“Your mission, should you accept it…” The deep voice of a young man could be heard outside of a small home in New while the rhythmic beat making of three others could be heard behind him, imitating the Mission Impossible theme. “When you get to our place, please go up the stairs and you will find a metal door that is always open, it is a little hard so you must use a little strength to open it.” Under the stifled laughter of those behind him, Ace would grab the handle of the door and exaggerate the amount of strength required to open it. 

“Then,” Tobias continued to read, “You will find the main door. In the electronic lock, you must enter the password 16102 followed by #”. He quickly inputted a series of numbers into the lock. 

Wrong. 

“Keep fucking around and we might all die before even walking in.” One of the people behind called out, feigning seriousness. Ace nodded, wiping his dry forehead of any sweat and continued attempting to put in the code as fast as his fingers could move. 

Wrong.

Wrong. 

Wrong. 

After what seemed to be an eternity, the door handle glowed a gentle green, letting the group inside of the home. They entered and were met by the gaze of a child who was no more than 10 years of age. She looked up for less than a second, her face shifting from surprise, to realization, and finally, boredom as she looked back down at the tablet in her hands. The group ignored her as well, following the instructions from the message and heading straight upstairs. There, they were met with yet another door. Before Tobias could finish even saying the code, he was shoved out of the way. Zaun grabbed the phone out of Ace’s hands, turning to the knob and inputting another string of numbers. With that, the four entered the room, each slowly making their way to one of the three respective beds in the room. 

“This message will self-destruct in 10 seconds.” 

While laughing at their own ridiculousness, the four began to set up. Small black tables were pulled from corners of the room, placed side by side, then topped with aluminum trays filled with food. On a separate table, another member of the group, Felix, would place several bottles of varying alcohols. “After we eat,” he says, grinning while opening the first aluminum tray. 

No one in the group really remembered much about the food. Besides the fact that it was too spicy for it to be considered medium spicy. Even that was only noticed because they all managed to forget to buy water. Soon, the three trays of food that were bought were all almost finished. Felix turned to the alcohol and picked up the closest bottle, turning to Tobias. Tobias would respond by taking the bottle and in one go, downing a quarter of the bottle. He would then take the bottle and hold it up, slowly turning his head and eying the remaining three. Of the four, two could be considered alcoholics. Tobias the drinker and Felix the bartender. Shadow, the fourth member, drank a lot but it was nowhere near the alcoholics. His eyes would stop at Zaun.  Zaun had only touched alcohol once before in his life. The perfect target. 

Tobias stood up and lowered the bottle towards Zaun. 

“Hey Zaun…you’re pussy.” 

While Tobias started taunting Zaun into drinking alcohol straight, Felix began creating mixes out of whatever drinks were on hand. Lemonade, Tequila,Pure Leaf Tea, Ciroc, Vodka. The mixes came one after the other, the group slowly getting more and more intoxicated with the exception of Zaun, who despite getting taunted still drank in moderation. When more than half of the drinks were cleared out, the four found themselves sitting on the floor. Tobias turned to Zaun once more, taking one of the untouched bottles and pouring it into a shot cup.

“You’re not drunk enough. Drink.”

“What?”

“Drink.”

Shadow and Felix attempted to intervene but were quickly shut down. Zaun simply shook his head.

“Fine.”

One shot down but when he looked down, there was another shot cup filled. 

“Drink.”

Two shots.

“Drink.”

This time Zaun paused, fighting off the urge to throw up at the taste of the alcohol. Tobias filled up another shot cup.

“You’re not drunk enough yet. That feeling in your chest right now? Nervousness. Drink.”

Six shots. Another shot cup  was filled and placed in front of Zaun with the command to drink. He held back though, telling Tobias if he drank anymore he would throw up. 

“Oh perfect,” Tobias said, reaching to the side and grabbing a plastic bag and placing it in front of Zaun. He drank straight from the bottle then placed the shot cup in Zaun’s hand.

“Drink.”

Zaun took one more shot, then placed his head into the plastic bag, releasing everything he’d eaten in the last hour into it.