Let's Play a Game
How far would you go to save a stranger?
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Chapter Two — Hello & Welcome – Isabella Marie Swan's POV
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I sprinted faster than I did the last time down the familiar street. I sprinted faster than I have ever in my life. My head was hammering against my skull like crazy and I could barely see straight. I was hurriedly running out of breath. But I figured that much, seeing as though I was just half-drugged with some kind of chemical.
I couldn't even begin to tell you how I gained consciousness again and took off before that pig-guy could catch up with my engagements. I didn't take one look back when I started scurrying down the street, but I could tell he was right behind me. I could hear his feet pounding on the cement after me.
All right, to tell you the truth, I am nowhere near an athletic type of person at all. I'm a yoga-doing, rock climbing, horseback riding type of girl. I'm not a volleyball playing, track running, baseball throwing girl. This thing behind me could catch up with me easily, but he wasn't. I think it was part of his game. He wanted to watch me try to escape.
I stumbled down the boulevard, not even sure if it was the right way to my house. I was never really good with my directions, no matter how much Charlie tried to teach me from his time in the Navy. I tripped over nothing almost every second. My breathing was coming out in brusque gasps. It was almost getting challenging to breath, it hurt tremendously.
One more step, and then I tumbled over a crack in the cement.
I inhaled sharply and landed face first onto the pavement. I cried louder than I was before and wriggled to move my feet to get me up. I couldn't even kick my legs. I pushed myself off of the concrete to turn my body around to lie on my back. I took a deep breath to calm myself before trying to get into a sitting position.
Unexpectedly, I felt myself getting hit in the face with something.
I moaned in pain and fell backwards, successfully conking my head on the ground in the process, making my eyes tremor against my brain. I felt someone grab my legs and start to drag me back the way I approached from. The cement scratched my back and I felt my shirt shredding.
I couldn't for the life of me discover the strength to fight back. I peeked up to the sky and noticed that it was a beautiful, clear night, without smog or air pollution. Something that was rare for New York City. How ironic.
I sensed a change in the terrain under my back. It was softer, and wetter. I crooked my head to the side and saw the green blades of grass underneath me. He was taking me into the forest.
"No," I whimpered and whipped my head back and forth. I kicked my legs and screamed. "No!"
My kidnapper stopped and threw my legs on the ground. He turned to me cuttingly and hovered over me.
"No!" I screeched. I screamed so loud that I was sure my lungs would explode. I continuously screamed until I was drained. I whimpered when the man – I could tell he was a man by the body – took hold of my hair roughly and threw my head back onto the ground.
My breathing was cut off and I couldn't find it again. I choked on my scream and arched my back, trying to find my breath and to stop choking. It wouldn't work.
The man in front of me pulled out the same rag from before. Only this time, it was wrapped around something. I couldn't tell what it was, only that I was shiny and pointy. It shined off of the moonlight.
The man disentangled the rag from around it. Then I saw what it was. I sobbed and kicked my legs on the ground, trying to find a grip to push myself away.
I shook my head back and forth vigorously as he approached me with the needle.
"No, please," I pleaded. I twisted my head to the side when I heard rustling and conversation. There was a group of teenagers rambling and chuckling along the road not far from where I was. "Help," I croaked out. But of course, they didn't hear me.
I cried and turned my head back around and gasped when I came face to face with the man. He was so close to me that his...snout...was almost touching my nose.
"Please, don't," I beseeched and held my hands in front of my face in some sort of shielding method. I closed my eyes and waited for the prick of the needle. It didn't happen.
Instead, I felt another hit on my chest. I groaned quietly and opened my eyes and squinted through the dark night. The man was just watching me.
I was so furious. I felt the need to just kick him in the balls...or scratch his eyes out...or stab him with his own needle. Here he was, practically killing me, and he has the decency to just stand there and continue to just sit and watch me suffer? "Just let me go."
Without a moment of hesitation, the man thrust the needle forward and crammed it into my arm brutally violently. I could even find the strength to scream, yet it felt like I was being ripped apart from the inside.
Abruptly, I felt extremely lethargic and dizzy. Black dots popped up in my eyes and they began to close. I tried to find the strength to keep them open, but with one final inhalation, I felt my whole mind just drift away.
"Where fuck...we?"
"How I am...God knows...fuck."
"Woke up...chick over there...kid."
"Maybe you...here?"
I felt like my head was split into two when I finally came around. I could hear quiet voices, but none of them made sense. They didn't even sound remotely familiar and they sounded so far away.
