Ansyl screamed and she screamed as tears streamed down her face, her broken heart calling out for her friend who had been swallowed by the darkness, every presence of her being gone. She wanted to run, she wanted to fight the shadows and claim back what was hers but Nathan's strong arms around her wouldn't let her go. He remembered the one thing that she had forgotten.
She wasn't strong enough to win the fight.
"We need to go," Nathan whispered in Ansyl's ears but she didn't listen.
Shaking her head, she fought against his grip looking for something that was long gone.
"We need to go now!" Nathan ordered, his voice much louder now.
She felt her body being lifted off the ground, the spot where Brianna once stood moving further and further away. Her eyes kept watching, waiting for her friend to return and tell her that the nightmare was over.
However, Brianna never came.
Instead the faceless man returned, standing in Brianna's place and even though he had no eyes, Ansyl knew that he was watching her but for some reason he wasn't attacking.
It was almost as if he knew that no matter how hard they tried to escape, they would always end up back with him.
When Ansyl finally looked away, she found Nathan dragging her down the hall, their friends close behind. The sound of their footsteps echoed in the eerie silence that had suddenly surrounded them, its grip almost suffocating.
They ran and they ran and they ran but for some reason, the end never came. The walls grew longer, the silence heavier, an unshakeable weight on her shoulders but escape was not an option for them.
"What's going on?!" Cat demanded, finally giving up on running, her eyes looking around frantically.
"Brianna – she told me about the game," Kyle whispered, staring at the ground and thinking.
Hearing his words, Ansyl stared at Kyle wondering what he was talking about.
"What game?" she asked but Kyle didn't answer her, too lost in his own thoughts.
Knowing that he wasn't even listening to her, Ansyl pulled away from Nathan, her fingers wrapping around Kyle's shirt collar. She felt anger course through her veins as she pushed Kyle against the wall and growled, something she had never done before.
"What game?" she asked again, making sure that this time she was heard.
"The one that Brianna wanted to play, the one with the demon," Kyle answered, staring at Ansyl in shock.
"We all disagreed to play. Why didn't you stop her?!" Ansyl demanded, pushing Kyle further into the wall.
She had never felt such anger before, almost seeing red before her eyes. She didn't understand where the emotion came from. Maybe it was her fear that was driving her to be like that or the pain from Brianna's loss.
Maybe it was the anger that she had pent up for all that time that had finally been unleashed.
How could she not be angry when she knew that they never heard her voice? How could she not be angry when she knew that they always disregarded everything she had ever said just because she wasn't wild like them?
She had always been sweet, boring Ansyl, everyone's friend but no one's first choice for a fun time. After all, she wasn't dangerous and she didn't take risks, sticking only to things that she knew. They were all about adventure. They were all about mocking her when she turned down their offer because she didn't believe in their definition of a good time.
How could she be the fun when she knew someone had to take care of them?
Was it her fault that she had no deep-seated issues that she needed to work through? Was being normal that much of a crime?
But they always laughed at her.
They never heard you.
Yes. They always ignored everything she had to say because her words spoke of safety. Even now in that horrible time, Kyle didn't care about her thoughts, her questions. He was too busy thinking that he knew better.
They don't think you could ever help.
After all, what could sweet, boring Ansyl possibly know?
"Don't blame me! Blame your damn boyfriend. He was the one who gave into Bri and started the stupid game with her," Kyle defended himself.
Ansyl felt her anger die out as she stared at Kyle, speechless, his words refusing to make any sense to her. Her fingers let go of his collar as her mind attacked itself with doubts and whispers that she had never heard before.
She knew Nathan and she knew that he would never do it. He knew how she felt about such rituals and he had been the only one to respect her when it came to her dislike towards the supernatural.
Could she really believe that he would go behind her back to play Brianna's stupid game?
Slowly, she turned to Nathan who stared at her, an apologetic look on his face and she knew that he had lied to her.
"How could you?" Ansyl asked, her voice shaking.
"Look, she just riled me up. I wasn't thinking," Nathan answered, failing to explain the reason for his actions.
He lied to you. He betrayed you.
"I trusted you," Ansyl cried, tears filling her eyes.
She felt her anger return, a wave stronger that even before, so strong that she could feel it consume her.
"Ansyl, I promise I'll explain everything but first you need to stop hurting yourself," Nathan whispered carefully.
Not understanding what he meant, she looked at him confused as he reached out for her right hand and lifted it up. That was when Ansyl noticed how she had clenched her fists so hard that her fingers had dug into the skin of her palm, drawing blood.
Staring at the droplets of blood that slipped out of the tear in her skin, Ansyl wondered when that had happened since she never felt the pain.
"Can someone please explain what the hell this game is?" Cat asked, exasperated.
Glancing at Anysl with worried eyes, Kyle turned his attention to Cat and nodded.
"Brianna told me that when you start the game, according to the rules a demon enters your house. The game goes on until the sun rise. You need to keep running away from it and make sure that it never catches you. It'll try to trick you with illusions, voices in your head, anything to get your emotions all over the place, just anything to catch you. No matter what happens, you can't stop running because once it touches you, its game over," Kyle explained, trying to cram as much information as he could remember.
When Ansyl heard him talk about the things the demon could do, she felt her heartbeat a bit louder than before remembering all the whispers that reminded her of how lowly her friends thought of her. In those few minutes, her own thoughts had been strange, feeding emotions that she never knew existed in her heart.
"I don't want to play this game!" Cat screamed angrily. "I never signed up for this!"
"There's... there's the salt circle!" Kyle exclaimed, snapping his fingers. "If you get tired of playing, you can stand in a salt circle and the demon can't hurt you. I remembered making one in the kitchen. Just remember that if you do enter the salt circle, you can't start playing again,"
"It is safe to say that none of us want to play. We should go back to the kitchen," Cat said, taking a step back but Sia caught her hand.
"We can't. Going to the kitchen means going back to the same place where Brianna was taken," Sia reminded everyone.
Looking back at the place where they started from, all Ansyl saw was darkness as if that whole room had been taken over. She knew that even if they tried, they wouldn't be able to swim to safety.
Their only hope to end the game before sunrise seemed to have been lost.
YOU ARE READING
Let's Play A Game
Horror#1 Place Horror Category in Melancholy Awards #2 Place Horror Category in Fallen Angel Awards "Sometimes monsters don't live under your bed, they live inside your head," Everyone has a wish, a little dream that they have held onto for so long and wo...
