I’ve managed to find another safe place. Well as safe as any place seems right now anyway. So much has changed since I last posted and I wasn’t sure if I would get a chance to again, I’m still not sure if it’s a good idea as they’re undoubtedly monitoring me but I don’t care. I need to get this out there, even if nobody believes me.
So in my last post, I’d just managed to escape from that psycho hunter who chased me through the mall after tricking him into thinking I’d jumped over a fence. I’d love to tell you that was the end of it, but then my phone buzzed with a notification. I don’t think I quite understood how dire my situation was until I opened the notification.
When I tapped on it, I could see that it was an email from the same garbled mess of characters that had sent the mail before. My stomach fluttered as I skimmed over the subject “Day 1 Updates and Ratings”. I’ll be honest, in all of the running and fearing for my life, I’d forgotten entirely about the game having a points system, I was too focused on survival.
A sense of apprehension filled me as I read the subject again. This game wasn’t what I thought it was going to be, I wondered how many other people were in my position or were worse off.
Nervously, I tapped on the notification and opened the mail. The Mail app loaded quickly, revealing a mail that was blank all bar a single URL. I couldn’t make anything out of it, it was another garbled mess of characters, not from any site that I recognised.
Tentatively I hovered my finger over it, a warning tickle creeping up my spine, before tapping it, not sure of exactly what to expect. As soon as my thumb made contact with the link, my phone screen went dark. “Oh great, just great!” I muttered to myself, frustrated.
But after a second the screen sprang back into life, bursting into a flurry of activity. Several screens opened then closed rapidly, too quickly for me to make out what they were, although they looked similar to the command prompt windows you see on a computer.
I had no idea what was going on, all I could do was stare at my phone, helpless to stop whatever it was doing. But then as suddenly as it had all started, it all stopped. My phone was as still and silent as it was before, sitting there on the home screen, waiting for my command. As I looked it over, I could make out only one sign that something had happened. There in the centre of my home screen was a new app that I had never seen before and had no memory of downloading. It was a plain black square titled “The Devil’s Games”
Assuming that the app was some kind of malware that the game organisers had installed on my phone, and not trusting them in the slightest, nor wanting any more obstacles in this horrific game, I went to highlight it and remove it. Much to my confusion it wouldn’t budge, I pressed the uninstall button several times, but the app just sat there unperturbed, ignoring my requests.
I was about to try again when the app opened by itself and plunged my phone screen into darkness. After a second, I could make out something in the centre of the screen, it looked almost like a small video player embedded into the darkness. It was hard to see as it was nearly as dark as the background.
Confused now, I didn’t know what to think. Maybe it wasn’t malware at all, maybe it was just some janky app for them to send out updates to us players through. This game had been set up on the dark web after all so nothing was top quality.
Just as I was pondering this, the video in the centre of the screen changed, catching my attention. I could make something out now. The quality was poor, very poor, as though whatever had been used to film it was either really old or streaming over an exceptionally low bandwidth.
I brought the phone closer to my face, squinting through the pixels to try and make out some kind of detail. I could just about make out a dark room, it looked like there was a large wooden platform in the distance occupying the centre with a tall podium in the middle. I couldn’t see much else though. I also noticed a small number in the bottom right-hand corner in plain white text. It seemed to be incrementing. It was in the tens of thousands and still climbing at a steady rate.
This was just strange, what the hell was this video even about? I was just about to close off the app when I noticed movement to the right of the stage, something was happening.
I sat there, my phone inches away from my face, as what looked like a group of people made their way from the right-hand side of the screen. They were walking strangely, some limping, others holding injuries. They each had an odd look on their faces, but the feed was too poor for me to make it out. Once they reached the centre of the stage they split off into two groups, six of them staying on the right side and three moving off to the left.
All the while they were all looking over their shoulder to somewhere just off the right-hand side of the screen. It took me a second, but I realised that there must be someone just off-screen orchestrating where they were going.
Just as the thought came to me, a large, hooded figure wearing a mask moved into the frame on the stage, going up to each of the nine people. I couldn’t make out exactly what he was doing, but it looked like the people cowered as he approached, although none tried to defend themselves when he grabbed their hands.
I was thoroughly confused. What the hell did this video have to do with rankings and what the hell was I watching? All the while that number in the bottom right corner was still going up, adding to my confusion.
Then, without warning, the video shook and the stage came closer, into clearer focus, as though someone had physically moved the camera closer to it. Although the quality was still poor I could now make out far more than before.