I tried to open my eyes, but it was like they were glued together. They felt so heavy; I just couldn't find the strength to open them. I had a nauseating flavor in my mouth. It was almost bitter, very unpleasant. My whole body was numb, like I was lying outside in the snow for too long. It was like I could feel everything, but I couldn't do anything to move. I was paralyzed.
BANG!
I gasped severely and snapped my eyes open at the sound. I instantaneously regretted it.
With how dull the lights were, it still hurt like hell to open my eyes. I squinted through narrow eyes, trying to get my eyes to adjust to the brightness. Once they started coming around, I opened my eyes broader.
I remarked the hushed voices around me stopped, but there was still a pounding.
"Stop fucking doing that," a feminine voice shouted from behind me.
The banging instantaneously concluded.
I gazed at the ceiling and strained to remember what transpired while trying to normalize my breathing. It was like a dark veil was shrouding my reminiscences. I remember purchasing popcorn for movie night, and then it was all a blur.
I could see a forest, maybe, and then I remembered falling down. I was being attacked.
Emotions and memories started flooding through my body. I couldn't think straight, everything was coming out in a rush. It was like my head was on fire. I remembered being followed down my street, and then I remembered being pulled from behind and then being nearly suffocated. But then I remembered getting up again and running. A man...a man with a mask, a pig mask, was chasing me. He pulled me down, kicked me, shoved, and dragged me into the forest.
My breathing picked up as I thought of the people that I tried to get attention from.
Nothing worked. I was dead, I knew it. The masked man pulled out a needle. The sharp point dug into my skin...
Oh, God. How did I get here? I was fully aware that this was not my room. It smelled too bad. There was a muggy atmosphere to this place. It almost made my chest hurt when I tried to breathe – kinda like something huge was weighing down on top of me.
I heard rustling around me. I opened my eyes again and saw a shadow coming closer to me. I was instantly alarmed – I bolted upright and sat on the ground with my legs splayed out in front of me. The people came closer. I tried to push myself back with my feet, but I didn't have the strength. I let out a little cry when I found that I was completely stuck in this position.
"Hey, we aren't going to hurt you," I caught a small voice speak up from in front of me. I rotated my head around to see who it came from.
There were four people surrounding me in semicircle. Two girls and two boys. I couldn't tell which one spoke to me, but it was clearly a girl.
I pursed my lips and raised a shaky hand to brush my bangs away from my eyes. "Where am I?" I whispered meagerly. I cupped my throat with my hand. It was so raw and scratchy.
One of the girls – the stunning, blonde one – shrugged with her arms crossed over her chest. "Your guess is the same as ours." I recoiled at the harshness of her tone.
"We woke up the same as you," a black-haired girl added, in a much politer tone, and sat next to me after a moment of consideration. "You were probably taken by a man with a mask?"
I cringed at the mention of that memory, but nodded nonetheless.
The blonde girl huffed and collapsed onto the ground while the big guy stood back and watched with the other man.
"Same with me," the black haired girl mumbled solemnly. "What's your name?"
"Bella," I replied softly.
I looked around the room again. It looked like we were in some kind of beat-down room of sorts. There weren't any windows at all, other than an opaque one that I wouldn't even count as a window; it had bars on it like a jail cell. The wooded floor was filthy and destroyed and worn down in places. The walls were brick. Some of them were falling out, some looked newly replaced. On the left side of the room, there was a thick pole sticking out of the ground and into the ceiling. There was a black safe on the far right wall. I was confused as to what that was for. The door on the far wall looked to be locked shut with a lot of locks. It was silver, with a peephole right in the middle of it. The room was so dark, it was eerie. There was a vent at the top of the wall; it was the only sound in the room other than us breathing deeply.
I noticed across the room, there was a body lying on the ground. His face was too the floor, his shaggy blonde hair was covering up his profile.
"—nauseating, so you can just call me Alice," the black haired girl stated, bringing me out of my thoughts. She looked to see where I was gazing at and sighed. "And that is a guy who hasn't woken up yet."
I bit my lip. I felt sick to my stomach. I was shaking, I could feel it. My lips were dry, my head was pounding, and I felt weak.
"He's not dead," a smooth voice snapped, responding to something that I didn't even hear. "He has a pulse."
