Page 40 of Moonstruck
“It’s part of some super secret game some of the students were invited to play on campus.”
Zane’s gaze snapped to Asa’s, his eyes going wide. “Super secret game?”
“Have you ever heard of the Blue Whale challenge?” Cricket asked.
Asa frowned, relieved to see August and Lucas looking equally confused. “Blue Whale?”
“I know it,” Zane said, looking pale. “It’s an online game that originated in Russia. They claim almost two hundred kids have died worldwide playing this game.”
“But what is it?” Asa asked. “What’s the game…or challenge? What do they have to do?”
Cricket jumped in before Zane could answer. “Fifty tasks over fifty days overseen by a ‘curator,’ who monitors to make sure the player is completing the tasks.”
“How do you know all this?” Asa asked.
Cricket walked to the sofa, slipping off her shoes and sitting down, tucking her feet beneath her. “I didn’t know anything about it until the deaths at Henley last month. Then the staff here started talking. It’s become, like, a sort of urban legend that people in our city are playing and losing a game very much like the Blue Whale challenge.”
“What kind of tasks?” August asked.
“It’s hard to say. In the Blue Whale Challenge, the tasks are pre-set with the curator overseeing the player. Who knows if it’s the same thing here,” Cricket said with a gentle shoulder shrug.
“What kind of tasks are on the Blue Whale challenge?” Lucas asked Cricket. “If you know.”
“I researched it on Reddit a couple of weeks ago,” she said with a heavy sigh. “The first challenges are always easy. Watch a video the curator shows you. Draw a picture and show it to the curator. But the deeper into the game you get, the more insane the challenges. They say people are asked to carve letters into their skin, listen to certain music, meet other ‘whales,’ but it all leads to the same place. Jumping off a building.”
“Jesus,” Lucas muttered.
“Okay, but if the tasks are always the same and the last task is to jump off a building, then they’re not playing the Blue Whale Challenge here on campus, right?” Zane asked. “Because the suicides that occurred here and at Henley, the victims hanged themselves. So, if this is a game, it’s not this Russian challenge. This is something else entirely.”
Asa looked to August, who nodded, punching two buttons on his phone. The room filled with sounds of a phone ringing as August put it on speaker. “What’s up, baby daddy? Or daddy of babies? How are the littles? Give them a squish for me.”
August sighed. “Calliope, please stop calling me that.”
“Don’t,” Lucas cut in. “Don’t ever stop calling him that. The girls are good. I’ll give them all the squishes. But we need your help first.”
“What’s up, Buttercup?” she chirped.
“Remember what I asked you about this morning? The string of suicides?” Asa asked. “We think it might be tied to a game, kind of like the Blue Whale challenge. Do you know how we could find out if any of those who died were playing the game?”
There was a long pause. When Calliope spoke again, all the joy had left her voice. “I would need to see the computers, check their browser history. And even then, I might not know for sure. These kinds of people are good at hiding their tracks.”
“How do we get access to one of their computers?” Zane asked, looking back at Asa.
“I don’t suppose you still have your brother’s?” Asa asked.
“Your brother’s?” Lucas echoed.
“My brother was a student here when the deaths happened four years ago. My brother was one of them,” Zane managed. “I’m sure my mother has my brother’s laptop enshrined somewhere, but she’ll never give me access. I’d have a better chance of stealing the Declaration of Independence.”
Fuck. He’d suspected as much. “Calliope, can you patch in Jericho?”
Jericho wasn’t going to like this favor, but at this point, he owed Asa for ratting him out.
There was a thirty second delay, and then Jericho’s voice came over the speaker. “What’s up?” Jericho said.
Before Asa could speak, Calliope said, “You’re on speaker with August, Lucas, Cricket, Asa, and Zane.” Quickly tacking on, “And me…obvi.”
There was a moment of hesitation before he said, “Um, okay. What can I do forallof you?”
