Let me begin by saying that I am an avid horror indulger. I like pretty much anything and everything scary, short of pure gore. My favorite movie has always been Paranormal Activity (the first one, not the crap storm that followed) and my favorite author is Stephen King and I spend a ridiculous amount of time playing horror computer games. It should then come as no surprise that I JUMPED at the occasion of being a tester for the new horror game pilot that came out last month. This was the first horror game ever created IRL (in real life), mimicking the new fad in computer games that I won’t name for copyright reasons, where you normally travel to a haunted house, find the ghost and exorcise it. God, I was so excited when I heard the news that such a game is happening. I put my name down last year and finally was selected to participate in the beta testing.
I had two options, I could either participate with a group of strangers or I could bring my own friends, up to a maximum six players. Luckily for me, I have been in the horror scene for so long that I could muster up five more people who were as equally excited as I was. We spent a fortune getting to the location, as we were all out-of-state-rs, but c’est la vie, as the French say. We were all working adults with money to spend, and spend we did.
I won’t bore you with the mundane details of our arrival, suffice it to say we all got on location timely. The plan was simple, get to the house, have a quick run-through guided by the game makers and then go play. We were booked for three hours of play, which the game makers estimated would mean a good two-three rounds.
Now, for those familiar with aforementioned video games, feel free to just skim this next introductory bit, just to spot differences between computer and IRL play styles. For those of you who are completely clueless, I will try to explain the game in a way that won’t make your head spin.
The purpose of this game is simple, simpler than on PC: find and identify the ghost type. No special quests, no extra tasks. There were six potential “aggressive” ghost types: spirit, demon, jinn, wraith, oni and mare, and Casper, the “friendly ghost”. There were also four types of equipment we were allowed to carry, to be used to find evidence: EMF readers, thermometers, sound recorders and cameras. Additionally, we were also given flashlights, lighters and walkie talkies. So, to recap the simple basics: use tools to find evidence and identify the ghost. The end.
Upon arrival on location, we were presented with some forms to sign, waivers in case anything happened - it seemed sensible, the standard we are not responsible if you fall down the stairs and break your leg, blah blah; but we can sue you if you set the house on fire. Afterwards, we were escorted to the back of a big white van, parked right outside the house and which contained all the equipment, and each handed some material to read.
Firstly, information on the equipment, type and amount:
2 x EMF Reader - counts as evidence only when the EMF meter indicates RED - henceforth known as RED EMF for evidence purposes.
2 x Thermometer - only counts as evidence when the temperatures go below zero - freezing temperatures for evidence purposes.
2 x Sound Recorder - record yourself asking your question and give the ghost a few seconds to reply. Then you play it back to yourself, and listen to see if the ghost said anything - SR for evidence purposes
2 x Camera - walk around with it turned on (NOT RECORDING) and spot any sort of ghost activity, this normally looks like a foggy gray humanoid-like appearance, only seen through the lens of the camera - ghost particle for evidence purposes.
6 x Flashlights - self explanatory. There are spares.
3 x Lighters - can be used to light the candles scattered throughout the house.
6 x Walkie Talkies - self explanatory. There are spares.
For a fully immersive experience, we strongly advise you to leave your mobile phones in the van at the front entrance.
Next, very brief information about the ghosts:
Spirit - wants to be seen and heard. Has a story to tell - can become aggressive in order to get others to listen to it.
Evidence: ghost particles & SR
Demon - vile, hell-spawned creature that only wants to hurt people.
Evidence: RED EMF & SR
Jinn - ghosts that have been tremendously hurt during their lives. Want to inflict the same pain to others.
Evidence: RED EMF & ghost particles
Wraith - creature that feeds on the weak-minded.
Evidence: RED EMF & freezing temperatures
Oni - evil creature that possesses exceptional strength. Can & will use items around the room to hurt others.
Evidence: SR & freezing temperatures
Mare - malicious spirits that want to inflict emotional pain and fear.
Evidence: ghost particles & freezing temperatures
CASPER, the friendly ghost - just wants hugs.
Evidence: ALL!
