Crimson Heart

Animal Jam. I suppose you know this game. It's a game for 6-18 year olds and is supposed to teach young children and older children alike about animals, wildlife, and nature in general.

But it's not as innocent as you'd expect it to be.

During the beta days (which lasted from July 14, 2010 to September 7, 2010) some people, most of them children no older than 11 years old, found out about AJ and played it. During those times, most items and clothing costed no more than 500 gems and skullies could be bought, too (before they were removed for seeming innappropriate) and nobody cared about buying membership, rares, clothing, dens, or any of that other stuff. They just cared about making friends and learning.

But after the beta days ended, that was when Animal Jam was turned into something else.

An absolute madland, it was.

Now people who played the game were usually 11 or older, not young children (although you could still see some young children playing the game here and there). All anyone ever cared about was membership, diamonds, rares, items, clothing, popularity, and how much buddies you had on your list.

Even if you did have buddies, most of them only buddied you for how popular you are or how rare you are, not out of genuine friendship.

Scammers who did not want to go into the trouble of working hard and fairly for rare items "scammed" unsuspecting jammers and when the poor jammers finally realized they were tricked, the scammer was long gone and off to prank other poor players.

Mate beggars, whom most of them were girls,  treated Animal Jam like a dating website instead as an educational game. They "liked" other jammers who they thought were handsome or kind, but what they didn't know was that they probably "dating" someone much older than them. For example, a 7 year old girl might befriend a 57 year old male.

Adoption beggars were mostly jammers who were young cute, but spoiled bunnies who went to the Pillow Room and treated it as a "adoption center" and yelled at everyone who went in their to adopt them, mostly members for their "cooler" dens or just so they could look cool. Adoption beggars were overall annoying.

While most members were kind, some of them acted snobby, especially towards non-members who didn't have access to as much as the members, while Animal Jam gave non-members much more access and free space to play than most other online games.

Animal Jam itself was not a bad game, it was only the people who played it that made it seem like a terrible game. The few people who were genuinely kind and nice to every jammer, be it member or non-member, were barely respected anyway.

Let me tell you a tale of horror and love that I experienced on Animal Jam.

One Saturday morning, I got up from bed and ran downstairs to my laptop to play Animal Jam. It was my favorite online game at the time. I booted up my laptop, typed in the password to my PC, and logged onto AJ. I saw nothing more than the usual: scammers, mate beggars, adoption beggars, snobby members, hackers. I wasn't the least bit surprised.

I ran south to the fountain in Jamaa Township when I saw a non-member wolf with girl crimson-red eyes, a pitch-black pelt and crimson-red flames that burned through it. She seemed sad as the non-member crying emoticon appeared over her head.

Her nametag read, "Little Poshheart" and when I clicked it, I found out her username was "crimsonheart123". I actually felt a little sorry for her, but I remembered to keep my guard up in case she was a scammer who was claiming to be "haxed" and expected me to give her my items.

I walked over to her and typed in, "What's wrong?" and pressed the "enter" key on my keyboard. She turned over to me and said, ":sniffs: I got hacked by a person called imthebest244..."

I shook my head in real life. Of course. I knew it. She was a scammer that was claiming to be hacked so I could give her my items, just as I had suspected. She had also said she was "sniffing" and the person who "hacked" her was someone with the username of "imthebest244". A person with that sort of username would seem to fit more into the "snobby member" category than the "hacker" or "scammer" category, but it was still incredibly cliché.

I decided to pry on furthur. "Really? And what exactly did she steal from you as she had hacked you?" I typed.

Only 10 seconds after I had typed that had she replied, "She stole everything from me. My clothing, my den items, and she removed all my buddies off of my list. I don't have anyone to turn to now that my buddies are gone. Will you help me?"

I smirked. "Alright. Brb for a second." I decided to search up the username "imthebest244". And, boom! The, "that jammer couldn't be found" button appeared under the search bar. I knew the username "imthebest244" wouldn't exist. Little Poshheart was lying to me, she was a scammer, she was a possible hacker. Time to expose her lies, I thought.

Little did I know that very action would destroy the rest of my pathetic life.

"You know what, I'm starting to have second thoughts about helping you," I typed in, my smirk growing even wider.

Little did the non-member confused emoticon. "Why?" she asked. "I truly was hacked, and I'm not faking!"

''She is a scammer. I didn't even tell her she was faking yet and she's jumping to the conclusion. She's falling into her own trap, heh...''

