EPISODE XXII

Don’t go to the Arcade at Midnight

Nuk had a few arcades spread across town, but one was far larger and better stocked than any of the others: Vi’s Virtual Ventures. The exterior wasn’t all that fancy, looking like any other storefront on the strip where it stood, just with more of a love for neon lighting than the more traditional businesses nearby. Seeing as it was currently the middle of the day, the lights were difficult to see and the sign was actually the hardest to make out of everything nearby. Fortunately, Vi’s Virtual Ventures didn’t need to be easily recognized since anyone who cared already knew about its existence, and anyone who didn’t was not the sort to need to know about it.

The interior was covered in a dark carpet that popped with brightly colored abstract shapes. There were virtually no standard lightbulbs in the building; instead, the arcade relied on colored lights and the arcade cabinets themselves to provide illumination. There was little to no organization within the arcade machines, with driving games situated next to shooters and top-down adventure games. There were also the more traditional arcade games that didn’t require screens, such as hoops, skee ball, and cat marbles.

Cat marbles was Vayvaresi’s favorite game, it turned out. She wasn’t big on all the screens and loud noises, but she did like watching thousands of marbles with cat ears roll down player-created mazes. She had stuck around it even after Amaris had wandered elsewhere with Nina and Taylor. Amaris always made sure to keep an eye on Vayvaresi in case something happened, but they were in the same building so Vayvaresi’s curse was unlikely to activate. It was her own curse that she had to be careful of.

Amaris herself wasn’t much of a “gamer,” as Nina would say. She enjoyed the games well enough and her GameBrick was one of her prized possessions, though that was mainly just because it accompanied her on her journeys. Still, she didn’t mind visiting an arcade every now and then to have fun, especially if it meant spending time with Auntie Nina.

Nina, however, was a gamer, despite her age. She knew how to play every digital game in the arcade with impressive skill and finesse, and was part of local competitive gaming scenes. Today, she was supposedly just having fun, but they’d run into Taylor, who was also part of the competitive scene, and thus Amaris got to watch as the two of them slowly became more and more invested in winning over the course of the day.

Amaris didn’t mind. She wasn’t exactly here to win the games.

The two of them were currently playing some kind of hunting simulator. The controllers were big, plastic, clunky, oversized rifles that didn’t hit the spot on the screen they were aimed at.

Both Taylor and Nina knew this and were able to adjust their aims to compensate, going for headshots on all the elk currently on screen, trying to take them out before either of the others. The expressions on both of them were of utter and complete focus. Taylor had even lifted up her stylish blue shades onto her forehead to make sure she got the best information into her eyes. Everything was calculated.

Amaris had to admit, it was somewhat impressive. They flicked their guns left and right with amazing precision, headshotting every single elk, missing only when their opponent had hit the target before them. It was like watching an intense rapid-fire hunting sport. Just that the elk weren’t real.

You know, that would be really messed up if the elk were real, Amaris thought. Or if these video games contained real worlds that we torment every time we play… She filed that thought away for later in her brain, in case she ever had to deal with something like that.

Eventually, the game’s timer ran out. Nina shot her hands into the air. “Hah! Gotcha, Taylor!”

Taylor put her gun up and slid her glasses back down over her eyes. She crossed her arms and leaned back on an arcade cabinet, striking a cool pose accented by her smug smirk. “Your reflexes will go eventually, granny, and then I’ll have you.”

“Oooh, loser wants to trash talk!” Nina put her hands on her hips and shook her head. “You’ll be waiting a long time for that, kid!”

Taylor chuckled, turning to Amaris. “We’re not leaving you out, are we?”

“You totally are, but it’s fun to watch,” Amaris said.

“Oh, my, sorry Amaris,” Nina said.

“You don’t need to apologize, Auntie Nina, you’re fine. Although… if you’ll permit me to make a request, how about you try that unfair jackpot game that nobody wins?”

“That thing’s rigged,” Nina and Taylor said at the same time.

“Really? It’s just a really fast reaction test…” Amaris frowned. “Wait, you could easily program it to just not stop when you tap it, and it would be below human reaction time to tell that it slipped…”

“Which it does,” Nina said. “We’ve tested it multiple times.”

“I tested it,” Taylor said, hands on her hips. “You all kept trying it until I made the autotapper.”

“Vi would throw you out if she knew you had done that.”

“She has no proof and she never will.”

Amaris shrugged. “Well in that case, uh… I dunno, something with ghosts?” She paused. “...Hmm, we all call Orville a memory ghost, but he’s not really a ghost is he? No haunting, no spooking, not really dead. Technically.” She furrowed her brow. “I think.”

“Plenty of haunted house games,” Taylor said. “Of course, they say the arcade itself is haunted…”

Nina groaned. “Not this again.”

“Tell me more,” Amaris said, giving Taylor all of her attention.

Taylor put her hand to the bridge of her nose. “I forgot that you literally deal with hauntings and weird stuff all the time and take it seriously… it’s just a silly baseless rumor. Apparently, if you try to break into the arcade at midnight the spirits of the machines will take you. Naturally, just superstitious nonsense, as there’s no one here at midnight so even if you did break in and vanish, who is gonna figure out that it’s the spirits of the machines?”

“It ain’t a rumor!” An old man sweeping up a nearby floor shouted at them.

“Sure it isn’t, Steve,” Taylor deadpanned.

“Why do you think it isn’t a rumor?” Amaris asked Steve.

Steve snorted. “What do you care, kid?”

Amaris removed her ORHI business card and handed it to him. “We deal with the magical and supernatural, if you really have a problem we can help.”

The old man stared at the business card blankly for a minute. “...I’ve seen you on the news, haven’t I?”

“Yes, we’ve been interviewed recently.”

“Well then… stay here, I’m gonna show this to the boss.”

Nina glanced at Taylor. “Apparently something goes down in this place.”

“I’ve never actually heard or seen anything…” Taylor said, shaking her head. “You’d think if kids were vanishing at midnight I’d remember it.”

Amaris shrugged. “Maybe the people you hang around aren’t stupid enough to try it.”

“That’s… huh, I wouldn’t have said they were all that smart, but you’re right no one I know has tried to break into here at midnight just to see.”

“They probably have, they just didn’t tell you,” the voice of an old woman came to them: Vi, the owner of the establishment. She was permanently hunched over and had to use a cane to get around, but still wore a vibrant blue dress that would have been a fashion statement in a prior era. “And you thought they just stopped coming.”

“Ah. Vi. Uh. Hi.” Taylor grinned awkwardly. “I’m just gonna go and let you talk to Amaris here…”

“You plant your feet, young missy.”

Nina whistled. “Better listen to her, she’ll thwack ya.”

Taylor shuffled her feet nervously but didn’t move.

Amaris extended a hand to Vi. “Hi, I’m Amaris Kelvin. I don’t come here that often, but I do like it.”

“Pleased to hear it,” Vi said, shaking her hand. “You’re already far more polite than most of the people who come here.”

“To be fair, ma’am, this is an arcade, you kind of attract the unruly sorts.”

Vi nodded. “When I discovered the first arcade cabinet in the ruins, I had no idea it would turn into this business… lucrative though it has become, I wonder if I would take the same path were I allowed to go back.” She shook her head. “But you’re not here to hear an old woman’s potential regrets, and I’m not here to tell my life story. Steve tells me you’re with this ORHI group?”

Amaris nodded. “I have a curse that makes my life interesting, we use it to root out supernatural things.”

“Hmm… you might be able to help then. Yes, the rumors are true, kids really do vanish when they sneak in here at midnight. Though the evidence is somewhat… indirect. We have a security system that records whenever people break in, and as most of the people who would break in are stupid kids, a little alarm going off is usually enough to send them running, and when it isn’t, well, we have security cameras that can identify them. Here’s the thing though.” She narrowed her eyes at Amaris. “The alarm never goes off between eleven PM and two AM. Ever.”

