Preparations

The range rover he stole was driving quite nicely. He did not really have to think about the actual driving, for the autopilot option was kindly providing its services to the very much-unmasked murderer, sitting behind the wheel, and almost emotionlessly staring at the moving landscapes as if they were nothing but beginner drawn pieces of fabric with no soul. Red, as he was known among the circle of followers he had managed to strike and gather to aid in actually succeeding in this endeavor only knew the cruel, wicked, harsh and devilish kind of his. They did not know what was actually going on inside the mind of the person. Inside the head of an almost broken man, who did not have anything going on in his life. A car suddenly flashed by his side window, and his memory started flowing. He started seeing himself, almost three years ago. It was beginning to darken, just as it was now. Martin Velichkov, a regular nobody was just getting back home from his nine to five job. He was not really all there in his head, kind of like most people. He was walking, on the regular old street, on the regular old and boring Tuesday, when he suddenly stopped to see something. To check something, actually. In the side of his view, there was something like a person laying on the ground in one of the side nooks of the street, which led to a dead end. He took a peak, just because he was curious, and helping this person could not harm him. Oh how wrong he was! As Martin kneed to see the thing wrapped in a white blanket, his eyes expanded by the signs of blood, splattered on the sides of the wrap. His heart started beating faster, and as he moved away the side covering the face, he was stricken with the realization that he had just found…a dead body of a girl whose eyes were missing out of their sockets. He managed to muffle the scream, but as he was about to do something, a family of three just happened to pass by. They looked happy, just gotten out of the cinema, having watched a good movie. Did they expect to find and see what they were seeing now? To look at a person who was kneeing on the ground looking at a corpse. When the little girl finally saw him, she pointed with a shook face.

-Daddy, look! There is a dead girl! – screamed Livia, staring directly in the eyes of Martin, whose mind had gotten completely blank.

He could have said something, anything to spread the suspicion off him, but he did not say a word.

-Honey, call the police quickly! – said Joanna and grabbed the forearm of her husband.

Mark nodded, and as he took his phone from his pocket, another person emerged from the bland and boring day, a person he had never seen before. He was just looking, not doing anything. His excitement was clear by the look on his face. Martin could not forget it, for he was dark-skinned, and had gotten his phone out to record the happening. All the while Martin just stood there, trying to find the right words to explain.

"I just happened to pass by and saw her?" – As if that was going to work.

Before he knew it, an officer named Matey had already grabbed him by his collar and had turned him upside down. He was telling him his rights, but the only thing he was hearing was the siren of the police car. It was soo loud and annoying he barely could keep a straight face. More people started to crowd up on the boring street on this boring Tuesday, to witness a socially awkward man being arrested for something he did not do. The nightmares that followed afterwards were about to set in the mind of the murderer, when a set of headlights managed to snap him out of this reminiscence of old and hard memories. He tried to notch on to his last thought, about being arrested for something that he did not do. That was his leading point he could not forget, and sometimes, even in the darkest parts in his stay in prison, he would wish he actually did it, so that all those tortures and nightmares that befell him had some weight. Red smirked bitterly and looked at the map. He was almost there. He had to kick his mind back to the "social' project. There was nothing social about this project of his, well if you discount the people participating in it, or the humane factor behind the experiment.

"What would you do under stress? What kind of decisions would you calculate to be correct under extreme fear? And how much sick fucks would pay to watch someone be confined in this situation and ask for different stipulations?"

Those were all questions he was about to answer…both in a way to secure his future, and both in a way to redeem his past and exact his revenge, for that was the main purpose. Money did not matter all this much. It was the humiliation, the darkness behind his self and the darkness surrounded him in his past that defiled and dishonored him. He, the mask of the red death, wanted to change that, for he was the bringer of judgement.

…

It was getting very dark outside and the roads were thin, and very dangerous if you were not paying attention. The autopilot was long gone, and to escape the trap hole of his thoughts, Red had started his favorite music channel on the radio, and was listening to some nice rhythmic tunes. He was listening to the guitar solo of the song, when the building started being visible in the distance. He squinted, and then turned left on the road, that split and lead to nowhere. In this building, he was going to orchestrate the masquerade of the century. He smiled, when the song ended and turned off the radio. He saw how another masked person exited the house and waved him to stop the car. The person was wearing a mask, but being dark outside Red could not see. Only when the Rover stopped a few meters from him, he managed to distinguish an orange wooden mask of a fox, with its mouth wide open. It had a large chain drawn inside the mouth, as if it was depicting the fox destroying the chain with its mouth. Red quickly left the vehicle, and moved closer to the person.

-Evening Chains, how are preparations going in the HQ? – asked the red everything gentleman and pointed at the building which on its outside did not look much like anything.

With a very raspy voice, the fox masked person told him to follow him. As they entered, Red was faced with something that looked akin to "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?". There was something like a chair, but like those from all the clubs, elevated in the air, and another seat, still in preparation to the next guest. The lighting was very broody, set in dark green specter, with the background behind the host, also dark green with a hint of blue; with the addition of the name of the scientific show, they were going to produce here, "Nothing Personal".

-What about the broadcast? – asked the red suited fellow.

Chains nodded and pointed him to a room overlooking the set. There Boombox, a person with the mask of Mozart, was clicking and doing things that Red did not know. Boom showed him a set of computers all showing the front-page of a website appropriately called like the show. There was a big blue button for donations, chat and propositions. Those were going to be key in some instances, but those were going to be shown later, for Red was a sucker for suspense.

-We have a service that automatically redirects our IP address and changes it every five minutes for extra precaution, also, no one under eighteen is allowed, for we use the actual ids of the people that come in here and make sure they are not traced in any shape or form. I have managed to invite a few hundred people from the forums and sites of dealers and whatnot, so I should expect we hit at least 1k when we start the broadcast – Declared Boombox and took a sip of his soda.

Chains entered the room and handed him a list of supplies, weapons and names to which Red nodded.

-We are waiting on Hammer for the supplies of weapons, Scythe is still waiting for the right time to do his thing, Boom and I are personally ready with the set and the broadcast – said Chains.

Red smiled and felt the excitement reach his brain. Oh, he was very excited to kill, and be done with this act of…brutal social mumbo-jumbo. He had forgotten, well not all there so, about his sad episode in the car, and now all he could think of, besides the start of the wicked show, was how fortunate was he to work with such interesting people, who were going to help him.

-Splendid! Now, announce on our show's news page that the show is about to begin soon, but do not let them know when. They will get a message as soon as it posts live on the site, right? – exclaimed the well-dressed man and looked at Boom who nodded.

The Mozart fellow quickly wrote a few sentences and posted them on the news page, where the image of a computer screen had the message "Please remain calm, the fun soon begins?" It was not a very esthetically pleasing phrasing, but it did not matter, for what did was the second message that appeared in the phone of the red dressed man. It was from Scythe telling him, "I CAUGHT THE PRIZE!".

Red smiled and looked at both of his accomplices.

-Let's get ready for the show!