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Your heart is pounding through your chest as you do your best to quietly, yet quickly, make your way through the rows of shut down arcade games. It was just supposed to be a routine check up on the machines. A quick test of the switches, check up on the wiring, making sure there were no bugs. Now, however, it was a fight for your survival. Maintenance was no longer your priority as you found a small space to hide yourself in. Sweat was dripping from your forehead as you squished yourself on the floor between two machines. Your mind was racing. You had no idea if you would make it out of here, would you even be home in time for breakfast the next morning? Who knows, all you knew was your life was on the line. Something had made its way into the arcade, something malicious, something maybe even, unnatural. You couldn’t tell.
You were wishing you hadn’t left your phone at the other end of the arcade when you suddenly heard a distant voice accompanied with footsteps. Your whole body froze and your heavy breathing came to a halt. Your eyes widened as you heard the distant voice begin to sing eerily. “You can’t win me, I can’t be beat.” You heard the voice say in a sing-songy tune, almost as if it was mocking you, like it knew it was going to win this battle. You heard the steps grow closer as tears began to well in your eyes. You covered your mouth with your hand to muffle any breathing as you heard it sing another line.
“You can’t see me behind the screen, I’m half human and half machine.” The voice growled.
The footsteps grew ever closer.
“With eyes so piercing, they’d wait their turn to play.”
You held your breath.
“Perfect patient lines, because I was in their minds. I could do whatever I felt like.”
You couldn’t convince yourself you were going to live anymore.
“I’m happy for years and years and…”
The voice suddenly cut off as the footsteps stopped. Your heart dropped as you slowly turned your head only to be greeted by a wispy figure. It looked human but not quite. It had sharp claws and glowing red eyes, its form slightly hazy. However, you swore its face looked familiar. “Neil?” You asked quietly, knowing you wouldn’t get an answer. It couldn’t be him, there was no way. Neil Cicierega had died a year ago. You didn’t have much time to think as he sang his next, and last line.
“…Only eating the occasional maintenance man.”
You shivered as your eyes widened once again. You weren’t making it out of this. Neil took a stride closer to you before you had time to react, and grabbed you by the collar of your shirt with his long claws. He brought you face to face with him as he grinned, revealing sharp fangs. You let out one final gasp before he proceeded to unhinge his jaw and swallow you whole. Neil licked his lips as he floated towards the other end of the arcade, climbing back into the very same machine he came out of. Not before grabbing your phone you left on his game, as not to leave any evidence.
A few days later a small headline read, “another maintenance man gone missing.”