The Dead Poet's Game

The following is a set of brief instructions on how to play the Dead Poet's Game. Most of you have probably never heard of this ancient phenomenon that circled around England in the late 1800's during the Industrial Revolution. This practice can still be used by certain people. But I must warn you that what you will partake in is extremely dangerous. You must follow all instructions perfectly or else your life will forever be endangered.

Now, you might be asking yourselves, "What is the Dead Poet's Game?". In the late 1800's stories of ghosts and goblins were circling all throughout Northern Europe, everybody only thought of these spirits as mere fairy tales. It was of course all too true when one night at the London Theater someone performed this exact game in front of a large audience. This man was a psychic who mostly was renown for his unbelievable talent of precognition. Alexander Kingsley was his name. He mostly performed magic tricks and various other acts of illusion that even I can't figure out. One of which was when he seemingly cut off his own foot and then reattached it in only 60 seconds.

Of course I'm just getting sidetracked. With the craze of the ghosts and demons becoming famous throughout the world Alex used this to his advantage. He was going to play a little game that he had heard of and wanted to test out if it was real or not. The items needed is a candle, two glasses of wine, a table and two chairs. You'll see why later. Alexander heard the tales of what would happen if he played the game and thought it would be a good idea in order to bring in profit. You see at the time his tricks had, well. Gotten a little stale if you know what I mean. The idea of actually summoning a ghost on stage is the perfect idea to reel in a crowd.

Soon posters and advertising was plastered all across London. "Come and see the Mysterious Ace! For tonight at Eight O' Clock he will summon the undead from their peaceful slumber! Come and see for yourself at the London Theater House!" Of course this was back when literally everyone were gullible idiots, well, nothing really has changed now has it. At that very night Alexander (or Ace) was going to perform the game improperly. He wasn't acquainted with the key rules one had to follow.

The Rules:

1. You had to be alone.

2. You had to do it in a place of where someone had died.

3. You had to take everything seriously.

Alex was disrespecting these rules to the core and the punishment for not following these rules are, well, you'll see later. The setup you had to follow is that you have to be in the vicinity of where someone has recently passed away. In fact you needed to place your table on the exact place in which they had died. You need to put your chair where the victims head was pointing, and the other where the legs are facing. It also matters who died. It needed to be then body of a poet. Hence the name.

A poet can also be described as a calm well spoken and nice soul. So if your husband was a very humble and collected person, then you can play this game. The reason for this is because when you'll contact the spirit it'll often take the shape of a soul trapped in that area. If you want to have a nice conversation with the spirit you wouldn't want it taking the shape of a demon now would you? This is brings us to the first rule.

Be alone.If you aren't alone then the spirit may possess the poor soul who didn't sit down in the 'Head Chair' as I call it. And trust me, it is very hard to save a soul from this fate. If the other person gets possessed the ghost will have full control over the body. Sometimes if it's a bad demon then your friend may do unspeakable things to you and anyone around him or her. The same rules apply if you don't sit down in the Head Chair or if you don't have the table placed in the right spot.

If you're like me at this point you've probably predicted the fate of Alexander and his audience. But trust me when I say this. Not following the rule in which you're supposed to act in a sensible manner is the worst one of them all. And poor Alex was an 19th Century magician with brightly flamboyant colors for clothes. Not following this could haunt who for the rest of your days but the fact that Alex was breaking all of these rules was even worse.

To properly play who must lock yourself in the room closing all the blinds and be sure to do it at night. No light must be in the room at this time except for the faint flickers of light emanating from the candle that you need to place on the table. Take out the two wine glasses and pour both glasses with the alcohol of your choosing. This symbolizes a peace offering to the spirit, showing that you mean no harm to him or her. I should remind you that you must have no form of technology inside the room. Also, you must make sure that you have no way of contacting anyone else in the outside world.

To start you must call to the spirit that you mean no harm to them. You pour their glass and raise your own and take a sip. If you have done this correctly after lowering your glass there will someone sitting across from you. At this point you must not display any signs of fear in your voice or your facial expressions. You must not provoke the spirit in any way. You must act sensible.

