Mysteriously, I found a family on my Sims game. Maybe I thought my sister decided to add this family as a joke, she's done this a few times before. I had reason to believe that she actually did just that when I looked at the family. It included four adults, one teen, and a young kid. The teen was named Kaitlin, had a part time job as a receptionist at the spa, and had a C average in school. Probably must have been under a lot of stress.
Three out of the four adults were unemployed and they were named Alvin, Pamela, Robert, and Will. Alvin was the only one holding a job, and was a Squad leader in the military career. The other three were content just hanging out at home, although they did not seem to like each other at all.
The final one was Albert. He was a little kid who had a B- average in school. I thought this was a weird family, but it seemed fine. Until I looked in the photo album.
It showed Alvin marrying a woman with black hair. (Alvin was blonde, Albert had black hair) I assumed that this had to have been Albert's mother. It showed pretty much their normal happy bits, like Albert being born. Then all of a sudden, it cut to a fire. I thought that was unusual that it would be so detailed, but the next picture showed a toddler Albert just sort of staying there while Alvin was in front of a tombstone crying. It had to have been Albert's mother who died in the fire. (Unfortunately, I have not found her in-game, but later on, I did find her tombstone.)
The next picture showed Alvin moving in with Pamela, Robert, Will, and Kaitlin. (Kaitlin was Will and Pamela's daughter.) The pictures after that showed the adults fighting, fires being started (no more deaths), but also some other unusual pictures.
Alvin was in almost none of these pictures, but the first one showed Robert cooking the food, giving it to the others, and then one by one it showed them hurling in the toilet. It was obviously bad food, which often makes Sims sick. Then pictures after that showed Robert attacking Will and Pamela, then yelling at Kaitlin and Albert.
Other pictures in this album included everyone fighting with each other, doing mean things like breaking the computers, and appearing to abuse Albert. Then it showed Albert sitting alone in his room, while Kaitlin was out of focus (Probably at her part-time job, since she was the only other one bringing in any money).
Alvin finally showed up in some of the pictures. He was shown yelling at Robert, Pamela, and Will about something. I assume it was probably telling them to get a job. Then the next picture was of Robert attacking Alvin, which Alvin won since he had a higher body score. (Military branch requires it) However, Alvin seemed to vanish from the next photographs, which showed more of the same. More fires, more sickening food, more abuse directed at each other and also Albert and Kaitlin. Albert was shown falling asleep numerous times, especially after pictures showing him sleeping alone in the room while Will and Pamela came in and fought with each other and he left. A few times, it showed him sleeping on the floor in another room, in the kitchen, or even outside. A few pictures even showed Albert passing out in front of school.
One picture showed Albert being lead home by police after he fell asleep in the park past curfew, right as Alvin walked home and then it showed Alvin scolding and yelling at Albert. Albert ran up to his room and was shown crying, only for Alvin to be in the next photograph yelling at him.
After that, Alvin showed up in some of these pictures of what some TV-tropes visitors would call, "Dysfunction Junction". Albert and Kaitlin were never mean to each other, thankfully. The album ended with Albert and Kaitlin talking about something. That's when I basically took over their story.
So during the days, Will, Pamela, and Robert would repeatedly fight with each other, although Will and Pamela would get together to woo hoo with each other. Sometimes, Robert would even woohoo with Pamela, resulting in them slapping one another. Will would often go out and flirt with sims, prompting Pamela to walk over and slap him if she was there.
One time, Alvin came home from work and the first thing he did was woohoo with Pamela while Albert was doing his homework. I wasn't aware the game would let you do this, but he soon ran on out and started crying. Right now I pieced together what had probably happened. Alvin had married someone, had a baby that he named Albert, but his wife died in a housefire and they moved into the house with Will, Pamela, Kaitlin, and Robert. And evidently, they corrupted him.
Kaitlin came home from her part time job, and started comforting Albert. I checked Kaitlin's age, and she was able to ascend to young-adulthood within the next day. So she could probably find a house with Albert. I paused the game, saved it, and then assembled a small house for the two to live in, within their price range too. So then I went back and waited. It would take a little while.
Normally, Kaitlin's part time job took place after school, so for a little while, Albert was home alone with Will, Pamela, and Robert. Albert was normally so tired, he would immediately go right up to the room he and Alvin shared and take a nap. Similarly, Pamela and Robert were also taking a nap, although Pamela was still a bit tired for some reason. (I joked that she was so drunk she was still hung over at like, 3:30 PM) Only Will was up, so the game didn't automatically go fast-speed, which happens when you cannot directly control a sim due to them being asleep. So I went to look what Will was doing, making sure he didn't go wake everybody up. However, I noticed Will was lighting a fireplace, and there was a carpet right next to it.
