Wanted My Life, Settled For My Body

“What’s the sweetest dream of a horror streamer coming true?” Darren asked Raven with utter excitement, holding up a brass key, “...a REAL, haunted hotel room!”

Raven held up the camera to take in the whole 18 floors of the hotel into the shot, but her face behind the lens remained a dead pan --

A hotel on Lexington Avenue. A bronze room key. Room No.1408.

What a brilliant joke.

It wasn’t like Raven didn’t know Darren was a Stephen King fan, but paying four grand to fly the two of them all the way to New York for such a prank? Rich as Darren, it was too crazy.

“The hotel in the movie was fancier with more floors,” Raven said with an indifferent voice, “Post this, and you are a laughingstock.”

Raven met Darren on Twitch. They were both orphans, both horror streamers, and both Lincoln High survivors.

What are the chances. So it was only natural when they ended up dating.

It didn’t hurt that Darren was everything a girl could hope for. Caring, attending, and sweet. He texts her for small cute cats on streets, and he remembers their anniversaries.

Darren did have ONE flaw, a flaw Raven found hard to tolerate. A flaw she tried to forget all the time.

But who doesn’t?

Raven wanted to keep Darren despite that.

Their one difference was, streaming was Raven’s serious livelihood, while Darren was living on the huge inheritance his parents left him.

Raven streamed at the same time every day. Silent Hill on Monday, and Resident Evil on Tuesday. Things like that. When Darren only posted whenever he felt like it, and the posts were not systematic either. Some haunted house he made up stories of, or a nebulous look at some remote forest he came across.

“No, no, no! I did my homework this time, seriously! Check it out!” Darren pulled up something on his phone, but instead of showing the camera, he dodged and kept his phone only for Raven’s eyes.

Raven tilted her head for a look. Just some screenshots of some ancient papers--

[Billionaire died in his own hotel room, throat cut]

[What killed a seventeen year old in a hotel room, on a school day?]

All the dazzling titles the medias feed people to make a living, when the real stories were miles away from what they indicated, just for clicks.

Raven shrugged. Darren and her were also living on clicks. Well, herself at least.

“Come on, don’t you want to check it out?” Darren pulled Raven into the lobby on the wrist, “It would be fun!”

Raven didn’t want to. She enjoyed creating horror, not experiencing other’s creation. The odd part was, Darren never liked the field work either, until today.

But Raven could never say no to Darren. She was too afraid of losing him.

“Want one?”

Waiting for the elevator, Darren held up a palm. A single hard candy rested there.

Raven cocked an eyebrow. Shook her head. She never liked candy. Too sweet. Darren knew.

Darren rolled his eyes with a laugh, “Come on, loosen up a little, will you? You're the famous Apophis, for God's sake! We're not even inside yet and you're already spooked. Your fans are gonna think you're a chicken.”

“You don’t take it off my hand, then I’ll feed it to you with my tongue,” Darren grinned, sending his hand to his own mouth.

He knew she hated selling their relationship as a feed on the internet.

Grabbing the candy off Darren’s hand, Raven ate it herself before hiding her cold look behind the camera.

Darren disappeared on her for a whole week. Not answering phone calls or texts. Skipped streaming. Only to pop up at her door last night and dragged her onto this trip. Raven had to cancel her schedule for the day last second, and now this?

She knew Darren was the one, but he could be an ass sometimes, just like all his rich brats of friends. But growing up an orphan, Darren was the closest to Raven what a good boyfriend is. And she wanted to keep him.

The candy melted into a bitter swallow. It tasted everything but sweet—like metal and something rotten.

“This is it, room 1408,” Darren narrated for the camera as Raven entered.

The room was normal. Just as any hotel room should be like.

Raven scanned the room with the camera slowly, and realized after a long while that Darren didn’t enter with her.

“What--?” Raven asked, but Darren cut her off--

“Raven, I really loved you. Please believe me.”

Raven saw two things in Darren’s apologetic look. One, he did something bad to her. Two, he wasn’t going to come in.

An omen feeling gripped Raven.

“Darren Rollins, what did you do?!” Raven strode to the door, and Darren dodged back away.

But Raven didn’t reach Darren--

The camera bumped into something solid and put Raven to a sudden halt. As if an invisible wall had sealed the doorframe.

Raven was trapped.

“It’s Emily, Raven. She got herself into some real bad things. A lethal reality game of some sort, I don’t know!” Darren blurted in haste, barely making any sense, “I had to help her!”

Right. Emily. The name of that “one flaw” Darren had.

Emily was not just an ex of Darren. She was his first, his childhood lover, and currently his best friend. She was the sole source of fights between Darren and Raven.

“Help her, how?” Raven asked, but she already knew the answer--

“She gets to leave the game only if someone were to take her place...” Darren said with trembling lips, “...and this room is the portal.”

So, you chose me to be the sacrifice.