Ashlyn walked down the long corridor to a staircase, the staircase to her freedom. As she climbed each step, one by one, she felt her heartbeat slow, she finally realized she was okay.
She was at the last few steps when the latch to get upstairs opened, a man was standing there. He had a black robe on, it was red and silk inside, he looked to be old. His hair was graying and it had white tinges, in one way he looked to be quite handsome, honestly.
"Hello, Ashlyn, my name's John," he smiled, sweetly.
"I remember you, from the first time I played," Ashlyn said, inching back a little bit from John.
"No need to be afraid, Ashlyn, I helped you. If you continue to cherish your life, like you did in there," he pointed down the stairs,
"you'll never be tested again. I promise."
Ashlyn's close were torn and wet, she was still bleeding from the saw blades and she was ready to curl up and die. John, however, had other plans.
"Ashlyn, come in. You're going to help me, now, as I helped you. I can see that you understand how the game works, as you won. Keylie and Shelbi will be playing another game because they both clearly didn't do as they were told," at the mention of Keylie and Shelbi, Ashlyn's eyes perked up.
"Is it possible for them to win?" Ashlyn asked, pleading with her eyes.
"Ashlyn, it's always possible. Everyone deserves a chance, my dear. You did very good, now we're going to help them. Right now they're in that bathroom, you listened to that secret tape as soon as you left the saw blades," John said.
Ashlyn thought back to it.
"Hello Ashlyn, if you've made it this far, you've already almost won. I need you to be strong, stronger than them. If you're the smart girl that I know you are, you've pocketed everything this far, thus you can win. Shelbi and Keylie are probably extremely disoriented and in a lot of pain right now. All you have to do is take them down the hallway, the door looks like a wall, but it slides, then secure them with the chains connected on opposite sides of the bathroom. All the tools they need are in your posession, empty them in the toilet. They need to find their own way out. Once you're done, secure the door and make your way down the corridor. Congratulations, Ashlyn."
"Okay, I'll help you," she said, walking up the final four steps and into what is going to become her home.
"I need your word that you will never breath any of this to anyone, do we have a deal?"
"Yes."
John took Ashlyn over to a desk on the far side of the large four-walled room. There was a first-aid kit and some paroxide waiting for them.
"Hold your breath," John said, pouring the paroxide on to a piece of paper towel and rubbing it down Ashlyn's wounds.
"That's it, easy now," John handed the paper towel to Ashlyn and grabbed a tenser bandage for her arm.
"Thank you," Ashlyn said, giving him a slight smile.
"Now," John started, "these are the cameras we need to see if Keylie and Shelbi are playing the game correctly. If all goes well, they should be done in about thirty minutes. If they don't finish in time, the toxins seeping through their blood will kill them."
"Is there any way I can help them?" Ashlyn asked, feeling a tear fall down her face.
John put his arm around her, "Ashlyn, they need to help themselves."
"John, if they die, can't you get charged with murder?"
"Ashlyn, killing is distasteful. I've never killed anyone in my life. They choose to live or die, not me."
Ashlyn looked at the moniters intently and prayed that Keylie and Shelbi would figure a way out.
"Look, Ashlyn. They're coming to life, you need to watch this, I need to go take my medication," John coughed.
Ashlyn looked down at the screen. She could hear them starting to talk.
"Ashlyn... Keylie?" Shelbi started. She opened her eyes and couldn't see through the darkness.
"Shelbi, is that you?" Keylie said, weakly.
"Where's Ashlyn?" Shelbi asked, sitting up a little bit straighter.
Ashlyn started to get scared at the mention of her name.
"Wait, if we're in the same room, I can get the lights," Keylie said, getting to her feet and turning the switch, "ouch, there's something on my feet!"
Shelbi and Keylie both glanced down at the same time, seeing for the first time the chains that could make or break their chance to live.
"We need to get out of here," Shelbi cried.
"Wait, check the walls. Try pulling out all the bricks, there was something hidden in there before," Keylie started to cough into her hands a little bit. Blood. "We need to hurry."
They were both doing their best to find something, anything they could. Suddenly, Shelbi got something.
"I found something," she yelled, pulling out a brown box with a lock on it.
"It's locked, we need a key," Keylie said, looking around.
