The rules he stated seemed simple, but understanding them was anything but.

1: Survive 7 days while completing tasks, including not getting erased by something he referred to as noise.

Erasure sounded particularly nasty. It wasn't dying. The man explained that Rita couldn't die, because she was already dead. Instead, she would cease to exist. She would get to feel herself be pulled apart. Pieces of her consciousness being stretched and pulled until eventually it evaporated. She would evaporate. The thought almost made Rita want to decline to enter, but she had a drive to live. She wanted to return to her home in the States. She wanted to see her family again. She didn't want to be dead.

2: Find a partner, and make a pact.

The man explained that, in the UG, Rita would be less than material. He referred to it as a state of imagination, whatever that meant. She would need to find someone tether to. In a pact, their combined consciousness would be dense enough to survive the UG's wavelength. Not that any of that made much sense to her, but the rule was simple. Find someone, offer a pact, and stick with them until the end.

3: Protect yourself using psyches.

Fighting using pins sounded ridiculous, but the man proved how lethal they could be. After clipping a pin featuring a flame design onto his jacket, he held his hand out, and to Rita's amazement, fire began to lick in between his fingers. He unclipped the pin, and handed it to her. She attempted to make the pin work, but when she clipped it onto her camisole and held out her hand, nothing happened. The man then explained that psyches work differently for different people, and with that, he pointed to Rita's feet. Her sandals, and the area around her feet were smoldering, threatening to burst into flames. Upon seeing this she gasped, and with that gasp, the area around her began to blaze in earnest. She swelled with emotions, and a sense that this simply couldn't be real. The man had to clear his throat to get her to bring things back into focus. When he held his hand out she reluctantly returned the pin. He promised that she would have pins to protect herself, and that the UG was littered with pins, waiting to be used by players. She wasn't sure she would get used to it, but the threat of being erased loomed over her head, and she refused to be erased without a fight.

4: To enter the Reaper's Game, you will need to pay an entry fee.

The most menacing sounding part of the whole affair. The man seemed almost gleeful as he explained that the fee would be something of true value. "The single thing that you care most about." That frightened her. He could take anything. What if it was her sight? What if he made her blind? How could she win if he took that? Without the ability to see, she might spend her last few moments fumbling around in blank nothingness. What if he took her emotions? He could make her feel empty inside, and she wouldn't even be able to be upset about it. Would she be able to win if she couldn't find the determination to survive? Regardless, if she wanted to live again, then she would need to win, and she would suffer any loss in that pursuit.

At the end of the rules he had asked her if there were any questions. She could only find one.

"Who are you?"

"I am the Conductor. I am in charge of this game."

"Do you meet with everyone who enters this game?" His annoying grin returned, and it made Rita's stomach flip.

"You are a special occasion. I've seen the whole of your life, and I am intrigued to see how this game goes for you. Rita Jonas, I wish you the best of luck, because if I'm correct, then your game will be harder than the average. I wanted to meet you personally. If there is nothing else, I need to ask you, formally. Do you wish to take part in the Reaper's Game?"

There were nerves inside her, and understandable doubt, but she didn't hesitate to nod, and with that nod, everything went black.

Rita dug her hands into the sidewalk, as she tried to drowsily prized herself up. Her eyes lazily flicked open. She hadn't remembered going to sleep. She began to appraise her situation. She was in a crowded intersection, bustling with people. She believed it was called the Scramble. Mid-day or so. The sun was on it's descent through dark clouds, but there were still plenty of hours left in the day. The rain was really coming down, but something was missing. Her hair wiped in front of her, and that was when she realized it. She was soaked, but she didn't feel wet. She held her hand out into the rain, and watched the rain pound onto her hand. Nothing. No sensation. She couldn't feel anything at all. She could see people holding their coats as the wind tried to rip them away. She couldn't feel the wind. No pressing sensation. It didn't take her long to realize what her entry fee was. She had lost her sense of touch. It was gone, and she would need to find a way to cope without it.

She knew that she would miss her sense of touch, but was that really what was most precious to her? She wasn't quite sure. As she looked at her hand, she noticed something peculiar. On her right hand, she had a glowing scar. The scar was in a crisp and bold print, and it very clearly said, "58:12". Where had it come from, and- but before she could even finish the thought, it changed. It ticked down to "58:11". It was a timer, and it continued to count down. Seconds ticking away, into her hand. She placed her finger into the scar, and felt nothing. When the time ticked, her finger was forced out of the changing flesh.

This timer business was weird, but she could only assume that it was how long she had to accomplish her first task. Which was another thing. Shades hadn't been clear on how she would find out about her mission. He had explained so many things, and yet, so many things were left nebulous. She looked around the Scramble. The rain was coming down in earnest, but people were still sloshing through the intersection. A man passed right by Rita, and it looked as though he knew to avoid her, but he never looked directly at her. A woman with a stroller did the same, and she knew it was just as Shades had said. These people were alive. She could see them from the UG, but they were unable to see her. She was a ghost.

She looked down at her hand again. The timer read "53:24" The time was flying away. She recalled the rules. Make a pact. Maybe then she would find out what her mission was, and she could get through the first day, but how was she supposed to know who to make a pact with? She couldn't tell who was alive and who was a part of the game, dead, like her. She was deep in thought when, with no warning, she was forced to the ground.