I started in an empty property. I say started because there is nothing before that. No being born, no growing up, no coming to this property. I just was, and I was on this property.
Somehow I knew many things. I already knew my life's ambition was to be an author. I could feel the desire to get straight onto a computer and start typing my first novel. I felt a little hungry, a little tired, and knew in a few hours I would want a shower. But first I needed a house.
A house appeared in front of me. It made little sense that it did, but at least I could start writing my book. I also noticed that my bank account had grown in wealth. Well that was excellent. I had $1,000,043 more then I did 3 seconds ago.
"Should we go inside?" I heard a voice ask. It seemed familiar even though I had never heard it before now.
"Well apparently I'm going to go and watch tv," another voice chimed in.
Somehow I knew this person was Ginny and that she was my friend even though I had never met her before today. Of course I hadn't. I hadn't existed before today.
She stomped up the stairs and into the house followed by my other best friends Parvati and Lavender .
I stood and looked up at the house admiring how large it was and how many dollars I knew it was worth. It was very unusual though, with mismatched windows and different coloured panels. Every floor was made out of different materials. I liked it though. It was home.
Five cars appeared parked in the driveway. All of this continued to make little sense to me, these suddenly appearing things. But something inside me overruled all of these feelings and drove me to go inside and start typing my first novel.
Someone then stepped in front of me however, and proceeded caress my arm.
"Did you just caress my arm?" I said looking up and seeing Ron, my boyfriend and the owner of the first voice.
"Apparently it's what I do now," he shrugged.
"There are a lot of 'apparently's and 'suddenly's going on at the moment, did you notice?" I asked while peering through a window. Parvati had started a painting on an art easel that appeared out of no where.
"Yeah there's not a whole lot making sense here, but I'm not going to worry about it too much. I've decided I'm going to practise chess," he smiled and then walked inside.
I followed him in slowly, taking in the plush carpet, the vases of flowers, the paintings on the walls. It made me happy to live somewhere so well decorated and full of new things. I paused to admire a particularly attractive portrait of a lady.
"Guess what?" Lavender asked excitedly rushing up to me. "I just got a job at the hospital. I'm going to work my way up to level ten!"
"What's level ten?" I asked curiously.
"I have no idea," she grinned. "I'm going to be the best in the medical profession though! I have to go to my first shift now. Seeya!"
I waved to her as she ran out of the door. Following the hallway, I went into the study to finally start my book.
A few hours later, my stomach rumbling, I decided to order some pizza. Following my instinct in the direction of the lounge, I ran into a very upset looking Ginny. She was stomping and swearing at the smoking flat screen television. There was a giant pool of water on the floor too, leaking from the direction of the bathroom.
"What did you do to it?" I teased her.
"Nothing! This piece of junk just suddenly stopped working. Didn't we only buy it today? What the hell?"
"You could always try and repair it?" I suggested.
"Yeah I think I'll do that. Man I'm hungry though."
"I too, and as I have no idea how to cook, I was about to order some pizza. Want some?"
"That would be fantastic. You do that while I try and get this smoking pile of crap working again," she muttered, pulling out some tools.
I smiled and went to find Ron in our bedroom.
"How's the chess going?" I asked seeing him bent over the board, concentrating very hard.
"Good, good," he mumbled. "I'm sure my logic has already increased by two levels."
There it was again - levels. Was it possible to increase skills by levels? I supposed it was, but what dictated how much skill was one level?
"I was going to get some pizza... Would you like some?"
He paused mid move. "Actually yes. I'm really, really hungry."
I laughed and pulled at his arm. "Come take a break with me. You can continue increasing your 'logic' later on."
A piercing scream rang out through the house.
"I think that was Parvati!" I said, the colour draining from my face.
We ran as fast as we could to where she was in the lounge, standing over the body of Ginny.
"I don't know what happened!" she sobbed. "I was just painting when I heard a bang. I came out to see what it was and she was lying here on the ground. I think she was electrocuted. Is she dead?"
I bent down to feel her pulse.
"Yes, she is dead," I looked up, horrified.
"This is a terrible accident," Ron said coming to put his arms around me.
"I was the one that suggested she try and fix it herself. What was I thinking?"
My friend was dead. My friend was dead! I pushed out of Ron's arms and ran to my room, slamming the door shut behind me. I fell to the floor and starting sobbing. It hadn't even been a day into my life yet and this existence was already unbearable.
The next few days passed in a blur. I kept holed up in my mind and avoided as much interaction with the others as possible. A small part of me still noticed how unusual everyone was acting though. They pursued 'leveling' their various skills so persistently that they neglected other important parts of their lives. Lavender was barely home. I walked past Ron reading a book on logic and he smelled like he had urinated himself and not showered for days.
The entire house was filled with paintings Parvati had done. I strolled down our various hall ways and admired how much her skill had improved. But she was losing weight dramatically.
