"Hm...?" He popped the sucker out of his mouth, eyes narrowing in suspicion.
Penelopyrocks: is this for real? he typed.
Everyone had been obsessing over this link some stranger, as in not a part of their regular chat-room crowd, had posted.
Weird how someone would just randomly post this to their international chat-room without a word.
"Ch- sketch." He popped the sucker back in, rolling the grape flavored candy around his mouth before finally settling.
What was the big deal, anyway? All he was seeing from people who'd been to the site was that it was 'crazy' and involved a 'random drawing' of some sort for some contest. Along with that, there was all this speculation on who posted it. Seemed like no one could make out who made the site or if the contest was even legit or not, not to mention legal.
"Heh." He smirked. He liked a challenge.
Bringing his mouse over, he clicked on the link, a new tab opening up in his web-browser. It took him to a well-made web-page with a rather ominous black background and a picture that immediately grabbed his attention.
Striking hazel eyes glared at him, untamed, lengthy, blonde strands fell around the heart-shaped face they sat in. The young woman had duck-tape across her mouth and her arms chained above her head.
His mind blanked at noticing those last bits, mouth going slack.
After several long seconds of staring at the chains, seeing how they could be chafing into her skin, he managed to get the gears turning in his head again, jaw tightening back shut around the stick of his candy. He wondered if he'd been sent to some weird porn site and this was the beginning of a lot more S&M pictures to come further down the page the more he scrolled. It would figure that this just turned out to be spam and/or some weird prank. Some of the guys on their chat-room had a really strange sense of humor.
His eyes finally traveled down to the caption below the image.
Her name is Jessica. If you prefer, think of her as the 'Jessica Rabbit' of this scenario. Beat the final boss all for one little kiss or more...!
Now it sounded like some anonymous hook-up profile. All that was missing was a way to contact the girl in the photo for a 'good time call.' The only other thing that discredited this was the fact that, in the picture, she wasn't at all scantily clad, if a pink hoodie could be accounted for as such. If this was such a site for sexy-kink hook-ups, then a fully clothed torso of a girl was not the way to get guys. At least, that was what he was assuming.
He had no love for that reach of the internet, nor would he ever.
Aimé was starting to bore of this page, scrolling down to see if it got any better. To his surprise, and relief, there was no more pictures of helpless girls suspended from above, just the text:
Who to play the hero? Defeat the villain? Save the girl? Death is just around the corner, will it be for you, for her, for both, for neither -- for the world?
Enter to win!
Underneath the words was a place for his name and address along with a little submit button after that. No more info, no more images, nothing to go on. For all he knew, it really was a sex hook-up thing. A chance to be the knight for this girl for one night -- not that it didn't have some sort of appeal to even him in just getting to show off and be some noble hero for once his life, even if it was just role-play.
His teeth made cackling noises as he swished the sucker around.
While the possible gain of the shackled girl didn't necessarily appeal to him, not that she wasn't pretty, the greater gain of getting to possibly show off his smarts to save her -- and the world? -- were much more fitting as a boost to his ego, and that was assuming that this drawing was meant to have its words taken literally and, if it did, that implied some heavy duty crimes that the police should definitely be getting involved in.
He smirked, moving the candy in his mouth from side to side, deciding to click back over to the chat-room to get more opinions on the site now that he new some of what it was about.
Kseventy8: sure looks real, dude.
Dipelent: nah guys. its a publicity stunt prob for some movie o somthin...
Penelopyrocks: yeah... he agreed, after a degree of hesitation. It had to be. No way people would have a random drawing for this kind of real world shit... but there was still that little back-lit doubt in the back of his mind, and it could just be a drawing for sex, really... There was no use getting involved or even as interested as he was.
Latino69: So you gonna enter, penrock?
His replies were becoming sloppy, Aimé noticed. His indecisiveness was irritating. He was usually very direct and quick to act in his thinking, so actually thinking and going back and forth between choices was becoming the bane of his, admittedly short, existence.
He switched back to staring at the other open tab, staring at the girl in the picture, the green eyes and the dare in their stare and the words on the page.
What was there to lose? The dare to face death?
He felt his blood start thrumming, thriving as it sped threw his veins. The competitive edge to his psyche was bursting at the thought, heart beat increasing. It wasn't often he was able to say he faced death and even rarer was it that he could say he did it on his own accord. This would be no random accident like almost getting run-over by a tour bus or getting struck by lightning. This would be on his own accord to make some kind of difference, if only for himself.
God! The adrenaline trip alone was worth it!
He could feel a line of sweat working its way down the side of his face from under his beanie and he could feel his lips were suddenly dry as well, prompting him to quickly lick them.
He hesitated for a moment longer, switching back and forth between the two tabs before coming to stare at the contest site listlessly, making an impulsive decision, egged on by text on the page and the picture of the girl that seemed to dare him to make the move -- click the button. Before he knew it, he was entering for the hell of it.
He clicked back to the chat-room.
Penelopyrocks: Entered.
It wasn't until a day later, twelve hours after the contest ended, that he received a box on his doorstep upon stepping out for late brunch at the local cafe with some friends he had class with.
He paused in his doorway, knowing that this wasn't right. This shouldn't be what happened when he lived on the second story of his two story apartment building. Mail was kept downstairs with the landlord for residents to come get later and his resident landlord was not the type to go out of her way delivering packages up the stairs.
Aimé let his bag slide off his shoulder to drop onto the wooden floor next to him, crouching down to inspect the package.
It was ordinary, a plain, medium-sized, brown package with no inscription on it. All that was tied to it was a small, white note with the printed words: 'You've been dared' in plain, red, bold letters.
YOU ARE READING
Come Back!
Science Fiction'Dares' are serious business, at least, in Richard's mind. To cross them -- leave them unfulfilled -- is unforgivable. So what is a guy supposed to do if he's 'dared' to complete world domination? And what happens to those who's 'dares' are unfulfil...