"We've both got toilets, could this just be something sick someone planned or could we actually find something in them?" Shelbi contemplated.
"It's worth a shot. Got your tetanus?" Keylie asked with a slight grin,
They both started digging in their toilets, failing to notice the saws in the middle of the room.
"I got something!" Shelbi said, holding up a scalpel and two keys.
She tried them both on the safe, one worked. She looked inside, not surprised to find a tape player.
"Hey, I found something, too," Keylie said, holding up two tapes with LIVE and DIE written on them seperately.
"Here, throw me the tapes, I don't want to wreck the player," Shelbi said, urging Keylie with hand signals.
Meanwhile, Ashlyn was still watching them in terror. They only had fifteen minutes left.
Shelbi got the tapes and put the one that said LIVE in first.
"Hello Shelbi and Keylie, I bet you're wondering why you're still here. I'll tell you why, you didn't listen to the rules. You both had something I told you to do and you didn't do it. To win this game you need to use what you've got there in the middle of the room. Or you could share the scalpel that Shelbi is probably cleverly hiding from you, Keylie. Live or die, make your choice."
"You've got a scalpel?" Keylie asked, angrily.
"Yea, how's that going to help?" Shelbi asked, determined not to give it to her.
"Whatever, play the next tape," Keylie said, glaring at Shelbi.
Shelbi put the DIE tape in and pressed play.
"Hello Shelbi and Keylie, by now you've learned the rules, you need to abide by them. You cannot win this game by doing what you want to. There's a deadly toxin seeping into your blood right now, the only way to live is to get out of your chains and find the antidote that's hidden. Here's a tip, the antidote is not in this room. Live or die, make your choice."
As soon as the tape shut off, Shelbi grabbed a saw from the middle of the room and stared at it.
Ashlyn was praying for their lives. She looked at the clock. Five minutes.
Shelbi took her bandana off and tied it tightly just above the chain.
Keylie was tugging at hers across the room, but never even noticed what Shelbi was doing.
Shelbi started sawing and screaming, that got Keylie's attention.
Keylie became frantic, "No Shelbi, you don't have to do this! Don't let him win, Shelbi! We can do this, come on!"
Shelbi just kept on cutting. She got to the bone and did her best to break it. She was finally able to fit her foot through the chain that was keeping her there.
Keylie was bawling and unable to look at Shelbi for the fear of what was about to come.
Shelbi walked right over to Keylie and said, "I'm so sorry."
Then Shelbi repeatedly entered the scalpel into the same wound in Keylie. Keylie was crying and thrashing, but she knew she wouldn't live anyway. Shelbi saw it as the only way out. Or so her tape said. No one was aware that Shelbi had heard her tape before the other two woke up.
"Hello Shelbi, do you know why you're here? Well I'll tell you. You're a junkie and you need to stop. You haven't cherished your life and you've got your children taken away due to your recent loss of cash. You've started selling your body for money when you could easily go back to high school and get your diploma. Shelbi, to win this game you're going to need to hurt someone who's been hurting you. Keylie and Ashlyn are in this room with you. To get out of this, you're going to need to eliminate the competition. Live or die, Shelbi. Make your choice."
Keylie stopped struggling and Shelbi was frantic to get out. She took the other key and headed to the door.
Ashlyn was watching, crying because of what she just witnessed, "Why?"
"Ashlyn, it's a game. It's not your fault they didn't play by the rules," he carefully embraced her.
Shelbi was halfway to the door when she started coughing extremely hard. She couldn't get up. She was coughing up blood. Then her nose started to bleed. Slightly at first, then harder.
There was no way Shelbi was going to make it. They both lost.
Ashlyn started crying and kissed the cross she carried around her neck.
"What happens now?" she asked, sobbing still.
"We're going to leave it, I have other plans for that. I need you to go get the tapes and the tape player," John said urging her on.
Ashlyn made her way down the corridor into the room where her two friends lay, dead. Ashlyn ripped her cross off her neck and laid it on Keylie's body. She then grabbed the tapes and tape player and pocketed them. She walked out to John standing at the sliding door.
"What now?" Ashlyn asked, averting her eyes from the gruesome scene in front of her.
"Right now I've got a man in a house down the street ready to start his game. Everything's set up, you just need to watch the moniter," John said sliding the door closed, "Game over."
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