Boy in Sci-Fi World End

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

Ethan took a long look around and noticed there was a store, he went inside and picked up some stuff: a backpack, some food cans, water bottles, matchsticks. A weird sound echoed through the empty store, low, almost like a voice but stretched and warped, he thought it was his imagination until he saw something moving across the fruits section. He hid under the counter, praying the creature would go away, but the light above the counter started to flick. In that moment Ethan knew he must find a way to get out of the store.
The creature started to walk towards the counter, Ethan started to crawl slowly, and he got in the other direction of the counter but the sharp crunch of glass beneath his foot echoed through the silent room. He barely had time to react because the creature jumped over him, one of Ethan's hands reached the floor and grabbed an axe and he cut the creature's head off. A horrible, glitching shriek filled the air as its body spasmed--then, with a sickening snap.
"Oh my God... I can't believe this just happened..." he whispered with his voice shaking, while the monster fell down the floor.
The adrenaline coursing through his veins made every sensation that he felt in that moment was sharper, deeper and unreal. His hands were trembling holding the axe full of black blood and he saw another message on the screen "Level 4- Wake up".
Ethan's was really confused and then he heard a voice behind him, it wasn't human, it wasn't creepy, it was just.... something else.
"Wake up, Ethan...." it said.
He turned around, but his vision blurred, his body felt weak, it just collapsed. The Darkness swallowed him whole.
A loud beep then another one and Ethan's eyes snapped open, he couldn't move his body because he felt a sharp pain shot through his chest, but he started to look around the room and realized he was in a hospital.
"Ethan!!! You are awake!" screamed his mother.
His family was around him; a nurse was adjusting the IV next to his bed and the doctor walked inside the room.
"What.... happened to me?" Ethan's croaked, his voice was dry.
"You are a lucky boy to be alive after that bad incident. You were struck by a lightning storm, and you have been unconscious for three days," said the doctor.
Ethan's head spun. The faceless monster. The pixelated world. The axe. The dead monster. It was--a dream? All of it?
His family stayed a while with him, holding his hand and giving the boy a glass of water and he started to tell them the dream he had. He was so relieved that everything was just a nightmare and that he was still alive even though his body was really hurting.
Eventually, his family had to leave to let him rest and it was night and raining outside after all.
Ethan asked the nurse to close the window, and the doctor started to mock him a little:
"Don't worry, you are safe now, nothing can hurt you now except for some injections" said the doctor while laughing.
Ethan smiled and he started to get comfortable in the bed and all he wanted was a peaceful sleep. After some minutes, he woke up because he felt cold air, the window was open.
"Damn. I think the window is broken or something like that" he said in his head.
He got up and then he looked outside the window, but he got the same feeling as on the night the game started. The rain was pouring heavily and the air in the room was different. He closed the window.
Then--
The lights were flickering, Ethan's breath hitched, the TV was on.
"I really started hating rain" he said.
He hesitated before turning it off but did it anyway then he got into bed, lying on the side thinking about everything that happened to him in his dream, but he noticed the TV turned on and started to change the channels by itself. It sounded like a message and then the message appeared "Level 4- Complete"
"What? No. No. This can't be real." Ethan pressed the power button again, his hands shaking.
Level 5- Game Over?
His stomach dropped and he could hear his heartbeat through his ears.
"This is just my imagination or another dream, isn't it?" he whispered.
The TV screen started a live showing him in the room but there was something else, someone was standing behind him. He turned around and no one was there but the creature got closer in the live, Ethan came closer to the screen trying to understand what was happening and then the creature disappeared. The hospital lights went off.
The monster grabbed Ethan's wrists; he was screaming while he was pulled through the screen.
The hospital vanished.
Darkness swallowed him again.
He woke up and his hands were over the keyboard. The glow of the computer monitor lit up his face. He was back at his desk, in his room. It looked exactly the same as before; rain, his unfinished homework which was sitting next to the empty soda cans.
The game was still running with a new message "Level 6- Game over."