Chapter Text
‘Help.’
That was the only thought that crossed your mind as the seemingly unnatural words echoed throughout the hallway and reverberated through your bones. You were frozen; you felt your blood turn to ice as the final sounds seeped out of the hallway, once again leaving you in complete silence.
THUMP THUMP THUMP. Your heartbeat was the loudest sound now, rushing loudly throughout your ears and pouding across chest. You glanced down slightly, hoping that your heart wouldn’t break right through your ribcage; it certainly sounded like it might.
As the seconds turned into minutes, it was almost as if nothing had happened, as if no words were spoken, as if there was nothing to be afraid of. But you knew better; even a week of sleep deprivation couldn’t have created something that real, something that haunting. You stood there, frozen, for what seemed like eons, waiting. Waiting for anything, everything. A sound, a movement. Anything.
Nothing.
Finally, as seconds turned into minutes, your heart rate slowly dropped. You stretched your fingers slightly, as if detecting vibrations in the air. Your eyes darted around the hall, into the arcade, everywhere. No one was there.
This was not in the job description, you thought to yourself. A nervous smile appeared on your face; your expression lied to itself. You certainly didn’t feel like laughing at this moment, although humor had always been your defense mechanism.
Shit, stop smiling and leave. You scowled at the ground, wondering why you were such an idiot. Maybe they were right, maybe you didn’t deserve to be here. Everyone you worked with certainly saw you as incompetent, and if you couldn’t think of an appropriate way to deal with this situation, one where you were clearly in danger, then maybe they were right. Maybe you didn’t deserve to be here.
Maybe I should just quit. They don't need me. I’m no good. I can’t even help them with the simplest of tasks. I can’t even get myself out of trouble. I should just quit.
THUNK
A loud noise caused by something far away brought you back to reality. The very scary reality where someone, or something was very real and very close.
What am I doing?! You realized that you were arguing with yourself at the worst possible time ever. You glanced back up and studied your surroundings, eyes darting back and forth. You discovered that your body was still frozen in place, seemingly glued to the floor. You stood in a defensive position, and only now realized that standing in such a way for so many minutes straight was beginning to send bolts of pain up and down your arms and legs. You needed to move. You needed to leave.
I need to get out of here, now.
You slowly began to back up from where the sound first echoed from. It was now apparent that whomever had spoken to you was in the arcade, and since that was the only entrance to the room based on the Plex-Map you had studied a few days ago, they certainly hadn’t left yet. They were in there, so you could only hope they would stay in there long enough for you to make a quick escape.
You continued taking hesitant steps backwards, looking for any signs of movement. If this had been any other time or place, you most likely wouldn’t have been as a cared as you are now. But you knew the Plex now, you knew the security system, and you knew your employees’ schedules. Whoever spoke to you certainly shouldn’t be here, and based on the fact that they had made it past dozens of security robots, you weren’t too keen on meeting anything face to face who could do that.
As you neared the fork in the hallway that would lead you to a different exit, you glanced back one last time at the eerie glow of the arcade. You stared, heartbeat picking up once more as you witnessed the lights slowly dim darker and darker. You froze once more, waiting for something to happen.
The hallway was nearly pitch black now, as only the smallest bit of light escaped the arcade: red light. The color would have almost been calming if you hadn’t been so terrified at the moment. You waited, breath caught in your lungs, as you listened for anything. Long moments of silence passed by, and finally something whispered…
“Please… Don’t go…”
Your eyes widened slightly, and all logic left your brain instantly, flowing out of you as your heartrate picked up again. Nothing made sense. That voice was nothing like the first ones. It didn’t sound eerie, or bewitching, or anything like you had heard before. Nothing like the venomous whispers that had previously left the arcade. It just sounded…
Hopeless.
It almost reminded you of…
You stole a quick glance behind you and saw the faint green “exit” sign just down the hallway. You could make it. Easily. You just had to go. You just had to leave.
