The Real Game by Xavier Douglas
I heard a scream coming from outside the door. I didn’t dare look out to see what it was. I already knew. I was frightened enough from what’s been chasing me all this time. I started to hear them again. The screams sounded like they were getting closer. I had to run! The screams sounded like pure torture. I knew it was after me, and it was almost here. I was trying to find another way out, but that was when I heard it; one of the most horrifying sounds behind me. I knew it was time to end this. I turned around… But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself. My name is Xavier Douglas, XD for short, and I moved into this new apartment a couple of weeks ago. I’ve lived with my brother Joseph pretty much all my life. After our parents died, we were stuck with each other. There was no one else that understood us or really even cared what happened to us. We were left no money or property in the will, so we were stuck on our own with meager salaries from dead end jobs. My brother worked at a restaurant, so most of our food came from his workplace. As for the other bills, we had to split them from his paycheck and mine. I had just begun working at Wal-Mart as a cashier with a side hobby of video game tournaments. Both my brother and I excelled at video games, but my brother was not much for the competitive scene. As a result, I
took my playing skills to regional competitions in order to obtain the many prizes offered. It wasn’t the best life, but it’s the life that was handed to us. This story starts a few days after I had moved into the apartment. This day seemed like a normal day, but everything went wrong. The restaurant that my brother worked for decided to cut his pay hours so that his paycheck would not be enough to cover rent this month. As for me, there was a freak accident in the store. A young kid decided to fake an accident near my register just to put the blame on me. The sad thing about it was that it worked. He pulled over one of the grocery bags over while no one was looking and made it fall on himself. The bag contained a large box of sodas which spilled all over the place. The parent blamed me for not placing the bag in a safe area where the kid wouldn’t get hurt and as a result, I got fired within a week of employment. With next month’s rent being due in a few weeks, my brother and I were in major trouble. I had been searching to try to find a new job, but to no avail. Things seemed a bit hopeless for me until I happened to see an ad at the local gaming store. There was a large classic video game tournament that was being held just a few blocks from where I lived. The prize money from this tournament would be enough to cover the next few months of rent, so I figured it was my best option. I walked into the store and immediately signed up. After all, there was no way I would lose. So the day arrived where the tournament would begin. I was excited to see what kind of challenges lay ahead of me. I walked a few blocked down to the address where the competition was to be held. I was expecting some kind of big sign, a bunch of cars, or something extravagant to signal the place. However, when I arrived, there was nothing special about the house at all. I started to wonder if it was all just a big joke or something. Then I heard a voice behind me, “Are you here for the game?” I quickly spun around to see who spoke to me. No one was there. My creep factor pretty much peaked right there but my need for money overcame any concerned I had. I cautiously approached the door to the house and knocked on the door. The doorknob turned and a young boy appeared in the doorway. He looked to be around ten years old. He was a skinny kid with glasses that told me he was most likely the one that the other kids in school made fun of. He looked almost a little sad when he saw me at the door. The kid at the door asked me, “Are you here for the game?” I stared at him for a second. It was the same question from earlier, but his voice was different from the one before. Every fiber of my being was telling me to run away now and to never look back. I swallowed my fear and answered his question with a yes. The child’s sad face instantly curved into a smile. It wasn’t one of those smiles that looked friendly or happy, but one of those sinister smiles that
looked like someone who has a mischievous motive. I reluctantly followed the young boy into the house as the door closed behind me. When I got inside, I immediately noticed that the lights were very dim. It was like walking into a haunted house that had been abandoned for years. The hallway was long and daunting and felt like I was headed into a slaughter. I was sure it was just my nerves and there should be nothing to worry about. I followed the boy into what I assumed was the living room and my fears immediately dissipated when I looked into the room. The walls were absolutely covered with shelves filled with every video game imaginable. From the old school Atari to the Wii U, the games just lined the walls in a gamer’s paradise. How had I never known about this place? I turned back to the kid with amazement, wondering how spoiled a kid could get to actually own all these games. However, when I looked around, he was no longer there. I began to question exactly what was going on again. At first I was thinking that maybe I had just arrived before any of the other competitors, but now I was beginning to think that there were no other opponents. If that was the case, did that mean that I won by default? I looked around the room to figure out where the kid had gone, but my ADHD kicked in as I saw the largest flat screen plasma television I had ever seen in my life. It was like heaven in this one room that was made especially for me. There was no way this kid was as bad as I had believed before. I didn’t care how creepy it seemed at first, there was no way all this goodness could turn bad. That was before I heard that voice again. It sounded almost as if the house itself had spoken to me just one word, “play.” I checked around and sure enough, there was one system plugged into the gigantic television. It was the SNES system with the game Clock Tower sitting in the slot. It had been years since I had last played it, so I decided I might as well give it a shot. The kid had to show up eventually I figured so I might as well enjoy the game until he got back. As the game started, something started to feel a little bit weird. It felt like something was watching me but there was no one else in the room. I concentrated back on the game as the character Jennifer slowly walked throughout the tower. I found it kind of strange that I had made it through a few rooms and yet I had not yet been discovered by the Scissorman. From what I could remember, he was usually in one of two spots at the beginning. However, during this play-through, he was not chasing me at all. I knew he had to show up eventually. After a few more minutes of walking, I started to hear the familiar sounds of Scissorman stalking up behind my character. Something was a bit off about it though. Usually the character began to panic whenever he was nearby, but this time Jennifer was as calm as ever. It was then that I became more aware of what was going on. The sound wasn’t coming from the game; it
