It all started out as a game.
It was scary but only a game about puzzles.
Eerie, eerie, puzzles.
...
A warm August day was when it all started.
Ana was your average 15-year-old. She went to school, lived with her family, and loved video games. Her favourite games were usually about running around and getting achivements. She also had a friend she always played the with, her navigator, Raivis. Raivis was also 15 and he lived right next door to her. They attended the same school.
Ana got a new game from their local video game store. The man looked like he was weary of giving her the game and he said something about 'puzzles' as she paid for it. The second she went home, she called Raivis to come over and play the new game with her.
"Come over, I got this awesome new game to play!" She said and soon heard the knock on her front door. Raivis had the phone up to his ear and he was smiling.
"Well, bye." Ana said and pressed the red button on her phone. Raivis did the same and stepped into her home. They went straight to her game room in the attic and put in the game. It started up and the main menu popped up.
Hall of Puzzles: Fear.
It looked terrifying for Raivis but Ana seemed content about the game. They had their chips and drinks next to them as they sat on the couch and pressed play. The songs that played in the background were making both of them on edge. The first game was easy since the puzzle was only a few pieces. It showed a picture of a scary animal, not so scary for Ana though. The game got tougher and tougher as it went on and finally, at the 47th level, a button popped up.
Live
"We need help now, let's go live and get some." She said and clicked on the button. The loading screen only had the word 'loading' and a spinning wheel in the middle. The two stared at it and then stared at each other.
"Let's see how long we can stare at the spinny thing." Ana said and stared at the screen. Raivis stared at it also and the screen began to pulse.
"This is freaky..." Ana said and continued to stare.
...
They woke up in a hall. It was dark and omnious.
Raivis wasn't moving.
"Rai?" Ana asked and shook him a little. When she didn't get a response, she flipped him over to see his face. She saw a horrific sight. There were pieces of his skin cut away in the shape of puzzle pieces all along his face, neck, and chest. She gasped and her body began to shake in fear. A note, one corner dipped in his blood, lay not too far away from her. Ana leaned over and picked it up carefully, not wanting to touch the blood. It had a doctor's writing, all messy and illegeble.
"S... Sol... Solve! Okay... Solve... Youl? Solve your!.. Fresc? Friend? Friend! Solve your friend!" She thought out loud. Her eyes were wide as she saw the dark hall stretch in front of her. It was dark, run-down, and just plain creepy. Doors lined the hall and the first one was the closest one. It was a dark maroon colour and it had a dull silver knob. Ana got up and twisted the old doorknob and pushed the door open. It was a room full of tiles. Blood red ones, green one, and dull blue ones. There was a... Thing on the floor, it looked like it was a puzzle jig.
Finish it in time.
The words were written in blood on the walls and there was also a timer set to...
3 minutes?!
This wasn't enough time for Ana to process and put the puzzles together. She ran from one end of the room to the other to get the correct colours in the correct order that they were supposed to be in. She dropped each tile and put them in place with her foot.
1:45.
Time was ticking and Ana still had no idea of what this was supposed to look like. She dropped another tile and looked at it, the colours made something but they were too similar.
0:53.
She had finished nearly half of the colours and she noticed that this was the RGB colour wheel. She placed them in their places and ran to get other tiles.
0:01...
0:00.
Time's Up.
The words flashed in red and Ana dropped the tile in her hand. The puzzle wasn't finished and she knew she couldn't get past the level. The timer changed to a security camera screen. It showed Raivis laying on the ground. 6 puzzle pieces were on the screen, one more was added by cutting his skin once more. Ana felt guilty as she watched her friend get mutilated by a person in white. It was terrifying to see someone cut up your friend, he could also be after you too! The thoughts hit Ana like a ton of bricks.
Someone was after her.
She opened the door and exited the room. That man was here just seconds ago but now he was nowhere to be found. This scared Ana so much that she shivered just at the thought of it.
She opened another maroon coloured door. It was also dull-coloured and old. The puzzle inside was similar to the one before, except for the colours. They didn't fade into other colours, they had solid colours to make a picture. Ana grabbed a tile and headed to the jig. She placed the tile on the ground and put the others next to it. She used another tactic of getting the same colour tiles and fitting them together before getting another bunch. She got half of it done in just under a minute since the tiles were big and she got the hang of the process. She finished the puzzle with 14 seconds to spare and the timer finally flashed those dreaded words.
Time's Up.
Ana stepped back and looked at the screen. The man returned with a needle and some thread. He stitched back one of the pieces and left.