‘Shit.’ You dragged your eyes back to the arcade, back to the weak red light. You clenched your hands; your nails dug painfully into the palms of your hands.This was none of your concern. Hadn’t they taught you anything back in elementary school? You know, about how not to approach strangers? How to not make insanely dumb decisions? Stranger danger, all of that?
Maybe you should have listened more carefully.
‘I’m such an idiot. I’m not going in there.’’ Yet, your feet disagreed as they began to make slow steps back towards the arcade.
‘Shit shit shit shit, I HATE myself.’ You squeezed your eyes shut as if trying to block out your thoughts, block out your bad decisions. But, as the arcade drew nearer and nearer, you finally accepted that your curiosity would best you this time. You glared at your own feet as if they personally had insulted you.
‘This is so dumb.’ You thought, as the arcade neared closer and closer. The red light now enveloped your body, and it was easier to see your surrondings as you aporached the light’s source. Finally, you stood outside the entrance of the vast, spanning room. Waiting.
‘Should I say something?’ You knew very well that you shouldn’t say anything. In fact, you should be so far gone at this point that you could scream without whatever was in the arcade from hearing you. Yet, here you were, staring into the abyss. You opened and closed your hands softly, over and over. A grimace appeared on your face as you pondered your options.
'Gods I’m so dramatic, if I’m going to die, might as well get it over with.’ With a final breath, you took a step into the arcade. The only source of light came from a single arcade machine set way in the back. It was surprising that it was visible at all, based on how it was almost completely hidden by various other game consoles and the seemingly millions of cords that stretched across the back of the room.
You weaved your way between the rows of games, looking for any sign of movement. You realized, with a pang of anger towards yourself, that maybe you should have found some kind of weapon before entering the area. That would have been, you know, the smart thing to do.
‘Too late for that now, I guess.’ You continued making your way through the maze of games, looking for anything out of the ordinary. It was almost like you were in a trance at this point; any fear you had felt earlier was frozen somewhere else in your body, and in its place, a wave of curiosity and concern had replaced it.
You finally reached the back of the arcade, so close to the source of the red light that you appeared completely engulfed by it. You glanced around the room.
‘What was it that Tyler had said about this room?’ You tried to remember the exact words the prickly emplyee had said to you all of those hours ago. Well, based on what Tyler had mentioned, you had expected the arcade to be at least, I don’t know, a bit more intimidating? As you took in your surroundings, you were drastically underwhelmed. There were no ghosts, no unexplained blood marks, no creepy cobwebs; it was nothing like what you had imagined. It was just an… arcade. An impressive one at that, but just an arcade.
You continued absorbing the room. The ceiling vaulted high above you, so high in fact that you really couldn’t even see it; it was almsot completely shrouded in darkness, and only a few glow-in-the-dark star stickers made it possible to know that the ceiling was, in fact, there.
What appeared to be thousands of game cabinets surrounded you as well, all of them turned off for the night.
The ground was the same nostalgic, retro carpet that lined most of the floors around the rest of the Plex.
But, the most important fact about the room, though, whas the fact that there was no one there.
'Nothing? No people? No robots? No…?’ Your face contorted into confusion and uncertainty. Where had the voice come from? The creepy sounds? Had all of this been for nothing? Was there actually nothing here? No ghosts? No monsters?
Your face warped into many different expressions as you tried to process all the information that was flying throughout your thoughts, and finally after many moments, it landed on anger. You were mad at yourself.
‘Why do I have to be so stupid?! I could have gotten myself killed! I’m damn lucky that there’s no one here.’ You ran your hands through your hair, frustration coursing through your veins. Even if the voice had reminded you of someone, that didn’t mean that entering the one room that you were forbidden from entering was a good idea. It was a stupid notion to begin with.
“Damn it, the noises probably came from this stupid game. I got worked up over nothing!” You glared at the machine behind you. The red light stayed at a steady hue, almost seeming to taunt you. You rolled your eyes and began to stalk back towards the entrance of the arcade, seething in self-directed anger.
