It's Not a Game

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You yawn, stretching your tiny and fragile arms. After your eyes clear from your restful sleep, you find yourself in a strange environment. It seemed to be a giant empty room with glowing walls and carpet floors. However, upon closer inspection, you see the rest of the room is crowded with other sleeping children, some you know, others you've never seen. But, as a child yourself, fear swept over you. You feel the sense of being kidnapped. You feel like you'll never see your loving parents again.

A familiar voice shouts your name. Your friend, Josh, suddenly runs up to you and sweeps you off the ground.

"About time you're up," he exclaims. "You just gotta see this place!" Before you can ask any questions, he quickly drags you out of the room. You run through hallways that have the same glowing floor and wall pattern. You start to wonder if the entire building appeared the same, and Josh was overreacting. But, eventually Josh halted, and your eyes widened upon looking at what was in front of you.

A giant arcade with many kids running around and playing games feasted your eyes. Laser tag was in one corner, old and new arcade games in the other, a prize vendor directly in front of you. Everything popped out like a scene from the future. You couldn't contain your excitement. 

"Come on," said Josh, yanking you once more. "I know a game our Mommies and Daddies wouldn't let us play!" He led you through a narrow hallway next to the vendor. At the end of the hallway, a huge room with pool tables and air hockey tables sat in front of you. Surprisingly, the hallway and room were completely empty. All noise was drowned out. It felt great to have a lot of space to you and your friend. 

You and Josh ran over to a pool table and loaded a game. None of the games seemed to require coins or a card of some sort. They just started once you came up to them. You and Josh laughed and had the most fun in your life. You didn't care about competition or who won; the only thing you two cared about was smacking the balls around. The two of you switched from table to table, trying out each one. But you were having so much fun you didn't bother to pay attention to the condition of the games.

It must've been an hour before you grew weary of playing pool and air hockey.

"I'm getting bored," you say to Josh. "Let's try something else out."

Josh agrees with you, and the two of you walk out of the room and stand in front of the prize vendor. More kids were running around and playing games, but there was still enough room to hold a couple armies. You want to try out the laser tag game next, but Josh insists you race him on one of the arcade games. Hating to turn down your friend, you roll along with him and follow him.

You trip on your shoelace and yell at Josh to hold up, but he keeps on walking. The music killed your voice, no matter how loud you yelled. You try to quickly tie your shoelace, but because you've had little practice, it takes you a while. By the time you're up and ready to walk again, Josh is out of your sights. You frantically search for Josh, but come across something horrifying.

A large dark blue creature with spikes and a long tail surrounded a kid playing an arcade game. It looks up at you and makes a loud, deep hissing noise. You couldn't even tell if it had a face. It was too lumpy and wrinkly to tell. 

Fear washed over you, and you scream and run away. Eventually, you run into Josh, who is playing the racing game without you.

You shake Josh like a madman, shouting, "Hey, we have to go. There's a monster in here!"

But Josh didn't budge a bit. He didn't make a sound, nor take his eyes away from the screen. He kept playing the game as if you were never there. 

You take a closer look at Josh, and see his eyes have gone blank and soulless. His breathing became still, and his body refused to move from the spot. You looked at some of the other kids, and they all act the same exact way. 

You start to cry. You have no idea where you are, nor do you have any idea on how to leave. You huddle in a corner, ready to accept your fate. But something tells you to move. Something tells you they're coming for you next.

In an instant, you run out of the arcade area, into the hall. You reenter the room you awoke in, relieved to see a handful of kids still sleeping. With a deep breath, you scream with all your might to wake the kids up. A few woke up with sleepy eyes, some were sound asleep. You feel a sense of empowerment, but that only lasted before something stiff covered your face.

Before you had another chance, something dragged you out of the room, leaving the awoken kids to suffer the same fate as the others. 


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