**DISCLAIMER WARNING**

Armed with nothing but the word of some crazed hacker, we venture to New York City. We are dropped off via a cab at the entrance to the Central Park Zoo. In front of us is the main road, 5th Avenue, which stretches along parallel to the massive nature park. On either side of us are two planted trees, which extend upward providing a nice shade from the sun. Behind us are two sets of stairs, bustling with people.

I spin around and walk over. I peer down, seeing signs that mark the entrance to the zoo. Unlike Syracuse, this zoo was only accessible on foot and walking down into the infamous park. "Wow. I guess that's the zoo down there then, eh?"

"But we're not going to the silly ole zoo, Radim. In fact," Jonni remarks as his phone goes off with an incoming text from - most likely - the hacker. "Look who it is! Twenty bucks says the guy sends us to a museum."

He taps the message to open it up.

"Twenty bucks says you're the first of us to get hurt or kidnapped," I joke as I walk back over to them, tossing my eyes.

Jonni looks up, smirking. "That'll be Fabikins and you know it."

Fabien folds his arms and frowns. "Just read the message with the key and location already."

Jonni glances around and the bustling people, including a scruffy haired man with a messy cluster of blond curls and a pair of dark blue eyes walking a small terrier dog on a leash. The man is excited and applauding the dog as he walks by.

"Good job, Mr. Ritzy! You pooped AND peed! Now you won't do that on my dress shoes that I need for tomorrow night!"

The man pauses at a bench to the side of the set of stairs. He takes a bag out of his tan coat pocket full of dog treats. "I think you deserve one of these young man!"

The dog yips and bounces up and down.

"Who names their fucking dog Mr. Ritzy? That's so proper. I'd just name mine Fluffy or Spots or Fido," Jonni comments.

"You're so boring, Kokks," Tyler remarks, chuckling to himself. "Now, what'd the message say? What's the key and location?"

"Shockingly," Jonni begins to say, glancing around still and then whispering, "Not a museum...but a motel."

"Okay..." Spencer begins to say.

"So we're heading to the Skull and Crossbones Motel and we gotta find Room 66 on the 6th floor. Ha, classic," Jonni continues on.

Fabien spins around and struts over to the man and his dog. "Excuse me, sir? How well do you know New York City? Do you happen to know where the Skull and Crossbones Motel is at?"

The man looks up at him. "I don't know the place really well but I do recognize that Motel name." He then turns and looks to his right side. "I believe it's in that general direction." He points to the right side of him. "Shouldn't be able to miss it. Also, this is 2019, you guys should invest in a GPS or something..."

Fabien tosses his head. "Thank you. I just really wanted to talk to someone." He bats his eyelashes at the man.

"Are-are you flirting with me?" the man questions. "I have a girlfriend."

The dog barks and growls playfully with Fabien.

"Awwwww, what an adorable puppy!!" Fabien squeals, dropping down to pet the dog. He then looks slowly in Tyler's direction. "At least someone is able to read when I'm flirting with them."

But Tyler is busy hailing down another cab for them.

"Oh brother," Spencer groans. "C'mon Fabs, he's not paying attention and you might get bit."

"Actually, Mr. Ritzy is a gentle dog. Totally not aggressive." The dog's owner puts his hands on his hips, looking rather proudly down at his canine companion.

"Oh really, that's cool." Spencer snatches Fabien's wrist and pulls him off, away from the man and his dog.

The man shrugs and continues on with his walk.

Jonni waves his phone in the air. "I finally got signal and plugged the place into maps! Turns out, that guy wasn't joking, it's literally right down this street at the corner of some roundabout!"

He then throws his arm up and points in the opposite direction of where the man had gone. We all follow his finger, we can spot the end of the walkway about a half of a mile away from us.

"Come on," Spencer grumbles as Fabien jerks his arm free from the grip with a loud 'hmph' noise.

"Next time, use your words and don't grab me, Spence." Fabien then storms off, heading toward where Jonni is standing.

