So I got this letter today addressed to the previous tenant. It was from an inmate at the Welkins County Corrections Center. Now I don't normally open missent mail, usually I mark it as 'wrong address' and leave it for the postman to take back. But I usually don't get mail that's this interesting. Plus my neighbor told me the guy who used to live here died. So yes, I opened it. Kind of wish I hadn't though, the contents made my skin crawl.

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Hello! It's me. Not doing so good.

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Prison is awful. Everyone's mean to me, the guards are especially mean. They keep putting me in solitary even though it's the other guys causing trouble, not me. I hate solitary, it's so boring. Just staring at the wall and waiting for-ev-er. After my first stint in there I tried my best to behave how the guards wanted but then I get in trouble just for defending myself. They all hate me for no reason, it's not fair!

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I honestly thought I was gonna go crazy always by myself but then I heard a story about how POWs in Vietnam dealt with it. They were trapped like me and without any stimulation many of them lost it, but a few of them discovered a trick that protected them. In their minds they would recreate something they read or heard in extreme detail. A novel word by word or a song note by note. It kept them focused and motivated and sane. Mind you it can't be just a vague remembering. Every detail has to be considered no matter how small until it's correct, until you're absolutely certain it's correct.

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I've been doing it for awhile now and I can say it definitely works. Pokemon Red for the Nintendo Game Boy, that's what I recreate, down to the smallest detail. Now Solitary is nothing to me because I just play Pokemon over and over again in my head. It's wonderful.

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I play it exactly the way I played it as a kid. I always pick Charmander of course, he's my favorite. and I don't bother catching other pokemon because Charmander's the best! But the first two gyms are tough for fire-types. The first gym is rock based which fire is ineffective against. And the next gym is water based which is Charmander's greatest weakness. The Cerulian City gym leader is Misty, she has no honor and happily exploits my Charmander's weakpoint making him faint over and over again. It's not fair, I have to grind a lot just to survive one Water Gun attack.

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Misty is mean. I'll never forgive her.

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After her though the game is easy since Charmander has evolved into the very powerful Charizard.

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I get impatient now, just like when I was a kid, and start rushing through the game, trying to get to Fuschia city as fast as possible. Fuschia City is where you get the item HM04 which teaches Strength. Strength is a technique that let's my Charizard move heavy objects. Once you've learned it you can go back to Vermillion City where there's a secret only I know about! If you go to the Vermillion City docks there's a parked truck that you can now move! Underneath it is a secret HM. I use it on my Charizard and learn a new ability.

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When I was younger I didn't know how to use the new move because its name was a word I'd never heard before. I would walk around randomly using it everywhere. For awhile I do this in my recreation as well even though I'm very familiar with the word now, and I know exactly how to use the move too, you just have to be standing next to a building.

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"Charizard used Arson".

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The green and grey screen lights up in glorious red and the gameboy even gets hot. The fire will burn forever if you watch it, which I do for hours. When you leave the screen and come back the building is now ashes. And the best part? All the people inside are now ghost-type pokemon, which you can capture.

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It's time, it's finally time! Back to Cerulean City as fast as I can, I can't wait anymore!

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I burn down the Gym and I capture everyone inside, including Misty. They're now mine to punish as I see fit, as it should be.

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I make them fight to exhaustion over and over again. I freeze them and poison them and burn them and then revive them again and again until every Pokemon Center in the world is burnt to the ground and then I go home and store them in my PC, the last PC in the game. Each in their own solitary box, and then I burn my house down so they can never leave. I wonder if they know the way to stay sane? I hope not.

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After this I delete my save and I do it again and again and again and again. Just like I did it when I was a kid. Exactly like I did it when I was a kid.

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Pokemon Red was very important to me. I grew up playing it, I learned to read playing it. It was my only game and in some ways it was my only friend. It's like that in here too. Everyone in here is a bully. Even the warden is a bully. When I was arrested I had a big bag of marbles, just a harmless bag of marbles. I've begged the warden and anyone who'll listen, please give them back, but they refuse. Even though it means a lot to me they always refuse.

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I don't even want the whole bag really, only twelve of the marbles really matter to me. The rest are empty. ​

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Yeah that's not weird at all. I looked the guy up and he's been in prison for the last ten years for arson. Welkins County had a whole series of suspicious house fires back then. I was only twelve at the time but even I remember it. There were definitely fatalities, but this guy only has arson charges? So maybe it's unrelated. Still, I don't like the implications of the last bit of the letter. The worse thing is his sentence ends later this year, and he thinks his buddy still lives here? I'm seriously considering breaking my lease.