Note: I greatly appreciate all the reviews I've been receiving lately. Also, I shall be doing another act of Trepidation. I may be taking a week or so break before starting a new chapter. So enjoy this final scene that ends Act I. My suggestion is to listen to the Saw theme during the course of the story to achieve its full effect.
Scene viii
Kaden awakes in an almost completely dark room and quickly sits himself up. He takes a good look around the room to find the bodies of Isaac, Alison, Grace, and Roy, unconscious on the floor.
The panic sets in as his head turns from right to left, his hands scramble against the cold, tiled floor in an attempt to find something, anything.
He grasps a recorder with a single cassette inside; the worried Kaden wastes no time in clicking play. "Hello Kaden, I'd like to play a game," said the voice from the recorder as Kaden listens carefully.
"You find yourself in a very dark room with very little sense of hope, just like your soul. There are four bodies around you, and as opposed to your 'usual' method of doing things, you can help save them...save them from themselves by forcing them to play my games. Now, I am giving you two choices, two different ways to play this game. So listen closely. You will notice five glowing objects in front of you, each filled with a powerful drug that will immediately spread upon entering the bloodstream. You may either destroy all five of these objects and wait for the timer on the door to run out to start the game," Kaden looked up and found a timer on the top of what looked like a door; it was counting down from ten minutes.
"Or…you can inject the drug into the bodies of everyone around, including yourself, then drag them into the next room and follow the set of instructions I have listed on the back of the recorder. Don't bother right now," Kaden flipped the recorder over and found a piece of paper taped to the back of the recorder, his eyes squinted to see what it said. "It's much too dark to read."
"If you choose to drag these four people to their own personal Hell, then they will not know what you truly are, just the lies that you decide to present to them. But if you decide to break the syringes and face your demons, I will tell them what you truly are—and your chances for winning my game may become in vain. Decide quickly, Kaden, for once my game begins the vent in the corner of the room will unleash a poisonous gas in the room. And remember, either path you choose, you shall become infected. Left or right, Kaden; make your choice."
Kaden made an attempt to look at the corners of the room as the recording ended. "What the hell is this?" he shouted as he kept the recorder in his hand.
He walked toward the five syringes and looked at each carefully, the timer still counting down. Acting quickly, he injected each syringe in the four bodies and he simply the left the fifth one alone with a smirk on his face, "No way I'm getting infected with whatever toxin that sicko put in there."
Kaden dragged the bodies out, one-by-one. A long pole was in the middle of the room with a chain attached to it and five cuffs were visible, one cuff for each person. Kaden followed the instructions on the back of the recorder and hooked up each person to a different chain, making sure Roy was placed closest to the stove. He carefully tied a key to the back of the stove, the trap not active yet. Kaden followed the last step and tossed the recorder and instructions into the room he was just in and shut the door then attached himself to a chain and sat patiently until he saw Roy wake from his slumber.
"Ugh," moaned Roy, "what is this?"
"What the hell?" Kaden mumbled as he grabbed his neck. He took a look around the room he was in but with little success; the room was almost completely dark.
It didn't take very long for Kaden to recollect his thoughts. "Where are you, you bitch?" he shouted, hoping to draw out Grace, the same girl who put him into unconsciousness.
He attempted to get up but soon realized he had a cuff locked onto his neck and a chain that was attached to it. Kaden groaned and sat back down, he was able to keep moving but was in fear of setting of another trap. He grabbed his stomach in pain, like something was eating away at his insides…what else had that damned girl done to him?
Light flooded the room as a door opened. Kaden's head turned toward it.
"You do not know the full truth," Jigsaw explained as Alison listened with intense curiosity.
If she had won the game, what was happening to Grace and Kaden upstairs?
