Chapter Text
“I don’t want to go to the basement.”
“But you have to, James!” Morowa replied “That’s where you can find one of the keys!”
“There must be something else.”
“Come on, Porter, stop whining and go down already!” Ace tried to cheer.
“Ok, ok, fine, I will. But I’ll just go back to the saving room to make sure the game is saved.”
“But you’ve already been there!” Morowa grumbled.
Someone knocked at the lounge’s door and the three players almost jump at it, because the lights were still out.
“What are you guys doing?” Glaz asked. “You don’t want to party with us? It’s Halloween”
“Yeah, yeah, but we’re taking a break and playing Resident Evil 7.” Ace replied “Do you want to join?”
“It’s a multiplayer thing?” Glaz frowned.
“Nah it’s single-player, and we play in turns.” Ace explained “Now it’s James’s turn with the controller but I think he’s shitting himself.”
“Shut up, you bloody idiot.”
Glaz smiled:
“Well sounds fun, come on Max.”
“Really?” Kapkan sighed, rolling his eyes. “That thing is probably for kids.”
“Well, let’s see for ourselves, right?” Glaz cheered him up.
Glaz took Kapkan’s hand and led him to the second empty couch next to the one with their three teammates.
“And what’s the plot?” Kapkan asked once he was comfortably sitting with Glaz.
Morowa laughed and tried her best:
“You’re a man called Ethan. Your girlfriend, who’s been missing, called you to join a house in a bloody shithole and there’s a creepy family of minglers who wants to zombie you. Now we’re looking for one of the three keys required to get the hell out of here. And one of them is the basement.”
“I so don’t want to go down there…” James grumbled.
“Come on Smokie boy, you’ve gone through worse!” Ace cheered.
“I know, I know, I just… urrrgh.”
James started to walk down the stairs of the house. Immediately, the lighting scenario changed: every color fading and the general lighting getting darker. Way darker. Now the screen was all monochromatic, different shades of dark and greyish hues. Smoke opened the door, which creaked with a metallic noise, and revealed the corridor. There was molded black swarming matter on the walls, and James grumbled:
“Oooh fucking shite.”
“Don’t worry, you still have 12 bullets.” Morowa told him.
James walked a few steps then stopped:
“Did you hear that?!!”
“Yeah, that’s the ambient sounds coming from the nests and the plumbing.”
“No, no, no, there’s something else… “
They held their breaths to try to listen with more attention. But there was nothing else except for the disturbing ambience.
“Come on, Porter” Maxim mocked “You can do it.”
James deeply breathed in and started walking again, looking at every wall for fear something would come out from the nests glued to it. But it seemed fine. At least until he arrived at an intersection. He stopped:
“DID YOU HEAR THAT?!”
“Stop whining!” Morowa sighed “It’s the ambience!”
“No, no, no wait…” Maxim said while leaning forward “He’s right, there’s something else.”
They stopped talking and they heard it.
“These are not my bloody footst-“
And the monster appeared suddenly and was on James in half a second:
“HELVETE!” Ace jumped and fell from the couch.
“YOU BLOODY WANKER!!!” James shouted while firing his handgun and wrecking the monstrosity’s head.
When the molded thing dropped dead in front of them. James was standing with the controller in his hands, Håvard was hugging a pillow and Maxim had unconsciously tightened his hand on Glaz’s knee.
“It’s dead, isn’t it?” James asked.
“Yeah. And you’ve only wasted 9 bullets.” Morowa mocked.
“Are you bloody serious?! I’d like to see you try to aim with this controller and this game’s shitty sensitivity!”
“Just saying, now I know why you prefer to take a shotgun when you’re on scenarios”
They were starting to argue when Ace shouted:
“THERE’S ANOTHER ONE!”
James jumped and sprayed towards the monster like a noob, missing all his remaining bullets.
“WHAT THE FUCK DO I DO NOW?!” he shouted.
“JUST CRAFT SOME MORE BULLETS!” Morowa replied.
“BUT THE WANKER IS FOLLOWING ME!”
“THEN SPRINT FOR FUCK SAKE!” Ace replied.