Anyone who plays the sims knows what happens when you put a carpet around a fireplace - it lights on fire. So I immediately hit Buy mode and moved it away. Because I was quick, the house did not catch on fire. The fire burned for a little while, after Alvin and Kaitlin walked home. By now, Robert and Pamela were up while Albert finished his nap. After Pamela broke Robert's computer for the umpteenth time, I had her extinguish the fire.
Will seemed a bit unusual. He would mumble to himself (He had the "insane" Trait after all) and would sometimes sit around and do nothing, in between spats with everyone else. I had Kaitlin cook dinner so she wouldn't make everyone sick, as Robert could never cook anything good besides Autumn Salad, and forget about Pamela and Will. (Although Will could make waffles.)
The next day came and passed, and when Kaitlin came home from work, she progressed into a young adult. Immediately, I had her find a new place to live, and moved her and Albert the hell out. Good thing too, he couldn't complete his homework all the time since he would run out of energy quick, and his mood was terrible so his grade average dropped to a "D+", a warning sign.
Kaitlin immediately found a job in the culinary career, and Albert got his grades back up, no longer being tainted by the influence of his dad or Kaitlin's parents. And Robert. I played this for a little while and taught Albert some writing so he begun to write novels. That was always nice, and makes ludicrous amounts of money
So then I go to check up on the other family. The games had already played itself when you weren't there, so I went to see how they were doing without Kaitlin or Albert. When I loaded up the house with the four dysfunctional adults, I nearly shit myself at what I saw.
There had been a lot of carpets and chairs placed haphazardly around the fireplace. Robert and Pamela were asleep, like what happened when Will almost burned the house down, but Will himself was up. He had been walking away from the kitchen. Before I could have done anything, I got the message that there was a fire on the lot, preventing me from doing anything else. Then I got news that there was another fire on the lot - and this one had came from the kitchen. The inferno spread more and more while Will calmly walked around the house, and suddenly I got more and more messages that fires had started on the lot.
Almost the entire house was now on fire. Now, this was as much as The Sims would allow, but Will soon walked into the empty room where Albert and Alvin slept and appeared to talk to mid-air. Then he went into Pamela's room, shouted, left, then went to where Kaitlin slept, looked around, saw nothing, and then left. (This was rather funny because Alvin was at work, and Kaitlin and Albert had long left. Interestingly, he only noticed that Kaitlin wasn't there) He went into Robert's room, screamed something in Simlish, then went back into the hall, which was now burning. He then started freaking out like any other Sim would, and caught fire. Robert and Pamela woke up, then started freaking out as the fire spread into their rooms. They couldn't do anything as they were boxed in by the flames, and sims can't jump out the window to save their lives if necessary Eventually, they too lit on fire and within an hour, burned to death. I only just then noticed there were no fire alarms in there, as the fire soon burned out, leaving almost all the furniture gone.
Alvin was the only one left in the household. I was nearly horrified, and by the time he came, almost everything in the house was burned down. Then Alvin came home, screamed something Simlish, ran around the burned house and kept screaming. Then he ran off the lot. I followed him curiously to see where he went. He went right to the house where Albert and Kaitlin lived.
I thought maybe he could have moved in, however the first thing he did when Albert answered the door was stand there...and then start shouting at him again. That killed any urge to move Alvin into the house with them. I sent him back to the house, after cheating a bit to restore some of the furniture.
I moved to where Kaitlin and Albert were. They were both doing rather well. Kaitlin was supporting Albert rather well, and Albert was becoming self-sufficient. However, Alvin kept coming over and would scream at the two in Simlish. Every time, I'd send them home. I saved the game and left.
I got bored and decided to play another family. Things went normal, and soon I heard the alert noise, and spotted the burglar walking to the house. Thankfully the burglar alarm went off immediately, but the burglar looked a bit familiar. I looked over at them and the name "Alvin" popped up. What the hell, he was military!
Alvin was arrested and taken away by the police. Interestingly. I never was able to find him again in the game. The house was then empty completely, but when I went to edit it to move another family in, I noticed it was full of other furniture and items that I did not place in. What on earth?
So then, I went to Albert and Kaitlin. They were still doing rather well. Albert became a teenager, and I kept pushing his writing, while Kaitlin became an adult and then continued to advance her culinary career. Both of them were rather happy, although Kaitlin was always much older. Soon, she became an elder, while Albert was a young adult, and Kaitlin moved on, but was at least happy.