Amaris furrowed her brow. “You’re right. If you have kids breaking in at other times, why not then? Especially because the rumor no doubt causes some kids to try it just to see.”

“Exactly. We thought that maybe the alarm was being tampered with, so we set up a security camera to watch the alarm systems themselves, and nothing happened. Something happens to this place at midnight.”

“Have you tried to stake the place out?”

“I’ve been considering it, but haven’t taken any action yet. Since you’re here that’s solved my problem.”

Amaris nodded. “Yes, I’ll get some people together, we’ll stake the place out. Our rates are on the card, is it okay if we come tonight?”

Vi nodded. “Yes. Best get it over with.”

“...By the way, how long has this been happening?’

“It took us a long time to notice the weirdness in the security recordings, but they go all the way back to when they were installed, so at least ten years.”

“Ooookay… something weird, yes. But if it’s been happening that long we should be able to find some missing children reports.”

“You’re always able to find those,” Vayvaresi reminded her as she walked back from her game. “This town is full of them.”

“Oh yeah, right, I was even one of them at one point…” Amaris furrowed her brow. If children can vanish so regularly as to make it problematic for us to track them down, how does anyone feel safe…?

“See you tonight, then?” Vi asked.

“See you tonight.”

“...Can I come?” Nina asked.

“You and Taylor both can,” Amaris said. “You know the arcade, you might be of assistance.”

Taylor gasped. “I… I get to go on a supernatural adventure!?”

“If you wa—”

“A million times yes! Yes!”

~~~

The team that night was Amaris, Vayvaresi, Coleus, Nina, Taylor, Orville, and the two new kids: Iwakiri and Kirishima. They all arrived at the arcade as it was closing and were setting up shop in one of the storage rooms behind an ‘employees only’ door.

“All right, you two Kiris, this is your first official mission,” Amaris said, hands on her hips.

“I thought the purple crystal investigation was our first mission?” Iwakiri asked.

“Well, I guess, but nobody hired us to do that one. Have you found anything out by the way?”

Iwakiri shrugged. “Maybe? We’ve found more rumors of the crystals circulating, but nothing definite. Old Man Fidget doesn’t even remember that he had them, much less where he got them from.”

“There’s a secret being actively kept,” Kirishima mumbled. “Those who know, like us, aren’t supposed to.”

Amaris sighed. “Well, keep investigating when you have the chance. But for today, forget about it, we have a client. Our job is to figure out what happens in this arcade at midnight and, if need be, fix it. It could be anything, and I’m expecting something pretty nasty, as whatever it does it seems to be wiping security feeds somehow.”

“You already mentioned this,” Kirishima mumbled.

“Just reminding you. And letting you know that it’s okay if you don’t know what to do, this is just your first outing. And…” Amaris paused. “It might get intense, sometimes these things can be really nasty. Be prepared for the worst.”

“The worst has already come…”

Iwakiri sighed. “You’ll have to forgive my sister, she…”

“Is broken,” Amaris said, nodding in understanding. “I know. I won’t hold it against her.”

Kirishima looked like she wanted to fillet Amaris for a second, but then she returned to staring at the floor.

“Okay, it’s thyme for Orville’s report!” Coleus said. “He, uh, wasn’t able to find any memories inside this place at midnight.”

“Well, there goes that idea, I guess.” Amaris frowned. “You’d think he’d be able to find us helpful information more often.”

“Would that be interesting?” Vayvaresi asked.

Amaris twitched. “I think it would be…”

At this point, Vi came into the room. Amaris stood up to greet her. “We’re preparing. Our memory ghost hasn’t found anything, so we’re going ahead with the stakeout.”

“Good…” Vi glanced at the Kiris. “Nekos? Really?”

Amaris resisted the urge to go on a rant. “Yes, they have skills and experience with magic.”

“...Fair enough.” Vi let out a haggard cough. “I hope you’re all still here in the morning.”

“If we aren’t, you can call the rest of ORHI,” Amaris explained.

“Heh. Good luck. I’m locking the place up now. If you can, please don’t trash it.”

“No guarantees, as if a monster shows up we might have to fight it, but we’ll do our best.”

“Hmm…” For a moment, Vi looked like she was second-guessing this whole thing. Then she shrugged and walked out the back door, locking it.

“Okay, everyone!” Amaris said, clasping her hands. “It is eight o’clock! Weird stuff happens at eleven, so we need to spread out and find every nook and cranny of this place before then! Always travel in pairs and keep your walkie-talkies on and receiving!” Amaris held hers up and waved it. “Got it?”

“Got it!” everyone called, except Kirishima, but Amaris knew she heard.

“All right, spread out!”

~~~

Coleus ended up paired with Kirishima. Which was to say Coleus had picked her specifically because she looked like life was weighing her down like an anvil and Coleus wanted to try to cheer her up.

“Look at all these a-maze-ing hallways!” Coleus said, gesturing at the floor plan she had of the Arcade. Besides the show floor, which was just a massive open space, there were a lot of back rooms connected by narrow hallways. One might expect the hallways to be dark and oppressive, but considering that the show floor was only lit by neon absurdities, the normal lightbulbs in the ceiling were an incredible improvement. “The left is right, but only right is right! Study carefully, we don’t want to get lost later when a monster chases us through here!”

“This isn’t a maze,” Kirishima grumbled.

“I don’t know about you, but I look at this map and I see a lot of hallways.”

“That are arranged normally and with plenty of doors and no dead ends that aren’t a closet.”

Coleus blinked. “Well. Yeah. But isn’t that cornpletely irreleva—”

“Oh look, another pointless pun that makes my soul feel like it’s being ground against sandpaper, what an excellent way to improve my mood.”

Coleus was stunned into silence, but she quickly recovered. “Okay, I can stop with the puns.”

“Oh wow, she’s going to do something she hates doing for my sake, that just makes me feel terrible.”

Coleus put her hands on her hips. “I was about to say ‘it’s almost like you don’t want to have a good time’ but then I realized that would be silly, because you actually don’t want to have a good time. Well, guess what little lady? You’re going to hang out with me and you’re gonna like it.”

“Like the people on the Strider liked you when you locked them up in vines?”

Coleus grinned evilly. “Exactly.”

Kirishima looked at her with an expression other than contempt for the first time ever—fear crossed her face. She didn’t say anything in return, she simply started walking faster, ahead of Coleus.

Good, Coleus thought as a tear ran down her face. I wasn’t going to be able to hold the pain in any longer… She wiped her eyes, trying not to think of all those people in her vine prisons that had been burned to a crisp. She is going to try to push my buttons. I can’t let them work. She can’t win and she needs to have fun.

It was slowly dawning on Coleus what a monumental task she had taken upon herself, and that perhaps her current emotional state wasn’t up to the task.

Oh well, too late to reconsider now…

She started walking faster to catch up to Kirishima. “So, to be clear, the locking you up with vines is purely meta-” she had to stop herself from making a pun and coughed on the syllable “-phorical. I won’t do that unless you attack me, which…” Coleus looked Kirishima up and down. “Yeah, I do need to be prepared to do that.”

“Do you ever stop talking?”

“Yes.”

“Good, consider doing that now.”

“We have to talk in order to do the job.”

“All we are doing is scouting out a hallway we already have a map of, there’s not going to be anything here!”

They turned a corner.

There was a big door made out of some kind of red metal on a wall that supposedly led outside. It was not on the floor plan.

Coleus gestured at the door.

Kirishima visibly twitched. She marched over to the door and stretched out her hand.

“Don’t do that, are you crazy!?” Coleus shouted.

Kirishima looked legitimately confused. “Aren’t we supposed to…”

“And get trapped in whatever psychotic death game is behind that door? No no no no no, we call this in to Amaris. Ahem.” Coleus whipped out the walkie-talkie. “This is Coleus, we’ve got something.”

