AUTHOR'S NOTE 2: THE MASKS
No dought you readers are wondering what's happening when those tv's come on "Where's Billie the puppet?" "What's up with the stupid carnival mask things?" Very valid questions, to which I have a valid answer for. Remember, this is MY version of SAW. It's the same idea, just set in a different universe. The reason's the gamemasters wear those masks is, number one, obviously to protect their identity, and two, to scare the hell out of whoever happens to be viewing the message, (you'll learn pretty soon that the messages are not recorded on VHS's).
As for the masks themselves, I've taken a variety of shrouds that some of you gamers may be familiar with, and I guess that's it's time to tell you who is behind what mask.
The mask most recently seen "The insect mask" belongs to numb^^#^##(( her original game took place i(##&###&&2 Fu&&^^**!((!(! . And then Amon((((((**********^^#^############)))_))((***2...
..."Hello reader. As you may have guessed by now, I am zero. I have jammed this transmission for the obvious purposes. Suffice it to say I find it rather distasteful for the narrirator to give away so much information about my subordinates; some things are better off left unknown. although it is indeed inevitable that you will begin to put the pieces of this puzzle together for yourself, and for that, I applaud you.
But I ask you, reader, how deep into my puzzle are you willing to go to find the answers? The next game I play, just may be your own. Read on or don't...the choice is yours...
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Nanali awoke suddenly. Her awakening felt rather strange, as though she was coming out of a sleep she never remembered falling into. The room she was in was pitch black, then again, every room she was in was pitch black, as she was born without the power of sight. The darkness never bothered her. But what did bother her, was the new sensation that was slowly washing over her. She felt...restrained. She tried to move her arms which were extended above her, but all she got for her effort was the bite of metal into her wrists. "Someone help!" her own small voice was thrown back at her, which gave Nanali a hint as to the size of the place she was in.
Nanali tried moving her legs, but they were held tight by what felt like cold metal. And then she became aware of a sound. It was still far off, but it may as well have been a deafening raquet due to Nanali's over-developed sense of hearing. As the sound drew closer, she realised what it was; footsteps. Someone was coming. The footsteps stoped for a moment and then the sound of a heavy metal door creaking open invaded her ears. "Who's there..." Nanali's voice trembled. "Please help me...".
The mysterious figure walked across the room, Nanali's heart rate elevating with every step. She could feel whoever it was, they were less than a foot in front of her. Then Nanali could feel something next to her face, a heat; a gentle heat of another human body. The person was leaning directly into her ear,and then , they spoke,
"Fear not."
Nanali's body went limp. The voice, although unfamiliar, was strangely comforting. And it was female. The person took a few steps back. "Wh-what are doing?" As if in answer, a deafening sound filled the room. Nanali didn't know what it was , but it sounded mechanical, and it sounded close. "What is that!" The sound intensified to a high pitch whirring. Nanali whiped her head around to better gauge where it was coming from, but it seemed to be all around her, and then...
Her stomach caught fire.
Or that's what it felt like. something felt as though it was boring it's way through her flesh. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGHGHHGHGGHHg!" Nanali felt her hot blood run down her abdomen. and then she felt the same hard device begin to cut through one of her legs."AAAAAAAAGHg god HELP ME!". She couldn't keep track of the pain being inflicted on her, every second she felt a new device cutting into a new part of her body. Nanali coughed up a huge amount of blood and her head droped to her chest. In her final and fading strength she could see a light, and then, nothing.
SAW 0
/3\
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Fukka raised herself from her metal chair and did a slight strech of her limbs. She had been sitting in that damn chair for almost two hours, and she had gone stiff as a result. She looked to her right and saw the two dead victims still in their retraints; their brains had been peirced by steel drill bits. Fukka laughed lightly to herself and withdrew her cellphone from her pocket. She dialed a number and waited, but not for long. "It's four," she said."Phase two is complete." There was a slight pause, " No, the subject failed." Another pause. "Understood, phase three will begin shortly. Zero's will be done." Fukka put her phone away, straitened her skirt and walked out of the room, leaving nothing but death behind her.
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"You wanna run that by me again?"
Amon and the the rest of the STNJ investigators had just returned to the precinct. There, Amon gave his account to the rest of the investigation team, who couldn't believe what they just heard.
"Why the hell would they take the kid and not you?" Adachi had never liked the STNJ much, and this little slip up of theirs didn't do much for his opinion of them.
"For the hundreth time, if we knew we'd tell you!" Sakaki fumed. He was sitting in a rolling chair with his feet elevated on the hard steel desk. The meeting was going in a small corner office of the precinct, as everywhere else was too busy to book. The sleepy little station had finally come alive due to the rash of dissapearences that spread across the town.
"And where the hell is Dojima anyway?" Adachi asked.
"Couldn't tell ya,"Sakaki huffed."Last I seen 'em he was storming out of the crime scene; haven't seem 'em since."
"He's more than likely trying to find his nephew's trail," Amon said heavily.
Adachi was about to say something to that when the door to the office crashed open. Karasuma rushed in, she was completly out of breath and her face was flushed red. She had a piece of paper in her hand, which she waved about furiously as she tried to catch her breath.
"The...results..."
"What have you got, Miho" Amon said steadily.
"I ran the prints that came off that needle we found on the train," she huffed.
"So, who's are they?"
"...They're Altair's..."
The room went deathly silent for what felt like forever. The only sound to be heard was the soft drone of the television set in the office, which was currently set to the news channel.