What I could see sent a chill down my spine. The people on the stage were terrified, some had injuries, others were just crying, but each wore an expression of fear and defeat on their faces. I could now clearly see what the large masked man had done to each of them when he moved onto the stage. Their hands were tied with thick chains, which then led behind them to the back of the stage where they were tied to an anchor point, holding the people in place.
A flurry of movement from the left of the screen caught my eye as a man seemed to dance into frame and the stage was illuminated by a large spotlight. He was a tall man in a fancy-looking black suit wearing a bird mask. There was a pit in my stomach as I recognized him as the mascot on the website I’d signed up for this game on.
His dapper appearance and jovial attitude seemed to contrast with the terrified expressions of the people behind him. Their eyes were fixed on him, petrified. He seemed to be waving something around in his hand as he danced across the stage, something small and silver glinting in the bright spotlight. With a sudden jolt of terror, I saw the barrel that it ended in and the unmistakable shape of a pistol in his right hand.
Jovially dancing his way to the podium, the man ended his elaborate dance in a deep bow before straightening up and leaning into the microphone on the podium. “Welcome one and all, welcome. Well, there sure are a lot of you here this evening, we’re so glad you could join us. But we know what you paid for, so let’s get this show on the road.” He said in an almost singsong voice.
Something in what he just said stuck with me. “Paid for”. I hadn’t had to pay for anything, had the other players? I was staring at the screen when it struck me, was this a video, or was this a stream? That number in the bottom corner, was that the amount of people paying to view it right now? He had said there were a lot of us this evening. I felt sick, that number was in the tens of thousands, and there were only fifty of us in the game. I didn’t have time to contemplate this further before the man started up again.
“So folks, the numbers are in, and here are today’s eliminations!” He said, whimsically gesturing behind him with the gun. The terrified people on the stage cowering as it swept across their heads.
“Hunters first,” he said, before gracefully making his way to the left of the stage. There were three people there, each of them staring at the masked man, terrified as he paced backwards and forwards in front of them like a ringmaster before a lion.
With a start, I recognised one of the three. It was the man who had crashed into my car earlier today. He had several large cuts across his face and patches of blood staining his clothing. He was also holding one arm which looked to be in a cast, as well as his right leg. He looked as though he was about to cry. If he’d gone to the hospital after chasing me across that road then these people must have kidnapped him from there.
As much as it pains me to admit. I did feel a sick sense of irony that he had been kidnapped by these people when he had effectively tried to do the same to me earlier today.
“These three have no points whatsoever, and we don’t need any Hunters who can’t hunt, so they’re outta here!” Said the announcer, mimicking a baseball commentator. In a flash, he raised the gun and let off three quick shots. The Hunters collapsed, clutching their stomachs, and the stage background behind them sprayed crimson with blood.
The colour drained from my face and the world seemed to fold in on itself. I struggled to hear the rest of what he said over the screams of the six Hiders as he merrily danced his way over to them. I felt sick. What the hell was happening, I knew there were hardly any rules in the game but nowhere mentioned being killed for failing. I wanted to cry, those poor people. Then a terrifying thought struck me. If either of those two Hunters had caught me, I’d be up there too. Standing chained before that psychotic bird-masked man.
The announcer’s voice came through again, breaking the silence and snapping me back into reality. I didn’t want to watch what happened next, I knew what he was going to do, but I couldn’t command myself to look away.
“And these unlucky Hiders managed to get caught, you know what that means!” He said, again in that sing-song voice before letting off several more shots, each bang followed by a chorus of screams from the hiders, some tried to run as they watched their fellow contestants collapse, but the chains around their wrists held them in place. Within a few seconds, the stage was silent, each hider slumped over in a large pool of crimson red.
After the final Hider fell, the announcer turned back to face the camera. “That’s it for today’s eliminations, well done to the rest of you guys and gals! But what fun would the game be if we didn’t mix things up?”
My heart sank, what did he mean by “mix things up?”. The game was already dangerous enough as it was! A cold fear washed over me as I dreaded to think of what they would do next.
“To add just a bit more spice to this already stellar start to the game, we’re reducing the size of the play area. Everybody get nice and cosy now, but that should be no problem for you skilled players now should it? Have fun and remember, don’t get caught!” His words seemed to darken as he said the last sentence. Then the feed cut abruptly and stopped, leaving only the black background on the screen reflecting my stunned face.
I was numb, what the hell was this? They were they killing people now? This was supposed to be a fun scaled-up version of a children’s game, that’s what the site had promised, not some kind of sick snuff entertainment site for freaks on the dark web to get their kicks.