“Already?” Amaris’ voice came back. “It’s not even close to time!”

“It’s one of those mysterious doors that isn’t on the floor plan. This one’s big, red, and metallic. It looks like it leads outside.”

“But it doesn’t?”

“Well, we didn’t open it.”

“Sensible.”

“But I’m pretty sure we’d’ve noticed a big red door on the outside.”

“Yeah, true. Location?”

“Western hallway.”

“Vayvaresi and I will be right there. …By the way, Coleus, you doing alright? I haven’t heard a single pun from you this conversation.”

“Kirishima has me on pun probation.”

“How cruel.”

“It is, isn’t it?”

“Mhm. See you soon.”

Coleus twirled the walkie-talkie and put it away, fixing Kirishima with a smug grin.

Kirishima simply folded her arms and leaned against the nearby wall, flicking her tail back and forth.

“So, do you want to sit in silence while we wait?”

“Yes.”

“Too bad!” Coleus slid up to her and pulled out a purple peach and handed it to Kirishima. “You get a snack instead!”

Kirishima stared at the fruit for a few seconds. “Did you… grow that?”

“Um… yes?”

Kirishima’s face flashed with disgust.

“...In a garden. Not like…” Coleus searched herself for a moment. “Where did you think I grew it?”

“I just didn’t want to eat you!”

“Oooh, good to know I’m not on the menu! That takes a load off my chest!” Coleus paused. “...That doesn’t count as a pun, right? That’s just an expression…” She shook her head, holding the fruit out to her. “It’s delicious!”

Kirishima angrily grabbed it and started munching.

“Yay!”

“This doesn’t mean anything,” Kirishima muttered.

“It means you’re hungry. That’s something.”

Kirishima snorted and choked on her fruit, but quickly recovered.

“And that means you find me funny.” Coleus put her hands on her hips and grinned. “And so it begins.”

Kirishima grumbled something incoherently.

“One day, I shall learn to speak Kirishima-grunts. One day.”

“Good luck.”

“Thanks!”

“No, that wa—” Kirishima stopped herself.

Coleus merely winked in response.

A short while later, Amaris and Vayvaresi arrived at the end of the hall and jogged over. Pitch was currently out on Amaris’ arm, coiling around just for the fun of it.

Amaris stood in front of the door. “Well. That’s a door alright.”

“Yes.” Kirishima deadpanned. “Door.”

Coleus chuckled. “Door!”

Amaris tapped her foot, thinking. “Vayvaresi?”

“I sense nothing,” Vayvaresi said. “...Correction. I have a deep foreboding sense of dread, but I have grown used to that sensation, particularly as of late.”

“Yeah, kind of comes with the territory.”

“Terror indeed,” Kirishima grumbled.

Coleus put on her grumpiest face. “Terrifying territory terror.”

Kirishima snorted.

Amaris turned around and gave the two of them an odd look.

“Don’t mind us,” Coleus said, keeping her grumpy expression.

“Really, don’t,” Kirishima added. “You wouldn’t like the result.”

“...Kay…” Amaris returned her focus to the door. “Well… Vayvaresi, be ready, but I’m gonna open it.” She cracked her knuckles and grabbed hold of the doorknob. She pulled it open.

It led to a long, featureless red hallway with various other hallways connecting to it from the sides. There were no visible light sources but everything was clearly visible. There were no decorations, everything was made out of the same red metal.

“...A maze,” Kirishima deadpanned. “Seriously. A maze.”

“A maze of hallways!” Coleus added.

“The universe hates me…”

“It hates Amaris, you’re just next to her.”

Amaris clicked her tongue. “Well, we’ll need to explore this, but before I send you in I want these doors off their hinges so you can’t be inexplicably sealed in there. Coleus, you got this?”

Coleus nodded. “Yep!”

Kirishima raised an eyebrow. “Are you going to tear it apart with vines?”