"You are faking!" I shot back. "When I searched up 'imthebest244' NOTHING SHOWED UP! You're nothing but a STUPID scammer who wants attention, and not only that, RARES AND ITEMS OF INNOCENT JAMMERS WHO NEVER DID ANYTHING WRONG! I am trying to protect Jamaa, and here you are, LYING to me!"

A good 5 seconds passed.

Little stared at me in shock, as she did the non-member shock emoticon. Then, as 3 seconds passed, she did the crying emoticon, then the depressed emoticon (you know, the one where the blue jammer is getting rained on). She ran off without another word, presumably to the Sarepia Forest.

I shook in absolute anger in real life. I couldn't believe Little had so shamelessly tried to fool me by scamming me. But the way she ran off... The way her emoticons displayed sadness and genuine confusion.... Had I done the right thing?

Or had I made life hell for Little Poshheart?

I tried my honest best to shrug it off. After all, she was probably lying to make me feel sorry for her again. I decided to mind my own business from that point on and I went to the Sol Arcade to play some mini-games to take my mind off of what had just happened.

Finally, when I realized the thought of Little Poshheart, crimsonheart123 wouldn't leave my mind, I decided it was best to at least check on her if she was still okay. So I left the Sol Arcade and headed to Sarepia Forest.

Once I had reached the dark and gloomy forest, a sight you'd never expect to see in a kids' game appeared right in front of my very eyes.

Corpses of dead jammers were surrounded in a circle. Flies buzzed around them and just looking at their rotting flesh almost made me hurl. I did the nauseous non-member emoticon. Their skin was ripped, showing their red flesh and blood was pooled out of their wounds. Some of them were fresh, but most of them were dried and old so therefore they were a dark, crimson red. Seeing the color made the thought of crimsonheart123 cross my mind.

The eyes of the poor jammers were glazed over. In the middle of that circle, sat crimsonheart123. Little Poshheart. She wasn't even sitting, she was actually standing. Her back was turned from me.

She was the only live jammer in the forest. A look of shock crossed my mind, both in real life, and in Animal Jam. I did the non-member shock emoticon. Was it crimsonheart123 who had done this? Splashes of blood covered her black pelt, and only a few flecks of black were surrounding her, as if she was freckled or something.

If you listened closely, you could actually hear the sharp breathing of hers.

I was too stunned to speak. Death in Animal Jam? I thought this was a kids' game! I finally managed to type in, "....Little Poshheart?"

With that she immiediately turned to face me.

Her eyes were filled with madness and craze, they were bloodshot, the red, scarlet veins practically popping out of her skull. They frantically twitched, and I saw red stain her fangs. Her paws were covered with fresh blood, too.

"...You," she typed in, and a scary, whispered girl's voice said that in my ear too. I shuddered. My senses were alert. How could I not only see what Little had typed in, but also heard?

A good 10 seconds passed.

"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO DESTROYED MY LIFE!" she yelled. Tears began to dot her eyes.

My heart sank with sadness. Crimson was not a hacker? Not a scammer? She wasn't lying? But- that wasn't true! If she truly had been hacked by someone called, "imthebest244", why did AJ say that that username didn't exist? Was this all my fault? Had Little gone from an innocent jammer to a crazed murderer? All because of me?

I finally typed in, "..What? How did I destroy your life?"

"Don't pretend you don't know!" she shot back. "You claimed I was nothing more than a 'stupid scammer' just because I wanted your help!" Her crimson-red eyes began to pool with tears. They were almost full to the brim with them. "Imthebest244 deleted her account immiediately after she hacked me so she wouldn't be found out! THAT'S why AJ said they couldn't find that username, you stupid IDIOT!"

My fingers shook. Sweat dripped down the side of my head. Did I literally just accuse Crimson for hacking and scamming and attention-hogging, when in reality she truly was hacked? What? How could I not come to the simple conclusion that 'imthebest244' deleted her account after hacking her? Was I that obsessed with the belief that crimsonheart123 was a hacker?

"...Little, please don't do this," I begged. "I didn't mean it. I'm sorry. I was just overly suspicious of you, that's all..."

That's all for now. I'm gonna add more in the future though, just you wait! ;) Also, the reason why I called this a tale of "horror and love" is because this was meant to be a mix of a creepypasta and romance. Basically the narrator develops Stockholm Syndrome for crimsonheart123. Lol. Btw the narrator is supposed to be a male. Bye for now :O