The Game

"You are now ready to play the first game: 'As Bare as you Dare'. In a few moments the lights in this hall will be switched off and you will be unable to see one another. After exactly sixty seconds the lights will be switched on again, and the game will be over. There is only one rule, and it is very simple. When it becomes dark you must take off as many items of clothing as you dare, and when the lighting returns the 50 women wearing the least will be allowed to continue to the next round. The other 50 women will be eliminated from the game. Your time starts now. Good luck."

Without a moment's hesitation there was a click from somewhere and the monitor switched off, and simultaneously the rest of the room was also plunged into total darkness. I raised my hands to my face and wiggled my fingers infront of my eyes, but I literally couldn't see them even when they were just an inch away from my nose.

Somewhere in the blackness I could hear the breathing and fidgeting of the other 99 participants, and it was really disconcerting not to be able to see any of them at all. Even more concerning was the messed up game we had unexpectedly been asked to play, and I nervously fiddled with the cuff of my jacket as I decided what to do.

Now I'm sorry for changing the topic briefly, but before I continue my story I should quickly confess something to you. No, don't you get too excited, I'm not some crazy exhibitionist attention seeker who gets off on this kind of thing, I genuinely had no desire to join in with this perverted challenge at all. But at the same time I'd be lying if I said the idea of taking off my clothes infront of these other women massively concerned me, because as I mentioned earlier I have a nice body and I know it.

In all honesty I've never really been shy of how I look, and in fact my first year at university had unlocked an even more carefree and somewhat daring version of myself that up until then I hadn't known existed. Relax, I didn't get up to anything too ridiculous, I just experimented with some of the stereotypical first year shenanigans that students sometimes get up to.

Flashing my tits at the bar for free drinks? Not a problem. Playing strip poker at a house party? Tried it a couple of times. Streaking the college dorm on a dare? Been there, done that. Ok, maybe that last one was a little more extreme than average, but overall you get the point. As my friends would have been keen to tell you it wasn't totally unheard of for me to occasionally dabble in a little bit of harmless public nudity, especially when I had some alcohol in me.

So, even though those naughtier days were well behind me and I hadn't done anything particularly daring in months, I still impulsively decided to at least attempt to pass the first round, just to see what would happen afterwards. I know, it sounds insane, but remember that I still had no money, the £1000 they'd sent me so far had just been a drop in the ocean that was my overdraft, and I still really, really needed some more cash. And honestly, what would be the harm in just giving it a go? Well, as it turns out the harm would be almost immeasurable, but sadly I didn't know that yet.

"This is mental..."

I muttered to myself in disbelief at the ludicrous position I found myself in, as I nonetheless carefully sank to my knees and felt around blindly for my shoelaces. I didn't know if trainers counted as an item of clothing, but surely socks would. I swiftly pulled both off just to be safe and stood bare footed on the hall's wooden floor, twiddling my toes awkwardly. I also quickly realised that sixty seconds really isn't long at all, and given that we had no way of checking the time I should probably move fast if I wanted to take this game seriously.

I shrugged off my coat, as that was easy at least, then unclasped my belt, just in case that counted too. I then guessed that I only had maybe twenty seconds left at best, so before I could really ask myself what the hell I was doing I impulsively pulled my top off and added it to the growing pile of clothing on the floor.

The sounds of unzipping, unbuttoning and unclasping around me were only getting louder, and that spurred me on to quickly yank off my jeans too. I was now standing there only in my underwear, which I quickly adjusted to make sure it was covering me up properly, and I tightly hugged myself as the cool air of the large hall chilled my bare skin.

This pose meant that my crossed arms were naturally covering my boobs, and so was my bra really doing anything to cover me up anyway? I still had no clue about how long was left and I'd completely lost track of the time, so in a last second snap decision I reached behind my back and unfastened the clasp, then tugged the straps off my shoulders and pulled my penultimate item of clothing away. My bra barely had time to fall to the ground and hit the floor before the hall lights switched back on, and everyone was suddenly revealed again.

