Creepypasta

Gamer

Hai guys :3 I know I know :P again I haven't been posting as much as I would want to but I'm trying /~\ anyways this story was requested and I think it's pretty interesting it had a little bit of a plot twist so you know >:D Enjoy!
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You know that little boys aren't supposed to go into strange rooms with men they just met, right? When I was ten, I knew this too, but I was a huge video game nerd. In the 1980's, if you wanted to play video games, you had to go to the arcade in the mall.
The arcade had a wide array of video games in the lobby area. But the best games were hidden in a secret room at the back of the store. I had heard about it from other boys at school. They said that if you spent a lot of time (and quarters) playing video games on the main floor, the owner, Stanley, would take you into the backroom where the secret games were kept.
The guys said that Stanley got access to the arcade games months before they came out. It was also rumored that there were some games in the backroom that were too risqué for the main floor. Weird underground video games from Japan that involved sex and gore.
I had been coming to the arcade with my friends for over a month, but Stanley never showed any interest in me until I came by myself one day.
You have to understand that this was a safe, quaint college town in the 1980s. Things were different. Moms would drop their kids off at the mall, armed only with stern warnings about talking to strangers - and leave them there for hours. Everyone did this. It wasn't neglectful.
I was playing Street Fighter when Stanley approached me. "You've spent a lot of time at that game." I was a little shocked that he was right here. I had seen him around the store, but never this close. It was like seeing a celebrity in person for the first time. "Ya. I've almost gotten a high score three times." He asked, "Do you want to play some other games in the back?"
And that was it.
It was like he had asked me if I wanted a million dollars. I backed away from my game (right in the middle of a hard level) and said, "Yes." Right away. No hesitation. That's how stupid I was.
As he led me back through the game room lobby, he asked, "Has anyone told you about the back room?" I didn't want to get anyone in trouble for telling the secret. He promised that they wouldn't get in trouble. He just needed to know who it was. I gave him Jonathan Blakely's name.
When we entered the backroom, I felt a pang of disappointment. I quickly scanned the arcades along the wall, but didn't see anything particularly salacious. A few older games. One or two that had recently broke and were removed from the game floor. There were three separate doors to some further rooms on the side. I guessed they might be bathrooms or an office area.
There was also another boy about my age in the room. He was playing one of the wild west shooter games. Stanley walked me over and introduced the boy as Ian. Ian greeted me with a casual "Hey" and a smile. He lowered his red plastic gun, looked at Stanley, and said "Now that there's another kid, can we play that special game?" Stanley nodded his head slowly and deliberately. Yes. We could play that special game.
Ian grabbed me by the arm and said, "You are going to love this one! I've heard all about it." Stanley asked if I wanted to play the special game. Yes. I wanted to play.
Stanley told me to wait while he grabbed Ian by the shoulders and lead him into one of the side rooms. He closed the door behind them and I waited. Stanley hadn't given me any instructions. Were they going to be one minute? Or twenty? Was I allowed to play the other games while I waited? I couldn't exactly process what was happening so I just stood there staring at the closed door with Stanley and Ian inside.
I listened very carefully and I thought I heard their voices behind the door. Maybe some jostling.
After a few minutes, Stanley bounded out of the room and said, "Okay, let's get you set up in your cockpit!" I was so impressed. I had seen a picture of a cockpit simulator in a gamer's magazine. But I never thought I would get to play one.
Stanley opened a different door next to the one Ian had gone into. He motioned for me to go inside. As I walked past Ian's door, I saw it was cracked open slightly - and I caught a quick glimpse of Ian sitting in a cockpit mechanism, wearing a black helmet with a dark tinted visor.
A similar mechanism waited inside my room. I climbed into the chair and Stanley adjusted the safety harness straps around my chest. He put a black helmet over my head like a real fighter pilot wears. It took him a while to get everything properly adjusted. I sat in a large metal frame with a well-padded seat and a monitor in front. Overhead florescent lights illuminated the room. The chair had joystick style controllers at each hand. Stanley left me alone in the room and closed the door behind him.
Then the game started. I heard Ian's voice through the helmet's speakers. He asked "Hey! Can you hear me?" Yes. I could hear him. It was really cool like walkie talkies. But the graphics were much less impressive than the rest of the setup. Unambitious green squares and circles floated around on a simple black background. I giggled and told Ian that I could probably draw something better on my Commodore 64 at home.
The green lines began rotating as a woman's prerecorded voice came through the headphones. She said, "Player One. You are the triggerman. Pull the trigger before the countdown. You do not want to fail." The screen displayed a "15" in big block letters. Then it changed to 14. Then 13. The countdown was on. My favorite type of games are the ones that don't make any effort to explain themselves. You just figure them out as you go along.
"Who's Player One?" I asked. Ian didn't know. When I grabbed both joysticks, I was surprised that they didn't swivel. And they each only had one button. I clicked the buttons. The voice continued counting down. 8...7... "I don't think I'm player one." I told Ian, "My trigger doesn't do anything."
