THE FOLLOWING IS A TRANSCRIPT OF THE FOOTAGE FOLLOWING THE DISCOVERY OF THE GAME CONSOLE ON EMMA'S BED.

--File 021: Back on Track--

10/17/XXXX

Blaine's phone is in the middle of ringing when the camera starts back up. He and Emma are seated on the floor, facing her bed, and the game console appears not to have moved an inch.

Anders: "Hello? Blaine, all good?"

Blaine: "Yeah. We're ready to talk. We need to know everything you know about this thing, Jim, and we need to know it yesterday."

Anders: "I'm already headed toward you now. Has she started up the game yet?"

Blaine: "No. Not yet."

Anders: "All right. Right off the bat, I'm going to disappoint you: we barely know anything about these games."

Emma groans loudly and drops her face into her hands.

Anders: "Has anything strange happened in the past few days, before you got back?"

Emma: "Nothing. Everything's been completely normal. We thought that meant we weren't... you know. In."

Anders: "All right, I think we can safely assume whatever counter is associated with this game has started now that you've found it."

Blaine: "How do you know we can't just put it down and ignore it? What if she doesn't boot it up?"

Anders: "Look at the screen. Tell me what you see."

Emma holds a hand out when Blaine begins to stand up, shaking her head. She rises up, looking over the edge of her bed at the game, before shaking her head, squaring her shoulders, and picking up with shaking fingers. She sits back down on the floor of her dorm room at once, immediately scooting closer to Blaine- partly so he can see, partly so the camera can see, and partly, as is obvious, because she is afraid.

When Emma moves the game into view, several things are noticeable. She is not touching a single button on the controller, and the screen has text on it, the backlight currently on. A power indicator is glowing red to the left of the screen.

Emma: "It's on, Detective. It says 'Hello, Emma and Blaine'. Does that mean it's for both of us?"

Anders: "Son of a bitch- yeah. I've never seen it have two names before. Guess our serial killer is economizing. Sorry, I shouldn't make jokes."

Blaine: "What do we do?"

Anders: "Do you see anything else?"

There is a slight pause as Emma angles the game back toward her to take a better look.

Emma: "Yeah. It wants me to press 'start' to begin the game. Standard video game fare, at least where that's considered."

Anders: "Go ahead and press start."

Blaine: "Shouldn't we wait for you?"

Anders: "If I'm correct, we don't have time to wait. Press start."

Emme gives Blaine a small, fearful look, before turning back and, without waiting for him to say anything, depresses the 'start' button located below the other buttons on the game. It features a fairly standard setup for the controls, with an A and a B button on the right settled diagonal to each other, and a directional pad on the left side of the device. The 'start' and 'select' buttons sit toward the bottom of the screen. Like any good knock off, it resembles the name-brand device it was based off with perfectly numb exactness.

The screen changes, and this time, it displays a countdown: 70:50:39. It is ticking down by the second.

Blaine: "We see a timer, Jim. Seventy hours, fifty minutes."

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Anders: "That's what I thought. Our records don't have very much on this game- only one guy figured it out. He left SOME notes, but in reality, they were like the ramblings of a man gone mad with fear. Most of the Bureau chocked it up to stress from the case."

Blaine: "How the hell were they explaining the flies?"

Anders: "Look, kid, the reality was that if it wasn't that simple, then that meant something else was going on with the flies. The people handling this case weren't ready to acknowledge that kind of truth, and after what you've seen, can you blame them?"

Emma: "No."

Anders: "According to those files- a friend of mine sent me a copy of the guy's report- that timer indicates how long you have to proceed to the next level, at which point, the timer will begin anew, and this time, it'll be somewhat shorter than the previous one."

Emma: "How far did that guy get?"

Anders: "We don't know. At some point, his writing was so messy, it got borderline incoherent. The games are trying to tell us something, we just don't know what. His most legible file simply states that there's some kind of message the game wants to give you, but the longer you take, the closer you get to death, until eventually, it comes for you."

Blaine: "So our only option is to play it."

