Scene vii
"Roy, no!" Alison cried out; she stopped next to Roy and knelt down next to him.
From a distance Grace watched on with sorrowful eyes, her teeth biting down on her finger in anxiousness and worry. Kaden held a small smile across his face as he finished watching the previously locked door open. The blood and organ fluids that filled the container had released the locks on the door.
"Please, Roy…no," Alison looked over Roy's body, the officer didn't give any signs of life, but Alison noticed something.
Because Roy and Steven weren't actual brothers they didn't look alike, but now their resemblance was frightening. They both lay on the ground in their own pool of blood, their organs hacked and mashed, while at least one of their arms were covered with dried blood and looked like a mess.
"You were going to get your life back, Roy…why? Why couldn't you have just lived?" she said with a sob as she ignored the blood on Roy's hand and held it tightly.
Suddenly, Roy's hand clasped Alison's. "T—tell…" Roy began as Alison looked up at Roy's eyes in shock. Dark colored blood streamed down from Roy's mouth as his stomach moved with great intensity; if Alison had glanced down she would've seen his remaining organs pumping violently. "…Jade I'm s—sorry," he asked of Alison with tears and pain in his eyes.
"Don't die!" she quickly screamed, both of her hands held Roy's now. "We'll get you help, you'll be okay!" Alison tried to assure.
But even in the muck of Roy's dying mind, he could even tell his life wasn't going to last another half a minute.
Alison brought his hand up to her and wet his reopened wounds with her tears. She was sobbing uncontrollably once more; the loss of two dear people to her in a matter of ten minutes was too much for the poor girl to bear.
Taking in a deep breath of air Roy spoke one last time to the crying girl that gave him so much comfort in his time here and helped aid him in his recovery—
"…Live your life."
Alison could feel Roy's hand let go of her's, and she could feel his whole arm suddenly go limp. "Roy!" she cried again as she shook his arm back and forth, in hopes that he would suddenly come back to life.
She wept for the loss of her friend's life; just as he understood why he was put in this game he was taken right out. In Alison's eyes, Roy was the most deserving person of life. How ironic it was that he was the one to die.
"All right, enough of this," Kaden said with a huff, his knife pointed at Grace, "I want to hurry up and win this thing," he said as Grace simply scowled at him. "That is…unless you want your blood to join Roy's there," he nudged his head towards the container of blood at the other end of the room.
As badly as Grace wanted to cuss him out, she bit her tongue and walked toward Alison and the dead officer. What else could she do? Kaden had a knife.
"Come on Alison," Grace sighed, her hands rubbed Alison's quivering shoulders. But she did not budge.
"Let's go!" Kaden shouted to the two girls. He held his knife tightly and pointed it toward the two as means to threaten them.
Turning her head toward Kaden, Alison responded, "Go to hell you asshole!"
A scowl formed on Kaden's face and he moved closer. Grace backed away from the two. "Listen to me you little bitch, if you don't go into that damn room—"
Kaden stopped talking as Alison got up and attempted to punch him. Instead, Kaden grabbed her fist with his free hand and turned it upside down, showing Alison's veiny arm. He pulled it in towards and quickly ran the blade of his knife across her arm.
"Aaah!" she screamed as blood flung from her forearm and onto the ground.
Kaden released his grip on Alison and used the same hand to forcefully push her into the steel door behind her. It fully opened, and she fell to the floor.
Alison sat up and gripped her right arm; a stream of blood flowed from it. She glared up at Kaden with great wrath in her eyes.
Kaden smiled and replied, "I bet Steven would've enjoyed that."
Her rage doubled and if it wasn't for Grace who had come to her side and said, "Come on, forget it," she might've tried, once again, to kill him.
Grace and Alison walked into the room with Kaden trailing behind. They glanced briefly around the room with the dirty, tiled, floor and the ceiling, which held but a single dim light bulb. This room was almost just as empty as the last room with the exception of an elevator at the end of the room. Spikes and needles stuck out from the walls of the elevator along with the ceiling.
The three looked around the room for a red box or cassette lying around, but there were none to be found. Rather, on the side of the room was a small stand with a rectangular shaped hole in the center.
"The recorder," Kaden said, his eyes focused on the hole rather than Alison's face. He knew the crude look he would receive from her if he looked at the young woman.
Alison avoided eye contact with Kaden as she walked toward the stand. She did not say a word to him. She had no intention of ever making amends with Kaden.
Reaching into her cassette-filled pocket, Alison placed the recorder into the slot on the stand. Glass suddenly slit over to the top of the recorder, making it impossible to retrieve it.
"What?" she muttered in confusion. Her hands banged against the glass screen that covered the recorder.
A rusty, old, intercom attached to the top corner of the room turned on and static was all that could be heard from the speaker for a few seconds before the it cleared.
"Hello remaining game players, and welcome," Jigsaw's voice said as the steel door the three game in through slammed shut. The echo rang through the room.
"You all have gone through challenges and traps that have no doubt engraved themselves into your minds. But have any of you truly learned what I've been trying to teach you? There are only two games left, and the one who has fully learned this lesson will find that the final task is the easiest of them all," the voice filled the room and echoed. It was much louder than the cassette player had been.