I whipped my head up to look at where the voice came from. It was one of the boys, the smaller one. Well, smaller than the other one. He was lean, yet muscular. He had this weird auburn shade of hair and bright green eyes. His hand was buried deep in his hair and his eyes were trained on the ground.
I noticed the blonde girl glower in his direction for some odd reason that I didn't know of.
"I'm guessing he reacted to the anesthetic worse than us," Auburn mumbled simply. He looked up and met all of our confused frowns. "When you guys were attacked, you got a kind of fabric over your mouth, right?" he investigated.
We all nodded warily. I was suspicious.
"It was sweet-tasting, bitter almost," he continued. We nodded again. "I'm thinking it was an anesthetic, a type of trihalomethane," he said matter-of-factly, like we all knew what he was talking about.
"Ooh, aren't you smart," the big one mocked in a high, girly voice.
He disregarded him. "Chloroform. It's used to knock people out most of the time. Then with the needle...that must have been a different kind of anesthetic. Or maybe it was just a drug, I'm not sure..." he trailed off, thinking to himself. Alice cleared her throat to get his attention back on track. "That anesthetic may have made that kid," he jabbed his finger towards the guy sprawled out on the floor, "react differently. Allergic reaction, perhaps."
By the time he was done with his explanation, I was gaping at him with wide eyes. "Are you a doctor?"
"I will be." He didn't elaborate.
"'Kay," the big one perked up after a minute or two. "Just to get this out of the way, I'm Emmett," he announced, pointing to himself, "and I'd like to get the fuck out of here if ya'll don't mind."
I blinked my eyes for a second. Who did this guy think he was?
"I'm Rosalie," the blonde girl forced out next to me with a scowl contorting her flawless face.
"Edward," the doctor said grudgingly.
Right at that moment, there was a little moan coming from the other side of the room. Alice jumped up immediately and ran to the blonde kid's side. It was like she was on the welcoming committee for this little game or something.
"Yeah, sure. Let's just all jump to save the kid that's in the same situation as us," Rosalie barked out sarcastically.
I noticed that the blonde haired boy was just now sitting up and Alice was holding onto his shoulder. He glanced around the room spastically before his eyes stopped on Alice's tiny form in front of him. I stayed in my sitting position on the ground.
"Don't mind her," Emmett informed the blonde boy when he looked over at us, confused. "She's just in a pissy mood because she didn't wake up with her maid standing over her and her toilet paper already set out."
Rosalie glared at him viciously. "Oh funny. Real funny. How many of your few brain cells did you kill to think of that?"
That opened the flood gates. Emmett bit back with another witty money-centered joke, and Rosalie continued on. After that, the bickering sustained. I rolled my eyes and got up and strolled over to Alice and the new kid with Edward next to me. He instantaneously bent down next to him.
"Are you okay?" Edward enquired hurriedly in a hoarse voice.
The blonde guy furrowed his eye brows and glanced around the room with rapid, shaky eyes. "Yeah..."
I noticed that Alice was flattening down his hair in a soothing manner. I stared at her incredulously, but she was deliberately ignoring me.
The blonde kid kept glancing around apprehensively. He was shaking a little bit, mainly his arms and legs. It even looked like his mouth was trembling; like he was saying something with no sound coming out of his mouth. But what was the weirdest were his eyes. It looked like he hasn't slept for days. It didn't look much better with the bloodshot eyes.
It was uncanny, to be honest.
Did we all look like that?
"What do you remember before this?" Edward fired off another question. The typical 'I-just-woke-up-in-a-strange-room' cross-examination, I suppose.
The kid jumped and rose up. He swayed for a minute, but Alice bolted up after him stabilized him. "Uh," he stuttered. Alice looked up and smiled softly at him. He just gazed back, still disorientated. "N-nothing. I...remember nothing."
I narrowed my eyes at him. Being a brutally poor liar myself, I could tell that he was untruthful. Edward could tell too.
"Are you high?" he demanded gruffly.
My mouth popped open.
"N-no," he stammered yet again. I recognized Alice throw him a stark look. His shoulders slumped. "Uh...I was,actually. That's how I ended up here," he elucidated. I could actually comprehend what he was saying that time. "Where are we exactly?" he questioned.
"How should we know?" Rosalie sneered from behind me.
Oh. I guess they're done fighting with each other.
Edward raised an eye brow at her. "What's got your panties in a bunch?"
Rosalie glowered at him and crossed her arms over her chest. "You're kidding, right? What the fuck do you think?"
