Chapter 9: The Night the Family Remembered

The basement went completely dark.

I couldn't see my own hands, but I could hear my family's breathing around me.

Then something scratched against the floor.

Once.

Twice.

Again and again.

I frowned. "Who is making that noise?"

Nobody answered.

A cold hand suddenly grabbed my ankle.

I kicked it away instinctively.

"Don't touch me!"

A scream echoed through the darkness.

Liam immediately shouted, "Mom! Stay behind me!"

A black mist erupted from the floor and rushed toward us.

My husband stepped forward, his body splitting open as dozens of stitches snapped apart.

Penny's eyes turned crimson.

The three of them surrounded me.

For once, I wasn't thinking about the monsters.

I was thinking about my freshly cleaned house.

"Nobody bleed on the floor," I warned them.

My husband glanced back at me.

"Honey, this isn't the time."

"It is always the time. I just cleaned it."

Liam suddenly laughed.

Even Penny giggled.

Then the black mist crashed into them.

A violent shockwave shook the entire basement.

When the dust settled, my family was still standing.

The mist had disappeared.

But something else had appeared on the wall.

A door.

It hadn't been there before.

My husband stared at it with dread.

"That's where it happened."

"What happened?" I asked.

"Everything."

He opened the door.

Behind it was a small room filled with old furniture and children's toys.

Unlike the rest of the basement, this room was spotless.

A tiny wooden table sat in the center.

On it were four plates.

Four chairs surrounded it.

And on the wall hung an old family photograph.

I walked closer.

There was my husband.

There was Liam.

There was Penny.

And there was a woman standing beside them.

"Who is she?" I asked.

My husband lowered his head.

"Their mother."

I stared at the photograph.

"What happened to her?"

"She left."

"Why?"

He remained silent.

Liam finally spoke.

"She couldn't handle us."

His voice was strangely calm.

"Before we became monsters, we were just a family."

Penny climbed onto the chair and hugged the photograph.

"Mommy used to clean everything too."

I looked at her.

"She did?"

Penny nodded.

"She hated dirt."

I suddenly felt a strange connection to the woman in the photograph.

My husband walked toward the table.

"One night, the game appeared."

"It promised us a way to escape."

"But it didn't want us to escape."

He pointed at the photographs covering the basement wall.

"It wanted players."

I finally understood.

This family wasn't the creator of the game.

They were prisoners too.

"Then why did you kill the players?" I asked.

My husband's eyes filled with sadness.

"Because the game forced us to."

"Every time a player entered, we had to choose between killing them or watching one of our children die."

Liam's fists clenched.

"Dad always chose us."

Penny began crying.

"I don't want anyone else to die."

My husband turned toward me.

"That's why you can't stay."

"The game has noticed that you've reached maximum favorability with us."

"It will never let you leave now."

The system suddenly appeared before my eyes.

"Hidden condition progress: 100%."

"Family history discovered."

"Final survival phase unlocked."

Then another message appeared.

"Warning: The family must eliminate the remaining players before Day Ten."

I stared at the message.

"No."

My husband looked at me.

"Honey?"

I pointed at the screen.

"It says the family has to kill the remaining players."

"Yes."

"Then we'll find another way."

Liam stared at me in disbelief.

"There is no other way."

"There's always another way."

I looked around the room.

Four plates.

Four chairs.

An old photograph.

A spotless table.

Then I noticed something underneath the table.

A small metal box.

I pulled it out and opened it.

Inside was a key.

Attached to the key was a handwritten note.

"The game cannot control a family that chooses each other."

My eyes widened.

I looked at my husband.

"Where does this key go?"

He stared at it in shock.

"I don't know."

For the first time, hope appeared in his eyes.

I closed my hand around the key.

"Then tomorrow, we'll find out."

Above us, the system announced:

"Day Three complete."

"Remaining players: 8."

"Day Four will begin in one hour."

I looked at my family.

They had spent years believing they were monsters.

I had spent three days believing they were simply difficult family members.

Maybe both things were true.

But now they were my family.

And I wasn't going to let a stupid game take them away from me.