I sat at my computer, scrolling through endless games on my favorite downloading site. Illegal of course, but who pays for things these days anyways. I had tried a bunch of things already, and was quite bored with the typical shooter, racing, and other games; that’s why this one caught my attention.
I had never heard of it before, Simulscape it was called. There was no description, no reviews, just a download link. I probably should have left it alone, but curiosity and boredom got the better of me. I moved my cursor over the little black arrow and clicked it. Nothing crazy happened, no pop-ups were released - it simply downloaded in a matter of minutes and opened the start screen when it was done.
“Can you escape?” Read the cheesy, “blood drip” font bouncing at the top of the menu. There were two choices - start or rules. I clicked rules, and three bullets showed on the screen: 1. Don’t get caught 2. Avoid traps 3. Leave the house and you will win
I thought it was oddly vague, but thought it was probably a low budget game some coder had developed in their spare time. I closed the instructions and clicked start.
It took a while to load, but when I did a hyper-realistic camera feed popped up - think surveillance footage in someone’s living room. My character stood in front of it, in the middle of the room. He was blonde with wide, wild blue eyes and a medium build. He had a strange helmet on, and was wearing what looked like a green prison jumpsuit.
I experimented with the controls, and learned how to move my character around. It was typical PC gaming, and very simplistic. I walked around the room until my character stood in front of the door. I had him turn the knob and it wouldn’t turn - a message popped up that said “try finding a key”. I proceeded to walk around the room, picking things up and opening drawers until I had a key. I took it to the door and opened it, no big deal.
The feed cut out, then returned showing a different room - presumably where the locked door had led to, as my character was standing in an open doorway. Before him stood two doors, above which was a message scrawled in red ink “choose wisely”. There was nothing else in the room, and I sat there for a minute thinking. I had no idea what to pick, so I approached a door at random - I chose the left.
When I opened the door the feed cut and jumped to the next room. I saw my character enter, the door slamming behind him. He began to cough, and smoke started filling the room. The camera’s view was soon obstructed and when everything went black, a text box popped up saying “you lose. Try again?” I clicked yes, and after a five minute loading screen I was back in the same room. I had expected the same character, but instead I was now a black woman. She had short spiky hair and was wearing the same green jumpsuit.
I had her try the door, and again needed the key. I walked to where I had found it previously, and opened to the next room with ease. This time though, after progressing into the two door room, I chose the one on the right. When it opened, the feed cut and the new room showed. The door didn’t shut behind her, smoke didn’t fill the room. I figured this was some kind of puzzle, and you just restarted it each time. A memory and logic test I guess.
This room was filled with strings - almost like a spiderweb. I had to control the woman, jumping when I needed to, ducking, and weaving left and right. It was challenging but fun, and my years of gaming helped me to control her with ease.
I jumped when I heard my dog start barking, and accidentally hit the right arrow, sending my character into one of the strings. Where her arm hit the string, there was a huge red cut. I shuddered as the camera showed me her face - it was incredibly realistic and gruesome. What an odd detail to show. I made it through the rest of the room without incident and opened the next door.
My character entered a room where simply scrawled on the wall was the word “RUN”. And that I did - I had her move quickly. As she was running, there were rocks to avoid. I didn’t see one and she tripped flying forward and landing on her face. I tried to have her get up, but she kept falling when leaning on her bad arm.
Something then came running up to her - a hooded figure wielding a knife, which I assumed had been what she was supposed to be running from. It grabbed her by the hair and pulled her up before slotting her throat. It then cast her to the ground and looked directly at the camera, grinning horribly at it before the end screen popped up. “You lose. Try again?” I clicked no and shut off my computer, going to bed a bit disturbed.
The next day after coming home from work I sat down with my dog to watch some TV. I’m a bit of a news junkie I hate to admit, and when I flipped to the local station I nearly shit my pants.
“We are following a breaking story. Reports say that two bodies were found in a field near a local elementary school. They have yet to be identified, but what can be released is that one was a blonde, white male and another an African American female. The female had wounds on her throat and arm, while the man had no physical signs of injury. It is presumed the victims died around the same time, and further details will be reported as we get them.”
I immediately cut the power to my screen. I had a sinking feeling in my gut that I knew how these people had died. The video feed, the look of horror on the woman’s face as her arm was sliced, and the way the hooded figure stared directly at me - it was all too much. It wasn’t a game, it wasn’t pretend. I was escaping with real people - that’s why the character had changed, that’s why it was not a game I had heard of.
I’m sitting here writing this to get it off my chest. I can’t go to the police - I would get blamed for the murder, I’m sure of it. I can’t keep it to myself though. Whoever these people are - I mean, were - I want to tell them I’m sorry. And to you, reader, I want to tell you never to play the game Simulscape; I can promise you that you will live to regret it, and others won’t live at all.
Source: https://old.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/fjorjs/i_downloaded_a_game_from_the_dark_web_now_i_must/