find myself caught in a loop with him. “I’m leaving”. Before I head for the door he said quickly, “dont leve me”. Leave him? I’d known him for a couple of days. He was making it sound like I've known him for years. I just ignored him and went off to my own town and I didn't hesitate to stop, I just kept heading for the train station. I finally got in the train and headed home.

I got on the game earlier than normal, this time was 8 in the morning. I saw I had mail. I opened it and saw four letters, once again, three were from animals and one from Eric. “y u leve? ur my frind rite? I had funn wit u from eric”

“Friend”... he still calls me that. “FUN” he says?! The crazy bastard knows where I fucking live! Then has the balls to say that he had “fun”?! I had a feeling that he went into my town again when I wasn't around due to this letter. I went out around town to see if he made any more holes or placed more flowers. Surprisingly he didn’t. I guess it was just that one time he did it. It was a quiet day in my town, I didn’t do a lot of errands for animals and I mostly spent my free time digging up fossils, planting fruit for fruit trees and going to the island. Spending nearly 20 minutes at the island I managed to make about 20,000, the amount I needed left to pay my third house debt. After I paid Nook I went through my day still going to the island to get more money. It was nearly 4:00 and I was wandering around town until I got a notice… Eric. I slowly made my way to the station and saw Eric getting out of the train. Eric was wearing a skull t-shirt and has black glasses on him. We both perfectly face at each other, “What are you doing here?” After I asked him he just spun in place as usual. After his spinning he ran to his right. I chased after him again. This was starting to feel like the time we first met again, but this time I wasn’t confused, no, this time... I was pissed.

The place he was heading was to my post office, I guess he was going to send me a letter. I bet he did not want me there while he was doing it, but I didn’t care. He walked up to Pelly and gave her a letter. He looked at me and spun around. He stopped to his left corner, “goodby frnd” and then he left. I assumed he disconnected from the game again. And again, he said something and then he left. “goodby frnd”? Will this be the last time I see him? I was looking to see if there was a way to ban someone from entering your world, I was going to do that, but since he said goodbye I thought this was really the last time I’d see him. I doubted that very much, He may just join my town with or without me here. I had to wait till I got his letter to see what he sent me… I wasn't really looking forward to it, it’s mostly gonna be a bunch of poorly written grammar.

I got on the game at 11 at night and I saw that my mailbox had mail. I knew it was from Eric. I opened up the mailbox and saw two letters, one from Nook and the other from Eric.

“its hot here so hott from eric” “Its hot here”? Not really what I expected from him to say. Maybe he was talking about the heat he is having where he lives. It was pretty warm where was then, I had a fan blowing around my room and the window open. I saw that Eric gave me a gift with the letter. To be honest, I really liked the gifts that Eric got me, since he looked loaded and probably had a lot of bells. The gift was a flower bag for a White Rose. I was a bit disappointed, I wanted new furniture for my house. But I gave an interested smile, since I never had this kind of flower before. My memory then jumped back to remember that Eric planted flowers in my town along with the holes, It was a memory that I really didn’t want too look back on. I went back into my house and placed the flower bag in the dresser that I bought off Nook and went off into town. I spent less time in my town than I normally did and I thought of going into Eric’s town. I had nothing else better to do with my free time. I hopped on the train and headed to Leafy.

As I made my way to his house I saw that he had some new animals moving in, some of the animals were even moving on top of his ground design. I went into Eric's house and he wasn’t there. His house though… it had campfires and bonfires placed in different section of his house. He even blocked off his other room section, so I couldn’t explore his house other than the upstairs and his basement. I first went upstairs. His upstairs room was completely empty. The only thing that was there was just the default bed I went to his basement and it too was empty. I didn’t see Eric on my way to his house, so I went out to find him. I spent about 10 minutes looking for Eric, but there was no sign of him. I had no choice but to leave the town. I then came to realize that he may have been in my town while I was here. I rushed back to the train station and headed back to my town.

