The Game

Hello readers and welcome to my latest story! The Game will be based around ENF themes as usual, and although you may find it a little slow to begin with I think this one is really strong overall, albeit it quite long. As always any comments or pieces of feedback are much appreciated. Enjoy!

*****

Dressed in a resplendent gold satin robe, with his ornate handcrafted black mask glinting under the light of a chandelier, a mysterious figure stretched back luxuriously as he reclined on his chaise lounge and sighed impatiently. With his mind elsewhere he accepted a glass of wine from a nearby servant and gave them a nod of thanks, then sipped his drink thoughtfully as he gazed at the large screen which dominated the entire wall standing before him.

A quick glance at the clock in the upper left hand corner told him that twenty nine minutes had passed, and there were just a few more moments to wait until things would begin to get really exciting. He eased himself up, leaning forward eagerly so as not to miss a second of the action, then scanned the display intently as he counted down the seconds in his head.

"Cigar sir?"

Another server had appeared at his side, carrying an untouched box of Cubans held open on a silver platter, but the masked man dismissively waived him away, for now was not the time to indulge in trivial distractions. As the time ticked over to a round half hour he found himself holding his breath in anticipation, and almost instantly his keen interest was rewarded with a beautiful if highly unusual sight.

"Ah, there you are..."

Up on the screen three new figures had appeared, three gorgeous looking girls who to the man's delight were dressed only in white trainers, and who were being hounded by five very angry looking security guards. After a few steps one of the trio broke off to the left, the light catching the curves of her body as she ran towards the camera, and the other two peeled away in the opposite direction as they desperately tried to stay ahead of their pursuers. The mysterious figure smiled to himself and took another sip of wine, as even after all he had seen over the years he could already tell that this was going to be a good one.

The final round had begun.

May the best naked woman win.

*****

So who is the masked man, who were those nude streakers, and what exactly had driven them to such an insane act of exhibitionism? Well, I can answer your second question by confirming that one of them was in fact me, and in order to explain why I found myself in such an extreme predicament we need to go back seven days, back to where my sorry tale began. Hi, my name is Laura, and this is the story of the most insane week of my life. Before you judge me too hard for what I'm about to tell you, please bear in mind that my life had become nothing short of a disaster recently, and I was starting to get really desperate until The Game came to find me.

For a little context I'm twenty years old, one term into my second year at university, and totally broke. What makes this worse is that I'm actually from a pretty rich family, my dad worked in the oil industry and I had a very privileged upbringing where I had everything I could have ever asked for. Luxurious holidays, tons of expensive gifts, I even had an actual pony at one point. So yeah, call me spoilt or pampered if you want but basically you get the idea, overall it was a pretty cool childhood.

When I was older I got sent to a fancy private school which meant getting good grades was a walk in the park, and after my exams were done I had my pick of the top universities to apply to. My parents bought me a car as a reward for getting accepted onto a prestigious economics course, and then gave me a very generous allowance to live off so I could focus on my studies. Yes, I'm ridiculously lucky I know, and trust me I didn't waste the opportunity as all that money was quickly spent to make my first year living away from home a blast. I went out all the time, made a bunch of new friends, partied every night and did barely any of my lectures or coursework.

This meant I failed the course with an embarrassingly low average score, had to beg my tutors to let me retake the year, and even though I tried to hide this disaster from my family they soon found out when they were asked to pay for my second round of tuition fees. What really pissed my father off was that I'd spent so much on drinks, drugs, new clothes and spontaneous vacations that I'd burnt through all of my allowance completely, and had sneakily dipped into my inheritance fund to make up the difference. Not good right, but what can I say? I was a moron, and sure enough my bad decisions soon came back to bite me.

When the full details of my spending habits came out Dad went ballistic, and basically told me that from now on I was on my own. He'd pay for my degree but everything else would have to come out of my own pocket, rent, food, literally everything. I'd never worked a day in my life so I had no savings, no experience, and no idea how to earn a living wage whilst also trying desperately to pass my first year all over again. So I got a shit job as a waitress in a nearby café, which I hated, and worked there in my spare afternoons and at the weekends as I tried my best to study hard the rest of the time.

To be fair the tough love approach had worked and my efforts were paying off academically speaking, but God I missed my old life of partying all night and sleeping all day. I was also still barely able to scrape enough together to fund my new incredibly boring and frugal lifestyle, and that wasn't made any easier when one afternoon I crashed my car. I hadn't sold it yet because I was too lazy to get the bus into university each day, but I wished I had when I accidentally drove straight into the side of a van as I checked a notification on my phone.

No one was hurt but both vehicles were absolutely wrecked, and the collision had obviously been my fault. And you know what makes it even better? I'd cancelled my insurance a month earlier to save some money, figuring that the chances of anyone ever finding out were so low that it didn't matter. Yeah, like I say, I'm a moron.

The repair costs absolutely wiped me out, and I was lucky not to get into serious trouble with the police for driving around without any damage cover. I had to take out a sizeable loan to fund the van's repairs and now I was seriously considering dropping out of university, just so I could get a full time job to pay off my debts. Sure, I could have gone back to my parents and asked for help, and I have no doubt that they'd have forgiven my idiocy and sorted everything out for me, but I was honestly too embarrassed to reach out.

