When I was little, my parents took my brother and me to Chuck-E-Cheese’s. I had so much fun playing, and didn’t want to leave. So, being about four-years-old, I asked my parents for “one more minute” when they told me it was time to go home. And, of course, they said “no.” So, being a smart child, I ran off. I ran back to the ball pit and played around a little, then decided I wanted to go home. When I went to the bench I had left my family at, they were gone. I swore they were at that bench when I had run off, and yet they were gone. And I was all alone.

I ran around, calling for my parents. But there were too many kids yelling and everything and everyone were too big and I was too small. I soon found myself in a theater, where an animatronic Chuck-E-Cheese was singing with his animatronic friends. I sat in the back row, accepting the fact that I now lived there.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something moving in that dark theater. I looked over and was able to make out that the thing was a particularly small rat with something in its mouth. It ran towards a corner of the room, excited about its find. So, being the little animal lover that I was, I followed it.

There was a four-year-old-sized hole in the corner that the underpaid employees had just barely covered with a “Caution: Wet Floor” sign. The rat went through it, and so did I. I crawled after him through the dark, maze-like walls of the building until he went through a hole that was just small enough for me to not fit through. I could, however, see through it, and to this day I still can’t believe what I saw.

Now, everything amazed me at that age: thunderstorms, large dogs, cats, the TV, my father’s snoring, et cetera. But what I saw absolutely blew my little brain. There were probably hundreds of rats, all clustered reverently around the discarded mascot head of Chuck-E-Cheese himself. On top of the head was their king (or maybe it was a queen; I couldn’t tell). There was what looked like a crown made of wires on the Monarch’s head, and it was holding a straw like a staff. They were overseeing the other rats, who I assume were worshiping this mascot head.

The servant rats were leaving offerings in front of the head. The rat I had followed revealed its prize treasure to be a discarded piece of popcorn, which it gently dropped on top of the pile of assorted goods. Another rat was dragging a baby’s stolen pacifier. Two rats were working together to bring a pizza crust over to the pile. All of this happened under the Monarch’s watchful gaze… which eventually spotted me.

The Monarch let out a loud screech and pointed its straw-staff at me. The other rats turned to me and began screeching. I turned around and crawled away as fast as I could, the rats chasing me. I didn’t remember the way we came, so I crawled blindly through the walls. Finally, I burst through a hole and fell to my parents’ waiting feet. They scooped me up, hugging and kissing me, relieved that I had not been kidnapped.

That Chuck-E-Cheese is closed now. I don’t know if what I saw was real, or if it was a figment of my overactive imagination. But, I feel like I know why it closed…