Lifting a trembling finger, I tapped the close button that had appeared on the video player. It was slow to respond, but after a few seconds, I found myself on what I assumed was the site’s homepage. It was minimalistic, just like the feed. A plain black site with several links to other videos. They all seemed to be named based on children’s games, like the names of the games on the site I’d been on when this all started. Each had a number next to them and an icon of a coin. It took me a few seconds to understand what I was seeing.
With horror, the realisation of what was going on struck me like a bolt of lightning. The organisers of the game were using us. That site must have been some kind of honey trap, trying to entice people into what they thought was a fun large-scale game. Then once we’d signed up and given our permissions we’d discover that we were just participants in their sick site, helping them to make entertaining content for their deprived watchers on the dark web. The prize money, reducing people’s suspicions, was the perfect way to get them to sign up, not realising what was going on until it was too late.
I felt sick. Bile rose in my throat and my mind was reeling. I had to sit down. What the hell do I do now? How can I get out of this?
A thousand possibilities raced through my mind, each of them shouting over each other in a maddening cacophony. Maybe if I just get out of the area of play I could get away, run far enough that the organisers wouldn’t be able to catch up with me? The fifth rule from the site echoed in my brain, “Once you’re in, you’re in, no backing out until the game is complete.”. I had no idea how far these people would go in order to punish me if I broke the rule, but then again I had no idea how long I’d be able to survive in this sinister competition. Another snagging thought reminded me that there was also no guarantee that they would let me live if I won anyway.
As I sat there, wallowing in despair and my churning thoughts, my phone gently buzzed. Picking it up, I noted that it was an email from that same address again. “What now, what more could they possibly want from us now?” I whispered, defeated.
The subject of this mail was titled “New Play Area!”. When I shakily opened it, expecting the worst, I found that it contained only a single screenshot from Google Maps with a crude red circle drawn around it.
Studying it, I determined that this must be the new area that the announcer in the video was talking about at the end. A sinking feeling spread through my stomach as I inspected it. It was a lot smaller than the city, only containing the city centre and a few other areas outside. Did they seriously expect anyone on the hiders team to have a chance, there was no way anyone would be able to hide for thirteen days in that tiny area, not with the amount of us left. But then again, I thought to myself with a shiver, they probably didn’t care, they just wanted to make the “show” as entertaining as possible for their viewers, and we would be an afterthought at best.
Reviewing it again, I noticed that the mall I was currently in was located just on the edge of this new area. Just a short walk away from the boundary, I was almost as far out as I could be.
“That’s it”, I thought to myself, “I’m getting out of this. I’m not playing anymore!”. As quickly as I could, I rose to my feet, my left leg screaming as I put my weight on it, nearly giving way. I looked down at it and immediately wished I hadn’t, my head began to spin and the acidic taste of vomit welled at the back of my throat.
My leg looked awful, there was a river of thick, ruby blood running down each side of it, pooling in the cuff of my sock before leaking down over my now bloodstained shoes. The blood was streaming from about halfway up my calf. I could see the hole in my jeans where the bullet had made its way back out into the world after tearing its way through the muscle and sinew that stood before it. I could clearly see the concrete behind me through the now gaping hole. Now that the adrenaline had worn off, it hurt like hell.
I couldn’t go to the hospital, I knew it wasn’t safe there. That maniac driver had gone there and now look at what had happened to him, plus with the Hunters now confined to a much smaller area there was no guarantee that I would even make it there at all.
The only thing I could think to do was to try and bandage my leg up as best I could and deal with it later when it was safe. I looked around, scanning the courtyard for anything that I could use to bandage my bleeding limb. Nothing immediate came to view, and I was about to give up and go and look for something in the mall when I remembered the dumpster.
It was full of clothing, it was also in black bags so although not sanitised, it’s not like it would be disease-ridden either. I hobbled over there, stumbling a few times as my injured leg tried to buckle. I fell onto the side of the dumpster, letting it hold my weight as I fished around for the nearest bag, hoping it would have something suitable I could use.
Grasping tightly to the black plastic, I yanked it out before tearing it open to reveal its contents. Several linen shirts sprawled out as the plastic gave way. Relief washed through me, this was just what I needed.
Tearing off the sleeves of a couple of the shirts, I tied them tightly around the gaping hole in my leg, trying not to focus on the torn muscles within. Pain flared in me like a fire, spreading up my leg and into my very being as I tightened the makeshift bandages. Cold sweat broke out across my forehead and I began seeing stars in my vision. I was just about to pass out from the pain but thankfully, it dissipated.
