Headhunting The Perfect Puzzle Team

20261009

Written for the Second Indulgence, Prompt #6

By this point, logging into “The Truth Is Out Here” had slid from a habit to a ritual. Or maybe it’s more honest to call it an obsession. It was the first thing I thought about on waking up. I spent every spare moment hunting the internet, seeking anything that might be related to the puzzles we’d been given. And chewing over theories occupied me until I finally fell asleep.
It wasn’t just that the puzzles were well written, and tricky, and drew from all kinds of topics and sites. What really got me hooked was the forum. Posting my ideas. Seeing people respond. Reading someone else’s theory and feeling connections spark in my brain. Learning stuff.
I’d never met any of these people - well, so far as I know. And how would I know, when there’s no personal details shared? Yet despite that, I felt increasing camaraderie with them. Like we were a true community.
No, more than that - like we were a team.
So I was eager to sink my teeth into the clues we’d been given today. Way more worried about that than breakfast. But instead of the usual clue post and clusters of theory threads, I’m faced with a big banner: “Well Done!”
Below that is a post congratulating “Our Winners”.
What?
It takes me most of the blurb to realise that the ARG is over. We solved all the clues. The site is going to close.
Maybe I should feel accomplished. Victorious, even. I certainly shouldn’t feel robbed. Of course this couldn’t go on forever. Makes sense the people running it had a goal they’d been working towards. Or at least a point they could call it quits.
I didn’t read the rest of the post. Didn’t look at the comments. No, I turned off my phone and got on with my mundane, humdrum, meaningless life.
Halfway through my cereal I decided to check my emails. Might as well, right?
And there was a message from the site, saying “Congratulations, DonkeyDonkey99”. I almost delete it without reading, still salty. But I tap on it.
Wait.
The ‘winners’ thing they were talking about was people who’d collected enough points from contributing, and I’m one of them? Holy- I thought they were just talking to all of us like that, I didn’t realise there’d been a competition aspect!
More than that, the prize is a chance to contribute to the next ARG! “You’ve proven you have exactly the kind of sharp, engaged mind we need.”
I feel my face stretch in a huge grin. Not only is the fun not over, I get to be part of a true team? While I’m not sure I’ll be good at making puzzles, surely that’s really different to solving them, these people have to know what it takes, right? And presumably we’ll be studying under the current team. So it’ll be fine. Fun, even!
Without hesitation I hit the link to sign on and enter my details. Name, age, mobile number, address… the usual stuff to prove you’re a real person.
The confirmation email tells me that local meet-ups will be arranged once the registration window closes next week. Once these ‘blocs’ are established ‘work will begin’. Alright. I can manage a week just fine. I’ll fill it by looking into puzzle design.
~ * ~
It’s actually a fortnight later that I’m knocking at some conference hall on the edge of town. Excited and anxious, in a “starting new school” kind of way. Desperately hoping that the other people are like me. At least enough to not hate me or think I’m a loser.
The door’s opened by a guy with a clipboard and a cheery smile. “Hello! Here for the…?”
I force a smile myself and hope it doesn’t look awkward. “Er, the ARG meet? For ‘The Truth Is Out Here’? Or, um, whatever the next one’s called…”
“Ah, you’re one of our winners! Name, please?”
I rattle it off, then the first line of my address when he asks for that. He waves me in, points down the hall, and says “Room 6.”
“Righto!”
Wow, this place is quiet. I guess I got here before everyone else? Funny, given I had to take two buses. I was worried I might be late.
Room 5… I open the next door. Assuming it’s Room 6. I wasn’t paying close attention to the door plaques. It’s only as I step inside that I clock the door says Room 7. Oops! Room 6 must be across the-
What. The. Fuck???
The smell of antiseptic was the first thing that caught my attention. Pulling my gaze to the centre of the room, where a team of three people in surgical scrubs have looked up at me and frozen. Between them, on what looks like a disturbingly normal conference room table covered in a cheap plastic sheet, is a person.
A person with the top of their head missing.
No no no no this has to be a - that must be some kind of - I mean, it can’t be-
There’s more tables lining the wall behind them, covered in bubbling jars of brains. I can see wires hooked up to the disembodied flesh. Leading from the brains out of the jars along the floor, taped down at intervals, to some kind of big machine that’s whirring in the corner.
Oh god oh fuck what is going on??
One of the three screams “TOM!” and panic sweeps aside my paralysing attempts to make sense of the scene. I turn and bolt back down the hallway - but the door guy is coming this way, his smile gone and a gun in his hand.
I try and run the other way, praying for an exit sign, but a crack rings out and pain flares in my back followed by numbness and I hit the house-flipper grey carpet with blackness already filling my vision.
“Careful, now.” I hear someone say, a million miles away. “We can definitely use this one…”

Prompt was “After participating in an online ARG (alternate reality game), you find out you’re one of the winners! Turns out the entire event was a test, and you passed. You receive an invitation to learn more. Do you take it, or refuse?”

Read other stories written for this prompt here.