We resume our journey to this strange hotel place, trailing behind our Finnish GPS guide. We reach the end of the walkway that parallels the side of the grand Central Park, finding ourselves standing in a pavillion and looking across a busy, bustling roundabout. In the center is a grand statue where a few tourists are snapping pictures.

It's good to know that there is at least some life and that the place looks alive and normal. I spot a couple taking a goofy selfie to the side, in front of a man that is wailing away on a giant saxophone instrument.

And sure enough, as I scan the surroundings, my eyes find the far side of the roundabout road, where a sketchy, themed building stretches up at least thirteen floors. A sign hangs down in the front that reads, 'Skull and Crossbones Motel, Enter If Ye Dare.'

"Didn't even need the GPS," Jonni remarks, stuffing his phone back into his pocket. "We didn't even need to ask that man and his dog."

"Who names their dog, Mr. Ritzy?" Spencer questions out loud.

"Someone who's beautiful...I miss him already!" Fabien whines, sighing dreamily and glancing back down the walkway they'd come from.

"Fabs..." Tyler begins to say.

Fabien gasps and whirls around, his eyes shimmering in the clouded sunshine. "Katzy?"

Tyler pauses with his mouth open, staring at the young French Canadian man. "I...um, he was a very nice man. I think you should befriend him."

Spencer slaps his forehead and grumbles to himself. "Oh brother...let's get across the street down, before I end up slapping the shit out of Tyler Katalin!"

"I second this!!" Fabien growls, storming across the street without hesitation or thought and thankfully during a break in the cars.

He reaches the median of the roundabout and spins around, folding his arms and looks back across to the others. "C'mon slowpokes, just like on the ice, I'm still faster than you all!" He flashes a smirk.

"Fabs, shut up!" I scream at him and then race across as the walk sign for the crosswalk ignites.

Within seconds, we are joining the sassy frenchie and then continuing across the second crosswalk to the motel's corner location. We stand, looking up and taking in all the architectural details in the exterior bricking. The building is made up of skulls or at least bricks that have been realistically sculpted to look like ones.

"Amazing, creepy detail that's for sure," I pipe up, gesturing upward.

Spencer leads us into the lobby, similarly themed to the name of the hotel. Upon entering, we catch a glimpse of a man sitting at the bar. He has long, braided black hair (so stereotypical if you ask me) as well as a hook for a hand and he spots us at once and comes over to us.

"I don't like this place..." Tyler trails off. "I get bad vibes--"

Fabien suddenly screams. "LET GO OF ME!"

I spin around, spotting the hook man, pinning Fabien's arm behind his back. He is sniffing Fabien's neck, much to the smaller man's disgust.

"You smell like rotting onions and rum!" Fabien shouts, attempting to stomp his foot down on the strange man's.

"Hey, dude, personal boundaries. Let him go!" I snap.

The man lifts his hook hand up and gingerly puts it under Fabien's neck. "Aw, come now, I'm just playing around with Fabien LeBeau-Boulet."

"This is NOT fun!" Fabien hisses back through clenched teeth, clearly growing frustrated.

"It's fun to me, Frenchy!"

"Wait, you know who he is?" Tyler questions, cocking his head to the side.

"You know, instead of questioning, maybe first get your sexy ass over here and save me!" Fabien snaps as the man wrenches Fabien's arm farther up his back, causing him to scream in pain. "NOW, KATZY!!!"

Tyler shakes his head and races forward, winding up one solid fist and lets it fly right into the hook-handed man's face. He staggers backward, releasing Fabien. Blood gushes from his nose almost immediately.

Fabien throws his arms around Tyler, who loops his arm around the frenchy's waist.

"Okay, so creepy weird hook-handed Fabien fan aside..." Tyler begins to mutter, cracking his neck to one side.

"My name is Skully, Katalin! Get it right, arrogant dumbass!" the man snarls. "Geez you popped me good!"

"What kind of name is 'Skully'? Not that I really care to know," Jonni sneers, putting his hands on his hips.

Spencer rolls his eyes. "We don't have time for this, we need to get to Room 66 on the 6th floor!"

