Boy in Sci-Fi World

Ethan’s game glitch traps him in a deadly digital world. Hide or run..survive or perish.

Boy in Sci-fi World

It was a regular night for Ethan, a teen who was spending his summer holiday in his room playing video games, drinking lemonade, and undoing his homework for high school. The room was full of books, old soda cans, leftovers.
Outside, the sun had already dipped below the horizon, leaving the sky cloaked in heavy storm clouds. The rain was heavy, and the fresh air was entering the room through the opened window and the lightning was illuminating Ethan's room in stark, but he barely noticed because he was too focused on the game he was playing with his friends.
He was at the last level where he had to beat the Final Boss, but somehow the screen turned black, and Ethan started to panic.
"Ugh! C'mon this cannot be happening right now! I must finish this level." He groaned while he was checking the PC, but everything looked all right. He went downstairs to check on his family and they were watching a TV show, so the power was not cut, then he went back to his room.
Somehow, he heard a sound from the monitor, and he checked, the screen started to crack, and it had a message which said, "New game", Ethan was surprised and before clicking on it, he was looking outside, and he had a feeling like something was off... then he got back in his seat and he clicked on the game.
But the game changed, it was level 1 again and he frowned, his fingers over the keyboard.
"What is this?! My progress is gone?"
The game was reset like he never played it before, which was weird because he always saved the progress. His fingers were trembling on the mouse and the keyboard. It was a glitch, or the game just bugged out. He hovered over the "New Game" button, hesitating. A cold breeze rushed through his spine from the opened window.
Something really changed, when he pressed the button, the screen flashed again three times and then a message appeared on the screen "Level 1- Escape' and a timer was starting :05 minutes. The room was dark, the silence was unnatural, heavy like the air itself was holding its breath.
Ethan's heart was pounding through his chest, he was shaking and everything around him became pixelated, his desk, his bed, his whole body. The window was still open, and everything was turning in pixels, and suddenly the door slowly cracked open, and Ethan's just froze, he was scared, confused thinking all these things were just a nightmare.
"Creeeeeeak" he heard. It wasn't a dream, that was a real sound. The door just opened by itself and Ethan seen a new prompt on the screen: Hide or Run?
He could feel that something or someone was watching him across the door, his instincts were screaming at him to run but something was telling him that it was too late for that, so with a shaky breath, he clicked on the Hide option from the computer. Ethan hid in the closet, and he was peeking through the door and saw that everything was glitching, the walls, his bed, the ceiling and something stepped in the room. It was tall, without a face, a dark creature which was trying to search for him, the boy realized he wasn't dreaming and everything was real and the monitor flickering again saying, "He can't see you, but he can hear you". At that moment Ethan chose to step outside and make his way out of the room, but he suddenly stepped on a soda can, and he saw the monster turning his face towards him, in that moment, the boy panicked and run away from the room and the creature started to run after him.
Ethan closed the room and ran into the living room, the TV was flitching, and a new message appeared on the screen "Level 2-THE MAZE: Find the key before it finds you. The whole living room started to change into a maze with many boxes, cans, books, and he could hear the monster making loud noises and another note appeared, it was like a word guess game: B_T_ _ E.
He was so confused, he couldn't think straight until something shiny caught his attention, it was a bottle on a table, the word he was looking for it was BOTTLE. Panicked and scared, he opened the bottle and found a key, but the problem was that he had to find the door while the monster was behind him. He remembered that the door in the game he was playing it was red, so he had to find this door and pass this level.
In front of him, it was the red door, he ran and unlocked it when suddenly, everything around him was pixelated and the monster disappeared and, on the sky, appeared a message "Level 3- Survive the night outside"'.
To be continued....