"If you're not sure what to get, the moussaka is usually good. It's, um, almost like a lasagna, but without the pasta," she suggested.
April, who'd never eaten anything more Greek than a gyro, searched for it on the menu. It did sound like an interesting dish, though the description made it sound more like a casserole than a lasagna, and the mix of spices seemed more than a little odd to her.
"Cinnamon, allspice, and garlic?" she questioned, her face scrunching up in a yuck! look that said she didn't think she'd like it at all.
Elizabeth laughed and shrugged. "Yeah, it actually tastes pretty good together but, um, if you want something a little safer, you can try the dolmade with grilled lamb. It's harmless, I promise. Rice wrapped in grape leaves with some seasoning and a chopped meat paste, and no one prepares lamb like the Greeks," she assured her.
April hesitated but it didn't sound too bad. She wasn't the most culinarily advanced person in the world, a little plebian in her tastes she'd been told, but she was willing to try something new as long as it was recognizable. When the waitress, a beautiful olive-skinned girl with lustrous black hair, bounced over, she decided to give it a shot. Elizabeth ordered something bizarre that involved octopus off the menu, and the beaming girl hurried off to the kitchen, leaving them time to talk.
Elizabeth produced the file from the week before, the one she'd never even opened, but now she spread it out in front of her.
"April, what I'm about to show you is confidential. There's a clause about it in your contract, you probably noticed, but I'm just reminding you. In this industry, secrets are key. So whatever your feelings about this, keep the information to yourself," the woman said as she fixed April with a serious look.
There was an implied threat that was unmistakable, and April nodded. She scoffed at the idea that she even needed to be reminded of her confidentiality agreement; who was she going to tell? She didn't know anyone who was really into video games, but as Elizabeth began to explain to her, she got an inkling of the issue and icy fingers of dread began to form in her stomach as she listened and looked at the materials she was being shown.
Her eyes narrowed, focused on a photograph—of herself in full glossy color—that sat on top of the pile.
"I don't— I don't understand," she said, interrupting Elizabeth's detailed explanation. "You said this was for a horror video game. That you'd be using my experiences to scare people?" she said carefully, controlling her emotions.
"Yes, that was the original plan, but as I mentioned, things have changed. The experiences that you're having in the house and the footage that has been recorded—you understand it's groundbreaking? Of course, there have been stories about sexual encounters with ghosts, mostly fiction, but to have it recorded? Some people would still say it was a hoax, a fake, and Dr. Marlowe will have to deal with that when he publishes his findings. For my purposes, it won't make any difference at all," Elizabeth said.
There was a brief pause as the waitress brought them drinks, chattering happily, and then went on her way. Elizabeth had quickly closed the folder when she approached, but once she was gone, the blonde dove right back into the discussion. "I know this is going to be difficult for you. I can tell you're not exactly comfortable with as much—" She paused, choosing her words carefully. "Exposure as you've gotten already, but I've put a lot of thought into this, and it's going to be a success. More than a success. We're going to make the world's first virtual reality X-rated scenario. Oh, we'll keep the ghost stuff in, of course, maybe a little of the scary stuff, but we're going to focus on paranormal romance instead of horror. That genre is huge right now."
April slumped back in her chair and stared at the blonde. This woman, a supposed friend of her mother, was basically asking her to star in some kind of virtual reality porno.
"There's no way— I'm not doing— No," she said finally. A horrified look on her face, her hands shook a little, and she reached for her glass of soda as a distraction, nearly tipping it over.
Elizabeth sent a cool glance her way but chose not to remind April she had no choice. Instead, she took a different tack.
"Listen and let me explain the whole plan before you get upset." April gave her a grudging nod, and she continued. "The main character in the game isn't going to have your name and no one is going to see her because the whole game will be shot from her perspective. The people playing will be you, having your experiences, but they aren't going to know who you are. We'll be taking apart the footage frame by frame and recreating it in CGI, recording it in 3-D, until the scenario will be so lifelike, people will actually think it's happening to them."
