The Worst Kind of Monsters

by Elias Witherow

  “For Christ’s SAKE, HIT IT ON ITS HEAD!” I yelled, feeling awful.

  The bat came down over the dog’s head and silenced it with a sickening crunch. My character dropped the bat onto the floor and watched it roll into the shadows, leaving a bloody trail. The microphone icon in the corner of the screen disappeared.

  “For fuck’s sake,” I said, breathing heavily, slightly upset over what I had just done. I let my heart rate slow and sat watching the screen. I could understand now why that guy hadn’t wanted to beta-test the game. There’s horror and then there’s just plain cruel.

  As I placed my fingers on the keyboard to continue playing, another voice echoed in the room. It was a woman’s voice.

  “Bunny has awoken.”

  “Whatever the hell that means,” I said to myself.

  My character pulled his flashlight out and I saw a door on the other end of the room. I gladly went for it, wanting to get past the scene I had just experienced. As I pushed through it, I jumped as The Old Man stood directly in front of me.

  “Cheap,” I muttered.

  The Old Man was blocking my path and so I prompted him to speak.

  “I know that wasn’t easy, but you’ve done well. You’re getting closer now. You need to be careful. Bunny has awoken. He has felt what you’ve done and he wants nothing more than to stop you. If you see him, run. He has ended so many lives, I don’t want yours added to the pile. And with so little time left before the Tahlo returns, I feel you’re our last chance.”

  Text options appeared before me again and I selected one.

  My character spoke: “Who’s Bunny?”

  The Old Man leaned against the wall, shaking his head. “Something the Tahlo created a long, long time ago. It put him here as a safety measure in case anyone tried to seal the door between dimensions. Between our reality and the many of the Tahlo. Bunny will hunt you. If he catches you, he will kill you. He wants to see his creator again and will let nothing stand between that. Now go, we don’t have much time.”

  I crackled my knuckles across the keyboard and shifted my headphones over my ears. OK. Bad Bunny, stay away, keep moving, seal the door. Got it.

  I moved my character past The Old Man and down another hallway. I noticed that the wood textures on the floor were getting lighter and the width of the hallway was expanding. About every thirty steps or so I would come across a square room, empty, with three other pathways extending from it excluding the one I had just come from. I pressed on, hoping I wasn’t looping back on myself, hoping the next hallway would lead to something other than an empty space. The darkness seemed to deepen and I noticed a whirring sound repeating in my ears. It sounded like a giant fan rotating over and over again. I hoped this was a sign of progression and that I was getting closer to reaching my objective.

  So far I wasn’t impressed with the gameplay. It was fairly standard for this sort of thing, with repeating hallways, darkness, a light source, and a first-person perspective. But the intrigue of what I was learning about the game world kept me going. I was curious as to how this ended.

  I reached yet another empty room and as I scanned my options as to what hallway I was going to go down next, I had my first real scare.

  The beam of my flashlight swept past one of the entranceways and something was standing in it, looking directly at me. My heart exploded in my chest as I refocused my light on it.

  It stood about nine feet tall, with the body of a man, completely naked. Its fingernails were grown out and extended into sinister-looking claws, its body was scarred and muscular.

  And its face…

  Starting at the neck, dark veins popped from under the skin, black and angry, snaking up under its chin. Its head was that of a bunny, its ears long and stiff, its fur black as hot tar. Its lower jaw had been completely ripped off and it was missing an eye, its empty socket staring blanking into the screen. Its good eye was completely white, with no iris. Its teeth were yellow and the two dominant front ones extended down from its gum line, reaching its chest.

  It stood there, visibly breathing, its body expanding and compressing. Then it shrieked and charged me.

  Screaming in terror at my computer, I fumbled over my keyboard and mouse, directing my character to flee. I reached for the sprint button and took off down the hallway, blood thundering in my ears and heart drumming in my chest.

