My body ached again as I was thrown back into the tunnel realm. The four tunnels stare back at me precariously. The noises can be heard faintly from each entrance. I venture closer to the second tunnel craning my ear to listen in. 

—This sounds familiar, a tune and sound effect coming from deep within my childhood. Maybe this is how I escape this horrible nightmare?

I step forward into the deep tunnel.  Suddenly, everything is gone! I feel as if I’m falling through a dark abyss for moments that stretches on into eternity. Falling, falling, and then nothingness. 

My head is spinning, and my eyes are blurry as I blink them over and over again. 

—Where am I now? Horror fills my insides when I realize my body is gone! Where are my arms, my legs? In their place is a glowing ball-shaped body floating two feet above the ground. 

Adding to my terror is the realization that I cannot move nor speak. All I can do is see the fellow glowing balls floating alongside myself, and beyond their glowing light, an intricate maze fills my view. Out of nowhere everything lights up, and a familiar sound fills my senses. I’ve heard this sound before in the old arcades back home. The familiar “waca waca” of Pac-Man can be heard. 

—Pac-Man, I’ve played this a thousand times, but if I’m not the one controlling it, what am I? 

The familiar sound of Pac-Man’s chomping can be heard getting closer. 

—In that moment it dawns on me, if I am not the player, I am the food. 

The urge to run floods through my glowing body, but I find myself still rooted to the spot. Horrified, I glance to my left and realize this is not the Pac-Man from the arcades that looks friendly and fun. Thick fangs protrude from its mouth, with drool seeping from its yellow crusted lips. Its mouth opens wide as it crunches at the pellet only five pellets away from me. Chewing viciously, it moves on to the next pellet and the next one after that. 

—Two more to go, and I will be nothing more than crumbs, eaten alive in the very game I used to play. 

One pellet away, and with each devouring bite, I will myself to go somewhere else, somewhere far away. Its mouth looms closer, and the gurgling of the yellow monster drifts right next to my floating body. Just as it goes to make the final bite to seal my fate, a pink, ghost-like figure appears before me, surrounding the yellow monster with its mist.  Pac-Man seems to be in pain, and with one fatal cry he disappears into nothingness. The translucent pink figure turns one last time to glance at me; I can not depict the words being said with its eyes, but in that moment, I feel protection. Before I can truly convey anything back, I feel myself being sucked backward. Upon looking down, I realize my body is back and so are the tunnels from before. After scrambling as far away from Pac-Man as I am able, I run toward a new tunnel in hopes that this one may truly lead me home.