Ana shakingly opened the door and ran to Raivis. The piece that was stitched back on was right on his chest. Ana smiled at the sight of her friend getting better. She went off to another room and continued her puzzles. This one was another colour wheel one, so was the next one, and the next one. Ana got them all perfect and there was only 2 more pieces left of Raivis to stitch back on. She headed to the red doors, they were probably the same thing also.
Wrong.
They were much more different. A dead fish lay on a table with a white light brightly illuminating it's insides. Ana tilted her head and looked at the animals organs that lay on the out of the fish. She noticed the timer was counting her time and she glanced at the fish.
"You want me to put the fish back together?" She asked to no one. Her hands got to work and she started by putting the eggs back where they were supposed to be. She tried to match everything on the table and then she put them into the fish but she knew nothing about fish anatomy. Nothing matched, everything was too slimy to even stay together. Ana glanced at the timer and noticed she had only a few seconds left.
"I'm sorry, Raivis." She said and watched the man come and rip off one of the 'puzzle pieces' from Raivis's skin. She held back her tears and left the room.
She headed to the door at the end of the hall. It had 2 stars on it to indicate if she won the game, she would put two pieces of skin back onto Raivis. She opened it and saw a fish tank. There was a piece of paper taped onto it.
The pieces are inside the pirhanas.
Ana glanced at the 5 fishes in the tank. They were pirhanas and there was a slab of meat just above the tank with some rope. Ana climbed up to the meat slab and looked down into the tank. She cut off a piece of meat with the knife lodged into the slab and threw it to the pirhanas. They ate it in a flash and then continued like they hadn't formed a mob and eaten a piece of meat just a second earlier. Ana wedged a piece of meat into the rope and tried to 'fish' the pirhanas to get the puzzle pieces out of them. It was easy to fish the first 4 fishes but the last one wouldn't come. It knew that it's 'friends' had been surfaced and it didn't want to be. Ana cut a particularily large piece of meat and dangled it down for the fish to catch. It jumped onto the rope and bit off the meat and jumped back down into the water.
"You guys are smart." Ana said and cut another piece of the meat.
"Not as much as I am though." She smirked at her comment and dangled the meat over the water. As soon as the pirhana latched onto the meat, Ana swung the rope over the water and threw it onto the floor below her.
She had a minute left now.
She attacked the fishes with the knife and cut the open one by one, even the one that tried to out-wit her. The pieces were a part of a picture. Ana put them together to see the picture of Raivis and her together out in the fields. She looked up to the screen to see the remaining pieces of Raivis's skin being attached back to him. She smiled and ran out the door right after the man in white disappeared. She looked over his wounds and stitches, she noticed some tears on his cheeks. Ana wiped them away and kissed his pale cheeks.
"I love you." She whispered to herself and felt sleep begin to course through her veins. She lay her head onto his chest to listen to his heart beat calmly.
...
"Raivis?" Ana asked and got up from his chest. Raivis slowly opened his eyes and looked around. They were in the attic again. He rubbed his violet eyes and glaced at Ana.
"What happened?"
"You're not going to believe me..." Ana began and told Raivis about the horrific experience.
"I-I had my skin-"
"Cut up in puzzle pieces!" Ana said and grabbed his wrist.
"There was one on your arm." She said and took off his sweater and anything long-sleeved. She looked down his arm and showed him the scars.
"See?"
"H-How did those happen?"
"I told you, your skin was cut in pieces and then I had to solve puzzles to put them back!" Ana explained with energy.
"Thank goodness you're okay." She said and hugged him, tears almost started to flow from her eyes. Raivis hugged her back and then looked at her for a second.
"I heard something along the lines of 'I love you'. What was that all about?" He asked and Ana looked away.
"Um..."
"Did you tell me you loved me?" He asked with a small smirk and nudged her nose with his. Ana nodded as she rubbed her hands together furiously in embarrassment. He kissed her on the lips quickly and smiled at her.
"I love you too." He said and Ana's face turned red. They hugged again and Ana took out the game from the console. Raivis shouted to her.
"Look! The scars are going away!" He said and the scars began to disappear on his arm and bare legs.
"Great!" Ana said and put the disc back into it's case.
"I'm going to go and return this, want to come with me?"
"Yeah!" Raivis said and they headed downstairs and out the door. Raivis noticed Ana hadn't taken a jacket so he offered her his, she was shy to take it at first but she warmed up to the idea later on.
They returned the game and got their refund of 14 dollars. Raivis picked out a war-strategy game and they went back to her house to play it.
