Chapter 1

I got pulled into a horror game. While the other players panicked and tore their brains apart looking for a way to survive, I sat there enjoying a hot breakfast.

The Boss turned up out of nowhere with a face like a storm and cold coming off him, like something that had climbed out of hell to collect a soul.

Everyone was so scared that they didn't dare make a sound.

I looked at the Boss, whose eyes were full of murder, and the word came out of my mouth on reflex. "Boo." I caught it half a second too late. "I mean, Boss."

Damn it.

I was too used to calling him that.

*****

[Welcome to the Haven Manor Scenario.]

[Scenario objective: survive seven days.]

[Players currently alive: 11.]

[We wish you a pleasant game.]

The cold mechanical voice cut off, and the crowd started to churn.

"Who the hell are you people? Which one of you dragged me to this dump?"

A middle-aged man with a knife scar down one cheek spat on the floor and swore in a rough, gravelly voice.

"I'm scared. I want to go home," a girl whimpered, and her voice shook with tears.

A woman in a business suit and glasses stepped forward, calm and steady. "My name is Grace Carter. Grace is fine."

Grace swept her eyes over the crowd and kept her voice level.

"We're inside an endless horror game. The only way any of us gets back alive is to finish the Scenario objective. I'm a veteran player. Is there anyone else here who has done this before?"

"Me." A man in a suit raised his hand. "Ben Foster, regular office job. This is my third Scenario."

Two more people stepped up and introduced themselves.

There were eleven of us in this Scenario, four veterans and seven newcomers.

Grace frowned, and something uneasy crossed her face. "Eleven people in a Scenario. That is not how this usually works."

Scarface sneered, and his whole face was contempt. "What is wrong with all of you? I don't care who is a veteran and who is new. I'm telling you right now, get me out of here.

"I move a million dollars a minute. Do you understand me?"

When nobody answered, Scarface kept swearing and got louder about it.

Ryan Pierce, a young guy with bleached blond hair, clicked his tongue in annoyance, went straight at Scarface, and knocked him flat. "Clean up your mouth or you'll be the first one dead."

Scarface got up holding his gut, his face already coloring, and he finally went quiet.

Once the crowd had settled, Grace told everybody to head into the manor together.

The outside of the manor was falling apart. Vines had swallowed the walls. The windows were a wet red that looked as if they were still running, and the whole building gave off a strange, shifting glow.

Inside was the opposite. The first-floor hall was bright, enormous, and dripping with gold.

"Welcome to Haven Manor, honored guests. My name is Silas Crane, and I keep this house," he said. He stood in the middle of the hall in a pressed uniform with his hands at his sides.

"The master and the mistress of the house, Mr. and Mrs Blackwood, are resting on the third floor."

Silas ran his eyes over the crowd, caught on something for half a second, and smoothed his face out again. "I would ask that none of you go up to the third floor and disturb them."

"Is this one of those prank shows?" a programmer in a plaid shirt asked, barely loud enough to hear.

Scarface went off. "Like hell. I am not sticking around for this."

Somebody tried to grab him, but he was fast. He walked straight up to Silas, took him by the collar, and shouted, "Get your boss down here. I am done with this place. Send me back, now."

Silas smiled, and there was nothing warm in it. "Tonight, I will see you out myself.

"There will be no dinner. Nothing was brought in for it. I hope you will forgive me.

"It is late. Five guest rooms on the second floor are made up, two to a room. Sort it out among yourselves."

Silas bowed and turned to go.

"Excuse me. There are eleven of us, so two to a room leaves someone out," Grace said politely, with a small bow of her own.

"You will have to work that out. Perhaps by tomorrow there will be enough," Silas replied.

With that, he walked off without looking back.

I ended up sharing a room with Lily Nolan, the college girl.

"What the hell? Where am I supposed to sleep?" Scarface barked.

Everyone had watched what he did to Silas, so they all paired off fast, and Scarface was the one left over.

It didn't take much to guess he would not survive the night, and nobody wanted to be in the room when it happened.

I had no interest in watching the fight over rooms, so I took Lily and got clear of it.

We went up to the second floor. The light was dimmer than the hall, and there was nothing up there but a long corridor and a row of closed doors.

"Can we take one in the middle? Both ends feel unsafe. I'm scared," Lily said, tucking herself behind me and shaking.

I looked her over with some interest, then started toward Room 203. "Come on."