• “Well, now that all of you are up and ready to face the day, I figure that its time to introduce myself.”
    He was a man of average height, I noticed, wearing a collared shirt which hung baggily off his skin. His arms stuck out like toothpicks, every joint and bone in his hand visible underneath tightly stretched skin.
    He looked like a skeleton, I thought. Yet somehow I recognized this skeleton. Like a phantom of someone I vaguely remembered.
    “You’re-”
    “Shh, not now my dear. We have many things to cover. Let’s not spoil the surprise for everyone else.”
    I looked around; there were eight of us in all, seated around a large semi-circular table.
    I knew two of the people there, the man sitting next to me, (whom I had dated in high school), and a woman several seats over, (whom I had been friends with during most of grade school.)
    It was a very odd thing to have woken up to, and everyone else seemed to be in as much of a stupor as I was.
    Everything seemed dream-like, kind of foggy.
    And I couldn’t seem to think straight.
    Had I been, at the time, I might have noticed the small device attached to one of my arms, and also the utter wrongness of the entire situation.
    I had no clue as to how I had arrived in this place, nor where it was, nor what I had been doing up until this point.
    It was like a dream.
    I simply didn’t question the complete absurdity of it all.
    “Now all of you.” The man continued. “It will take some time for you to get your wits about you. There were a few things I had to do to ensure your safe and quiet arrival. It may take about five to ten minutes, so in the meantime, we should make some introductions. As miss Karen kindly pointed out, yes you should remember me. I have met each and every one of you on at least one occasion.
    “For example, mister Benjamin over here, as I recall, you ran me off the road late one night, caused many damages to my car, and left me stranded until someone was kind enough to help me out. I would have never been able to find you unless I had written down your license plate number. Yes, I kept it handy to get all the little tidbits I could, and I didn’t feel the need to press charges. Yes, I would press charges of my own.”
    “That was years ago!” The man called Benjamin exclaimed. “I don’t know who you are.”
    “No? Well I know who YOU are Mister Benjamin. I know where you live, I know all about your affairs with about seven women despite your five year marriage. I know that you’ve been arrested three times involving physical abuse, and fined several times for aggressive driving. Yes Mister Benjamin. I do hope that you understand the importance of thinking before making a decision.”
    The man called Benjamin started to stand up before he stiffened, and jerked back, nearly falling out of his seat.
    “Electric shock. Very useful for keeping people in line. You will notice that each of you has been wired. Do anything I don’t like and you’ll feel it. Don’t get up, don’t speak unless given permission, and… don’t upset me.”
    “But what-!” A woman started, and stiffened not a moment later.
    “Don’t speak unless spoken to. We’ll have a question and answer session momentarily.”
    The man looked around, his eyes falling on two people sitting next to Benjamin.
    “Next in line, we have a pair of people whom I heavily despise. You do recall me yes? You were living on my own work. I had written an absolutely wonderful story, one of a kind, when I was younger. You two, YOU TWO, why don’t you tell everyone else what you did?”
    “Sir, really now, I don’t remember-”
    “Oh, don’t disrespect me further by pretending not to know me. You STOLE my work, after calling it garbage. Yet you took it, word for word and published it yourself, under your own names. Is that where the rest of your work came from too? From stealing? You live in a very, very nice house, from my work especially. I read all the wonderful reviews it received, all of the news articles about how it might be adapted into movie, etc. Yet, ‘garbage’ you called it. You are one of the worst in here tonight. In fact, I might even call you two guests of honor. Yet, at the same time, I might call everyone in here guests of honor. That’s what makes tonight special.”
    The man smiled a moment, a horrible smile.
    “Next, we’ve got a classic schoolyard bully here, turned thug and murderer. Yep, I remember you from grade school. I remember everything. I wrote it all down, kept it close, just to make sure that tonight would be special. I don’t need to bring it up though. I can see it in your eyes Mister Austin, I can see that even after all those horrible chemicals you poured into your body, and the people you killed to buy those horrible chemicals, you still remember me. Yes, you’ve got a nice track record. I always knew you would. Breaking into houses. You shot up an entire family for the sake of a bottle of pills. Look at the state you’ve brought yourself into. Yet, what ticks me off the most, is that you got away with it. All your little legal loopholes, little bribes, to walk away clean.
    He stopped a moment in front of the next person. His face froze up a minute, before he started to describe what she had done.
    “Oh yes, I remember you horribly, ma’am. How old you look now compared to when you scarred me so deeply as a boy. I recall when you pulled me into your house. I remember every moment in striking detail. You ma’am, you are not deserving of this earth. How many more did you utterly shatter, as you did to me? No. You don’t even need to speak. I don’t ever want to hear your voice. You are just another worm like the rest of them gathered here today. Another monster that got away.
    “And finally, we come down to you three.”
    He looked me, the man and the woman that I knew over with his deep sunken eyes.
    “You three, were my peers, and I can tell by the looks you have that you begin to recognize me. Karen, you were my friend once. You were the only one who was. You were so kind to me, and memories of you are some of the greatest that I have. You, Nathanial, were never kind to me. You were also a friend of Karen’s though, and for that I hated you. I could not comprehend why someone like you could be so close to someone as wonderful as Karen, the same with Miss Anne here. But I dealt with it, just like I did with everything else. I dealt with it, but held it close. Not forgiving, not forgetting. I kept every single detail.
    “And then the dance came. I asked Miss Karen to it. I put myself out, and she said yes. She gave me a glorious and beautiful yes. That day was the most wonderful I ever knew. The day of the dance felt so very, very far away, and every day it seemed further, until it was right on top of me.
    “And I waited for you, Miss Karen, to show up. I waited, and I waited. And you did, in the arms of Mister Nathanial. Shredding up the heart of someone is no punishable crime. But little do people know the damages it can cause to the very being of a person. Finally, Miss Anne, the tormenter, who very much outlined where I stood as far as my social standing was concerned. You made sure that none of the little pieces of my being would ever fit back together again.
    “And so we have our council of horrors introduced, and now that you are all fully awake and ready, we can begin game night.”