Anders: "Just remember, kid. Your name was on that screen, too. Stay together, and try to figure out this first one. Maybe the timer will have a rollover, if we're lucky and get it solved fast enough."

Blaine: "Just hurry up and get here ASAP, so we can make a gameplan."

Anders: "My thoughts precisely. I've taken a month off- the precinct was easy to fool. They already half expected this copycat thing to get to me, so I didn't have to work very hard to get some sudden time off approved. They think I've gone batty."

Blaine: "You ever think you have?"

Anders: "I wish. At least then, I'd have a very nice, simple explanation for all of this."

Emma: "I don't think insanity is 'nice' or 'simple'."

Anders: "That's because you don't fully grasp the situation we find ourselves in. Get moving- you shouldn't have any troubles while you're working on this. I will be there soon."

At this point, Anders hangs up the phone on his end, leaving Emma and Blaine to brood over the game console. Emma is holding it very carefully in her hands, and Blaine is frowning; he shifts so that the camera is able to get a better view of the screen, and Emma selects 'NEW GAME' from a dropdown that appears. 'CONTINUE GAME' is completely grayed out.

Instantly, the game loads up, and they are once again presented with very low resolution graphics. The player character is a very simple, green, human-like shape at the center of the screen. The setting, vague and undefined in its decor, appears to be an unassuming house with creaking floorboards and trash in the corners. Text appears across the center of the screen in a text box:

ONCE UPON A TIME, THERE WAS A BOY NAMED JAKE GRANTHAM.

Emma: "I guess that's that. This is definitely made by Grantham."

Blaine: "I wouldn't be so sure, yet. Keep going."

More text appears when Emma presses the 'A' button to continue the dialogue.

JAKE WAS A VERY GOOD BOY.

LIKE ALL LITTLE BOYS, HE HAD A HAPPY HOME...

BUT SOMETHING WAS LURKING.

Blaine: "Oh, good. That's not ominous."

Emma has full control of the player character now. She begins to wander around the house and select things around her character; flavor text appears across the screen at each activation, but so far, nothing appears to be happening. She makes the character travel upstairs. The first room on the left is locked; the second room is an unassuming bathroom; the third room is a master bedroom, and immediately, the tone shifts drastically.

In the center of the room, there is a single graphic waiting for her of a child. He stands in the center of the master bedroom, and Emma immediately approaches him and activates him using the 'A' button on the handheld.

JAKE: "WHAT LURKS IN MY HOME?"

A text input appears when Emma closes out this new window of text. She frowns as she considers this, and then cancels out. At the very top of the screen, a very small, faint timer is seen, counting down the seconds in an ominous manner.

Emma pauses and continues to frown at the screen, though she has stopped moving about.

Blaine: "Any ideas?"

Emma: "Oh, I know what it wants. It's a logic puzzle."

Blaine looks startled.

Blaine: "A logic puzzle?"

Emma: "Sure. The only things offered for me in this entire level are items with flavor text. There is nothing for me to interact directly with."

Blaine: "Flavor text, that's text that doesn't- seemingly, anyway- progress anything by experiencing it, yeah?"

Emma: "Precisely. At first glance, all that text seems unimportant and like crazy rambling."

Blaine: "But...?"

Emma: "It's not. It's a logic puzzle. These types of puzzles give you a set amount of information, and using that, you have to try to solve a puzzle that seems unsolvable. We are provided with all of the answers to the game's question right here, in this house. We just need to collect it all and see what picture it presents us."

Emma is already moving to her desk, an expression of hopeful focus dancing across her tired, wary features as she pulls out a pad of paper, the game balanced in her other hand a little shakily.

Blaine takes the moment to reach down, pick up his camera, and begin to fiddle with it.

Blaine: "Do me a favor, Emma- don't go solving crazy serial killer puzzles for about five minutes, yeah? I just want to check my batteries and the storage space on the card."

Emma: "Make it quick."

Blaine seems to be inspecting his camera now. After a moment, he nods, then folds up the camera; instantly, the recording ends, marking the end of this file.

--END TRANSMISSION--