"Look around you. You will all notice there is a needle-filled elevator at the end of the room. For the elevator to run there must be at least one person inside. But be warned; it is a one-way trip and once you go down, and you cannot come back up. Once the elevator has lowered the next door and final game will be revealed, and the antidote, along with your freedom, will be just beyond that door. Act quickly though, for in three minutes the elevator will never work and you all will be trapped in this room. So…live or die. Make your choice. Let the game begin," a loud click erupted from the intercom as it shut off.
Alison looked around the room and noticed something for the first time, "Where's the second door?"
"Well," Kaden said, "you heard him. Once the elevator has lowered the final door will be revealed." The man pointed out his knife to Grace and Alison, his eyebrow raised.
"If you think we're going to do what you want just because you have your damn knife then you're very sadly mistaken! It's two against one and you'll be the one going into the elevator," Grace told Kaden with a scowl, to which Kaden simply laughed.
"Alright then," he said, "let's see what you girls got. Last time I checked, you two are the ones with the poison coursing through your veins and I'm the one who has clean, clear, veins."
Alison looked over to Grace who continued to scowl. The only good about this sudden transition to a new challenge was that Alison could forget about Roy's death.
"Who will it be then? As far as I'm concerned I can push you both in there. But sadly, I need one of you for the final trap to act as a sacrifice for whatever crazy challenge Jigsaw has planned. Go ahead and decide amongst yourselves. I have all day," Kaden said with a glowing smile.
Grace stepped back to Alison and looked at her with a worried look on her face. "Alison, what should we do? Do you think we can get Kaden in there?" she whispered as Alison simply stared at the ground.
"There's no way we can get him in there. If Roy was here…he'd take charge," Alison said with a shake of her head.
"Don't try anything funny. Remember, I have the kni~ife," he said in a singsong tone and then chuckled.
Alison folded her arms across her chest and leaned her head back. Was this really going to be the end of one of them? What could they do? Their only chance would be to try and take on Kaden, but chances are one of them would die anyways.
Roy's final words rang through her head. But how could she 'live her life' if she was going to die? Even if she made it to the next round, it would be because Grace died and Kaden would only threaten her again. There had to be another way…
"But have any of you truly learned what I've been trying to teach you? There are only two games left, and the one who has fully learned this lesson will find that the final task is the easiest of them all."
What was that lesson? What did Jigsaw want them to know?
"There is a single antidote placed in this building; you all may fight amongst it, or look beyond deception—and find a different solution. Do not be blinded by what you think is reality."
The first recording Jigsaw presented to them, he said there was a different solution, that by looking beyond deception she could make it through, and to not be blinded by what you think…is…
Alison's eyes widened and her head turned to the elevator. "He said not to be blinded by what I think reality is," Alison muttered as Grace looked at her with a confused face. "Jigsaw didn't say that…" she stopped and continued to stare at the elevator.
Suddenly, she took off towards it. Kaden was surprised by the immediate action that Alison had taken.
She went inside, careful not to push against the needles extended from the walls, and pressed a single button on the wall. Two gated, sliding, doors slammed together in front of Alison. "I'm sorry, Grace," she said as Grace responded with an odd smile, but before Alison could say anything else the elevator began to lower, very smoothly.
Grace and Kaden were soon unable to be seen through the gated doors, leaving Alison alone. She looked around at the spiked walls and could feel a few of them poking at her bare legs.
It was about twenty seconds later that the elevator finally stopped, but the gated doors moved aside and a regular door had been placed in front of the elevator. On the door were the words 'The Next Door' in white spray paint.
Alison grabbed the rusty knob and opened the door. The room had a wooden floor and walls, sunset light shined through cracks in the walls that made up for the lack of light bulbs in the room.
She walked ahead to a television set up in the middle of the room. It sat on a wooden table with three tapes set in front of it reading 'Isaac', 'Alison', and 'Roy'. A white piece of paper was taped to the television screen that read, 'The Final Game: Place The Cassette Into The VHR.'
Confused and surprised, Alison followed the instructions and placed the tape cassette that read 'Alison' into the VHR placed on top of the television and clicked the player button.
The television already on, static appeared first but then a man sitting in front of a desk cluttered with papers and mechanical pieces took its place. The man wore a black colored cloak with red lining the insides of the veil. He had a pale white face and a bald head with a small amount of gray hair growing on his head.
"Hello Alison, and congratulations are in order; you have won my game. You were able to see through the trepidation and move on from the loss of your former lover. I can imagine you're not quite as mad as me as when the game first started," Jigsaw said with a small smile on his face as Alison's remained unchanged.
"But I know you have one question for me: where's the antidote? And I am going to tell you that you never needed it; you were not the one infected with the poison. For both Kaden and Grace are not who you thought they were. You do not know the full truth," he explained.
"Well," Kaden said with a chuckle, "looks like your life has been spared."
Grace turned around from the elevator and walked toward Kaden with a smile on her face.
"Back up unless you want your time to be cut short," he threatened, the knife pointed at Grace.
The young woman shot her right hand forward and grabbed Kaden's wrist of the hand that held the knife. With strength that Kaden could not counter, she pushed his hand down to his side. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a syringe and quickly injected the fluid inside into Kaden's neck before he could even react.
"What are you doing?" Kaden shouted as he used his free hand to push Grace backwards, but she refused to let go of Kaden's wrist in fear that he'd try to make a stab for her.
Kaden pulled the empty syringe from his neck and looked forward at Grace, she appeared to be blurred and he stumbled backwards. "You—you…" he muttered as he fell to the ground, unconscious at the assailant looked on with a smile on her face.
To be concluded…
