This choice: Trapped in the claw machine (reserved for worstfailure) • Go Back... You thanked whatever god or gods existed that you'd been able to make it to this sanctuary. The claw game had seen better days, most of the prizes were gone, a large crack was in the front of the glass and the door to the prize compartment was just missing, but ugly as it was, from your point of view it was holy ground that demons couldn't cross. So long as you hid under here, you could wait for the trio of delinquents to either leave or, at the very least, be so preoccupied with another game that you could begin making your way to the exit.
"HA! Time to fork over that G-string, Court!"
"Come on, Gwen, can't we do best two out of three?"
"You kidding? You'll have to sweeten the pot if you wanna make a deal."
Courtney bit her lip. "Well... what if I throw in--"
"This game's been played."
Avril's voice cut through the dimness of the arcade. You'd been so distracted with Gwen and Courtney's conversation and hoping for an opening to escape that you hadn't even realized Avril had wandered back over to the tiny section of the arcade where you'd just been playing. Her already minimal interest in her friends' competition must've evaporated completely upon Gwen's victory. She was already back to searching for prospective victims, as if one had shown up in the past few minutes.
"What?" Gwen asked.
"I didn't notice before because someone was distracting me," she said in clear reference to Courtney, "but one of the console's was used recently. High score is different from last time. It reads A-N-T. I think we all know what that means."
"Oh my gosh," Courtney gasped. "Ants can play video games?!"
Even you, horrified as you were, couldn't help but stare at Courtney in incredulity the same way Gwen and Avril did.
"No," Avril said impatiently. "It means a tiny was just here. And he might still be in the arcade."
"Alright, everyone, spread out!" Gwen ordered, rubbing her palms together greedily. "Courtney, you block the exit while Avril and I search. And remember, I won the game so I get dibs on him!"
"Funny. I don't remember ever agreeing to that," Avril said, smirking. "That deal only applied to Courtney. If I find him, he's mine."
"Oh yeah?" Gwen said in challenge.
"Yeah," Avril said bluntly in response.
"Don't you have enough tinies already? What happened to the 10 you nabbed last week?"
"Does it matter?" Avril asked with a casual shrug. "You're the one gunning to be a CTC Tiny Hunter. Not up to a friendly challenge?"
"You're on!" Gwen said. "Just you wait, that tiny's gonna be lining my boot in the next five minutes."
You, meanwhile, were panicking! It was bad enough knowing the green-haired grunge girl wanted you as an insole, but finding out she wanted to be a CTC hunter on top of that?! And the dark-haired goth had gone through 10 tinies in a week?! How?! So far it looked like Courtney was your safest bet and even then she'd eaten a tiny and was sporting your sister's merch!
You need to hide! But where could you go? You were off the tiny walkway, which was good, but the floor was dark and covered in litter and disgustingly sticky! Even getting under this machine to hide had been like sprinting through drying cement. And now Gwen and Avril were both patrolling the tiny walkways and peaking under machines looking for you. You needed to be anywhere but under this stupid claw game! But if under the claw game wasn't safe... maybe you'd be safe inside?
But how could you even climb up there?
Then, an idea as crazy as it was repulsive popped into your head. Grimacing, but before you could second guess yourself, you got to your knees and slammed your palms onto the tiled floor. You fought the urge to gag as both hands were coated in a sticky substance you prayed was spilled soda. Managing to pry both your palms off of the floor with great difficulty, you took a few steps away from the claw machine, turned back to face it, then sprinted towards it, building up speed so you could take a flying leap! Raising both palms, your hands made contact with the surface of the game and to your utter shock and amazement, you found your hands were sticking to the machine, leaving you suspended off the ground!
Not stopping to question your luck or the physics behind this, you pried one hand free, reached up further, and slapped it into place to stick higher. Then you did the same thing with your other hand. You repeated the motions again and again until you scaled the machine and managed to reach the prize compartment. You'd no sooner entered than you felt the ground shake and immediately you began frantically climbing up the walls of the prize chute. Seconds later a hand with black nail polish came reaching into the prize compartment, feeling around for any possible tinies, but you were so afraid of falling into her clutches that you didn't stop climbing until you came out the top of the prize chute.
As you rolled over onto the thin pile of low quality plush toys and plastic eggs containing knockoff figurines of popular characters and fake jewelry, you hid under a blue plush bear. Panting to regain your breath, you were both relieved and impressed with what you'd managed to accomplish. Surely they would never think to look for a tiny inside a claw machine. Now all you had to do was wait until the coast was clear. You were sure the trio would give up after fifteen minutes or so with no results.
