Ghostly Games

This is not a story about life or living it to the fullest. This is a story about death, lots of death. But it is also a story about rebirth. See the ghostly games were created a long time ago, and Sidney had only lived through 72 of them. The powers that be thought the ghostly games would be a really good way to slow down the rebirth rate of all the souls in the universe. The last one standing would be the one to be rebirthed into a new body, a new life. At least that was what Sidney had gleaned from the 72 painful deaths she had experienced after the first one that had killed her and landed her here. She was sure there was an official name for it, but the powers that be did not ever make an appearance. For her, kill or be killed and then do it all over again until you were the last one alive in this ghostly universe. It wasn't even a universe at this point. It was a mock little small town with a movie theater, a diner, a pharmacy, and all the other staples of a small town life. In deaths 10-25 she had spent time mapping out the boundaries of the town she had found herself in. It had reminded her of the one she grew up in, without actually being the one she grew up in. Seeing it had brought waves of nostalgia to her when she had first found herself in the place. However, having lived through so many deaths, she found she was no longer nostalgic about the place. She was ready to leave. She had tried to leave but the borders were a thick fog, and an instant death. Deaths 16, 17, and maybe 20 had found her fighting to get through the fog only to blink and find herself staring at it, from the edge of town. It was relenting, and Sidney had found that the only choice was to play the twisted game she had found herself in. From this, Sidney had learned that she was resourceful and resilient. Despite there being a diner in this town, she often found she did not need to eat at all. Sleep wasn't needed either, although with every death she found that time had passed randomly from her death to her waking. What seemed like the blink of an eye was anywhere from a day to a week to who even knows. It's not like she could count on anyone here telling her what time it was. Times and days didn't seem to matter, and the others would just as soon stab you for their chance of rebirth than to help you. She learned that rather quickly. And yet, it seemed she wasn't quite aware of how it truly was. Because she would not be stuck behind the shelves of a little corner store wishing there wasn't a laughing maniac in between her and the exit. She really just wanted to remember the taste of her favorite snack, funyuns, again. She hadn't counted on a crazy stumbling in. The crazies were the ones who had been in the game the longest, lived through so many deaths. Some simply killed themselves over and over, but there were the ones who would attack savagely. Those were the ones you had to be careful of to survive here. And unfortunately, Sidney had found herself hiding from the latter category of crazy. Despite being dead and a ghost in a ghostly realm, Sidney still tried to hold her breath and make her presence feel as small as possibly in the corner store. She pulled her gray hoodie over her blonde hair, desperate to blend into the shadows and shelving around her. Think you stupid girl,she looked around. The laughing crazy shambled into one of the aisles. Now was the time for Sidney to get the heck out of there without drawing the attention of the crazy. She took a few steps back from the shelf she was hiding behind. So far so good, or so she thought. When she turned to head toward the exit, her hip bumped into the dusty display, causing a few things to fall and attracting the attention of the crazy. So much for life number 72 making it to rebirth, she thought as she locked eyes with the crazy. In that instance she was able to take in the tattered hospital gown, the trailing tubes from what was probably an iv drip, and the strips of flesh hanging off of him in various areas. It was an older man, she would hazard a guess that he was in his 60s. As soon as he saw Sidney, his smile ripped into a giant maw and with some inhuman speed he started running at her. "f**k!" she exclaimed as she started running towards the back, praying there was a back exit that she could get out of. She tried to throw things off the shelf to slow it down but crazies when they see a target are hard to stop. She thought she saw a back door and had her hand on the knob before getting pulled back and flung into a set of shelving.