The Cursed Board Game

I let out a deep breath and looked down at my watch to catch it jump from 10:35am to 10:36am. “Maybe I over did it...” I thought looking up at my roommate was passed out in his chair. In between us sat a small end table and on top of that sat a dark and enigmatic board game. The previous night I had gotten Ricky black out drunk and once he was good and unconscious I pulled him off his bed and sat him on his chair. Using some rope I had purchased the day before I tied his hands behind his back and then tied his body to the chair. “I could just cut him loose and act like this never happened...” My eyes drifted back to the board game and I felt raw frigid chill run down my spine. “No. No he’s playing the game. This is going to happen.” I mumbled as slowly looked over to the window. The curtains were pulled shut, but I could hear heavy rain drops bouncing off the window pane. I knew it was dark and dank outside, and that seemed fitting for what I was about to do.

Five days earlier Ricky and I had both graduated from college. Ricky had gotten a bachelors of art in journalism with a minor in fine arts, while I had completed a bachelors of science in biology. We had roomed together the past two years and for our senior year we had splurged and got an on campus apartment. I had hoped that getting an apartment would finally give me the chance to live the college experience that is so commonly played out in the movies, but that wasn’t the case. Moving from the dorms to an apartment didn’t result in wild parties or one night stands. In fact basically nothing change aside from the fact that it cost us more and we could live there for a month after college ended.

To say that my college experience didn’t live up to my expectations was an understatement. I had made the mistake of going to a small private college that had a religious affiliation. What that meant was a heathen like me wasn’t really accepted into most social circles. Sure the small group of athletes on campus had fun and partied, but not being an athlete all but excluded me from their social circles. The rest of the students on campus were mostly pious and studious. Of course there were a handful of students like Ricky and myself who didn’t subscribe to any religion, but the campus climate left us isolated and ostracized. After 4 years of frustration and disappointment I looked back at college with tart bitterness.

It didn’t help that I really didn’t have anything to do for another 2 months. I already had a job lined up with a biotech startup, but my first day was still weeks away. Since Ricky and I technically had 3 weeks left on our lease we had decided to keep living in the apartment, because I had nothing better to do and he was still hunting for jobs. Being bored and bitter I had ventured to the local mall two days ago. The mall, like so many malls these days, was struggling to survive. After the two anchors had closed 10 years ago the chains that had once filled the mall had left once by one. Now maybe a quarter of the stores left in it were national chains. There was a Hot Topic, Victoria’s Secret, a Bath and Body Works, and of course a GNC, but most of the stores were local stores that seemed to pop up and quickly go out of business. Unsurprisingly about a third of the mall sat empty at any given time.

Wandering through the mall was depressing, but it fit my mood post graduation. I checked out a couple of the local stores, but I didn’t need handmade knickknacks so I continued to peruse the mall until I found a store that was in the midst of closing. When I walked in the smell of cigarette smoke filled my nostrils and I spied an old Laotian in the back throwing items into boxes. I tried to strike up a conversation with him, but his accent and mood made it difficult to make out what he was saying. That is until he grabbed the board game from the box and shoved it into my hands. “This will fix your woes.” He said in a very serious tone. “Now leave me to my work.” He motioned for me to leave, but I still attempted to pay for the game. “Let me give advice. Find friend and have them play.” The man pointed towards the door. “Now you leave.”

With the game in hand I headed home and began combing the internet for information on the game. There’s no instructions with the game, just a dice, a pawn, and the game board. No matter which search engine I used or what search terms I typed in, I couldn’t find anything on the game. The only thing did find was an archived geocities page that was incomplete. It said something about the game changing people’s lives, but it didn’t say what it changed about their lives. Unfortunately for me that portion of the page hadn’t been archived. All I knew is that one person had to play the game, but that person didn’t necessarily have to “play the game”. The person playing the game could have another person roll the dice and actually play the game. It was a bit much to wrap my head around, but the longer the game was in my possession the more is seemed to be me to play.

Then the night before last, everything came to me in a dream. A shadowy figure had approached me and began to explain the game to me and how I could use it to transform Ricky into the college girl that I had yearned for. The next morning I had felt almost compelled to put the shadowy figure’s plan into motion. I had went out and bought rope, sewing needles, and lot of alcohol. All I needed to do was get a drop of blood from Ricky to place onto the first tile of the board game and then I could play the game for him. The figure had assured me that when the game was over I would finally get a taste of what college really had to offer....

I got up from the chair I had been sitting in and poured myself another glass of chardonnay. Normally I wouldn’t drink at this time of day, but anxiety that riddled my body had pushed me to open the bottle of wine. “Why am I doing?” I asked myself as I took a drink of my chardonnay. “Because...” I heard a soft voice in my head. “You’ll get what you desire if you play the game...” I shivered as the worded echoed in my mind. I didn’t know if the voice my was own intuition or something more nefarious. What I did know is the alcohol helped make the voices go away.

Ricky let out a groin and his head began to stir. “Ughh....” He let out a deep sigh.

I hurried back across the small apartment to my chair that sat opposite of Ricky. “Wake up dude.” I said leaning over the board game that sat between us and patting him on his face. Ricky stirred a bit, but his eyes remained closed. “He must have one hell of a hangover.” I thought as I slapped the side of his meaty thigh. “Bruh it’s time to take a trip to flavor town.” I said smirking. Ricky was a heavy set guy who always dressed in a button down shirt and wore sunglasses. I always joked he was trying to imitate Guy Fieri with his wardrobe. “Wakey Wakey.” I said patting him on the face again.

“Ugh...” Ricky let out a loud groan followed by a deep sigh. “What the hell happened...” Ricky stopped speaking once he realized he was sitting in a chair. His shoulders moved and his arms began to fidget once he realized something was off. “What the fuck.” He cried out trying to get free of the ropes that confined him to the chair. “Austin what the hell.” He looked up at me with panic in his eyes.

For a moment I felt sympathy for him, but the voice in the back of my head egged me on and I focused back at the task at hand. “Bruh you drank a bit too much last night didn’t you?” I grinned at him and chuckled.

“Austin what the fuck man... What the fuck is going on!?!?! FUCK!” Ricky cried out in a feverish panic.

“What the fuck is going on, is that we are playing a game. Well I’m playing the game for you. See you’re the one connected to the game, and I’m the one playing it for you.” I pointed down at the bloody finger print on the first tile of the game. “That’s your blood, which means your are connected to the game.” Ricky struggled to break free of the ropes, but to no avail. “I’m not going to go over the details of the game, but I’ll give you the cliff notes buddy." Ricky stopped struggling and looked at me with horror in his eyes. “This game is intended to turn whoever plays it into a woman. The type of woman depends on how you play it, but none the less you will be becoming a woman this morning.”

“Fuck you!” Ricky cried out and tipped the chair over.

I sighed and grabbed the bandana I had done up into a gag. “I thought you might not be a fan.” I said as I tied the homemade gag onto his head. Ricky continued to make muffled noises as I lifted the chair back up. “Fucking hell you’re heavy...” I said as I took my place in the chair opposite of Ricky. Again I felt a twinge of sympathy rush through my body, only for that feeling to be smothered out by a darkness that seemed to consume my mind. “Shall we begin buddy?”