Flicker: Part 1 (Reedsy Cast)

Author’s Note:

I finally (finally!) finished the first part! High five!

*leaves hand up*

Don’t leave me hanging!

*keeps holding hand up until you reluctantly slap my palm*

Guess I deserve that for being SUPER inactive, really sorry about that! Part 2 is now underway! Get ready >:)

Check the end of this story for the links to everyone's profiles who participated!

Note: This story is based on the Roblox game, Flicker! If you play Roblox, I’d suggest trying that game out, it’s super fun!

Thanks for hanging with me through all of that, now onto Part 1!

~~~

“Thank you for helping me,” I said, sitting down at the dinner table. “I couldn’t have done this without you.”

“Likewise,” said the cloaked figure. “It’s time for them to pay, wouldn’t you say?” They held up their glass, and I held up mine.

“To us!”

We clink our glasses, and set them down, waiting for the game to finally begin.

~~~

I sucked in a deep breath, and sat up. Blinding lights burned my eyes, but I kept them open.

"W-where am I?" I muttered, half expecting someone to come out from the shadows and give me one of those "creepy and mysterious" speeches, like "Where you belong", or "Nowhere people will find you." Was I kidnapped?

I looked to my right and saw a window. If I could break it, maybe I could escape and go back home. The daunting realization hit me.

Where is home?

How could I forget where my home was? How could I forget my own name? Or who I was or what I liked or what color my eyes were or-

Actually wait, scratch that.

A mirror lurked in the corner of the room, long and tall, but still big enough for me to see my reflection from the bed. Stumbling, I looked at my terrified reflection.

Shining, silver eyes matched the same shade of highlights in my cinnamon-brown hair, inching a little longer than my shoulders. My tanned hand touched my plain face, and I looked down to see I wore baggy clothes.

I trembled, looking deeper into my reflection, begging to recognise myself.

It was as if I was looking at a stranger.

Taking in a shaky breath, I hastily opened the only door out of the room, to find seven other people in what looked like an apartment building.

A boy and girl sat on a couch in front of a small television, in deep discussion. The boy had brown hair, and hazel eyes. On the other hand, the girl had a darker shade of brown hair, and the purple highlights perfectly matched her purple and gray eyes.

“Who are you?!” I shouted, looking for something nearby for me to use in case these people were the ones who brought me here.

“I could ask you the same thing,” the girl grumbled, standing up and crossing her arms.

The boy rested a hand on her arm, and she seemed to calm down. He felt like the kind of person who would keep the conversation on-topic. “Relax, B. I’m Camryn, we woke up here a few minutes ago.”

Ok, maybe they didn’t kidnap me for unknown reasons.

“I’m...” My voice petered to silence, remembering I didn’t know my name.

The boy, no- Camryn, stepped closer and removed a ribbon from my neck, with a name labeled on the front.

“Cleo.”

I nodded, unable to speak. How could I have not seen that before? The name clicked, and it felt right.

Maybe something in this place will help me remember what happened.

I clung to that small hope, the goal burning itself into my mind.

A sudden bang! Rang, and another girl stepped out of the room. She had black hair, and ice blue eyes. She wore a black jumpsuit, and immediately seemed very intimidating.

“Who are you? Why did you bring me here?” she said, holding her hands out, ready to attack.

“We mean to harm, we were kidnapped too.” I said, holding my hands up in peace. I took slow cautious steps towards her.

“Seriously, how many people are here?” asked B.

Camryn shrugged.

The girl seemed to let down her guard, and went to fidget with her name-tag. “I’m Maddie. You are?”

I was about to introduce myself until four other people walked in.

The first girl had blonde hair (who we learned later her name was Ashlyn), and blue eyes. She wore mainly black clothing, and seemed to be freaking out more than the rest of us were.

The second person to walk in was a boy, and had purple hair. His eyes seemed to be changing every second, from red to blue to purple, as if his emotions were being shown through them. He also wore black clothing. He later introduced himself as Chris.

