Valarie

Hell is here
please beware,
for the end's near
and the hope is rare.

It's been only a few days since I found Aria's journal. Javi still refuses to read it, so I’m stuck in my room trying to decipher her handwriting and the meaning of the short forms she used.

Only a few phrases make sense. For example, MMYV is obviously Make me your villian and JAV probably means Javi, Aria and Valarie. But a few of them like WFR and GTB are beyond my understanding right now.

The journal ends at, what I’m guessing, is hour seventy of her gameplay.

We could use the answers already written in the journal to get ahead, but it would still take a few hours to get through it all. That will definitely put us over the seventy hours we previously decided.

I go online to check if the new players posted something we missed but most of them haven't even made it past the fourth level. And I assume the ones who did finish the game are dead before they can post anything about it.

There are already fake videos about it, which adds to my headache. One of them claims that on the seventy second hour you are given coordinates to a place with two vials. One vial contains a deadly poison and the other is just water. But that is too far fetched to be true, this is just a silly game.

Another video claims the ending is just a rickroll, while another says it will give you one last chance to say goodbye to a dead lover. But I’m sure at least half of the players will try to complete it just for the thrill. This is all my fault.

My heart beats faster than that one girl from a movie with happy endings when she meets her prince charming as I pick my phone up to finish the eight, or the third last level.

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“Seventy hours and thirty minutes?!” Javi runs a hand over his head in frustration. “You are so stupid.”

My guilt has been holding my anger back in all the time we have been fighting but I guess I run out of guilt as I start to scream at him too. “I know. We both are. A game can't kill a person. Want me to prove it to you?”

I grab my phone to make a point, but he knocks the phone out of my hand. A wave of relief washes over me but I hide it. This just went ahead to prove both of us are going crazy. All this has gone too far and it is completely pointless. It has to be.

“No, Val. What is wrong with you?” Javi sighs, “Stop being so impulsive.”

His words make me scoff, “I am being impulsive? I was not the person screaming crazy theories after my best friend's funeral.” I regret the words as soon as they come out my mouth. As crazy as his theories are, I believe them. But he does not need to know that, not now.

“I can't do this right now.” Javi states as he walks out the room, not bothering to close the door behind him. I hear voices from downstairs and I know my parents are trying to make sure Javi and I are alright. He may not have been here as much as Aria was, but they know how much he means to me.

I get up and slam the door close before mom comes to check on me. I grab Aria's journal and my phone before pretending to be asleep on my bed. I hear the door creaking open behind me but I am in no mood to talk, whoever they may be. It takes a few minutes before the door closes and I release the breath I didn't realize I was holding.

I pull Aria's journal out to go over all the new clues I found, there are eight in total now but none of them make any sense to me, except for the fact that all the answers lie in the beginning. But the beginning of what?

You will be playing for me, ever since the beginning.

You can change this, but I know you won't. Simple instructions, just follow them.

Words lie, but not in the start.

Happy beginnings end in sad endings.

Sad beginnings end in happy endings.

I roll my eyes again at the ‘clues’ and switch on my phone to look through the screenshots of 72 Hours agains. Somehow the first thing I click on is always the ‘Make me your villian' picture. I can't help but think it is important.

I swipe back to the home screen and click on 72 Hours instead. Even with some of the answers from the journal, it takes me over an hour to finish the second last level. The next button looms over the screen and I shut my phone off as quickly as I can.

Instead of going back to the screenshots, I decide to note down the clues and solutions to levels, in better handwriting, in my own non-journal. I pick my phone back up after I finish writing the last clue I uncovered.

Every end is always a beginning.

I text Javi the clue and he reads it in a matter of seconds but leaves me on read. He is such a kid.

Maybe it's frustration or boredom but my hand decides to pick my phone up again. I know what I’m going to do but that doesn't stop me, instead all I want is to hurry up. One moment I’m clicking on ‘Next’ and the other I’m just staring at my phone. Well that was anticlimactic.

A privacy policy notification pops up, freezing the background of the game. I can make out a sunset behind the pop up along with a few trees on the right. At the top of the tree, a dagger with a gleaming red handle sticks out. Meanwhile at the bottom I notice a few words, they seem to be a part of a poem. All I can make out is, ‘and the hope is rare.’

I take in all the information, not wanting to waste even minute. Thankfully, the app doesn't run in the background so all the time I waste now is worth it. I take a deep breath in as I hit agree on the notification.

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