Chapter One: Silas the Showman

Chapter One: Silas the Showman

My friends and I are definitely going to die here, but I'll die more times than them, I think.

I write this on my cell phone lying on the bottom bunk in a room hardly bigger than a broom closet. No one will ever see what I write, but if you do I hope you will heed my warning: stay away from the town called Carousel.

I see the red wallpaper in my mind all the time now. At first, it was only a flash like the impression burned into your eyes after you stare at a bright light for too long. Now, it’s a low burn—a glowing light in the darkness of my mind. The redness swirls in a vague floral pattern. It’s a mix of grey-red, blood-red, and a shimmering ruby color that highlights the edges of the florals. I’m finally getting used to it.

You need the red wallpaper to play the game at Carousel. Above me, my best friend from back in high school sleeps. I know he’s asleep. The wallpaper tells me. When I look in his direction, a movie poster appears on the red wall in my mind. It is encircled in yellow lights and depicts a young man with dark hair in a sweater—Camden—reading through a stack of books as a hooded figure with an axe looms behind him. The poster is titled “Camden Tran is The Scholar.”

The poster makes it seem like he is an actor in a scary movie, but really this is Carousel’s cheeky way of telling other players his name and character class (called an archetype). Beneath the poster, I can see his stats, statuses, and tropes AKA special abilities. This section looks almost like the buttons inside a fancy old elevator. Instead of room numbers, there are words and lights that activate to tell you important information.

The Game at Carousel uses five stats: Mettle, Moxie, Hustle, Savvy, and Grit. I’ll tell you more about those as I go along.

Camden’s archetype is “The Scholar.” His status is Unscathed and Unconscious. Those are the only statuses with the light next to them lit up. There are no hit points in this game, but instead a range of conditions ranging from Unscathed to Dead. So far, Camden has not died.

Around me, there are about fifty people each in their own beds in their own rooms, but since they are my allies, I can see their archetypes, stats, and the like. Almost all of them are Unscathed and Unconscious. A few remain awake like me.

My other three friends are spread out around the lodge wherever there was a spare bed. They each have movie posters that appear in my head whenever I look in their direction.

A poster depicting a pretty woman running with a flashlight from the hooded axe murderer is titled “Anna Reed is The Final Girl.” Another shows a Basketball player being stalked by the same figure as he jumps for a layup: “Antoine Stone is The Athlete.” A beautiful blonde woman stares terrified in the mirror as an axe cuts into the frame: “Kimberly Madison is The Eye Candy.”

Even I have a poster when I think about myself. A shaggy-haired young man in a red hoody is eating popcorn on a couch while presumably watching a movie. The axe-wielder approaches from behind. “Riley Lawrence is The Film Buff.”

Out of all the archetypes available, I get stuck with a minor archetype that is literally designed to die early in the film. To be fair, I do watch a lot of scary movies.

It’s crazy to think that there are people sleeping in the lodge right now that I saw die earlier today. I’ll probably see them die again.

This trip was supposed to be a chance for me to turn over a new leaf. My first real college trip after three years in university.

The car ride here seemed normal enough at first. I was in the back with the luggage in the tiny extra seat that Antoine’s SUV had. There was no legroom, but I couldn’t complain. I never got invited to things like this. I was happy to tag along. They could have strapped me to the roof for all I cared.

The radio went out about twenty minutes before we got to Carousel. Antoine flicked the scan button on the steering wheel to try to find a station. The radio searched and searched for a broadcast but only found one.

“It’s RUN 41.1 Carousel Public Radio. We’ve had a beautiful day here in Carousel. The city council has begun setting up for the Centennial Celebration so stay away from town square unless you like traffic. Our correspondent, Jeffrey Tethers, is at Lake Dyer with the fishing report, and we have Coach Boom in the studio to talk about Friday night’s game. All after this commerc-“

Antoine clicked the radio off. “I’m going to pass them on the next straightaway,” he said. He had been growing frustrated at the small car in front of us. They were creeping along the road at a measly thirty miles an hour. We had been behind them for twenty minutes but with the winding, heavily forested roads, there was no safe place to get around them.

“Just be patient,” Anna said. “We can’t be too far off.”

As she spoke, a green VW van approached us from behind. It had to slow down considerably upon reaching us. Its horn began honking almost immediately.

“Great, now we have cars behind us,” Antoine said.