The third person was a girl, and had short black hair. She had hazel eyes, and wore a colorful hoodie, along with ripped jeans. She seemed to hang back more than the rest of us, and was twirling a strand of her hair. She said her name was Ellie.

The last boy came in a few minutes later, and had messy red hair. His emerald eyes held no emotion, as he looked around the room. He wore a red plaid shirt, and dark blue jeans. He introduced himself as Aiden.

“Ok… so we all don’t remember anything?”

Ashlyn nodded.

“New plan!” Chris said, placing his hands on his hips. “We break one of the windows, escape, look for someone to help us, call 911, and hope the police will catch whoever did this.”

“Good plan, besides the escaping part,” said Ellie, throwing a lamp at a window near the couch. The lamp flew towards the glass, and I braced myself for the sounds of crashing glass and…

Nothing.

The lamp floated eerily, not touching the ground. The window didn’t have a single crack.

“What the-” Aiden started, but got caught off by the static coming from the television. We all turned to see a blackened figure on the screen.

“I wouldn’t break anything if I were you,” the figure said, “You do not want to know what happens to people who are insubordinate.”

“Who are you?” asked Ashlyn, raising an eyebrow in suspicion.

“No one you should be concerned about. Now let’s cut to the chase.”

The figure paused, waiting for us to settle down.

“How would you feel if I said there’s a murderer among you?”

“Well, then I’d ask you who it is?” B grumbled, clearly annoyed at the stranger’s vagueness.

“You’ll have to figure that out yourselves. Of course, some of you will have to help this murderer with your roles, but you’ll figure out which is yours soon enough.” The screen changed to a list of several roles. I grabbed a pencil and paper, and quickly wrote down the roles.

Evil Team

Murderer: Can kill one person every night.

Mind-Reader: Can read one person’s mind each night to find out if they are good or evil.

Mage: Can block someone’s power once every night.

Mole: Can bug one person per night to find out who visited them that night.

Good Team

Detective: Receives a clue to who’s evil each night.

Mind Reader: Can read one person’s mind each night to find out if they are good or evil.

Doctor: Can protect one person per night from the murderer.

Mole: Can bug one person per night to find out who visited them that night.

“In each of your rooms, you will find a journal. That journal will contain your role, and is available for everyone to read once you have been eliminated. If you read another person’s journal before they have been eliminated, even with their permission, you will be eliminated yourself. Good luck, you’re going to need it.”

We all headed to our rooms to grab our journals to see our roles. I quickly open up mine, and flip to the first page.

Mage- Can block a person’s power each night.

Evil Team.

Write down the name of whoever you would like to block tonight here: _________

I dropped the journal. I had to work with a murderer? Someone who probably brought us all here and erased our memories and is going to kill us?

Could they kill me?

It wouldn’t make sense for them to be able to kill their own teammate, but then they’d know who’s good and who to kill in the end…

Then again, this whole thing didn’t make sense.

I did a silent prayer, wrote down a random name, and hoped, hoped, hoped, that whoever was detective, they would save us all.

~~~

Thank you to everyone who participated in my first Reedsy Cast!

Cleo/Cookie Carla: https://blog.reedsy.com/creative-writing-prompts/author/cookie-carla/

Camryn/Chase Dova: https://blog.reedsy.com/creative-writing-prompts/author/chase-dova/

B/B.W: 

https://blog.reedsy.com/creative-writing-prompts/author/b-w/

Maddie/Abigail Cross: https://blog.reedsy.com/creative-writing-prompts/author/edbcba/

Ashlyn/Wolf Warrior: https://blog.reedsy.com/creative-writing-prompts/author/wolf-warrior-e4a694/

Chris/Celeste:

https://blog.reedsy.com/creative-writing-prompts/author/0466a8/

Ellie/Anonymous:

(You know who you are ;) )

Aiden/Me:

*cough* you know how to find my profile lol

Word Count: 1536 words