was coming from behind me! Using quick reflexes I didn’t even know I had, I just barely dodged my head being cut by a pair of gigantic scissors. The young boy had returned, but this time he was brandishing the infamous weapon of the Scissorman from the game. It was as if the character jumped straight from the game itself. The kid jumped around in a little victory dance when he saw the fear in my face. I had to get out of this house. I immediately took off down the hallway that we originally came through. As I ran, I could hear the snapping of scissors behind me as the boy gave chase. Throughout the house, I could hear the young kid’s voice echoing the same word over again, “play… play… play!” I was way past panicked at this point when I finally reached the door. I was about to reach for the handle until I realized that there was no longer a handle there. I was trapped! The boy with the scissors was laughing and snapping behind me so I knew I had to think quickly. If this was anything like the game, then maybe there were places where I could hide. Sure enough, through the hallway there were many doors. I had to test my luck and I ran to the first one I could reach. I sprinted through the door and slammed it shut, and then locked it behind me. I knew I had mere moments before the kid would reach the door and that I only had a little time to hide. In my first look around, it looked like a parent’s bedroom. There was a large bed in the center, a few dressers, a door to the bathroom and a closet. My initial reaction was to hide in the closet, but I knew that’s one of the first places that would be checked. I decided I would have to test my luck and try hiding in the corner right behind the door. I knew it was one of the worst hiding places to choose, but I figured maybe he’d assume I wouldn’t use it. No more than a few seconds later, the boy busted down the door and stepped into the room. I stood as still as I could and didn’t dare breathe in case the boy would hear it. I just silently watched him as he walked through the door. My eyes could not even shut, not for a moment. I stared as he crept into the room, looking around for where I might have been hiding. I just prayed that he wouldn’t look in my direction or I knew it would be over. He slowly started creeping to the closest, where I figured he would look first. He didn’t even open the closet door, he just shoved his weapon through it, impaling whatever he thought was inside. After a few seconds, he pulled the scissors out to open the door and find what was inside. While he was paying attention to the closet, I figured it’d be the best chance to sneak out the doorway before he could find me. I was just about out the door when I noticed something in the closet I wish I had seen before. Leaning against the wall in the closet was a shotgun that looked like a miracle to me. I just needed a way to get close enough to it before I was caught. I had to think fast before the boy could catch on to my whereabouts. It looked as though luck was on my side for once today. Some random crash came from the bathroom and the boy went to check it out. I figured I’d have about a few seconds before the kid would come back to the room to find out where I was. As soon as he disappeared through the door, I crept over to
the weapon in the closet. I checked the gun to see if it was loaded, but as luck would have it, the gun had no shells in it. I quickly searched the room to see if I could find any ammunition. One of the drawers on the dresser was slightly open, and I could see a hint of a small red box inside. This was my only shot so I decided to check the drawer to see what lay inside. Inside, I not only found the shells I was looking for, but I also found what looked like a balled up note. It read, “Never play with him. You will never win.” I had no idea who could have written this note, but I couldn’t think about it now. I had to find a way out of here first. Coming back to my senses, I put the ammo into the gun and pumped it to get it ready. I figured the boy had to hear that sound so he would know I was in here. It was only a matter of time before he would be coming through that door. I pointed the gun at the door and waited for my victim. The kid never came back through the door. I started to wonder if there was another way out through the bathroom that I missed in my hurry and that the kid would soon be behind me again. I walked cautiously towards the bathroom and peered in. There was no one there. I couldn’t see any doors or any place he could have gone. It was just a toilet, a shower and a sink. There was no place he could have been hiding so I began to wonder if he was ever there in the first place. I don’t think all of this could have possibly have been my imagination, but there was no way to explain what was going on here. I decided to move on through the house since I no longer knew where the scissor kid was stalking. I knew he had to be around somewhere but now I had a weapon. In this game of cat and mouse, I had suddenly become the predator. It was my duty to rid the world of this psychopath for my sake and everyone else I cared about. I started by investigating each of the doors along the entrance hallway. There were about 5 different doors each leading to different bedrooms. Each bedroom had distinct personalities living there as I could tell from the decorations. I could tell there was a daughter by a bedroom lined with creepy dolls, and even an animal lover due to the room filled with stuffed animals of all kinds. But there was one room that I knew belonged to the creepy kid. As soon as I opened the door, I immediately wished I hadn’t. The room looked like a creepy circus with fake bloody heads all over the room. It looked like it was painted blood red and it felt like the setting of a horror movie. As I looked at the heads in the room, I started to realize something. They looked very realistic, almost as if they had been cut from a body recently. Then I noticed something; the blood color of the wall was almost fresh. These heads were real and they had just been cut! I heard the frightening “play…” from behind me as I noticed the boy was back on my trail. As I tried to move, a nail on the ground caused me to lose balance and I tumbled into the room of the deranged kid. He followed me in, snapping the scissors with the same sinister smile I saw on his face when I first reached the house. I backed away as far as I could until I reached the wall. It was fight or flight time and I was gonna fight.
