Author Games: Red Room

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September 5th, 2018
10:15 am

There was a loud clamor that rang across the muddy field. Patches of pulled up grass and large tire tracks left behind by news van after news van paved the soil. Dozens of people stood on the other side of fresh police tape. A few officers milled about to keep the peace, but they were in far too deep to try and send anyone away now without a story. Besides, for once this was good press.

The only problem?

It was raining, again. Diane Rowe stood with her umbrella clutched between her armpit and her left boob, squeezing tight to try and hold it from slipping out of her grasp. Another gust of wind swept by, her frizzy, wet hair flying into her mouth. Frustrated, the new anchor sighed and carefully plucked the brown strands from between her lips. There wasn't a need to smear the brand new coat of lipstick for nothing.

Looking up, she caught Patrick staring at her tits again through the lense of his equipment. Poor guy thought he was being subtle. It'd been like this since the surgery, and while she couldn't complain on the effectiveness of the treatment, middle-aged cameramen still living in their brother's garage were not her main market.

"Are you recording?" Diane asked, waving her fingers in front of the chubby ginger's face.

The man blinked. Pulling back his eye and squinting at the red, blinking light before adjusting the camera on his shoulder, he nodded back. A greasy thumbs up was given to her as extra insurance. "We're rolling."

"Okay." With a huff of smoky breath and quickly rubbing her hands together to drive away the cold, Rowe faced the cameras with a wide, positive smile that came from years and years of practice relaying things that she knew no one would ever watch. "I'm coming to you now to talk about a break in the missing persons case that's been sweeping the town. It appears to be connected to a sort of internet scandal. Laptops and other recording and editing devices were found at the scene logged into some encrypted site. Inside this old place," she gave a grand, sweeping gesture toward the crumbling, graffiti tattooed building behind her, "over twelve bodies have been recovered, with still more ground to be searched. None of the victims' names have been given out, but it has been corroborated that some of them are on the list of confirmed missing persons that have disappeared over the past two months."

There was a sudden amount of shouting that occurred from behind Diane. Patrick was shoved out of the way, the camera jostled and tossed from his grip into the mud as people crowded toward the police line. The newswoman turned to find the excitement. It came in the form of a young man being escorted by two policemen out of the building's double doors and down the front steps. His hair was ratty, his lip busted open and bleeding as his chest heaved to keep up with the speed at which his nostrils were flaring.

For a moment, the cloaked figure turned his head and glared. Not at the cameras or the shouting reporters, not at the onlookers behind them, but at something past the crowds and the trucks, his eyes pinpointing another figure through the rain. Diane turned over her own shoulder, following his gaze, but by the time she looked at the small gaping opening between a row of trees, the shadow had disappeared leaving only the branches to rustle.

~

Welcome to Author Games: Red Room!

As some of you gamers out there may have noticed, this is an Author Games inspired by the indie-horror games Welcome to the Game and Welcome to the Game 2. It will be focused on the dark web and centered around what hackers call "red rooms." For those of you unfamiliar with this term, red rooms are a hidden live streaming service on the deep web that stream interactive and live torture for the audience to enjoy.

However, unlike its source material, we'll be exploring the darker side of things. That's right, you do not have to know anything about Welcome to the Game or Welcome to the Game 2. This is something we'd like to stress heavily because we're creating our own lore and exploring a very different story than the one from the games. So welcome to our game.

Red Room is a competition revolving around the inside of two cults and their live streaming services on the dark web. As you may have gathered, you will not be writing a cult member, rather a poor soul trying to survive the twisted game these cults have set up for hackers' entertainment.

These Games will not only be anonymous (as in you won't know who's writing who) but they'll also be operating on a first-come, first-served basis, meaning the only factor in reserving a spot is how early you can get there. We're looking for a total of sixteen characters, eight for each cult, but we're more than willing to open up more spots should interest levels surpass that number.

Reservations will open Wednesday, August 15th at 6 PM PDT. We hope to see you there!

Additional note: Special thanks to our lovely cover artists @annie1loves1you (front) and @circustents (intro) for the fantastic covers both of them made for us! We are basking in their talent.