Sex, Marry, Kill

by Travis, Todd

“I have no idea. But that’s how it began, I was told.”

  “How’d you find all this out?”

  “The boy who drafted me into this game, his name was Toby, he told me what little he knew about it, he was part of some online community that mentioned it, it was supposed to be an urban legend, a myth. But it was real, so very real. There were four others in my circle, of course, but they were from another school in another town twenty miles away. They’d seen me at a football game, needed a fifth and recruited me. I was thrilled, at first, to have friends. I didn’t have friends. It was … for a short while, the happiest period of my life. Then the game took us over.”

  “Wait, I’ve never understood this, you call it a game,” Valerie said, “but what are we playing? We don’t PLAY anything. We get this power, but where’s the game?”

  “Ah, that’s the brilliance in it,” Herman said. “The original five, the kids who created it, they played this foolish thing they invented, which they called a game, by simply pointing at pictures in their school yearbook and saying, Sex, Marry, Kill to each student they saw… just the usual childishness. And then they built something online that they could do the same in private with each other on their computers. But they thought, when casting the spell that called up the demon, that it would be cool to have that power for real. That’s what they sought, with their spell, and that’s what they got.

  “But nothing in the dark arts is at it seems on the surface. They created a circle, given this power. You’re told to protect the circle from outsiders at all costs, and that you can’t influence each other with the game. And that’s the dark evil trick. You can’t protect the circle FROM EACH OTHER. Because sooner or later it starts to fray, your egos and pettiness begin to take over and it becomes impossible. You fight over everything. The true nature of the game is that it becomes a test of pure survival. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, we’ve seen this in history, but put that power in the hands of five teenagers? It becomes absolute madness. You begin to battle each other. That’s what the original five did. That’s what my five did. And that’s what will happen to your circle, as well. That’s the curse of the game.”

  Darin and Valerie looked at each other.

  “How can you hurt each other if you can’t influence others in the circle?”

  “By hurting those closest to them. Damaging the things they cared about. You can make them crazy. Have a favorite actor? Use the game to kill them. A favorite writer? The same. Got a crush on a girl in a store? Force her to marry someone else. Favorite coffee shop? Force someone to burn it down. It becomes a psychological game of wits with each other, after time, and the toll it takes is one of sanity. Sooner or later the other players take their own lives or are destroyed by other means. The only reason I survived is that I was the one who had the least to care about. I hated my parents, I killed them myself, with the game. I gutted this entire community. I cared about nothing and nobody. Yes, I got my revenge on those who had belittled me, taunted and tormented me, but it was an empty victory. Because I cared about nothing, not even myself, it meant nothing. Even when I had it all, I had … nothing.”

  Herman coughed hard into his coffee, blood coloring his lower lip.

  “So we’re stuck in this thing, we have to just keep going until there’s only one of us left?” Valerie asked. “And it will kill us, in the end, no matter what?”

  Herman nodded. “It’s a cancer.”

  “How do we stop it?” Darin said.

  “I told you, you don’t, you can’t,” Herman said and coughed again.

  Darin grabbed him and shook him. “There’s got to be a way out of it!”

  Herman just smiled weakly at him. Darin yanked Herman to his feet and shoved him across the room. The older man crashed into the kitchen counter and knocked dirty dishes to the floor.

  “There is no way,” Herman said. Darin was on him like an animal, backhanding him with a fury.

  “You fucking asshole, you did this to us, you set us up, you fucker!”

  Herman just took the beating, blood flying. Darin grabbed him by the throat with one hand, picked up a knife from the sink with the other. He put the point on Herman’s throat.

  “Get us out of this or I’ll kill you right here!”

  “It’s already taken you over,” Herman said. “Can’t you see? It’s too late.”

  “Darin, stop it!” Valerie screamed. “Don’t!”

  “Do it, end my pain now. Please,” Herman said. “I’m begging you.”

  Darin released him and tossed the knife away. Herman sunk to his knees on the floor, near tears.

