"ʏᴏᴜ'ʟʟ ʙᴜʀɴ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴜꜱ"

Chapter 39: Well-Played

It was a game I could assume was BB's Air Adventures, or related at least. I saw the blue floating pieces, and I jumped my character, which looked like balloon boy, toward the blue platforms. I collected balloons, every one I saw.

6 balloons....

...6 kids.

Something warped the 8 bit world as I know it, leaving me to fall into black and red static, falling to a dark ground. A large crying figures leaned over me, marionette like in its form.

I collected a cake sprite, and it all faded to black static.

I woke from the odd reverie with a jolt, startled at first that I had been standing in the eerie room. I took a breath and sighed, something within my chest felt lighter, and I turned to see two children in the doorway. I stared for a moment, recognizing them as Jeremy and Gabriel, who ran before I could attempt any conversation. I heard their footsteps disappear down the hallway with a giggle. I smiled, seeing them act innocent and childish made me wonder that they have their own ways of being happy even when dead.

I weird dreadful feeling came over me as I realized  there were only two games left to play, and they were those strange and damaged looking ones.

I didn't really want to play the games any more, but a certain curiosity about the weird games began to lead me to the arcade room.

Walking down the hallway just before the Arcade room, my clicking uniform shoes echoed through the rooms. Suddenly I heard another set of footsteps, heavier than mine and metallic sounding. I stopped and turned around quickly, eying the hallway but not seeing anything. Maybe I'm hallucinating?

I turned back around to continue towards the room.

"BOO!"

"AH?!"
A tall and dark figure lunged from the darkness, a twisted grin and a rotten corpse face scaring the living hell out of me before I realized who had jump-scared me.

"What the hell man?!" I huffed, catching my breath from being actually rather terrified. He bent over holding his stomach, cackling excessively.

"Your face! Oh my-" I slapped him on the nose but he was hardly phased, just wheezing and swatting away my hand. "Cmon seriously!? It wasn't even that funny!" I huffed.

He finally stood up straight with a loud huff, still bearing a smug grin. "Your so lucky you've never seen my real face." He chuckled.

I shuddered violently for a second, since I unfortunately knew what he was talking about.

If he had eyebrows he would've raised them. He eyed me yo and down, seeing me shudder with unease. "Oh? Why that look?" He questioned.

"I've seen it I think.." I stated.

He was quiet and still for a moment.

"....How...?" He asked, leaning down to look at my face expression  more closely.

I didn't look into his eyes, instead I stared at the tiles of the floor. "Ever since I started working here I've been having strange dreams..." I began. "Many are far from pleasant."

His eyes softened unexpectedly, "Nightmares, hm?"
He hummed, and I nodded.

"A few of them had you in it, chasing me, hunting me." He tilted his head as I continued. "And fire would consume us all as you killed me, and I saw what hid behind your mask."

It was his turn to shudder, the thought of dying to flames creeped into his mind and the vague fear crossed his eyes.

"I guess it wasn't too different to how you acted towards me during then..." I mentioned bitterly.

He wanted to back away out of his own discomfort, but he fought the urge. He brought his hands up to both sides of my face, caressing my cheeks in a gentle way that caught me off guard, my eyes finally met his. My face flushed at the proximity and the contact.

"There...is no real excuse for how I acted..." he breathed.

"But that's a side of me I don't want to see ever again..." his voice shook slightly, his slight accent lacing his words.

"And I won't let anyone hurt you again...I am no exception... and I promise that."

The look in his eye in this moment told me he meant it.

I couldn't help the watering of my eyes, as I placed my hands over his, taking them slowly away from my face but not letting go of them.

"Thank you..William...but you know that's a promise you can't always keep...you can't always be there to help, you know?"

I could tell he didn't want to accept it, but he knew it as well as I did. he sighed.

"I really only treated you that way back then because I thought I could scare you away from this place. It's just too much evil for you." He slid his hands away from mine. I snorted. "Well damn, I'm insulted that you thought that's all it would take." I joked, hoping he knew I was kidding.

"You know it's almost kinda weird..." he started, scratching his ear as if it could even feel anything.

"What is?" I tilted my head.

"I remember you from when you were just a little girl..."