There was a light breeze from the open window on a warm Friday afternoon, a boy with golden hair, a red race car shirt and blue shorts was playing in the small back garden as his father worked on something in his workshop. The boy was playing with a toy bird that his dad had built for him, it was almost completely yellow with some black eyes. The boy walked up to his dad's small, shed-like workshop and knocked on the door, "Dad, can I come in?" He asked his dad in a timid voice. With a small creak, his dad opened the door for him to come in. Inside the workshop were boxes and boxes of small trinkets and parts, and the wood panel floor felt relatively sturdy.
Some of the half finished things in the workshop were quite spooky to the little boy, he had never been allowed in the workshop before now, and he almost started to understand why. His dad turned to him, "What a nice afternoon, don't you agree Jack?" He asked his son, who replied with a single nod of agreement as he looked around. "Curious as to what I've been working on little buddy?" His dad asked him another question, "Mhm" Jack responded with a nod and a sound of agreement. His dad opened a cabinet and took out what seemed to be a small toy robot, it was purple in colour, there were all kinds of strange markings, a strange door, yellow eyes, and it had small pipe arms with claw-like fingers.
"HELLO, JACK!", the small robot said in a very robotic voice, it only stood about as high as Jack's knee, it walked towards him slowly, taking big steps as it made all sorts of mechanical sounds. Jack's eyes widened as he kneeled down to see the robot closer up, "Hello, Mr robot" Jack said excitedly to the small Machine as it turned it's head to look at him. "WOULD YOU LIKE TO PLAY?" the robot asked Jack, "Oh boy, of course!" He exclaimed, "Can I go play with the robot, dad?" Jack asked his dad, "Alright then, just don't go too far into the woods" his dad told him as he left the shed.
Jack went into the woods with his robot toy and set it on the ground, he pressed a big red button on its body and it turned on, "HELLO, JACK!", It said in the exact same way as before, "Hello again Mr Robot, would you like to play?" Jack asked the small robot, "OF COURSE I WOULD, WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO PLAY?" the robot asked Jack, who looked at the robot's body and saw that it had 3 buttons on it that all had words on them; 'Hide & Seek', 'Catch' and 'Simon Says', Jack pressed the button that said 'Simon Says' and the robot said "OKAY THEN, FOLLOW MY MOVEMENTS AND TRY TO KEEP UP!".
Jack began to follow the simple movements that the robot made while it played a short, looping chiptune song, it was as if the two were dancing together in sync with the music. After some time, Jack decided to press the 'Catch' button on the robot, the small door on the robot opened and a ball came out of it, "LET'S PLAY CATCH!" the robot said. Jack picked up the ball and threw it a short distance, then the robot went after it and after a short wait, brought it back to Jack.
After a bit more playing catch, Jack grew tired of the other games the robot could play and decided to press the last button, 'Hide & Seek'. When he pressed the button, the robot's feet retracted and a pair of wheels came out from the sides, it darted off, "LET'S PLAY HIDE AND SEEK!" it said as it went, "W-Wait!" Jack shouted as the robot went away, Jack tried to chase after it but it was much faster than him, and after not much time the robot was lost. Jack panicked, "Oh no, what am I going to do? My dad's gonna be so mad at me." Jack thought to himself as he tried to find the robot.
"MR ROBOT! WHERE ARE YOU?!" Jack shouted for his robot, going deeper into the forest in search of the robot, his steps made the small chips of wood beneath him crack as he ran through the forest, looking for his purple friend. Until he stopped for a moment and remembered what his dad said… "don't go too far into the woods", Jack gulped and realized that he had done exactly that.
The sky was pitch black and the moon was out, Jack began to shake, his chest felt tight, and he had the strange feeling that he was being followed, he decided to just turn back the way he came and forget about the robot. Jack walked for a while before he heard a cackling laugh from the darkness, he turned to look at the beings and saw strange, sharp teeth and eyes that appear closed, with thin lines showing that. Jack screamed at the top of his lungs as he ran away from the strange figure.
The face began appearing more and more in the darkness, as if it wasn't just a singular entity, and instead was spreading, "Wh-What are you?" Jack shouted as he kept trying to run from them, the laughter began to echo as the faces began to take up more and more of the darkness, Jack's breathing started to be heavier, and he felt short of breath, he kept running but it was getting harder and harder to do so and he was beginning to slow down.
After some more running, his legs grew tired, he fell onto the floor, and curled up into a ball, crying, "Please, just don't hurt me!" He cried to the beings in the darkness. Jack kept crying with his eyes closed as the laugher began to echo, he started to hum a short lullaby to himself as he rocked back and forth, and eventually he fell asleep in the woods. After sleeping in the woods, when he woke up again, the robot was right in his face, "FOUND YOU!" the robot said to him.
Jack's face lit up and his eyes widened, "Mr robot! Where did you go?" He asked the robot, but it didn't respond, "huh, weird" Jack thought to himself as he walked home with the robot, when he got home he realized that he hadn't come home that night and that his dad was probably angry with him, he gulped again as he knocked on the door, after a few seconds the door opened, "There you are! What happened last night?! I was worried sick about you!" Jack's dad asked him as he walked through the door.
After Jack explained to his dad what happened, his dad sighed and said "I'm not stupid, there was no weird figure in the shadows laughing at you, if you're going to lie at least make it believable." His dad told Jack, "Now, go to your room, you're grounded for the rest of the day." Jack's dad told him, "Okay dad" he said as he went upstairs. Later that night he was sitting in bed, thinking about the faces he saw, "what were those things, I know I saw them, I know I did" he thought to himself.
Eventually he decided to just go to sleep, and when he did, he began hearing the same cackling laughter and seeing the faces that he saw in the woods, they felt like they were mocking him, his chest felt tight again and he started to shake, his eyes watered up, he closed his eyes tight and hummed himself the same tune as in the forest as he drifted off to sleep again.
-by Riddles
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