Game Over

You open your eyes, but there isn’t anything to see. It’s all blank- whether its white, or black, it doesn’t matter. But then it does- a blinding light fills your eyes, and you squint away. When you open them again, you’re in a building. No, not a building- a train. The windows show the scenery outside moving at such a speed that you can’t even tell what you’re passing by. The interior is simple but sophisticated- mostly white, with a few booths set up against the left wall.

There is a mirror leaning up against the opposite wall. It stands right in front of you, making it easy to admire yourself. You look sharp in a black and white suit. You return to looking around.

As you’re looking around, another light flashes in front of you. It isn’t as blinding as the last one- its softer. Once it disappears, there are words in its place. The strange thing is that they aren’t facing you- they’re backwards to you. You can still read them. “Choose your character!” After a moment, several smaller lights appear and disappear, leaving in their place several names. Next to you on both sides, the names say “Locked”. You have a name floating in front of you, as well. Strangely enough, it’s your own.

Another few moments of eerie silence pass before a small pinging noise echoes in the train car. You can’t move anymore. The train passes into a pitch-black tunnel, and you can’t see either; then, you can’t feel anything. Its as if you’re floating.

When you can see and feel again, you’re in front of a wall. Your movements still aren’t your own, but it doesn’t feel as though an outside force is influencing you, either- its more as though its all in your subconscious. There are several other kids your age laughing near a gate. They hold a pair of chain cutters. Your mouth opens, and you hear yourself say something.

“Guys, is this really such a good idea? They say this place is really dangerous at night.” Your voice is shaking.

“Aw, (y/n), don’t tell me you’re scared?” One of them, the one holding the cutters, sticks his tongue out at you. He has white hair, and is much bulkier than you. He probably wouldn’t have any troubles dealing with any danger that might lay in wait. “Its just a bunch of buildings full of mannequins.” You find yourself remembering that his name is…

“Ryo, you know (he/she/they) have every right to be.” The other guy glances over at you sympathetically. He seems much nicer, with longer black hair and a more delicate frame. You think his name is Jay. “You can stay behind, if you’d like.”

A third voice butts in- you realize it comes from the right of you. This voice belongs to a tall girl with threateningly pink hair, and an aura that you think would be quite intimidating to many people. “Yeah, (y/n). We’re coming back tomorrow, right? Stay today, and we’ll scout it out and tell you if it’s really that dangerous when we get back.” You remember her name to be Hyru.

You agree, still somewhat hesitantly, with them. Ryo gives you a grin and a thumbs up after he cuts the wire, as the others enter- you think he must be much nicer than he acts. Then they disappear behind the previously locked gate, into the park.

The next time you see them is in the pale of the morning, when their bodies- or what’s left of them- is being brought out on a gurney.

–

The past week didn’t actually happen. You’re sure of it. Everyone says it happened, and that you acted fairly normally during it, but everything went black after the incident. You’re standing in front of the wall again. This time, it’s during the day. You have shivers running down your spine, although whether it’s from actual fear, or just fear of the memory, you aren’t sure. This world you woke up in is strange.

There are more words, like there were on the train. “Make your way to the ticket house.” Is that what you’re supposed to do? What ticket house? Why would you need to do that?

None of these questions are answered. You find that you aren’t in control of your body again. Unlike last time, however, it feels forceful- as though some larger being is manipulating your actions. Like you’re a puppet.

You are made to run through the crowd of people. None of them seem to find it odd. You once again ponder the strangeness of this world, but it doesn’t matter. You keep running.

You run past guards, who are checking through people’s bags. They think nothing of it. You decide not to think anything of it either.

You run to a building. You finally stop here. You think this must be the ticket house, since that was where the words directed you. More words appear here. “Query about the disappearance of your friends.”

That’s right. No one ever actually told you what happened. This time when the controlling force moves your body again, you go with it gladly. This is information you want to know.

You open the door and walk inside. It’s empty. You’ve heard about this place, you think- that it’s the only building in this entire park empty of mannequins. It’s large. The only other person is a bored looking lady behind a desk. She wears glasses, and has a large stack of papers in front of her. You walk up to her.

She barely noticed your presence at first. When she does, she doesn’t look surprised. “You’re here about those kids, right? Weren’t you the one that was there that morning?” She continues to look bored. “You shouldn’t worry about it. There are some things that you don’t want to know.” Now she looks frustrated. “That’s what the manager told me when I asked. If I were you, kid, I’d heed the advice.”

You don’t want to heed the advice. More words appear above the lady’s head. “Investigate.” She doesn’t notice them. How strange. You want her to notice them, but you can’t. You are already running away.

Out of the building. There’s a road that leads towards more buildings.

You pass most of the buildings. You see a pure white mannequin in one of the windows. It’s wearing a suit. You feel like it’s watching you.

You keep running.

You run until the end of the road. You stop. There are caution signs everywhere. There are guards standing in front of the scene. They won’t let you pass.

