THE GAME THAT PLAYED ITSELF

I found the old video game console at a garage sale for five dollars. It was an unfamiliar brand, a black plastic machine with no manufacturer's name and a single game cartridge already inserted. The seller, an elderly man, told me it had belonged to his grandson, who had disappeared several years earlier. I thought it was an odd thing to say, but I bought it anyway. When I got home, I connected it to my television and switched it on. The screen displayed a title I had never seen before: THE LAST PLAYER. There were no instructions, no menu, and no options. Just a blinking message that read, "PRESS START TO BEGIN." I pressed the button, and a pixelated character appeared in what looked like a dark, abandoned house. I moved the character through a hallway, opened a door, and entered a bedroom. Something was standing in the corner. Before I could move, the television went black.

A few seconds later, the game restarted by itself. This time, the character was standing in a room that looked strangely familiar. It had the same furniture, the same wallpaper, and the same window as my living room. I laughed nervously, thinking it was some clever programming trick. Then the character walked towards a doorway. I hadn't touched the controller. On the screen, a message appeared: "I CAN SEE YOU." I looked behind me. Nothing. The character continued walking until it reached a pixelated version of my front door. Another message appeared: "SOMEONE IS OUTSIDE." At that exact moment, three slow knocks came from my real front door. My stomach tightened. I checked the security camera on my phone, but there was nobody there. When I looked back at the television, the character was standing in my bedroom. A second figure had appeared behind it. The figure was tall, unnaturally thin, and had a white face with two enormous black eyes. A new message appeared: "DON'T LET IT IN."

I pulled the power cord from the wall. The television went dark, and I sat there in silence, trying to convince myself that I had imagined everything. Then my phone buzzed. It was a notification from an unknown number containing a single photograph. It showed my living room, taken from somewhere near the ceiling. I could see myself sitting on the couch, staring at the television. Behind me stood the tall, white-faced figure. I spun around so quickly that I nearly fell off the couch. Nobody was there. I grabbed my keys and ran outside, leaving everything behind. The next morning, I returned with a friend. The console was still sitting beside the television, but the cartridge was gone. My friend suggested throwing the machine away, and I agreed. Before we could unplug it, the television suddenly switched itself on. The screen displayed a black background with a single message: "PLAYER TWO HAS JOINED." Then, from somewhere behind us, a voice whispered, "Your turn."

Source: Some or all of the content was generated using an AI language model