Ian said "I'm trying-" and halfway through his sentence, I felt a jolt of static electricity run through me and I yelled,"Youch!" Ian called through the headphones, "Are you okay?" I responded, "No! Something messed up with my seat. I got shocked when you did that." After the shock, the counter reset to 15 and began counting down the seconds again. And then louder, I yelled, "Stanley! This is broken!" The timer was at 10. My safety harness wouldn't unlock.
Ian started protesting, too, "Hey! Stanley. Something is wrong with this machine! It accidentally shocked him. "
7... 6... 5....
Between calling the numbers, the woman's computer voice said. "The game must go on. You do not want to fail."
Youch! The shock was even bigger this time.
15...14.. .
The first shock didn't really hurt, it just scared me. This one actually stung. I kept trying to unbuckle the seat. "Ian. It shocks me when you push the button. The shocks are getting bigger. Don't push it anymore." And then much louder, I yelled, "Stanley! I want out!"
Ian promised he wouldn't shock me anymore.
6...5... The Game must go...
"Stanley, let me out!" I yelled.
3...2...1... another shock came, stronger than the previous two. "I didn't do that one," Ian called out. And then the computer made the noise that every 80's arcade game makes when your turn is over. "wha-whomp" I breathed a sigh of relief. But only for one second.
"Player Two. You are the triggerman. Pull the trigger before the countdown. You do not want to fail. 15...14...."
Ian had figured out the real nature of the game before I did. He pleaded, "Please don't pull the trigger." But I was still in denial. I said, "Maybe it was just a malfunction with my unit. Maybe it won't shock you if I pull the trigger." Ian said it couldn't be a malfunction.
I kept bargaining, "But if I don't pull, it will still shock you."
He responded, "Yeah. But then we can take turns taking the shocks. It's not fair for one person to take all the shocks."
5...4...3...
"Maybe it won't shock you." I said. I squinched my eyes and squeezed the trigger as Ian yelled in pain through the headphones. I could tell from his screaming that his shock was as bad or worse than either of the ones I got. The countdown started over again. "That hurt. I can take a few more shocks, but I'm going to need a break. You have to give me a break."
I waited until the last possible nano-second before pulling the trigger, but I pulled it. "AAAw!" yelled Ian. "It's getting worse! Did you pull it?" 15...14....
Yes.
He begged, "Please stop."
As a 10 year old, I had a surprising grasp of the game. I was terrified, but I knew what had to be done. I said, "If I give you control, How do I know you won't keep pulling the trigger? If I lose control, you'll keep shocking me to protect yourself. Then I would be the one begging you to switch control. You could shock me to death."
6...
He pleaded, "I won't! I promise, I won't. I gave you control earlier. I just need a break. Besides... They won't kill us. Surely. Please take two little shocks. Then I will give you control again. Please."
Between tears, I said, "No you wont. It hurts too much. You won't switch."
3... 2... "AAWWWW!" He screamed.
"I'm so sorry Ian." I needed him to forgive me for what I was doing.
I heard Ian thrashing against his restraints and he yelled, "Stop it! I want out. Let me out. Don't do this to meeee!" I screamed too, "Stanley! Stanley! Stop this game!" We both begged as the seconds ticked down. The door to my room stayed closed. When the countdown was almost over, I shocked him. Again and again. Every fifteen seconds. The shocks kept getting stronger and the screams got louder. I could hear him screaming through the walls in addition to the headphones.
I still think about this every day of my life. At a certain point, the lights would dim when I pulled the switch and I could hear the crackle of electricity through the wall. My memory of this is so vivid. Thirty years later, most of my nightmares involve flickering and dimming fluorescent lights. His screams turned to whimpers as the electrical current crushed him.
Then he stopped making any noises. The lights dimmed and hissed with each click of the button, but no human sound came from the other room.
"Ian? Can you hear me?! Is he alive!?!" I yelled. But I didn't dare give up control. I kept shocking him until the computer voice said. "Game over." The seat belt clicked open and I burst through the door of the simulator room and to the room where Ian was. His door was locked and I banged on it. "Ian! I'm so sorry!"
Stanley came out and said. "Son, I need you to come in this room."
"NO. NO. No. I'm not going in the next room! No!" I sprinted to the door that lead back to the lobby but it was locked. I was screaming and yanking on the door. Weeping tears of terror as Stanley approached. He tried to grab me with his arm and I jerked away again. NO!
"Son. Ian's okay." And magically, Ian was okay.
His door opened and he stood there. Stanley continued, "Ian's an actor. This was an experiment. This store has been funded by several groups that value traditional morality to see how regularly playing violent video games impacts moral behavior. We wanted to see how far you would push the experiment."
He had a cash bill in his hand. He knelt down beside me and said, "Here is $10 for your participation in the experiment. If five of your friends say that you told them about the back room, we'll give you an extra $10." He explained that I had to keep the nature of the experiment secret - so that I didn't tamper with the results.
The next day at school, my friend Paul stopped me. I was still in a daze. I was still in shock. He didn't seem to notice. Hey said, "Hey! I was at the mall and I saw Stanley lead you to the inner room! What was it like? Were there any naked games? I heard there is a flight simulator that will lift you off the ground. I heard it feels like a roller coaster."
I was almost catatonic. I stared out through the window to a bird in the grass picking at a worm. He ripped it out of the ground in one motion as it wriggled around before dying. "It was awesome." I said. "Maybe he will let you in, sometime."
I never told my mother what happened.

~0.0 {credit to original author} {request from BloodAngel170} Hope you guys enjoyed! ^-^ I will try to post more tonight :3 night night