"The Upside-Down Cross Game (v2)"

By Jessica Bastuscheck

Co-Authors by SilverStar86 and DaPurpleGoddess

Edition by Grandpa B

Published: March 30, 2007

Re-Written: February 2012

Disclaimer: I do not own this Billy the Puppet; the character is, in fact, all belonged to SAW series.

Summary: The Deaf girl was tied upon an upside-down cross in an abandoned factory. What could she do for herself? Will she survive her first game?


There was an idle, dim, long-abandoned factory which had just two floors. The first had four rooms, and the second had four rooms, though it was supported by two hard woodened stairs. The bricked factory was mildly wide, more squared with heights and all of the walls are quite tall. The ground to the ceiling reached at least twenty feet high and the ceilings were crooked in angles. The ceiling has numerous holes where you can see the bright sky above it. There were a lot of metal, thorny, uneven wires on the walls, and the ceiling had many barbed wires and metallic chains. On the second level, in the hallway between four rooms, there were four windows those were very wide on each of the walls. However, in a chamber in the abandoned building, there was a girl on that metallic cross, the upside-down one with full of barbed wires wrapped around her...

The highlight brunette girl wore a yellow and orange cotton zipped sweatshirt, her light blue jean, and was wearing only white socks. Her hair was supported by a thick hairclip, and her high-technical voicebox necklace was small and turquoise blue color. That girl was tied upside down hanging from the wooden ceiling, under the second floor, which was shaped like a "T". Tightly, her feet were tied down against the metallic stick and her body, indicating that she was still alive and well. Her arms are spread out just like Jesus similar to a wooden "T" but her arms were scratched from the metallic wires. A boiling water in a pool above her, at least six feet distance between her head and the hazardous liquid.

She was idling there upside down conscious with no response. Her vexed eyes opened slowly but she could not see anything and they were all vague. Instantly, she felt the pain in her body and her arms from barbed wires. She was confused and wondered where she was at, soon she tried to free herself when she "heard" a beep and some static by her necklace alerting her auditory system and her brain. She looked down to the floor and saw a 16" flatscreen TV monitor on it. She could see a gleaming plasma television on the floor when the TV turned itself on. But, she noticed the pool, realizing it was extreme hot temperature. Soon, the real fear grew upon her feeling. Suddenly, there was a puppet who popped on screen.

Billy the Puppet had a mere white face with two red-swirled blushes on his cheeks and black ring around red eyes. The puppet wore his black and red theatrical robe with a large hood. He turned his head to see where the person was, and his mouth was slightly cracking when he spoke,

"Hello, Karissa Mann. I put a subtitle for your deafness that you can understand what I say. You see, I wanna play a game. I know three things about you: one, you hate the water. Two, you have your own issue with absent-mindedness. Three, your clever lying to save your own skin."

Karissa raised her eyebrows, wondering what the puppet did know something.

"Yes, I know your deep dark secret. You put your brother, Stacey, in a hospital when you didn't remember if you did bring his important medicine or not. After his consciousness fell, out of your own guilt, you simply dumped his body in a lake. You used your schmoozing skills to get you out of the trouble. You had Mikkel rescuing him, hoping they will think it is just accident. It seems no one but yourself know why, Rissa."

Speechlessly, she couldn't say anything at all while her necklace was interpreted or what the subtitle told. Her green eyes were still widened in shock.

"Now, you can see that hot boiling pool below you. That is a symbol of your hatred for your lack of memories with all of your frustration, but also, the second symbol is also your lack of bathing. There is third symbol is your upside-down cross, which is presented your ugly lies each time you spout words after words."

Her angriness quickly speeded all over her face, shakily, she shook her head, "No, no no! You don't even know me at all! I don't want your game! Let me get out of this now!"

She struggled to get her off of the cross while Billy continued his talking.

"If you really want to win this game, all you do is following this game's rules. It is really simple. Number one rule, you must figure how to hold your cross without falling in the pool. But, be careful. There is a soap on it. Number two rule, you must find the right path to free you. You should expect the cooling water will spray you each time you move. See sprinklers over there. Can you see them?"

Billy pointed out at two sprinklers those one stood next its pool's side and the another one stood in the same position. Rissa tried to not cry as she really hated waters very much. She made a small whimper.

"Number three and the last rule, do not believe in what your cross says, for whatsoever reason is, it can fool you as you would with your relatives. But, be warned, you have a timer. Which you will only have seven minutes before your cross will take you to the Hellfire that pool I named."

The sound of rapid boiling from it, she looked up and was cringed to imagine what she would be in if she falls.

"Free yourself or not, make your choice. Let's begin."

The TV turned off by itself.

As the timer started, the necklace alerted her, making Rissa realized it was so grave. She anxiously decided to drag herself out of the upside-down cross, but they sprayed her once she attempted to release her right arm. Feeling full of despair, she cried, "No, no no! Not those! Not those!" But, as her necklace insisted that timer was continuing ticking. She paused to think she didn't have a time to worry about her hydrophobic emotions. Finally, she firmly decided to seek what the right path that puppet was talked about. It was her best try to ignore the annoying sprinklers.