I pressed my lips together, trying to keep my sarcastic comments to myself. Rosalie looked like the kind of girl that didn't take any shit from anyone. I'd really not want to get myself on her bad side, especially in this kind of place.
"Listen, honey," Alice yapped out and went to stand in front of Rosalie. I almost laughed at how comical that looked. Here was Rosalie, towering over a tiny Alice at maybe 5'7, while Alice stared up at her, craning her neck all the way back. "We're all in the same situation, and I'd appreciate if you would kindly keep your remarks and snide attitude to yourself. 'Kay?" Alice finished with a sickly sweet grin.
Rosalie looked flabbergasted for a moment before she grimaced down at Alice. "Whatever, sweetie."
I heard a cough from next to me. I looked over and saw Emmett standing there, looking as if he was trying to hide a smirk. It wasn't working well.
"Uh," the blonde dude interrupted the little confrontation around the circle. "Can someone tell me what's going on?" he asked as he took in the room.
"Do you remember anything before you woke up here?" Edward inquired again, more forcefully this time.
He opened up his mouth to speak, but Alice abruptly threw her hands up in the stagnant air and screeched "Wait!" on the top of her lungs.
We all jumped and looked at her. She was watching the kid. "What's your name?" she asked serenely.
I rolled my eyes. I thought she was getting her foot cut off or something. I twitched a little when a noise was produced from behind me, kind of like a moan or a sigh. I glanced over my shoulder to see what it was, but nothing was there. I closed my eyes forcefully, took a deep, cleansing breath, cleared my frenzied mind, and turned back to the people I was with.
"Jasper," he replied. "Anyways, I was at home."
We waited for him to go on, but he didn't.
Jasper looked extremely uncomfortable.
Rosalie groaned harshly. "We know you were getting high. You don't need to act like we wouldn't know that."
Jasper gawked at her for a minute before shaking his head and looking at the ground. "I just got back from purchasing some more...merchandise. For me to sell...use..." he trailed off and scrutinized all of our faces standing around him. Someone must have urged him to continue, because he sighed and looked back at the floor. "I must have bought some that was laced with some other drug...Well, I got bad effects, I saw someone with a mask come in, stab me with a needle, and then I passed out. Now I'm here."
It was silent for a heartbeat. I heard that damn noise again. I don't know if anyone else did. My question was answered when Rosalie whipped her head around to look behind her, exactly where I kept hearing the noise.
Edward cleared his throat. "Well, what brought you here, Alice?"
She shrugged her shoulders like it was no big deal. "I was attacked by the same person on the street on my way to the gas station."
She turned her stare on Rosalie. She grimaced and looked at her nails. "I was in Central Park."
I nodded my head. "I was on my street coming from the gas station." I looked at Alice. She smiled a little at me. It was funny, because I somehow felt closer to her since we were both taken in the same situation.
"I was in the gas station's parking lot," Edward murmured empathetically. Alice and I both looked at him. Well, that makes three.
"At the gym," Emmett bragged. "Well, the locker room," he frowned. "Damn it. That thing was so close. I could have killed him right there. With all my pent up rage... Stupid motherfu—"
"Um, I'm still confused," I cut Emmett off before he could hurt someone in here with his rage I could feel building. He's some serious bodybuilder. Maybe he's on steroids...
Jasper bobbed his head in agreement. "Why are we even here? What is this? How do you just wake up in a room and have no idea where you are?"
Emmett snorted unappealingly. "Apparently you've never been drunk."
Rosalie glared at him hatefully. "So you're just going to make a joke out of this now? Is that it? Everything is a joke to you?"
Emmett looked like he was ready to punch a girl. He took a deep breath in through his nose and let it out harshly. He quickly turned around and started pacing around the room. I listened to the rest of them theorize while I observed Emmett inspect the right side of the room. He started thumping on the bricks, permitting little specks of maroon brick to fall around him. Just as Edward spoke up, I noticed a shift in the wall.
"Wait," Edward hollered, seemingly noticing what I just did. He jogged over to the one wall with bricks that Emmett was standing in front of. He analyzed the wall for a minute before turning back towards us. "Do you detect anything different about these?" he probed and pointed to the wall.
Jasper marched over to where he was standing and started taking bricks out the wall. "They're wobbly," Jasper and I responded together.
"Do you think something's in there?" Rosalie asked from behind me. I looked over my shoulder and saw her watching with curiosity.
"Maybe," Edward responded and pulled out the remaining loose brick. He put his hand inside the hole guardedly. A second later, he pulled out a tape black player.
