A Bunch Of Stories Shoved Into One Book

Seeing Red

/Ben's POV/
Ben tried to think. But he couldn't gather any thoughts.
Except one.

Cold.
Then another thought.
Water.

Ben tried to scream out in the darkness. But it was no use. No one could hear him.
But then, there was a voice. A high-pitched giggling. Then suddenly, all the black faded into white....

Ben gasped for air and water was pushed out of his lungs. His breath heaved and he looked around the slightly red tinted room.

'Why is everything red?,' he wondered. He looked around and focused his vision, coming to the conclusion that he was in a town. There was a big clock tower in the middle of it. Ben was confused. It all looked so familiar, yet so alien to him. He stood up and saw that a green tunic and white leggings had been slipped onto him. Then he touched his head, noticing that someone had put a green cap there.

His ears.
Why were his ears pointed? He gasped, realizing who he was and ran to the washing pool to see his reflection. He screamed. He was Link, from the game the Legend of Zelda, Majora's Mask, but he wasn't right. He had seen dark liquid dripping down his cheeks, seemingly from his eyes, and he suspected what the liquid was.

A metallic smell suddenly filled his nostrils and Ben wondered how he didn't notice it before. He laid a finger to his cheek and pulled it away. Ben studied his finger and felt warm on it. It was blood. Warm, crimson, sticky, blood. He gasped.

Then, in the distance, he heard what sounded like an old Nintendo 64 being powered on. By then, Ben had realized where he was. The Clock Town. He remembered something just then. He used to own a Majora's Mask game. What if... what if this was that game? And someone else was playing it? Ben started to get angry and felt fresh blood start to flow from his eyes. It was HIS game. Why were they playing it?! It belonged to him!

He saw the Link figure pop up in the next file, which was like seeing it through a glass floor. Maybe kind of transparent but not all the way. So, he slipped through the 'floor' and stood behind the Link figure and smiled up at the screen, seeing the person holding the remote.

They were going to pay for playing his game.

- - - - - -

Her scream echoed in his ears.
His sobs rang out through the game, then he saw another person playing it on their Nintendo 64. Ben didn't know how much time it had been.

They guy playing it was wearing a blue and brown hoodie, and he had amber colored lenses on a pair of goggles. Ben was almost frightened of him, but he couldn't put his finger on why. The guy started playing on Ben's profile, and Ben reached out and grabbed the boy's arm. Ben gasped, not knowing he could do that, and pulled himself out of the television.

The unknown boy should've screamed, but he didn't. Ben didn't know why. All he knew was that the room was fading from red to black, and he barely registered his body hitting the ground in exhaustion......

/Toby's POV/
Toby had started up the Nintendo 64, knowing full well what would happen. There had been reports of people dead and bleeding everywhere, sometimes missing limbs. And they had always been playing this Majora's Mask game right before they died. This sketchy cartridge held the thing that killed them. He had started to play on the new profile named "Link." This was going to be tricky. Toby had to find the thing trapped in here and get it out. But all Toby was doing was running around the apparent "Clock Town," when suddenly he saw a person appear. It was Link, except.....he had bloody eyes. He looked much more grown up than the avatar for the regular game. This confused Toby, but what was even more confusing was that 'Link' had started to grasp at the screen, as if trying to rip it open. Toby didn't move from his spot as 'Link' succeded, pulling himself out from the apparent edge in the screen. Toby watched with interest as the boy pulled himself fully out. He propped himself up on his arms, then they collapsed as he fainted, drifting away into unconsciousness......

Toby stood up, turning the game off, and picked up the boy, all of his weight on Toby. He strained quite a bit but was able to lay him down on a bed. It was actually Toby's bed, but he didn't mind because he never slept on it anyway. He always slept somewhere else. Like the floor. Or the couch. Or even the table. It was a habit of being gay. You couldn't sit on anything right, and for Toby, he couldn't even sleep on anything right. Ben shifted in his sleep and Toby walked to the bathroom and ran warm water over a washcloth, walking back inside and gently wiping the blood from the boys cheeks.....

/Ben's POV/
Ben felt himself being carried somewhere. In his state of consiousness, he couldn't tell the difference between dragged and carried, so it didn't matter which. He didn't know who was carrying him, but, as he tried to concentrate and get his thoughts together, he slipped back into the abyss.......
And then he was permanently awoken by a warm, tickling sensation on his cheeks, forehead, and arms. Someone had cleaned him while he was sleeping. Ben's ears twitched slightly. And that someone was still here. Next to wherever he lay. 'Oh shit. It's that boy,' He thought to himself. Then that boy spoke. "Hey, buddy, I don't know how you got stuck in that video game but you're out of it now. You're safe now." Ben sighed to himself and whispered in a surprisingly raspy voice, "Th-thank you....."

/Toby's POV/
"You're welcome. Now, do you know who you are?" Toby asked gently. The boy was probably around fifteen years old, and he'd just pulled himself out of the television, so Toby could understand if the boy temporarily forgot who he was. "I...um...B-ben? I think that's right," he mumbled. "Well, Ben, nice to meet-" Toby flinched unintentionally. It was one of his weird qualities, it was why people in school used to call him Ticci Toby. Because he involuntarily twitched at any random moment. "-You. Sorry about that. Can't help it too much," Toby finished.

Ben nodded, knowing the feeling Toby had was like Ben's uncontrollable anger whenever anyone played his game. Neither of them could help themselves. But because Ben understood Toby more, he felt like he had finally found someone to befriend. But....why finally? Ben tried to remember, but his mind felt like static. It was as if there was no signal coming from the satellite that held his memories. It was broken. "I...w-where am I?" Ben asked the other boy. "You're at my house. Though, I don't think you can go anywhere right now, just saying, because you just pulled yourself out of a television and passed out." Ben nodded, thankful the boy was letting him stay.