...Ted must cancel his date. Instead, he must take out Lee."
There was a stunned silence.
Ted was the first to speak "What the fuck?"
He snatched the card from Matt and read it himself. But that's what it said. Matt took a nervous look at Lee, who had turned bright red.
"How the fuck does this thing know about my date?"
A more pressing matter, how the fuck did it know about Lee's feelings for Ted? Matt's suspicions were growing. He'd known Warwick used to
buy obscure games that nobody bought, but he never expected something as bizarre as this.
"The fuck am I canceling my date. Lucy's been looking forward to it for a week. She's totally wet for it."
"Well, what do we do?" James asked.
"I'm not doing it!" Ted shouted, "I'm not!"
The book began to display words once again.
"Do you wish to forfeit this task?"
"...Does that mean it's gonna punish us?" James asked.
"I don't like this game," Lee moaned.
"If we forfeit, we'll have to decide who to give the penalty to?"
"What does the penalty do?"
"How should I know?"
Ted was seriously losing it. "Just give the penalty to me. I don't give a fuck. This game can fuck itself, I'm leaving."
Ted kicked his chair over, gathered his stuff and stormed out. Then he came back and ripped up the card. Then he left.
"The task has been forfeited," read the book. More whirring, then a dark red card fell out of a slot. "Please place the card in one of the player's
podiums."
Nobody said anything. And since Ted had given them the instruction, Matt picked up the card and walked to the corner of the table where Ted
had taken his book. He noticed that Ted's name had appeared, carved into the wood. Likewise, everyone else's names had appeared on the
other corners. Two corners were blank, presumably for other players. Matt found a slot that was the right size and slotted the card into it.
There was a mechanical thunk.
"The penalty has been issued to Ted," the book read, "It will come into effect at the end of the turn, at thirty four minutes past seven in the
evening."