[ WP ] You find a copy of The Sims 5 at a used video game store . You decide to buy it and try it out . Slowly , unscripted and non programmed events start to happen . You realize that you 're actually controlling a real family .

Ethan couldn ’ t wait to try out the game - from what he ’ d seen of the trailers, the graphics were eerily realistic. Though Sims 4 had been good, it had never been *quite* realistic enough for him. 
 
 When he got home and popped in the CD, he began jotting out his plans for his first family. He couldn ’ t wait to get started. He built the house carefully: a pool surrounding them, a nice, roomy basement. A family of eight, six of them children. 
 
 At first, it was the same as usual. His sims' needs plummeted as he deprived them of food and sleep. It was fun, but not exactly anything new. 
 
 It was only when they started working together on their own, to escape the basement, that he begun to wonder. This wasn ’ t supposed to happen. One of the drawbacks of the game - they were just stupid, simulated people, doing exactly what he told them. Not like real people. *Real* people would act like this, would try to escape. 
 
 His hands trembled with excitement as he tried to direct them. Some - like the smallest children - obeyed, while others appeared to be screaming directly at him. One of the parents refused to attack his own children like he ’ d ordered, instead breaking down in tears on the floor. 
 
 There could only be one explanation. 
 
 “ You ’ re all real, aren ’ t you? You ’ re real, ” he whispered, leaning back from the computer as he considered the implications of this. 
 
 If they were real, did that mean he was God? He ’ d always suspected, but this was surely a sign…a signal. He turned his eyes on the sims again. Feverishly, lost in the dark world he had been afraid to imagine up to this point, he began to play in earnest. 
 
 -- -- -- -- -- - 
 
 “ I ’ ve got something, sir, ” agent Katherine Masters said, showing her supervisor the live feed of one of the webcams. 
 
 A pale-faced young man ’ s eyes were lit with joy as he tortured a family of eight. 
 
 “ Good job, Katherine, ” agent Daniel Simmons murmured, hastening over to check the feed for himself. 
 
 As always, he felt slightly nauseous as he watched the man ’ s enraptured expression. 
 
 Right from the start, the Sadism Identification Mechanism operation had been a massive pain in the ass to get approved and implemented. First there was the game ’ s development. It had been a long, tedious slog, to get the coding perfect - to make the sims behave as unpredictably as possible. 
 
 Then the marketing - its number of sales were crucial to their operation ’ s success. And above all, getting approval to hack into the players ’ webcams. It would be a disaster if details of the operation became public, even though they abandoned most of the feeds after a week. Watching someone direct their sims to go to work and make pancakes was hardly a good use of their resources. 
 
 But then there were others. 
 
 The ones who made the red tape and headaches worth it. The ones who proved that the game could be a revolutionary tool to catch some perpetrators early. Those who would likely move on from torturing highly realistic, simulated people - to real people. 
 
 “ You ’ ve got the address? ” he asked. 
 
 “ All his details, ” Katherine confirmed. 
 
 “ Keep watching him, ” Daniel said. “ We need more.'' 
 
 Katherine started to reply, when they heard Ethan whisper something in a fervent tone, like he was praying. 
 
 “ You ’ re all real, aren ’ t you? You ’ re real, ” he said. Instead of seeming uneasy, the boy looked ecstatic. 
 
 “ Delusions, ” Daniel noted. “ Interesting. Focus only on him for now, Katherine. ” 
 
 She nodded, stifling a sigh. It was draining work, looking into these people ’ s eyes when they thought no-one was watching. It had already been a pain with the previous games. But somehow, the things she saw only got worse as the games got more realistic. People got increasingly carried away as they dreamt they could control actual people. 
 
 `` Yesss! I'm God!'' Ethan was whispering to himself as he drowned two of his sims in the pool, while another was consumed by flames in the kitchen. 
 
 Katherine made a note of that, shaking her head as she took a sip of coffee. The number of people who immediately jumped to *that* conclusion was rather disturbing. 
 
 -- -- -- -- 
 Hope you enjoyed my story! You can find more of my work on /r/Inkfinger/.
