Chapter 14 - Musical Memory
It took a little time but Gabriel finally found a way back up. He was now on the other side of the broken door. Standing at the threshold of danger no doubt, the middle aged man briefly composed himself with a simple yet effective breathing exercise. Feeling calm, he entered Musical Memory.
"Ah! Welcome, welcome player!" Mommy's cheery voice called out. It scared Gabriel, making him lose the cool attitude he had just collected. Frantically looking around the dark room full of screens, he finally found the giant spider-like toy. She was in a small viewing room with a large window. Her limbs twisted in loops and squiggles as she moved back and forth while she talked, "I assume you know how this game works?"
"Um, match the musical notes or something? I don't know," Gabriel muttered, crossing his arms. Giggling nonchalantly, Mommy replied with a wave of her hand, "Close silly. You're matching colors." Raising one eyebrow, Gabriel questioned, "Why is it called Musical Memory then?"
"Eh... nevermind that," Mommy answered. Turning her head upside down, she continued, "A word of advice. Be quick and be correct or Bunzo Bunny will get you." A chill ran down Gabriel's spine. "Who's that?" he asked. A small smile creeping across her face, Mommy wordlessly pointed up towards the ceiling. Trembling a little, the man dared to look up. Suspended by a string above, a large yellow bunny with green overalls clashed his cymbals together. Yelping, Gabriel stumbled backwards on the platform. Mommy simply laughed again and called, "Good luck player!"
The lights turned off.
"Great, just great," Gabriel grumbled, pulling himself to his feet. At that moment, the many screens in the room lit up in a blue color. "Blue," an automated voice spoke. Four buttons popped up from underneath the platform, each displaying four different colors. One just so happened to be blue. Taking a step forward, Gabriel pressed the blue button. It was correct. The screens lit up again as the computer voice droned on, "Blue, green."
"This is merely child's play," Gabriel remarked to himself as he punched in the correct color sequence. He repeated this for the first round of the game where the list of colors stayed the same with a new color added to the sequence each time. The middle aged man passed the first round easily and was halfway through the second round when the computer called out, "Yellow, green, green, red, yellow, white."
"White? There is no white!" Gabriel exclaimed. He had just entered the first five colors. Did the game make a mistake? Spinning around, the man was about to call out to Mommy for help when he found a brand new button depicting the color white. "Oh wow," Gabriel muttered, hitting the button and signaling the end of the second round, "There really is a white button." Groaning, he murmured, "What's next?"
"PINK, BLUE, HEART, MAROON, ASPARAGUS, RED, RED, CIRCLE, PI..." the computer fired away like a machine gun in rapid succession. The screens flashed with different colors and symbols. It was enough to induce a seizure in someone. And all the while, Bunzo Bunny lowered down from the ceiling. The clashing of the cymbals was causing a migraine to form. Panicking, Gabriel looked around. What was going on?! Did the game break or something?! Spinning in circles now, terror rose inside the man as he saw buttons dropping down from the ceiling and popping up from underneath the platform. And the computer continued rambling on about colors and objects.
This was insanity at its finest.
Something flashed in the corner of Gabriel's eye. Turning to his left, he spotted a black button with a white error symbol on it. Unlike the others that were stationary, this button spun around the platform on a track. Desperate for a way to escape this horrible game, Gabriel fired the blue hand towards the button. One hit was all it took for the craziness to finally stop as the game shut down.
"Hm, it broke," Mommy murmured, reappearing at the viewing room's window. Still shaken up from the game, Gabriel turned his gaze up to the spider-like toy. She was glaring right at him. Her angry facial expression was quickly replaced with a warm smile that felt forced. "Well done player!" she declared cheerfully, "You've won the game! As a reward, I will give you PART of the train code." Feebly raising a hand, Gabriel mumbled, "I'd like to go home now."
"Why do you think I'm giving you part of the train code?" Mommy retorted. There was a coldness in her voice. At that moment, her long arm stretched down from the ceiling where Bunzo was suspended from just seconds ago. In her hand was a piece of paper. Trying to keep himself from throwing up, Gabriel gratefully took the paper while the arm snaked back up through a vent high above his head. Inspecting the paper, he saw it had faces of Playtime Co. toys.
"Please proceed to Whack A Wuggy for your next game," Mommy said in a sickly sweet tone. Looking up at the large toy, Gabriel could only numbly nod his head. Turning, he started crossing the bridge that connected the platform to the stairs leading out. He was halfway across when something crashed down on the platform behind him. The force was so strong it caused the bridge to collapse, taking Gabriel with it.
Crashing down on the floor below, Gabriel groaned. He was gonna feel all of his injuries in the morning, he just knew it. There wasn't time to dwell on that fact though when he heard high pitched squeals and deep guttural growls. Those noises were drowned out by the sounds of fabric and flesh being ripped apart. Horrified, Gabriel's instincts went straight to run away mode. Spotting a vent nearby, he didn't waste any time as he dived right in. He crawled away, leaving behind whatever horrible scene just happened...
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