“Is everything ready?” I heard a voice reverberating around my half-conscious head, helping me slowly regain awareness.

“Yes sir, everything is set.” Another voice said politely.

“Great! We can finally get things started.” The voice said, sounding overly delighted. A startling sound of hands coming together made me flinch as it was short and unexpectedly loud. “Chop, chop everyone we don’t have the whole day.”

“Sir, what about the man-”

“Ssht, she’s waking up.”

I groaned and winced at the bright light that was shined upon me from the ceiling, encircling me; leaving the rest of the room in a dark void. Refocusing my vision, I tried to see who the voice belonged to. I saw a figure standing across from me in front of a door. A shadow slanted over his upper body, making it difficult for me to see who it was.

I grunted, trying to move my body only to find out that I was tied to a chair, with my hands tied on the back and each of my foot tied against the chair’s front legs.

“Glad to see you awake,” my eyes snapped back to the front, hearing the voice. “I was getting worried if we perhaps had overdosed you.” The tone in the person’s voice was pleasant, but the underlying meaning of the words was anything but that.

I squinted my eyes at the shadowy figure. “Who, who are you?” I questioned, trying to make my tone even and calm, to mask the panic that was coursing through my body.

“Ah, my apologies. I should have known that you couldn’t see me like this.” The figure then waltzes towards me. The clacking noise of his polished shoes making contact with the wooden floor rung in my head, matching the shallow beating of my heart. I had to swallow back a nervous lump when the clacking sound stopped, the figure finally standing under the same lamp as I was, revealing his outer appearance.

His skin, stripped of any melanin, was as pale as snow, matching his hair. He was wearing a black tuxedo with a red bowtie and his ruby colored eyes peered me right in the eyes as we stood face to face, his condescending smile on full display.

Surprise took over my face, my lips slightly parted as I gazed at the albino man. The man raised his eyebrows, amused, smirking condescendingly. “What? Are you still not able to guess? How disappointing. I expected more from the woman who the Chess Player is so infatuated with.” He said, shaking his head disapprovingly.

Licking my cracked lips that were dehydrated, I asked in a low voice that was imbedded with uncertainty, “Snake?”

His condescending smirk widens, reaching his eyes. “Bingo!”

A feeling of dread crept up from the pit of my stomach, the color being quickly drained from my face at the gravity of the situation. My brain was buzzing, trying to figure out how the situation became like this. How did I get here? The last thing that I remembered was the server drugging me and the banging sounds of… Mark!

I swirled my head around, hoping to catch a glance at Mark, but I couldn’t perceive anything in this dark room. I glanced back at fake Snake, who was observing me with amusement in his eyes and opened my mouth. “W-Where’s Mark?” I asked, cursing inwardly at how my voice came out softer than that I wanted.

Something devilish glinted in Snake’s eyes before he snapped his fingers, brightening up the entire room. I flinch at the sudden brightness and took a quick look around the room, noticing how the room was akin to a hotel room.

‘Are we in a hotel?’ I wondered.

“Now if you would be so kind to look this way.” He responded, bringing me back from my thoughts, gesturing at the flat screen tv that was hanging above the door.

“Bring it here.” He commanded, beckoning to one of his man that was standing at the door to give him the remote. He took the remote and pressed on the power button. The tv screen flickered, slowly showing an image of something. My forehead puckered, confusion taking reign over my face expression as I did not understand what I was supposed to see, but that changed swiftly when I heard the familiar obnoxious roar of a person who I knew way too well.

“How surprising. He’s awake despite all the sedation that we had given him. He should have been asleep for another few hours.” Snake said, amazed, his eyes glinting with curiosity, as if he was watching a rare animal in a zoo.

My eyes went broad, watching Mark on the screen. His chest was heaving, a vein popped out in his neck and rage transformed his face as he glared straight at what I assume was the camera.

“Where the fuck is April Casper!? I swear to God if she’s hurt, I’ll make sure to pay you back with dead!”

Mark, who was unbidden in a basement, kept shouting his dead threats at Snake. Snake's smile faltered, a scowl taking place on his face as he grumbled lowly, balding his fists tightly, “I warned him to never call me by that damn name!”

My eyes blinked profusely as my brain was taking in the newly gained information. Wait… so fake Snake’s real name is Casper? I stared at the small guy, mystified, who seems to have the same height as me. His skin, hair and eyes that resembled a different species from humans- a ghost.

