Your name is Brian. You are a 14-year-old boy who has recently been forbidden from any sort of screen time by your mother after she caught you pulling yet another all nighter skyping with your friends.
"Man, this blows," you mutter to yourself, unconciously pushing some of your brown hair out of your eyes. Now you had to find something to preoccupy yourself for the day. "God, what is there to do in this stupid house," you brood.
"Well for one, you could look downstairs for some old board games or something that the previous owners left." You turned to see your mom standing with a full laundry basket balanced on her, admittedly, generous hips in your doorway. "I just do not want to see your face glued to another screen today, mister. Maybe you could even clean the area up down there. God knows it could use it."
Your mom was right, the basement was a mess. You'd been living in your house for years, but no one had ever really tried to go through the piles of dusty boxes down there. In fact, it was one of the chores you still hadn't done that had pushed your mom to enact the screen ban for the week in the first place.
As your mom turns to go sort the laundry in her room, you sigh and decide to take her advice. After heading down the first flight of stairs, you fumble for the switch in the darkness at the top of the basement steps. With a *click*, the suprisingly large basement suddenly glows under the pale light of a string of incandescent bulbs. Each piece of junk scattered across the floor and shelves casts a shadow creating a rather ominous atmosphere. Being careful not to the trip on the rickety bottom step, you begin to walk towards the back where the pile of old boxes left by the previous owner is located. As you force your way past the junk, avoiding snagging your t-shirt on old furniture pieces and coathangers, it becomes more and more apparent how long it's been since someone has been back here. The cobwebs and layers of dust are abundant and thick when you reach the yellowed cardboard.
Coughing, you begin to scan the labels on the various boxes written in a spidery hand. Towards the top of the pile, you spot your prize. Games. Tentatively placing your sneaker on a box labeled Books, you probe its strength and use it to boost yourself up to reach the game one. Securing your game box prize, you are surprised by its weight and quickly place it down on the concrete floor of the basement. Opening its folds, you peer inside.
The box is certainly full of board games, and something about the prospect of playing a really old game actually is starting to sound rather exciting. You eagerly pull out a few games so that you can better see what you're dealing with. Curiosity leads to confusion when you realize you don't recognize a single one. Tearing through the box, you realize that there are no Monopolies, Snakes n Ladders, or even an Othello in this box. Not even a Parcheesi. Instead, you find there are five games you've never heard of before.
The first box is rectangular with cartoonish drawings of buff surfer dudes and buxom, bikini-clad ladies. The title is splayed across the front in big, red letters: BEACH BOD - Compete with members for their best traits come swimsuit season! Winner takes all! You can't really make out how to play the game. The gyst you get from looking at the back of the box is that players take turns going around the board with a chance to draw a wacky random trait card or something.
Setting that one aside, you pick up the next box. This one is much smaller. The blocky lettering spelling its title reads, TRUTH OR DARE... OR CHANGE. The box promises an ironic punishment for liars and take-backers.
The third box was large and pink and looked like one of those romantic couple-y games, which you sorta ignored in favor of looking at the one below it.
This box was more what you would expect from a spooky basement. The title, written in red gossamer handwriting, was OUIJA - See things from the other side!
Placing the Ouija boardgame to the side, you look at the final box. This one was too old and faded to really make out what it's contents were. As you try to make heads or tails of what its contents might be, you suddenly feel a strange tickling sensation on your right hand. Nonchalantly glancing down, you see what can only be described as the largest spider you have ever seen in your life, slowly walking toward your forearm. Freaking out and swinging your hand frantically, you desperately stand-up, grabbing one of the games as you do so.
Dodging through the old junk twice as fast as it took you to get through it before, you sprinted up the basement stairs with your selection clutched closely to your chest. You flick the lights off, and slam the door shut behind you, eliciting a brief scolding from your mom from upstairs. Gaining your breath back, you calm down enough to look down at which game you brought with you. Which one did you select?
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