Three days ago, I had cried, not because three days ago I had been kidnapped by a serial killer, but because I had found out in the worst possible way, that being in a goddamn Blockbuster, that the world I was living in was simply fucked.

Not only did almost none of the horror movies that I knew about actually existed, but the ones I did simply were post apocalyptic ones, or stuff that took time in the future, or too far back in the past. Time itself felt like it stopped working at times, I could see both flip phones and smartphones running around these days. Some people call it 'Anachronistic', where time doesn't make complete sense.

From the 70s to the late 2000's, I hate this... cognitive dissonance that there is, like a veil that does not allow people to further see besides their own 'movie', and, I guess, there was something like fate running around, after all, I haven't heard of 'Jason versus Michael Myers'. An invisible force, perhaps even something akin, if not the system itself, was interfering with the free will.

Maybe in the same way that people still act like everything's okay, when it's certainly not, I dare to not raise my voice for the time being for I don't know who would listen. Was I supposed to simply go with the flow? Would run away from this country even help me?

I glanced at the system, at the image that had been there for so long one could forget that it was there.

You are the "Outcast"

I raised my eyebrow at that, it stood like that, with that frozen image even before I had gone to the Blockbuster, but I just didn't want to mess with the system, so I ignored it for the last three days.

If that was an implication about what my 'role' is in this world, or if it was taunting me for how Adam had lived his life before to this, I couldn't tell, didn't want to know the case regardless.

But I had to keep going, because this is the only thing that can save me, so with that, I pressed it.

The Roles we Play Archetype: Outcast Stat Used: Moxie 'Some characters are pursued by their past and never grow from it because they die too soon.' - A Film Buff A player with this trope equipped will slowly gain Plot Armor boosts and their role will increase as 'plot' progresses, progressing from a minor character if not an antagonist at the beginning to a major one at the end. The player must perform the role as it is assigned to receive the associated buffs. Must begin the story with a lower PA than others.

Did the system also saw those things as movies then? Would other people have stats assigned to them? I assume I would also be forced to play a part given the 'role as it is' part of my ability? I looked over it again, it wasn't written as a 'skill', but as a trope.

A fucking movie trope. Perhaps what made me the most annoyed wasn't this one in particular, which I guessed it made some sense given that I do have some troubled history, at the very least that would help me early on in this... whatever this is. And it should help if I ever enter a situation that should be otherwise unbeatable, assuming there are others in the same 'movie'... What annoyed me was the second one that I had gotten.

As if he wasn't There Archetype: Wallflower Stat Used: Hustle Sometimes there's a person who's so forgettable, even the audience forgets about him, but sometimes, it's either a Checkov gun or a red herring, or maybe they forgot he was there to begin with'- Film Buff

When active, characters are more likely to overlook you in general, that also works towards the killers, although attempting anything that could be considered big screen worth will automatically deactivate the trope for the remainder of the movie.

"So Creepy, it almost feels like a stalker"

Yeah, right, more ammo for Jigsaw the Hypocrite to talk shit about me, not much I can do about that.

I'm sad that I didn't get anything related to my actions the other day, this seemed to be more about who Adam was, and not really me, or what I'm doing, I bit my tongue thinking of Adam, dead in a bathroom after being left for dead by Lawrence, Kramer and Amanda, it made me even more annoyed when I know that Lawrence said he would come back for Adam, Amanda liked Adam and felt guilty for him, and Kramer, I hated him.

Not only his whole shtick was bogus, but none of his apprentices actually learned shit, Amanda felt like people didn't deserve redemption, Hoffman was an actual slasher villain in Saw. And then there's Lawrence who never appeared again after that reveal about his apprenticeship, and Logan... I will be honest, he was the most 'good guy' of the bunch, not exactly a high bar but still. Logan being saved by Kramer while Adam just reminds me that Jigsaw is a dick.

"If only this damn system had given me something, to escape traps, like Houdini and shit, now that would've been great," I told myself as I looked around, my apartment was a dinky hole that I couldn't care less for it, but I had bills to pay, and I have yet to get the payment for the pictures Tapp asked me for.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

Grinding my teeth, I realized the truth! I just needed to get the absolute fuck out of here, sure, the system might bite me in the ass, but frankly, I always wanted a house in the middle of buttfuck nowhere, much better than a buttfuck apartment in the middle of everything. Well, everything Saw related, but I knew better.

I just had to get working again if I wanted funds to get out of here. From what I remember, Adam got jobs mostly from word of mouth, but I needed more money, so fuck it honestly, I threw my job listing on the internet, a gofundme, because apparently that was a thing right now.

But then, on my craiglist article, the one Adam had already made a long time ago ever since he, or I guess me, it's hard to think of him as me, but that will pass, for the better or the worse, anyways, he was a big spender, he had told me to search all kinds of people to the point I don't even remember who we didn't take pictures from.

Something I also noted was that Adam didn't have pictures of himself on his house, most of his walls were pictures from people I had previously taken pictures from.

Using my laptop, I began to typewrite like a maniac, writing all of the plots I could remember, horror movie related, maybe I wouldn't be able to get the dialogue perfectly, but it was mostly about plot points in each movie, types of people/characters, any kind of weakness I could remember. That was good because it meant that I still had my own 'silver bullet' to whatever came to my direction.

