“I think I lost It.”
Sam breathed so hard after mumbling these words as if his lungs were trying to escape his chest. Sweat poured down his face and left him glistening wet, as if he had walked through a rainstorm. He hunched over and rested his hands on his knees. He was desperate to catch his breath. Alas his breath was moving too fast for him to tackle it into submission, let alone to get a grip on it. Staying in his mind and considering his body’s feelings were luxuries he could ill afford.
The wall next to him crumbled like a cookie, except no delicious chocolate chips fell to the ground for him to scoop up and savour. Sam ignored this event and bolted straight forward, forgetting what his body and brain were telling him; he left those thoughts and feelings in the dust he had created with his feet.
Behind Sam, he could hear It. The sound was a constant rolling rumble, like a rusty wheel on an old cart that a beleaguered donkey was pulling. A citrus smell, especially of oranges, pervaded the area around him. The rumble become louder and louder.
Munch! Out of the corner of his eye, Sam saw It devour the wall to his right and burst through the rest of the blue concrete. Sam had fallen to the ground, he stared at It with his mouth open and his eyes wide. He tried to cover his eyes with his arm but could not stop looking at It. As It crunched and digested the wall, Sam’s stomach churned with disgust, he was able to look away and focus on moving forward.
But he had already memorized the look of It. It had one large eye in the center, and a giant mouth, which never shut, took up one-quarter of the body. It’s mouth was always ready to eat everything in It’s path, including the red cherries Sam had dropped from his pocket. It was a giant, thin disc and one side was shiny silver. The other side was purple and had some white text scribbled on it.
But Sam never saw the text: he shot forward as if a cannon had fired him. He turned left. Then he turned right around a corner. Then he turned right five more times. He was not going the right way and had made no progress; his head spinned because he ended up where he began. He decided to let his heart guide him. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and made one more right turn. A huge smile overtook his face when he saw the exit, but he tripped and stumbled to the ground.
He heard It again making a strange bleep and bloop sound effect as It flapped It’s yap. It rounded the corner, rolling forward, and locked on to Sam. He covered his eyes with his hands as the mouth moved closer and closer.
“Huh!?”
Sam sat bolt upright so fast that his neck almost snapped; things began falling off of his body as he did so. He was sweaty, his eyes were wide, and he searched around the room as he breathed loud enough to waken the neighbours from their slumber. He hopped to his feet and shook himself like a wet dog, and as if insects had covered him, he rubbed his arms and legs to get rid of any clinging critters. Soon his breath slowed down, and his vision became clear as if someone had put clean glasses on his eyes, as opposed to the beer goggles that he wore when he first rose to his feet.
His improved vision made it clear he had shaken off video game discs. They had covered his eyes, head, mouth, legs, torso, arms and heart. Free from this burden, he walked towards a door, he could already see something bright appearing through the cracks, and opened it. He walked outside to a place covered with light.
Video Games Nebula 