Pushing her long hair back and tucking it behind her ears as she bit down on her full bottom lip, April tried to consider this without her emotions involved, but she just couldn't separate herself from the experiences. She wasn't an adult film star.
"But—but I thought video games were mostly bought by men. Men aren't going to want to be me in this!" she said desperately.
"Oh, more than you'd think will be interested. There's a pretty large segment of gay male subs out there who would go nuts for a chance at this experience, but that's not going to be our target audience. April, think about it— Yeah, video games are mostly bought by men. Virtual reality equipment, which gets better every year, is expensive as hell and mostly bought by men. This. This is going to open up a whole new segment of the population. This experience will bring the women in by droves. You have no idea how lucrative the romance market is, and paranormal romance has only been getting more popular in the past few years," Elizabeth said, leaning forward in her excitement.
She looked down, flipped through the papers in the folder, and pulled out some statistical analysis of the video game market.
"Look. Right now this is how the consumer population settles. There's more women buying games than most people think, but the guys pass them up by a wide margin. Why? As a woman in this field, I'm going to tell you—it's not because women aren't interested. It's because nothing is really aimed at them. And when they do get involved in gaming, they're treated like crap."
She was scowling and speaking intently, and April realized this subject was a lot closer to Elizabeth's heart than she'd known.
April squinted at the pages of figures. Most of it didn't make a lot of sense to her but she could read the pie-graphs easily enough. "Are you really sure they'll sell?" she said hesitantly. It seemed like a huge risk to her. She knew next to nothing about games, unlike her boss, but still—
"Oh, yes, they'll sell. Look, the V.R. equipment my company is working on is going to be amazing. Frankly, it's going to be a hot seller, no matter what games go with it. We've done extensive research, poured millions into the development, and we've come up with a few new angles that haven't been tapped before. With our set-up, you won't just be seeing an augmented reality, you're going to experience it with every sense," she said, keeping her voice low.
Although the restaurant was nearly empty, the secrecy of their innovations was essential, and she couldn't risk being overheard. The moment the kitchen door swung and their smiling waitress appeared holding two heaping plates, she shut up, and the conversation didn't resume until the girl left again, after they'd assured her everything looked and smelled great.
April picked and poked at her food. She hadn't lied; it did smell delicious, but Elizabeth's ideas had frozen her to the core, and she'd lost her appetite. She couldn't restrain her curiosity, though, about all of it, and as soon as the girl was gone, she had to ask, "So, it's not going to be a game now? Then what's the point of it?"
Elizabeth's appetite was just fine, and she'd begun to eat as soon as the hot plate was placed in front of her. She swallowed quickly as she nodded. "Yeah, adventure experiences are the new thing in virtual reality. Why waste the incredibly realistic graphics only on games when you can provide people who aren't interested in gaming with situations that they might never be able to experience directly? Hang gliding, for instance. Most people w
ould never dare try it, but they'd love to know what it feels like to soar through the sky."
She hesitated, staring at the younger woman as though appraising her trustworthiness, and then she went into more detail.
"We've gone with a full helmet system, which allows us to control the temperatures around your face, and we've installed fans that can simulate wind, as well as spreading the scents and aromas of the environment you're seeing. So, for our hang-gliding module, the wind will blow through your hair, you'll smell the salt air as you soar over a bluff. The visuals and sounds are perfect, almost indistinguishable from real life," she said with the smug confidence of someone who was extremely proud of a creation.
April put a tiny bit of food into her mouth, chewing slowly as she thought about it. "That sounds really neat, but how are you going to translate that to—" She trailed off.