“GO BACK TO THE STAIRS! GO BACK TO THE STAIRS!”
“CLOSE THE DOOR! CLOSE THE DOOR!”
Then silence. Pure silence. James had rushed back to the saving room at the beginning of the level. He dropped the controller on the couch and stood up:
“I’m too young to have a heart attack, suit yourselves, cuties!”
“You’re not leaving, are you?” Håvard whined.
“No, I’m just taking a break from… the controller.” James said while slumping in a beanbag between the two couches.
Morowa and Håvard looked at the controller. Then at the Russians.
“I’m not taking the controller.” Maxim said.
“You are! We’ve already played our parts.” Håvard replied wile handing him the controller.
“No. Let Timur play.” Maxim said while grabbing the controller and offering it to Timur. “He wants to play, right?”
Timur smirked:
“Nah you know I get those motion sickness things when playing. Go on, babe, you’re good.”
Maxim glared at him, both to say:
You were supposed to help me on this!
How dare you call me ‘babe’ in front of the others.
Glaz dismissively patted Kapkan’s back.
“Urgh, ok.” Maxim surrendered “What are the controls? Like, how do I shoot?”
“First you need to craft bullets. Here, press this button you’ll get the help and controls menu.”
Maxim quickly read it and understood. It wasn’t a complicated game, fortunately. He crafted more ammo, and headed for the same stairs James had walked down earlier. He opened the door back to the creepy basement covered in dark swarming matter, but Glaz stopped him, putting his hand on his arm:
“Something changed.” He said, squinting.
“What? No, it’s the same path we took” Morowa replied.
“Something changed, I’m sure of it.”
“I believe him!” James added “It’s his spidersense of details.”
“Ok but what changed?!” Morowa whined.
“I don’t know.” Glaz sighed taking his hand off. “Just… continue, Max.”
Maxim swallowed his saliva and continued till he reached the intersection. But then a sudden noise came from behind him:
“FY FAEN, THEY RESPAWNED!” Ace yelled.
Maxim immediately tried to shoot at the thing, but because he wasn’t used to the sensitivity he missed most of his shots, earning cries from the rest of his teammates, and when he finally downed the creature, he sighed:
“Well that was intense.”
“Fuck, I didn’t know they could respawn. That’s not good…” James murmured.
“Don’t worry, he as more ammo now.” Morowa tried to remain positive.
Maxim continued to progress through the basement, finding some other creatures on his path but quite predictable, meaning no jumpscares. He finally reached a small room that looked like a weird morgue.
“Who has a morgue in their house?! Like… for real!” James exclaimed.
“They said there was a key in one of the fridges, right?” Maxim asked.
“No-no-no-no” Ace immediately replied “They said there was something. You don’t have to open any of them, ok?”
“The message said 3 A and a red handprint. So, I guess you have to open the door with “Amara” on it, then the one with the red handprint?” Timur said.
“Hm… ok.” Maxim approved.
Smoke was biting his nails while Morowa was leaning forward, her eyes glued to the screen and Ace was… still hugging his pillow.
“There we go… 3A… Red handprint.” Maxim murmured.
The sealed fridge door opened.
“Don’t pull the door. Don’t pull the door. Don’t pull the door.” James repeated.
And of course, Maxim went for it. He opened the door and immediately yelled:
“CYKA!”
A monster jumped on him. It was bigger, uglier, sturdier than the others. He sprayed his bullets on the creature and when it fell to the floor he fired one last shot to its head to make sure it was dead.
“I hate this game.” James murmured.
The door to the lounge opened suddenly and they all jumped at it:
“Helevete!” Håvard swore.
“What are you guys doing?” Jordan asked.
“Ooooh sweetie pie, you’re God sent. I require hugs.” Håvard said while running to Jordan and hugging him tightly, lifting him off the ground.
“What have you done to him?” Jordan asked.
“We’re playing Resident Evil 7.” James answered. “Come play with us, I’m sure Håvard will enjoy the human pillow.”
“You don’t want to play this game, sweetie pie” Ace told him.
Jordan smirked:
“Hell yeah, I love those games!”