The Ringmaster Revealed. Sort of.

Blaze reached for the single piece of paper that seemed to describe the rules as Hard Time slid the board out and began to open it up. As expected Foxtrot claimed the pink player token while Night Knight grabbed the black one and they listened to Blaze doing her best to read and summarize what was printed. It wasn’t hard though since it seemed rather simple and Blaze grabbed the blue player piece as her own and looked at the board as Hard Time laid it out before grabbing the red token.

“It says that everyone that wants to play the game must choose their token but the tokens technically start the game off of the board. Anyone that wants to play, place your piece next to the black square on the upper-left corner, I guess it would be this one. The black square counts as square number one, we roll the die, and move that many places. Each color represents a different theme, we read the clue and just say whether we continue or chicken out. If we chicken out, then we are out of the game and have no chance at the prize. It also says that chickening out comes with a great penalty.”

Everyone looked a little confused and Foxtrot asked what the prize was supposed to be. Blaze looked over the sheet of paper, “Doesn’t say, it claims that the prize will be revealed when the game decides to let us know.”

As Hard Time set her token next to the board, she said that if that was the case, there was only one way to find out and that was to play the damn game. Taking her lead all the others placed their pieces next to the black square as directed and since she was the host, Blaze decided she would take control and roll the die to see what happened. There was just a single, six-sided die and when she rolled, it came up as a five. Counting out the squares, she counted and stopped at a red square at which point the long, pink rectangular inlays suddenly came to life and began displaying text along the top section:

RED: MENTAL

In the middle, in smaller text there was a short poem.

Famous for your speed, strength, and iron nerve,

Always craving the praise that you truly deserve,

Aside from heroics, those that meet you observe,

From the way that you act, they know you’re a perv.

On the bottom bar of pink was the question, “Continue or Chicken Out?”

Blaze sat for a moment looking at the board and found herself confused and not quite sure how this was a challenge, dare, or what was going on. But she certainly didn’t want to stop the game before it really started so she said continue.

When she did, for a brief moment that went entirely unnoticed by the rest of the players, there was a flash of bright light and when they looked over at Blaze, all four of the other women were quizzically surprised by what they were looking at and feeling. Part of their minds seem to be acting as if they were seeing Blaze in a whole new light and another part of their minds acted as if nothing had happened at all. Blaze was still sitting in her chair but the warm and friendly smile and Blaze’s casual posture were changed. Or the same, they felt both were true somehow. The smile that she looked at them with seemed to be more of a leering gaze and she seemed to be more overtly showing off and presenting her own body. As if she wanted to be gawked at.

All four women looking at her simultaneously had two thoughts in their minds battling to remember which was true. One was one of an uncomfortable surprise, and the other was **** acceptance that their beloved mentor continued to be kind of an annoying pervert. Hard Time, Foxtrot, and High Tech were all completely confused but Night Knight took a few deep breaths as she thought she had sensed some form of magic when she first saw the new/old appearance of Blaze and in an attempt to figure out what was going on, she closed her eyes and tried to use her magical senses to reach out deeper to look for a clue. Rather than sense the magic, she sensed nothing at all. And by nothing, she meant nothing. Not even the background of the general world that she had to tune out every time she tried to concentrate in this manner. Alarmed, she stood up and moved into a better position to look outside and when she got into the right angle, saw there weren’t any stars in the night sky anymore. Or clouds.

This was beyond troubling and immediately she asked the rest of the girls to stop, which they did. Looking at Foxtrot, High Tech, and Hard Time she asked them flat out, “Your memories of Blaze, do you remember as always being a brave and upstanding woman, or did you ever think of her as kind of a pervert?”

Night Knight realized that once again she may have asked the question a little too bluntly but this was one instance that she didn’t waste time trying to be more tactful. Their emotions though told Night that they were just as confused on that issue as she was. She told them all about the absence of the stars outside and when they tried to open the doors to get a closer look, even when Hard Time banged on them or the windows with all her might, they didn’t budge or bend in the slightest. Night Knight knew there was very powerful magic at work here and when she tried to summon objects, nothing could be acquired which meant she was out of range. And her range was basically the entire known universe. High Tech was also freaking out since she had put her phone down when they started the game and when she tried to use her sensors to figure out what was going on, she saw that she wasn’t getting any signals. Foxtrot had removed her ear and nose suppressors and didn’t smell anything outside the building.