Everything goes dark again.

–

You wake up in front of the park again. It’s morning again. You look around. There are more words. “Make your way to the ticket house.”

The force controls your body again. You run to the ticket house. “Query about the disappearance of your friends.”

You walk into the ticket house. The same woman from before sits behind the desk. She looks like she expects you. “Investigate.”

You run to the end of the street again. The guards won’t let you pass. Everything goes dark.

–

You wake up in front of the park again. It’s morning again. You look around. There are more words. “Make your way to the ticket house.”

The force controls your body again. You run to the ticket house. “Query about the disappearance of your friends.”

You walk into the ticket house. The same woman from before sits behind the desk. She looks like she expects you. She looks annoyed. “Investigate.”

You run to the end of the street again. The guards won’t let you pass. Everything goes dark.

–

You wake up in front of the park again. It’s morning again. You look around. There are more words. “Make your way to the ticket house.”

The force controls your body again. You run to the ticket house. “Query about the disappearance of your friends.”

You walk into the ticket house. The same woman from before sits behind the desk. She looks like she expects you. She looks furious. “Investigate.”

You run to the end of the street again. The guards won’t let you pass. Everything goes dark.

–

You wake up in front of the park again. It’s morning again. You look around. There are no more words.

The force controls your body again. You run to the ticket house. There are no words.

You walk into the ticket house. The same woman from before stands behind the desk. She looks like she expects you. She looks furious. There are no words.

You run to the end of the street again. The guards let you pass. You look underneath a large blue tarp. There’s red, so much red, and…

Everything goes dark.

–

You wake up in front of the park again. It’s morning again. You look around. There are more words. “Make your way to the ticket house.”

The force controls your body again. You run to the ticket house. “Query about the disappearance of your friends.”

You walk into the ticket house. The woman is gone. “Investigate.”

You run to the end of the street again. The guards are gone. You look underneath the large blue tarp. There’s red, fresh and old, a pair of glasses, some papers… And a mannequin hand.

Everything goes dark.

–

You wake up in the ticket house. There are so many other people there… They look so scared. So, so scared. What kind of world is this? What’s happening to you? You look around. There are more words. “Investigate.”

You investigate. There is an official looking man standing in front of the door. He looks at his watch worriedly. You ask what time it is.

“10 pm.”

Why are there so many people here so late?

“They locked the gates.”

They?

He simply nods. You want to question him further, but it looks like he’d have no answers. All the windows are barred off. You can’t see outside. Another woman pulls you aside.

“The mannequins.” The mannequins?

“I can’t tell you.” Then why pull me aside?”

“Because you can fix it.” Fix what?

“I can’t tell you.” Then how am I supposed to fix it?

“You have to go outside.” The door is locked.

“There’s another way.” What way?

“I can’t tell you.” You must, or I won’t do it.

“I mustn’t.” You must.

“I-“ You must.

“Upstairs.” Upstairs?

“That’s all I can say.”

With that she disappears. You realize that you have lost control of your body again. More words have appeared. “Make your way upstairs.”

You look around the crowd of frightened people as you run through them. They ignore you. You run to the other end of the building. You are behind the desk. The lady isn’t there. She’s dead. What kind of world is this?

You turn towards the back wall. There’s a door. It isn’t locked. You walk through it. There’s a staircase on the opposite side. You begin walking up the staircase. It takes forever. You reach the top. There’s another door.

You open it. The room behind it is pitch-black. You turn on the lights. How did you know where the light switch was? You aren’t sure.

There are mannequins. So many of them. But they’re all broken- beaten, battered, and out of place amongst the clean environment. Some of them are dirty. Dirty with soil, mud, charring, marker-marks, and red. The same red. That red.

None of them move. They are regular mannequins. Why is this surprising? All is quiet.

You walk through the room. Still, none move. They remain regular mannequins. You want to go home. Where is home? The first thing you remember is that train. You want to go back to that train. Before the words, before the tunnel. Just the train and its car.

You have reached the end of the room. There’s another door. You realize that this door must lead out onto the porch. What porch? Someone forgot to lock it. You don’t want to open it. You open it anyways. The mannequins remain still.

The door closes behind you. You try to open it again. It is locked now. Why did it lock? You regret your decision. Outside, it’s eerily quiet. You don’t like it. Why do you keep moving forwards? You don’t want to move. Why can’t you control yourself? What is controlling you?

You jump to the ground below. Somehow you remain unbroken. There is nothing there but the faint light seeping outside from the ticket house. You remember your friends- Hyru, Ryo, and Jay. Perhaps they aren’t dead. Perhaps this is a dream. You turn towards the only other building that doesn’t line the road. It’s the control house of the park’s transportation system. It’s unlocked. You go inside.

