Stay Silent

Chapter 2 - Nate's Secret

After coming home from the police station, Matt sat down on the couch, eyes wide with shock. Steph quickly made her way over to him.

"What happened? Is he okay?" She asked quickly.

"He's missing. A street camera saw a man drag him into a car, but they haven't been found." Matt explained.

"Show me the call." Steph asked.

Matt played the call again. Once Steph heard "bonum vesperam" Her eyes went wide. "That's good evening in Latin."

"So?"

"Isn't that what the kidnapper says in Welcome To The Game? Well, except in Russian, not Latin." She pointed out.

"You think this has something to do with the game?" He found this hard to believe.

"Well, I never said that. It's just a point." Steph said.

Just then, Matt's phone rang. "It's Nate." Matt answered the phone. "Hey Nate."

"Hey Matt. I heard what happened to Jason. Are you and Steph okay?" Nate asked.

"Yeah, we're fine, if not a little shocked." Matt said.

"I can't say I understand what it's like, but I'm glad you guys are okay. So what do you think this is about?" Nate asked.

Matt put Nate on speakerphone. "Well, Steph thinks it might be about Welcome To The Game." He said.

"I didn't say that." Steph huffed, as best she could because in fanfictions she is written as the equivalent of a Disney Princess, so therefore she can never be grumpy because it is written in the ancient laws of fanfictions; Thou shall not make Stephanie Patrick grumpy and/or have flaws.

"Well, why does she think that?" Nate asked. Stephanie leaned her hand on her cheek, frustrated as her fanfiction limitations would let her be.

"We heard good evening in Latin. It's the same thing the kidnapper says before you lose in the game." Matt explained.

Nate hesitated for a minute. "Um... There might be something to that theory..." He sounded dismissive.

"Nate, what did you do?" Matt questioned.

"Well, Jason may or may not have asked me about the deep Web after your livestream. He seemed really curious, so I told him about some of the deep Web related stuff." Nate confessed.

Matt sputtered before finally spitting out, "How do you even know about the deep Web!?"

"Well two reasons. One day, when I was entering a direct URL, I accidentally entered a typo in it, and stumbled onto a site connected to the deep Web. I got curious, so I did some more looking around. Jason caught me looking around." Nate explained.

"And the second reason?" Steph asked.

"Plot convince."

"What did you tell him?" Matt asked.

"Possibly that... well, a lot of those sites on the game are real..." Nate trailed off.

"Please don't say it."

"Including the red room." Nate finished.

"That's what's going on. Jason tried to find the red room. I mean, we didn't beat the game, he might have wanted to see it." Matt guessed.

"So what do we do now?" Steph asked.

Matt looked at the computer. "I have a theory."