Annie insisted that we would watch the entirety of season 3 of America's Next Top Model on the TV because she was 'behind'. I was bored stupid, but Annie was really into the show and insisted that I stayed to watch ANTM with her. I was desperate for a distraction at this point. I casually stood up, and once I was out of sight sped-walked in the direction of my room at the end of the hall. I was in the middle of a new book I got from the bookstore I wanted to finis… Was that music? I just passed the guest room with the door still ajar, and looked inside. On the PC was the title screen of the theater! Why in the world was that still on the screen? I'm sure that I turned off my computer earlier. I know I did! "Annie!" I cried. I heard the creak of my sofa, and quick footsteps coming down the hall.
"What happened, May?" She asked, her eyes as round and big as dinner plates.
"Look!" She stepped inside the guest room/office and stopped dead. She slowly closed the door and quickly stepped out into the hallway.
"What the heck, May? Are you trolling me?" She asked. I shook my head.
"I thought you were trolling me!" I frantically whispered. We both stared at the closed door. If it wasn't us, then who or what the heck did this?
"Alright, we have to do something about this," she murmured quickly. "This is too much like a real life creepypasta," her voice grew louder, "and you know what happens in creepypastas, May? Nothing good, that's what!" She practically shouted the last part, making me jump.
"Ok here's the plan," I said, trying to calm her down. "We're going to go in there, or I'll go in there," I noticed the worried look on her face, "I'll quit the game, and everything's going to be alright." She nodded with an even more nervous expression on her face. "One." I turned the doorknob to the office. "Two." I inched the door open. "Three!" I shoved open the door and made a mad dash for the computer that was still playing the title screen music. Annie looked on from the doorway as I sat down at the computer desk. I hit CTRL + ALT + DELETE as quickly as I could, and nothing happened. "Oh come on!" I said angrily. I repeated the sequence again, and this time the screen faded into darkness. Satisfied, I turned to leave, until I heard a gasp from Annie behind me. I whirled around, and we were back in the lobby once more! No way… No way this was happening. I heard Annie run out of the room and down the hallway. She returned carrying a stool and plopped it down next to the swivel chair. "What are you doing?" I asked her. She was so worried a second ago.
"Don't you see?" She responded, gesturing at the screen, with an almost maniac gleam in her eye. "Maybe something new is going to happen! Maybe the game has more to offer this time!" She could be right, but I honestly had a really bad feeling about all of what was going on. This scenario seemed all too familiar to me after the timeless hours I spent scrolling through nosleep and reading what others had to say about their experiences. Whether this situation was actually paranormal or not, everything now had to come down to using my common sense to get through it all. I deliberated internally for a few seconds until I reached a conclusion. All right, I was going to do this. I was going to face this situation head on, just so Annie could get her scoop. This was probably going to be such a bad idea…
I looked over at Annie, who was again taking notes in her notepad. "Should I really do it?" I asked.
"Let's just see what happens," she responded, pointing at the screen with the end of her pen.
"Here goes nothing…" I said, and pressed the up key on the keyboard. Like before, the character moved forward deeper into the dark lobby, and we approached the two corridors that loomed out of the darkness. However, something was different. In the place where the ticket taker usually stood was empty.
"What happened to the ticket taker?" Annie asked, her voice quivering slightly. I wasn't too sure, and really I didn't want to know, but there was nothing else to do except to go down one of the corridors. I pressed the up key once more, and as soon as the footstep sound played over the speakers, the marquee lights lit up both of the corridors, and the text box appeared over the empty space the same time the sound clip played once more. Ticket taker: THANK YOU PLEASE ENJOY THE MOVIE. This was getting really creepy. However, at this point there was really no other option but to press on. Now, we were faced with the decision on what passage to take. "Which side do we take?" She asked. I shrugged.
"It doesn't look like it matters really," I said. Just to make light of the situation, I continued. "I'll just use the ever-reliable eeny meeny miny moe method!" I pointed back and forth from right to left over and over again until my finger landed on the corridor to the right. "Here we go then." I said, and I maneuvered the character to enter the right hand corridor. The corridor was as dark as usual, and we reached the end pretty quickly. The screen faded to black, but instead of the scene changing back to the lobby, it stayed black with nothing happening. I pressed up on the keyboard, and to my surprise the footstep sound effect still played! I held down the up key, and the sound effect played over the speakers in one continuous echoing loop. All of a sudden, the effect stopped completely, even when I held down the up key. Now what? Did I choose the wrong corridor?
Annie's POV:
I could tell by May's expression that something was about to happen. The computer was now completely silent. Every bit of me was in a terrible state of suspense, wondering what could possibly happen next. All of a sudden, the ticket taker appeared out of the darkness. It made me jump violently, and I almost fell off of the stool. May jumped too, and let out a soft scream as she almost threw the mouse into the air. It was most definitely the ticket taker sprite, but instead of the normal face, he had a swirl for a face… Just looking at it made me feel really uneasy. "What's wrong with his face?" I asked quietly. May didn't respond. She just kept staring and staring at the sprite on the screen. A few seconds passed while we just stared and stared at the ticket taker, or 'swirly head man' waiting to see what would happen next. Without warning, a terrible screeching static sound blasted out of the speakers. It was so unexpected; I almost fell off of the stool once again. I clapped my hands over my ears to block the horrible sound. It was even worse than the music that played earlier; it made me want to run out of the room! The screaming sound just kept continuing on and on, and May just kept sitting there completely immobile in the desk chair, clutching her creeper plush in a vice-like grip. I finally snapped back into my senses. I had to get her out of here! She can't stay in the same room as this horrible, horrible game! I jumped up from my stool, leaving my notebook abandoned on the floor. I ran over to the desk chair and grabbed it with one hand. With the other hand I threw open the office door, and wheeled the chair out of the room and a short distance down the hall as fast as I could.
I ran back to the office, hands over my ears and slammed the door behind me. Through the closed door I could still here the faint horrible screeching sound coming from the speakers. I bent down to face May, who was curled up in the chair, frozen in place with a terrified look on her face. "May!" I shouted. "May, answer me!" I lightly shook her. As soon as I did this, May returned to her senses. She began to shiver uncontrollably in the chair, and I took her hands to stand her up.
"We need to do something about this horrible game, Annie." She said quietly. I nodded and sat her down on the sofa. If we were going to do something, what would we do? The only thing that I could come up with right now was that we just needed to wait until the horrible screaming stopped, if possible.
"Ok, this is what we're going to do," I said sitting down next to May on the couch. "We just need to wait it out. We just need to sit here and wait until that horrible screeching sound stops before we can do anything, alright?" May nodded and switched on the TV, turning the volume up really loud to try and drown out the sounds coming from the office.