  “Please. End it for me, please,” he kept whispering.

  “No. You’re an asshole, but no,” Darin said. “I’m not like you.”

  “Not yet. You will be. You’ll be dressed as I was, you’ll be speaking as I was. Please. Just give in to it and … end me. Please.”

  “No. I’ll never be like you. Never.”

  “Just you wait. Just … you … wait.”

  Darin banged out of the trailer, Valerie close behind him.

  Herman kept whispering the same thing over and over as they left.

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  “A RASH OF RECENT SUICIDES AND UNUSUAL BEHAVOIR AMONG HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS AND FACULTY HAS LEFT A SMALL COMMUNITY STUNNED AND SEEKING ANSWERS!” – headline from the Oregon Trail, a local Radford newspaper.

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  It was a long, quiet drive back to Radford. Neither knew what to say. They arrived after dark, their phones buzzing with messages from Shakes and Faye that they both ignored. Valerie parked in front of Darin’s house and they both sat there for a moment.

  “Do you believe it’s really black magic?” Valerie finally asked.

  “I don’t have any other explanation. It’s fucking insane but so is everything that’s happened. Black magic. If you’d told me that a week ago, I would have laughed my ass off.”

  “A week ago you and I hadn’t even spoken. We didn’t know each other.”

  “If it is true, then we are well and truly fucked,” Darin pounded his fist on the dashboard. “Damn it! There’s got to be a way out of this! Goddamn it, fuck!”

  “We just have to resist it,” Valerie said. “We won’t play, that’s all. We just won’t participate or play the game at all.”

  “Like we’ll stop buying makeup and doing weird shit with our hair? And look at those messages from Shakes, you think he’s gonna let us just opt out and not play? He’ll freak and do something. He won’t stop.”

  “We’ll talk to him, we’ll explain it. We’ll make him understand, we’ll make all of them understand what we’re mixed up in. We stick together as friends. Protect the circle has a lot of meanings. We’ll make them see that this will destroy us if we don’t stop.”

  “We’re hardly friends. Like you said, none us even spoke before a week ago.”

  “We’re friends now.”

  “Are we?”

  “You tell me. What are we?” Valerie asked.

  Darin looked at her.

  “Are we the same that we were yesterday, you and me?” Valerie pressed him.

  “No.”

  “Am I just some girl you … hooked up … with because of a computer game?”

  “No. And technically I didn’t hook up with you. We only shared a bed.”

  “We shared a lot more than that, right?”

  “Yes. We did.”

  “We can do this. We all can. The five of us. That’s what will make us different. We’ll fight it together.”

  Darin nodded. His phone beeped and he checked it. “My foster folks, they’re freaking out. I gotta go.”

  He leaned in close and kissed her, hard and fast.

  “Your second kiss.”

  “There will be more.”

  “There better be.”

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  But Shakes wasn’t having any of their argument.

  “I like the game, I’m, ah … not stopping
my participation, no way, ah, no how,” he giggled. “This is too much fun to stop.”

  “Samuel’s right, I don’t want to stop, either,” Faye said. “No way.”

  Darin and Valerie had texted everyone to meet them at a popular pizza place, hoping that the crowd that was usually there would keep things calm. They’d also discussed that it would be better if Darin said he went alone, rather than Valerie with him, so as not to seem as if the two of them were conspiring against the other three. But there weren’t hardly any customers at the pizza place, and those who were steered clear from them immediately.

  “Look, I’m telling you, I tracked Herman down, he’s fucking dying, dude. He told me it was the game that did it to him, too.”

  It was hard for Darin to concentrate on making his case, however, because of the transformation that had taken his friends over. Faye looked absolutely stunning in a plunging black bustier that accented her chest, her hair was teased up and she wore blood-red lipstick and glittering eye shadow. Ed wore makeup and a dark shirt, but simply sat there, morose and silent. Shakes, too, wore makeup, his hair slicked back and he had a tight black shirt on and fingerless black gloves. He tapped the table with amusement at Darin’s tale.

