Skye Carter had a rule: Don't answer unknown calls after midnight.
But she had never been good at following rules.
The apartment was eerily silent. The kind of silence that would have made anyone else jumpy. But not Skye. Skye had lived alone for almost a year now. She'd gotten used to the quiet, the hum of her refrigerator, the occasional buzz from her smart ring whenever a notification pinged. And tonight, of all nights, she was too wrapped up in her YouTube rabbit hole of Haunted Vending Machines of Japan to care about some late-night caller.
It was nearly 12:05 a.m. when her phone rang, lighting up the screen with an Unknown Number.
Skye frowned, not bothering to look at her phone too long. Her hand instinctively reached out to hit the "Decline" button.
Decline. She thought it was the right thing to do.
But as soon as her finger hit that red button, the apartment seemed to change. The lights flickered. The fridge emitted a weird gurgle, as if it had just taken its last breath.
Then — the cactus.
Steve, her poor, cursed cactus, tipped over from his pot. For no reason at all.
"Okay, that's… odd," Skye muttered, squinting at the mess of soil on her floor. She bent down to pick up the plant, but before she could even lift it, the phone rang again. Same unknown number.
This time, Skye hesitated. Something didn't feel right. The room was colder. Her heart beat a little faster. Must be the AC, right? She thought. Yeah, that's all it was.
But still, curiosity — and maybe a little boredom — got the better of her. She tapped the green answer button.
Nothing.
Silence.
Then, a voice crackled through the speaker. Smooth. Calm. Too calm.
"Hello, Skye."
Skye blinked. She'd been expecting a sales pitch or some random scammer. But this? This was… different.
"Who is this?" Skye demanded, her voice shaking slightly. Was it a prank?
The voice continued, as if it had all the time in the world.
"You've been selected for a game."
Skye scoffed. "Yeah? And who's behind this? The same guy who told me to stop downloading free fonts last week?"
The voice was unamused. "You have two choices, Skye. You can play, or you can ignore."
Skye rolled her eyes, half tempted to hang up. This was definitely a prank. Someone messing with her. Probably Remy from the IT department — he was always doing weird stuff like this.
But then the voice added, almost like an afterthought:
"Ignore, and you'll vanish. Play, and you might survive."
A chill ran down Skye's spine. "What do you mean, 'vanish'? Who is this?"
But the line went dead.
Skye pulled the phone away from her ear, staring at the blank screen. A few seconds passed. Then a notification popped up. It wasn't a text, nor was it a call. It was a message.
On her smart ring.
"You are now entered into the game."
It was written in sleek, black text. Too neat. Too perfect. But what made Skye freeze was the background.
It wasn't her living room. It wasn't even her apartment. It was a darkened hallway with flickering lights — the hallway outside her door.
She rushed to her front door, yanking it open.
Nothing.
The hallway was empty. Her neighbors' doors were closed, and the elevator at the end of the hall seemed… ordinary.
Her heart thudded painfully in her chest as she slowly turned back into her apartment.
The fridge gurgled again. The lights flickered once more.
And Steve — the cactus — was standing upright.
Skye's breath caught. There was no way.
She returned to her phone. The message blinked again:
"Task 1: Find the key."
Task? Key? Skye's mind raced. Was this some sick joke? A prank? Or worse — was she really inside some twisted game?
Her smart ring buzzed again, louder this time. Skye pressed her fingers to her temples, trying to focus.
"The first key is hidden. Your task is simple. Find it."
Skye's pulse quickened. She rushed to the bathroom mirror, glancing at her reflection. Nothing out of the ordinary.
But then, just as she was about to turn away, she noticed something. A faint outline of something behind her. In the mirror.
Her breath caught in her throat. There was… a figure.
A woman, standing perfectly still. Just behind her.
Skye whipped around.
Nothing.
Her heart slammed against her ribcage. She grabbed her phone again.
"You've started the game."