"Have you eaten at all lately?" I ventured to ask her one day.
She put down her brush and looked at me.
"I'm so hungry," she admitted. "But every time I go to try and get some food, something stops me mid-step and I am drawn back to continue this painting."
"That's not very good Parvati," I said staring at her increasingly smaller figure. "You should really eat something."
"You don't understand. I try to! But something... something stops me."
"What stops you?" I said taking a step closer. "What stops you from eating Parvati?"
"I don't know," she whispered. "I think it might be a who. Ahhhhh," she moaned. "I need food!"
She bolted towards the kitchen but the door was no longer there.
"It just disappeared," I stared at the blank space on the wall.
"Hermione! What do I do?" Parvati moaned clutching her stomach.
"Go out the front door and in through the ranch sliders..." I started to say, my expression changing to horror as one by one the windows and doors all disappeared. I clutched Parvati as she continued to hold her stomach. There was no way to get out of the room.
We fell to the floor and she started to sob and shake.
"I'm going to die Hermione."
"No you're not!" I argued. "I won't let you. You can't die Parvati. You can't die..." I started to cry too.
Slowly her body's shaking started to subside until eventually it stopped. I looked down and I knew she was dead. I couldn't cry anymore. I was too numb. This wasn't an accident. But how had it happened? Parvati and said "Who." She had made it sound like someone not something was stopping her from eating. Normally I'd just assume she was going crazy from hunger. Not that things like this happened normally. But too many other things were out of place. Doors magically disappearing made about as much sense as as the fact that they were suddenly there again now as I looked around. And this was the second death...I had to find Ron.
"Ron!" I yelled out racing around the house looking for him. "Ron! Ron I need you!"
"I'm out here," I heard a faint voice call.
I followed his voice to outside where the swimming pool should have been. Instead I saw a giant wall. I ran around it trying to find where it broke, but it completely surrounded the whole pool.
"What is this?" I called to him loudly.
"Hermione I don't know! I was swimming the the wall suddenly appeared. I can't get out. All the ladders disappeared and there is no ledge to climb up on..." his voice drowned out as he started gurgling water.
"Ron!" I yelled.
"I'm so tired," he coughed. "I can't tread water any longer".
"You have to hold on Ron," I started desperately trying to climb the wall. There were no foot holds. There was no way to get over. I crashed my fists against it. "You have to hold on!" I screamed.
"Don't let it win," I heard him whisper. "Find Lavender ."
"Ron! Ron?" I broke down against the wall, crying and sobbing. I heard him take his last few struggled breaths before silence.
Find Lavender he had send. Don't let it win. Who was 'it'? I took out my cellphone and dialed Lavender 's number. No reply. Now that I thought about it, I hadn't seen her for days. I had assumed that she was just busy in her new job... but now I reconsidered.
If something or someone was out to get us, who's to say that she hadn't been killed too? And wouldn't that make me next?
I jumped up and sprinted around the edge of the house towards the cars. Thankfully they were all the fastest sports cars money could buy. I picked the closest one and within minutes I was at the hospital. I rushed up to the reception.
"Is Lavender here?" I gasped, out of breath.
The bored receptionist flipped her magazine page over. "She's on floor 3 in the children's ward," she mumbled.
She was still alive then!
I bolted to the elevators, spamming the button, alarming an elderly couple also waiting. Too slow! I wrenched open the door to the stairs and sprinted up them to the third floor.
"Lavender ? Lavender !" I called, running down the corridors.
A hand reached and yanked me into a small office. I stumbled and whirled around to see who had grabbed me. It was Lavender . She looked tired and wild eyed.
"I know why you're here," she whispered. "I've been working as many shifts as possible to avoid it. It has less control of us in our work places."
"What is it?" I asked desperately.
"No one knows," she replied, her eyes flicking around the room. "But I have a plan. This building has been here longer then any other. There has been a lot of deaths in this hospital. I've explored it top to bottom. And I ran into this ghost who told me..."
"A ghost." I interrupted. "Are you being serious?" I asked in a tone expressing just how unbelievable she was clearly sounding.
"Just listen to me!" she said grabbing my shirt. "This ghost knows a lot about what's going on, but he doesn't come here during the day. You have to go up to the grave yard. Talk to him Hermione! He can help. In the mean time I will go home and do what I can to distract it."
"But Lavender ... you might die." Not to mention this whole thing sounded completely crazy.
"Be fast." She pushed past me out of the door. I followed quickly but she had disappeared. There was no helping it then.
I ran. Down the stairs, out of the hospital I ran. I could see the grave yard up on the hill at the back of our town. The car got me there in four minutes.
I wandered up and down the rows of graves. "Here ghosty, ghosty, ghosty," I called feeling rather foolish. The place was completely abandoned apart from myself and a couple of chirping birds. I walked a bit further, down toward the newer graves. There were 3 very fresh ones.