You had made it approximately 4 and a half steps towards the exit before the red light behind you grew in intensity. What had been a dull glow suddenly turned into an almost blinding glare of red, saturated light. For what must have been the millitonth time tonight, you froze in fear. The insensity of the light rose higher and higher; your eyes started to burn and you squeezed them tightly shut. The light was so bright, it began to almost seem tangible. Finally, just when you thought that the light was about to swallow you whole, it shut off, leaving you in complete darkness. You waited, terrified; the room was silent, yet your heart rang so loudly in your ears, you worried it may deafen you. You waited.
“Not nothing, love.” A voice suddenly purred. The words seemed to come from every direction at once; the noise surrounded you. Your blood turned cold.
Your entire body waited in anticipation for something else to happen; even your mind was silenced, which almost never happened. You waited seconds, minutes, an eternity.
Nothing…
You noticed that once again, your fingernails were cutting into your palms. This time, they drew blood. Frustration suddenly appeared on your face; you were getting damn tired of being scared over and over tonight. You found yourself wishing in a corner of your mind that something, anything, would happen; that seemed more appealing than being trapped in this constant state of fear and anticipation.
“Turn around, pretty please. I just want to talk.”
This time, the voice seemed to be right behind you.
The sound stalked through the darkenss and into your mind; you pressed your eyes shut even tighter together. At this point, you could almost feel tears sting between your eyelids. They threatened to make you cry silent sobs.
You took it back. Something happening was so much worse than the fear. It suddenly all became too real.
You gulped down the breath you had been holding, and you took in a shaky one to replace it. You arms were glued to the sides of your torso. You couldn't move. You couldn't think. After weeks and weeks of hearing ghost stories about the Plex, it all seemed to click. Something was behind you, something unnatural. You knew the stories were true. And you knew that you were going to die.
Finally, after eternities longer, you slowly turned around towards the arcade machine. Thoughts raced through your head, and you tried to grasp onto one that could be a helpful escape plan. Panic, though, was not the most helpful when it came to creating logical plans.
Your eyes were still shut, but you could see through your eyelids the red glow of the arcade machine slowly turn back on. You began to accept the fact that something was haunting this arcade. And that something was certainly about to kill you.
Suddenly, you heard a soft, deep, rumbling chuckle reverberate from the machine.
“Now, usually those who are going to help me do so with their eyes open.” Amusement laced the eerie, static drawn voice, yet you wondered if your were imagining the slightest tinge of concern that seemed interlaced through the words.
Escape plans continued to race throughout your mind, yet each one seemed helpless when compared to the threat that you imagined lay before you. Finally, you slowly cracked your eyes open to catch a glimpse at the monster that was surely looming in front of you.
Your eyes widened fully in disbelief as they saw, nothing? The only thing in front of you was the damned arcade game.
‘What?!’ You glanced over and around the machine, searching for anything that might have been the source of the sounds you had heard all night. There was… nothing. Just wires and a wall behind the machine. No one. Nothing.
You glared at the machine. It was the only possible option. Was someone messing with you. Was it possible for someone to be remotely controlling the machine? You didn’t think so; from the look of it, the technology of the console was rather outdated. It didn’t look like a high-tech piece of machinery capable of controlling all the stunts that had sent you into a panicked-spiral tonight.
It was just an… old machine.
A dim glow still emitted from the screen of the console, casting an eerie glow around the cavern of a room. Because of the light, shadows danced across the walls when you moved even the slightest.
The words “Insert Token” suddenly flickered pathetically on the bottom of the screen. You scowled at the machine.
‘I’ve had enough of this night, I’m going home.’ You reflected on how hard it was for you to have a single, fluid thought. Anxiety, fear, and sleep deprivation caused your brain to swim with broken, disjointed thoughts. You stood for awhile, trying to regain a presence in your own exhausted mind; words kept slipping from your grasp, like a dream shortly after awakening.
You were tired.
