Pandora's Game

Claire stood outside the massive gray building that towered over the city. For a gaming facility, the outside was pretty bare, and institutional looking. She walked into the building, feeling the gust of icy air conditioning hit her face after being in the warm, spring air outside.

Shivering slightly, she made her way across the empty lobby, her footsteps echoing throughout. Inside was one giant computer screen on the walls, flashing from one graphic to the next.

"Hello miss." A friendly voice pulled her gaze. Looking ahead, she saw friendly woman standing at the desk on the other end of the lobby.

Claire rushed over to her with a nervous smile. "Sorry, I just wasn't expecting... all this." She gave a soft nervous laugh.

The woman smiled gently and nodded. "Everyone does the same." She held out her hand expectantly.

Pausing, Claire looked at her hand, realizing her mistake. "Sorry, I got it here." Searching through her backpack, she pulled out a small envelope marked with her name in purple lettering.

The woman took the envelope and took it apart, taking out the invitation inside. Tapping away at the computer keys that echoed in the room. The machine next to the woman buzzed loudly like a fax machine before spitting out a piece of plastic. The woman grabbed it and handed it over.

"This will be your badge. It allows you access into the gaming hall, the cafe, and the materials you will need for testing our new gaming system." The woman said.

"Materials?" Claire said softly, looking down at her badge. In violet lettering on a silver background had her gamer tag on it; StarLillies.

"Everything you will need to know is up the elevator. You will use your badge and it will take you to the correct floor."

Nodding gently to the woman, Claire thanked her and walked to the elevator, pressing the call button. As she waited, she fixed her backpack onto her shoulders and looked down at her badge.

"Alright, the king is here!" A familiar male voice boomed through the once quiet lobby. With him was another recognizable face.

Claire turned away and rushed into the elevator, annoyed.

Taking a breath, she looked around the elevator to find the scanner. It’s a small slit in the frame, big enough for the badge. Slipping it inside, a game noise pings in the elevator and began to move.

"Miss Claire, thank you for accepting the invitation." A voice turned her around.

Stepping off the elevator, she came into a room greeted by a tall, slender woman with a tight bun. She gestured to the rest of the room where three other people she recognized as well, sat.

Claire gave a small, nervous smile and waved. "Hi, glad to-"

"Rage King is in the house!" The same male voice boomed behind her, making her jump.

Feeling the awkward tension fill the air, she stepped away from the couple and intermingled herself into the small crowd to hide and seat herself.

"Yes, well, please join the others." The woman who greeted Claire, gestured yet again.

Making their way, they stopped behind Claire. Rage King sat next to her in the empty seat, but Lacey, grabbed the back of Claire's chair.

"I'm taking this seat now, move." She demanded. Annoyed, Claire bit her tongue, grabbing her bag.

"There are plenty of other seats for you to sit in." Paul Schofield spoke. His voice was deep and carried in the room with intensity. "Find another one instead of kicking her out."

Lacey scoffed, hitting the back of Claire's chair, and sitting in another chair across from Warren. Before I could say a word, the woman grabbed our attention.

"I'd like to say thank you and welcome to Ammit Corps trial game screening. In front of you are a few wavers that I would like you to read then sign." She gestured at the table. The glass table flashed, and a waiver form appeared in front of everyone.

Claire glanced through it. Standard in most games that have flashing lights usually have a wavier, so it didn't seem so serious. But something was gnawing at the back of her head. As she looked around, she noticed everyone else signed and submitted. Feeling the pressure, she quickly did the same.

"Good, thank you all." The woman smiled. "Some of you may know me, I am Victoria Sage. I am the leader on this project for Ammit Corp and have created a few games some of you I know have played. But today is different. Much different.

"If you will please get up and follow me. Bring your badges, but please leave your things." Victoria walked to the other side of the room and through a door.

Grabbing her badge, Claire sat her bag in the chair like everyone else. Before she could fully walk away, Lacey took Claire's bag and tossed it on to the ground.

"Hey!" She yelled, grabbing her bag up off the floor.

"Next time move when I say to, fatty." She sneered, throwing her purse into the seat.

Biting back again, she just glared at her. Warren and Lacey walked away, his arm over her petite shoulders as they laughed. Claire just took a breath and shook her head, going to the other side and putting her bag into a random chair. Following behind everyone else, she slipped in and stood in the back.

Victoria was up front. Behind her were large pill shaped containers that seemed to connect to each other. Above those were monitors with vital signs and everyone's gamer tags displayed. The room was cold and looked like it was copied from a science fiction movie.

"This is so weird." A soft voice whispered.

Next to Claire was Jayden, an influencer like Lacey. Only instead of showing off her body and pretending to be single, Jayden does makeup, art, and write books. She's the top author for fantasy-horror and thriller, as well as just making content of her, her friends, and her husband.