Ginny.
Parvati.
Ron.
My knees wobbled. I struggled not to let the lose of their lives effect the mission I was on. For the sake of Lavender 's life, and the sake of mine, I couldn't let the emotions rule me yet.
A faint glow started to appear a top of their graves but it was hard to make out because of the sunlight.
"I must be going bonkers," I said out loud.
"You're not."
I jumped and tripped backwards landing flat on the ground. Before me were the ghosts of Ginny, Parvati and Ron. Ginny's was yellow with what looked like electrical currents running through it. Parvati was pink and she was very thin. Ron's was blue and seemed to have the texture of water.
"You're not crazy," Ginny repeated. "Ghosts are real. We are real. And we have someone for you to meet."
The drifted away, giving me no choice but to scramble to my feet and follow. They lead me to the very back of the property where a hanging willow overshadowed a crumbling old gravestone.
"This is the oldest grave here," Ron said to me. "Are you there Ol' Harry?" he called.
A white, sparkly ghost rose out of the grave. It was a ghost of an extremely old man, who seemed to have a permanent scowl etched on his face.
"You must be Hermione," he said. "Lavender said you might be coming."
"I have a lot of questions I need answers to fast," I started.
"We all do," he grumped. "But I can tell you only this. In the town library, in the back room, on the furthest bookcase is a trick book. It is on the second shelf from the top, and it is the third book from the left. Are you listening girl? Pull it, and it will reveal a secret staircase that leads down into another room. In this room is another book. It is this book that will hold your answers."
With that he disappeared.
"Great," I said sarcastically.
"Go fast Hermione," Parvati breathed. "Lavender 's life is in danger."
One by one the ghosts of my friends faded away.
Library. Right.
I ran again, drove again, was there in minutes again. Quickly I found the trick book Harry had spoken about, and after checking to see no one was around, I pulled it and slipped down the stairs. The room I entered was arranged like a shrine, and placed in the most prominent position was the book Harry must have meant. I crossed the room and lifted it up to see.
"Sims 3 Game Manual," I read aloud.
I didn't understand.
I flicked through the pages. It seemed to be some kind of book about a game. It explained how to create characters, choose personalities and life goals. Some of the options were author, artist, highest level of logic...
There were also pages of cheat codes. "Type ctrl+shift+c and then 'motherlode'. This will give you $50,000," I read. It had pages on 'build mode' and 'shop mode' displaying how to buy items and builds houses. Houses like our house...
What did this mean?
A piece of paper fell to the floor. I picked it up.
"If anyone should ever find this book then you are close to discovering the secret. Follow this map into the old Gothic House. In the basement will be a computer. Type the cheat code "talktome" and it will allow you to find the answers you need."
Below the writing was a map of the town. I didn't need it though. The Gothic House was next to the graveyard.
When I got to the house no one seemed to be home. The doors were unlocked though and the basement fairly easy to find. There in the middle of the room was the computer, just as the paper had said. The room was completely abandoned of anything but this one computer and the chair in front of it. I sat down and lightly brushed the dusty keyboard with my fingers.
"T-a-l-k-t-o-m-e," I finally typed.
The screen flashed in front of me.
"Hello," it said. "I didn't know sims could do this. Is this part of the game?"
"What game?" I typed back, things horrifyingly starting to click in my head.
"This game. The game you are in. You are the game."
"WHO ARE YOU?" I typed frantically.
"I am you. Or rather, you are me."
I'm killing us?
"You are the game version of myself." The words kept saying. "I made you and the others in this game - Sims. I get to control you. It's pretty fun. Lavender was almost a level ten doctor before I made her have continuous birthdays and die of old age."
I pushed backwards, the chair falling over behind me.
"You killed her?" I whispered allowed.
"Well of course," the screen replied. The 'real' me could hear me it seemed. "It's part of the game if you want it to be."
"HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO US?" I sceamed. "You made us! You controlled us! And then you killed us? WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM US?"
"Well," the screen typed back. "I was hoping to get a complete collection of ghosts. Pink - Parvati, starvation. Yellow - Ginny, electrocution. Blue - Ron, drowning. White - Lavender , old age. There is just one left."
"You can't do this to us," I said panicking. "You can't do this to me!"
"Yes I can, I already did. This isn't real. It's just a game :) Look around Hermione."
The door was gone. There was no exit. My phone! I could call the police.
"Gone too," the screen beeped at me. "The last ghost for my collection is the red one. Do you how to get the red ghost Hermione?"
I ran around the room trying to find an exit. "HELP ME!" I cried out as loudly as I could. "Help... someone... please..." the tears ran down my face as I turned slowly back to the screen.
"The red ghost comes from dying in a fire. Good bye Hermione."
The room burst into flames.