You breathed a final sigh, and began to turn around. As you did, the machine seemed to gain some of its old function back, as it clicked on and spit out a few staticky words: “PlAy a GaMEe. ...Se NeeDs YoUr Help!” You couldn’t make out a few of the words; the crackling of the recorded messages was nothing like what you had heard before. These noises were just the pre-programed sentences that were made to entice children to play the game over and over and spend more of their parents money on the scam of a machine.
Memories suddenly flowed into your mind; often, when you were younger, you would travel to your own town’s Pizzeria and Arcade with friends on your days off from school. The memory of sticky tokens and greasy pizza seemed so tangible, you almost felt like you were holding it.
You looked with curiosity at the machine, studying it up and down. As you glanced down at the bottom of the console, you saw an old, rusted token sitting almost hidden beneath the machine.
‘I’m not a child. ‘ You told yourself. ‘And more importantly, this piece of shit machine has been scaring me all night. Why would I play it?' Shouldn’t give it the satisfaction.’ You folded your arms and glared, knowing full well how stupid it seemed to be punishing a game. It didn't care whether you played it or not, it was just a game.
“Pleee… e. E. Aaaay A GaMMee.” Your eyebrows knitted together and a small smile appeared at your lips as the machine coughed out a few more crackly words. Damn, whoever programmed this game was really trying to get kids to spend their money on it.
You rolled your eyes and pursed your lips together as you leaned down, trying to cover up the small, excited smile that was beginning to tug at your mouth. If had been years since you had played one of these old arcade machines, and maybe you were just a little happy to try one out again.
As you picked up the old token from the ground, you questioned if the sleep deprivation was inspiring this wave of excitement, or just or own damn immaturity.
You slid the token into the textured slot; you half expected it not to work, so you were surprised when the machine kicked to life.
As the machine booted up, you took a second to examine the console. It was so dusty and broken that you hadn't been able to see the design previously, but upon closer inspection, you thought you could make out the word “Balloon,” on the top of the device. You reached your hand up and brushed away some of the dirt; a little image of a boy holding balloons was etched below the title of the game.
“Huh.” Flickering lights brought your attention back down to the surface of the screen. “PRESS START.” flashed on and off in the middle of the display. You glanced down, saw the dust-covered start button, and clicked it.
8-bit music rang from the machine, filling the arcade with ghostly echoes. You twisted to look back at the entrance of the room, hoping that no security-bot would find you in the forbidden arcade. Bright red light cast shadows on the rest of the broken, discarded machines, and you found yourself wondering if you should start making a bingo-card for all of the creepy things that kept happening tonight. You rolled your eyes and turned your gaze back to the console.
You cocked your head in confusion, though, when the display showed nothing that connected to the what was on the side of the machine. There were no balloons, no clouds, and no little boy. Instead, a title screen appeared on the screen - “Escape the ——.” The last word glitched, so you couldn’t read what it said, and you noticed that there was a large crack on the monitor right above the word.
8 bit music played softly in the background as the title screen dissolved into darkness. You glanced around the machine again. Nope. It definitely didn’t say anything about “Escaping” anything - as far as you could tell, the design of the machine was supposed to be for a completely different game. Maybe that’s why the console was so hidden in the back of the arcade - it was defective.
You refocused your gaze back onto the screen - a little pixelated character stood idly in the center of the “room.” It seemed to be some kind of… security guard? It was hard to make out due to how old the graphics were. But you thought you saw a little uniform on the character, as well as the flashlight it held.
A small smile appeared at your lips. Nostalgia hit you like a ton of bricks as you moved the little character around with the joystick and bounced it up and down. Familiar 8-bit sound effects echoed from the game and throughout the arcade.
“Alright, now where do I go?” It was somewhat hard to see the setting of the game, due to the large crack in the screen, but as far as you could tell, your character was in a maze-like building, and your objective was to find an exit. At least, you hoped that was the goal; if not, you were most likely going to lose the game quickly.