"What is that for?" Alice asked.
Jasper shrugged and they both sauntered over to where the rest of us were located in the middle of the room.
"I think we should play this," Edward stated dully.
"Why?" I asked inquisitively.
He glanced up at me from underneath his dark eyelashes. I was momentarily dumbfounded by the smoldering stare he offered me. "Because it says play me," he replied slowly, like speaking to a toddler. He held the recorder up to my face.
I blushed and bit my lip. I heard him chuckle lowly. I scowled in his general direction and watched as he pressed his thumb down on the dark tape player.
"Greetings. And welcome." A gravelly voice greeted pleasantly from the audiocassette. "I trust that you all are wondering where you are.I can assure you that while your location is not important, what these walls offer for you is important. Salvation, if you earn it.Three hours from now, the door to this house will open. Unfortunately, you only have two hours to live. Right now, you are breathing in a deadly nerve agent. You've been breathing it since you arrived here.Those of you familiar with the Tokyo subway attacks will know its devastating effects on the human body."
Several people around me, including myself, all gasped quietly. I didn't even look around to see who did.
"The only way to overcome it, and walk out that door, is to find an antidote. Several are hidden around this house. One is inside the safe in front of you. You all possess the combination to the safe. Think hard. The numbers are on the back of your mind. The clue to their order could be found 'over the rainbow'. Once you realize what you all have in common, you will gain a better understanding of why you are here. X marks the spot for that clue, so look carefully. Let the game begin."
"No," I whimpered. "No, no, no," I shook my head, vehemently, yanking at my nappy curls as I did.
"I will kill whoever put us in this goddamn pla—" Emmett was abruptly cut off by Jasper's voice.
"Guys," Jasper whispered. He sounded frightened. That got our attention. We all turned towards him, but he was pointing at Alice.
She had a faraway look in her eyes. They were glazed over. It was like she wasn't even in the room with us. He lips were trembling as she stared past us and her hands were clenching painfully at her thighs. I stepped closer to her to try and help whatever it was that was wrong with her.
"What the hell is she doing?" Emmett thundered.
Suddenly, she snapped out of it and screamed, making me jump and stop mid-stride towards her. Her eyes looked half-crazed as she looked around the room, searching for something. She whipped her head over to Edward and let out a loud sigh of relief. "For the love of God, Edward, please do not open that door!" she shrieked and pointed at the door in the front of the room with all of the locks on it.
I sank down onto the floor tried to regulate my breathing. That whole ordeal lasted less than thirty seconds and my mind was swimming.
"Why?" Edward wondered. His tone was mixed with skepticism.
Alice hesitated. "I saw you get shot," she grumbled after a moment of deliberation.
I looked up at her with narrowed eyes. "You saw him?" I wheezed out.
She licked her lips and looked down. "Just don't do it, okay?"
Edward was staring at her with a look of disbelief and a strange intensity in his eyes. I've never seen it before. It was like he was trying to read her. Finally, he just nodded. "Okay. I won't, I promise."
"But that's the only way out!" Rosalie remonstrated stridently. "What else are we supposed to do if you won't let us open the door?"
Everyone turned their eyes on Alice.
She shriveled back. "I just didn't want him to die..." she trailed off and bit her lip.
"Tell me darlin'," Jasper spoke in a soft, southern tone, "how did you know that was going to happen?"
"I just did, okay?" she exploded and tumbled down on the ground next to me. I watched her with wide eyes. "We're trapped in this house, and we only have two hours to get out before we get killed," she cried. I heard her voice crack a couple times. "And we have no idea where to start."
I rubbed her back reassuringly with my shaky hands.
I heard Rosalie groan and start pacing around the room. Edward was leaning against the wall with his head in his hands. Jasper was sitting against the wall, tapping his head against the wall, looking like he was deep in thought. Emmett was just standing there, staring at his hands.
It was then that realization unexpectedly crashed down on me.
All six of us were put in this room for a reason yet to be recognized. We know that we're on the border of death, and we have no idea how to prevent it. We're captives in this room whether we like it or not.
And I have a feeling we're going to be imprisoned in this room for the subsequent one-hundred and twenty minutes.
Surprise! It's finally up. Aren't you all happy? Thank you all for sticking with me. I got the whole tape quote straight from the movie, including the drunk line with Emmett and Edward. Stay tuned for the next chapter.
EDIT 2011; Fixed-a-roonie!