My older sisters are both very successful doctors and lawyers, and here I was struggling to get through a simple undergraduate degree. I didn't want to plead for more charity, especially not from my father, but I also had no idea how to start repaying my loan. No idea that was, until The Game made contact.

*****

It was a pretty standard Saturday afternoon, maybe around four o'clock, and as usual I was wasting away my weekend working at the café. We'd been pretty busy all day but I was just about to finish my eight hour shift, and as I did a last quick sweep of the outside seating I was shocked to see a folded £50 note lying on one of the tabletops. In the UK it's normal to tip about 10% to the servers when you leave, so often there's a small handful of coins left next to the receipts when we clean up after customers.

But tipping £50 was unheard of, that was beyond generous, it was plain silly. I wracked my brains to try and remember who had been sitting at that table earlier but I drew a blank, there had been so many faces in and out all day that I'd lost track. I picked up the cash to check that it was real, which it was, and as I did a small business card fell out from inside the note and landed on the floor.

I picked it up and studied the small black circle, triangle and square stencils which were printed onto the otherwise plain brown background, and wondered if it was some weird logo for a company I hadn't heard of. There was also some small text on the reverse side which I wanted to check out, so I pocketed the money along with the card, called goodbye to my colleagues over my shoulder, and then headed off home. On the short walk back to my flat I curiously studied the tiny writing, and this is what I quietly read aloud to myself.

"Congratulations Player 17, you have been selected for participation in The Game. This is a series of six challenges where each contestant will compete to be crowned the overall champion, and be rewarded with a considerable cash prize. If you wish to accept this invitation then please visit the link below and fill out the application form. When you have finished £1000 will be deposited into your account, as a show of good faith. We look forward to hearing from you."

Well you must be thinking the same thing that I did, it's just too good to be true right? Regardless of whatever this Game thing was, who on earth offers someone a grand to just fill out an online form? I assumed that it was some sort of scam or prank, but the £50 in my pocket did make me kind of question if it could be legit after all.

When I got home I went straight onto my laptop and typed in the link on the card, then hit enter. I was greeted with an underwhelmingly conventional looking set of boxes to fill in, stating things like my full name, age, phone number, that kind of basic information. They also wanted my bank details, which again made me very suspicious, and a photo of me. I typed in all of my personal info, and even chose a nice selfie from my camera roll to upload, as I tried to decide what to do.

This seemed to be the dodgiest thing in the world, no one gives out that much money for free, and I was almost certain that no good would come of it. But... I was broke. Even if it was a scam, what's the worst this website would be able to do? Steal the 17 pence I had left in my current account? Or maybe repay the £4000 debt on my credit card? Realistically my financial situation couldn't get any more desperate, I had nothing left to give, and therefore nothing really left to lose.

I went to the kitchen to get a cold drink, and as I opened my fridge the door fell completely off its hinges and came away in my hand. I sighed, looked around my shit, tiny flat, remembered my old decedent lifestyle, and thought 'fuck it'. Forgetting the drink I went back to my laptop, typed in my bank details, added my photo and hit submit. After a moment my phone buzzed and a text from an anonymous number appeared.

"Welcome Player 17, and thank you for choosing to participate in The Game. The first round will begin shortly. Good luck."

Something about the cold, detached wording of the otherwise friendly message made me shudder a little, but a second later I received another text, this time from my bank.

"Update: at 16:43pm £1000.00 was deposited into your current account, number 87300475. Your new balance is £1000.17."

I grinned to myself as I opened my finance app to see if it was really true, and sure enough there it was, the easiest money I'd ever made in my life. The account that sent the money was also anonymous but I didn't really care, I was just happy to have a balance that was longer than three digits again. I immediately ordered a takeaway, just because I could, bought two new pairs of shoes online, because I deserved them, and wondered what the mysterious Game would have in store for me next.

*****

The next chapter of my story began the following Monday, when I was drifting to sleep in one of my economics lectures. I was jolted back to consciousness when my phone vibrated, and I looked down to see another text from the blocked number telling me that The Game would start that night at 8pm. I was given an address to find and I was pleased to see that I only had to go to the large leisure center which was near my house, specifically to one of the huge sports halls that was attached to the side.

After my lecture finished I went home to revise for a bit, then at 7:45pm I set out to go and see what all of this was really about. I was definitely feeling quite nervous but also very excited at the idea of earning some more tax free money, and I relaxed a bit when I arrived at the gym complex and saw that it was still pretty busy, and that there was in fact a long queue of people waiting to get into the same hall that I'd been directed to.

I joined the line and pretended to be on my phone as I began to scout out the other players. It turned out that they were all female, and aged maybe from twenty to forty at most. Everyone was pretty attractive across the board but no one seemed very friendly, and there was no small talk as we all waited quietly for something to happen.

At exactly 8pm the side door to the hall swung open to reveal two figures dressed in red, hooded jumpsuits, with rounded black masks hiding their faces. Their strange outfits hid their identities completely, and neither of them spoke a word as they gestured for the first woman in the queue to follow them inside.