“That would actually take a lot of energy. No, I’m going to be a bit more… practical.” She pulled out a power drill and revved it up. “It’s engineering time.”

~~~

Everyone else was looking around the show floor, considering that it took up most of the space in the establishment. They were still in pairs: Nina and Iwakiri on one end, Taylor and Orville on the other. Though, to be fair, Orville wasn’t so much with Taylor as in her head, but at least he was present and watching her, which was the whole point.

“This is a very weird experience,” Taylor said.

“You’re doing remarkably well,” Orville said as he examined the various arcade cabinets for anything suspicious. He was finding nothing.

“Just have to adjust to a new rule of conversation. Kind of like learning a new video game, really, just have to add some extra pauses in order to get things to work.”

“Some people really aren’t suited for it.”

“Some people only live off instinct.”

“You wouldn’t call what you do instinct?”

Taylor shook her head. “To get good at a game you have to actively poke and prod around it, see where all the different niches lie. Try things, adjust your strategy. Just playing a lot until you get good leaves you with blind spots, and the serious players will use those blind spots to their advantage.”

“Hmm, perhaps I should try these games out…”

“I don’t think you could play most of them the way you are now. Unless it was turn-based. And you had someone making your moves for you. But if there was anything that needed reaction time simply you being there would ruin it…” Taylor scratched her chin.

“Oh well, I suppose this is a curse, after all.”

“Yeah. Anyway. Uh.” Taylor looked at her notebook. “I think we’re supposed to be cataloging the arcade cabinets?”

“Yes, sorry, I was quite distracting…”

“Yeah, yeah…” Taylor made a mark on her notebook about the nearby arcade cabinets, naming them next to their positions. “Seen anything weird yet?”

“I am not well versed in arcade cabinets, but no, none of them has mysteriously started moving and the only people I see are you, Nina, and Iwakiri. To be fair, I am only looking through your eyes, to keep up the ‘partner system.’ “

“I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop. We’ll get some real excitement!”

“You really want a crazy adventure don’t you?”

“Yes! Yes, I do! I spend sooooo much of my time wishing I was actually in the video games, shooting aliens, tearing down evil monstrosities, finding magical creatures…”

“Careful, that’s the sort of thing that would get you cursed like Amaris or myself.”

“Honestly, I wouldn’t mind that either. Cursed to be interesting… she seems to be getting a kick out of it.”

“She would rather it not have happened, you know.”

Taylor nodded. “Yeah… but like…” she sighed. “Look, I don’t have much to lose, Orville. Richard’s basically it, and he’d understand.”

“Your family…?”

“You go dig around my memory for a while, see why that isn’t keeping me here.” Taylor crossed her arms.

“Something tells me I should stop talking now.”

“Probably. Or you could go dig around in my memory and see what you find. I’m sure that won’t make things even more awkward.”

“I’m going to make a note not to do that.”

“Good.” Taylor marked another arcade cabinet on her notebook. “Now… I think that’s all of them, actually.”

“You are correct. Um… shall we see if the others are done?”

Taylor nodded, heading back to the center of the show floor. Nina and Iwakiri were already done and had laid out one of the maps on the ground, noting the arrangement of cabinets.

“I don’t see anything odd,” Nina said, hand to her chin. “Just arcade cabinets.”

Iwakiri nodded. “All the lines and chaotic placement can easily be explained by placement to optimize player playtime, making it hard to get out.”

“That’s going to make it hard to escape from the monster,” Taylor pointed out.

“It might not even be a monster,” Orville pointed out, dusting off his coat. “Why, it could be some mysterious force that makes people vanish, or a simple hole in the ground that goes on forever.”

“...I’m hoping for a monster.”

Suddenly, all the lights went out.

“...You know, if I caused that, that’s gonna be so funny later.”

Nina sighed, turning on a flashlight and pulling out a walkie-talkie. “The lights just went out, Amaris.”

“Huh? No they didn’t. Not here, anyway.”

“We’re on the show floor.”

“Flashlight working?”

“Yes,” Nina said, flicking the beam of light over a nearby arcade cabinet. Then the flashlight flickered out. “Never mind, no.”

“Iwakiri, can you see?”

“Yes, but not well, eyes are still adjusting,” Iwakiri said. “I don’t hear or see any movement…”

Suddenly, all the arcade cabinet screens lit up with static that was far louder than any of their speakers should have been able to produce. Iwakiri had to press his hands into his sensitive ears just to abate the pain. The cabinet in front of them gained a massive red eye in the middle of its screen, fixing its gaze right on Taylor. The arcade started to shudder rapidly, spewing loose change all over the ground while an ethereal red glow began to surround it, slowly taking the form of limbs of ghostly wire that ended in sparking tips.

Taylor screamed.

Iwakiri kicked the cabinet right in the screen, cracking it and knocking it over.

The ethereal limbs vanished in an instant and all the lights turned back on.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Ow,” the now tipped-over cabinet said with the kind of voice one would expect an office worker to have.

Iwakiri stared down at it. Despite having a cracked and dead screen, the red eye was still visible. “Ow?”

“Yes. Ow. I possessed the cabinet, you kicked it, it hurt. Ow.”

Taylor poked her head out from behind Iwakiri. “Y-you’re not gonna tear us limb from limb?”

“How can I do that? You kicked me down!”

“Th-that’s it?”

“Yes! That’s it!”

Nina scratched the back of her head. “Okay then… that was… easy.”

At this point, Amaris and Vayvaresi ran up.

“Oh, do you want to kick me too?” the arcade cabinet asked.

“Um…” Amaris tilted her head. “That depends, are you trying to hurt my friends?”

“No.”

“Well, then I don’t want to kick you.”

“Gee, how swell.”

“What are you, though?”

The cabinet’s single red eye blinked. “You serious? I’m a ghost! A ghost! I haunt things and scare people!”

“You are not doing that particularly well,” Vayvaresi pointed out.

“Oh, sorry, was I not scary enough by turning out the lights and forming ghostly limbs of murder!?”

“I do not know, I was not here to witness it.”

“He got Taylor at least,” Nina pointed out.

“I w-was not gotten!” Taylor stammered.

“You’re still trembling.”

“I’m f-fine!”

Amaris put her hands on her hips. “Well, anyway, mister ghost… do you have a name?”

“No.”

“Oh.”

“Problem?”

“No, it’s just… that’ll be awkward.”

“Tough.”

“Ah. Well, in that case…” Amaris cleared her throat. “Ghost, we are here to rid this arcade of supernatural influence.”

“On my first day!?”

“Your first day?” Amaris tilted her head. “The supernatural happenings have been going on for at least ten years.”

“...You’re kidding me.”

“I’m not.”

The eye popped out of the broken arcade cabinet screen and gained numerous stress veins along its edges. “I finally secure myself to a location for haunting and it’s already occupied!?”

“Well, yeah.” Amaris glanced at her watch. “It’s not even close to eleven yet, which is when the haunting supposedly starts.”

The arcade ghost let out a long, agonized wail that sounded more pathetic than scary and settled back into his cabinet’s broken screen.

“You… okay?”

“Just leave me to die.”

“You’re a ghost.”

“Thank you for reminding me of my predicament.”

“...You’re welcome?”

The ghost groaned. “It’s gonna take weeks to disconnect myself from this place and I won’t be getting any scares in that time and that’s gonna just tank everything down the drain…”

“Honestly, if you’re just scaring people we might be able to cut a deal with the owner and let you stay here, as long as you don’t hurt anyone.”

This stunned the arcade cabinet into silence.

“...You sure that’s a good idea?” Nina asked.

Amaris shrugged. “I don’t see why not, he might even be useful to this place, actually scare kids away rather than mysteriously making things disappear.”

Iwakiri nodded. “I like this idea.”

“We’re just letting the ghost… stay?” Taylor asked, wide-eyed.

“I don’t think he’s really a problem,” Amaris said with a shrug. “I mean, you beat him by kicking the cabinet over, that’s nothing.”

“Insulting me in front of me,” the ghost grumbled. “Gee, how delightful.”

“We’ll have to talk to the owner to finalize the deal, but assuming we can do that, does it sound good?” Amaris asked.

“I don’t know…”

“If not, we can find another place for you to haunt.”

“...Are you just messing with me?”

“No, I’d like it much better if we could deal with supernatural strangeness by talking rather than a lot of screaming, blood, and arrows to the face.”

“All right fine I’ll play nice.”

“Good!” Amaris grinned. “Now, mister nameless arcade ghost, you didn’t know there was anything going on in this arcade before?”

“No. I just chose an arcade since it seemed fun and would probably have the most unique scenery, y’know? Could do all sorts of cool things with the scares.”

“Right. Do you know anything about the mysterious door that appeared in the outer wall earlier tonight?”

“Um. A door appeared?” The ghost was silent for a moment. “Yeah, no, don’t know anything about that, I drifted in through the ground.”

“Anything about red hallways ring any bells?”

“Kid, I’m a ghost, I haunt things and scare people. I’m not here to solve some weird door mystery.”

“Well, maybe you could be of help to us?”

“No.”

“Hey!” Nina put her hands on her hips. “We’re being real patient with you, bud. We don’t have to be.”

“I have a deal and I can tell you aren’t the sorts to back off a deal, so no. I’m not helping.” The ghost closed his eye and huffed.

Amaris’ left eye twitched. “Well then maybe we’ll use you as bait for the real monster.”

“Bluff.”

“I do think he is rather immune to coercion,” Vayvaresi pointed out. “At least the kinds we are willing to engage in. I say we just leave him be and try to search for the real mystery here.”

Amaris nodded. “Fine. See you later, nameless ghost.”

“I’ll see you for quite some time,” the ghost said. “I am in the walls. My sight flows through the wires. Every screen is a face, you cannot escape me!”

“Then why are you still on the cabinet we kicked over?”

The ghost stared at her blankly for a second. Then it was in one of the nearby cabinets, glowering at her.

Amaris put her hand to the bridge of her nose. “What a lame ghost…”

“I heard that!”

“So you did,” Amaris deadpanned. “Anyway, everyone, what have you found about the cabinet layout?”

“Hey, stop ignoring me!”

They kept ignoring him. Except Taylor, who did not take her eyes off him.

~~~

Coleus and Kirishima looked down.

There was a rope in front of their path.

They looked behind them, following the rope they had tied to themselves back the way they had come in the endless red hallways.

Kirishima threw a coin at the rope in front of them.

They watched it fly into their view behind them.

“It’s a good thing we have a rope attached to us, otherwise we would never have noticed that!” Coleus said, grinning.

“Indeed…” Kirishima took a few steps forward and found that, looking back, she could see herself standing on the rope. She placed her foot down on one of the segments and tugged on the part tied around her waist. She felt the rope shift under her foot.

Coleus took out the walkie-talkie. “Space is weird in here, Amaris.”

“Your signal is very faint,” a very garbled Amaris said from the other end.

“Probably because space is weird, we can currently see ourselves back along the path we came. It’s loopy!” Coleus chuckled, then suddenly looked at Kirishima with wide eyes. “I, uh, I mean, uh, it’s crazy, yeah, crazy.”

Kirishima rolled her eyes as she continued tugging at the rope in different ways, seeing how it felt. It was decidedly freaky to see herself tug a rope which in turn tugged her whole body forward. She flicked her tail to the side.

“You in any danger?” Amaris asked.

“Doesn’t look like it.” Coleus looked around. “Just a lot of twisting hallways.”

“Seems similar to the other doors we’ve found, like the one under the school. …No skeletons?”

“Nothing, not even any doors. Just hallway, hallway, hallway.”

“Hmm… aight, that’s probably also unrelated to what we’re supposed to deal with then. Keep exploring though.”

“Also unrelated?”

“We found an arcade ghost that moved in today, apparently.”

“How weird!”

