No one knew how she got there, or why the hell she was even there in that little shithole of a room. The surrounding tiles were stained into a piss-yellow, and the cement linings were gross and brown, like this other form of excrement. It looked like a bathroom, the place she was in. But in a way, it also didn't. Anna thought she was alone in the room, but right across from her, about three meters away, sat her best friend, chained to a chair. You would expect that Anna would be glad to see her friend Sheryl, but the sight of her childhood best friend made her stomach hurl. For Sheryl's mouth, ears and eyes were sewn shut and she looked like a human voodoo doll. But her slight hand movements and the mascara tear that forcibly fell from her eyes made it evident that Sheryl was alive. Anna wanted to scream and puke and do other things, but she noticed something.
Her jaw wouldn't move.
It was only then that Anna noticed the perverse contraption that was attached to her body. There was a thick, rusted piece of metal that clamped her jaw line to her forehead. At the top of her head was a hat-like crown which smelled like the room she was in, which is like shit, and on two ends of the crown stuck out the two pieces of metal that curled around her jaw. Then there were chains, and then Anna felt a padlock rested on her nape, and then Anna saw something rested on the floor. It was a small tape recorder. Out of her curiosity, Anna played it, and heard one of the calmest yet most frightening female voice she had ever heard.
Hello, Anna. You are an idol in your school, a role model, an inspiration to other students. Almost everyone looks up to you and treats you like a princess. But behind that perfect smile you have been deceiving your peers by, well, you know what you do. Yes, I know you do it. In case you're wondering how you got here, then you'd better think hard. But you can do that later, for you only have limited time now. I want to play a game. Once the timer goes off you will have two to retrieve the key to the lock on the machine that is on you or it will crush your head flat. Think of it like compacting a car. Now there are two keys hidden. Let me give you a hint for one of them. Your good friend enjoys listening to gossip, but what would a key in her eardrum sound like? Now, the threads are made of a certain metal that you can't rip open. The tool you can use is in that box next to you. And for the other key, well, X marks the spot. Will you risk your friend's life to save your own? Who knows, the answer might be right in front of you.
At the end of the tape, if Anna didn't have that goddamn thing on, she would be screaming even more, shouting words like "Fuck!" because why not? All around her friend were all these tiny keys which made one big X shape. And there were thousands of keys. Anna moved her right foot and felt the box at her toes. She bent down to open it. But just as she bent down the string on her machine was pulled, and she heard the timer go off. She had two minutes.
She tried to scream all she wanted, but she couldn't. Anna opened the box quickly and saw a horrific sharp blade with a jagged edge.