Novels2Search

File 014: NPC

THE NEXT VIDEO PICKS UP SOME TIME LATER AND BEGINS OUTSIDE WITH BLAINE AND EMMA. IT IS BEING RECORDED FROM BLAINE'S HAND CAMERA ONCE AGAIN.

--File 014: NPC--

10/12/XXXX

Blaine: "Feeling better?"

Emma: "Marginally."

The camera is focused on Emma, and Blaine's silence is obviously directed at the fact that Emma looks more than a little red. Her hair is damp, and her arms in particular look like they have been scrubbed a little too hard. Emma does not miss whatever look he is giving her.

Emma: "Don't start with me. I'm down to only taking one shower a day- it's progress."

Blaine: "I wouldn't dare tell you to stop after what I saw you go through, just... you know. Make sure you leave some skin on."

Emma cracks a small smile, before getting serious again. They are currently seated under a tree outside on their college campus; there is sunlight streaming down, and despite the seriousness of their amateur investigation, the day is bright, beautiful, and consists of nothing remotely gray. A breeze causes the slowly bronzing leaves in the tree above them to sway prettily, and Emma's wet hair is tousled somewhat. It is a conflicting scene of tension and serenity.

Emma: "So, did you check out the game after I left?"

Blaine: "As much as I wanted to, I mostly just stuck to cleaning up my dorm."

Emma: "I wish I'd known that would happen. I should've stayed to help."

Blaine: "It's fine. Not my first time."'

Emma hesitates.

Emma: "With a mess of maggots?"

Blaine partly ignores this and sets the hand camera down, taking a moment to flip the viewer around and aim the lens at the two of them. Emma doesn't press the line of dialogue and lets it drop.

Blaine: "So- do you want me to go first?"

Emma: "After what happened last time, yes."

Blaine picks up the handheld console, then turns around so his back faces the camera and the screen of the console is facing the lens. Emma checks the viewer, then nods to him when it's clear that the game is adequately visible. It still features the list that appeared after Emma inputted the series of commands, with the only option still appearing to be 'Caught You'.

Blaine: "Well, you ready?"

Emma: "Go ahead. I need to know."

Blaine selects the option, and the screen flashes white again. Both Blaine and Emma tense, and panic flashes across Emma's face, but then the screen loads into a simple, pixel art video game. At once, Emma reaches over, picks up the hand camera, and aims it at the screen, to better showcase the details of the game.

The graphics are very simple, consisting of a limited color palette, able to display about as many as a famous predecessor of the '90's. This leads to very simplistic shading in bright coloring.

There is a character in green in the center of the screen, and the background to the game is black, so the colors appear to pop more strongly. There is currently nothing around the character, save for some pixels that appear to represent grass. When Blaine presses the forward button in the arrow keys, the character in green takes a step forward.

After a moment of fiddling with the controls, during which it appears only the directional keys do anything, Blaine moves the character forward. After a few paces and a continued viewing of nothing, there is a single character that appears ahead of the one Blaine is controlling.

Emma: "I hate that this is so tense."

Blaine: "I'm going to talk to them."

Blaine's character approaches the newly appeared non-player character, or NPC. When he is standing in front of them, he presses the A button to activate the NPC, and text appears on the screen in a clearly legible, white pixel font.

UNKNOWN NPC: [SHE WAS CAUGHT AT LAST.]

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

Blaine looks at Emma over the camera, concern on his face. He turns back to the game, but no matter what he says to the character, it continues only to say "SHE WAS CAUGHT AT LAST".

Huffing slightly, Blaine goes to move away from the character, when pixelated flies begin crawling across the screen. Emma flinches, but continues filming, saying nothing. As Blaine walks away from the NPC, the flies crawling across the screen worsen, until its almost impossible to see. He turns the character back around, and as he walks back toward the NPC, the flies lessen again, until they're gone.

Blaine: "Well, what do you want from me?"

UNKNOWN NPC: [ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO WALK THIS PATH?]

Emma: "He said something different. What path?"

Blaine: "Maybe he's referring to the fact that we reset the game? I'm pretty sure that's what we did."

Emma: "That could be true. I guess the guy who made the game would want a way to test it and make sure it's working, so there'd have to be a way to reset it back to its starting state before he... did whatever with it."

UNKNOWN NPC: [IF YOU WALK THIS PATH, THERE IS NO GOING BACK.]