"Shit..."

I grimaced as the dazzling light temporarily blinded my eyes, which had become accustomed to the pitch black darkness, but luckily that brief moment where everyone was blinking the brightness away gave me enough time to cross my arms securely back over my tits again, before anyone got a look. When my vision had fully returned I glanced around the hall to see what my opponents had decided to do, and I was pretty surprised by the results.

A lot of women had just refused to move a muscle as a form of protest against the creepy game, and they were still wrapped up warm in their scarves and jackets. Then there were those who had decided to try and pass the challenge but with only a minimal amount of effort, and most of them had just taken off their coats and boots, and maybe a jumper too.

I'd say the majority of people had gone for the same tactic as me and stripped down to their underwear, although in their panic a few idiots had forgotten to take their socks off. A handful had been bold enough to go topless too, and like me they were all clutching their boobs as they stood with their shoulders tensely hunched forwards. We still weren't the bravest ones though, and my jaw nearly hit the floor when I glanced over my shoulder and saw that two women a couple of rows back had decided to go all the way, by stripping totally nude.

One, a tall slim girl with a huge afro, was staring religiously at the ground as she kept one arm clamped tightly over her tits, with the second wedged firmly in between her thighs. However the other, a stockier looking Latino woman who was absolutely covered in tattoos from the neck down, didn't seem to be at all ashamed by her nakedness, and she stood unapologetically with her arms casually folded under her boobs, and her privates totally exposed.

I suddenly realised that I had been patently gawking again and I looked away apologetically, as it felt wrong to look at them in such a state. The screen at the front had also been reilluminated, and from the speakers the deep voice rang out again.

"Player 1, you are eliminated. Player 3, you are eliminated. Player 4, you are eliminated. Player 6, you are eliminated. Player 7..."

The masked man proceeded to painstakingly read out the 50 names of the women who hadn't dared to show enough skin, and as their numbers were called out the unsuccessful participants bowed their heads in disappointment before trudging dejectedly out of the hall. One woman on my row glared judgingly at me as she walked past and tutted under her breath, as presumably she didn't approve of my state of undress. I just smiled calmly at her and waited for the rest of the losers to all leave, and hoped that we could put our clothes back on soon.

"Player 98, you are eliminated. Player 99, you are eliminated. To the remaining 50 players congratulations, you have passed the first round of The Game. Details of the next challenge will be sent to you tomorrow, but for now you are free to leave. Thank you for participating, and enjoy the rest of your evening."

The naked Asian girl, who had just been nonchalantly standing there at the front of the hall the entire time, clicked the money laden briefcase shut again and turned on her heels to walk out of the side exit. The two red jumpsuit guys followed after her, and once the door slammed shut behind them another eerie silence descended over the remaining group of scantily clad women.

After a pause we all started to hurriedly pull our outfits back on, and once I was dressed I found myself keen to get the hell out of there. There was still a decent amount of naked skin on display as I weaved my way through the remaining contestants, so I kept my eyes staring down at the floor as I passed by, then I was out of the main door and hurrying back through the dusk to my flat. What a weird evening that had been...

*****

The next morning I woke up in a daze, and for the first couple of minutes I genuinely thought that last night had been some sort of awful anxiety dream. It was only when I got up to make coffee, and saw the strange Game calling card lying on my kitchen counter, that I was forced to acknowledge that no, it had been all too real.

To be honest I still wasn't sure what to think about the whole thing, as on one hand it was obviously incredibly weird and strange, and unlike any competition I'd ever heard of. But then at the same time the vision of the one million pounds refused to leave my mind, and as I prepared myself for another morning working at my rubbish, minimum wage job the idea of playing on for a chance at the big prize felt like a weirdly viable option.

After mulling it over for a bit I decided that I was probably just going insane, so I got dressed and rushed off to the café to resume my boringly conventional life. It was another incredibly tedious day, where all I could do was daydream about halls of semi naked women, and I had only made it about two hours into my shift when my phone buzzed in my pocket. Without even having to check I knew from the sinking feeling in my stomach exactly who the message was from, and sure enough I was right.