Jayden had long black hair, a pale face with doll like features. Like Claire, she was on the heavier side.

"You’re SpookyJaybird." Claire smiled sweetly, whispering back. "I love your content."

"You're too sweet." Jayden smiled warmly back. "Unlike a certain someone."

They both rolled their eyes.

"I'm sorry, we haven't properly met. My name is Jayden." She stuck her hand out for a shake.

"I'm Claire, or StarLillies." Shaking her hand in return.

Turning their attention back to Victoria, Claire couldn't help but steal glances at Paul. He was one of her favorite actors, being the main character in a show that was based off her childhood video game.

Paul stood tall with his arms crossed over his chest, his long sleeve shirt covering the muscles on his arms. Like the character in her show, he stood at attention. His dark hair was cut into a fade with light stubble on his face. The lights in the room lit up his hazel green eyes whenever they looked around the room.

"Keep staring, he might notice." Another whispered to Claire, startling her slightly. Max let out a soft snicker.

Claire rolled her eyes at him, a faint blush crossing her cheeks. "I wasn't staring, he's just in my line of sight a lot..."

"Sure, sure." Max let out a soft laugh, moving forward towards the front.

Like Paul, Max was another actor, a little less known. He was more on the side of being, 'Hey, it's that guy in that movie' more so than being a headliner. He was taller than Claire, but shorter than Paul and Warren.

"Alright, everyone, please find your suits and let’s get started." Victoria said as she gestured to the walls behind us.

Claire looked at Jayden, who was equally perplexed. They turned to the wall and looked for their names. Following the wall, she found hers under her gamer tag name. As she reached for it, Lacey went to grab it as well.

"Let go, Lacey..." She said, exacerbated by this point.

"I don't know what your-" She started. A large hand grabbed the suit and yanked it out of both Lacey and Claire's hands. Lacey gasped softly. Paul towered over both of them, unamused.

Placing the suit in Claire's hands, he turned to Lacey. "You're in my way." He reached past and grabbed his suit from the wall next to Claire's.

"Hey man, take it easy." Warren came over, getting between Lacey and Paul. "It doesn't involve you."

"Oh yeah?" Paul smirked softly, sizing up to Warren. "This is my spot." He said as he pointed to his gamer tag above the slot.

Even though he wasn't as built as Warren, Paul was more cut up. Just him pointing at the tag, his muscles popped through the long sleeve shirt, defining his muscles even more.

Gulping softly, Warren nodded and took Lacey to the other side of the room, even as she tried encouraging them to fight.

"It makes me wonder how some people can influence others with an attitude like that.” His voice was like velvet to her ears.

Hiding her blush, she looked down at her suit as she spoke. "Thank you, so much."

Patting her arm, he let out a short laugh. "Don't let them get to you."

With everyone dressed in their suits, they laid their pods. Claire was placed between Paul and Jayden, feeling anxious as she was being strapped into the machine by other crew members.

“If at all you feel claustrophobic, don’t worry. We have remedies for that.” Victoria said as she paced around the room while everyone was getting hooked in. “When your body signals that it is in stress, the pod will acclimate and release a small does of medication, depending on the levels of stress.”

“And what if we don’t agree to that?” Lacey asked with a snarky tone.

“You already gave consent. And you can change your mind at any time before you start the game.” Victoria gave her a cheeky smile. “If you refuse to give consent to this process after signing the contract, you may change back into your clothes and leave. You will not be welcomed back for any future events. As you will be deemed unreliable and unfit for the program.”

“What about feeling unsafe?” Jayden asked, peeking her head up.

“If at anytime you feel unsafe, or uncertain, you are taken out of the game gently. You are given a chance to return, or you can leave entirely. But I assure you, this game is safe.” Victoria paused for a moment before asking, “Anymore questions? No? Let’s begin.”

Everyone relaxed in the pods, closing their eyes as instructed and began to count back. A wave of relief washed over Claire as she slowly drifted off.

“Now open your eyes.” Victoria’s voice calmly said.

Taking a breath, Claire opened her eyes and couldn’t believe what she saw. Sitting herself up, it was a breathtaking view. A beautiful landscape cascaded before her eyes as she stared into an unknown field. The sun in the distance bathed the area in a warm glow and filling the air with warmth as the wind blew by. The grass and trees around her danced in the breeze.

Awe struck, Claire stood up and looked around her. She was alone. Before she could speak, Victoria appeared before her as a soft glowing figure.

“Welcome to the starting screen. This is your home base, and over there is the lobby.” She gestured toward the castle in the distance behind Claire. “There, you all will meet and choose a game to begin. Go inside, and I will explain further.”

Giving a gentle nod, Claire turned towards the castle and made her way inside. Completely different, A huge monitor took up the wall and a desk just below it. The desk looked like it could launch a rocket into space with all the buttons and levers.

While Claire looked around, she caught herself in a reflection of a decorative vase.

