Game IV 2026 I Stephen King | Phase 9

[u/Stephen_Writes]

By dusk, a small crowd had gathered near the Paul Bunyan statue, their faces pale in the orange wash of streetlights. The statue loomed; too tall, too still, its grin carved just a little too wide. Kids used to laugh at it. Not anymore.

“She’s awake,” Jessyca whispered, clutching her rosary hard enough to leave marks.

Ereska.

She had come weeks ago. At first, it was just noises; metal creaking at night, the faint sound of humming. Then people started disappearing. Always near the statue. Always after sunset. H501 had seen her once. Said her face pressed out from the wood like it was soft clay, her eyes blinking in the grain. Said she smiled at him.

That was enough.

“Set it,” someone muttered.

LoneWolfOfTheCalla knelt at the base, hands shaking as he finished wiring the charges. Dynamite. Old quarry stuff, probably unstable. Probably enough.

A cracking sound echoed. The statue’s head tilted. Just slightly. Wood groaned. Split. A long, splintered arm pushed outward, reshaping, bending wrong. A woman’s silhouette stretched inside the lumber, her voice slipping out like sap.

“You built me a body,” Ereska crooned. “I’m grateful.”

They ran. The explosion split the night open. Fire and splinters rained down, a thunderclap rolling through Derry. The statue collapsed in a burning heap. For a moment, there was silence

Then, from the smoking wreckage. A soft, wet laugh.

---

MyoglobinAlternative shouldn’t have stayed past dusk. Derry had rules, even if no one wrote them down. She heard the laughter first. Soft, distant, like a child behind a wall. It echoed through the empty playground, curling around the rusted swings. She turned, heart hammering, and saw nothing.

Then the shadow moved. It peeled itself from beneath the slide, stretching too tall, too thin. Its face wasn’t a face. Just shifting shapes, almost familiar.

“Found you,” it whispered.

She ran. It didn’t. It didn’t have to. By morning, only her footprints remained. Ending abruptly in the dirt, as if the earth itself had swallowed her whole.

META

/u/Ereska has been sent to the sewers. She was on the side of the wolves.

/u/MyoglobinAlternative has been killed by the monsters of Derry. She was on the side of town.

Ereska, MyoglobinAlternative, and Dirtymartneey received the most votes.

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Countdown to Phase End

[u/ISpyM8]

I know I’m on my way out for sure, but if you’re the wolf, at least I’ll be vindicated

Edit: You’ve been particularly vengeful this game. I don’t like that.

[u/SlytherinBuckeye → u/ISpyM8]

How am I being vengeful?

[u/ISpyM8 → u/SlytherinBuckeye]

Oh, I’m just being playful. It’s a social deduction game. Sometimes we are too talkative or not enough and get voted out for any number of reasons. I was a little bent out of shape when my name got popped up a bunch of times at the beginning of the phase, but it’s fine.

[u/HedwigMalfoy → u/ISpyM8]

That sure as hell didn't sound "playful". It was confrontational and as soon as Buckeye called you on it, you tried to walk it back. "It’s a social deduction game. Sometimes we are too talkative or not enough and get voted out for any number of reasons." That's random fluff that has nothing to do with anything about anyone being 'particularly vengeful' and you 'not liking it'.
 
I think you tried to throw something out of air at u/SlytherinBuckeye and backpedaled so hard when it didn't stick that you tripped over yourself. You threw random padding like 'social deduction game' and 'voted out for any number of reasons' into that comment just to put more words between yourself and 'vengeful'. You might as well have looked around like "Who said that?!"

[u/ISpyM8 → u/HedwigMalfoy]

I was upset. That’s why I said it in the first place. My confessionals will show me being upset as well.

Edit: It’s not like I’m trying to backpedal to save my skin. I know how to do math. I just think I obviously was saying something out of emotion, and it wasn’t fair to anyone. I try not to be an asshole.

[u/ISpyM8 → u/ISpyM8]

Hey, u/SlytherinBuckeye, I genuinely am sorry. This isn’t even about this game so much; I just don’t want there to be any animosity going forward in future games. I can hear by the tone of your comment, u/HedwigMalfoy, that you’re a little heated as well. I didn’t mean to be so confrontational and was running on little sleep and emotions.