"Good morning player 17. Before our meeting tonight at 8pm you are invited to participate in the second game: 'Photobomb'. You must send a picture to this number by that deadline, and in this picture you must be completely naked, not even footwear is allowed. In addition to this stipulation there must also be at least 50 other people in the picture, either next to you or in the background. If you satisfy both these requirements you may continue to the next round, but if you fail to do so then you will be eliminated. Good luck."

Again, you might find this bizarre, because I definitely do, but the idea of just ignoring the ludicrous instructions and carrying on about my day never even crossed my mind. For whatever reason I'd subconsciously decided that I was going to try and go as far as I could into The Game, as long as the challenges weren't too unthinkable, and after surviving the first round yesterday quitting now felt like even less of an option.

Instead I immediately went to my boss and lied about needing to leave early for a doctor's appointment, then with my heart beating out of my chest I grabbed my stuff and quickly rushed home. As I walked back I desperately brainstormed ideas for how I was going to try and pull this crazy photo off, as although I'd obviously taken a few sexy nudes in my time this was a whole new challenge all together. I decided that whatever I ended up doing it was probably a good idea to be wearing an outfit that I could get on and off really quickly, so when I got back I undressed and began to rummage through my wardrobe.

I'd already sold most of my nice clothes on eBay to make ends meet, so unfortunately I didn't have a huge range of options, but eventually I found a summer dress that was loose fitting enough to easily whip off at a moment's notice. It was very slightly see through, which was a bit of a concern given that I didn't think wearing underwear was a good idea in the interests of easy stripping, but I tugged it on regardless and just decided to risk it.

I also went with an old pair of sandals that were very easy to jump out of, and then I had no other reasons to keep stalling so I headed back outside. After hiding my keys under a flowerpot the only thing I had on me was my phone, and I began to walk aimlessly into the center of town as I looked around for a crowd big enough to complete my task.

Fifty people is actually quite a large number when you think about it, especially when you need them all to be in a concentrated enough area to fit into a single photo, and I soon realised that finding a suitable group would be trickier than I'd anticipated. I strolled past a park and briefly considered trying my luck there, but I didn't really feel like getting arrested for public indecency.

There were a lot of people in the city's main square, eating ice creams and tossing coins into the big water fountain, but again there were a few policemen milling around which was far from ideal. After covering a couple of miles I hadn't found anywhere suitable or come up with any good ideas at all, so more in hope than expectation I continued to stroll around, but still to no avail.

After a couple more hours of searching I had grown tired, my feet were beginning to ache, and I was really starting to worry about finding a big enough crowd before it got dark and everyone would go home. Then, as if to answer my prayers, my phone vibrated and I had a brilliant but terrible idea.

"Oh fuck no..."

I glanced down at the notification I had just received, which was a calendar reminder that I had a lecture starting in ten minute's time. That wasn't particularly important, seeing as completing this dumb task was my sole priority right now and it wouldn't exactly be the first time that I'd skipped a class, but it did give me inspiration for a stomach turning solution to my current dilemma.

Where do large groups of over fifty people congregate, in an area which is compact enough to take a picture of them all of at once? Lecture theatres, that's where. And how far away was my university campus from my current location? A five minute walk. Yeah, I think you can see where this is going...

*****

On the short journey across town I tried my best to talk myself out of the idea. It was a suicidal plan, totally undefendable, because if anyone recognised me, if any of the college's security staff caught me, I'd be thrown off my course and kicked out of university before the day was up. My parents would be informed, Dad would find out about the car crash, go ballistic and then probably murder me, and my life would be over.

But... I still also really wanted to stay in The Game, with a dogged determination that I couldn't really explain. I guess I knew this was my one shot at financial freedom, the one chance I'd get to cancel out all of the mistakes I'd made last year, and the only opportunity I'd get to win my old amazing life back. And so that must have been why I couldn't persuade myself to just turn around and walk home, and why instead I found myself arriving at the door to my university's humanities building.

