The Game

Terror of The Game

Josie glanced up at her twin, Skyler,  from the bottom bunk bed.  The only light that was turned on was the tiny outlet night light in the corner of the room. Skyler, sitting straighter than any statue,  was gripping her rough covers tightly around her muddy figure. She didn't move except for the flicker of her eyes from one end of the room to the other. Josie could almost feel the tension in Skyler as Skyler's eye frantically looked for anything moving or out of place.

     Half an hour. It had been half an hour since Skyler had climbed through the window and scampered on to her part of the bunk. Josie could see the terror in her eyes as Skyler stared at her when she had first entered the room. The look had been so bewildering that the thought of asking a single question had been washed away.

   Another five excruciating minutes had passed when Josie had finally dared to ask her questions. "Skyler, where did you go? And why are you caked in mud?" Josie purred in a soothing tone.

  "I...I...I've been gone for," Skyler's voice trembles and her alert figure starts to slouch."For so long."

  "Three days isn't too long... But you still you gave everyone a scare when you didn't come back to the apartment. Not to mention how mom and dad felt. I mean we just moved out on our own and.." I would continue but at that point I'd been interrupted.

  "Three.. Three days? But I saw the sun rise and set for three whole years while I was.." Just then the night light flickered and Skyler jumped  a little and said ," Ahh! No. No. No! Not again please not again! I don't know if I could get out. Even if I could I would lose my sanity! Please not again. Not again. Not again." Rocking with her head on her knees she repeated her little chant silently, and pulled the covers tighter around herself.

  Josie stood up on her bed to look at Skyler head on. Skyler's hands looked like ivory from the amount of force she used to pull on the covers. Her fingernails were bitten down on and jagged. She had twigs and leaves in her hair that looked like a rats nest.

Josie was beyond frightened. Many thoughts passed through her mind. The police, her parents, a therapist, and a mental hospital. So Josie went across the room and turned on the lights. She searched for her phone and returned to her bedroom. When she got there the top bunk was empty.

The phone fell from her hand, but thinking back to most horror movies she was quick to pick it back up. She dialed 911 and explained the strange and terrifying experience.

                        *  *  *  *  *  *

   Skyler screamed, but wasn't heard. When she was in the room the night light had flickered three times and then sent her back to her nightmare. The game had begun once again.

  She opened her eyes to find herself crouched in a white, square, and exitless  room. She had pounded her fists on the ground in her first game, but this  time she knew that it doesn't help and it just weakens you. So she screamed. She screamed her lungs out until she believed they might actually bleed.

  Skyler then looked around for a way out. A way out of this illusion to be exact. She came across two stair cases the blend into the walls from certain angles. She groaned. In her first game she had learned the hard way that you pick one way at an option of two and you can't go back. If you try going back another horror is added, another horror trying to destroy you.

Skyler tried listening to hear if anything bad was happening from either direction, but heard nothing. So she had to wing it and went up.

  Bad decision. Well actually who knows this choice might be better or worse, but that doesn't matter now. No turning back.

As she emerged from the doorway she saw a large room meant for college seminars. The rows were all empty,however, in the very front row one person sat alone and hunched over a notebook and stack of textbooks. Skyler crept up slowly to the mysterious person to find out what the purpose of this part of the game was for.

  " Don't bother being sneaky, my darling, I know you're there," drawled a male voice coming from the hunched figure,"Oh, and what a simple minded human you are. That question in your head, I'll take the pleasure in answering right now. I could tell you were there because I could smell you! Oh but how I wish you would have cleaned up a bit first. I do like the smell of human flesh better than mud." His voice held a serious, yet playful tone in it that sent an uncomfortable shiver down my spine.

" I.. I believe the fight should be fair. Of course you didn't speak the thought of a fight in what you said, but it was heard quite clearly in the tone in which you said it. So I request a weapon." Skyler said as a demand despite her identifying it as a request.

    The strong ending made Skyler hopeful she would survive.The tremble in the beginning, however, was audible  to the hunched beast and spread a grin across his face.

  The beast squared his shoulders and stated,"My darling, you mustn't consider me as a fool. A fair fight is never allowed where I'm involved." and with that he got up and unfurled into his full height.