She looked over her right arm to see what else, but there was one word on its: "4: Conditioner". She hesitated for one moment, her head was turned to see her another hand. Indeed, there was another word on its: "2: Shampoo". The girl was then checked on her legs to see if there were any more messages on the cross. The answer gave her a yes when she saw two words on both of her socks, "1: Bath Foam" and "2: Body Wash". She realized it might be her clues for escaping her game. She remembered the cross might trick her into the wrong path, so she was not sure what she should to do... The timer read, "05:46" and it was still decreasing.

'I wonder, what if I ignore these messages and do it my own?' Rissa thought, 'I guess that couldn't hurt to give a try.'

She was then decided she went for her left arm instead of her right arm. But, it was all pain from sharply wires. Frustrated with agony, fruitlessly, she untied her left hand and began to twist her left arm free from the barbed wire. She could somewhat feel the barbed part digging into her arm. Still, she twisted it successfully free. There were terrible marks from it on her left arm. Then she started to twist her right arm, through she tried to twist it carefully. Karissa was somewhat felt stress, because she didn't want to injure her right arm as bad as her left. She finally twisted it free, but still had marks from it. Knowing her upper body was still tied up, she didn't bother to do it for the start. She figured how to hold the cross' arms without not able to grasp it so firm, due to slippery soaps on the cooper metallic cross. Soon, she realized it was only her way was holding wires, not to grasp its arms. Therefore, she had no choice but to cautiously dodge it thorns that Rissa will bear only small strings. Fortunately, its arms easily supported her arms and her hands.

However, in every a minute, the timer pressured her necklace to warn her evermore. That explained her panicky frustration during releasing her arms from the upside-down one. She had a hard time to critically think what she should do. At the last minute, she decided to do her legs next. But, she kept crying, "Oww!" or "Ahh!", when she tried to cautiously, twist them but she gave up because the wire harshly scratched her. Tensed and worried, she felt annoying when the bluish-green necklace stubbornly warned her as the timer wouldn't stopping told her its ticking.

3:57, 3:56, 3:55, and continued decreasing...

Her tears fell and ran upwardly on her cheeks, she was paused for some seconds to think how to twist her legs to get off. She did really want to live; she hated to think of missing out what important and best events for her family and her. She began to wonder what Billy tried to tell her something. Somehow, she spotted red and painted messages on the wall right before her.

"PUT ALL NUMBERS IN ORDER"

"TO CLEAN YOUR LIES OFF"

"TO SAVE YOUR LIFE"

For one last moment, she changed her mind to attempt to release her legs again. Ignoring the pains on her stomach from the strings, she were struggled with all of her strength to twist her legs. A bit later, with only less than two minutes, successfully, her legs were freed off as soon as they clutched the cross to hold her herself. But, they were already wounded after the wires cut and bled her feet and legs, and those ripped holes were on her blood-marked jean. Groaned, the girl was shortly screamed a few times when she tried to twist her body to land on the cross. Now, she was able to pull her down toward the cross' "head" to get out of its webbed shell. Before she could get out, she kneed her legs down to allow them move out of the wires and to clutch its "body" again. Carefully, she difficultly managed to climb upon the wires, due to wet and soapy on them, much thanks to the sprinklers. Suddenly, she felt a heavy slip, she fell! Luckily, she grabbed the cross' right arm just in time. That result nearly caused her to lose balance, at the least, she was still held on the cross. She tried to climb up yet again.

But, the timer told her it was only less than one minute!

She was gasped in panicky. Carelessly, she grabbed and climbed many wires to put her up and to turn toward where she could see the door. Having her feet on its arms, she was prepared to jump off. Hesitated, she thought of her best idea was waiting until the timer goes off, she would jump and roll. She only had about 30 seconds, so she waited. As soon as the timer said zero, the cross began to fall, she quickly jumped and rolled to approached toward the plasma screen TV on the floor. She was firmly kneeling on it, "Ugh!" Rissa grunted and groaned in pain, but she felt her body was shook slightly. She got up, and immediately dizziness rushed to her head, she was crouched down. That dizziness was the result from being tied upside down for so long. Soon she saw a metal door at behind the Hellfire. She glanced at that TV monitor had broken when she just landed on it. Large puddings were around the pool.

The door that she just saw was opened. Karissa turned around to see what it was but there was actually Billy. He rode his tricycle toward her as soon as his voice began to speak.

"Congratulations! You are still alive. What did you just learn from this game so far?"

She didn't understand what he tried to say.

"Over there," He turned his head toward the front door, "here's the door. Now, all you do is walk away."

Karissa took a look at the door, and then she slowly lumped toward it. At moment, the necklace told her that someone said:

"Are you grateful to be alive?"

She turned around to glare at him but she didn't say anything.


A month later, she was doing so much better since she left the infamous game. She was recovered from wounds at hospital. While she still hated waters, she actually took a bath for only four times each week instead only once each week. She brought her calendar for herself, so she could remember a bit more easier. While she still had her cooking class at her high school, she brought her own mini notebook as her tasks. Whether she did tell her confession to her family about her human error or not was still unknown, however she did buy medical kits for her brother that would reduce her worriedness.

End


Author's Note: Finally, I managed to re-write and edit it. I feel so much satisfied with this one. It sounds less fantasy and a bit more realistic. If you still think this story needs some more improvement, please feel free to do review, feedback, critic, or else. This one-shot story is complete for now, so please kindly don't ask me for more chapters. Please and thank you. =)