He clutched his head in despair, sweat running down his face. How did he end up like this? Gritting his teeth, he tried to recall what happened prior to this, what led him to play this accursed game – to no avail. His mind drew a blank – rather, it was forced to. He forced it to. He couldn’t remember his friends. He couldn’t remember his family. He couldn’t even remember his name. All he was allowed to think about was the game in front of him. The monitor’s bright light was beginning to irritate his eyes. He had to do something. He started screaming at the top of his lungs, hoping someone w-

“QUIET.”

He felt his throat tighten by itself. His entire body froze up – he could only move his right hand, rested on the computer mouse. A voice echoes throughout the unfortunate player’s head. The figure inside the game shot a golden glare at him, before returning to a more affable stance. “It’s-a your turn!”, he says with an affable voice. The red and black checkerboard rested in front of him.
He had to make his move. But no matter what, he would’ve lost. His last Yoshi was trapped; no matter what move he made. His hopes to stall for time were crushed as the entity forced his throat to clench itself shut, slowly suffocating. Right as he was on the verge of losing consciousness, his finger weighed down on the mouse button, a loud click resonating through the dark, silent room.
The man in red bared his teeth. “Eureka.” His Koopa jumped over the player’s last Yoshi. Suddenly coughing blood, the player got out of the chair, finally having control of his body again, and started slowly crawling towards the door. But it was too little, too late; his vision started giving away, he couldn’t feel his limbs anymore, and eventually all his senses went fully numb.

“Thank-a you so much for playing! Unfortunately, that’ll be your last game with me.”

He couldn’t see anything. He couldn’t feel anything. He could only hear his voice.

“Now… do you wanna know what happens with cheaters?”

He manages to open his eyes again. He has regained his vision. His body was frozen in place; all he could do was stare ahead at the dozen of Koopa Troopas standing in front of him. He could hear the pained whispers of the Yoshis behind him.

“For them, my game NEVER ENDS.”