Ghostly Games

"I will be reborn."

She was sure if she made it out of here she'd probably get some bruises from where she hit the shelving. But there was no time to think as the crazy lunged at her. She rolled out of the way and grabbed the nearest can to throw at him. Anything to distract him just enough for her to get out of there. The small confines of the corner store may have housed great hiding spaces, but the openness of the ghostly street would help her in case another person was lingering. The can hit the crazy in the chest as he pivoted to try to grab her. Her shoes scrambled to get hold of the linoleum instead of slipping. Sidney pushed off the shelf and ran.

"You must die." she heard his voice warble at her as his hands shifted into clawlike features, grabbing onto the shelves. "I will be reborn. The last one. The last." He rambled on. She glanced back as one of his claws had swiped at her, leaving marks on her back. She cried out and stumbled to her knees. This was it. This was death number 73. She could tell. She felt his claws sink into her legs and pull her back. Her shirt was slick with her blood and she had almost lost her fight with it. A pain erupted in her neck as the crazy bit into her, with expectations he would be reborn once she was dead.

She closed her eyes and opened them and she was back in the game, whole, and peering out from behind the side of a building, watching the corner store she had just died in. At least, Sidney felt like she had just died. The pain in her back and neck was still very there, but fading by the minute. This was not the first time she had come to standing and not lying or in the same place she had died. The rules of the game were simple. Survive until your soul is the last one in the game. You could still feel pain, and heal slowly as if you were alive, but since you were already dead, a death in the game was just a game lost and a new game started.

She looked at the corner store and noticed it did not seem dingy or dusty anymore. The lights were shining in the displays and items were neatly stacked and enticing, like brand new. She thought she saw shadows of people moving inside but a blink showed there was no one. The corner store still looked in a state of newness though. Looking in the sky, dark smoke looked like it was trying to invade the small but there seemed to be an invisible barrier that prevented it. Dark smoke in the sky was definitely something new added to the games. Not that trying to survive in and of itself as the main goal wasn't something to focus on.

She looked at the surrounding buildings though, and they were just as dingy as the corner store had been when she had first ventured in there. No lights were shown from them, the windows were either covered in newspaper, boarded up, or too dirty to peer into, as it were. She glanced side to side and started walking towards the brightly lit corner store. Sidney hmm grabbed the door handle and a bell jingled overhead as she entered. No one was in there, and yet it seemed like she had just stepped into it in the middle of a busy afternoon.

Little baskets with various items were in random aisles. A whole bag of items sat at the checkout, like someone was going to grab it shortly and leave. She thought she heard whispers of conversations, and remnants of a cash register cashing out a customer. She looked at the spot where her latest death happened and it was cleaner than she expected. She was not sure what was going on. A toilet flushing in the back caught her by surprise and, instead of hiding, she ran towards the sound. She expected a door to open, yet no door did. She grabbed the handle of what she assumed was the bathroom and pulled it open. It was empty though. No one in there flushed the toilet.

"f**k this. I'm out." She said to no one in particular and turned tail towards the front, back to where she had come from. That's when she saw shadow figures. These were not other people or crazies. This thing was pure black smoke, much like what was above the corner store in the sky. It did not have any discernable features, but if it had eyes it was looking directly at Sidney. Its arms were raised and it tried to zoom right at her but as it hit the brightly lit glass of the store, it disappeared. This was it. Sidney was sure this was the start of her becoming crazy. She had been in too many games, had died too many times. She saw what could happen. She knew what she would turn into.

She exited the corner store and headed away from it as fast as her legs could carry her. She needed to get as far from the shadow she had seen that had marked her possibly going down a path of craziness. Game number 74 was underway.