"How the fuck is that possible?" sakaki asked.
No one in the room seemed to be able to muster an answer, but then, something even stranger happened. The tv which was idily running the news had suddenly turned to static, as though it had lost it's signal.
"Just great..." Adachi grumbled. He got up to maybe bang on it a few times, but was frozen in his tracks about halfway there. something had replaced the static on the tv, or maybe it was someone. Who or what it was, none of them were sure. The figure wore a dark blue mask, it looked as though its head came to several rounded spiked points. The mask was completly featureless, no nose mouth or anything. It slowly turned its faceless facade towards the screen, and even more sowly, began to speak:
"Hello, Inaba. Very recently your quiet little town has been plauged with a rash of mysterious deaths. The uninfomed will call these murders, I call them, unwillingness to live.
You have deployed your every resource in the investigation of these events, and all the while turning up absolutely nothing. Sometimes you just have to have what you're looking for come to you. Now I will give you something Inaba.I am Zero. You have seen my work firsthand, and yet you are unable to look past the things that are presented to you. 'See no evil' is the old saying, but instead, you see nothing but evil, but that is not the meaning of my work.
So, people of Inaba, you think you've seen suffering? You haven't seen anything yet."
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All Kanji could see was darkness; well technically, he wasn't capable of seeing anything, as he was unconscious, but it was dark none the less. Then the lights clicked on, and Kanji awoke with them. At first all he could feel was something cold, like metal, but his elevated heart rate soon spread an alarming heat throuhout his body. He tried moving, but his entire body was restrained. "Somebody help!" he was locked in something that resembled a coffin, or that's what he could most closely akin it to.
Then a flat screen TV on the other side of the small room flickered to life. The image on it made no sense. It couldn't have been human; it looked more like some kind of mask. It was red and purple with short yellow spikes that ran along it's edge. It had two enourmous unblinking yellow eyes with huge black pupils. The figure slowly turned Kanji's way and began to speak;
"Hello, Kanji, I want to play a game. Over the years you've presented a false face to the seem to be caught between a need to prove yourself, and to dominate and control what others think of you. Those around you wouldn't accept you for who you truly were, so you hardened yourself; you took on a guise, or a persona, if you will, to gain a more favorable attitude from the very same people who riddiculed you. But today, I offer you the oppourtunity to break that shell once and for all.
The device you are locked in is called the iron man. When this message is done playing, you will have one minute to free yourself. You must cut away the facade you carried on for so long, or else the shell you created for yourself shall forever become your tomb. So I ask you, Kanji, how much of your falsehood are you willing to cut through to reveal your true self, the choice is yours."
"Fuck that! " Kanji screamed. But that's when something happened. Kanji heard a loud creak and something swung over the device he was locked in. "Holy shit!" They were blades. They perfectly alligned themselves with the perimiter of the coffin-like device. If Kanji wanted to escape, he would have to force his way through them. A digital timer had replaced the figure on the tv, and it was counting backwards from 1:00. The internal straps originally holding him in place were released and kanji was free to move...almost. As he was in a standing position, he would have to push himself through the blades that just aligned themselves with the device.
Kanji took several breaths in short sharp bursts, "You asshole zero! You wanna piece a me!" Kanji screamed as he worked himself up, "You just watch! HERE I GO!"
Kanji worked on lifting both his arms first. He didn't move more than an inch before the blades began to eat into his arms. "AAAAGHGHA!" They were more sharply angled than he had thought and they pierced his flesh right to the muscle. "AAHGHHA C'MON, C'MON!" Kanji used his anger and pain as momentum as he pulled his lacerated arms free of the device. "AHH FUCK!..." Blood flowed freely from his brutally damaged arms, but he would have to damage himself even further if he wanted to live. 00:46... Kanji braced his arms on the outside of the device and leaned his upper body into the blades, "AHHHH FUCK, FUCK!" The blades dug into his face, his chest, and his abdomen as he struggled to push himself free. Kanji's body was on fire; the blades were designed to only allow him to move forward, he couldn't lean back, so the knives embedded themselves and litteraly rested inside his flesh. "AAHHGHH..." the pain was quickly sapping Kanji's energy and was begining to dull his brain . He couldn't think past how much pain he was doing himself.
00:21... "AAGHHHH!" with a desperate push, Kanji freed his upper body, but at great expense. Half of his body was no longer recognizable; the gaping wounds and rivers of crimson blood had seen to that. But now all he had to do was free his legs. "AHHHAGG GO!" He pulled his right leg up and immediatly felt the hellacious resistance of the blades; they mercilessly sliced his flesh to absolute ribbons. They dug so deep into his quadracept that he could feel the blades against his bone. 00:10... Kanji jerked and wrenched his leg splattering blood in every direction "Please Noooo!"
00:05...
"NO, NO, NO!"
00:04...
Kanji's desperation prevented pain at that point, as he finally jerked his leg free.
00:03...
"Just one more, I can do it!"
00:02...
"I can fucking win!"
00:01...
"NOOOOOOOOOO!"
00:00...
The face of the device swung and snapped closed, or it would have, if Kanji's body wasn't in the way. It slammed shut on Kanji's chest causing his ribcage to implode. His now lifeless body slumped over; his arms almost reaching the floor as his upper body leaned over in at an impossible angle, now that his spine was broken. The only thing holding him together, was the device that had become his tomb.
-END OF CHAPTER 1
