Chapter 1: Symbols On The Wall

"Would you believe me if I said I won't hurt you?"

My eyes darted around, looking for anything to help me get out of this predicament. Yet, all I saw were the dead bodies of my friends. Their torn, shredded, bloody bodies. Some of their weapons were nearby but they did nothing to it. In fact, the only thing they were good for was being good to the monster, who stayed still and allowed their weapons to hit it so they can see how ineffective their efforts were. Plus, with my skills, they were practically even more useless!

I turned my attention to the orange glowing eyes of the monster as it leaned above me, a smug and teasing smile on its face, their bloody clawed hands behind its back.

"You know, I can state that my gender is female."

I listened to the words it said but, with my mind in a haze, I failed to understand the threat.

"That means," The monster said, its hand grabbing my chin faster than I could blink, bringing me closer to its piercing orange eyes and the black abyss that took up where the white in its eyes would be, "that you should really refer to me as she in that little under-scaled mind of yours."

Its-Her voice was definitely feminine but had sudden pitch changes and a creepy echo to it, yet her voice always sounded somewhat polite. Despite her seeming mad, her voice never changed. I had no idea if she was actually mad or something else. I can't read her at all. Then again, I don't think it's easy to read a monster.

She chuckled, letting go of my chin, seemingly amused by something.

"About what I said before...you shouldn't believe that. I will hurt you, Katie. You're too sweet to let go."

She leaned even closer to me, going all fours with one of her clawed and bloody hands planted on my chest while the other gently touched my left cheek with her finger. It wasn't until she drew her hand away and I saw the fresh blood on it did I realize that she had cut my cheek open. For some reason, I can't feel the pain from the cut she made.

"You can't run. You can't hide. In many worlds, I am God, with this one being no exception. That means I can play with you to my heart's content. And, do you want to know the best part about this? The best part is that I don't even have to tear into another world to torment you fully."

Her orange eyes changed their shape, becoming cat-like, and started glowing even brighter. A bit of drool escaped from her mouth full of sharp long teeth. I could see the hunger and pleasure in her eyes.

"You're trapped here. Your soul is trapped here, and it's going to be so much fun not tormenting an avatar but an actual person instead!"

She grabbed my left hand and tapped each of my fingers.

"No new body you have to get used to or know. I get to fully torture you...down to every finger, index, bone...and cell of your body."

I felt my body shiver uncontrollably but, since I was pinned down by her, I could barely move. I could only watch, helpless, as she opened her mouth impossibly wide. Out from the darkness of her mouth came many tiny sickly arms and hands that looked like they belonged to children. Her breath smelled of something indescribably, rather on the fruity side yet unnerving.

One of the hands reached down and ran its fingers down my face. Somehow, it reminded me of a baby touching its mother's face for the first time.

Before the hands could reach any further, they went back into her mouth which closed down with a loud snap. She stared at me for a bit, cocking her head, before standing up and walking a couple of steps away from me, her back towards me with her hands locked together behind her back. When she stopped walking she turned her head to look at me, her smile widening before an audible sound that can only be described as glitching filled the air. When it was done her orange eyes were red. Somehow, they were less scary when they were red.

That didn't mean that I wasn't still terrified.

"I'm making a bet that you won't last long without needing help. When you do, I'll be there, waiting to take you in."

She put one finger up to her mouth as if telling me to be quiet.

"And it will be the start of a new kind of fun for both of us."

Her smile widened again, stretching impossible wide for any living thing, showing teeth where there isn't suppose to be teeth. Her pupils flashed orange for a second before they once again settled to their glowing red color.

"Yes...it will be So much fun!"

Then, she disappeared. There was no sound or any sign. She was just gone, almost like she had never been here in the first place.

...Almost. My friends' dead bodies are enough proof.

I felt like curling up into a ball and, seeing no reason not to in my current state of mind, that's what I did. As I did so, I couldn't help but wonder what even brought me here in the first place.

......

Skashrim is an online massive VRMMO game that was, at the time and still arguably today, the most popular video game ever created. It had a ton of content, a ton of features, and an almost endless amount of things to do. They even had glitches in the game that weren't overpowered but just fun such as accidentally smelling a flower while being in lava will not only make you not take any damage, but it will glitch out your player model and has a chance to send you flying!