“He’s very rude and annoyed that Iwakiri kicked him.”

Coleus giggled. “That sounds amazing.”

“Unfortunately, I was not there to see it, alas…”

“Travesty.”

“Yep. Anyway, keep me posted, if you can’t contact me with the walkie-talkie you’ve gone too far.”

“You got it, boss!” Coleus hung up. “So, shall we?”

Kirishima suddenly stopped playing tug of war with herself. “Uh? Oh. Sure.”

“...Having fun?”

“...Shut up.”

~~~

Eventually, everyone was just waiting.

Amaris, Vayvaresi, Orville, Iwakiri, Nina, and Taylor just sat on chairs in the middle of the arcade next to the arcade ghost. They’d mapped out all the cabinets, closets, and every nook and cranny of the arcade, with only the infinite red hallways unaccounted for, and Coleus and Kirishima were working on that, continuing to find nothing.

Amaris glanced at her watch. It was ten until eleven. “Probably time to call them back…” She pulled out her walkie-talkie. “Hey, Coleus, make sure to get to the entrance so you can watch it when the time comes, just in case.”

No response came through.

Amaris sighed. “Of course… Orville, are they okay?”

Orville vanished. Half a minute later he came back. “Yes, and Coleus apologizes profusely for going out of range, they are returning to the door now.”

“Backups upon backups…” Iwakiri nodded. “Good. Very good.”

“Ready for anything,” Amaris said. “Which means that whatever comes next is going to surprise us.”

“You all talk like insane people,” the ghost commented. He was currently inhabiting an arcade with a frog that hopped through a virtual maze. He was currently playing it. And not doing very well. His frog died to a pink skeleton and he started grumbling incoherently.

“We are insane people,” Amaris retorted.

Nina grinned. “You really are in your element here, aren’t you?”

Amaris beamed. “I am now, and yeah, now that I’m used to all this there is a certain kind of… thrill to it. It was still terrible to get here, but now that I’m here, might as well make the most out of it, eh?”

“I’m so proud of you.”

“Auntie…” Amaris rubbed the back of her head. “Yeah, I know. I hope you can handle what comes next.”

“I drove us away from a crazy angel memory thing at high speed! I’ll be fine.”

Amaris looked at Nina with knowing eyes. “Auntie… that’s nothing. Part of me hopes you’ll never see the harder stuff, but I also know that’s an inevitability. It might be today that breaks you.”

Taylor was tapping her foot anxiously.

“You too, for that matter,” Amaris told Taylor.

“I’m f-fine…”

“You’re terrified.”

“It’s just like being in a game.” Taylor opened and closed her fists. “I can handle it.”

“It… really isn’t like that at all, and I think you’re starting to see that.”

Taylor tapped her foot. “I can do this.”

Amaris took in a sharp breath. “Taylor, I…”

Suddenly all of Vayvaresi’s hairs stood on end. “It’s here.”

Everyone stood up and started looking around for anything. But nothing had changed that they could see. The arcade cabinets were all still there. The lights were all on. The only unusual sound was the game music from the arcade the ghost was currently inhabiting.

“I’m sure of it,” Vayvaresi iterated. “I sense a deep, terrible presence…”

“Sure that’s not me?” the ghost asked.

“Absolutely, you don’t even register.”

The ghost whimpered but did not return to playing his game. He shut it down and started looking around with his eye, hopping from cabinet to cabinet.

Amaris pulled out the walkie-talkie. “Coleus, we…” she didn’t finish her sentence, because she realized she wasn’t even getting static from the walkie-talkie. “Well, there goes communications.”

Orville frowned. “Should I relay, or stay here?”

“Stay here, for now, there might be more to relay.”

“...you can’t see outside anymore,” Iwakiri said.

“It’s night,” Amaris pointed out.

“I could see the street light out that window before. Now I can’t see anything.”

Everyone slowly turned to the windows at the front of the arcade. Sure enough, nothing could be seen through them. It was absolute pitch darkness.

“...Maybe it only triggers if someone tries to leave,” Amaris suggested.

“So we stay here all night until it goes away!” Taylor suggested.

“We’re here to solve the problem, not ignore it.” Amaris readied her crossbow. “Vayvaresi, can you tell me anything about what you’re feeling?”

“Deeply unsettled,” Vayvaresi said. “Whatever it is has a raw presence of great power, but unlike anything I’ve ever felt before.”

“Do you have a direction we could try to send Orville?”

“Hmm… yes, actually, right outside the front doors.”

Amaris turned to Orville. “Go update Coleus on what we know, and then try to see if you can find anything out there.”

“Right.” And he was gone.

Taylor shivered. “We should have brought weapons…”

“We do have weapons,” Amaris pointed out. “I have a crossbow and anti-magic arrows. Iwakiri and Kirishima have those purple crystals, and even though he’s a bit of a jerk I’m sure the ghost has some power.”

“And why would I help you?” the ghost demanded.

“Your life may be in danger shortly, despite you being a ghost.”

“Psh, if this is just another ghost…”

“I’m getting the distinct impression that it is not.”

“I’ll be fine…”

Orville returned to Amaris’ perceptions. “I can’t find anything out there. I was able to find someone outside the arcade though, and it doesn’t look shrouded in darkness from the outside.”

“Hmm…” Amaris scratched her chin. “I say we wait for Coleus to get back before trying anything.”

“She’s on her way,” Orville said. “They’re following the rope back now.”

“Good, good, until then, just be ready.”

They could not have possibly been ready.

One moment it was not there.

The next moment it was, a six-fingered hand made of burned tree bark pressed right to Iwakiri’s face. He ripped out his purple crystals and shone a bright light at the thing, but the light did not make it twitch, nor did it make the creature any brighter. It was not a black entity, either, no. It was dark, but largely brown, taking the appearance of a gnarled tree that had died so long ago it should have been dust. The thing had no eyes, and rather than legs it had numerous root-like appendages that were rooted to the ground, unmoving.

Amaris shot one of her arrows at it, embedding the arrowhead in the wooden form. It didn’t even flinch. It simply held fast to Iwakiri with its knobby, unmoving hand.

Nina rushed forward, trying to pry the thing’s fingers off Iwakiri, but found the rough protrusions even stronger than steel, despite feeling exactly like wood. There was no moving them.

“Iwakiri, talk to me!” Amaris said as she pulled a saw out of her backpack and tried to cut through the arm manually. The saw’s blade quickly dulled.

“O-okay…” Iwakiri swallowed. “I… it feels woody, and… nothing else besides that…”

“Do you see anything weird?”

“Its eyes.”

Amaris glanced at the creature. “It has no eyes.”

“Oh dear.”

“Can you describe them for me?” Amaris pulled out an anti-magic arrow and tried to cut the wooden thing. She was definitely able to cut into it, but it was slow progress as it was still solid wood.

“The eyes are… white… no, silver, like a mirror. I… see me in them…”

Then Iwakiri was just gone. There were no screams, no sparks, no dark aura, he was just gone. His clothes all dropped to the ground. The creature was in a new position, hands raised to the ceiling. A black trash bag had appeared on its back, about the size of a person.

Amaris glanced at the clothes. “...It just took someone!”

“Someone!?” Orville called. “That was Iwakiri!”

“Then when it takes someone it wipes your memory!” Amaris called. She quickly jumped around the creature and grabbed hold of the bag behind it.

There was definitely something live and breathing in there.

But the moment she had touched the bag, suddenly the creature’s hand was on her face.

Oh no.

“Orville!” Amaris cried. “You’re the only one who can remember! You’ve got to keep it together! I’m probably going to end up in that bag there, as will everyone else!” All this time she struggled to get free, twisting her body, trying to get enough leverage to pop the arm out of a socket, ramming her pink crystals into the bark—all to no avail. “Make sure to watch Pitch!”

“We’ll get you out of there!” Nina shouted, tearing at the wooden arm desperately.

“It’s not going to work, Auntie, you need to run, or get the bag, or something!”

Then Amaris saw it.

The eyes. They appeared in front of the wooden form…

Amaris shut her eyes. “I saw its eyes! I… oh crap I can still see them when my eyes are closed.”

“Amaris!” Nina shouted.

“Find Coleus! Orville, make sure to convey that! Coleus! It’s a tree, maybe it’ll work!”

Vayvaresi tried to grab the bag while the creature held Amaris. Suddenly, everything moved again—Vayvaresi had a large gash across her face, Amaris was held higher into the air, and the bag was held closer to the beast’s form.

“Move, everyone!” Amaris shouted.

Nina finally listened. “Orville, you better not let me forget!” She ran off, Vayvaresi at her heels.

Taylor didn’t move. Taylor could only stare at the beast.

“Taylor, you need t—”

And then Amaris was gone, her clothes and backpack falling to the ground. Pitch slithered out, confused.

Taylor could only stare at the tree creature. The bag on its back was bigger, now. How had it gotten bigger?

“Taylor!” Orville shouted at her. “That thing’s going to put you in its bag and make everyone forget about you! You need to move!”

The part of Taylor’s mind that was able to comprehend sentences thought oh, guess there’s two people I don’t remember right now. That’s great. Two sets of clothes on the ground. Amazing. I’m next. I should run.

Instead, her legs collapsed and she fell to her knees.

The next thing she knew, she was in the creature’s grip, wooden fingers wrapped around her head.

Oh. I’m next.

“Taylor!” Orville called. “We’ll… we’ll come back for you!”

Sure. Yes.

She saw the eyes form. She stared into them, not even blinking as they got bigger and bigger, filling her entire vision. She could feel the light washing over her, and a shadow began to take form in the eyes. A shadow… her shadow. It was like looking in a dirty mirror in a dark room.

Something in her mind flipped. She had been grabbed. She felt her body warm up slightly.

Then the lights went out and she had a giant gash across her chest. She fell to the floor, gasping, unable to scream, but unable to ignore the searing fire on her chest.

The creature was still before her, blood dripping off its fingers. It had no eyes, and no face, but Taylor somehow knew it was looking at her with contempt.

It couldn’t take me… why?

The creature remained in place for a few minutes. Then it was suddenly holding all the clothes that had fallen to the floor. Then it was gone, the only trace of its presence being the heavily injured Taylor.

“Holy mother of…” the ghost stammered from a nearby arcade screen. “What even…”

Taylor started wailing, not so much out of pain but of fear.

“Hey, um, I, er… it’ll be… fine? Um…” the ghost blinked. “Right so… that’s a bad wound you are totally going to die if I don’t do something. Um. Um. Um…”

Pitch slithered up to Taylor and started licking her tears away.

“Yes, thank you snake, you’re really helpful in giving me ideas…” the ghost muttered. He possessed the nearest arcade cabinet he could and formed some ethereal legs for it so he could walk over to Taylor. He rolled her onto her back, forcing gravity to do some of the work keeping the blood in her. “So. Uh… snake?”

Pitch flicked out his tongue.

“You think cauterizing with soulfire and exposed electricity is going to work…?”

Pitch tilted his head to the side.

“Okay, no, uh… how about I just…” The eye popped out of the main screen. Still tethered to the arcade, he pushed forward and released a bunch of red flames into Taylor’s body.

Her eyes lost all color, becoming pure white.

