-Plastic Paw Peril-

(Welcome to a new story! Not much to say besides a mild content warning for certain obscure fetishes that will appear in one or two chapters later down the line. They'll be marked when they appear, and none of the scenes with said fetishes will add much to the story, so skip past them if you'd like!

With that out the way, enjoy! I spent way too much time on writing this chapter and now I'm tired lmao)

Splashes echo through a dimly lit tunnel, the faint sounds of rain barely audible above, as the water seeps in through the old cracks in the carved stone walls. Most sensible people would stop the expidition there, wait until the weather cleared to explore the recently discovered ruins, but not Maxwell. He was a professional archeologist, who had been through worse conditions in more treacherous terrain. He wasn't going to let the relics in this temple be washed away, not after the days of grueling work to uncover them over the last week.

Stepping into a large open room, the water seems to have stopped pouring in, the roof in this room clearly faring better than the entryway. Small holes lined the floor and walls, typical of generic temple dart or spike traps, marked with the classic "way too obvious floor panel pressure plates" and a single safe path through.

Stepping gracefully from floor tile to floor tile, Maxwell crossed the boobytrapped room in no time. Nothing that simple would stop him!

Two exits extended out from each side of the room, one having a strange snake-like symbol above the doorway, the other having a large ball or some kind. Deciding he'd rather risk the presumed boulder trap than those damn snakes, Maxwell heads left, into the notably wider hallway. Soon enough, he found himself at a huge door, spanning at least ten feet sideways, and twenty feet upwards.

Pushing open the huge doors with an audible grunt, his prize lay sitting before him on a lone pedestal, decorated with ancient gold patterns. He knew the drill be now. Swap out the small-yet-priceless golden trinket for a weighted bag, and bolt before the trap triggers.

Grabbing the golden relic, he noted its odd shape, appearing almost like a strange, disfigured hand of some kind. Brushing off the slightly unsettling design, Maxwell placed the bag of gravel in the golden relic's place, and turned to run. Before he could even make it out of the room however, a rain of black, green, and tan streaks fell from above him, blocking his way forwards.

"Wait, I thought this was the boulder room, what are... Oh shit. Those ancient bastards got me..." Maxwell spoke, facepalming at the hordes of snakes slithered closer.

Trying to evade them proved ineffective as they lunged for his legs and ankles. Managing to kick a few away, he was only successful at repelling the first couple slithering reptiles, and the near hundreds of remaining snakes swarmed him, biting him and quickly overwhelming him.

This was the end, there was no escape. As the world faded to black around him, Maxwell heard only one thing...

GAME OVER.

"Damnit, man. I just can't get past that stupid snake level..." Max spoke, checking his pocket for another quarter, but coming up dry.

He sighed, looking around at the old building around him, looking to spot where his younger brother Tom had gone. He always lost track of time when they went out on their nostalgia-fueled arcade visits.

He was eighteen now, but Max grew up at this arcade, playing games with his older friends and trying to beat their highscores on all the different games. Smiling fondly at the memory, he spotted Tom, playing some rip-off Galaga game.

Walking over to his brother, he placed a hand on is shoulder. "Hey, Tommy, I'm all outta quarters, you got any to spare?" Maxwell asked, the sudden touch and voice spooking Tom and causing him to run into a projectile, ending his run.

"Won't have any if you keep makin' me waste 'em on retries, bro! Don't startle me like that..." Tom responded, slapping away his brother's hand as the eldest sibling laughed.

"Alright, alright... Chill, dude. I'll see if Lindsey's got any spare change." Max replied, turning towards the prize counter.

The woman behind the desk peeked over her book, smirking as she saw her friend approach. Her light green eyes watched curiously as he approached, before a knowing, smug light flickered through her emerald irises.

"Ey, snakeboy. Lost again? I'm out of change, so don't even bother asking. We have some suckers under the counter if you want one, though, Heheheh." Stated Lindsey, her monotonous voice ringing out from behind her unusually expressive face, though judging by the rather unsubtle cover and title of her book and the red blush on her cheeks, her sudden burst of expressiveness wasn't due to her interactions with Max.

"Haha, very funny Lin'. To be honest, a bit of candy does sound good though. How much?" Max replied, reaching into his wallet to produce what little cash he had brought on him.

Lindsey chuckled, setting aside her obviously raunchy book to check the prices on the aforementioned candy. Max struggled not to look down at her alluring D-cup breasts, trying to stay focused on her face, to no avail. Lindsey's eyes lit up as she found the candies, only for a confused expression to replace any other emotion she was expressing.