"How am I going to make this into a kinky sex adventure? Well, I've got some really interesting ideas for add-on features, but I'll get to that in a minute. First thing you should know, April, I don't expect most of our customers for this will be gamers at all. Female gamers who like romance and paranormal, yes, sure, there will be a lot of those, but there's a bigger market to get into. There has never been a mass-produced game of any kind that focuses on BDSM. You can barely get away with it in movies, anymore, and yet look how popular that trashy movie that came out last year was. Crappy, poorly-written spanking scenes, and women went nuts for it. There are a lot of women and men, too, who would pay big money for this, just on that basis alone.
"Any BDSM, any spanking scenario, will draw them in by the millions, but add to that an incredibly realistic virtual reality that touches all the senses?" She laughed, a sound of pure exhilaration poured from her, catching attention in the quiet restaurant. "We're going to rake in the money."
April frowned; she still didn't like the idea. She knew realistically she might not have much choice, since she'd signed away all her rights in the contracts, and she understood that no one would know it was her experience they were living, but she didn't have to like it. And there were a lot of little details that she didn't understand.
"You said all the senses? What about touch? I mean I'm sure a lot of people like to watch spanking videos and they'd buy it just for that, but won't it ruin the effect if they aren't feeling anything when it's supposed to be them it's happening to?" She knew she had no hope of changing Elizabeth's mind, but she still wanted to know.
"Well, that brings us back to the add-ons," Elizabeth said, smirking. She took her time answering, pausing to take a couple of bites. Her plate was already half empty, while April's was still full. "We're designing a pad that the consumer will sit on while experiencing this. It didn't come up specifically because of this new idea. We'd always planned it, intending to use it to jiggle the user a bit, vibrations to simulate movement, but now we're looking at a whole different plan."
April's eyes widened. Her hand froze in mid-air with a nearly empty fork on the way to her mouth. Elizabeth, sure that she had her complete attention, continued.
"Pretend that you're really into spanking. Maybe you're a shy virgin or maybe you're too embarrassed to tell your boyfriend what you're into. It's your secret little kink, and you fill that desire by watching spanking porn on the Internet. Now, what if you found out you could buy a system that would give you those experiences in the privacy and secrecy of your own home? Don't you think you'd pay a lot for that?
"I think you would. I think a lot of women would. But we want to make it as realistic as possible, so you pay an extra hundred for the full experience, and when you're sitting there with the helmet on, you also have a very responsive cushion to sit on. When the virtual you gets a smack on the ass, the cushion under you simulates the effect by getting hot and sending a little shock against your skin. It won't, of course, actually cause any lasting marks. Not sure we'd be able to get that past the regulatory committees, but it would give you a temporary sensation of being spanked." She settled back and let April take that in.
April tried to imagine being the girl that they were targeting, and she thought she could see how it would be enticing. But she couldn't really picture it because before John, she'd never even thought about spanking or any kink, really. She'd barely even thought about sex much, and for a long time she had almost thought she was asexual. All of that changed when she met him and now maybe if things didn't work out, she could see herself longing for that sharp pain and slowly building warmth. She'd discovered that she not only liked it, but part of her craved it from him. Was it just him, or would she want that someday from another man if things didn't work out with John? That she didn't know, couldn't know.
She finally settled the bite of food in her mouth, barely tasting it before swallowing. "What—what parts are you going to use? Just the spanking or—" she asked.
"Oh, no. All of it, April. Not all in the first module, of course. There's just too much. What I'm planning is a series. They buy the first one, and for a subscription fee, they can download the next chapter directly into a console," Elizabeth explained.
"But—" April stopped. She could feel her face burning hot. She fumbled for something that wouldn't sound inane but came up empty.
"I know how hard this is for you, April, but it's going to happen. It's going to be worth it for you. You're walking away with a house worth millions, plus thousands in cash. And I'll get back every cent I spent on that Gawdawful pile of bricks and more besides." Elizabeth's eyes sparkled almost angrily, and April could only imagine why.
"But you're going to be plastering my sex life across the world," she protested.