~~~

“...And I’ve got to go check on the others, bye!” Orville vanished from Coleus’ perceptions.

Coleus turned back to Kirishima as they ran back along the red hallways. “Right so, um, apparently we used to know two people called Amaris and Iwakiri?”

Kirishima’s nose scrunched up. “Why does that last one sound like my name a little…?”

“No idea, but we knew them and they’ve been erased from our minds somehow. Dark tree monster on the prowl, has a bag full of something, probably Amaris and Iwakiri. Fortunately… I am plant-tastic! That tree won’t know what hit him.”

“I bet you’re mighty proud that you’re what’s needed today.”

“Not really!” Coleus said with a nervous chuckle. “But I’ll take it!”

“Of course you w—” Kirishima ran face-first into something invisible, forcing it into reality. An eyeball with bat wings flew onto the ground, dead. “What in…?”

“Jenny finds those things all over, I think they’re always watching us.”

“What…?”

“Don’t worry about it! Yet! We have bigger problems!”

At long last, they finally returned to the entrance to the hallways. As it happened, Nina and Vayvaresi arrived at the same time.

Coleus’ eyes widened. “Vayvaresi, your curse!”

“Oh, right, I…” Vayvaresi tilted her head. “Wait, why am I even…?”

Nina let out a scream of panic and kicked Vayvaresi in the chest, tossing her into the hall outside. “Why was I running with that thing!?”

“Ow… ribs…” Vayvaresi groaned from her position in the arcade hall.

Nina ran into the red hall with Coleus and Kirishima. “You got this, Coleus?”

Coleus put her hands out in front of her, smirking. “I may be a free leaf dryad, but I am still a dryad. Plants bow to my will.”

The entity was suddenly present and its hand was already on Kirishima’s face.

“Oh, you wanna take me on, buddy!?” Kirishima shouted. “Bring it!” She started literally trying to bite the hand off.

“Get off her!” Coleus shouted, using her powers on the bark of the monstrosity, forming flowers and vines out of the wooden structure, pushing on Kirishima’s face.

This did something. However, Coleus never saw the creature move—she only knew that it was on her face now, and that several cracks had formed in the tree creature’s “trunk” of bark.

Coleus started growing plants from the bark to prevent it from touching her face. “Hah! I’ve got you right where I want you, tree-ture!”

Kirishima groaned.

“I earned that one, I’ve saved your life.”

“Fine…”

Coleus, even though the hand still had her held, kept growing more and more vines all around the creature, using its own bark as nutrients. Her goal was to consume the entire creature, converting it into her plants bit by bit until nothing was left, and that would free whoever was in that large sack on its back…

The creature moved. One moment it was trying and failing to grab Coleus’ face. The next its fingers were inside Coleus’ face, having punctured her skin in six separate locations.

Coleus had never known such pain. She screamed, the highly pressurized water within her veins spraying out of the seams between her skin and the creature’s wooden fingers.

“Hey, idiot!” Kirishima shouted, holding a purple crystal in her hands. “Eat this!” She focused the light from the crystal to a single point on the creature’s main body. It readily lit on fire as though it were made of kindling.

The creature did not move. It simply stared into Coleus. She could see the eyes… …and then herself. At this point, she stopped screaming.

Then she was gone. She had only been wearing a shirt and a satchel, which fell to the ground. Her “dress” had been part of her body.

The creature’s sack got bigger. It was now no longer on fire.

Kirishima growled. “Okay, it’s slow, let’s try to run around it and take our chances with the darkness outside.”

Nina stared at the shirt on the ground, horrified.

“Move, idiot!” Kirishima grabbed Nina by the collar.

She didn’t even make it one step before the ground rumbled. The entrance to the arcade shimmered with a bright light… and was replaced with a single, featureless red wall.

There was no longer a way out.

The tree creature seemed just as confused at this as Kirishima and Nina, because rather than attack them, it changed its shape to thrust its claws into the new wall. This had no evident effect on the wall.

“New plan, run into the chaos!” Kirishima grabbed Nina and rushed into the red hallways, using her mental map of the area to choose the most convoluted route she could think of.

Except, she quickly found that the layout had changed. Some hallways were in slightly different positions. Some had a gradual slope to them. And others…

…ended in a door. A bright blue door

“Can we… take… a moment…?” Nina gasped.

The tree creature appeared behind them, pointing a wooden finger right at Kirishima.