When I arrived I immediately went around my town. I looked from top to bottom, looking at the animals and looking for hole's and flower’s. The search ended after seeing that he did zero damage to my town. I gave a huge sigh of relief and turned off the game since it was late and I had school the next day. I placed my DS on my desk and went into bed. I spent about 10 minutes just staring up at the dark ceiling that was being shined on by the street light. While I lay there all I kept thinking about was Eric. “Who is he?” I continued to think, with the sounds of sirens in the background, “am I free from him?” I gave a small chuckle knowing that he may bother me again. I also kept thinking the same thing over and over again, “is he in my game right now?” I wanted to go back in the game but it was late, plus if he is as young as I thought, he would be in bed right now. I closed my eyes to drift off to sleep, with the sounds of sirens echoing through my street.

I came back from school and saw my mother sitting on the chair with her hand on her head. I thought she was stressed out from her work. She looked at me and stood up and went off into the kitchen. I saw an open newspaper on the table of where she was. I looked at the open newspaper and saw the following headline;

<p style="text-align:center;">“House Fire Kills Young Boy”

As I kept reading I saw a picture of the young boy. The boy looked young, about near the age of 10, he had blondish hair and green eyes. Under the picture of the boy, text read;

<p style="text-align:center;">“Eric Thompson, Age 9”

“Eric”? Eric was his name…wait... ERIC?! I stood there in disbelief while my eyes were wide open. I kept thinking if this was the same Eric from the game. But that was impossible. Was this the same one? Or was just a major coincidence that a boy… with the same name died. “House fire?” I remembered looking back in the game; Eric’s house was covered in fireplaces and bonfires. The last thing he told me was “goodbye” and the clothes he wore last time I saw him had the design of… a skull. Had he planned his death? Was he telling me that he was going to die? No. No that couldn’t be possible. As I walked to the kitchen I saw my mother looking at me. She walked up to me, it looked like she was crying. Did she know this kid? Was he a child of a friend of hers? That would probably make sense for the way he was able to know where I lived, but could it? She let out a big sigh and looked me in the eyes,

“I have some bad news for you. Your… your cousin is dead”.

Cousin? Eric was my Cousin? I stood there giving her a confused look, I wondered if she knew what I was thinking, that I didn’t know I had a cousin that was named Eric. My mother then pulled a picture out of her wallet and she showed me a family group on it, I saw myself sitting on the ground giving a childish face, and then my mother pointed her finger at a young boy. He had blondish hair, and green eyes, it looked like the same boy from the picture on the newspaper, only younger. My mother stood up and went off towards the living room, while she walked away she was rubbing her eyes to wipe away her tears, but I already saw them. After I saw my mother leaving, all I just did was stand there looking at the ground. I placed my backpack on the floor and slowly went to my room with my head down in total silence, along with my silence the house was also quiet, it was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop from one end of the house to another and could even hear mice.

I closed my door and flopped on my bed face down, I turned around on the bed and I lay there staring at my ceiling. I lay on my bed for about 5 minutes, I assumed it was about 5 minutes since I didn't have a watch on me or a clock in my room. So finally I got up out of bed and grabbed my DS, I really didn’t know what I was doing. I thought I was going crazy but I needed to see if this was true, I needed to see if this wasn't what it seemed. I was breathing heavily saying the same thing numerous times, “There are millions of people in the world named Eric,” I kept telling myself that over and over again as I booted up the game. When I got in the game I saw I had letters. I opened them up and saw I had four, two from animal neighbours, one from Tom Nook and one from... Eric.

<p style="text-align:center;">“hey frnd if u r reading this i am dead i had so much fun wit u nd i wished i keppt playing with you. u are awsom <p style="text-align:center;">from ur friend eric”

“So. It really was this Eric.” All the anger that I had for him before was all gone. How could I be angry at him still? He’s dead. He’s not here to defend himself. Besides… he was just a kid. A kid who was having the time of his life, with me. I closed the inventory and I went off to town. I didn't know what I was going to do in town, I had nothing to do in town. So I decided to head off to Nookling store. As I entered his shop I saw that he actually ended up having a globe available for sale. It was very lucky since I remembered the first thing that Eric asked me was if I had a globe. As for the globe itself it wasn't very expensive, so I bought the globe and went off home right away. I placed the globe near my back wall and placed the White Rose he gave me right in front of it.

<p style="text-align:center;">“Yes Eric”.

<p style="text-align:center;">“I do have a globe”.