"Grace is not a true player in this game. She is, in a way, an apprentice of mine. Listen closely to me, Alison; Grace was the one who brought Steven to me. She saw the state he was in, depressed, sad, and reverted back to his old self-abusive ways. She knew the only way to save him was through the methods of the 'Jigsaw Killer'. So she made an attempt to find me and when she did, I agreed to her plan and put Steven through a test. He failed, and she broke down. She wanted to put the people that were the causes of Steven's death through the same therapy he had gone through. Isaac supplied the drugs to Roy who refused to help Steven in his time of need due to Roy's drug addiction. You continuously bothered Steven and caused him to relive past pains. Then there's Kaden…"
"You!" Kaden shouted but quickly coughed up blood after his scream. "What—what did you do to me? You fucking whore!" he screamed again toward Grace who walked into the room with a smile on her face, a red box in her hands and a camera around her neck.
With her foot, Grace pushed the box to Kaden. "My camera never lies, Kaden," Grace said as she held the camera up to her face and took a picture of Kaden. A photograph slid out from the bottom of the camera. "I know what you did and I'm using every ounce of my being to refrain from killing you," she scowled as Kaden's eyes widened.
Roy's foot slammed against the box, which were filled with the pictures of Steven about to cut himself, and sent it across the room, breaking it into further pieces as it hit the floor. "Who's taking all these fucking pictures?" Roy shouted.
"Personally, I hope you rot in hell," she said, flicking the lights on and walking out of the room, making sure to slam the door behind her.
The dimly lit room revealed a syringe on the other side of the room, but a field of broken glass stood in Kaden's way.
Kaden opened up the red box and looked at the pictures inside. Only several pictures were found, each were of Kaden in a different location of what looked like to be police covering around a murder scene. The last picture revealed a picture of Kaden from outside a window, white gloves in his hands that seemed to be sprayed with dried blood.
A single cassette was found inside the box but a recorder could be found right next to Kaden, a cassette inside of it. Opening up the recorder it could be seen that it was the same cassette that Kaden had first played while in this room. He switched the cassettes quickly and hit the 'play' button.
"Hello, again, Kaden," the recording said as he placed the recorder on the floor and clasped his hands over his face. How could he have failed?
"You have tricked and lied your way through life, just like you managed to do with the police. You are the worst scum of the world, and the least deserving person to have a life that I have ever seen. You are a serial killer. You were the cause of death for several individuals for your own sick pleasure. I do not personally enjoy the line of work that I do, but the difference between you and I is that I help save lives and take away the useless space that the hopeless take up. You toss away good, innocent people just because you hold some sort of grudge. I know how your mind works, Kaden. Only looking out for yourself, so determined to keep yourself alive. You thought too deeply about what the game's rules were. I told you once the game began a poisonous gas would be released through the vents…"
"Decide quickly, Kaden, for once my game begins the vent in the corner of the room will unleash a poisonous gas in the room. And remember, either path you choose, you shall become infected."
"But the game had begun the second you clicked play on that recorder."
He grasps a recorder with a single cassette inside; the worried Kaden wastes no time in clicking play. "Hello Kaden, I'd like to play a game."
Kaden gave another cough as blood splattered into his hand before him. "You and the others were just breathing in that poison by the time that first recording had finished. Now you're wondering what was in those syringes I had you inject into the bodies around you. You were too busy worrying about yourself you didn't think about what I had told you…"
"So listen closely. You will notice five glowing objects in front of you, each filled with a powerful drug that will immediately spread upon entering the bloodstream."
"Tell me Kaden, what is the definition of a 'drug'? It is a remedy, a treatment, a medicine. That syringe I know you avoided injecting yourself with was not the poison. It was the antidote."
A harsh cough came from Kaden's throat, drawing the attention of Roy. "What the hell…" Kaden said, looking down at his hand, a small splatter of blood was visible.
"The poison," Roy said, looking up at Kaden's face, which was filled with worry and confusion. "What's wrong?" he asked.
"Perhaps you didn't listen as close as I thought you did when I was explaining the rules to yourself and the other four players."
"You have spent your years living lies. Lies that have caused the ones you care about to suffer. But those who were suffering you have refused to care about. I am now giving you a second chance; there is a slow acting poison in your body. I'd say you have about one hour before the toxin starts to take effect. There is a single antidote placed in this building…"
"I was not finished talking to you yet, Kaden. That information about the slow acting poison was not directed towards them; it was directed toward you," Kaden looked down at the blood in his trembling hand. He realized the danger he was now in.
