"Dave! Did you see the latest edition of Gamebro?" John said into the headset as he scrolled down on the mouse wheel as he let his eyes scan the few articles of the newest games.

"Looking at it now." Dave replied back through his headset.

"Whoa, check out the very last game." John suddenly said as he carefully read the passage about five times. "They're letting a few people like beta this game."

"Not again."

"Don't worry! How can the same thing happen twice?" John laughed as he quickly emailed both Rose and Jade the article at the same time.

"You told the girls didn't you?" Dave asked as he sighed.

"Maybe." John said. "Go show this to your bro."

"Which one?"

"The one who isn't all weird." John said as he shook his head. "If we all send in the applications at the same time then maybe like last time we can all beta the game together!"

"Okay, okay. Whatever just don't get too excited, remember what happened last time."

Chapter 1. Into the game

Five months later...

John sat in his room, ever so jittery with excitement for the copy of the new game to arrive at his house where he can set up an eight way connection with everyone and play this game after the many months of waiting. Dave was right, he shouldn't get too excited or it would take even longer. He checked out of the window to see that the mailbox flag was up. John hopped out of his chair and ran out of the room and quickly down the stairs, he slipped and slid down the last few. If Dave was there he knew that he would crack that stair joke again.

He pushed open the front door and ran out to the mailbox were he opened it. Inside was a long brown envelope with a box attached. He slowly pulled it out of the mailbox and quickly ran back in the house. He first opened the letter. It contained two pieces of paper, each said the same thing but the other was for his sister.

Dear John Egbert,

Thank you for applying to beta test our new game Corpse Party, Inside you will receive a t-shirt, a collectable figurine and many other offers to beta other of our upcoming game which is also listed on the inside of the game container. To receive information, and to comment on our game go to the following website.

John couldn't believe it, he and his sister were able to play this cool new game. He quickly stood up with both game disks in his arms and ran up the stairs.

"JANE!" John yelled as he ran up to her door and started banging on the hard wood. "We're able to test it! Open your door!" John couldn't hold in his excitement any longer. He couldn't wait to play this game either so he ended up slipping the game under her door and quickly ran back into his own. He signed into his Pesterchum and slipped on his headset and set up a huge eight way chat line with all his friend's and sister. "Hey anyone on?" He waited a second before he heard someone turn on a microphone.

"Hey John!" It was Jade.

"Jade!" John smiled. Soon everyone else also entered the chat.

"So what you need John?" Dave asked, he sounded almost tired.

"Did I wake you up?" John asked apologetically.

"No he just got finished with a strife." Dirk answered for the other blond.

"So who else has this game?" Jake asked as he casually changed the topic.

"I do." John smiled.

"Me too." Jane also said.

"We also have the beta." Rose said as Roxy laughed.

"Me and Jake have it too." Jade replied.

"Yep." Dave and Dirk said at the same time.

"So how about we all just set up our connection." John suggested as he was already setting up a previous connection with Dave.

"Not a bad idea." Dirk said as he also was setting up a connection with Jake.

The houses started to shake almost violently. The metal and wood creaked and wined under the invisible, crushing force. What would a smart person do? Exit the house. All eight, in their own homes tried to abscond, the doors were almost welded shut along with the windows. Dave and Dirk attempted to break out the windows and jump out but it seemed like nothing would break the glass. Some holes were broken in the floors as well, a large section of Jade's roof fell and nearly hit the girl. She screamed and fell backwards.

"Jade you okay!" Jake yelled into his mouthpiece, He didn't really need to yell but hearing his sister scream made the boy worry beyond belief. All the structures were starting to collapse into itself, everyone was in total panic mode and nothing they did seemed to help in the least. As the floor started to collapse all hope seemed dim for the eight teens. Either they would fall to their deaths or some of the falling structures would crush them. This was worse than how the beta with Sburb was, now all of them were about to meet their doom and it wasn't even five minutes into the game. All at once, the floor gave out and screams were screeched into everyone's ears, some threw the headsets away as their ears rang from the high pitch sound, then, everything went black and they all were in total free fall.

Sometimes you think it's best to be alive.

but when do you really know you're alive,

when you just witnessed everything you care about is taken away from you.

Right in front of your face?