Duskwood: the man behind the mask

1. The game begins

An insistent noise tortured my ears. What's going on? I looked around and my room was still there, everything was... okay? The sound was coming from my hand, so I looked down: my phone. What's happ...?

And suddenly, instantly, everything came back to me: my friends, the hut, the attack... Jake! He was the one calling, bringing me back to reality and the urgency of the moment.

I slid my fingers across the screen desperately, trying to accept the call over and over without success, until I finally managed to control my hands, still clenched in fear.

Jake: MC! Are you there? Are you okay? Why didn't you answer? 

MC: Jake...

He didn't let me continue. As soon as he heard my voice he let out a loud sigh and immediately began to speak again, so fast that I could barely understand him. His usual calm and composure had vanished and his voice came to me brokenly, almost trembling:

Jake: I've been calling you for 10 minutes, why didn't you answer? I thought... Is everything alright? How do you think of disappearing like that? Are you okay? Don't ever do this to me again, you hear? Never do this to me again!

MC: Jake, dammit!

He stopped suddenly and I could only hear his heavy breathing for a moment, but soon I heard a new sigh and his voice came back to me, this time quieter and sadder:

Jake: I'm sorry... I didn't know what to do, and I was... I'm sorry, MC.

I didn't answer immediately, I couldn't. I was fighting the fear and anguish that were dangerously escalating again inside me. I knew it was imperative to regain my composure, but a painful feeling of guilt threatened to overwhelm everything, preventing me from focusing my mind.

Jake remained silent, respectfully waiting for me to be ready to speak, but that moment never came. Several... minutes? seconds?... passed until I heard his voice again:

Jake: Talk to me, please.

Only one thought was repeating on a loop in my head: Jessy, Dan, Lilly, Cleo, Thomas... How did we get to this?

MC: It's my fault, Jake.

Jake: No, don't say that. None of this is your fault, and we don't even know if anything happened to them.

Of course, something has happened to them, everything has happened to them. That son of a bitch warned me, he indeed warned me. I had so many signs, he told me so many times... Why didn't I listen to him? Why did I prefer to convince myself that those were empty threats? I didn't tell them anything, I didn't warn them, but I let them run straight into danger. And now... had I lost all my friends?

Jake: MC?

I was naive. I truly believed that I could do it, that I would bring Richy and Hannah back, and that we would all be happy in the end. "Happily ever after". How did I believe that bullshit? You're a fool, MC, a silly girl playing detective. You got carried away by your ego and now you have lost them all.

Jake: MC? Are you still there? Speak to me.

And tell you what, Jake? That I'm an idiot? That this is too big for us? 

At that moment, and as if he had been listening to my thoughts, he spoke again:

Jake: You have not lost them. We will find them together, trust me. 

He paused for a moment, and after a sigh, he said: "I need you with me, MC, don't you understand?"

He sounded so sad that my heart pricked. He was also desperate, he was also afraid. Now his two sisters were in danger, and I, the only person he had left, hadn't even been listening to him. We were wasting precious minutes due to my cowardice, but he was still there for me, trying to calm me down.

Then it dawned on me...

MC: Jake?

Jake: Yes?

His voice! It took me a second to sink in, but there was no question. Was I so unhinged that I didn't notice until now? Jake hadn't been using his voice distorter this whole time, and I realized then how scared he had to be to risk himself like that just to talk to me. He was there, on the other end of the phone, so worried about everyone and me that he had forgotten about his own protection.

A warm wave of gratitude ran through me, and for the first time since taking the call, I felt safe. I was about to talk when a new message arrived on my phone:

Jessy: MC... 😞