My lips twisted into a wobbly smile, realization settling in me why fake Snake hated his real name. He looks like Casper, the friendly little ghost! The dread that I felt diffused away for a second and got replaced by hilarity. Amid the room, a giggle that I tried to suppress erupted into a loud laughter.

I flung my head back, letting the HAHAs escape my mouth. Now every time I even caught a glance of Sna-I mean Casper I couldn’t stop my brain from bringing back the image of the little ghost from my childhood memories.

I was so busy laughing that I didn’t notice Casper standing in front of me, his shadow looming over my body. “What’s so funny?” He asked coldly, the normal condescending smile nowhere to be seen.

My laughter came to a halt. “Huh?”

“I asked what’s so funny?”

“Y-Your name-” A sudden force snapped my head to the side before I could even finish uttering my sentence. Not being able to react to the unexpected action, my mouth was left agape. Tears were prickling in my eyes as a trail of blood discarded from one of my nostrils; dripping down my chin.

Holding the wrist of the hand that had slapped me with his other hand, Casper glared at me with disdain as he waved his hand; clicking his tongue, annoyed. “Look at what you made me do.”

My pupils were quacking and my ability to talk had abandoned me, as my brain was still stunned. Casper forcibly snatched my chin in his hand, tilting my head around as he let his eyes roam around my face before giving a curt nod of approval.

“Good, I didn’t scar your face.” He took out a designer handkerchief with his initials embroidered on it and used it to clean up my bloody nose. “We can’t have our merchandise damaged before the buyers can buy it, can we?” He said with his condescending smile back in place. It felt like his eyes that resembled the devil’s eyes were peering right in to my soul, grasping onto it; freezing my heart and turning my stomach icy in the process. But I gritted through that fear and brazenly gave him a deadly side-glare.

He chuckled low at my glare. “That’s right. The game wouldn’t be fun if the Black Queen already surrenders.”

His words left a perturbed taste in my mouth and I snapped my head free from his hold as I eyed him wearily, asking, “What game?”

His smile twisted into a Cheshire-smile. “Before I explain the game, the characters of the game should dress according to their title.” Casper snapped his fingers and a brigade of maids barged through the door carrying dresses, make-up tools, accessories, and hair ornaments.

My eyes widen, and I sputtered. “W-What’s going on?”

Casper pulled out a small pocketknife as he went around me, positioning himself behind my back. Dread sneaked its way into my body and I struggled against the rope.

“Don’t move, unless you really want me to cut you.” His commanding voice rang, stopping every nerve in my body from moving. After making sure that I didn’t move, he cuts the rope in one swoop and did the same with my feet.

My eyes blinked profusely as I stared blanked at my liberated limbs. ‘Is he letting me go?’ I wondered.

Bringing me back from my thoughts, Casper waved his index finger copiously in front of me, tutting disapprovingly at me. “Don’t get the wrong idea. I am not letting you go. They are going to dress you up and I gave them the permission to shoot you on spot if you even try to escape.”

I looked back at the maids, finally noticing the hoisters that were strapped around their waist, the guns residing in it. With hampering movement, I turned my head to face Casper again, meeting his perfunctory smile.

“Am I making myself clear?” He asked, tilting his head.

“Yes…” I whispered.

After a while of being treated like a doll, Casper swung unannounced the door open, waltzing in to the room with his hands at his back. He scrutinizes me from top to down before letting out a scoff. “They have sure cleaned you up nicely.” He then glances at the maids who had their head bowed at him politely and gestures with his head towards the door, the grin wiped from his face. “You guys can leave now.”

Reticent, the maids took their stuff and excused themselves from the room. As soon as they closed the door behind them, with a smug grin Casper asked, “So how do you like your make-over?”

With my brows puckered together, I turned my head sideways to look at myself in the mirror that was standing next to the bed. It hurts me to say this, but this man knew a thing or two about fashion. I was wearing a black ball gown evening dress that nestled snuggly around my waist before the two-layer dress flowed gracefully to the ground, touching it. The skirt part of the dress dusted with green sparkly glitters, that glistened sporadically around the dress; bringing out the fiery color of my bouncy curled hair and to finish it, I was wearing a black crown with an emerald stone embedded in the center.

Not wanting to give the bastard the satisfaction, I didn’t answer and only eyed him skeptically, before I inquired him, “Why am I dressed like this?”

He smirks maliciously, making me wish I hadn’t asked him, and claps once with his hands. The tv screen flickered on again and I felt my stomach drop at the sight of the ridiculous amount of masked men in white tuxedos gathered inside a lobby.

Casper’s smirk widens at my horrified expression.

“Shall I explain the game now?”