“Nope!” Kirishima said, opening the door and jumping right in. Whatever’s on the other side of this can’t be worse than here…

~~~

Vayvaresi returned to the show floor with a limp. She was immensely shocked to find Taylor standing up on her own two feet. “Taylor?”

Taylor looked down at Vayvaresi, her shades glinting in the neon lighting. “...Hi Vayvaresi.”

“Are you… okay?” Vayvaresi could clearly see the massive amounts of blood all over her shirt and the parts of her skin that were exposed. There was also a very large puddle a short distance away…

“I… guess?”

Vayvaresi took a step back. “I… uh…”

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You… don’t?”

“No.”

“But my curse…”

“Guess it doesn’t work anymore.”

“These broken ribs from Nina say otherwise…”

“Ah. She’s still human.”

Vayvaresi looked up at her. “What…?”

“I’m… I’m dead.” Taylor put a hand to her chin and a tear rolled down her cheek. “I’m a freaking zombie!”

“Hey!” the ghost shouted from his arcade cabinet. “You are not a zombie! Well. Not the traditional kind anyway. I think you’re closer to a vampire?”

“Oh, so I have to drink people’s blood!?”

“Well, no, that’s not it either, and you aren’t going to burn in the sunlight. You’re kind of just… reanimated?”

“A freak. Great. That’s… that’s great.” She sat down on a nearby chair. Pitch slithered out from inside her shirt and started licking her face. She seemed to find this a comfort. “I was always a freak but now I don’t even know what kind…”

“Hey, a little thanks would be nice,” the ghost said.

“I am not going to do that!” Taylor shouted at the top of her lungs. Then she slumped. “No, no, you’re right, this is better than dead. …Thanks.”

“Glad to be of service.”

“I asked for this,” Taylor said, looking at her hands. Aside from her own blood that had gotten on them, they looked the same as normal. “I asked for this. I…” Suddenly, a scowl crossed her face and she stood bolt upright. “What am I complaining bout? I asked for this! I’m on an adventure! Who cares if I’m dead inside!? I am… going to… face that…” the thought of the wooden creature made her start quaking in her boots.

“Taylor, it’s okay if you can’t do it,” Vayvaresi said. “Not everyone can, and sometimes people are forced to.”

“Everyone’s going to die…”

“Pretty sure they just get put in the sack. I am unsure why you weren’t…?”

“I… I don’t know…”

Orville appeared to Vayvaresi. “Coleus has been taken. The plant girl we were relying on to solve everything.”

“Great…” Vayvaresi growled. “What’s our plan now, Orville?”

“I don’t know! I think that was it! …Check the darkness outside, maybe?”

Vayvaresi ran to the front doors and opened them.

The darkness was not some kind of magical cloud or miasma. It was just utter nothing. Vayvaresi could poke her head outside and look down for eternity. There was just nothing.

“Dead end,” Vayvaresi said, closing the door with one of her tails.

“The arcade still looks fine to observers outside it…”

“If you get someone else in here, I bet they also become trapped,” Vayvaresi said. “One-way door.”

“It’s still in here with us…” Taylor whimpered.

“Actually no, it was trapped in the hallways with Nina and Kirishima,” Vayvaresi said. “We’re probably safe.”

“Then why is it still dark outside if it’s gone!?”

“It probably just has a lingering presence.” Vayvaresi looked outside and flicked her tails. “I certainly don’t feel the massively imposing presence anymore. Though when that hallway sealed, I…” Vayvaresi tilted her head to the side. “I can’t even describe that.”

Suddenly, one of the arcade games lit up.

“Ghost!” Taylor shouted.

“Wasn’t me! Wasn’t me!” The ghost insisted. Which, to be fair, he was currently on the computer at the front desk, not in any of the cabinets. The cabinet in question that had activated was the one with the frog in a maze running from skeletons.

Taylor approached it, empty eyes widening. “What in the…?”

She saw two pixelated figures in the maze, running as fast as they could from… a stationary, brown, tree-like sprite.

“It’s… it’s in there!”

“Ghost!” Vayvaresi shouted. “Get in here, help them!”

“That seems like a bad idea!” the ghost said.

“What is the tree going to do, grab your head? It ignored you last time, you’re safe!”

“I… fine!” The ghost shifted to the maze cabinet. “This feels really weird…”

~~~

Kirishima ran through the blue-and-black pixelated maze she currently found herself in. In one hand she had a tight grip on Nina, and in the other she had a purple crystal.

A pink pixelated skeleton appeared in front of her. She shot it with her laser and it disintegrated into pink cubes that vanished immediately after.

“We’re inside the game…” Nina realized. “I… how!?”

“Don’t know, but it’s in here too!” She glanced behind them, catching sight of the seemingly stationary tree creature reaching out for them. It was closer than the last time she’d checked. Never see it move but boy is it fast…

A white skeleton with red eyes appeared in front of them.

“That’s not in the game…” Nina said.

“Is this thing on?” The ghost’s voice came from the skeleton.

“Ghost!?” Nina shouted.

“Ghost?” Kirishima said, lowering her crystal.

“It’s the ghost! How…?”

“You’re in my arcade cabinet,” the ghost said. “Anyway, Vayvaresi is yelling at me to take care of the tree creature, so…” the skeleton ran past them and stepped on the tree creature. The skeleton immediately shattered into white pixels and flew off in several directions.

“Well that didn’t work,” a yellow skeleton said from another maze hall. “How about… the player character!”

A giant frog hopped over Nina and Kirishima, landing between them and the tree creature. It stuck its tongue out and wrapped it around the tree. The frog, being the player character in the game, did not simply disintegrate on contact with the tree creature, though it did start flashing repeatedly.

Then the tree vanished.

“It’s moved along a different path,” the ghost said. “Weird…”

“It can’t pass through the frog!” Nina called. “See, the frog serves as a block unless it hops over something. The rules of the game are absolute!”

“Aha! I can just use it to protect you! Infinite frog wall block!”

The tree creature suddenly appeared in the hall in front of them. The frog hopped over the two of them and blocked the tree beast’s path.

“This won’t last forever, you’re eventually going to run out of life!” Nina called. “We need a way out! You can see the entire maze, right? Can you see a door?”

“Yes, actually. It’s… quite a ways away, oh dear…”

“Shortest path?”

“Give me a sec this maze is complicated!”

“Just ask Taylor, she’ll know instantly!”

“Taylor is… having a fun time right now.”

“Well, shake her out of it!”

“This is not going to work…”

~~~

“They are going to die right in front of me…” Taylor breathed. “They. Are going to die. On this arcade screen. There is nothing I can…”

“Hey!” the ghost shouted. “I need you to find the fastest path to the door!”

Taylor glanced at the maze. She knew the layout, it was familiar to her, and the door was in a place of high traffic. She knew the path instantly.

“Where do I take them?”

“D-down!” Taylor stammered.

Immediately the two figures in the game started moving downward, the frog hopping along behind them.

The tree, however, was faster, and was taking an alternate route… it would catch up with them.

“Stop the tree!” Taylor called.

“Working on it…”

“You’re going the wrong way!” Taylor grabbed hold of the arcade cabinet’s controls and directed the frog’s motion to take a slight detour to block the tree without being anywhere near Nina and Kirishima. She laughed nervously. “It’s so going to kill me for this…”

“How is it even going to know you’re doing it?” Vayvaresi asked.

“I… I don’t know! Heh… HAH!” A crazed grin crawled up Taylor’s face. “I… I can do this! You’re in a game you stupid tree! This is my world now!” She had two hits left where she could use the frog to block the tree’s progress. She knew exactly where she needed to go if the tree played optimally, and it wasn’t, because it clearly had no idea of the map’s layout! She could toy with it, mocking it with the frog, bouncing back and forth for style points only to hop right back over it…

This was her game.

With her at the helm, it was essentially trivial to run circles around the tree. Nina and Kirishima easily got through the door. However, after that, the tree destroyed the frog, and it respawned too far away to stop it.

The tree also made it through the door.

“...You did it,” Vayvaresi said from on top of the arcade cabinet.

“I… I did…” Taylor let out a show, shaky breath. “I did!” She pointed an aggressive finger at the arcade. “Take that, stupid tree, this zombie’s beat you dowwwwwn! Down! Down!”

“It can’t hear you and you are not a zombie,” the ghost deadpanned.

Taylor was too busy doing a very bad victory dance.