The system is online. You can’t imagine why. There’s a single harness, swinging slightly, at the boarding station. It seems to be waiting. You look around. No one else is there. You climb into the harness. It starts moving along the wire, like it normally would during the day time. Why did you do this? You try to get out, before it exits the house and moves into the sky. You can’t move your body.

It’s dark outside. So dark. At least you are far above the height of a human being or a mannequin. You wonder why your mind added mannequin to that sentence. It shouldn’t have needed to. The ground seems like a dangerous place.

You want to cry.

The wire edges closer to the ground. You want it to go back up. Soon you are passing by the buildings on the road. The lights are on inside. The mannequins, the ones that usually line their interior, are gone. All of them. How were they brought away so quickly? They were just there yesterday. No, not yesterday. The last time you woke up. And they weren’t there then… Not all of them. Some of them were missing.

The suited mannequin that watched you the first day was missing.

You realize the end of the street is approaching. You don’t want it to approach. You want to go back. You want to be able to look inside the windows. You don’t want to get off this contraption. It was the only thing that kept you safe. Kept you safe? From what?

More words appeared. “Save the girl.” Save… the girl? Save what girl? You passed the words and could no longer see them. They could not answer your questions anyways.

You have reached the end of the street. No one is there. The tarp is gone. So is the red, and the glasses, and the papers, and the white plastic hand. Suddenly you are on the ground. How did you get out of the harness? How did you fall so far without breaking? What kind of world is this?

Did you even fall?

You look around. There is a girl there now. She wears a frilly dress. She looks at you with frightened eyes. You realize that the words must have been referring to her. You want to help her, now, but from what? There is nothing around.

Suddenly she screams. She is swallowed up by something white. You failed to save her. That’s the first task you have failed. There is a mannequin in her place. It wears a frilly dress. It’s looking at you. You can tell. It does nothing. More words appear above it. “Save the guard. Find the mannequin.” The mannequin? It’s right in front of you. You have already found it.

Perhaps it’s talking about another mannequin. Why do you need to find it? You realize you don’t want to find it. Finding it is a horrible idea. You look back at the mannequin. It isn’t a mannequin anymore. It’s a perfect copy of the little girl, but you know it isn’t her. Her skin is too white. Her eyes are too blank. She’s the mannequin now.

You’re scared.

You feel yourself begin to run. It’s dark. You can’t see where you’re walking. You stop running. Why did you stop running? You want to keep running. You want to go back to the train. If you kept running, you would have. You would have won. You can feel it. But you stopped running.

What would you have won? Why did you stop?

You blink. There’s a mannequin there. You wonder how it got there so fast. It wasn’t there a split second ago. It wears the same outfit one of the guards wore. You realize it isn’t looking at you. You turn around. One of the guards is there. How did he get there? He looks fearful. He looks at you. You have to save him. What will happen if you don’t?

It’s too late. Something white swallows him. The mannequin stands in his place. You don’t want to watch. More words appear above it. “Save the waitress. Find the mannequin.” The waitress?

You turn to the side. You already know what happened. If you looked back at the mannequin, he would be a white-skinned replica of the man. You don’t want that to happen to anyone else. A bell sounds midnight. It’s dark.

You enter the closest building. It’s lights are on. A lady stands there. She looks like she’s hiding from something. She wears a typical waitress’ garb. As soon as you enter, she looks both furious and tearful. You realize your entrance would have given away her location. You apologize. You will save her.

But you don’t.

The mannequin finds you both. It consumes her. You didn’t know what to do. It looks at you. This time you can’t help but watch as it slowly changes. This is the third task you’ve failed. More words appear. “Find the mannequin. Save yourself.”

Why would you want to find the mannequin? Perhaps if you find it before it finds you, it’ll go away. Why would a mannequin be looking for you? You realize that if each of these three people had a mannequin looking for them, then…

You begin to run. Out of the building, up the street, towards that one building. That one where you saw it. Where it watched you from. That’s where it’ll be. You arrive. You look around. It’s there, you know it. It was waiting. It wants you to win. A voice calls out to you.

You turn around. A white skinned figure stands there, but it isn’t a mannequin. Not anymore. Two figures stand beside it.

One of them has white hair. He wears a sarcastic smile. One of them has long black hair. He seems welcoming. The third has threatening pink hair. She grins.

It’s too late for them. It’s too late for you.

You suddenly have full control of your body. For the first time since the train, you are you and only you. You whip around. They distracted you. This was their plan all along, you realize.

It’s too late for them. It’s too late for you.

The suited mannequin stands there. You didn’t find it. It found you. If it could grin, it would be.

It’s too late for them.

This was no one’s fault but your own. If you had stopped them, none of any of this would have happened. The mannequin approaches.

It’s too late for you.

You scream. Red is all you can see. That, and two words. The words, it was all in the words, you realize. Pain. So much of it. What is this world? Why were you in it? Could you really have stopped any of it? Soon the pain fades away. You are the mannequin now, you realize. You don’t mind too much. You can still see the words.

“Game over.”