I used my ID card which I kept in my phone case to enter through the main doors, then when I was inside the main lobby I stopped and took stock of my surroundings. There were a few students hanging around in the foyer but overall it was pretty dead, as most people were either in a class or studying quietly elsewhere. I walked up to the first lecture hall and tiptoed to peek through the small window in the door.

"Dammit..."

The room was completely empty, which I hadn't expected to be an issue. Unperturbed I moved onto the next one along where I was relieved to see that it was occupied, but by what looked like a relatively small seminar group. I quickly counted the students and found that annoyingly yes, there were only 34 of them, nowhere near enough to satisfy the rules of the challenge.

"Come on, room number three...."

Finally I struck gold when I peered in through the last door and saw an absolutely packed hall, where nearly every seat was taken up by bored looking students who were all staring mindlessly down at their lecturer who stood before them, reading aloud from a PowerPoint which was projected onto the big screen at the front.

I did a quick estimate of the numbers based on the rows of chairs and guessed that there were at least 80, maybe even 100 people in the room, and as long as the photo I took wasn't too zoomed in it would be easy to get at least 50 of them in frame. Now there were only two more issues to overcome. One, I needed to find someone to help me with the picture, as I didn't think a selfie would be easy to do given the extreme circumstances. And two, I needed to work out how in God's name I was going to have the balls to do this whole thing in the nude.

I decided to ignore the second problem and instead focus on the first, but like I said there was no one around, the handful of students who had been here earlier had already gone off and left the lobby empty. I impatiently paced up and down infront of my chosen lecture theatre while I kept glancing nervously at the clock, as it wouldn't be too long until some of the classes would be getting close to finishing, and the hallways would become flooded with students.

After what felt like an age my wish was finally granted when a cute, fresh faced first year walked through the foyer's automatic doors, and the moment I saw him my gut instinct told me that he was the man for the job. He looked sweet and naive, or in other words inexperienced and easily manipulated, especially by a confident and attractive girl such as myself. Before I could chicken out I launched myself across the floor and stepped right across his path, which made him come to an abrupt halt

"Oh! Sorry, I didn't see you there."

The boy blinked in surprise when he nearly bumped into me, then smiled shyly. God, I thought, he was so nice and innocent that he even apologised for things that clearly weren't his fault. Bullying him into doing me a favour would be a piece of cake.

"Hi," I stuck out first my chest and then my arm. "I'm Laura."

The boy looked slightly bemused for a second before he too extended his palm and cautiously shook my hand, all while trying not to look at my barely covered boobs as they shifted under my light sundress. I was pretty sure he could make out my nipples through the light material, but to be honest right now that was a useful advantage to have.

"Err hi, I'm Henry..."

I smiled my best smile, then leant in towards the boy's chest as I whispered to him confidentially.

"Nice to meet you Henry, and I'm sorry for interrupting but I need to ask for your help. I'm doing this... initiation, dare, game kind of thing. It's complicated. But basically I have to complete a list of tasks, ok?"

Henry nodded slowly.

"What, like a scavenger hunt?"

I reached out and excitedly squeezed his arm, which made him flinch adorably.

"Oh my God yes, exactly like that! Ok great, you'll understand this. So today I need to take a photo, of me, and there needs to be fifty people in the background. Are you with me so far, Henry?"

Henry was.

"Yes, ok... where are you going to find that many people?"

I responded by nodding over towards the lecture hall's door, and Henry looked through the window.

"Oh, you're going to take one with this class?"

"Yes Henry, exactly."

"But will the lecturer let you do that?"

I leant further into his body, and arched my back a little more to push out my tits, which quickly regained his attention. Aren't boobs great man, they're so useful.

"I don't think so, but I'm just going to run in, take it quickly, and then leave before he can get too annoyed."