Skully smirks through blood-stained teeth. "Well, Syracuse Storm boys, I've been awaiting you. I watch TV, I'm not dumb. I'm not a Fabien fan, just know he's an extreme pussy on the ice, who doesn't like to scrap. He's just known to score flashy goals. But someone told me you'd be stopping by..." He withdraws to behind the bar that he'd been sitting at earlier and rummage through a set of keys hanging on bone-themed hooks. He snatches a rusty silver key in the shape of a skull and returns to them.

Skully hands me the key, looking me dead in the eyes. "Radim Raddysh." His eyes glitter with an evil darkness. He nods and then dashes off, vanishing out of the front doors. Bizarre, twisted cackling echos back to them.

I glance down at the key in my hand and then up at the others.

"Well, that dude was straight out of crazy town, but my curiosity is peaked!! Let's go check out this room!" Jonni rubs his hands together, eyeing the key. He then snaps his head around, looking for an elevator.

Fabien nestles his head against Tyler's shoulder.

Spencer leads them to the elevators, which are tucked into a short hallway, lined with bones and skulls as the wall. Two black torches light up the area with a dim eerie lighting. The captain of the Storm jams his thumb into a silver button on the wall, which instantly lights up, followed by a loud dinging sound.

The doors to one of the two sets of elevators rapidly pulls open, welcoming them to step inside. Jonni steps in first, followed by Spencer and then Fabien and Tyler. I trail last, looking back toward the exit, my heart pounding against my chest.

"Vau! Mitä tämä painike tekee?!" Jonni exclaims in a thick Finnish accent.

"Kuokky, English," Fabien complains. "None of us here can understand you. And don't make me start speaking in French! Parce que je peux totalement faire ça." He leans toward Jonni, batting his eyelashes.

I step into the elevator with the others, heaving a sigh and biting my lip, nervously. Who knew if this elevator would even let us out or if it would indeed take us to the floor...this place was spooky as is and far from normal.

"French Canadians are raised with no awareness of the concept of personal space, huh?" the Finn remarks with a sly smirk as the doors close behind me.

"You have no idea," Fabien plays on, putting his hand on Jonni's chest.

Spencer pushes the button for the 6th floor and we ascend upward. Eventually, we jerk to a halt on the floor and the doors part open once more. We file out and head down the hallway.

We finally reach a door marked as '66' with scratches etched into the wood. The red carpet is dark and stained at the foot and the knob is wobbly with a few cobwebs stringing from it.

I shrug and stick the key into the door knob, turning it. The knob wobbles in place and I think that I'm just going to go ahead and break the thing off. Instead, it miraculously manages to stay attached and the door creaks open for us.

Inside, we immediately find a dark room with no windows present. The place reeks of sweat, mildew and garbage. I wrinkle my nose up in disgust, but venture inside ahead of the others, letting go of the key and the doorknob.

Spencer, Jonni, Tyler and Fabien enter behind me, as I pause in place and allow my eyes to adjust. Spencer tries the lightswitch behind me. Not shockingly, it doesn't work. And so, after a few seconds, I am able to make out a desk in the far corner of the room.

"Okay...what now?" Jonni whispers out loud.

As soon as the words comes out of his mouth, the television in the room flashes on to life, bathing the room in the static channel's light. Then a voice, obviously disguised and sounding like it would come from that group, Anonymous, speaks from the TV: "Open the laptop."

Bravely, though my heart is still pounding like a jackhammer inside of me, I walk across the room to the desk, where a black Dell laptop is sitting closed and untouched in place. I pull out a leather chair and sit down.

Time to tap into my computer skills again. Boy, do I regret ever taking on this challenge!! I open up the laptop's screen, gingerly and nervously. There is a clicking noise and I find that I cannot move the screen back or forward anymore. It is locked in place. I also notice that the computer is glued in place. Secure. No way to move it. 

That's not a good sign... 

At once the screen lights up. A similar black misty screen consumes the desktop, before it dissolves to a white box with a .zip file folder in the center of it.

