KC damn near whipped the cat-eared headphones across the room when Rosalyn’s view plunged into total darkness.

“Fuck!” he barked, scrubbing his hands down his face. “How did she fall for that?” He resisted the urge to rip the headphones off, because they were her only lifeline right now. He had to keep in communication with her. “Close your damn eyes!”

BriGuyMonster: I want to see more of what’s in that wagon! The eyeballs looked so real!

KC ground his teeth together. They are real. They’ve got to be real. How can any of this be real? But it has to be.

“Fuck you! Let me out of here!” Rosalyn shrieked, followed by banging, presumably her pounding on the inside of the doors.

There was muffled laughter from the outside, that demon bitch cackling to herself, likely. At least it seemed she didn’t want to kill Rosalyn, at least not right away. If she’d wanted to do that, she likely would have one it already.

DaisyDuchess69: Girl, what a pickle! Maybe this’ll lead to the guy she has to find tho

KC struggled to control his breathing. Nobody believed it was real. He’d tried to close the game. Tried to force quit. Tried to shut down the computer. Nothing worked. It wouldn’t stop.

He contemplated just ripping the power bar out of the wall...but he was terrified to do it. Terrified that it would work and they’d lose their link to what Rosalyn was going through and be unable to communicate with her...and terrified that it wouldn’t work. That he’d pull the plug and the machine would somehow still be running as if on some kind of magic demon battery.

What the fuck is going on? He swallowed the lump in his throat as Rosalyn continued to thrash and scream in the wagon.

Glass shattered, and she grunted some curses.

“Will you just close your fucking eyes already?” KC snapped.

PreciousPogo: Ooooo daddy KC is getting madddd

DaisyDuchess69: ship ship ship

“You guys aren’t helping,” KC muttered. It was annoying on a good day when viewers expressed their shipping desires on he and Rosalyn, because apparently the world couldn’t handle the fact that a male and a female were platonic friends. But at a time like this when he was legitimately worried about her safety in a dark box with broken glass, it was infuriating that his friends of all people were making the joke to tease him.

“KC?” Rosalyn’s voice quivered, and he scrambled to turn up the volume. “Did you make it to my place?”

He furiously typed on his phone from his own account so the donation message would pop up. Yeah I’m here, are you bleeding??

“I don’t think so,” she replied. “I knocked over some shit but it hit the floor, I think it missed me. I hope it wasn’t a jar of something gross.”

He laughed, but the sound was a high, exasperated sound. Bitch, gross is the least of your worries right now, you gotta get out of that wagon, he sent.

“Did you try to shut down the game?” she asked, completely ignoring him, and he wished she could hear his voice so he could properly chew her out.

It won’t shut down, and at this point I’d be afraid of not being able to get back this connection to keep tabs on you, he sent.

DaisyDuchess69: I am so fucking jealous that you guys did this so serious rn

Daisy’s message was in the private chat, and KC ignored her.

“Yeah.” Rosalyn sighed, and more glass clinked in the background. “Thank you. I...I don’t know what it would do. I don’t think it would get me out, and I’m not willing to risk being left alone in here.”

The wagon groaned, presumably moving again.

You’re not alone, KC sent quickly, and that was followed by a few fans donating and cheering her on, telling her they love her, that they love what she’s creating, are so happy to be on this stream in real time. He wanted to boot them all out.

But the exposure could be useful. He had to figure out how to use this to Rosalyn’s advantage.

“Did anyone find anything out about the game or the corporation?” he asked into the headset, addressing the streaming camera. “Some of you guys have gotta be dark web geeks, right?”

snapdragon1985: there’s nothing about this corp on the internet I can’t believe you guys put so much into this and couldn’t even build a fake web site

KC huffed. He wanted to chew him out, but didn’t want to lose the audio from the game in case Rosalyn spoke. He flipped over to the private chat, typing furiously. Could you guys quit ribbing us and fucking help, please?

snapdragon1985: wouldve helped if you guys had brought us in on this dude

PreciousPogo: RIGHT?! I would have built the best fake corporation ever! would have been so much more authentic!!

KC gritted his teeth. Well she didn’t, and I wasn’t in on it either. But she’s in it now, so if you guys could be helpful because you’re GOOD FRIENDS that would be fucking great. He hit enter with more force than was necessary.

“This is so surreal,” Rosalyn said, her voice sounding wistful. “I know none of you assholes believe me, that this is happening to me. I didn’t, for a while. Until I came back to life. Until I fucking died.”

KC shivered, ice zigzagging up his spine. I believe you, he typed on his phone. I’m going to do everything I can to help get you out of there. He hit send with a donation so she’d see it.

She chuckled, that soft under-the-breath type of laugh that wasn’t really mirthful but more a dark horror laugh that betrayed her feeling of hopelessness. He didn’t like the sound. It was empty and hollow, and felt like she was giving up. But it was too early to give up. She’d barely started. There had to be a way out.

I think you need to beat the game. He hovered over the enter key, and then added, It would be easier if we knew anything about it, but you’ve got fifty thousand viewers ready to help figure out where you need to go.

“Fuck, fifty thousand?” Rosalyn groaned. “Of course I’d blow past my record when I can’t even sit back and enjoy it.”

BriGuyMonster: @KCxbone I sent you a link a couple of us have a private chat I think we found something

KC’s brow furrowed. Where had this stranger sent him a link? He kept his DMs closed on this platform specifically because he hated randos sliding into his message box. It was always a ton of spam to sift through, and though he enjoyed engaging with the nice fans, it was a slog to get through the nasty ones or the spam so it was easier to keep them closed.

He picked up his phone and flipped over to his business email inbox, the one that he used front-facing for media requests. Sure enough, there was an email there with a link to a private message group. In any other circumstance he would have hesitated, but if they’d found something and couldn’t communicate because of the insanity of the stream chat, then he had to check it out.

He entered the chat, finding three others in there that he didn’t know, and also Pogo, who had apparently also gotten an invite.

“Hi KC,” somebody said, and it sounded like a young man. “I’m Bri, you probably don’t want to be on voice so you can listen to Rosie but it’s easier for me to talk and show you what we found.”

PreciousPogo: spit it out already

KC hated to agree, but he couldn’t help but share the sentiment.

“Here’s the recording we’ve been looking at,” Bri began, and started rolling a screen-capture from earlier in the stream.

KC’s eyes widened when he realized what they were looking at. “Holy shit.”