Getting to my feet again, my leg still throbbed and burned, but it at least felt slightly more supported now, though I had no idea how I would be able to run again with it in this state. I slowly limped across the courtyard, the door back into the mall getting ever closer. Making my way through it, the memory of the screams of the workers from before jumped to the forefront of my mind. I couldn’t go back that way, I couldn’t bear to see what the aftermath of my decision to run through these tunnels looked like. I don’t think I’d be able to live with myself.
I slowly glanced around, noting another corridor leading off to the right. I had no idea where it went but it was sure as hell better than going the way I’d come. I limped along through it for what felt like hours before finding a door that led back into the main mall plaza. All the while I felt weak and sick, my leg burning and the events of that video feed reeling around in my head.
The mall was almost deserted now, there were a few stragglers finishing up their shopping before the stores closed their shutters. Most paid me no mind as I limped past, although a few stared at me in horror as they noticed my bloody left leg. I ignored them when they tried to ask me what had happened or if I needed help. Even if they wanted to help, there was nothing they could do for me now.
Making my way out of the mall, the cool evening air hit me. I began shakily heading in the direction of the new boundary. All the while checking over my shoulder for any trace of the Hunters. I couldn’t run anymore in this state, and it would be stupid to get caught now when I was so close to escape. My heart began pounding in my chest, reverberating in my eardrums and I walked the quickly darkening streets towards the edge of the play area. I was relieved not to have seen anyone so far, but the overwhelming tension I felt was crushing.
As I slowly approached where I thought the boundary was, I did my best to dart between the nearby houses, concealing myself as best as I was able to, then checking around for any particularly enterprising Hunters who may be waiting near the edges to catch me.
Much to my relief, there was no one. No Hunters, no organisers, no one. I made it! Breathing a sigh of relief, I took a step over the boundary and began to move as quickly as my burning leg would allow. I had no idea where I was going, but I needed to move, to get as far away as I could until this game was over and I could go about my normal life again.
I’d made it maybe three steps when my phone buzzed again. That little sound, so innocuous, seemed to ring through my ears with a heavyweight. I wanted to ignore it, to check it when I was safe, but something clawed at the back of my mind like an itch. Slowing my pace to a gentle walk, I reached my phone out of my pocket.
Unlocking it, the shattered screen revealed the new notification. It was a text message. The number was not any that I recognised, just a random string of digits. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and my teeth were on edge, it had to be from the organisers. I shakily tapped on it, the message expanding on the screen. It contained only a picture and two words.
They made me freeze in place and my blood run cold, it took all of my strength not to break down crying. The picture in the message was dark, but I could clearly make out its contents. It was a picture of a house. My house!
I recognised it immediately, and through the living room window, I could clearly see the unmistakable faces of my wife and child going about their evening. The picture looked like it was taken from just across the street. There were twigs and leaves at the edge of the frame and I realised with horror that whoever it was that sent the message was sitting in the bushes just opposite my house, watching my family. They thought I was away for two weeks on business, they had no idea of the danger they were in!
I felt weak, the bile rising in my throat again. Then I read the text underneath the picture and all of my strength left me, I dropped to my knees sending a lightning bolt of pain burning up through my injured leg. There were only two words, but they were enough to shatter my world. “Turn Back!”.
These people knew where I lived, they were outside my house, and who knows what they’d do to my wife if I stopped playing? Tears welled up in my eyes and I burst into a fit of tears, pain racking my broken ribs with each heavy sob. I was trapped, if I carried on playing this monstrous game I’d likely lose my life, but if I tried to escape then these maniacs would kill my family and probably still come after me too.
There was nothing I could do, and this was all my fault. If I’d not joined this stupid game then none of this would have happened. I was stupid to think I could have snuck out of bounds. They must have been tracking my phone, that’s why there was no one waiting on the border, they didn’t need anyone to keep watch. They already knew.
Willing myself back to my feet, I turned back around and limped across the border, defeated. Slunking back to the area of play, the only thing I could think of was to go back to my original plan of going back to the cafe. That’s where I am right now, writing this. I can’t say exactly where the Hunters are monitoring, all I know is I can’t get caught. There’s too much at stake now. I wish I’d never joined this stupid game.
Don’t be like me, if you see something on the dark web that sounds too good to be true, it definitely is. I don’t know when I’ll be able to post again….if I’ll be able to post again….but right now I just need to survive, god help me.