"Kaden," Jigsaw explained through the television recording to Alison, "is a serial killer. He murdered Steven's close friend, Michael, as you may remember. Kaden refused to inject himself with the antidote at the beginning of the game, thinking it was a toxin of some sort. But you, and the others, were completely safe all along."
Alison stared down at the television set. "What?" she asked in disbelief. She had been fine the entire time? That whole rush, that struggle to find the antidote…it had been all for nothing?
"Kaden will be entering his last chance for survival in an hour or so. Grace should be just know putting him into unconsciousness. Luckily for you, you seemed to understand what the rules of the last game were."
"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."
"Tell me, Alison, do you know what the synonym for an antidote is? A solution, an answer. By completing this game, you have found your answer, the solution to your troubles. I have presented you with the antidote to move on and live your life."
"I did not lie to you, Kaden. I clearly stated 'either path you choose, you shall become infected', and I was correct. If you had destroyed the syringes you would've been infected with the poisonous gas. But I knew you wouldn't inject yourself, so you became infected anyways," a chuckle came from the recorder.
"No! No!" Kaden screamed, "This isn't fair! This isn't fair!"
"I had even managed to give you a chance to give your life some purpose. I wanted you to kill the person who you thought was the least deserving of life. That person was you, but instead you had someone take your place. So now…I suppose you're wondering what I'm going to do to you. I'll tell you what I'm going to do, I'm going to make you play a game…"
"You are free to go, Alison. Do not forget the lessons you have learned, or else I'll see you again very soon," he warned Alison who glanced away from the television set. Jigsaw seemed to know he was staring right at her, she could hardly bare to make eye contact with the person she felt so much hate and gratitude for.
She walked past the set and towards a metallic door at the end of the hallway; a small nail was placed in the opening of the door so it wouldn't lock.
"Most people are so ungrateful for being alive, but not you, Alison," Jigsaw said, but Alison continued walking towards the door. The hallway she walked through filled with rays of the dim sunlight escaping through the cracks in the walls. "Not anymore."
"You see the many shards of broken glass before you. The syringe you refused to inject into yourself is sitting right on the wooden stool on the other end. The antidote just may save your life, but with the poison already inside you, I wouldn't place any bets. But hurry Kaden, for the cuff locked to your neck has a chain attached to a machine on the wall behind you," Kaden's hand turned toward the large, contraption behind him.
"It will reel the chain in, so act quickly before the chain is reeled in so much you can no longer reach the antidote. You will be left pinned to the wall, slowly dying from the poison within your body. But if you are to succeed, your life will be put into the hands of another human being like so many other lives have been put into yours. Prove to me that you are truly deserving of the life you have been given," Kaden stood up his eyes focused on the antidote across the room. "Live or die, Kaden; make your choice. Let the game begin."
"God damn it!" Kaden shouted; his fingertips worked their way into the cuff around his neck. Realizing how useless this was he moved towards the broken glass before him.
Cuh-chink!
The chain moved slowly across the floor and to the machine on the back wall.
"No! No!" Kaden's bare foot stepped onto the broken glass. Pieces inserted themselves into his skin as he let out a shout of pain.
The pieces crunched as he moved his other foot forward onto the glass. He removed the first foot he placed down, and some shards of glass were lodged into the ground and a thin line of blood trailed from the glass tips to Kaden's feet. "Fuck!" he screamed as he looked back at the chain; it was getting shorter by the second.
Kaden ran forward for a second, moving several feet before falling onto the glass before him. "Aaah!!" he shrieked, glass shards submerged themselves into his entire body.
He pushed his hands against the glass pieces on the ground, blood covering the shards before him as he coughed out another spray of blood.
Kaden tilted his head up and stared at the syringe sitting on the stool. The chain was no longer sliding against the floor; it was lifted up into the air, leaving Kaden with only a few feet of chain left. "Somebody help me!" he cried as he tried to lift his worn body off the floor.
His eyes were still set on the syringe, horrific realization hitting him.
He was only halfway to the syringe.
End of Act I…
