Horror Stories of the SMP

the hunter

The game did things to Dream.

It had started out as just that. A game. One man vs. two hunters, then three.

Four. Six. Ten.

The stakes weren't high, but they promised reward enough that they came back every time. After all, you couldn't die, not really. There was always respawn, a sense of hope that taunted as you drew your last breath and felt the static consume.

Each match brought new challenge to the lone survivor. Traps, grinds, camps — all were fair play on the field. And yet, he never failed to evade each one, never failed to reach the finish line with a bloody sword and a crooked smile.

In the first couple games, he was hesitant. Despite their ability to cheat death, the experience of killing one's friends for sport was jarring, to say the very least. Shot with a crossbow from across a windy plain. Blown to chunks of flesh and scarlet guts. Stabbed through the heart. A slit throat. Their fear was just as real each and every time he watched the life drain from their corpses.

But as time went on, he became cold. Not a husk, but a monster nonetheless. He started asking the questions the sane wouldn't dare, and answering them himself.

How long could someone survive hanging by their ankles?

How far could a man crawl with no legs to stand on?

How many times could he stab someone before they bled out?

It was a game to him, but his friends began to fear the way he grinned as he bludgeoned them till they saw blood deep into their vision. It was a wicked smile, a show of malice, an insane and toothy gleam that stretched and distorted his face. It was usually the last thing his friends saw, forever burned into their nightmares and leaving them shuddering in their sleep.

Whenever he won, he seemed himself again. Cheery and goofy, with a competitive spirit that always seemed to get him into trouble. But whenever they looked at him, they only saw the grinning man. The one that laughed as they begged for him to stop, who licked the blood off his teeth as he reveled in his earned glory.

Because they weren't really the hunters at all, were they?