Oblivious to the conversation, Kimberly interjected, “I have no signal. Does anyone have a signal?” She raised her phone up toward the sunroof to no avail.

I checked my phone. I had no signal either. Camden had just sent a picture of a sign advertising a bed and breakfast that had the phrase “closed fur renovations.” I chuckled at the typo. Must have lost signal right after that.

It had been a long time since I had been a part of a group chat with Camden. Not since high school.

As we crept around another corner, the VW van gunned its engine and quickly passed by Antoine’s SUV and the little car in front of us. That must have emboldened Antoine because he followed suit and left the slow car in the dust.

Ten minutes later, after zooming around tight forested corners, the small backwoods road gave way to a large parking lot. It was so big I thought we must have been near an airport. There was no airport though. No football stadium either, nothing to justify the huge empty lot.

There were maybe two dozen vehicles scattered about, but they were few and far between.

What’s more, there were no people anywhere. It was completely abandoned. Except for us and the VW van which had been parked in the shade. The driver, a dark-haired woman in her mid-thirties, carried a large, overstuffed backpack along with a sports duffel. She wore a brown leather jacket and distressed blue jeans.

Antoine parked next to her van in the shade. We got out and unloaded. There was only one road leading from the parking lot to Carousel and it had been blocked off. It had those removable metal poles that you might see on a college campus designed to keep cars from driving down the wrong street. They were locked into place with padlocks. The rest of the way, we would have to go on foot.

When we were invited, Antoine’s brother had warned us of this. It was because of the Centennial Celebration. No traffic allowed in. It made enough sense to me. It didn’t matter. We were there to bask in the sun at his brother’s lake house. I didn’t think we would be doing too much in town.

I had the least luggage of anyone in the group; just one duffel. As they were retrieving their things from the car, I went ahead toward the road leading to Carousel. The path was decorated on both sides with advertisements for the Centennial Celebration—apparently, this was a big deal for the town.

The woman in the brown leather jacket had slowed her pace and was taking in her surroundings. We weren’t in town yet. There were no street signs here, no people. Just off the road was a single wooden building that had no signage except for a door that said employees only. It had a covered porch on the front and what looked to be a town map hanging against the side of the building.

I debated whether I should try to speak to the woman. She didn't look like she wanted to talk to me or anyone else. She was all business. The way that she scanned the building led me to believe that she hadn't been here before either.

I turned and waited for my friends to catch up. Antoine and Kimberly quickly joined me but Anna and Camden were lagging behind staring at the cars in the parking lot. I walked down to them to see what they were so interested in.

My silver ticket read:

The Film Buff

Minor Archetype

You are the Film Buff—master of the unwritten rules of horror movies. You’ve seen every slasher, spine-tingler, and creature feature; now we will see if you can survive them in real life! With your help, your allies may stand a chance against the nightmarish beings that lurk in the shadows of the silver screen.

That is, if you can get them to listen to you before it’s too late...

Base Stats

Mettle-For Feats of Strength and Offensive ability

1

Moxie-To make your performance convincing

3

Hustle-To be Quick, Deft, and to always hit your mark

1

Savvy-For Intelligence, Planning, and Deduction

5

Grit-For Durability, Toughness, and Endurance

1

Plot Armor- Mastering all five aspects of Plot Armor will make you a master of horror.

11 (total of all stats)

The green ticket read:

Cinema Seer—Survive

Player Trope

Can be Equipped to the Film Buff

Stat Used: Savvy

The film buff has seen every horror movie and can guess every twist and turn. When the film buff makes a clever prediction, all allies who hear it will obtain a boost in Grit and Savvy if that prediction is proven true.

The blue ticket read:

Trope Master

Player Trope

Can be equipped to the Film Buff

Stat Used: Savvy

The signature ability of the Film Buff is their ability to understand how monsters and slashers operate within a story. With this ticket, the Film Buff will have insight into which tropes enemies have equipped. This trope works best with high Savvy and close proximity to the enemy.

With great power comes great balancing: during storylines where this trope is equipped, the Film Buff's Plot Armor will be reduced by half. Hopefully, that's all that will be cut in half.

Shortly after I read the tickets, my vision became overwhelmed by the blinding red light that I eventually came to know as the red wallpaper.

The curtains were up.

The show was starting.

The Game at Carousel had begun.