I picked up the shotgun and sloppily aimed at the kid. I closed my eyes, pulled the trigger and flew back into the wall. The wall gave way and I smashed through it from the recoil and landed into a hidden room. I had no idea where the kid was, but at least I could try to find an exit from here. The room was dark but I could still see the light from the kid’s room. I could barely make out a doorway that seemed to lead to some stairs. I took a deep breath and headed the only way I could go, to the unknown place that would probably be my end. When I reached the bottom of the steps, it looked like I had reached a dungeon. I guessed that this was probably the basement of the house, and from the looks of it, the place where the kid spent most of his time. It was almost like a jail, with the only lights being lit up torches along the long narrow way. On each side of the hall were cells. I counted around 6 of them. This place must have had a very dark history but it is not one I wanted to find out. I immediately took off running towards the end of the hall to find my way out. At the end of the dungeon there was a lever. I figured this would probably lead to some hidden door that I could escape from so I pulled it without hesitation. Instead of a hidden passage however, the lever instead opened up all the bars that were previously covering the dungeon cells. I started to hear low moaning as several things started creeping out of the rooms. I panicked and started blasting away at the things on the floor. I didn’t even pay attention to what they could have been. It wasn’t until I heard a human scream that I actually focused on what was happening. The things crawling along the floor were human beings. They all had random limbs severed from their bodies and could barely move. The kid had to have been torturing these poor people. When I actually looked into the cells, they were much bigger than I thought they were. Each one was like a pit, with at least a dozen decapitated bodies in each. By the random bits of bodies left in the pits, I could tell that these were the people whose heads I saw hanging in the room. And from the looks of things, I concluded only one thing. These were all the gamers who got here before me. This kid got to each and every one. The bodies with the severed limbs must have been there well before today. I could not tell who they were, but I knew I couldn’t help them. That kid had to be a demon. There was no way anyone else could have possibly done this to so many people. I turned around to run but I saw that the wall was still in my way. I had to escape no matter what it took. I rammed into the wall with all my might, hoping it would give way like the kid’s room. It didn’t work. There had to be something. Anything! I felt something tug on my leg. When I looked down, I saw it was one of the bodies that came from the cells. I don’t know what it wanted but I had to kick it off of me. I was gonna survive this thing one way or another, and I couldn’t take these distractions with me. I looked
down where the body was and found something interesting. There was another balled up note like the one I had seen in the room upstairs. I quickly picked it up and held it to the light to see. The note read, “Mother Dearest knows the best. She lives longer than the rest.” I couldn’t make any since of this. Then I heard that sound again. The bone-chilling snaps of the scissors as the kid was making his way down the stairs. I must have missed him somehow because there was no way he could have survived that. But either way, I had to find a way out before he could catch me. I picked up one of the torches and examined each of the pits hidden in each of the cells. In each one, there was one distinctive body that was hung onto each of the back walls. I could immediately tell just by looking at them. This was the kid’s family. There was an unmistakable little girl who looked almost like a plastic doll. There was another that looked like it was covered in animal fur. Based on the bodies there, it looked like there was a mother and father and 5 kids. However, somehow one of the kids imprisoned the rest of the family and got away. That was the kid that was coming after me now and the one that I had to get away from. I went into the cell with the mother’s body. It looked almost ashamed if I could read the emotion projected from the dull scene. It looked as though she had suffered a great pain and had given up on everything. Next to her there was another lever. It looked almost as if she was reaching for it when she was hung up. I pulled the lever, hoping that something would finally lead me to safety. The lever opened up another secret passage behind the cell. I could hear the scissors coming ever closer to me. I ran into the room and closed the passage door behind me. The room was completely dark. I could not see a thing, let alone figure out where I was. I had reached a dead end and began to lose all hope. That was when I heard it. I heard a torturous scream, like someone who had just had their arm ripped off. Then I heard another, and another. The kid was coming for me, and he was cutting through everything and everyone just to get to me. The screams got closer and closer until I heard it. The most horrifying sound was when I heard the scissors snap for the last time. The boy had gotten through the door and was now right behind me. There was nowhere to go and nothing left to do. I had one last chance and I planned on going out with a bang. I turned around… The kid was standing there, brandishing his abnormally large scissor with that evil smile on his face. This was my last shot, and this time I wouldn’t miss. I raised the gun, aimed the best I could and then pulled the trigger. There was nothing. I had wasted all the ammo shooting at the bodies and now I had nothing left. The boy opened the blades of the scissors and placed them around my neck. The nightmare had finally caught me, and my struggle had come to an end. There was nothing left I could do except pray as the last thing I felt was my head hitting the floor.
I don’t know if the kid was ever found or if anyone had even survived. All I know is that games only go so far. When you play, it may be funny or entertaining but always remember that it is just a game. The scary thing is when games get real. Don’t ever let the games get real. When they do, he will play. And he will win. He always wins.