While I was in my room after that moment, my stomach rumbled, and I figured I'd grab a quick something to eat before I hit the hay. I was walking down the hall near my room with this goal in mind when I came across something interesting. On my right side, in a small notch in the wall I hadn't noticed before, was what appeared to be a vending machine.
Now when did that get there? ...And since when did this place have electricity? Sure, there were some mechanical machines and electrical lights in the hotel, but from what I could recall they were only in the shaft between Gregory Mama's room and the safe room deep below the hotel.
I was thinking how I had never recalled a vending machine inside this hotel when Gregory's voice from moments ago echoed in my mind. "But let me warn you, my friend, those DVDs of yours will only cover so much... There's no guarantee that what you saw will be all you see..."
Was this one of those things that was present in this purgatory world that wasn't on the DVDs? I wondered.
I looked over at the selection through the glass. There were very many varieties of candy and snack food in the machine. Several I recognized, such as Snickers, M&Ms, and my favorite, Butterfingers. The others were mysteries to me, but seemed to be themed around guests of the hotel; among the selection was "Catherine's Strawberry-Filled Hearts," "Neko Zombie's Favorite Chocolate," and "Angel Dog's Devil's Food Cake." I wondered why there would be foods themed around residents Gregory despised, especially Neko Zombie.
In the mood for a little midnight snack, I decided to stick with tried and true and buy a Butterfingers. I pulled a dollar out of my wallet and slipped into the feed slot on the machine, then pressed in the number for the Butterfingers.
That's where everything went wrong. I heard whirring and the sound of a thunk as my purchase fell into the slot on the bottom of the machine, but nothing in the window moved. Examining the display closely, I found a shocking surprise: a corner of the "display" was peeled away from the glass slightly.
The candy I saw was only a poster pasted behind the glass.
But if it's a fake... I thought with horror, then what the hell did I just buy?!
Suddenly, a large tentacle that looked like a red octopus's emerged from the grab slot and wrapped around my left arm before I could react. With a thrust, it started to pull me towards towards the vending machine. Looking into the grab slot, it was being held open by another tentacle and inside the darkness of the slot was a mouth where the only thing visible were shiny white pointed gnashing teeth.
"GAH! Let go! I'm no snack!!" I cried as I tried to pull away from the mouth of the machine. But man, that was one strong tentacle, and slowly I was being dragged toward the slot. I used my free arm to pound on the tentacle with my fist in an attempt to get it to loosen its killer grip.
After several tries to no avail, I threw all of my available strength and slammed down on it. Apparently that did something, as it flinched and weakened its grip. Quickly I pulled my arm out and stumbled backwards, away from the monster machine. The tentacle moved toward me, but it stopped a few inches short of my foot. It waved and strained toward me, but it seemed to be at the end of its reach. After several moments it eventually pulled back into the grab slot. The slot's hatch slammed shut, and all was still yet again.
It was here I realized how heavy I was breathing, how on edge I was. I was scared. Scared for my life. Was this how the Guests felt, running into the hotel's residents? Scared for their lives?
"Are you alright?"
"YAH!" I jumped so hard from surprise, I fell on my side. I quickly recovered and turned to see Gregory of all people.
"I take it our vending machine has given you a little trouble?"
"A little?!" I spit out. "It tried to eat me!"
"Tried to eat you?" he replied. "My friend, that is easily avoided."
With that, he pulled out his own dollar bill and inserted it into the machine. He punched in a selection. There was a whir and a thunk, and then to my surprise, the grab slot opened and spit a bag labeled "Gregory's Specialty Cheese Puffs"out, which arched through the air to land safely in Gregory's waiting paws.
"See?" he said. "Perfectly safe. This machine can produce these kinds of foods easily, but it doesn't know how to make anything from the other side. So when someone asks it to, it becomes nervous. And it get hungry when it's nervous."
He pulled the bag open. "There are times when the familiar can be dangerous," he said. "When it does..." He paused as he chomped down a cheese puff. "...one must turn to the unfamiliar." He turned away and chuckled as he walked off, nibbling on his snacks along the way.
Eventually, I recovered my nerves enough to stand up. It was another several moments before I approached the machine warily. Nothing happened as I inserted another dollar. After looking over the selection of foods that were not from reality, I decided on the Devil's Food Cake and pushed the appropriate buttons. A whir and a thunk, and just like with Gregory minutes ago, the wrapped treat was spit out of the machine right into my hands.
Much better.
After looking over the ingredients to make sure it wasn't poisoned, I gave a nod to the machine as I headed off, unwrapping the small chocolate cake and munching away as I headed back to my room to get a well-deserved sleep.
I swear, it nodded back.