To start the game you must say, "I wish to start a match." the ghost will usually nod and raise the glass. The spirit will be taking the appearance and personality of the deceased body of your choosing. Remember that, you must treat this spirit as if it actually is the body the room. If you don't then you will be met with weird looks and eventual frustration and anger. Of course nobody in their right mind would want to mess with a ghost.

To play, you have to say what letter you want to be, either A or B. To say it you must say, "I strip you of the letter (say your letter)!" If done properly, the spirit will take another sip. I should remind you that every time the entity takes a drink you must too. For this will be your timer. When both glasses are empty the spirit will leave. If both glasses are uneven, the spirit will not leave until you have finished.

Now again you might be thinking to yourself, "That isn't so hard! All I have to do to finish is to finish drinking and then he or her leaves. What's the big deal?!" Well, I can certainly tell you that you would want to spend as much time away from this spirit as much as possible. This creature is purposely trying to get you drunk so that you can reveal your deepest, darkest secrets. It can find out about your personal life, your job, your family, your relationships, etc. This is just a way so that the spirit can enter your mind and slowly dissolve it. Just by choosing choice words, it can cause some people to commit suicide.

Some entities have powers and abilities that we are yet to fully understand. Angering, pleasing or agitating a spirit like this can have diar consequences. The game plays like this. Player A will ask a question and player B will have to answer it. After the spirit answers it will take a sip, then the letters will alternate. Then you will be player B. The spirit will ask a question and then take a sip. You can ask any question you want. And so can him or her. You keep alternating until you both run out of wine. When this happens. Whoever is Player A when the wine runs out automatically wins the game. If you win, the spirit will raise his or her glass and walk into the shadows. Remain seated even when he's returned to his rightful place. Blow out the candle, turn on the lights and exit the room.

It sounds relatively easy. Doesn't it? Of course what happens when you lose is a whole other story. If you lose, then the spirit will blow out the candle. Turning on the light is probably the best defense mechanism against the spirit. Ghosts aren't drawn to light and often avoid it. Still, that doesn't mean you're safe.

This spirit may start following you through your life. Every time you go into a dark room you'll see it just out of the corner of your eye. Whenever you look into a mirror you'll see it standing right behind you. It'll stalk you and hunt you down until you finally muster up the courage to say these words. "This soul is yours. It is yours to do business with." If you say this successfully then you black out. You will wake up in a room similar to your own except, darker and stranger. There's no doors or windows. Just a bed. This spirit now has your soul and it can choose to do whatever it wants with your body.

Think of this strange realm as a sort of, waiting room. As soon as someone else wants to play. You will be summoned and be forced to play. If you lose then you will be forced back into that room, and you will have to wait again. Sounds pretty fucking easy doesn't it? Usually you are the only person in this dimension, and until you are summoned. Nobody else can enter.

A year before the phenomenon had spread to England and made popularized by Alex. A violent prisoner named Pere played the game. Using the dead body area of his unlucky cell mate. He had heard of this game and had heard of the effects. He thought that if he lost and was summoned in somewhere like England. He would be able to make his escape from life imprisonment. So, locked up in this French prison he performed the game. He purposely lost. Not knowing how horrible his fate actually was.

He spent a whole year in his hellish prison. Screaming in agony. Banging on the concrete walls as he got no response from anyone or anything. He went insane. He became the very definition of a demon. He wasn't able to form sentences, he couldn't self harm, he couldn't think straight and all he could think of was leaving that hell hole. Then, one cold November night, Alexander released the demon from his cell. With no real way of a human form, and with an overwhelming audience crowd of bodies to possess. Pere could not control himself.

He was transformed into his natural body. Except he had aged exponentially, he stank of feces and urine, his clothes were tattered and worn out, and he was screaming like a rabid dog. He was foaming from the mouth. He attacked Alex and took his body. Pere had become Alex. He ran out of the theater, crowds were running after him. Some calling him a genius, and others calling him a monster. Alexander automatically lost the game. He didn't follow the rules, and thus his fate had befallen him. And so, if you've learnt anything from this. Do not take the risk by playing this game. It will ruin you. It will destroy you. It will dismantle the very fabric of your world. If you do choose to play this game. I suggest playing alone.