Disclaimer: All characters depicted are 18 years of age or older.
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Chapter 1: Playtime
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Kenji felt something cool against his cheek and woke up. Light filtered into his eyes and the surroundings came into view. He was lying on his side on the floor -- the bare tiles cold and hard against his face. Above him was a line of weak fluorescent lights, their glow strangely eerie and nostalgic. Around him were rows of metal lockers, painted blue.
Fairview High?
"What... what happened?" a voice came from behind. Kenji turned around, realizing that he was not alone. Three other people -- all men, it seemed -- were also in the hallway, sitting up and rubbing their eyes.
"Where am I?" the man closest to Kenji said. It took a second, but he finally realized who it was.
"Chuck?" Kenji said. "Chuck Fredericks?"
Chuck looked up at him and blinked his eyes, once, twice. "Ken... Kenji?"
"It's been so long," Kenji said, smiling as he admired the ex-quarterback. Even after all these years, Chuck's build didn't change. "Nice to see you again."
"Yeah, back at ya," Chuck nodded then turned to the other end of the hallway. The two other men were staring at them. Kenji recognized them as well.
"You're Andre, right? Mr. Hicks's kid," Kenji said, looking at the tall, lanky men leaning against the lockers.
"Uh-huh. Kenji. Chuck," he gave them a curt nod, then turned to the man sitting across from him, his tan skin and bleached blond hair still the same as Kenji remembered. "Joel."
There was a pause as Joel's and Andre's eyes seemed to linger on each other, before the silence was broken by Joel. "Where the hell are we?"
"Um, isn't this our school?" Kenji said as all of them surveyed the surroundings. It looked like Fairview High School -- at least one of its hallways -- but something felt off. At one end of the hallway was a door with a red exit sign, but Kenji didn't remember the glass being frosted. At the other end was a wall, but Kenji thought the dead end shouldn't be there. The lockers looked weirdly clean: no rust, no random stickers, no stains. So did the floors and the walls.
"Yeah, but how did we even get here?" Andre slowly got up from the floor. "The last thing I remember is someone knocked on my car window and--"
"Put some kind of mask over your face?" Kenji's head snapped around.
"Oh shit, y'all too?" Chuck said, standing up. Kenji and Joel quickly followed. All of them, dressed in formal suits, were standing in the hallway now, looking at each other wide-eyed.
Joel patted his pants, then his vest. "I don't have my phone."
Each of them checked their pockets. All shook their heads. Kenji found his wallet, and so did Andre, but none of them had a phone. Joel said his Apple Watch was gone, too.
"What the fuck is going on?" Kenji began to pace down the hallway. He realized there were four rooms in the hallway -- two on his left, two on his right -- as well as a water fountain and a message board. Footsteps followed behind him.
"Why would someone kidnap us and bring us to our school?" Chuck asked. "The reunion isn't even happening here."
"Yeah, it's at the Convention Center, right? That's where I got knocked out, in the parking lot," Andre said.
"This isn't our school, though. It's some kind of... replica," Kenji said just as they reached the exit. Kenji pushed against the door, but it wouldn't budge.
"What the-- come on!" Kenji growled, squishing his entire body against the glass to no avail.
"Let me try," Chuck stepped forward and replaced Kenji's spot, but the door still refused to open, even as Chuck groaned and punched and kicked. Nothing.
"Fuck!" Chuck yelled, banging a fist onto the glass. "What the fuck is this?"
"Hey guys, come check this out," Andre said. They turned around and saw him standing in front of the message board.
"Look at this," Andre pointed to the board, to which a single piece of paper was pinned. It was the invitation to their reunion.
"You are cordially invited to Fairview High School Class of 2012 Ten-year Reunion," Kenji read. "Yeah, I got this in my email. We all did, right?"
Andre put his finger on the flyer. "Yeah, but look at the time. It says the reunion starts at seven. Didn't the invite say five?"
"Oh yeah, it did," Joel said. "Wait, so is the reunion at five or at seven?"
Andre's finger fell. "I was wondering why the parking lot was so empty. Someone sent us a fake invitation so we'd come earlier than everyone else. The real reunion is probably at seven."
"What the fuck? That's so fucked up," Chuck sighed and stepped back from the group, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"Wait, so let me get this straight," Kenji said. "Someone built a replica of our school's hallway, sent us a fake invitation, chloroformed us in the parking lot, and brought us here?"
"Yeah, I'd say that sounds about right," Andre nodded. "It was probably a multi-person job though. Kidnapping four grown men simultaneously isn't something you can do alone."
"Wh-- what the fuck is this?" Joel whined. "Why would anyone do this to us? Why... why us?"
Silence took over as they all stared at one another again.
Andre nodded. "Okay, let's try to figure this out. What do us four have in common that-"
"Fuck figuring it out!" Chuck bellowed and kicked the lockers, the clanging of the metal reverberating throughout the hallway. "I want to find a way out of this place!"
"Dude, calm down!" Kenji said. "It's not like we're already dying or anything. I'm sure if we put our heads together, we can find a way out of this place."
Chuck spun around. "Okay, what do you suggest we do, huh?" He turned to Andre. "And you? What's your idea? Come on, I'm all ears."
"Oh God, can you chill out for a second?" Joel said, glaring at Chuck. "It hasn't been five minutes and you're already whining and kicking shit like a little bitch."
"What did you just call me?" Chuck narrowed his eyes.
"You heard me, you're a little bitch," Joel spat. "And you should fucking cool it."