“Victoria, why do I look… so different?” She asked, eyeing herself.

“This is your avatar. Based on your gamertags character creations and your looks, we styled it as close as we could. However, you can change the look whenever you feel like when you are here in the lobby. All you need to do, is use the gadget on your arm.”

Looking down at her arm, a bracelet appeared, and a screen popped up showing her characters full body. It was more athletic looking, but had the same hair cut and color as her own, auburn angled bob. Her outfit was a purple jumpsuit with silver linings, a utility belt, and black combat boots.

“Wow, that’s amazing!” Claire exclaimed as she looked through the gadget’s functions.

The others began to show up, looking similar to themselves, but all wearing different colored jumpsuits. Jayden’s was black with red lining. Paul’s was a dark green with a gold lining. Lacey’s was red with a pink lining. Warrens was blue with black lining. And Max’s was yellow with blue lining.

“Now that we are all here, let’s begin.” Victoria said, catching everyone’s attention. Clearing her throat, she mentioned the gadgets on everyone’s arms before motioning towards the screen.

A simple game of capture the flag displayed on the screen. Accommodating the game, were the names split into teams of three and how the game is played. Victoria explained that the game was selected from an online MMORPG that is very popular, but it would be a closed set for us. She continued before pressing the large red button on the desk.

A flash went off and everyone was in a new world. Familiar, Claire looked around the starting room. It was a medical supply room with slightly cartoonish graphics. Pondering for a moment, she turned to her gadget and a display of nine different characters to choose from appeared. Looking through, she picked an easy character for herself: the Arsonist.

As she chose it, another flash appeared, and her clothes changed to a blue fire-retardant suit with a flamethrower in her hand.

“Whoa…” Claire said as she looked at herself on her display screen.

“No way.” Paul’s voice chimed in as he walked over. “The Arsonist, nice. I chose the Hunter.” Showing the sniper rifle. His outfit changed into an outback style character with a hat and vest over a blue shirt and dockers.

“Oh, this is not so bad.” Lacey’s voice pierced the air as she looked at herself. In a tight pinstriped blue dress with matching headscarf and heels, she twirled around as the double agent.

“You chose the hardest character to play on this game.” Paul warned.

“All the other outfits sucked and made me look awful.” She said, fawning over herself.

The game began with the alarm sounding off.

It felt like hours went by as the two teams tried to navigate through the game. Using the weapons and grabbing the other teams’ flags. The injuries didn’t hurt, only gave a weird numbing feeling until the team member respawned in the games waiting room.

Once the game was over, everyone reverted back to the game lobby.

“Beautiful work, everyone. Today’s session is over.” Victoria said with a pleased smile before having everyone close their eyes and come back to reality.

Claire slowly woke up as the pod doors opened. She felt groggy, as if she had just been stirred from a deep sleep.

“I suggest everyone change, grab your things, and get something to eat before leaving. We will resume this in a couple of days.”

The next few sessions had been a roaring success with more games to try and kinks to work out, until two weeks later.

Lacey had been extra nasty to some of the players, but mostly to Claire. In the game lobby, there was a large fight between them that seemed to get Claire heated more than usual. It was about which game to play and the fact it was Claire’s turn to pick. But Lacey argued that the game wasn’t for her and demanded a game she wanted to play.

As they argued, Victoria tried to calm them both down with the anxiety spray she promised at the beginning of this project. Lacey seemed to have calmed down once administered, but Claire’s wasn’t working. Her heartbeat was off the charts.

Feeling heated, she stormed off towards the machine.

“Fine, don’t join me!” Claire growled as she plugged her gadget into the desktop and slammed on the button. Once she did, Claire’s pod was sparking.

The machine was malfunctioning.

A flash erupted from the computer, blinding everyone for a moment forcing them to turn away. As they all turned back to the screen, Claire was gone. Her body lay motionless in the pod still.

Her vitals on screen were erratic for a moment, then calmed down.

“Where did she go?” Victoria asked the crew that monitored the screens of the players. None could answer her.

Inside the game, the lobby was in pieces. The screen was shattered, and the desk was destroyed. In disbelief, the others gathered around and looked at the mess.

“What a drama queen.” Lacey said, regretting she opened her mouth as everyone turned and glared at her.

“What a mess.” Everyone turned to see Claire standing against a wall.

“You’re okay!” Jay exclaimed with a smile on her face, that soon faded. “Wait… Somethings not right.”

A smirk crept across Claire’s lips as her eyes began to glow red, sending chills down everyone spines. The room scene changed to a room in a tall skyscraper, surrounded by windows. With her arms outstretched, the windows shattered and cascaded glass around them. Indistinguishable howls and groans came from the only door to the room.

“I'm Wrath," she said as she walked to the door. "Let’s play.” She gripped the handle and swung the door open. The sounds amplified as unworldly creatures emerged.