I double tap on it, using the trackpad for the device.

The screen flashes black and then the words 'Alex's Annihilation' appear on the screen.

"Jonni Kuokkonen..." Spencer grumbles.

"Hey-o, Radimiekins, move. This is that thing I asked for a link too!" Jonni remarks. "Sounds like a good movie!"

The words fade as Jonni pulls up another leather chair and sits down to my left side. The laptop shows a familiar-looking man adjusting a camera in the corner of the room that they are in now. He is muttering nonsense to himself, but there is no denying that it is Skully, the man they'd run into down in the lobby of the motel.

As the man finally gets the camera set in place and steps back, we can see a blond-haired boy, no older than seven years old, squirming in place on the bed. He is on his stomach with no shirt on and just in boxers. His wrists are bound together behind his back with a nylon rope that is tied to his ankles in a hog-tie fashion.

"TURN IT OFF NOW!" Spencer shouts out. "This isn't funny anymore."

I try to go up and close out of the file, but it remains in place, going nowhere. Skully gives a creepy thumbs up to the camera as I spin to Spencer, mortified.

Tyler shakes his head, somberly.

I spin back around, just in time to see the hook-handed man, climb onto the bed and straddle the poor, helpless child.

"Skull and Crossbones, Room 66 feed, this is Scott Keith..." the man, known to them as Skully, growls as he undoes the buttons to his pants, straddling over the boy. He then leans down and grabs the boy's chin, forcing his head up. "...and..."

The boy's frightened blue eyes stare into the camera lens as he manages to choke out, "Alex Anderson."

Tears fill up the bottom of the boy's eyes as the man takes his belt and wraps it around his head, pulling it into his mouth.

"I can't...watch..." Spencer croaks out, turning around.

The man then begins to assault and torture the boy, the muffled screams coming out of the computer's speakers, flooding the room with creepy, unpleasant sounds. This isn't my kind of tea and I notice that Jonni's curiosity and enjoyment is fading into a stunned horror. Especially as he realizes that the boy is not doing this willingly and the dark thoughts creep into cloud his mind.

Skully removes the belt from the boy's mouth and jams his penis into his mouth, cumming for a while, before he finally ends Alex's misery, by allowing him to throw up blood and then the belt is looped around his neck and he is slowly strangled to death.

At this point, Fabien rushes off to the bathroom of the hotel room and I can hear him hurling into the sink or toilet. I wish I could do that too, I'm sickened to the core, but I can't find the will to move or do anything except stare as the documentary ends.

"Well...I'm scarred..." Jonni manages to get out as Fabien gets sick in the bathroom again.

Tyler pads off to check on him.

There is a deafening ringing noise from the computer now as the small chat box pops back up.

"Oh, look, it's our friend..." Jonni growls.

"What does your sick-ass mind want now?" I snarl at the laptop, rolling my eyes. "Gonna send us more child predator porn shit?"

'Did you not like that? You want to learn more about MY Dark Web? This is the kind of messed up shit you're getting into. You've GOTTEN into. If you wish not to continue, well, it is too late for that...'

"Look, we're done with this. We'll take this to the cops and have your sick buddy arrested!" I snap, standing up from my seat.

'You think you'll get very far, Radim Raddysh. I DARE you to try. Go on. Humor me. I know every move, every business, every square area of New York. You cannot hide from me and I'm not afraid to kill you. If I want to send you more porn, I will. Even hurtcore. You're in too deep, you took the challenge and now you must suffer the consequences, much like pretty little Alex Anderson.'

I blink, unable to find a response. I sit back down in the seat, defeated. I'm trapped in this never-ending sick game. I know that there is no way out, but I still feel the need, the urge to fight back and try to get out. I close my eyes, the image of poor Alex struggling helplessly to get free of the restraints that the sick old man named Skully... I snap my eyes open and, through gritted teeth, demand, "Where to next, Hannibal?"

The computer screen flashes to black, but the voice from the TV comes once again, saying, "Head to Northern New York Carding, Radim."