  “You drove all the way to … Waukee, was it?” Shakes asked.

  “He said Waukee,” Faye said.

  “Yes, ah … Waukee. Wau … kee. Sounds like a redneck country band. So you … drove … all the way there. Where did you get the car?”

  “I borrowed it.”

  “Ah, I see. And where were you for the past few days, Valerie my dearest?”

  “I’m not anyone’s ‘dearest.’ And I was home, trying not to slit my wrist because every time I’m alone, I keep hearing that fucking crying bridge. Every time I turn on my laptop or phone, the site pops up in the browser. I hid because I’m scared that I’m losing my fucking mind and I think we should listen to what Darin has to say. I’m scared.”

  “You? Scared? I thought you didn’t get scared?”

  “Well, I’m scared now. We have to stop playing, it will kill us. I believe that.”

  “Herman told me that the game eventually pits the players against each other. That they eventually all die,” Darin said. “It changes you, turns you into something you’re not. Come on, man, you can see it! Look at us, look at how you’re dressed, you’re even talking different, man!”

  “I like how I’ve changed,” Faye said. “I prefer this. I don’t ever want to go back to what I was. Never.”

  “I don’t like it,” Ed said. “I don’t like this at all.”

  “It’s because, Ed, you’re not really availing yourself of the, ah … opportunities the game presents itself,” Shakes said. “You’re not taking advantage. You should.”

  Ed put his face in his hands.

  “I think we should stop. I said this before, but it’s hurting us,” Valerie said. “It’s going to tear us apart. I vote we stop until we can figure out what it actually is.”

  “She’s right,” Darin said. “I vote we stop, too. Ed?”

  Ed just kept his head in his hands, his shoulders shaking.

  “This is not, ah … a democracy, you know,” Shakes said. “It’s something far more sacred and precious. It’s a circle, a circle built on mutual trust and friendship. To turn our backs on the game would be to betray the circle, betray that trust among … friends. Are you my friend, Darin?”

  “Of course I am. But Shakes,” Darin said, “can’t you see what this is doing to you? We have to find a way to stop this craziness!”

  Shakes stared at him for a moment and then smiled. “You know, a couple of years ago, a senior named Greg Birkland, he’s since graduated, you know him, he’s one of your, ah … clients … he would call me a faggot every day. Every … single … day. He’d call me a fag and then he’d grab my chest and twist the flesh there. Titty-twister, he’d call it. Fags like that, he’d say. Left bruises. I hate faggots, he’d say to me, you’re a fag and I hate fags.

  “I lived with that every day. He was the bane of my existence as a freshman, a freshman younger than all the others, might I add, much younger and more vulnerable. He’d berate and beat me every day, and no one lifted a finger to stop him. They all just laughed, in fact, even the teachers and coaches. Why did Greg Birkland do this to me, make my life a hell on earth? Simply because he could.

  “Yesterday I made Greg Birkland have sex with one of his beloved football coaches. Why? Because I could. Because that’s justice. Because for years I was shit under their shoe and now I’m not. For years I was nothing. Now I am something. Now I have the power, now I have the authority. I don’t care if it comes from black magic, I don’t care what it does to me, it’s worth it. And, might I add, no one calls me Shakes any longer. No one. I’m Samuel now, not Shakes. Please keep that in mind.”

  Shakes gestured outside to some students waiting for them. Both he and Faye got to their feet.

  “You know what you signed up for. Protect the circle. We’re playing. All of us. It’d be monumentally stupid to turn our backs on such power. It’d be a betrayal.”

  “An absolute betrayal,” Faye said.

  Two girls came in the pizza parlor. Darin recognized them, they were part of the group that usually ran with Tracy Jones. They put their arms around Shakes, their eyes empty and only on him. One of the varsity football players also entered and put his arms around Faye, kissed her neck.