Finally, a list of rules:
The round starts when everybody is in the house and you declare “Start Round”. The doors will lock behind you, so be sure to bring all items inside first, including the spare flashlights and walkie talkies.
The round ends when you have agreed upon the ghost type and you declare “Ghost type is ____”. If you do not agree on a ghost type, try to select by majority. Once you have declared the ghost type, the doors will unlock and you will be informed whether you were right or not.
Please vacate the house after each round for 15 minutes (not deducted from your time) to allow for the game makers to reset the house and prepare for the next round.
The ghost tends to haunt one room (or hallway). That is to say, the evidence produced will appear there. The ghost’s location does not change throughout a round but will change from one round to another.
You can all stick together, but it is advised to break into smaller groups to speed the process.
If you have angered the ghost, it will haunt you. During this time it can leave the room which it normally haunts and chase you. You are advised to hide. If it finds you, and lays a hand on you, you will be considered dead, and will be asked to leave the premises for the duration of the round (go upstairs and in the room marked UNDER CONSTRUCTION). A ghost haunt will stop by itself after 90 seconds or immediately if a player has died.
That’s it! Have fun & enjoy being ghost hunters for the day.
P.S. please do not try to fight the ghost and/or prank them. They are paid actors and will NOT actually harm you!
Once we all got accustomed to the documentation, we were eager and ready to start. And there we were, the six of us just looking at the entrance door of the beautiful mansion stood in front of us. It was breath-taking, Victorian Gothic if I were to guess, three floors and a tower in the middle. All dark gray brick with a black roof, it was an impressive sight for sure, and there at dawn, under the purple sun, it was even a little spine-chilling.
“All right, let’s not be chicken!”, Andrew barked as he opened the door. Based on his intonation, one would expect that he’d slam it right open, but I could tell he was nervous when instead he pushed it open slowly and walked in.
Benjamin and Mark followed right after, which was surprising to me, as Benjamin was always a scaredy cat online. But maybe he wanted to impress his boyfriend, even if Mark and he had been together for quite some years. Then went Jennifer, and that I had expected, as the girl usually had a pair bigger than all of us put together. Afterwards, Angela, Benjamin’s sister, and myself. We were similar in the sense that we were both all bark and no bite.
We entered into a long hallway. At the end of the hallway there were the stairs to what I could only assume was the second floor, and to the left and right of us, closed doors.
“All right, shall we start then?”, Angela asked impatiently.
“I think we should maybe take the game makers’ advice into consideration and do a quick reconnaissance tour?”, Jen ever so sensibly proposed.
The suggestion was accepted unanimously, and we proceeded with opening every single door on the bottom floor. We found a large storage, a guest bathroom, and impressively immense living room, complete with a fire place, a piano, a beautiful satin three seater, then on the other side of the hallway, a Gothic dining room with black chairs and a black table, above which, straight and center, a candle candelabra and a somewhat rustic kitchen. We then went upstairs, where the narrow hallway at the top of the stairs was met with yet another, slightly larger horizontal hallway. Similarly to downstairs, each side of the hallway held quite some closed doors. We discovered a couple of bedrooms and the UNDER CONSTRUCTION room just opposite the stairs. On the side of the stairs, to it’s right, a kid’s room and a big bathroom, a bit ridiculous in my opinion, with a big tub straight in the middle of it, surrounded by one of those room separators you see in TV shows about kings and queens. To it’s left, a large unfurnished room, some moving boxes scattered around. We assumed the game makers did not have the funds to finish it, so they left it to look like the family who’d moved in there was just not done unpacking. Not uninspired.
“All right, I guess now we can start”, Andrew noted after we’d all gone downstairs and into the van to grab all our equipment.
“Right. START ROUND!”, I declared.
“No need to yell, players. We have ears everywhere. We confirm the start of the round. As this is your first round, take your time, we grant you a grace period of 15 minutes before the ghost would even appear.”, we heard the game makers reply. “We will announce when the time is up.”
We all stood in the hallway, poking at the equipment and trying to figure out how it all worked. Apart from the brief instructions in van, we didn’t have much to go on, and I myself, had never seen an EMF reader in real life before. Once we got the hang of which buttons to press, how to turn stuff on, and how to interpret the information on the equipment, Mark broke the silence.
