The Death Asylum

3.

A/N This is a collaboration between giakfanfiqs and Dragon_Kitara

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With a click, Ezra inserted the disk and watched the tray retract as she rubbed her hands together in both enthusiasm and scepticism about what she had gotten herself into.

From the depths of her clouds of thoughts, she felt like she didn't wanna do this at all, but from the depths of her heart which ached to see her grandmother in such a critical condition, she was more than willing to fulfill her last wish.

She ogled at the screen with a blank expression and her lips thinned together in a straight line, waiting for the said device to read the old disk which may not even end up working she inferred since it was taking a lot of time and she was running out of patience now.

However, the screen lit up suddenly, startling the seventeen-year-old a little, and she squinted her eyes to read the numerous instructions which were displayed in a tiny font that appeared sooner than she had assimilated. The game was working smoothly till now even though it just turned on.

Before she could get a closer look, the text disappeared, leaving a blank black screen and her own reflection to stare back at her. The feeling of uncertainty slowly began rising in Ezra's heart, making her exhale a sigh.

She raised her eyebrow when nothing showed up on the screen after and reached out and gently tapped the PlayStation box as the game seemed to have been frozen again.

"It is old..." She began to mumble to herself, already reaching her hands out and ready to disconnect and reconnect the CD but the screen lit up once again before she could do anything vital, startling her for the second time.

Sitting back, Ezra slowly dragged her eyes around the letters showing up on the screen and read out the huge fonts flashing through.

"Welcome to the Death Asylum!"

Despite the simple and plain font, the name of the game and the whole vibe had Ezra feel a chill that crawled up between her shoulder blades along with an eerily feeling. She felt smothered suddenly but took deep breaths to calm herself down. The screen commenced loading, a small bar that tried reaching the other side of the screen.

Ezra took the opportunity to shift and get comfortable in her seat since the eerie feeling never left her body and continuously made her feel bizarre and timid, drawing her face closer to the screen. A new set of words popped up after the loading screen shortly after, that read out,

"This is a Mixed Reality game and contains very graphic instances of gore and violence. Only play if you're audacious enough or stay away!"

Ezra eyed the said instruction with a blank expression on her face as she processed these words and when these words finally settled in her head, she let out a dry chuckle at such a warning. Having played numerous horror games, such a small tasteless warning was just to scare small children and add to the effects of the gameplay.

She wasn't one of those who would get intimidated so easily. She was a gamer and knew a thing or two about the games which were played back then in her grandparents' era, and needless to say, she didn't find any of it a tad bit fearsome. She was that brave.

She nonchalantly clicked 'ENTER' and was greeted by her reflection on the screen once again, now making her lose her cool.

"Why does it keep going blank?!" Ezra grumbled in bitterness and calmed herself down again and patiently paused until the screen lit up once again, refraining from the urge to hit the box repeatedly until the game would finally start working.