  “Shakes⁠—”

  “I told you, my name is Samuel. I realize that this may be difficult for you, I know our dear Ed here has been struggling with it, and as his friend I can certainly, ah … sympathize with the dilemma that … our unique and shockingly new position on the food chain represents for some. So while I appreciate the research trip that you took it upon yourself …without your friends, I’d note … to do, I ask that you rethink your conclusion, Darin. It’s NOT killing us. It’s making us STRONGER. It’s power. We don’t need to stop or play the game any less, we need to do it MORE. You need to get with the, ah … program. And Valerie, you think it over, too, dear, but, ah … don’t take too long,” Shakes said.

  “I’m hosting a private party this weekend, just for those of us in the circle, none of our, ah … pets … will be invited, heheheh. We’re going to make a list of very special names for the game. It’s time to cast off all those who have kept us back. Your father, Valerie, your foster parents, Darin, anyone and everyone who has ever looked down on us, trivialized us or kept us down. It’s time for a reckoning. I expect you to be all to be there.”

  “You EXPECT? What is this, a dictatorship?” Darin said.

  “No, it’s not. It’s a sacred circle. And you’re either of the circle or you’re against it. And Darin,” Shakes leaned in close, “you don’t want to be outside the circle.”

  “Let’s go, Ed,” Shakes said as he walked away. Ed didn’t move. Shakes and Faye stopped. “Ed?”

  Ed looked up at Darin and Valerie, pain in his eyes.

  “I can give Ed a ride home,” Valerie said.

  “Faye has her father’s car, she’s giving us a ride,” Shakes said.

  “Right, but Ed can ride with us, too,” Valerie said.

  “Ed?” Shakes looked at him.

  “I … I want to ride with them. Just for today,” Ed said, eyes down.

  Neither Shakes nor Faye liked that at all. They walked out without a word.

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  Darin sat with Ed and Valerie in her car outside of Ed’s house, shaking his head.

  “He’s gone, they’re both too far gone, the game’s got them. Fuck.”

  “He’s been like that,” Ed said. “Ever since you left. Since he … found out about Jason Goodwin. You weren’t here.”

  “I know. I’m sorry, Ed.”

  “I’ve had the most terrible dreams, sometimes even when I’m awake. I think about doing things to people. Bad things. Samuel wants me to do things with … girls, too. Sex things. And I don’t want to.”
r />   “You don’t have to,” Valerie said. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”

  “I don’t want to play the game anymore, but he’s making me. And he’s telling me that it’s time to start choosing other game options. I made some famous people get married, these people that I see in my Gram’s movie magazines, but I think they would have gotten married anyway. But now he and Faye want me to do other things and I don’t want to. I don’t like dressing this way but I can’t seem to help it. And I get upset all the time, with my Gram, I get upset a lot. I think about bad things. I see the bridge in my dreams.”

  “You’re not alone, Ed, we see it, too.”

  “Is it really black magic?”

  “I don’t know what else it could be.”

  “Isn’t there someone, like a good wizard, we could go to? That’s how it happens in the games and movies.”

  “I don’t know, Ed,” Darin said. “I’m still having trouble believing this myself.”

  Darin noticed the look on Valerie’s face. “What is it?”

  “It’s a spell, right? He said it was a spell.”

  “Yeah, and?”

  “And any spell … can be undone. That’s what I remember reading somewhere. You guys have to be anywhere right now?”

  “No school, so no.”

  “No.”

  Valerie put her car into gear and pulled out.

  “Where are we going?”

  “The library. I can find a lot of stuff online, but I also remember some of it was only in the books, paper books.”

  “Some of what stuff?”

  “Spells. I used to know about spells. I did some research on Wiccan witchcraft for a school project once, this was before my mom died, and I think some of that can help.”

  “Witchcraft?” Ed asked.

  “Wiccan witchcraft, it’s a real religion, but it’s the good kind, it’s white magic. They’re all about casting spells, but for purposes of good. If spells work the same way in dark magic that they do in white, then we can find a way to undo it. A spell is like a shoelace or a string, you tie it and you can untie it. You just have to figure where the end of the string is that you can pull and give it a yank.”