“We split up then? Three upstairs, three downstairs?”
“That makes the most sense, seeing as we have two of each evidence equipment”, Jennifer agreed. “Then us three, upstairs?”, she gestured at Benjamin, herself and me, the three of us standing on one side of the hallway. “And you three, down here? And then we can mix up each round?”
On our team’s side, I grabbed the EMF, Ben grabbed the camera and Jen picked up the thermometer, and each of us took a walkie talkie and a flashlight. I also grabbed a lighter and proceeded to light all the candles that I could see along the way. Unlike the online game, this house had no actual lights, or light generators or anything we could use to see but candles and our flashlights.
“I doubt we’ll use this before we figure out the room”, she declared, grabbing the sound recorder and shoving it down her back pocket.
As agreed, we headed up the stairs and began using our tools. We started on the right with the big bathroom and the kid’s room, and across the hall in the first bedroom. We weren’t quite sure what we were looking for, but we assumed it wouldn’t be all that different from the online games we’d played, so we had our eyes out for lower temperatures and slight EMF interference.
“Fifteen minutes are up”, we heard the game makers announce, startling us.
“Right, so now we’re fair game.”, Benjamin confirmed. I could sense some of the scaredy-cat behaviour behind his somewhat soft, whispered voice.
“Better identify hiding places then.”, I said, more thinking out loud. As I would pass certain locations, like big wardrobes or beds with enough space underneath to hide, I’d make a mental note.
Not long after the fifteen minute announcement, the guys from the other team walkie-talkied us.
“I think we got the bastard”, Angela announced. “Got some cold air around this kitchen.”
“On our way!”, I responded, as we made our way back downstairs.
The kitchen was just at the bottom of the stairs, on the left. I am not sure whether it was because of the excitement of potentially facing the ghost soon, or because it truly was so, but I felt the room was much colder than the rest of the house. The thermometers were showing around 40FAHR, but that could not be, they were definitely controlled by the game makers somehow, but it did not feel like mid 60s anymore, either.
Despite all six of us being crammed into the kitchen, there was an eerie quietness surrounding us. We were all listening, scared we’d miss something if we’d talk. The kitchen was rustic and not very fancy, mostly dark with fake black marble counter tops. As I was taking in everything around me, I noticed the slightest flicker reflecting in the black washstand right next to me. This, in turn, directed my gaze to the opposing wall, where a candle just appeared to have been blown out.
“Did you see that?”, I whispered, but I did not have a chance to get a reply as more candles were being put out by an invisible force.
We all held our breaths, almost in unison, but nothing else seemed to happen. After what seemed like a very long time, finally, Andrew spoke.
“So, what do we have so far?”, he asked.
“Well, no light.”, Mark replied facetiously.
“I meant in term of evidence”, he countered, not being amused. The atmosphere was tense, unlike in the online game. We all felt a little off, a little unhinged.
“We don’t have any evidence as far as I can tell”, Jen replied, as she moved across the room to relight the candles.
I decided to help and pulled my own lighter out. I flicked it to ignite the spark and just as I moved it toward the candle, a light breeze blew it out again. This time I felt the cold wind on my fingers and it made me shriek. Then, remembering I was playing a horror game, I started laughing. That seemed to lighten the mood all around, as everybody joined in. Unfortunately, that didn’t last long, as an apparition seemed to come from the wall and stop an inch away from my face, yelling right before it disappeared again, making me drop my own flashlight and leaving me in complete darkness for a second. Grateful to my bladder for not failing me, I recollected and picked up my flashlight. The roar of laughter was even louder this time.
“Fuck me, that was good”, Angela commented.
“Yeah, cause you’re seeing it from over there”, Jen said from next to me. She was also laughing, but clearly the two of us were slightly more distraught.