"Hey, uh, dude? Y'know that game you always die in, like, "The dangerous Ape's shit" or whatever?" She asked, an uncertain tone in her voice.

"Uh, "The Monkey's Paw of Peril?" Yeah, what's up?" Max responded, now just as confused as she was.

"Well uh, I think we had a bit of leftover merch or whatever, because there's some weird, ugly golden hand down here." She explained, raising the clearly poorly made toy up to the counter.

The hand was unlike any toy Max had ever seen, the detail was both horrible and incredible at the same time. It looked exactly like the one from the game, bad proportions on the fingers and all, not a difference between the art and the model. It almost felt too similar to the in-game version...

"Huh, weird. Why would anyone buy this anyways?" Max pondered, inspecting the cheap plastic trinket.

"Dunno, people buy weird shit. Heh, maybe it's the real deal, watch out for snakes!" Lindsey chuckled, returning to her search for the candy price tag.

Even though Max knew she was joking, he couldn't help but feel uneasy. He may never have beaten the Snake level, but he had played through the much more fair and easy Boulder level, and seen the horrible ending from using the monkey's paw. It was just like its original story, twisting and ruining any wishes you spoke around it. He almost felt compelled to keep his mouth shut, lest he accidentally spout off a wish near the uncanny golden hand.

Shaking off his weird gut feeling, Max set the plastic toy back down on the counter as Lindsey popped her head back up, her long brown hair obscuring her face slightly.

"1.25$ a sucker. Inflation's a bitch, these things used to be 30 cents flat when I used to come here as a customer. I'll give you a discount, seeing as you're outta coins." She said, offering the overpriced candy over to Max as he handed a dollar over in return, happily accepting the deal.

As he enjoyed the sucker, Max couldn't help but find his eyes drifting to the plastic monkey's paw, its false golden color seeming more and more real by the second. Something was off about the hunk of plastic, but he couldn't put his finger on it...

Before he could figure out what, Tom stepped up beside him, saying hello to Lindsey as he did. "Hey, Lin! Chattin' with your BF again?" The younger brother teased, earning a light slap to the back of his head in return from Max.

"Heheh, he wishes he was with a chick like me." Lindsey responded, flaunting her admittedly attractive figure from her lazy sitting position as she pressed her book against her stomach, pushing up her breasts slightly and catching both boys attentions.

She giggled as Max shyly looked away, her eyes settling on Tom as he continued unabashedly staring. A devious look crossed her face as she prepared to tease Max yet more, leaning further forwards and giving Tom a generous view of her cleavage through her shirt's excessively deep V-neck.

"Heh. hey, Snakeboy, better act fast, looks like your younger, hotter, 'n hornier brother's gunning for me too, hahahah!" Lindsey said, bouncing her breasts as Tom laughed along in good spirits, both at her joke and the eye candy she provided him. Had Lindsey looked down a bit farther she could have easily seen the now-painfully-obvious tent that the younger sibling was pitching in his shorts.

What she said did hit a bit harder for Max though, even if he laughed it off as usual. Being teased and called inferior to his younger brother stung quite a bit, especially when it's coming from his childhood crush and best "girl-friend" who-wasn't-a-girlfriend.

"Haha, very funny Lin..." He paused, yet again being drawn to the faux monkey paw, and drawing Tom's attention too.

"Ew, what the heck is that thing?" The younger brother spoke, earning a shrug from the eldest, "Looks like a weird hand with all its fingers broken..."

"Pretty much. Seems like some weird game merch the arcade never sold. Pretty obvious why..." Lindsey responded, only to catch Max's gaze as well. "What, wanna buy it or something, Snakeboy? Maybe it'll give you good luck in your game, heh." She teased, though she was surprised when Max yet again brought out his wallet.

"How much?" He asked, holding the strange trinket.

"Eh, it's free if you want it, pal. You got a hand fetish or something? Gonna turn into that one MoeMoe's Absurd Journey character? Heh." She replied, her admittedly obscure reference falling on the two pairs of deaf ears of the non-weeb brothers.

"Alright, if you say so. Maybe it will be a good luck charm... Something feels... Strange, about it." The boy responded, pocketing the plastic lump.

Tom and Lindsey exchanged odd looks, before the two boys went on their way back to their parents house, leaving the brunette to close up shop.

As the two walked home, Max reached into his pocket, rubbing his finger over the weird "toy," his odd feeling and curiosity getting the better of him. Rubbing the plastic paw...