You wove through the web of hallways, studying each room as you entered them. It surprised you on how detailed each area of the game seemed to be - little secrets and “Easter eggs” could be found in each room, and victory music played with each new discovery. Your smile broadened as childhood memories were brought back with each new finding. You used to love games like this; yoy used to love finding every little secret possible.
As you progressed through the game, you noticed that the rooms became darker and darker, yet the game’s energetic atmosphere remained the same. The only other noticeable difference as you moved throughout the rooms, other than the lighting, was how secrets were becoming increasingly harder to find; instead of discovering about one per room, it became more like one per every 10 rooms.
You smiled slightly as you realized this must mean you were getting close to beating the game. Eventually, after a few minutes, you found that there were no more secrets to be discovered. You had searched each room top to bottom.
Your eyebrows knitted together. ‘Well, where’s the exit then.? You ran through the rooms again, once, twice, multiple times; there was no exit to be found. Your little character was trapped in the maze. Your confusion turned to frustration as you tried to find any way to beat the game.
“What the hell"?” You cocked your head to the side as suddenly, after minutes of nothingness, you found something different; one of the rooms you had just been in, now had a gaping hole in the floor. It looked like a trap door. You hesitantly led the security guard to the new path.
The cheerful music stopped. The lighting turned almost pitch black. All that could be seen was your character, their flashlight, and the barely visible set of stairs that lie before them.
Concern blossomed on your face as you placed your fingers back on the joystick and began to move the character forward. Footsteps echoed from the game and into the room you were in; the sound seemed to swallow you.
‘Weird.’ You bit on your cheek slightly as you continued moving forward… Or maybe downward was the better description. Minutes passed by, and you began to wonder if the staircase would ever end.
Finally, your character reached the bottom; a long hallway was your only path forward now. Now the game was nearly completely silent. There was no footsteps, no music, nothing like before. All you could hear was a faint buzzing sound.
Your character reached the end of the hallway. Finally, only a door stood in between you, and what you assumed must be the exit. Right before you were about to leave, though, you noticed the design of the door; it was… odd. Dim depictions of a Sun and a Moon were “etched” into the door, and in-between them was a golden, smiling mask. You were surprised at the level of detail, especially due to the game’s graphics and how old it was.
After studying the door for a few more seconds, you pressed your fingers back onto the joystick and shifted it forward. The door… didn't move. Nothing happened. You squinted your eyes and tried to press all of the buttons. Nothing. You tried moving back down the hallway. It was blocked.
“Damn, is the game broken?” You frowned and glanced around the game, looking for any kind of clue as to what you were supposed to do. This was obviously the exit, so why couldn’t you leav?
“Maybe there’s like a reset button or something,..” You looked at the sides of the console and ran your fingers along its edges. It was smooth: there was nothing to press. “Lord this game is getting on my nerves.” You rolled your eyes and began to back up out of the nook, preparing to leave once and for all, but just as you did, something caught your eye.
It was the game’s cord. It was lying right at your feet. It wasn’t plugged in.
Your eyebrows shot up. “What the…” You glanced back at the game. The screen was black.
“Okay, I really need to leave now.” You began to back away, terrified and exhausted from the night’s events. Why were you so stupid? Why didn’t you make better choices? You stared at the machine, hesitating as you waited for some kind of explanation that would make this whole night make sense.
You shouldn’t have waited.
Suddenly, a few sparse pixels appeared on the display. You leaned forward - terrified, yet horribly curious.
“Please, don’t go. I can help you.”
“Shit, shit, shit, this place is haunted.” You ran your hands through your hair, wondering why you were still in this bloody arcade after everything that had happened tonight. In a small corner of your brain, you seemed to accept the fact that you were either too curious for your own good, or too stupid. (You were beginning to put your money on too stupid).
You glanced around the arcade, terrified and confused. You should leave. More words appeared at the screen.
“I’m sorry for scaring you earlier, dearie. I forget that people aren’t used to sentient video games. Which is odd though, because you all seem completely accepting of sentient animatronics.”
