The scene unfolding on the screen gave Nidi and Ashley a real scare, reminiscent of the heart-stopping moment in Resident Evil 1 when a zombie suddenly turns around.
In the game, the two detective characters were equally startled, but the older one, Jack, quickly regained his composure and grabbed the blonde maid's hand.
Jack: "Miss Annie, why has Mrs. Stoke turned into… that?"
Annie: "Let go of me first, and I'll explain!"
Jack released her, and Annie began her story.
Annie: "The truth is, Mrs. Stoke died a year ago from a strange illness. Dr. Stoke could never accept it and kept telling everyone she was still alive."
Nicole: "Hold on, just one year, and her body's already a dried-up corpse?"
Annie: "That's how it is. I don't know what happened. I usually don't even dare come near this room. Only Dr. Stoke visits it every day."
Watching this, Ashley couldn't help but speak up.
"Nidi, I feel like this blonde maid is hiding something!"
"She does seem a bit off, but her explanation kinda makes sense. I mean, I wouldn't want to go near that room either."
The two in-game protagonists had a similar exchange. With so few clues, it was hard to make any solid judgments.
So, the detectives decided to head back to the study to question Dr. Stoke about what was going on.
At this point, the characters became controllable again.
"Ashley, let's explore the mansion a bit before we head to the study," Nidi suggested.
"Got it."
The mansion didn't offer much to explore, though. Most rooms were either locked or inaccessible from this side.
Maybe the game's designer was some Japanese guy named Miyazaki, who knows?
Still, Nidi and Ashley found some ammo, supplies, and a peculiar item: red roses.
"What are these roses for? Are we supposed to give them to someone?" Ashley wondered.
"Probably a quest item. Ashley, you carry the roses. I'll take the ammo!"
The game allowed players to drop items, so Nidi and Ashley tossed their stuff on the ground to reorganize their inventories.
Nidi's backpack was stuffed with ammo and a small amount of medical supplies.
Ashley's was the opposite—mostly medical supplies, a bit of ammo, and three red roses.
"Alright, let's go find Dr. Stoke!"
Nidi, a seasoned gamer, had a hunch something big was about to happen in the study.
The two guided their characters back to the study area. The blonde maid didn't follow this time, and when they arrived, Dr. Stoke wasn't there.
A game prompt suggested investigating the study, so Nidi and Ashley split up to search.
There was a glowing spot on Dr. Stoke's desk, likely a key interaction point that could trigger a cutscene. Nidi told Ashley to hold off on checking it for now.
Their search turned up a bunch of books on folklore, religion, and occultism on the study's shelves, along with more red roses.
This mansion seemed obsessed with roses. Even Roy and Jennifer, watching from the sidelines, thought it was odd.
Roy had a theory.
"Maybe Lisa, Dr. Stoke's wife, loved red roses, and he's been placing them around the mansion to honor her memory."
Jennifer nodded thoughtfully.
"That's actually kinda romantic if it's true."
After scouring the study, Nidi finally investigated the glowing spot, triggering a cutscene.
Nicole: "Where's Dr. Stoke?"
Jack: "Maybe he's resting? Wait, there's a book on the desk."
The camera zoomed in on a red-covered book on Dr. Stoke's desk. Nicole picked it up.
Nicole: "Bloody Queen Mary?"
Jack: "Hey, Nicole, isn't it a bit rude to mess with someone's stuff like that?"
Nicole: "I'm just looking at a book, not reading their diary. What's the big deal?"
Nicole opened the book, and the screen shifted to a blood-red background with black text, reciting a prayer.
The prayer was a hymn of praise and supplication to someone called Bloody Queen Mary.
This same prayer had appeared at the game's opening, and Nidi, not wanting to sit through it again, tried to skip it.
But this cutscene couldn't be skipped, unlike others that had a skip option.
Nidi groaned.
"What were the developers thinking? Do they think this long, creepy prayer is fun?"
Ashley hesitated, then offered a theory.
"Maybe it's a hint. This Bloody Queen Mary could be the game's final boss."
Nidi considered it.
"That makes sense, but I'm still docking points for this annoying prayer. I was ready to give this game a higher score, but this dragged it down!"
Jennifer joined the discussion.
"Do you guys think this Bloody Queen Mary is the Bloody Mary?"
Bloody Mary was a famous legend in Western culture, often tied to the 17th-century Hungarian noblewoman, Countess Elizabeth Báthory.
The legend claimed Elizabeth bathed in the blood of virgins to stay young, killing over 600 innocent girls in the process.
Her story inspired countless works of fiction, with some even suggesting Dracula was based on her. In certain stories, she's portrayed as the progenitor of vampires.
Over time, the legend evolved, spawning urban myths like the ritual of summoning Bloody Mary in a mirror at midnight.
Even Roy, in his past life as an East Asian, had come across this urban legend while surfing the web.
Nidi's eyes lit up.
"You might be onto something! This just got way more interesting!"
As soon as she said that, the prayer finished, and the screen went black. Just when Nidi thought the game had glitched, a pale woman's face flashed on the screen, startling all three girls.