"April, you've been fucking a ghost, knowing full well you were on camera and under contract giving me the rights to everything that was filmed in the house. You have no chance here; please don't fight me on it. If you want, I can have Chuck explain to you in full detail what will happen if you do," Elizabeth said coldly.
Her mother's old friend had clearly divorced all emotion from her business side. April made a face. She didn't want to see the lawyer any more than absolutely necessary.
She shook her head. "No. I know what I signed, but—"
"Look, I get it. I do. Let me sweeten the pot a little, okay? After all, none of this would be possible without you, and I've gotten more out of this than I ever dreamed. I'm not ungrateful, so how about this? In addition to everything already promised, I'll also give you five percent of the net profits for the whole series. It's going to be worth a fortune," Elizabeth said confidently.
"You really think that many people are looking to buy virtual reality porn?" April asked in a faint tone of voice.
"Yeah, I do. Pretty much all new technology ends up as a format for porn in the end. Some will buy it just for the sex, some for the spanking, and some for the romance, but they'll buy. And, now that I think about it, we've gotten enough G-rated paranormal footage to do that horror game, as well. Honestly, no reason to focus on just one. I'll split the company, come up with a different name for the adult line, and sell the same game mainstream to all the gamers who want to piss their pants over poltergeists," Elizabeth said with a negligent shrug. But the look of pure avarice in her eyes made it clear she was suddenly counting on a much larger profit.
"Do I get a share of that, too?" April asked with a pointed look.
Elizabeth smiled, but it was empty of emotion. "No. That you already agreed to." She paused, considering. "But I'll go six percent on the X-rated one," she said.
It was enticing, and even if it didn't sell well, she wouldn't be any worse off than she was now. And, in the end, she really didn't have a choice, did she? But she did hold out for one more thing.
"Seven percent. And all the furniture in the house comes with it at the end of the month," she said firmly. She stabbed her fork, piercing a leaf-wrapped bundle and popping it into her mouth, trying to look as firm and professional as Elizabeth had.
The woman's carefully waxed eyebrow lifted in a look that might ha
ve been respect, and she nodded slowly. "Done. But for that, I want to see your ass busy on camera. No more holding out on me. Just forget it's being recorded and do what I know you're dying to do. And I want varied experiences. It's a huge house. Try using it. Fuck on the kitchen table if you want; just have fun and be creative," Elizabeth said in the same tone of voice with which she'd ordered her lunch. It was an order she expected to be fulfilled.
April swallowed hard. Her hands still shook and the cold ball of ice in her belly made it hard to eat the meal in front of her, but she forced herself to do it. She needed to look strong and not back down one inch. A few more weeks, and it would all be over. She'd have the house, money, and if the furnishings weren't worth another million on their own, she'd be surprised. Plus, a steady income from the game to pay the bills? It solved all the problems but one—how the hell was she going to force herself to do those things on camera while knowing that people all over the world would be buying copies of her experiences?
Despite her efforts to seem unconcerned, she knew she'd failed. Elizabeth could read people; she wouldn't have gotten so far in business if she couldn't. April ended up barely managing half the meal, and when the waitress inquired about dessert, she couldn't even stomach the idea of anything sweet. Her stomach was roiling just from her meal, which, thankfully, hadn't been seasoned with anything too harsh. Elizabeth had no such issue and tucked into a decadent looking lemon sponge cake while April looked on, feeling a little dazed about the whole thing.
With all the business out of the way, Elizabeth's personality completely shifted. Suddenly, she was warm and friendly and seemed content to move on to small talk about her mother and father. Wondering how they were doing after so many years, and so on. April answered somewhat numbly, on auto-pilot. Her mind was engaged with the promises she'd made and how she could make those happen. The idle thought that Carson was going to have a meltdown wandered through her mind, and that reminded her of how embarrassing it was all going to be. She decided then that she was going to have to talk to the team and explain. Otherwise they'd think she was, well—
A Haunting Experience Page 22