However, the game I was playing came out before Skashrim did. It was the pre-model. Of course, it still has some data from Skashrim such as a model and forest, shrine included, of Elsaline Turnick and the final boss of Skashrim, Flashrine, and what is assumed to be an older model of her castle in the game. Players can't really do much with them except look at them and their bases but, if what I heard from others is true then I am glad that they didn't add Elsaline or Flashrine in the game.

This older game is known as Skashrim: Dayo. Despite being a pre-model for Skashrim, Dayo has a entirely different...well, almost entirely different map, and a entirely different story. There were even new enemies and new weapons. However, there was a couple of downsides to the game, one of them being that it barely gets updated since it is an old pre-model game...and it hasn't gotten a new update in four years.

Also, because this game was a pre-model for Skashrim, there are a lot of unpolished and bugged things that can be found with a bit of digging. That led to the rise of a couple of "scary" stories to spread from this game, all of them jokes and memes now. Well, all of them except one.

One of my friends, Owen, managed to dig up where this scary story came from. Apparently, it came from a sound file. The video file was pretty hard to get to, being protected by a password with its own software to stop people from hacking in. The only way to get the password is to find it in the game itself next to a small town right on the west border of the game.

The video file shows nothing but a fuzzy black area. However, three voices could be heard having a conversation with each other. At first, they sound like they are having a somewhat strange conversation, their voices admittingly a little creepy, the oldest sounding voice 'glitching' out. All of the voices were female and all of different ages.

It wasn't until someone realized that a lot of the things they were talking about were hints to cases to where people went missing...and how they all but admit they were the ones behind it. Going off what the game developer said, the cases they mentioned were suppose to be things inside the game, with some cases in real life used as reference. The mission that was gonna use those lines were scrapped and those files were moved into a secure place in case they were to be used in the future.

However, why were they protected by a password that could be found in the game was never fully answered, ot at least not answered to some players content. So, they made a scary story about it about anyone who views those files were hunted down by those three people. It was called Not Meant To Hear.

Honestly, it wasn't that bad but those kinds of stories were never my taste. Plus, that wasn't the one was really popular and still scary. Someone sent out an image to their friend before they "supposedly" went missing. It was of the game and, in it, they were running from three eerie NPCs that were never seen before. Because of the scale of the game and the coding, it was impossible to mod both Skashrim and Skashrim: Dayo. That meant that these three were actual NPCs in the game.

Owen said that one of them has red and orange eyes, the other one has yellow and red eyes, and the final one has blue and yellow eyes. Above their heads was the sentence, '"I AM GOD"'. Honestly, when I heard of it first I thought it was a ripoff of that sonic.exe thing...

....but the story, while similar in nature, was nothing like it. Apparently, the person who took that story was forced to play a demented game with them and, since they were their favorite toy, that person was given a grizzly death. It sounded fake but there was a pool of blood in the person's room, their game avatar could be viewed all torn up and their eyes soulless, and there was a gravestone that was never there before in the game with their name on it.

The gravestone was removed but the damage had already been done. That scary story took off, with even an official debate on the news a couple of times between whether the three beings are one or separate.

Now, you may be wondering why I am thinking about all that. Well, the answer is because I am at the town currently where the code for that video file is.

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Katie Mango. I am a introvert who can only express myself fully in online games. It's stupid, I know, but it's true. That is why when I was introduced to Skashrim: Dayo by one of my friends, I was instantly hooked. Since it was the first game that allowed me to be me, I fell in love with it. That is why I didn't care about Skashrim when it released, nor did I stop playing Dayo when it stopped getting updates.

Unfortunately, my normal life would come to an end when a large handful of players, including me, got a package from the developer of a much newer version of Skashrim: Dayo that's still the same as the old Dayo but with a new story and a lot of new features. Apparently, the new goal of this story is to get the Elscor Key. I didn't really care if, instead of some major force like a sickness or a rouge element like the last three stories of Skashrim: Dayo.

Now...tell me if you heard this one before...

....everyone who entered got stuck in the game, and the only way to leave the game is to get the Elscor Key. The pain setting was real, and so was everything else. The only relief we got was that we had infinite lives. Still, that doesn't change the fact that, thanks to the developer, I now know what it feels like to be cut to pieces by goblins...

....which they have done...other things as well.

I shuddered before swiping the sweat off my brow. The town was next to a dessert and a hill with a forest on it. Not sure how it works but, since that hill and the forest is out of the border of the game, I guess that is why. Still, the fact that, despite this supposedly being a newer version of Skashrim: Dayo, the map has barely changed, especially with the border still being invisible.