  I lost myself in the maze, charging down whatever corridor was closest, hearing the terrifying shrieks of the Bunny right behind me. Left, right, left, left, left, right, straight, endlessly. I started to hear my character suck in breath and begin to slow.

  “No, no, no, no don’t you stop!” I yelled at my screen, hammering down on the sprint button.

  I chanced a quick mouse flick to view over my shoulder and saw the Bunny just a few feet behind me, on all fours, screaming and crashing down the hall toward me.

  I rounded another corner and saw a door, just like the one with the dog behind it. My character crashed into it and burst through, going into an automatic animation of him slamming it closed behind him. He leaned against it, sucking in air, his voice raw in my ears. The screen shook as the Bunny slammed into the wood, roaring angrily that his prey had escaped. After a few seconds I heard it snarl and scurry away, back the way it had come.

  “Jesus,” I exhaled, leaning back in my chair for a moment. “That was close.” I rubbed my eyes and refocused as the screen shifted and my character looked toward the center of the room.

  It was identical to the one with the dog, a lone bulb hanging from the ceiling, spilling a gloomy glow at what lay under it.

  It was a child. A boy.

  There was a sack over his head that was tied at the neck with rope. He was bound to a wooden pole that had been hammered into the ground. He was struggling weakly against the ropes, crying softly.

  “Oh, shit, oh, come on,” I said, shaking my head. “Don’t…just…please don’t.”

  The voice from earlier erupted in my headphones.

  “KILL HIM.”

  The microphone icon appeared in the corner of the screen and I vainly tapped my keys. No response.

  “This is just sick,” I said, not knowing what to do.

  My character spoke, “Tell me to kill him.”

  “Oh fuck you, you sicko,” I said.

  “What did you say? I couldn’t understand you.”

  “Shut up!” I yelled.

  “What did you say? I couldn’t understand you.”

  I exhaled slowly. This was a horror game. Just a game. I was playing it alone in my empty apartment. No one had to see the horrible human being I was about to be. I closed my eyes and licked my lips.

  “Kill him.”

  My character walked behind the wooden pole and picked up an axe that had been resting against it.

  “Oh, come on!” I said, leaning forward in my seat. The kid struggled, hearing the noise, feeling what was about to happen. He cried louder and fought against his bindings, desperately trying to get away.

  My character circled the pole and stood in front of the child. He spoke.

  “Say it again.”

  I felt nauseous. This game was purposefully fucking with me now. I gritted my teeth, preparing the words on my tongue.

  “Kill the boy.”

  In one swift motion, I watched as the axe was brought down, watched it from the eyes of the killer. There was a grisly thunk sound as he planted it directly into the kid’s skull. Blood exploded from his head and splattered onto the screen, leaving red streaks. The boy died instantly.

  I took off my headphones and rubbed my eyes, clearing them of the image. I ran a hand through my hair and stared at the screen. This was gross. I was sure there were some people out there who would have no problem doing what I just did, but it didn’t feel right to me. Even though it was just a game, I had just simulated murdering a child with my own voice. This is a horror game, I told myself, there’s a reason this isn’t available to the public, what did you expect? And I really
did want to keep playing, to see this thing to the end. If nothing else, to do it because so few had. This game was an exclusive experience and I wanted to be one of the few to play it to completion.

  I put my headset back on and my fingers found their familiar places on the keyboard. I continued.

  I walked my character out the door on the other side of the room. Once again, The Old Man greeted me. I didn’t jump this time, expecting his presence.

  He was leaning against the wall and looked up at me. “Almost done, son. Only one more room to go. You’ve gotten further than most, I’ll give you that. Most strangers that come through here have been killed by Bunny by now. Not you, though. Don’t give into despair, don’t give up. You’re nearing the end.”

  He heaved himself off the wall and with a nod walked into the room I came from, the door closing behind him. I took a deep breath and began to walk.

  The hall looked different. The high walls were stained with a black substance and the floor beneath my feet looked slimy, covered in patches of red ooze. The audio had changed again as well, a deep human humming noise repeating in my ears. The high ceiling was gone, replaced with open sky, tiny white stars winking down at me.