“I need a moment.”, I claimed, getting out of the kitchen and walking towards the exit. As I was trying to get out, I realized that we needed to end the round first, and I didn’t want to ruin anyone’s game, but I was feeling a little suffocated. You see, there are two types of reactions to danger - flight or fight. I was so far on the flight side that all I wanted in that very moment was to break a window and get out. Luckily, the moment passed quickly and I managed to compose myself. I was loving it and hating it at the same time, but I wanted to finish it, for myself but also for the others.
“You good?”, Andrew asked from the kitchen door. I could barely see him from his flashlight, at times. Then I realized, his flashlight was flickering. In the online game that meant the ghost was haunting.
“HIDE!”, I yelled as I bolted towards the storage room next to the entrance. I wasn’t sure if they realized it too or not, but I threw myself behind a stack of big shelves and started counting down from 90. I hadn’t made it past 30 when I could hear the game makers announce.
“Please make your way to the UNDER CONSTRUCTION room now”, and I realized someone died. Ironically, this made me feel better. It made it all seem like a game, the announcement, the fake death, it removed some of the tightness I was feeling in my chest, and I returned to the kitchen.
“So Mark bit the dust”, Andrew informed me as I entered. “We couldn’t really get out of the kitchen, as the ghost bolted out of that cabinet over there and it just went for the first person in it’s way.”
“But look, we have 28 degrees now!”, Angela exclaimed. “So, we have freezing temps, and we know it’s not the friendly ghost, as it definitely did NOT hug Mark”, she added giggling.
“So that means it could be a wraith, oni or mare”, Benjamin interjected, checking his info package. Most of us left ours in the van, I was grateful that Benjamin was generally an overly prepared know-it-all right now.
“I don’t get any significant EMF”, I added, looking down at it. Although just as I said that, my EMF went absolutely crazy. It wasn’t a steady red, it was all over the place, from red to 0 back to red. “Wait, does this count?” I asked, fighting the urge to throw the EMF across the room.
“I think it does.”, Jen confirmed.
“That’d be a wraith then”, Benjamin said.
“Great, shall we give the game makers our answer then, and go again?”, I asked, excited by the prospect of some fresh air.
“Aye. Ghost Type is Wraith”, Andrew confirmed.
“You are correct, ghost hunters.”, came the voice of the game makers. “Please grab all your equipment and vacate the house which should now be unlocked. Return in 15 minutes.”
We started grabbing all our things as Mark joined us from upstairs, and we all left, sharing impressions and feelings. The second round went a little bit better in the sense that the ghost was in the living room, and it was Casper. So we all gave him a big hug and vacated again for 15 minutes. All in all, we had about an hour and 20 minutes left, enough for a game, maybe even two.
“Start game”, Andrew said. “You three, down, us three up.”, he said separating us into two teams. It was Jen, him and me upstairs and the other three on the ground floor.
This was now our third round, and we had become comfortable with the house and the equipment so the initial set up was fast and smooth. While the first two rounds had been pretty straightforward when it came to evidence, we quickly learned that it was not the case now.
“I think I have EMF 5 here!”, Angela walkie-talkied us from downstairs.
“All right, we’re on our way down”, I replied while Andrew and myself headed for the stairs. Jen was in the farthest room of the house so she was lagging behind.
“I think it’s in the kitchen again”, Angela said, meeting us at the bottom of the stairs.
“Hang on guys”, came Jen’s voice through the walkie talkie. “I’m getting freezing temps in this empty bedroom. I think at least.”
Andrew took out his own EMF and sure enough, it was a high response, but it was not a clear five.
“I think the evidence is not as straightforward anymore”, he concluded. “Best make sure we get it right.”
“All right, from the top then!”, I said, going back upstairs.
“Jen’s in the empty room on the left, so you check the bathroom and bedroom on the right, and I’ll go across from you in the first bedroom, OK?”, Andrew said to me as soon as we had reached the second floor again. “That way we cover most ground, then we regroup and switch tools.”
I nodded and followed instructions. I was manning a camera with infrared, looking for ghost particles, so my flashlight was a mere hindrance. As I entered the bathroom, something seemed off however. The shower atop the bathtub, the one awkwardly placed in the middle of the room and partly concealed by a room divider seemed to be running.