UNKNOWN NPC: [I CAN SEE YOU. I CAN ALWAYS SEE YOU.]

Emma: "Very creepypasta."

Blaine: "Creepy what?"

Emma: "Creepypasta- it's this thing that was big on the Internet a while back, or maybe is still big, but it was basically like... some of them were written to be about these games people would find that were actually haunted, and then they'd discover these horrible things hidden in the games. They were sometimes written to seem like the real thing."

Blaine: "I think I actually know what you're talking about. I remember reading something like that a long while back."

Emma: "Yeah. They were creepy. It was like the game could see the player playing it. Very 'if you die in the game, you die in real life'."

Blaine: "Hopefully not for real. He's not saying anything else."

Blaine makes a show of trying to activate the character a few times, before, suddenly, the screen flashes white and shuts off. Emma and Blaine tense for a moment, startled, but nothing else follows this up, and, frustrated, Blaine drops the game into his lap.

Emma: "Damn. I feel like we just got played for fools."

Blaine: "Ten steps forward, ten steps- uh, oh."

Blaine looks suddenly alert, staring ahead, and Emma turns quickly, the camera just showing a small collection of people walking toward them. The camera shifts slightly, and Blaine's expression is showed briefly as Emma sets the camera back down on the table, somewhat askew; he is not happy. Emma pushes up to stand almost protectively in front of Blaine.

Emma: "Keith, what the hell are you doing here?"

Keith: "What, I can't come see my girlfriend anymore?"

Keith [REDACTED] is a large, broad shouldered, blonde haired young man who might be considered traditionally attractive. He is also currently looking at Emma with something like anger, hurt, and distrust.

Emma: "I told you I needed space."

Keith: "I know that your roommate dying sucks, Em, but I feel like you're taking this way too seriously."

Blaine looks at Emma with a slight frown. He is now also standing, and they are both in full view of the camera.

Blaine: "Did you tell him what happened?"

Emma: "It took me almost a full week to tell my therapist what happened, you think I'm going to tell him?"

Keith: "The hell is going on, Em? Everyone's talking about how you're hanging around the quiet dude from the drama department."

Blaine: "Cinematography."

Keith: "The fuck ever, man, point stands. What are you doing around my girlfriend?"

Blaine: "Not my story to tell, dude."

Emma: "Can we save this? Please? I need you to trust me, Keith. It feels like all you want to talk about is what we're not doing, and I don't even have a chance to tell you what's going on."

Keith: "I keep trying to talk to you, Em, but you keep shutting me out!"

Emma: "I have a lot of shit going on! And you coming here with your group of dude-bros isn't helping! How is this supposed to be a conversation, when I feel like you're here to catch me in the middle of something?"

Keith: "Am I not?"

Emma: "No, dipshit, or there'd have actually been something going on to be caught in!"

Keith: "Looks like a date to me."

Blaine: "If you count haunted video games that spit maggots all over my dorm room floor, then sure."

Keith: "I'm not joking around, asshole."

Blaine: "Me either, dickhead."

Emma: "Oh, my God, this is stupid. If you want to talk, we'll talk. I'll tell you why the hell I'm so upset, but I'm not talking about it again, and seriously, I need space, Keith. I'm... there's a lot going on."

Keith looks actually vulnerable for a second. He is flanked by two friends who are almost as big as he is, and while they're attempting to appear menacing, they aren't saying much, probably for the best.

Keith: "Fine. I just want to talk. I feel like we don't even do that anymore. It doesn't even feel like I have a girlfriend."

Emma: "Yeah, because you keep letting Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum tell you what you're supposed to be 'getting' out of a relationship."

Emma runs her hands through her hair, before turning back to the table, grabbing her bag, and the game. She stuffs it all into her bag almost without thinking.

Emma: "I'll talk to you later."

Blaine: "Be careful. If you need anything, text me."

The point is very obvious. Blaine's body language seems to suggest that he doesn't trust Keith at all, and there is something about him that is triggering some reaction in Blaine. Emma is too flustered and upset to notice, and quickly walks off.

Keith takes a moment to give Blaine a very pointed glare, which Blaine returns, before he turns to follow Emma. His two friends attempt to follow, but Keith waves them off, and they instead stand around for several awkward seconds, trying to figure out if they should talk to Blaine, before finally turning and stiffly walking off.

Blaine runs a hand through his own dark hair before turning around, grabbing his camera, and turning it off.

--END TRANSMISSION--