“Aren’t you a pathetic little creature,” the monster cooed, and KC’s heartbeat roared in his ears. The detailing on the demon’s face...it was insane. The money alone to get makeup like that on an actor this good...

A donation comment flashed on the chat screen.

DaisyDuchess69: BABES! Group chat! RFN!

KC cut the headset feed from the game and streaming software and swivelled over to the third screen, opening up the chat app that he and Rosalyn used with their friends. Their closest knit pack of online buddies had a group chat they frequented, to yap and bitch and plan together.

He could see DaisyDuchess69, snapdragon1985, and PreciousPogo all online, but not RosieRainbow. If she was around, she definitely would have jumped into the group chat at Daisy’s invitation.

Wouldn’t she?

KC flicked on the voice option. “How long have you been watching?” he asked, and watched all of the little microphone icons switch from muted to unmuted.

“Why did you cut your stream audio?” Pogo asked, his usually-deep voice incredulous. “Shit’s up to twenty-k viewers, milk it, bro!”

KC shook his head. “Something is fucked up, guys—”

“When did you two plan this?!” Daisy squealed, equal amounts of excitement and petulance in her tone. “Legit smartest thing ever people are going insane! Not gonna lie I’m a wee bit pissed that—”

“I didn’t plan this, seriously, not a part of it,” KC cut in, glancing at the middle screen at the monster’s angry face. He didn’t know what the demon was saying to Rosalyn, but he didn’t look happy. “I came over here to chew her out for doing this all behind my back but she’s not here.”

“Oh come on dude,” Pogo drawled, and he turned on his webcam, a box containing his face popping up in the corner of the screen. He wore his signature amused smirk, that little wry smile that said he was in on a secret. “You can tell us. Quickly, though, then turn the stream audio back on and keep everyone entertained.”

“Look, just fucking humour me, okay?” KC said with a deep sigh. “If you don’t believe me, then play along like it’s for the stream and help me figure out what’s going on.”

A donation popped up on the streaming software. It was BriGuyMonster again, asking, KC did you try seeing if you can control the game from her computer?

He pursed his lips and gave the camera thumbs up. He hadn’t thought of that, because he’d been treating it like a video feed. But after having taken a look at the files...maybe he could do something in-game. He switched over to the game window, but his fingers hesitated over the keys.

“The least she could do is be in the group chat with us,” Dragon murmured in the group chat. “We’re not gonna tell anyone.”

KC ignored him. There was no use trying to convince them. All he could do was try to figure out what was happening and hope that between them and the viewers he’d have some help in doing so.

Still, his fingers hesitated on the keyboard. I’m not going to get sucked into the fucking game, he thought bitterly to himself. This wasn’t real. It’s not like she’d booted it up and actually got sucked into it, right? It’s not like if he were to push some buttons that he would end up in there with her.

Right?

He swallowed the sudden lump in his throat, and hit ESC. If anything, that would pull up some kind of menu. Nothing happened. He hit a few more keys and clicked the mouse. Nothing. He tried the command to minimize the window, and that didn’t work, either. It was full screen on that monitor and he couldn’t move it out of frame. Before he could try a force quit, or ruminate on the ramifications of what a force quit could do, the demon’s face grew closer to the camera, red eyes blazing.

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“Oh my fucking god, this guy is an incredible actor,” Daisy breathed. “I would be pissing my pants if I had to pretend to be in his clutches, even. Our Rosie is a brave little bunny, going the extra mile for—”

KC switched the audio from the group chat back to the game and stream. He wanted to hear what the demon guy was saying.

“You’re going to answer my fucking questions, every last one of them. Because I can use any method I want to make you talk.”

KC’s gut tightened and twisted. He could hear Rosalyn whimpering. He loved his bestie, but she was not this good of an actor. Something was fucked up and wrong here. But could he really entertain the idea that this was real? That his best friend was in the clutches of this monster?

“It doesn’t matter if you die,” the demon said.

Blood roared in KC’s ears. If this was real...god, if this is real...then this guy could legitimately torture Rosalyn to death over and over. And for what answers? Would she have any answers for him? This whole time she’d thought she was dreaming, that she was going to wake up when those things killed her. Instead she’d respawned, and was this guy going to want to know how?

Another donation popped up. BriGuyMonster: Did it work, can you control the game? Nothing’s happening on her end I don’t think.

“No, it didn’t work,” KC replied, suddenly remembering that his headset was hooked back up to the stream. “I tried all the keys, and minimizing the screen, but it’s doing nothing.” He shook his head. “Listen, I need you guys to help out, here.” He addressed the camera.

The chat was moving too quickly for him to even see words anymore. Twenty-five thousand viewers. A part of him swelled with pride for his best friend, that she’d hit record numbers from anyone in their friend group, but if she was actually in the peril depicted on the screen he didn’t imagine she’d think it was a fair trade.

“I’m going to enable slowmode for the chat, because I can’t see what the hell anyone is saying.” He clicked around in the settings of the streaming software, setting a one-minute slowmode so that people couldn’t spam. It didn’t slow it down very much, since the volume of people was staggering, but it worked a little. “I need you guys to do some research for me, okay?” He picked up the game’s case and held it up in front of the camera. “Take screenshots as I show you all the bits of this case. Find anything you can, and I mean anything. If any of you have access to places normal internet junkies don’t, use them. I want to know every single crumb of information about this game and the company that makes it...” He flipped through the booklet again to find the copyright information. “The Guul Corporation. I’m going to keep trying to do something from this end...although I’m kinda nervous to do too much to the game itself. At least like this we can see what’s going on, make sure she’s—”

Rosalyn’s scream pierced him through the headphones, and he winced, blinking rapidly as he looked back at the middle screen. He couldn’t see what was happening to her. It appeared she was staring at the sky. Twinkling stars peeked through gnarled tree branches. Was she on the ground? Where was the demon?

“Turn off my computer,” she whispered hoarsely, before another grunt of pain. “KC...if you made it to my place—” Her words cut off with another strangled cry, and the screen went dark, presumably as she’d squeezed her eyes shut, and hopefully not because she’d died again.

BriGuyMonster donated again, saying, We don’t want to lose the stream can you try closing the program??

At the same time, Pogo posted a string of exclamation marks in the group chat followed by, DON’T YOU DARE TURN THE WHOLE MACHINE OFF DUDE!!! along with him waving maniacally at his camera.

KC scrubbed his hands down his face as Rosalyn’s breath came out in little gasps. “I don’t know what to do, I don’t think closing the game is going to help her...and what if it cuts our line to her and we can’t get her back? What if I turn off the computer and she’s just stuck in there, alone?”

He hadn’t realized he’d spoken aloud until his friends started spamming the group chat. A tiny part of him was embarrassed for entertaining the insane idea out loud, but most of him was just terrified for Rosalyn. If this was somehow all a big elaborate ruse he was going to be so angry with her for making him listen to her in such horror and pain.

snapdragon1985: just try closing the ‘game’ and say it won’t close

DaisyDuchess69: This Bri guy has deeeeep fuckin pockets!

PreciousPogo: mute the feed and turn off the camera make em sweat for a min they’ll think we lost her but DONT KILL THE STREAM

KC chewed his bottom lip.

“Please...” Rosalyn’s voice was barely audible, and the desperation in her tone cut through his heart like a knife.

This is real. It has to be real. She couldn’t fake this. She wouldn’t.

He hit Alt and F4.