“Guys, I think it’s here!”, I ran out of the room and yelled down the hall, forgetting about the walkie talkie in my excitement. I went back into the bathroom ignoring all my survivor’s instincts, camera held towards the bathtub. I couldn’t quite make out what was happening through the little camera screen, so I decided to put it down and fumbled for my flashlight. As I turned it on, I heard a loud splash coming from the bathtub.
“What the..”, I said to myself, and I walked carefully a little closer. Then I saw it, a leg. A fully dressed, wet leg was coming out of the water. To my initial relief, and then immediate panic, the leg was attached to a man. The dude, absolutely huge in appearance, was rising from the tub, completely soaked. I froze, felt like I couldn’t move a muscle. He was immense, wore what looked like black leather pants and a simple white t-shirt, which, wet, clung to his skin. He had long, messy black hair.
“Who are you?”, I asked, but nobody replied. The man, now completely upright, bent over and grabbed something from behind the room divider. A chainsaw. He was now completely turned to me, holding the chainsaw with both hands, pulling out the starter rope. The chainsaw started revving, and the sound startled me out of my mental block.
Shit, I thought to myself. This felt wrong, this was not part of the game, that did not look like a prop. A million thoughts ran through my head at the same time, all of them directing me towards the nearest exit, and not in a calm and orderly fashion. Instinctively, I threw my camera at him, startling him, and started to run towards the door.
“GUYS, RUN, GET OUT!!”, I yelled “HELP!”
But just as I started screaming, music started blasting through the speakers, muffling my voice. Nobody could hear me, the doors were probably still locked, I had to warn everyone and get out. I ran into Andrew right in the hallway and grabbed his hand. He looked startled.
“Don’t think this is part of the game! Dude has a chainsaw in there!”, I said, dragging him towards the stairs.
“You serious??”, he asked incredulously.
“It’s locked! FUUUUCK!”, I yelled, realizing the door at the top of the stairs wouldn’t budge. “Yeah, I’m serious”, I confirmed, although I didn’t need to. As Andrew flashed his light behind us, we caught a glimpse of him walking slowly out of the bathroom, grinning. Sick fuck, he was enjoying this.
“GUYS!”, I yelled as I ran into the unfurnished bedroom. But everybody was mesmerized by the music and the gimmicks, thinking it’s part of the game. “GUYS WE GOTTA GET OUT!”, I tried again, as I pushed a window open.
Nobody was paying attention to me except for Andrew. They were into all their tools, which seemed to have gone crazy. I climbed out the window and Andrew followed me. I looked down, it was a long way, but it looked like there was a trash can right below, filled with leaves and grass. I hoped to God it would break my fall.
“GUYS!”, I tried again, as the guy was now standing in the door frame. Jen looked at me, not completely understanding what I was doing halfway out the window. By the time realization hit her, the guy’s chainsaw was halfway through Benjamin. I didn’t stick around, I couldn’t. I jumped. Andrew followed.
We both made it out OK, but no one else managed to follow. We made a run for our phones which were in van outside.
“911 what is your emergency?”
I tried my best to explain what was happening and then Andrew and I ran and hid behind some trees in the forest. After what seemed like an eternity, the guy came out of the house, through the front door, which was no longer locked. He looked around a couple of times, probably for us, but as he couldn’t spot us, he went to the van, closed the tailgate doors, got in and drove off.
The police came about ten minutes later, followed by an ambulance. We ran to them and told them in more detailed what had happened. They went inside and confirmed that everybody was dead, including the game makers behind the UNDER CONSTRUCTION room. Andrew and I were asked to ride in the ambulance, because even though there was nothing physically wrong with us, they decided we needed to be monitored closely after such events. We didn’t comment. There was no trace of the man and his van, nobody knows if he was part of the crew or some other maniac, it didn’t matter.
“Ghost type is massive murderer”, Andrew said from his bed in the ambulance before collapsing onto it.
I laughed a sorrowful laugh and collapsed myself. If only I’d been more insistent in that bedroom, if only I didn’t find this stupid game in the first place. Grief overwhelmed me then and guilt overwhelms me to this day.