  I took a moment and trained my character’s head to look up at them. I watched them for a few moments, examining the way they glowed and shifted slightly in the great dark canvas of night. As I was about to move on, I heard something in the hall in front of me.

  Three sharp bangs. Then silence. After a few tense seconds, it repeated, and I saw the wall to my right begin to bow as something behind it tried to get through.

  “Time to go,” my character said.

  “Couldn’t agree more,” I muttered and led him quickly down the hall, passing the source of noise. More dark empty passages greeted me and I continued through the now familiar process. As I went, the banging in the walls followed me. And they were growing more frantic.

  Where’s this last door? I asked myself, hoping something wasn’t going to kill me this close to the end.

  Suddenly, as I entered another hall leading off from one of the square rooms, the banging hit twice in front of me and then the wall exploded, a huge clawed human hand reaching out. It was followed by the large grotesque head of Bunny, pulling himself slowly from behind the wall.

  “Oh shit, go, go, go!” I yelled, turning my character around and taking him back into the square room. I quickly chose another path and slammed my finger down on the sprint button.

  Behind me I heard heavy footsteps thudding toward me, along with a high-pitched animalistic snarl. I swallowed hard and watched as my character tore down the black hallways, his light ray bouncing as he ran. As soon as I could make out a corner, I quickly instructed my character to turn down it, feeling Bunny right behind.

  Without warning, the screen flashed red and I heard a scream. My character slowed, looking down at his leg, and we both saw a nasty gash torn from his calf.

  “Don’t you die!” I yelled, urging him forward. I spun my character’s head around and saw Bunny, slowly walking toward me, his long, claw-like nails dripping red. He was a towering horror looming over me, illuminated only by my flashlight.

  “Go!” I screamed, tapping to sprint, over and over. With agonizing effort, I limped down the hall, turned left, and saw it.

  A door!

  “Go, you bastard!” I yelled, leaning closer to my monitor. I heard Bunny behind me chattering, a sharp flurry of high-pitched noise. Almost there, just a little further! My character was dragging his leg behind him now and breathing hard, blood staining the floor. Only another twenty feet, come on!

  Suddenly I went down. My character sprawled on the floor gasping, flashlight bouncing down the hall and spinning to shine in my face. He was sucking in air, deep raw breaths that ripped down his throat.

  “NO! GET UP!” I screamed, pounding on my keyboard.

  My character was suddenly flipped onto his back and I was staring directly into the mutilated face of Bunny.

  It leaned down and roared, exposing a dark throat and long black tongue that hung limply on its chin. Its long teeth inches from my face, it reached out and grabbed me by the throat, lifting me from the floor, its sharp claws wrapping around my throat. I could hear my character begin to gurgle as he stared into the empty eye socket of his attacker.

  “DO SOMETHING!” I screamed, hands pounding down on keys, hoping for some response.

  Suddenly my character’s arm flew up and his fist slammed into the giant white remaining eye of Bunny, completely rupturing it. White slime and blood exploded onto the screen as his knuckles sank into Bunny’s face.

  Screaming, Bunny dropped my character to the ground and clutched its face, reeling.

  “YES!” I screamed. “Now run!”

  Audibly gasping, my character began crawling toward the door, the environments pulsing through a blurry lens. He got to one knee and picked up the flashlight with a gore-soaked hand. I chanced one look back to see Bunny on his knees, screaming and holding his face, and then commanded my character to take the final steps to the door.

  And then I was through. I breathed a deep sigh of relief as the door closed behind my character and the sound of Bunny faded.

  But then I saw what lie in front of me.

  Once again, the room mirrored the last, dimly lit by a single bulb hanging overhead. This time though, an older woman, probably sixty, was lying stretched out on a table, her head covered and bound by a dirty sack. Her arms and legs were tied to the four corners. I could hear her raspy voice sucking in air and she slowly twisted her wrists, testing her bindings.