Again this was more than a little unnerving but us girls did outnumber them fifty to one, so we all filed into room as the mysterious pair went and took up their positions at the front of the hall, where a huge monitor was standing. On the polished wooden floor there were one hundred number markers arranged in a large ten by ten square grid, and everyone instinctively walked over to find their place. I took up my position in the second row as number 17, and after a couple of minutes everyone was standing in the right spot.

There was a tense, noiseless pause as we all awkwardly waited there wondering what we were meant to do, but then the screen flickered into life and a voice boomed out from speakers which were positioned in all four corners of the hall.

"Good evening contestants, thank you all for coming, and welcome to The Game."

Up on the display a face appeared, or rather another mask, as just like the two figures in jumpsuits this anonymous figure also had his identity hidden. He too wore a hood but his was gold rather than red, and his disguise was definitely more imposing and regal than those of his employees. His mask was more angular and intimidating, and the pits where his eyes were presumably located looked like a pair of black holes.

It seemed that this speaker was talking to us live from some unknown location, and he had a fairly nondescript, deep voice which was nonetheless unmistakably male. I looked around to see if anyone else was as weirded out as I was, but all the other girls had their eyes glued onto the monitor, so I too returned my attention to the screen as the masked man continued to speak.

"The Game is an opportunity for you all to prove yourselves as the ultimate champion, who deserves the cash prize of one million pounds. Seeing as our research suggests that you could all do with some more money, expect this to be a hard fought and intense battle."

This finally got a reaction from the crowd as we all let out a collective gasp of shock. Forget £50 or even £1000, this had just become really serious. One million pounds wasn't just enough money to pay off all my debts, that was enough to change my entire life, and definitely enough to let me go back to the carefree uni days of my first year.

I would be able to quit my waitressing job, buy a new car, start enjoying myself again, and all without having to accept a penny from my dad. Almost too good to be true, right? The other girls around me were also now grinning and looking around at each other excitedly, but what happened next quickly shut us all up again and plunged the room back into a nervous silence.

"What the..."

I whispered under my breath in shock as another door in the corner of the hall swung open and a young woman walked out, carrying a large, grey metal briefcase in her right hand. She looked about my age, she definitely had some Asian in her, maybe Korean if I had to guess, and she was absolutely drop dead gorgeous. She didn't have any makeup on but her eyelashes were naturally thick and dark, her skin was flawlessly smooth and glowing, and her gleaming jet black hair was tied up in a tight bun.

And then her body, Jesus. I never get jealous looking at other women because not to brag or anything but I know I'm lucky, I've inherited my mum's enviable figure and I'm very grateful for all of my curves and good looks. But this chick was something else, my God. She was actually pretty short but despite that her legs and arms looked lean and toned, her stomach was totally flat, but she definitely wasn't skinny as she had a butt to die for, and I shamelessly checked out her cheeks as she walked past the front row.

And her boobs, damn they were perfect. Any girl would kill to have a pair like hers, they were large enough to grab any man's attention, while still being perfectly perky, symmetrical, and sitting ever so pretty. Even her nipples were cute and well proportioned for crying out loud, she really did have it all, in every regard she was stunning. And how did I know all of this, you may be thinking? Well, because this woman was completely naked.

"This is former contestant Player 31, the winner of last year's competition, and as you can see she is carrying the cash prize that one of you will win this week. In order to prove your worth you will all be invited to compete in six challenges over the coming days. Each round the losers will be eliminated from The Game, and in the final challenge there will be one champion decided from the remaining contestants."

The masked man continued to explain the terms and conditions but I was only half listening by this point, like everyone else the majority of my attention was focused on the nude Goddess that had strolled carefreely to the front of the hall. She positioned herself in between the two jumpsuit guys, who somehow fought the urge to sneak a peek at that outrageous body, then she held the briefcase out infront of her and popped open the locks, thereby revealing stacks upon stacks of crisp, neatly bound fifty pound notes.

Even the sight of one million pounds in the flesh was only enough to divert my gaze for a brief moment, and then I was immediately back to blatantly checking out the Asian girl again. I am straight but trust me, you'd all do the same. She really was totally naked, from head to toe, she didn't even have a pair of socks on. And while that was already totally surreal, the thing that really baffled me was just how confident she was.

I mean imagine, you're standing infront of a crowd of one hundred strangers, in your birthday suit, with not a single scrap of clothing to cover yourself up with? That is literally the stuff of nightmares, and if it were me I'd have been sprinting for the exit as fast as my legs would carry me.

But not this chick, oh no, she was chilling. With her head held high she simply smiled pleasantly as her gaze slowly roamed around the room, and when she made eye contact with me and saw me staring she just winked. I blushed and looked down at the floor, ashamed of being caught looking, as I tried to work out how the hell someone could ever have that level of self confidence.

"The rules of the first game will be explained to you tonight, and each round will last for 24 hours. Every evening we will meet here again and the next challenge will be set, until we have found our winner."

I looked back up at the screen as I began to worry for the first time about what sort of games this guy might have planned for us. Until the nude girl turned up I hadn't had any ideas as to what the challenges would consist of, but now I wasn't sure I liked where this was going.