Page 81 of Moonstruck

The sounds the man made as he watched those on the screen dying were familiar to anybody who’d ever watched porn. Though the view obscured his movements, it was clear he was jerking off to them. He was jerking off to a group of people killing themselves. A group of people he’dconvincedto kill themselves.

Yeah, this guy needed to die.

The screen went black, and then a dozen videos appeared. These clips couldn’t have been more different. It was clearly footage from webcams. The people on them looked healthy and happy, though they were watching something on the screen intently.

“This is them when the game first starts,” Calliope said.

The videos morphed into a different day, different time. There were only five videos now. It took Asa a moment to realize that the people on the screen were the same people. They looked sickly. Eyes bloodshot, hair a mess. Some looked as if they’d been crying, and all of them looked on the verge of a breakdown.

“This is the halfway mark,” Calliope muttered.

“Halfway mark?” Zane asked, voice thick.

“Why are there only five videos now?” August asked.

“Because he fails the ones he can’t manipulate. They ‘lose’ the game. These are his finalists,” Calliope explained.

“What does that mean?” Lucas asked.

“I don’t know,” she said. “That’s how they’re listed in his collection. The finalists.”

“Sick fuck,” Jericho muttered.

“What did you mean by the halfway point?” Zane asked.

Calliope sighed. “This is where the game changes. He switches tactics.”

“How so?” Thomas asked.

“Let me guess. He starts to befriend them?” Lucas asked.

“How did you know?” Calliope asked.

Lucas’s expression was grim. “It’s an interrogation technique. Break them down, then try to make them think you’re their friend.”

“Befriend them how?” Atticus asked Calliope.

“From what I can see in the chat, he starts to create this sort of intimate bond with them. Convinces them that he’s not like the other handlers. He seems encouraging at first. Tells them that they can do it, they can beat the game, that he has faith in them. That the money they’ll win will change their lives. But once he gets them talking to him, confiding in him, that’s when it all changes.”

“Changes how?” Thomas pressed.

Calliope cleared her throat, still hesitant. “He starts questioning reality. The videos he forces them to watch are the worst kind of conspiracy theory propaganda. Like flat-earther, 911 was an inside job, the country is being run by lizard people conspiracy theory stuff. The kind of things nobody in their right mind would watch if they hadn’t already been broken down psychologically.”

“But why?” Zane asked. “Like, what’s the point of that?”

“He’s systematically stripping down their defenses, making them more susceptible to his ideology,” Lucas said.

“Ideology?” Zane echoed.

“Keep going, Calliope,” Lucas said, without supplying any more detail.

The videos advanced again. “This is where he starts to convince them that none of this is real.”

“None of what?” Zane asked, frustrated.

“Life,” Calliope said softly. “He’s unraveling their reality, convincing them that they’re Neo and he’s Morpheus and they’re all caught in a Matrix-like creation. One they can unplug from if they just complete the final challenge. And die.”

“No fucking way,” Zane snapped. “My brother wouldn’t fall for this bullshit. Gage was the smartest person I knew. There’s no way he’d fall for this. No way.”