(Survival Game Countess Screenshot)
Nidi, the least brave of the trio, nearly flung her controller.
"What the hell was that? A jump scare?!"
Jump scares—sudden terrifying images or flashes in otherwise normal scenes, often paired with creepy sound effects—weren't invented by games. Horror movies had been using them since the '80s and '90s. But in a 2000s game, they still felt fresh.
At that moment, the living room lights started flickering, amplifying the spooky atmosphere.
Roy glanced at the lights and stood up.
"Probably an unstable voltage. I'll check the fuse box."
If a circuit issue stopped their game night, Nidi would be crushed.
"Let's pause the game and take a break until you're back," Nidi said.
She hit the pause button, and Jennifer stopped the timer.
The three girls decided to take a breather—the jump scare had rattled them, and they needed drinks to calm down.
The paused screen lingered on the pale woman's face. As the girls headed to the kitchen for drinks and snacks, none of them noticed her eyes seemed to move.
Roy reached the villa's basement to check the circuits.
After a thorough inspection, he found no major issues and returned to the living room.
The girls were sipping beers and munching on snacks.
"You're drinking beer now?" Roy asked.
Ashley immediately ratted out Nidi.
"It was Nidi's idea! I bet that jump scare got to her, and she needs some liquid courage!"
"No way! I'm not scared! I just felt like a drink!" Nidi protested.
She lunged at Ashley to cover her mouth but tripped over her own feet in her usual clumsy way, sending Jennifer into a fit of laughter.
Roy couldn't help but chuckle too.
Nidi's attempt to silence Ashley failed, and she plopped onto the carpet, fuming.
Roy patted Nidi's head to calm her down.
"Let's keep playing. Jennifer, grab me a beer too."
If the girls were drinking, Roy wasn't sitting it out.
The game resumed, and the pale woman's face vanished, returning to Nicole and Jack.
Nicole: "Did you see something just now?"
Jack: "What? I didn't catch that."
Nicole: "A woman's pale face!"
Jack: "What pale face? I didn't see anything."
It seemed only Nicole, who'd read the Bloody Queen Mary prayer, saw the face.
Suddenly, a woman's scream echoed through the mansion, startling the detectives.
Jack: "That sounded like it came from the garden."
Nicole: "Weird. That scream didn't sound like Annie's. Is there another woman in this mansion?"
Jack: "No idea. Let's go check it out."
The cutscene ended, and Nidi and Ashley regained control of their characters.
"Nidi, where do we go now?" Ashley asked.
"The cutscene seemed to point us toward the garden, but we checked that door earlier—it's locked. We need to find the blonde maid. She probably has the garden key."
Nidi quickly broke down their next steps.
Games from this era were like that—vague hints, no hand-holding tutorials. Players had to figure things out themselves.
But when Nidi and Ashley guided their characters back to the hall where they'd met the blonde maid, she was gone.
Nidi noticed a glowing spot on the wall. Investigating it revealed a mansion map.
The map had a red marker indicating the maid's room.
"Looks like the maid went back to her room. We'll need to go through the kitchen to get there."
"But wasn't the door to her room locked too? Do we need another key?"
"Not necessarily. Maybe the maid unlocked it for us. Let's check."
They navigated their characters through the dining room and kitchen. Sure enough, the door to the maid's room was now unlocked.
But as the two characters entered the hallway, every light in the corridor went out.
At the same time, the living room lights went dark, making Nidi jump.
"What—what's going on? Did we trip a breaker?"
Oddly, the TV and Xbox weren't affected—just the lights.
"Maybe the bulbs are bad. I'll check the other lights," Roy said.
He tested the switches. The living room lights wouldn't turn on, but others in the house worked fine.
"Looks like it's just the living room lights."
Nidi sighed in relief.
"Phew, I thought the game was syncing with reality for a second!"
The living room's chandelier was the issue, but it wasn't getting fixed tonight. They'd have to call someone tomorrow.
Thankfully, playing in the dark didn't affect the game much, though Nidi seemed spooked and chugged her beer for courage.
Jennifer teased her.
"Don't get drunk, Nidi. If you pass out and can't play, you lose!"
Nidi thumped her chest confidently.
"Hmph! Even drunk, I can clear this game! That's me, the super-genius gamer girl!"
She was clearly tipsy—sober Nidi wouldn't say something so cringeworthy.
The game continued.
Nidi and Ashley guided their characters into the dark hallway. A prompt let them turn on flashlights, giving a narrow view of the surroundings.
The split-screen already limited their vision, and the flashlights made it even worse, ramping up the game's creepy vibe.
There's a saying: flashlights in horror games aren't for seeing better—they're for making sure you get a clear view of the scary stuff.
Like now. A shadowy figure darted across the screen.
Nicole: "What was that?"
Jack: "No clue! It moved too fast to see."
Nicole: "Could it be Annie?"
Jack: "If it's Annie, why's she sneaking around? Maybe a thief broke in. We'd better be careful."
Both characters drew their guns.
The message was clear: a fight was coming.
Nidi and Ashley moved their characters forward. After turning a corner, they spotted a thin woman's silhouette from behind.
Jack: "Excuse me, ma'am…"