Chapter 1: The Game

We invented the Midnight Game because of a game of Truth or Dare.

“So Mary, truth or dare?” When my roommate Sylvia started the next round, I was sitting on my bed, leaning back against my boyfriend, Will. His arm was loosely draped around my body, and my bra was sitting on top of my head—that last one was because of an earlier dare.

I contemplated the choice, and given what happened on my previous dare, I decided to take a different chance. “Truth,” I said, adjusting my position against him.

My boyfriend gave a low “hm,” as Sylvia eyed me, mischief in her smile. She was a mousy brunette with a penchant for schemes and plots, and I realized I may have made a mistake by leaving myself vulnerable in that particular way to her.

“Alright then,” she said, looking around our circle of friends also playing the game—Liz, the redhead athlete; Becky, the computer genius blonde; Nikki, the blue-haired author; and Jake, the glasses-clad introvert—and then met my eyes with hers. “What is a sexual fantasy you’ve had that you haven’t told Will about yet?”

There was a titter of surprised giggles around the room—not that this wasn’t in line with the earlier lesbian experimentation or live erotica reading that had come out of dares—as I frowned and contemplated the question. I glanced up at Will—clean-cut, dark brown hair, with a smile that melted knees and dampened my pussy—as I hmmed and thought. We’d talked about sex plenty, of course, and had even experimented a little. But what didn’t he know about me?

As a teenager, I’d read plenty of stories online, and had even done a little bit of roleplaying here and there, and in the process, I got to explore a very wide variety of things, and I remembered some of them that turned me on. That I still sometimes thought about as a junior in college, though I hadn’t mentioned them to Will.

“Remember the rules: what’s said here stays here,” Nikki said, a grin of curiosity on her face.

I settled on something, and took a deep breath. These were friends I knew well, and even though no drugs were involved—due to being in my and Sylvia’s dorm room—the night had felt like a deeply intimate night nonetheless. Secrets had been shared, and it was time for me to share mine.

Sylvia’s eyebrows perked up, and she leaned forward.

“Well, I’ve kind of always had a rape fantasy,” I admitted. “You know, just like, outside, grabbed, raped...” I shrugged, trying to pass it off. “Like, not that I would actually want that to happen but—”

“Fantasies are fantasies,” Becky said, nodding.

I felt Will shifting from behind me, and I glanced back at him. He had a thoughtful, far-away expression on his face. I wondered what he thought of that fantasy—I knew rape fantasies weren’t exactly uncommon, but it still wasn’t something that had entered into our relationship.

When I turned back to my friends, Sylvia also had a thoughtful expression on her face, her eyes narrowed as she looked at him. Jake mostly looked befuddled, Becky placid. Nikki and Liz were looking at each other thoughtfully for just a moment.

Nikki was the one who spoke up again, again watching the group. “Your turn, Mary.”

“Hm...” I said thoughtfully. “Nikki.” I pointed. “Truth or dare?”

“Truth,” she replied promptly.

“Okay.” I searched for a good question. “How many erotic stories have you posted online?”

She looked thoughtful for a moment, puckering her lips, and eventually said, “Somewhere around thirty across all my pen names.”

“Hm,” I replied. While we’d known she’d posted erotica, I had no idea she was quite so prolific. “Your turn.”

“Liz,” she said, turning to the redhead. “Truth or dare?”

“Oh what the hell. Dare.”

Nikki had that one ready. “Show us your tits.”

“Like, flash or—”

“Top and bra off. You can put them back on after the boys get a good look.”

Liz sighed, rolling her eyes. But she complied, stripping off her shirt and unhooking her bra, revealing her above-average breasts. There was an appropriate amount of oohing and aahing from us girls, and Jake definitely stared. Will had looked but was otherwise politely averting his eyes.

As she was getting her bra back on, Liz looked at him. “Will.”

“Me?” he turned to look at her, his eyes catching her breasts as they were covered by her bra. “Uh, truth, I guess.”

“Does the idea of fulfilling Mary’s rape fantasy turn you on?”

There was dead silence in the room as Becky and Jake turned to look at her with incredulous faces.

“Now wait a minute!” I protested. “That’s—”

“It’s okay, love,” Will said, rubbing my side with his hand. “Truth or dare, after all.”

I clamped my mouth shut, wondering what the hell had brought about that question.

“So uh ... this is awkward,” he said, running his tongue around under his lip for a few moments as he thought. “But I mean, I think that sort of thing could be fun? In the right sort of context. I wouldn’t want to actually actually rape someone, but playing out a fantasy? I’d be willing to try it.”

It wasn’t an answer that I hated, at least. He did shift under me a little uncomfortably, and now I wondered if the idea was turning him on.

But contemplating it, the idea was actually turning me on as well. It was a fantasy, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that Will and I could potentially play it out safely. I trusted him. It would be fun—or at least, I thought it probably would be.

My gaze dropped down to Sylvia’s, and she was staring right at me, an expression on her face that I’d over the years come to understand to be her plotting something. Everyone else was watching Will.

He cleared his throat. “But I think it’s someone else’s turn now. Becky? Truth or dare.”

Sylvia kept her gaze on me a little longer as the game continued, the slightest smile tugging at the corners of her lips, while my mind started running through variations on a fantasy of Will raping me.

What was she scheming?

“So, do you want Will to rape you?”

It was down to just Sylvia and me, our friends having departed—including, sadly, my boyfriend, because of a test the next morning—both of us now ready for bed. She was sitting cross-legged on hers, brushing her brown hair as she looked at me.

Now I knew what the odd looks she’d given me all evening were for.

“No? He’s always been really good about listening to me when I’ve told him to stop.” I was sitting, my legs dangling off of the side of the bed, waiting for her to be ready to turn the lights off.

“No, no, no, Mary dear,” she said, clucking her tongue. “Let me rephrase. Would you like Will to fulfill your rape fantasy? Subtly different question. Completely consensual, but playing a role of non-consent.”

I hesitated. “We—”

“Don’t tell me you two haven’t roleplayed.”

“Maybe a little,” I said with a shrug. “But this is a totally different league.”

She set the brush down on her lap and pushed her hair behind her head. “That doesn’t actually answer my question. Let’s say I had an idea for you to play out your fantasy. With him. Would you want to do it?” Her head tilted down just a little. “Honest truth?”

I sighed, thinking. It had been on my mind the entire rest of the evening, ever since she had asked me about my fantasy. And I had to admit to myself, the thought of it was still arousing me. A part of my mind had already given in to the idea that I would be fantasizing about that as I masturbated in bed that night.

It was also crazy, and a huge leap. And while Will and I loved each other, that would still be a lot. But who else would I ever trust?

I had to admit it to her, though. “Yes.”

A grin lit up her face.

“What’s in it for you, though?” I wondered.

“Mary.” She shook her head. “You know that I’m a voyeur, right?” That had been quite a shock when she’d admitted it—two years earlier, when we were freshman in college who had met a few days earlier, as a way of telling me I didn’t need to hide my masturbation habit from her—but it still was something I wasn’t used to.

“Yes, but—”

“Also, getting my roommate to fulfill one of her deepest fantasies? That just makes me feel good anyway.” She giggled. “And I have an idea for this one. If you’re game.”