  “Hello?” she croaked. “Is someone there? Please, get me out of here!”

  My character automatically walked to the end of the table by her feet and stared down at her. I waited.

  Then the voice came, blasting like deep fire into my ears.

  “RAPE HER.”

  My mouth dropped open and my eyes widened. No. No, no, no, no. Are you kidding me? What kind of sickness was this? This wasn’t something you put into games. You just don’t do this. No.

  “Just do it,” my character told me as the microphone icon appeared in the lower right corner of my screen.

  I sat in silence. This was the end, wasn’t it? The last room? Christ…why this? I didn’t want to do it. Having to say those words out loud, even in a game, sickened me. Just rolling the syllables around in my mind made me feel disgusting.

  “We’re so close,” my character said quietly.

  I was torn. It was just a game. But how twisted was I to even have to simulate something like this? I covered my face in my hands. Just walk away. You’re done with this. You’ve had your fun, this is sick, just turn it off. But that little part of me refused to. I was almost done. I wanted to beat this damn thing. I wanted to see the end.

  “Rape her,” I said quietly. I turned away from the screen and took my headphones off. I sat in the darkness of my living room and felt disgusted. I felt nauseous. I chanced a look at the screen and turned away quickly. It wasn’t over.

  “Fuck, who comes up with this?” I said aloud, shaking my head. I checked my phone and saw it was almost three in the morning. I had only been playing for an hour. It felt much, much longer.

  After another couple minutes I put my headphones back on and turned to the screen. The woman was sobbing softly, the sack on her face forming around her mouth as she took desperate breaths.

  My character was standing at the foot of the table again, motionless. The microphone icon was still displayed on the screen.

  “What the hell do you want me to do now?” I asked, beginning to feel a deep hatred for the person I was playing.

  The voice followed.

  “KILL HER.”

  I dropped my hands to my sides, feeling them go numb against my chair. I stared, shaking my head slowly back and forth, a look of disgust plastered to my face.

  “You’re a sick motherfucker,” I spat.

  “What did you say? I could
n’t understand you.”

  “JUST KILL HER!” I screamed, throwing my hands up.

  I watched as my character climbed on top of the table and crawled over the woman, sitting on her chest. He reached down and began to strangle her.

  The noise was almost too much for me. She cried out and then the gurgling began. It took what seemed like an eternity. Finally, my character climbed off her and stood motionless. The microphone symbol vanished.

  “Only one more thing now,” my character said.

  I slammed a fist down on my desk, “What?! I thought this was the end?! Do I have to keep playing this shit? How many more sick things do I have to do!? This was supposed to be the end! You fucking asshole, I’m done with this, I can’t kill any more dogs or axe any more children! It’s been enough! Fuck you and fuck this game!”

  With that, I hit the Esc. button, bringing up a pause menu, and threw my headphones onto the floor. I’d had my fill. I couldn’t do it anymore. I stood up, shaking my head angrily, and pointed a finger at the screen.

  “That was some sick shit. I don’t want any more of this. That was the last thing I’m doing for you! I’m not going to sit here until sunrise torturing any more people!”

  I stormed out of my living room into my small bathroom. I turned the faucet on and splashed water over my face, horrified at what I had just played. Why didn’t I just stop? If anyone knew I had played through that, God only knew what kind of judgment they would cast on me. I dried my face, tried not to look in the mirror, and went to bed.

  My apartment was quiet in the deep of night and my sheets were cool and soothing. I took a few moments and forced the game out of my mind. I directed my thoughts to happier things and memories.

  In the darkness, I pulled out my iPod and popped some earbuds in. I needed some relaxing music to wash away the filth I had just played. Sighing deeply, I pulled my covers over me and steadied my breathing, letting the music lull me closer and closer to sleep.

  “Bunny has awoken.”

  My eyes flew open. What did I just hear? I glanced at my iPod and hit pause. The words had come from my earbuds. Silence. I checked the song that had just been playing. Nothing out of the ordinary. What the hell?