They’re coming. If I look back, I’ll die. I can feel them closing in on me as I run for my life.

The walls are closing in. I only have to make it to the last objective, but this place is a maze.

“Get the friggin strawberry,” I anxiously encourage Ms. Pac-Man through gritted teeth.

The joystick creaks under my forceful thrust forward, the smug yellow blob finally closes in on our query.

But the ghost is closer.

I swear that it barely grazes her, but she instantly succumbs to its touch.

Almost spitefully dying just as we were about to reach a new high score.

My back cracks as I straighten, looking down at my demise with a shake of my head.

I flex my rigid grip and point my finger accusingly down at Ms. Pac-Man.

“I thought we were friends.”

The screen glitches.

Nearly making it appear as if she winked at me.

I stumble back a bit, remerging in reality like I’ve been slapped out of a dream.

I have before.

It’s pretty effective.

Really the only way to stay awake working long hours at an arcade without spending my paycheck playing the games myself.

Some of my coworkers even get a portion of their money in quarters, but I mostly refrain as best I can.

Ms. Pac-Man and I had a tentative but good thing going until tonight.

I don’t know what’s more sad though – the fact that I took this shift alone just to stay hours after closing and avoid going ‘home,’ or the way I’m rubbing my chest at the pain of losing like I’ve been betrayed.

I ignore the screen taunting me with yet another failure in life.

Silently vowing to never eat another cursed strawberry as long as I live, I press and hold the Player 1 button until the menu pops up, and toggle down into Sleep Mode, wishing mine were that easy.

But maybe I am asleep and this all is a nightmare.

It must be, because as I turn to leave, the array of remaining machines spell out the very words still haunting me:

Game Over.

I suck in a shuttering breath.

They’re definitely not supposed to do that.

Ms. Pac-Man goes dark at my back, forcing me to face the red letters that feel like a threat as they light up the thickening shadows of the room.

They hadn’t felt so ominous until now.

It’s not the darkness that I fear.

No, my concern lies in what it hides.

Unseen eyes follow my poor attempt at a casual power walk to the exit.

I refuse to look anywhere but straight ahead, purposefully tunneling my vision down the path that slices the ominous taunt in half.

The room remains aglow in red as I reach the exit.

My stupid keyring betrays my unease, jangling like the invisible chains constricting my breathing as my shaky hand rises to unlock the door.

I’d previously thought the danger was on the other side of it, but now, I’m not so sure.

I bet I’ll look back and laugh at this tomorrow, but nothing is funny now as I finally get the glass door unlocked and rip it open with a violent clang of the bell above it.

I might lock it back.

I’m not sure.

Good luck to anyone who tries to break in.

Have at it.

I continue power walking down the empty city streets but it turns into a jog when that sensation of being watched only intensifies rather than retreating.

The streetlights flicker and my pulse seems to do the same. I let out a humorless laugh.

This has to be a prank.

If I’m being tricked into exercising for my life right now, someone’s going to die for it.

But then the streetlights remain off, further emphasizing the illumination emanating from the alleyway only two steps away.

I feel like a moth flying towards a flame, accepting its fate.

Closing the distance, I turn to look toward the source, breath catching in my chest at the group of glowing ghosts herded there.

I stumble backwards in horror, instinctively retreating from the threat I spend all of my free time fleeing.

But then I’m enveloped in light as I enter the street, a loud ‘ah-wah’ noise makes me jump a foot in the air.

If my eyes got any wider, I think they’d just pop out at this point.

The paved main road is filled with a line of Pac-Dots on either side of me.

And I’ve just inadvertently consumed one.

I eye they way they wind down alleys and sidestreets.

An alcove ahead lights up yellow, like a beacon, and I heed its call.

I brace the brick once I reach it, the prick of pain confirming that what I’m seeing is real.

The pixelated prompt of ‘Ready!’ lights up the dead end street.

I flinch when the familiar beginning music booms through the city.

As the last three notes ring out, I swear my heart might burst solely due to foreboding as I sprint, purposefully consuming Pac-Dots, tears streaming down my cheeks as the effort only drains me.

They’re coming. If I look back, I’ll die. I can feel them closing in on me as I run for my life.

The walls are closing in. I only have to make it to the last objective, but this place is a maze.