You looked, perplexed, at the screen. Nothing made sense. All your fear-fried brain could manage as a response was a pitiful “Huh?” You bit your tongue, trying to regain any sense of logic or reason. Your heart was beating too fast for you to even hear your own thoughts.
A quiet laugh seemed to resonate across the arcade, causing everything in the room to vibrate ever-so slightly. Your eyes widened.
It all was too much. It all was too much. It all was too much.
Finally, after a long night of fear and bad decision making, something finally clicked. You regained your senses. Thought began to become more logical, and uou were going to defend yourself against whoever, or whatever was messing with you. You were mad. Mad that you had made so many bad decisions tonight, mad that you had played the game. But most importantly, you were mad because you knew that you were never going to get to see Sunny and Moon again, because whatever was haunting you was certainly going to kill you.
“Who are you!?” You shouted out, eyes squinting in frustration as you said the words. “Leave me alone! Leave this place alone! Just leave!”
Your attention returned back down to the arcade screen, as more words began to apear on the display.
“I thought we already talked about this. I can’t leave. I would if I could, believe me, dear. That’s why I need you. I need your help, and you need mine."
You shook your head and pressed your tongue to the roof of your mouth. What?Nothing made sense. Nothing from this WHOLE night made any sense. This had been a horrible day. Well, more like a horrible night/early next day. It had just been a long, horrible time. Your sleep deprived brain only made things worse.
“You didn’t answer my question, who are you.” You looked quizically at the machine, waiting for a response. At least nothing spooky had happened for the last few seconds, unless you count the text on the screen. The room was surprisingly calm at the moment. No sounds. No sights. Just the screen. And the words seemed… not too ghost-like? Maybe you weren’t going to die tonight.
Wishful thinking.
“I’m no one that you would know. I’ve been trapped in this game for ages, and you’ve only been working here for a few weeks, am I correct? How do you like it here so far?”
The question seemed genuinely inquisitive, yet you wondered how a sentient game from the arcade knew more about you than most of your coworkers did. Most of the time, your fellow employees saw you and assumed you were a customer that needed help, despite having met them repeatedly before. Most of them never remembered you or never cared to talk to you.
“It’s… fine. Other than the sentient, horrifying arcade machines. Those are a bit concerning; they weren’t in the job description, although maybe I should have looked more closely under the section labeled Haunted Locations and How to Not Die.” You sneered slightly, and were surprised when a small chuckle rang through the arcade. It hummed across the room, and you could feel the vibrations in your feet. You almost smiled. Almost. Maybe if you weren’t terrified for your life at the moment, you would have.
“Once again, apologies for frightening you. I didn’t mean to, it’s just that…”
“What?” You wanted to smack yourself in the face for asking the question. You should be running away right now, not having a casual conversation with some ghost.
“I actually didn’t expect that you would hear me. No one can… usually. Most of the time, my ability to interact with your world is limited to controlling the lights, and even that capability isn’t always a given.”
You paused and thought for a moment, trying to process everything that had happened.. The screen waited patiently.
“So… wh- what do you want from me?” You knew there was probably ten million other, better questions that you could ask at this moment. But your mind was too jumbled and confused. Overall, other than terrifying, this night had been primarily extremely confusing.
“I just need a small favor. But more importantly, I heard of your plight, and I wish to offer my assistance. Perhaps, we could make a deal, and in exhange for my help, you could grant me my request?”
How the.. game… “talked” was interesting. The words flickering and glitched across the screen, yet despite that, they looked oddly orderly. It was a beautiful mixture of chaos and balance. You found yourself slightly mesmerized by the sight.
You suddenly bounced back into reality, and you finally processed what it had wrote. “What favor?” You slightly closed your eyes, curious.
It didn’t respond for a long time. You waited. The screen flickered slightly.
“I want to… need to leave this game.”
The screen paused for a few seconds.
“And I think you might be my only hope.”