A JSE Fanfic
Part One: The Game
[This is the first part of a small ten-part series I wrote for Halloween 2019. There's a new villain in town, and Jackieboy is on his list. Jackie finds himself in the middle of a dangerous game, and his four friends are involved as well. In a matter of life or death, Jackie scrambles to keep up with this villain, desperate to protect the ones he cares about.]
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“Wake up Jackieboy. You have a busy night ahead of you.”

Most people, upon waking up to a strange voice calling their name after passing out in their apartment, would be understandably freaked out. Jackie not so much. Of course this was weird and suspicious and definitely not good news, but it was part of his life at this point. Now he just had to wonder who it was this time.

Jackie opened his eyes and saw he was lying on a bed, on top of red blankets. He noticed two things right away: one, he had a killer headache, and two, he was wearing his super suit, which he distinctively did not remember wearing before…before he got here. How did he get here? The last thing he did remember was heating up some leftover pizza after work and chowing down on it while he watched YouTube. It tasted a bit funny, and he did get pretty sleepy pretty quickly after eating it…oh.

He sat up, looking around the strange room. No windows, only one door. It reminded him a bit of a hotel room. He wasn’t sure why, it was something in the simple furniture: couch, long table against the wall, short coffee table, and armchair. None of the sitting furniture looked too comfortable to sit in. The walls were wallpapered red, to match the red and brown furniture. There was a screen mounted on the wall with speakers next to it.

“Ah, there you are. Right on time.” The screen flickered to life, showing static briefly before clearing to a red screen. “I was starting to worry I messed up my calculations for the dosage.”

“Who are you?” Jackie stood up and addressed his demands toward the screen. “Where am I? How did you get inside my apartment?”

“Uh, lockpicking. It’s a useful skill that most people overlook. As for your other questions…” A map of the city popped up on the screen, with a red dot blipping into being in the northeast part of the city. “You are here. And I’m definitely not going to tell you who I am. At least, not right away.”

“Ooookay…” Jackie’s eyes darted towards the room’s door. It was probably locked, but couldn’t hurt to try. He turned and walked towards it.

“Oh you do not want to leave yet.”

Jackie stopped in his tracks. That was…an odd thing to say. Well, it confirmed that this guy—male voice, higher pitch than his own, American accent—had visual on him as well as audio. Jackie turned back to the screen. “Why?”

“Well, I heard you were a fan of games.”

Jackie laughed. “Okay, Jigsaw, you want to play a game?” He folded his arms. “Let’s cut to the chase, why don’t we? What if I don’t play? Are you going to kill me?”

“I guess you’ve been threatened so much that situations like this don’t exactly phase you, then?” The voice sounded…intrigued. And slightly amused. “That makes sense. Anyway, no, I’m not going to kill you. But it’s in your best interest to play along. Or actually, your friends’ best interest.”

Jackie felt his heart stop, then resume, pumping ice through his veins. “…what?” The word was barely audible.

“Oh yeah.” The map on the screen vanished, four pictures replacing it. Jackie turned to stone as he realized who the pictures were of. Chase, Schneep, Marvin, and Jameson. All the pictures had the look of being taken candidly, capturing them as they went about their business in the city, photos from a distance, around corners, and through leaves. “I know where you live, Jackieboy. You think I don’t know who your friends are?”

“What did you do?” It came out as a whisper, so he repeated the words, louder with rage. “What did you do?! If you’ve done anything to them—”

“You won’t be able to do anything about it.”

Jackie growled and kicked the back of the armchair.

The voice laughed. “But don’t worry! They’re perfectly fine. Or, they are right now, at least. I can’t promise they will be later tonight.”

Jackie’s heart was pounding as if he’d just ran 30 meters in a dead sprint. His eyes flicked back and forth between the photos on the screen. His friends. This psycho had his friends. “What…what are you going to do? What do you want from me?”

“Well, it’s very simple.” The pictures on the screen disappeared, replaced by a white screen with bullet points. “First of all.” The bullet points filled in as the voice talked. “I’ll give you a series of puzzles to solve. These puzzles will lead you to locations where your friends are, and tell you which one is there. Second, you have six hours to solve these puzzles and get to all your friends.” A clock popped on screen, showing the time: 12:09am. “If you fail to get to anyone in time, you lose the game and…well, you won’t be seeing them again. And finally, if you get help from anyone, if you go to the police, you forfeit the game. Which is a form of losing. And again, you can say goodbye to anyone you’ve left behind if you lose. Any questions?”

By this point, Jackie had taken off his super suit’s glove so he could chew on his nails. Okay. Seemed simple enough, even if the stakes were high. He could do puzzles. Hopefully. “If—I mean, when I get my friends back, can I ask them for help or do they count for the third rule?”

“Of course. What else are friends for?”

Jackie exhaled, releasing tension he didn’t know he was holding.

“Are you ready to play?”

“I…uh…” Jackie hesitated, then nodded. “How do I start?”

“Look on the table by the wall. Do you see a flat package there?” An arrow appeared on the screen, pointing toward the table. There was indeed a flat cardboard box. “Inside it is a laptop. The first set of puzzles is on there, in the files.”

Jackie glared at the package. He didn’t know if he should trust anything this voice gave to him. But he didn’t think the guy would send the puzzles to his own personal laptop. He walked toward the table and snatched up the package.

“There will be four sets of puzzles,” the voice explained. “Increasing in difficulty, of course. Don’t worry, you can use Google, this is an open-book quiz. Just know I’ll be watching. And hurry up! It is currently ten minutes after midnight. You have until 6:10am to solve all the puzzles.” A timer popped up on screen, reading six hours. “The game starts now. Go!” The timer started ticking down.

Jackie didn’t even reply, just ran towards the door, threw it open, and came out into a run-down hallway, lined with doors with one at the end. He dashed towards the door at the end, pushed through it, and stumbled onto the street. He looked left, right, then ran toward the city center.

Six hours.

The game was on.