The Gambling Game

Now, you really shouldn't play around with urban legends. Usually people want to try them out for fun, thinking it is fake. And, when they realize that it is true, it'll be too late to end the game. QuartzCake knew what she was getting into, though. At least she wanted the circumstances. Turning your house into literal hell? The best way to go out in her opinion.

QuartzCake trotted to the kitchen, setting the instructions on her counter. Obtaining the equipment with her fragile hooves, she set them out on her table. Quickly, she skipped to the back and front entrance and locked them both. Then, she went to the door that connected her and her sister's house together. She locked that, too, just in case anything would leak out to her sister's house.

Afterwards, she made sure every other door was unlocked and continued with her operations. She put a watch on the side of her table, and waited a bit.

11:50 PM.

QuartzCake did the last of what was told of her, inserting the piece of paper into the lock of her entrance door and setting the candle next to it. She waited once more, ready to see if the colt tale was real or not. She kept her knife she used to get the blood on the paper close to her chest and loaded the flashlight with batteries. Her hooves shook as she watched the clock on her wall tick.

Her adrenaline was running fast. She could feel her blood zipping through her body. She then stopped, and realized; why is she doing this again? Oh, that's right. Because she felt useless. Quartz shrugged, not caring about the uselessness, and waited until the clock ticked once more so she could see if she really wanted to live.

00:00 AM

Quartz quickly lit the candle next to the door. Then, she watched as the lights flickered, and eventually turned off in a matter of seconds. She exhaled, clicking the flashlight on.

"Guess it worked." She chuckled. Her voice was a bit deeper than usual, but she didn't care. Her throat was hurting anyway, and that's what happens when she's scared.

Looking around, she noticed almost straight away that nothing had changed. It was the same old, same old house that she lived in. Sighing, she walked around a little in the big living room she had, hoping to find that at least something had changed, otherwise the 'game' wouldn't have worked.

She wondered around for a few minutes, but nothing happened. I guess you shouldn't expect things to happen straight away, but at least something would've happened by now. QuartzCake was disappointed. She tried another game similar to this a while back when she had the same depressing thoughts, and it didn't work either. She sighed.

"Maybe I did something wrong?" She muttered, shining her torch on the walls to make sure she didn't miss out on anything. "Come on, this would've been fun."

Upon saying this, she heard a rustling in her bathroom. Oh Celestia, the bathroom. The worst place to go during a horror movie or event. That, and the garage. Quartz squinted, but she pressed on, wanting to at least find one thing that could be of interest. She read around on the Ponyweb that no one has survived to tell the story. Maybe it was a fraud all along.

"Maybe it's because I used Intertrot Crusader instead of Everfree Chrome." Quartz sighed, shaking her head. Shining her light on the floor to make sure she didn't bump into anything, she made her way into her bathroom. She had three of them, but she knew which one made the noise. The bathroom on the ground floor.

Stumbling into the bathroom, she shone her flashlight around, making sure she didn't miss anything. She heard a muffled sound coming from the corner of her bathroom. Slowly, she turned her body towards the sound, and saw a familiar looking pony face-deep in the toilet. It looked like her sister, SilverPlatter.

"Silver?" Quartz gasped. "Silv, what in the hay are you-"

Before she could finish her sentence, her sister swiveled around. Her eyes were missing, and blood rushed down her face. All of her teeth were missing and there were multiple scars and stitches across her body. Her mane was more of a mess than it usually was, and she had hoof cuffs on her wrists.

Quartz gasped, falling backwards. Her sister pounced at her, missed, and ran off into the house. Quartz scurried to her hooves and picked up the flashlight she had just dropped. Quickly, she shone the light in SilverPlatter's direction, and followed her through the twisting halls of her large house.

SilverPlatter was always faster than QuartzCake, so it was no surprise that she lost her. Huffing and puffing, Quartz made it into the kitchen and sat down on a stool near the counter. She coughed, her chest in pain. Placing the torch on the counter, she began tightening her scarf, as it was loose. She cursed herself multiple times in her head for losing what seemed to be her own flesh and blood.

After a three minute rest, Quartz picked up her flashlight and began walking again. It might not have been her, she kept telling herself. Sadly, she would come across the monstrosity again. Maybe it was the ghost said to haunt the house? Who knows. But Quartz didn't see anything else different downstairs, so she made her way up to her bedroom.

Her heart was still beating to the beat of the clock when she reached her bedroom. She was still wondering about all the possibilities of who that mare dressed up as her sister could be. But that didn't seem to matter once she met eye-to-eye with something on her still wall. Painted above the colorful wall were nothing but two words.

"HELP ME."

"Help me?" Quartz spoke out-loud to herself. "Help who? There's no-one in this house expect me and... THAT thing..."

Quartz walked closer to the paint, shining her flashlight on every inch of every letter. Soon, she noticed that the color was a deep red. Soon after that, she noticed it was blood. Quartz lowered her ears and rolled her eyes.

"Wow." She sighed deeply. "One of the most copied and pasted cliches of all history's movies."

Coughing a little, Quartz continued looking around her room. At this point, she was being more careful about were she was poking her head. The last scare almost jumped her out of her skin, and she wanted to avoid that from happening ever again. She preferred to go out in a more monster-chasing experience.

After finding nothing, QuartzCake walked out of her room. Before she could leave, however, the door slammed in front of her, locking her in the room. A little bit confused, the mare tugged at the door, trying to get it open. After no avail, she began looking around the room again, hoping that the game didn't just lock her in her room forever.

Looking around, she noticed a strange smell. Soon after, she started coughing more and more violently. Looking up, she saw the air duct letting out a weird fume that seemed to be suffocating her. The mare's eyes were shocked. She desperately covered her mouth and tried to find something, anything, that would forcefully knock the door down.

The gas kept pouring in, and the more it did, the more Quartz wanted to give up. Eventually, she sat down and gave into her fate. She lied down on the floor, attempting to breath in as much poison as she could, hoping it would quicken the process. Finally, after a while, the tired mare passed out.

It wasn't long before she woke up again, still in her room. Confused, the mare got up and reloaded her torch with new batteries, since they ran out during her nap. She shone her light on the wall, still seeing the words 'help me'. No, this wasn't a dream. Far from it.

"So that gas was just some knock-out fumes?" Quartz sighed in relief. She then perked her ears up. "Hey, look at that, I'm glad I'm alive! Good, but I doubt that'll last long."

Standing up, she calmly twisted the knob on the door and it opened. She collectively walked out, fixing a little bit of her mane since some was about to fall in her eye. It was frizzy now, since she slept on the carpet. Before she entirely left the room, she checked the ticking clock once more.

00:51 AM.

"I only slept for around half an hour?" Quartz surprisingly said. "Hmm. Interesting. Maybe time goes slower now?"

She left the room, closing the door silently behind her. Trotting down the hallway, she stared into space, thinking about why she gave up. Before she could remember, a loud groan coming from downstairs woke her up from her dream world, she twisted her body around as recoil, and slammed her face into a wall.

How elegant.