Each Friday, I will blindly pick a picture card from the board gameMysterium, and set a timer for fifteen minutes. When the timer goes off, the story is done.
Michael couldn't believe it. Here he was, only a freshman at Sierra University and he was going to be inducted into one of the most prestigious fraternities, not only on campus, but in the world as well.
The Icarus were known to propel a lot of people in their careers, fame, and fortune. But, this was all hearsay. Since Icarus was a highly, secret society, no one knew for sure what they did or who was a member.
As he walked through the tree lined streets at night, he gripped his flashlight tightly, while he checked the address of the meeting place one more time to make sure he was in the right place.
Michael glanced up at the building he had stopped at and it sent shivers down his spine.
It was a giant, gothic church. It had tall spires, complete with gargoyles glancing down menacingly at him. The dark streaks that cascaded down the sides of the church made it seem like the building was silently weeping.
Michael put away the paper, and carefully walked up the crumbling stairs that led to two huge doors with intricate woodcarvings of the fleur de lis.
He knocked twice, like the instructions told him. The heavy doors groaned as if they were being awoken from a deep slumber and person in what looked like a monk's robe wearing a mask made of feathers and bone opened the door.
"Brother, Michael, are you ready to become a member of the Brotherhood of Icarus," said the monk from under the hood.
Michael could feel the sweat pour down his face before he said yes.
The monk moved to the side and gestured, with a wide arm for him to go down a hallway that was lit with torches.
As Michael got closer he could see more hooded figures wearing the same type of mask lining the hallway leading to a large set of double doors at the end.
"Proceed to your destiny, but don't get too close to the flame," said the Monk that let him inside but was now standing behind him.
Michael swallowed hard as he walked toward the doors. His shoes made a clicking noise on the marble floor that seemed to fill the entirety of the cathedral.
The brothers stood in silence as they lined the hallway, but Michael could feel their eyes blazing a hole into him.
I just have to make it through this one form of hazing and then I will be a brother. Doors will open for me everywhere.
When Michael reached the end of the hallway, two of the brothers bowed deeply to him and opened the heavy doors wide.
"Proceed to the middle of the room," said one of the brothers.
But, before Michael could tell them he couldn't see anything, they slammed the doors behind him.
The only thing to keep Michael company was the darkness that surrounded him.
Michael reached down and turned on his flashlight. It flickered in the darkness and he began to tap it on its side.
He shone it around the room, but couldn't see much. It looked like there was furniture covered in sheets along the sides. When he shone it up toward the ceiling it looked like a massive chandelier was hanging above him. It reminded him of the prop from "The Phantom of the Opera."
"Okay, guys. What am I supposed to do," he said speaking out to the nothingness.
Just as if they heard him, torches, like the ones that lead him to this room flickered to life. They even sparked the candles that were around the huge chandelier.
With this new light, Michael looked around and saw that his earlier assessment about the furniture covered in sheets was wrong. He looked closer and saw what looked like bodies wrapped in a sticky type of thread were standing sentry along the walls.
Michael laughed to himself.
This must be part of the hazing to scare me.
"Okay guys, you got me, You can open up now," he said.
Michael's fists pounded on the door and echoed across the room.
Just as he was getting ready to do another series of pounds on the door, he could feel something. Nothing was actually touching him, but he could sense something. It made his hair on the back of his neck stand up and the nerves in his body were electrified.
Michael turned around slowly and his skin went white as he dropped the flashlight that he was holding.
Above the chandelier was a giant spider. Larger than anything he had seen before. It was probably larger than the VW Bug that he drove.
Its hairy body slowly descended from the ceiling like an aerialist.
It advanced, creeping and ambling toward Michael, as if was building tension for this moment. He was like a cat that was playing with it's food.
Michael turned around and pounded even harder on the door as she screamed for help. He only got the first part of the word out before the room was filled with muffled screams and the sounds of something being drug over the marble floor.
From the other side of the door, the brothers stood and bowed their heads.
"Let's all give thanks to our brave brother, Michael, who became the ultimate sacrifice so we could continue our works."
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