An hour passed...
"Fuck," Gwen snapped, giving up at last.
"What happened to, "that tiny's gonna be lining my boot in the next five minutes", CTC Superstar?"
"Oh shut up! You didn't find him either!"
Avril shrugged, apparently needling her friend enough of a compensation to make up for missing out on a new tiny.
"It must've ran off when we were playing that game, Courtney!" Gwen said, moving onto a new target for her anger since Avril was unperturbed.
"Huh? Wha? I'm awake!" Courtney said quickly, clearly having nodded off as she leaned against the entrance. Realizing what was going on, she stifled a yawn and put on her happy face. "Aw, come on, Gwen, at least we had fun playing together like old times!"
"You still owe me your G-string," Gwen said.
That wiped the cheerful look off of the pig-tailed delinquent's face.
"Oh, poop. My mom's gonna kill me for losing him."
"Fair's fair," Avril smirked.
"Well... in that case..." Courtney cast her eyes over to the claw machine. "I'm not leaving empty-handed!"
Just when you'd finally thought you could let out a sigh of relief as the bullies gave up the search, the ground shook as three pairs of footsteps approached your hiding spot! A second later, your eyes bulged as you saw Courtney standing in front of the claw machine, coins in hand, sporting a determined look on her face. A second later, Gwen and Avril flanked her, both looking annoyed.
"Alright, plushies!" Courtney announced. "One of you will be headed home with me!"
"Seriously, Courtney?" Avril asked. "We're eighteen."
"Just let her have this," Gwen muttered, resigned.
A second later the coins were deposited and the claw was activated.
It's okay, you told yourself, heart beating fast. I'm hidden. They won't see me--
"Hello, Mr. Blue Beary. You're coming with me."
It's okay! She's probably talking about another plush--
You heard the claw stop moving directly above you.
IT'S OKAY! THESE GAMES ARE RIGGED! SHE'LL NEVER--
"Aaaand... yay!" Courtney cheered as the small, blue plush bear was lifted off your body and then steered over to the prize chute.
"Congratulations," Gwen said sarcastically. "You have a new dumb toy. Now if you'll hand over your end of the deal I--wait a minute!"
"You see him too?" Avril asked, smirking.
"See what?" Courtney asked, pausing in the middle of snuggling her new plush. She pressed her face up against the glass until she spotted you. "Oooh!"
Don't... Move... Pretend you're a toy.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't my lucky charm," Gwen laughed. "Would've thought you learned your lesson after last time. But I'm glad you didn't. You can stop pretending, idiot! We know you're not a toy! But you know what you do look like? My new insole!"
"Wait," Courtney said, face scrunched up. "He looks familiar."
"No shit, Court," Gwen said. "He's the guy whose big sis saved him last time we caught him here."
"No, I know that... it's something else..." Her ponderous silence gave way to an ear-piercing squeal of excitement. "OMG! OMG! OMG! He's ANT! The brother of Katherine the Great!"
"Who?" Avril asked blankly.
"Katherine the Great! She's, like, the coolest influencer ever! She's always playing all these pranks on people like his mom and sister and aunt and molding him into clothes so they wear him without ever realizing it! It's hilarious!"
"Shaped into clothes, huh?" Avril said, locking eyes onto you, her interest piqued. "Interesting."
"You think he can introduce me to Katherine?" Courtney asked as she took out more coins.
Gwen snatched them out of her hand.
"I think he'll be a little busy cushioning my foot to do that."
"Aww, no fair, why do you get him?" Courtney pouted.
"The bet, remember? I get dibs on the next tiny we find."
"Fine," Courtney whined. "But if you can't catch him, I'm playing for him next!"
"And if both of you try to get him and fail, I'll take him," Avril said. "I know the trick to beating these games."
Gwen snorted. "I don't need a trick! I got pure skill! Now get over here you lucky insole!"
Gwen put in the coins she'd stolen from Courtney, activating the claw. You sprung up, seeing no point in playing dead any longer. Instead you put as much effort as you could wading through the toys to avoid capture. After several minutes of running and Gwen maneuvering the claw, she activated it as it was above you, causing the metal hand to open and descend to claim you.
Do you escape in time?
1) No. You belong to Gwen.
2) Yes! But now it's Courtney's turn. | Members who added to this interactive story also contributed to these: |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author