After I moved the two out of that hellhole of a house, that was the only time Albert was sad. But by that point, he was so self-sufficient with the ludicrous amount of money you can make from writing novels in the game her death wasn't doing anything fiscally. So I decided to basically make Albert lead a good life.
He was making money from his books, so I moved him into a bigger house. He seemed to be happy to leave it all behind, at least I guessed. He kept going through more and more, reaping the effects of royalty checks. He continued to live a happy life, going on vacations and everything.
One time I started the game up and I found Albert at the cemetery. I noticed that he seemed to walk over to a few gravestones, and instead of mourning the death of any sims, said angry sounding words in Simlish. I looked at these gravestones and found them labeled, "Pamela", "Robert", and "Will". He went over to another one and cried. The one next to it, he said angry things in Simlish again. I looked at both of them. The one he cried at was listed, "Jennifer" and the one next to it was "Alvin". Jennifer had to have been his mother, I assumed. I didn't know when Alvin died, the last I saw of him was when he was caught burglarizing a house. Then he found another tombstone on his own will and cried, and this one was Kaitlin.
So Albert didn't have any kids, or get married. But he made a lot of friends, he was never really a reclusive sim. He would regularly go out on the town, dated a few times but never really settled down or developed a romance. He threw parties a few times, and went on a few other vacations, having some fun with the night life too. He even befriended a vampire, but I made sure he didn't become a vampire.
After more times, Albert became an Elder, and went back to writing more books than before. I mostly had him write mysteries with some occasional Trashy and Sci-Fi novels. One time, for kicks but I had him write an autobiography called, "A Child Called It" after the Dave Pelzer novel of the same name. I figured since he was abused a lot during his childhood, he probably would have written something like that. I did it as a joke, but then I got a strange message that it tugged at peoples' heartstrings, then people came to the door and left him treats. He gained fifty friends from that, something I had never gotten.
I cursed that I didn't make him a political job, and that now it was too late. you need friends for political jobs, and Albert made friends so easily. Then, I noticed that he only had a few days left. So I made him as happy as he did, had him talk to his friends. Then finally came the day that he died, and instead of trying to take the hourglass away from the Grim Reaper, he simply went on peacefully, but for some reason, he looked at the camera as he did this. His friends gathered around his new tombstone and mourned him, and then left.
The odd thing was, I had a compulsion to watch for a little while. After a day, nobody came by to mourn him, but then Albert's ghost appeared out of the tombstone, looked at the computer and started talking something in Simlish. Then a message popped up.
"Thank you, player. Thank you for the second chance. You let me live the life I never got to have. I died in that fire Will started years ago. Now, I'll go. Thank you again."
Then his ghost vanished. The more I played the Sims neighbourhood, I never once got to see Albert's ghost, or even Kaitlin's.
To this date, I haven't found out what on earth this was about. I have, however, found a similar house and family on The Exchange, and when I asked some of my sim playing friends, they pretty much did the normal things players do and screw things up. One of them emailed me and said that they found a weird house where they left it up to the AI, and apparently, Will had burned down the house, and only Alvin and Kaitlin survived because they were out of the house at the time. Alvin later on became a burglar, while Kaitlin moved out and went into the culinary field. However, in Kaitlin's case, she didn't take Albert with her when she moved out, since Albert had burned to death when Will lit the house on fire.
A few days later, I managed to do a bit of digging around, wondering if this was an actual mod. I asked people and looked around news archives to see if there was anything like this. There were very few "Alvin"s around here, so I assumed this probably wasn't around where I lived. However, I looked up the family on the Exchange ("Cooper", by the way, what a generic name) and found that they had a British flag, so I asked some friends in the UK I know via Skype to ask if there was any case about four people dying in a fire, and someone who turned to crime later. It also helped one of them was a librarian, so they could check old archives of newspaper stories. (However, I did fear that they were lost because they could have been making a transition to digital.)
One of them found an obituary for someone named Alvin, a former member of the British Army who had turned to a life of crime after the loss of his wife in a housefire, and then his son a few years later. (His death was ruled a suicide.) The obituary only mentioned his wife was named Jennifer, and that his son was named Albert. It did not detail anything about Will, Kaitlin, Pamela, or Robert. I asked him to check for any fire stories within a few years of the event.
Strangely, there was only one article, detailing how a house in a village nearby Liverpool had burned down, with the cause of death being ruled as Arson. Four people died in the fire, three adults and one child. That child, I realized, had to have been Albert. There was no news about what happened to Kaitlin, or any other news about how they found out who did it. There were evidently no obituaries posted about Will, Pamela, or Robert. However, I do believe that we may have found everything we need, that my game was haunted.
But it wasn't a malicious ghost.