~~~

Amaris had not lost awareness the entire time.

To be fair, she might have preferred it if she had. The moment the light enveloped her, she was suddenly forced into a fetal position with dry, itchy cords wrapping her ankles and wrists together. She was completely naked and, oh, to top it all off, her eyes and mouth were sewn shut with the cords and burned her flesh with every jostle of the sack.

Normal screaming wasn’t really an option with a sealed mouth, but panic sure was. And she was this close to panicking.

But no. No, she’d been through terrible things, and she got through them by keeping her head on her shoulders. Even though she was blind, mute, unarmed, and had very little range of motion, surely there was something she could do?

She finally started trying to take stock of her surroundings. She had no eyes, but there were other senses. Her sense of touch was the most immediately obvious, there were two others in here with her: the leaves of Coleus were impossible to ignore, and there was… skin and fur, a neko. Probably that Iwakiri she was made to forget about. Curiously, Coleus was in here, and she hadn’t forgotten about her… guess the tree monster didn’t bother wiping memories of those already taken.

Ignoring the moment how disgusting, sweaty, and disturbing being pressed this closely together inside of a sack was, she tried to take stock of the other two. Both of them were breathing, but very slowly. Was she just lucky to be awake? Or was she the only one who hadn’t passed out from the pain and stress? Probably the latter, actually—having cords sewn through her eyelids was decidedly unpleasant, but still a far cry from nearly being beaten to death by Freddloi.

She nudged the other two a few times but they didn’t really respond. She was alone in whatever she tried.

The sack itself was evidently simple burlap; flakey, itchy, and smelly—mostly of sweat, but also of blood. Old blood. This sack had been used for this purpose many times…

She turned lastly to her ears. It was hard to hear what was going on outside the sack, it was all muffled, but… it sounded like a lot of very loud arcade noises? Was that the voice of the ghost? And… a digitized ribbit?

She didn’t have any idea what that meant, but she decided it wasn’t going to help her. She needed out, and despite her very soul screaming at her to flail wildly and get out, she forced that part of herself down—though, in the process, made herself feel sick to her stomach. She gagged, but with the sealed mouth, nothing could come out, though she did burn her lower sinuses with the stomach acid.

The sack was old and flaking. That was clearly the weak point she could exploit. However, the obvious answer—using her teeth—was impossible. She was going to have to use her fingers. She was a girl who kept her nails short, but not so short that they wouldn’t be useful here. Even with her wrists tied to her ankles, she could still force her fingers into the burlap and start etching away at it… by touch, she found a spot where the bag was particularly old, frayed, and a little dry. She started running her nails back and forth across it, tearing bits and pieces of fabric off one at a time.

It was slow work. But it was working.

The only problem was Amaris didn’t know how long she had. So she worked as frantically as she could, using all of her fingers to tear, tear, tear!

She eventually cut a hole in the sack. At which point she decided that the best thing she could do was not try to pry it apart with her hands, as those were locked together, but instead just attempt to ram her entire head through the opening.

This worked like a charm.

The entire sack ripped open, depositing her, Coleus, and Iwakiri onto the ground, which was… made of corn? Were they in a cornfield?

She sat there in silence on top of a bunch of corn. A cool night breeze blew over her skin.

There was nothing left for her to do. She was out. She couldn’t see, she couldn’t talk, and she couldn’t really move.

It was only then that the helplessness truly set in.

She tried to scream, but only grunts could come out. She flailed and kicked and twisted around, but the cords held fast. She tried to open her mouth but her body would not let her fray her lips like that.

There was nothing she could do anymore.

~~~

Nina and Kirishima ran through the moonlit cornfield. The door had let them out right in the middle of it, and so they took their opportunity and ran.

The wooden creature evidently didn’t like them being outside, for when it made it through the door after them, it let out a cry of rage akin to a tree snapping in half when struck by lightning.

It appeared in front of them, multiple cracks forming across its central trunk. It no longer had the sack.

“It gets cracks whenever it moves too fast…” Kriishima said as she hit it with a laser, lighting it on fire. “We just need to…”

The creature moved again, grabbing Kirishima’s face in its hand. It was no longer on fire.

Kirishima shrieked in rage and lit the hand itself on fire, spreading the flames across her own skin. Even as she burned herself, she didn’t care. Let it burn. You’re going to have to move to take care of your hand! I don’t care how indestructible you are, those fingers are thin! BURN!

She was right. The creature did have to back off to remove the fire from its hand. However, as it did so, it cut Kirishima across the stomach, but it was not a deep wound, likely because it spent the rest of its “movement” getting rid of the fire.

Kirishima, bleeding and with a heavily burned face, continued her run with relentless determination.

“Help!” Nina called as they ran. “Somebody help us!”

They suddenly rushed out of the corn… and into a crop circle.

The two of them stopped dead in their tracks. The air within the crop circle was a dead calm. There had been wind elsewhere in the field. Not here.

“...I have an idea,” Nina said. “Let’s trick it.”

“How?”

Nina did the leading this time. Running around the edge of the crop circle, they came to the other end, placing the center of the circle between them and where they had entered.

“You feel it too, that this place is dangerous?” Nina asked.

“Yes…” Kirishima’s eyes widened. “You… you’re going to have it pass through the center!”

“Exactly. I’m… thinking it’s too greedy…”

“If this doesn’t work, I’m dead…”

“Got a better plan?”

Kirishima looked at her purple crystal. “Burn my face again.”

“Great plan…”

The creature moved.

It was stopped in the center of the crop circle.

Kirishima laughed, the rocking motion making her trip over a rock. In a panic, she grabbed hold of Nina, pulling her down with her into the corn.

This was extremely lucky, for an instant later the crop circle lit up with a burst of blinding light, sending a beam straight into the sky, right at the moon. They would have been consumed if they had remained inside a moment longer.

But the tree creature was reduced to nothing more than ash in the wind.

Nina threw her fists into the air. “All right!” Her smile vanished instantly. “Amaris!”

Kirishima’s eyes widened. “Iwakiri!”

The two of them ran back the way they came, finding the discarded sack… and three fetal forms tied up on the ground nearby. Two of them were clearly out cold, but the third… the third was flailing frantically.

“Amaris! Amaris!” Nina wailed. “Amaris, it’s okay, Auntie Nina’s here, Auntie Nina’s here!”

Kirishima took a much slower approach, kneeling down to look at the form of her brother. “...How could I have ever…?” She shook her head, removing a knife from her pocket and starting to cut all the cords. For a moment, she stopped, turning to Coleus. Her frown deepened before she resumed her work.

Nina got through Amaris’ mouth threads first. Amaris opened her mouth and gasped. “I’m… I’m fine… I’m fine…”

“Amaris, I’m so, so sorry…”

“You remember me, that means you won…” Amaris took in another gasp. “I… Auntie. This… this is what we have to deal with.” Even though her eyes were still sealed shut, she looked right at Nina. “This is going to keep happening.”

The weight of it all suddenly hit Nina. She slumped to the ground, staring blankly into the distance as her face paled.

Amaris shivered in the cold, but she didn’t prod her aunt to continue cutting anything. She could deal with being cold and blind for a few more minutes. Nina needed to think. And Amaris…

…Amaris was safe. She knew she was safe, and remembered. The cords that still bound her were temporary, no longer an offense that had to be removed right then and there.

She was no longer powerless.

But for a moment, for that moment before she heard Nina’s voice…

Even now, I can’t just take on everything…