The Steal of a Lifetime

This is the alternative beginning of ‘Vacation Roulette,’ a choose your own adventure story. The original beginning was written by Linden Schneider here. See the bottom of this story for more details. Click here for the chapter guide.

Under the covers, you and your partner play a sexy game. But before you manage to get far, the sound of the doorbell rudely interrupts your fun.

You whine and refuse to get out of bed. You grip your partner’s hand.

But the doorbell chimes again, more urgently this time.

“No,” you mutter, but your partner wrests their hand from your grasp. They peck you on the lips, and climb out of bed.

They toss on a long shirt before rushing for the door.

With a curse, you scramble out of bed too and grab a shirt on your way to the living room.

Your partner already opened the door. The mailman looks flustered, no doubt because your partner is gorgeous and their shirt doesn’t hide much.

Before you can snipe at the guy, your partner thanks him, accepts the small package from his hands, and shuts the door (gently) in his face.

The two of you stare down at the little package. It’s green and blue, in a pretty tropical pattern. It’s addressed to both of you, and the sender is “Vacation Roulette.”

“What kind of a name is that?” you snort.

Your partner smiles and takes out a letter opener. They eagerly slice the mail open.

Gee, they didn’t even run a security check before opening the package!

But you’re just as impatient to see what it is.

It turns out to be an ad for a tropical vacation. You’ll stay in a 4-star hotel, at a bargain price. You exchange a glance with your partner. The two of you have been working hard at your freelance jobs to make ends meet.

While you’re not poor per se, you’re far from wealthy. You never feel that you can afford to go on vacation, since trips are so expensive, and it would take time away from your paid work.

But if this bargain vacation is real, it could be a sign that you and your partner deserve a break.

Your significant other pats your shoulder. “You in?”

How could you say no?

The two of you gather in front of your laptop. You open up Google Chrome, and type in the web address from the letter.

It takes you to a webpage with that tropical background. Then you click to the signup page. After you and your partner fill in your details, you get this message on the screen:

To determine whether you are mentally fit for this vacation, please complete our personality quiz.

That’s interesting, but you shrug and hit Enter. Before the questions load up, your partner leaves to get a drink. So you’ll take your quiz first.

The quiz feels like a Myers-Briggs personality test, and you do them on autopilot, since the questions seem so familiar. Maybe they’ll tell you that you’re an INTP, which is the type you usually get. Your partner is more of an ENFJ.

But after you complete a long series of questions, they don’t tell you the result. Instead, you get this next message:

Thank you! In the next set of questions, please give your honest answers. Don’t overthink them. Go with your gut impulse.

Um, okay? You click the Next button.

The first question:

You see a man lying face down in an alley; he is bleeding out. What do you do?

1. Call 911
2. Perform first-aid on him, even if you lack medical training.
3. Do nothing
4. Kick him until he screams.

What the fuck? You thought they would ask you problem-solving questions, not something disturbing like this.

With a grimace, you choose #2. You thankfully do have first-aid training!

The survey continues with more questions like this; they all have morally troubling answers.

At last, you see this message:

Final test. Please make sure you are alone when you answer this.

Your significant other still hasn’t returned, presumably giving you time to finish your quiz. With your heart pounding, you click Next.

Would you kill your partner if you could save 10 people?

A chill runs down your spine. There are only two answers: Yes or No.

Which do you choose?

1. Yes
2. No

Note: As mentioned in the blurb above, Linden Schneider wrote the original beginning to the story, ‘Vacation Roulette.’ I wanted to cross-post Vacation Roulette to my Ghost website here, so that non-Medium member readers can access the game without a paywall.

However, I was unable to reach Linden, as she has left Medium and has not responded to my messages or emails. Hence, I will write new beginning chapters (alternative beginnings), which I will post to my Ghost site here. The basic plot will be the same, but many of the details will be different.