Just a Game?

By ELSA MEI GESSESSE

Gayren has the perfect life-or at least, that's what he's programmed to believe. Every day begins the same: birds chirping, trees swaying, and silent customers appearing while he repeats the same lines and follows the same rules. It's all he's ever known.

Until one night, a strange player arrives after the game should have reset and asks the one thing Gayren can't do:

"Turn around."

When he refuses, his world glitches apart. Thrown into a strange space between code and reality, Gayren can suddenly move, feel, and think freely. He soon wakes in a real room, staring at a monitor that shows him still trapped in the booth.

Desperate to warn the version of him still following the script, he types the only message that ever broke the cycle:

"Turn around."

Just a Game? is a mind-bending, eerie short story about identity, control, and what happens when a character discovers the truth behind their world.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1970630205
• ISBN13: 9781970630206
• Release Date: November 2025
• Publisher: Authors Hike
• Length: 26 Pages
• Weight: 0.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 8.5" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 3 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 7