I didn't know how to 'level up' with the system I had with me, yet I still had the inkling of recognition that if this system wanted to use horror movie tropes and lingo for all of this, then maybe I do know what the system expects from me.

A shudder goes across my body, for I don't truly understand why it would ask me such thing, I didn't want this, why couldn't I've been just resurrected a second time, that would've been just so much easier.

My palpitating heart was beating too hard for this kind of thing, but I was lucky, for I was not in the aims of Jigsaw, even if for just a bit, after all, right now, between the story of the first two movies, there's still an X to mark the spot.

Jigsaw has yet to be tricked in Mexico about the miraculous 'cure' to his cancer treatment, which was a lie, I wondered how much the timeline would've changed if I told him the truth about the treatment, would he just stop? Would he not believe me since he knows who I am, even if he doesn't know that I know who he is?

If timelines were strings, I could be cutting off a whole lot of it by stopping Kramer of fucking himself up.

Fuck it, I would just play a role then.

Make money, warn Jigsaw that the cake was a lie, and then I will fuck off from this town, city, whatever you want to call it.

"But first things first... Let me take down these pictures, they look hella creepy in this house," I told myself as I picked a plastic bag, removing all of the pictures without paying much attention to it and then throwing that on the dark room where I develop my pictures. Maybe at some other moment I would actually take care of the pictures and see if I can recognize anyone, likely not, but still.

Finding Kramer is much easier than you would expect, this place might be big, but with the amount of abandoned warehouses and buildings, with entire neighborhoods being unbelievably shitty, most people, and especially rich people like Kramer, could easily be found in the 'good' neighborhood, and with him, I could find Amanda.

With a smile, I walked there, waving at Amanda because I had already had talked with her, and technically, she did say that she might go to see Scott's band's concert, or whatever the specific wording it was.

"Amanda! How are you?" I asked her as I got closer.

"Hello..." She said with shyness in her voice, I didn't know if she would get reprimanded by Kramer, but what the hell.

"And hello, mister..." "Kramer, John Kramer" This was how we 'officially' met, I guess. Haha.

"So, what are you guys doing here?" I asked them as they had come out of some kind of meeting, kind of what the Alcoholics Anonymous do. I assume this was when they first found out about the 'cure' to his Cancer.

"John here has been hearing about a miraculous experimental treatment, so he asked me to bring him here," Amanda said as I frowned, it was a small one, I had to play the part well.

"Ah, is it the Penderson Project?" I asked as they looked at me curiously.

"...It is," Kramer said as I pursued my lips.

"Well, you didn't hear it from me, but apparently there's a faculty in Mexico that supposedly treats people," I said before I stopped myself, seeing Henry, the guy with fake cancer, came to John, telling him, and Amanda, about the same facility that I was talking about, I took this moment to stay just a bit afar, I wasn't sure how the tropes worked, but if it didn't work to make me 'forgettable', then I would just walk away and come back later.

When Henry went away, I came back.

"That guy's a scammer, you know?" I asked them as Kramer had a look on his face.

"That guy doesn't even have cancer, he just works for Dr. Penderson's daughter, who runs a con game where she convinces people with cancer to give her money, fakes a scene and all, social engineering and all that shit, then she runs away with it," I told them as Kramer knuckle went white with his anger, and Amanda wasn't that different.

"Thank you, but why have you decided to warn us about it?" Kramer asked as I pursued my lips.

"Well, I'm not so sure if I can tell you guys about it since it's actively a cop's thing, but couple nights ago, I was kidnapped by this guy, Jigsaw," I said as Amanda jumped lightly, but I decided to continue talking, I already know what I'm supposed to say because it's what Kramer wants to listen.

"He said that I was a voyeur, and that if I wanted to live I had to do something about it, if I wanted to escape, so, I did it, I escaped the trap by going down the drain and survived," I was rambling at this point, so I shook my head.

"My point is that I'm trying to take this as a wake-up call, and change how I do things, you know what I mean?" I asked them.

"I totally know what you mean Adam, Jigsaw changed my life too," I don't doubt it Amanda, after all, he's standing right next to you.

"I'm also planning in getting out of this place after I get enough money, I want a change in the scenery, somewhere more quieter," I told them before I we gave enough pleasantry to each other to make for some more casual talk before I walked away.

If God is my witness, Kramer is doing backflips of happiness, either that or he's gonna ask if I want to become an accomplice if not outright an apprentice since to them, I do look like I 'believe' in Jigsaw's message.

Not sure if I would actually kidnap people and torture them, normal people, not really, but if it was the scammers like the guys from Saw X and other horrible people? Oh yeah, I don't really have qualms about it, but then again, I don't think I would want to rehabilitate Jason fucking Vorhees, so I think I'm more likely to just give them killing traps than actually try to rehabilitate them.

I stopped walking for a moment, pausing to try and understand what the fuck was going on with me, why did I actually think any of that, I've been known to extrapolate, but man, that's just insane. I couldn't help but laugh at the stupidity I've thought to myself.

Me? A serial killer? Fuck that.