Jenna, done with her sobbing, opened the door to the first room. It was fairly straightforward; a balance beam about 10 feet long, elevated over a series of activated electrical lines, with the safety rubber stripped clean of every wire. On the other side of the room was a door.
"My god," Jenna murmured, "I'm playing a sadist's game."
Trembling, Jenna climbed on top of the balance beam, extending her arms out for balance.
"Benjamin," The note read, "The Girl should arrive at some point. With that being said, let me explain your current methods of interference. The cords dangling near you are attached to the blocks of wood elevating a balance beam The Girl must climb across to proceed. Under the beam are electrical wires. Your role is to shift the supports accordingly so that The Girl will fall to her doom. Make it happen if you want to live."
Just as Ben finished reading, he heard creaks from the floorboards above.
The Girl had arrived.
Jenna had made it roughly halfway across the beam when the side behind her collapsed, sprawling her forward. She caught herself, wrapping her arms and legs around the beam for support.
Ben, not hearing many death-cries from above, ran to the other side, and pulled the other cord.
Smoke and the smell of frying came almost immediately from above.
"Gotcha bitch!" Ben exclaimed, with what little sound could emerge with the device in his mouth.
It was pure luck that saved Jenna - as she had been getting up, fingernails into the sides of the beam for support, tiptoes on the top-most side of the beam, and her behind in the air - the other side of the support beam collapsed as well. The next factor was sheer willpower, as she commanded her body to not fall into the electrical death below. After some of the longest seconds of her life, the rocking stopped, and she steadied herself further. Puzzled at the fact that the beam itself hadn't electrocuted, she remembered one of the few things she had learned from science class: wood was an insulator; one of the best materials to stop the flow of electricity.
Her shoe hadn't been as lucky though; it had fallen from her foot and fried quickly.
She cried as she reached the safe ground, cried on her knees after that near death encounter. All she wanted right now was to be with her family, save and loved and protected. The smell of coffee coming from the kitchen, the crinkle of her father's newspaper as he read it, the smell of her mother cooking her infamous Bacon & Eggs. She wanted the sound of her brother racing his Hot Wheels around the rug, she wanted the sound of the intercom at first period at school, asking to "Please listen to the following announcements." She wanted the beeping of her alarm clock beckoning her to get up, she wanted that sweet bliss of turning the ignition on in her new car, she wanted to hear that hearty "Welcome home!" as she stepped of the bus, she wanted the greetings and conversations of her peers.
She wanted normal.
Hearing the sound of footsteps, Ben walked, bewildered, into the next room.
The next room was a bit irregular: a high voltage box far ahead of her in al alcove, (presumably the source of all the electricity) and a ramp leading to a higher floor with a door on it. Beside the bottom of the ramp was an electrical fence. Jenna approached the steep ramp, slowly realizing the challenge here; if she tripped and fell, the gravity of the ramp would make her slide into the electrical fence. Carefully, Jenna crawled up the steep ramp on all four limbs, feeling much like a cat, knowing if she tripped she would slide into her doom. Every step felt like life or death. Tripping would be the end, while the door was so close.
Normal. That door leads her closer to normal.
She let normal be her inspiration, determined to beat this game and walk out alive.
To see her family again, tell them she was sorry for everything, tell her little brother Billy she's sorry for all the teasing. That she loves them more then anything she'll ever own, she loves them, would do anything for them, and would kill to be embraced by them at this point. She shed a tear, thinking of the last thing she said to all of them before storming out:
Fuck you all.
When she reached the top, heaving a sigh of relief, she approached the door. The knob would not budge, no matter how hard she turned it. And then she saw the note taped to the door.
"Jennifer," The note read, "The key to this door is hidden within the high voltage box downstairs. You should be careful though; it takes a very steady hand, don't touch the sides – BZZT – Butterfingers."
Jenna managed a laugh at the Operation reference, but soon returned to despair, knowing she was going fishing in a maze of high-voltage death. She pounded on the door, screaming unintelligible phrases, not wanting to put her life at risk a third time.
But she had to, she realized, for normal, and began to walk down the ramp.
"Benjamin," The note read, "There is a small peg near you. Extend it, successfully tripping The Girl on her decent down the ramp, and she'll slide to her doom. Choose your moment wisely."
The Girl arrived shortly after the reading, as before, and began a series of poundings when she reached the top. After the noises stopped, he heard her approaching the ramp, and readied the peg.
Jenna was accelerating far too fast down the ramp. She had been careful, very careful, but something had tripped her. The electrical fence was not too far from her now, and she couldn't see anything that could help to decelerate her. Her life flashed before her eyes. Her third birthday, her first day of school, making her first friend, entering high school, obtaining her driver's license, and most recently, how she got here.