Saw 3 Chapter 9
Sabrina crawled down the hallway using her arms and knees. When she saw the timer, she gasped. "That can't be right. It was just at 70 minutes! You can't do that!"
The police at Ava's house left, still with their sirens on.
Coty ran outside to her front lawn. She waved Katy over.
"Do they know who did it?" Coty asked.
Katy shook her head. "They're going to talk to all their parents and families. Ask everyone else who was at the party. I passed out. Missed everything."
"Wait. Who all is missing? I thought it was just Ava." Coty said.
"No. It's Sabrina, Nick, Veronica, Lucas and Ava."
"The whole group..."
"Yeah."
"What about Maya and Amelia? Are they missing too?"
"Who?"
Coty rolled her eyes. "Their new friends."
"I don't know. The police didn't mention them." Katy said.
Sabrina stood up, walking on the sides of her feet. She shuffled around the corner and down another hallway. There was a door halfway down with light coming through. Red arrows on the floor led Sabrina into the room.
Inside the room was a large contraption holding Ava. She was inside a cage, 1 yard by 1 yard. It was just tall enough for Ava to stand. On both ends of the cage, five feet apart, were large, thin spikes. Each metal spike was 2 feet long and one once wide at the end. The spikes ran down the platform, aligning from the cage's top to bottom and from side to side.
"Ava!" Sabrina ran up to the cage. "Oh my God. You're here too."
"Sabrina!" Ava said. She reached her arm out of the gaps in the bars of the cage. "What is going on? Why are we here?"
"Some psycho kidnapped us and wants to torture us," Sabrina said. She jiggled the cage door. There were multiple locks on it. "We can talk more later. I need to find the tape."
"What tape?" Ava asked.
"The old tape player thing," Sabrina said. "Cassette player." She looked around the room. There wasn't much in the room. Only the cage, a file cabinet attached to the wall, and a timer on the wall. 41:28. Finally, she found the cassette player on top of the cage. Sabrina has to step on top of the bars of the cage to reach it. She hopped back and held the tape player.
"Sabrina, what happens when that timer reaches zero?" Ava asked.
Sabrina gave her a look and played the tape.
"Congratulations in making it to level 4. The middle level."
"Middle!?" Sabrina shouted.
"The person you see in the trap calls you a friend. To free her from this trap, you will need 3 keys. Each key is locked in a separate file cabinet. To open those cabinets, secrets must be revealed. Secrets worth your friend's life. Confess quickly. The spikes will get closer and fully impale your friend in 3 minutes." Click.
"What?" Ava shouted. "The spikes will what?"
Sabrina ran over to the file cabinet. "I push people around. I lied to Nick so he wouldn't leave me. I pushed Stacey Jones off the bleachers because she rejected me from the cheerleading squad." She hit the file cabinet. "Open!"
"I think the secrets have to be about me." Ava said. She held on to the bars of the cage. She glanced at the bars which slowly moved closer. Her hands were shaking.
Sabrina put her hands in her face and closed her eye. "I told Nick you were gay when I saw him looking at you. Asking about you. He liked you before he and I dated. But I wanted him. And I didn't know you then."
A cabinet opened. Sabrina quickly grabbed the key inside.
"That's why Nick keeps introducing me to girls!?" Ava said. "He still thinks it's true. You could have told him the truth after we became friends."
"We can argue later. I-I," Sabrina stared at the file cabinet, "I still saw you as a threat. That's why I keep you close. To keep you in line. To keep you loyal to me. To be my alibi. After Mallory died, I needed someone to say that I wasn't there at the bridge." She wouldn't even look at Ava.
"You lied to me. From the beginning. We became friends after I agreed to cover for you. You said you were high that night and don't want your parents to find out! Has every moment of our friendship been a lie?"
"No! It just-" Sabrina stop mid-sentence when the second file cabinet opened. Sabrina took the 2 keys and ran over to the cage. The spikes were still 3 feet away.
"Why are you unlocking it now?" Ava asked. "There's still one more key."
"I know. I just can't think of another secret." Sabrina said. She unlocked the top two locks on the cage. "I don't have any other secrets that bad that involve you, Ava."
In the control room, Amelia shook her head at the camera screen. On the panel, there were four buttons in the level four section. Three buttons were yellow. One was green. Amelia readied her hand over the third yellow button. "Come on. You have to have more secrets."
"Amelia, she already confessed to two horrible secrets," Maya said, hoarsely.
"You don't know that she has another secret about Ava," Samuel said.
"Time will tell. 72 seconds to be exact." Amelia said.
"Think Sabrina!" Ava shouted. The bars were only about a feet apart. "You must have done something else."
Sabrina gave her a look. "I'm trying. I've called you names. I lied about John cheating on you. I just didn't like him."
"You what!?" Ava asked.
Sabrina looked back at the file cabinet. "Apparently that's not bad enough." Sabrina said. She fell to her knees. "I don't know!" She whimpered again.
"You better think of something. I'm not dying because of you," Ava said coldly.
"I stole $200 from your house." Sabrina blurted.
Ava tilted her head. "It was you? My parents grounded me for a month for that! They thought I took it. I couldn't t tell them I threw a party. They still don't trust me."
"It was just lying there out in the open. On their nightstand." Sabrina said.
"What were you doing in my parent's room?" Ava asked. "Never mind don't answer that."
"I don't even have a good reason for it. I saw the money and I knew I could get away with it." Sabrina said. She took a deep breath.
"It's open." Ava said, somberly.
Sabrina ran over to grab the key and back to the cage. She put the key inside the slot and her a click. She took the key out and pulled on the cage door.
Sabrina grunted and pulled harder on the door. "It won't open. They're cheating."
Ava backed up. "There's a latch on the door. I think... I think I need to confess before you can open it."
Sabrina looked at the latch. The spikes were only a few inches away.
"You didn't make the cheerleading squad because I bribed Stacey not to let you in." Ava said.
Sabrina gave Ava a scared look. "No..."
"I hate the cheerleaders too. Every boyfriend I've ever had dumped me for a cheerleader. I didn't want you to become one of them. You're my best friend." Ava said.
"My vendetta against Stacey is all your fault." Sabrina said. Her eyes watered. "I hurt her. I thought she didn't let me on because she was jelous or hated me for no reason. I doubted myself because of that. How could you?"
"Look at everything you just told me," Ava said. "You've done worse." The spikes were one inch away from the cage. "Try opening the gate now."
Sabrina didn't move. She stood there, staring at Ava.
"Sabrina. Open the door." Ava giggled the gate. "I can't do it from this side." She tried to open it by reaching her hand out. She couldn't reach the handle. "Sabrina please."
The spikes began to enter the cage. Ava stood in the middle of the cage.
Sabrina slowly back away from Ava.
"No." Ava cried. "Sabrina! Sabrina! Don't let me die!"
Sabrina turned around and walked out of the room while Ava was impaled to death. When her screams of agony stopped, Sabrina kicked the wall.
Amelia saw the whole thing on the camera. She shook her head but then smirked. "Just wait until the next level Sabrina."