Night Knight was about to explain that they must have somehow gotten sucked into a pocket dimension when suddenly another bright flash of light appeared from the Chicken Out board game, this time though all the women noticed and looked in its direction to see what was going on. When Blaze got to the table, she saw that the rule sheet was glowing and slowly, new text began to appear.

Blaze reached down and grabbed it, reading aloud the new parts of the rules:There is also a five minute time limit between turns. If the next player doesn’t roll and move their piece before the time limit expires, the player’s roll will count as a 1 and they will automatically be **** to continue. It also says that the reward for winning the game is a wish. The penalty for chickening out, oh fuck...”

She handed the paper to Night Knight who somehow went even paler when she saw it. “Total demonic restructuring.” High Time, High Tech, and Foxtrot looked lost at her words so she had to explain. “Demonic restructuring means that a demon, whatever demon created the contract, gets to restructure some aspect of a person. Soul restructuring, body restructuring, and stuff like that are common parts of demonic contracts. Total means they have no limits. Age, sex, gender, moral principles, super powers, race, even species are all under the demon’s control with total restructuring. They can even change memories and make a person believe that nothing has changed.”

“A decent summary my dear,” said an unknown voice that echoed through the warehouse. Above the game, a shimmering blue window began to appear. Sitting on the window sill was a single apple with a white calla lily growing out of it. “Now in your attempt to escape, you have gone well past the time limit but I asked the game to wait before deciding your fate so I could introduce myself. Sort of. I won’t be telling you my name but just wanted to thank you for agreeing to my terms and playing along.”

Hard time looked at everyone in shock and tried to figure out what was going on but there was one thing she thought was most important. “But none of us signed a contract. What the hell is this?”

Blaze looked at her with nothing but shame and pity as she realized she picked this game and the poor lady had no idea what she had been dragged into or how. “While overtly getting those to sign a contract is a thing, the more clever of demons figure out more indirect ways to do it. They trick people into agreeing to the contract without even realizing it.”

Foxtrot just caught on to where she as going and continued, “By doing something like placing a tiny little plastic token of yourself around a black square?”

The voice in the window laughed, “Precisely. Why don’t one of you pick up your game piece and take a look at the bottom?” Since High Tech was still by the table she picked up her little yellow figurine and saw an almost insignificant dot on the bottom. Small enough that it could be mistaken for dirt but she didn’t need a wireless signal to make the magnifying glass app work and used that to look closer. It was only a sentence long but there was the contract plain as day. By placing the piece next to the black square, she agreed to the contract.

“Of course as your magical friend and the veteran hero lady know, the more vague and innocent-seeming the entry point for the contract is,”

Night Knight dropped to her knees as she had been too busy trying to think of ways out, but now that the voice pointed it out, she was too terrified to stand, “the more power that is required to initiate the contract. We aren’t just dealing with a lower level, run-of-the-mill demon here. She’s dangerously powerful.”

The voice laughed and whoever this demon was, she seemed to be enjoying her moment of victory. After she finished laughing, she began talking with a very sensual, seductive tone that made every woman regardless of their sexual orientation incredibly aroused. “Oh hush, I may be a naughty girl but I don’t like to think of myself as all that dangerous. I can be quite fun in fact. By the time we’re done, you may even agree.”

The voice made Night Knight think a bit more as she looked at the image being shared with them. The color blue, that flower, and the apple were all seen as symbols of lust by different cultures at times. That could give her a clue on how to fight back if she at least knew the origin of their captor. But before she could really think, she was interrupted by the phantom voice.

“Of course if you all know what the consequences are for chickening out, you might be a little less hesitant and then I won’t get to have as much fun. So since I have full control over you while you’re in my pocket, and since only the changes the game makes to you while your here will be permanent under this contract, how about I pull that annoying little fact about demons and structuring out of your memories? Maybe make you all a little less suspicious too since we don’t want to go through this whole thing again. You don’t need to worry about the lack of stars and outside world. Just relax and have fun, you’re just playing a board game after all!” And the moment she said that, all five women in the room forgot about the demon encounter or being afraid.

As far as they could remember, they had just realized that they had accidentally went over the time limit and someone would experience the black square and whatever it offered, that person at least wouldn’t be able to chicken out or deny it. They all gathered back around the table, smiled, and watched as Night Knight’s piece slowly moved into place.