"Hey, Katie," A voice called my name from behind, causing me to stiffen and turn around. Behind me was Bruce, a kind somewhat tallish guy. Apparently, he looks like this in real life to. With a face that handsome, he got a lot of attention. That is why he played Skashrim: Dayo. One is that, since this game allows for more customization than Skashrim, his face wouldn't stand out.

"I know you wanted some fresh air but I don't think a town half in a dessert counts much as fresh air," Bruce said, chuckling and wiping sweat off his brow, "cause boy is it hot here."

"Well, this town doesn't have any monsters that spawn nearby nor are they a part of any nation. It's the perfect place for a short vacation."

"...Wasn't this suppose to be just a short break?" Bruce asked, raising an eyebrow.

"U-um...I mean, it is, isn't it?" I said, laughing nervously and cursing myself for sounding so awkward. Normally, ever since I have been trapped in here I haven't talked much, afraid that my awkwardness from how I am outside the game would show.

It's a stupid reason and being that shy has started to affect my relation with the others. I find myself being more and more of a drag despite being good at the game. That was the reason why I came out here. I just needed a break.

"Hey, I'm just joking with you. We've all had a rough couple of days," Bruce said, patting me on my shoulder. Unlike in real life, I am a little small in this game.

...Okay, who am I joking. I am very small. I'm a couple of inches taller than a child. I didn't realize how small I could make my game character when creating my character. At least my hair style was the same, though now that I thought of it, I probably shouldn't have made my short hair bright pink. Though, when your hair style has pigtails, you just can't make it not colorful.

Even my eyes are bright pink!

'Which makes me stand out in this game now.' I thought bitterly.

Everyone stuck in the game aren't very flashy. Those who are are different from each other. That is why I stand out. No player looks like me here.

"Yeah, I know. It's just-" I began before I felt something. A chill.

I closed my mouth and turned around, my eyes zeroing in on a stone wall. It was a natural stone wall but on it was a bunch of black symbols. It was where the password for the video file was.

I walked to it, Bruce following behind me. When I arrived I ran my hand over the rough stone wall. I had no idea what I was doing but, when a line of the black symbols turned a light blue color and started glowing, I knew I did the right thing.

Only, the sense of dread I got when three words lit up on the wall really told me otherwise. One of them was orange, one was yellow, and the last one was blue.

"Red, Yellow, and Blue."

I spun around, out of my trance and startled by yet another voice. This time it was Austin, a friend of Owen. She studied the game's lore and its not-so-official lore just as much as him.

"W-what?" I asked, not getting it.

"Red, Yellow, and Blue," Austin repeated, pointing at each of the glowing words, "That is what they say."

"What does the big sentence say?" Bruce asked, stepping forward to examine the symbols himself.

"It's just a bunch of random letters and numbers, though this is probably the password for the forbidden video file," Austin said, causing Bruce to turn around, confused.

"The what?" Bruce asked, causing me and Austin to raise an eyebrow.

"We've been together for six months and you haven't heard any of Owen's stories before?" I asked, forgetting my shyness and about the very weird event that was happening on the wall to my left.

"I'll tell you about it later," Austin told him, shaking her head.

"So...why is that happening?" I asked, turning back to the wall.

"Well...I guess the developer of this new version of Dayo put it as an easter egg for both scary stories. After all, Red, Yellow, and Blue are the three names of the entity," Austin guessed.

"I may not know what is going on but, this isn't official lore, right?" Bruce asked.

"No. This was a password for a dark unused video file that was made into two scary stories by the people on the internet," Austin explained.

"Doesn't this guy hate listening to others ideas? He only added two things from the fan base," Bruce pointed out.

That got us to stop and ponder over what he said for a bit.

"Well, considering that this is in the files and is massively popular, he probably did it as an easter egg. He couldn't have made those NPCs since what they do in the story is impossible to code," I explained, proud that I knew quite a bit about coding.

Austin nodded in agreement. Bruce was about to say something else when we all noticed that the glowing symbols started to die away, returning to normal.

"Besides, we can't even access the files of this game. That password isn't useful," Austin said, her eyes still glued to the password despite what she said.

Our attention was shifted away from the symbols when we heard some yelling.

"Come on. Let's go check it out," Bruce said, turning around and running towards the source of the comotion.

I let out a sigh but followed him with Austin right behind me.

....

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....Little did I know that would be one of the worst mistakes of my life.