Scene iii
The man with the metal cuff around his neck continued his attempt to pull it off. However, the rod that held the cuff to the wall prevented the man from moving up and down. The cuff was firmly in place. So rather, the man could only move forward and back. But he was cautious, for an iron rod with a spiked mask was directly in front of him. This struggle continued, even as the television set turned on and Jigsaw's doll appeared on the screen.
"Hello, Agent Geoff…" said the doll as its mouth moved with its words. Its head turned slightly to the man struggling to try and take the cuff off. "…and Alex," he said as his head turned the other way to a tan man at the other end of the room. The long shackle connected Geoff's and Alex's cuffs together.
"Geoff, you're a police agent, an upholder of the law. But in your quest for justice, you've gone a bit over the edge. After the death of your wife you have sought out relief from your pain through your job. You see evil everywhere, and you fight to put people away in prison. Some of those people were hardly guilty of anything. Your sense of justice has become obscure and twisted. You've become a loose canon, Geoff." Geoff stopped pulling at the cuff around his neck and simply looked down, as if disappointment had suddenly sunk in. "Alex, you stand for everything that Geoff is against. You are a criminal. Injustice courses through your veins. You've served time in prison multiple times, but you don't quite understand the pain that you've put others through. Now—you both will feel that same pain. There is a shackle that connects both of you together; you are both linked by your unjustified deeds. The shackle runs through a small device in the center of the room. If you pull this chain hard enough toward you will flip a switch and you will be set free. However, the other person will be pulled into the barbed mask in front of them…resulting in their death. Be careful; the chain is riddled with spikes and needles. Is your live really so valuable that you'll kill a man whose worth is equal to your own? Live or die; make your choice."
The television screen turned to static, providing a bit of light in the room.
Geoff looked up from his chain to Alex who sat across the room. "Listen. We can figure ou—" the agent attempted to reason with Alex, but it went unheard.
"Fuck you, man!" Alex screamed in anger and pain. His hands gripped the spiked chain tightly and pulled it toward him.
"Hey!" Geoff screamed as he was pulled toward the iron mask before him. Its hundreds of iron barbs threatened to tear through his face. Geoff pushed his feet against the floor to stop his body from moving forward.
"Stop it!" he screamed again to Alex. Geoff refused to pull on his own chain to bring Alex to his death. However, he was getting too close to the spikes for his own comfort.
"We can work together and fix this! Listen to me!"
"I'm not dying today!" Alex screamed as he gave a quick but harsh tug. Blood began to pour from his palms. It ran down the chains as he continued to yell.
Geoff was yanked forward. He put his hands against the pole beneath the iron mask in an attempt to stop himself from moving. "Alex! Alex, please!" he cried out as his face came closer to the spikes.
"Aaaaah!!" Alex cried out. His body trembled but his hands pulled tirelessly to impale Geoff's face into the spiked mask.
The agent gave a cry of pain as several spikes began to submerge into his left cheek. He was pulled in closer, bit by bit. One the spike tips touched Geoff's closed eyelid. His body exploded with adrenaline form the realization that he was actually about to lose his eye.
"Son of bitch!!" Geoff screamed as grabbed the chain attached to his cuff, put one foot on the pole in front of him, and struggled hard to pull his head back.
Geoff pulled the chain toward him as his feet pushed against the ground. They slowly began to bring him back to the wall. "You fucking bitch!" he screamed as Alex tried to counter Geoff's sudden burst of strength.
"Aaaah!" the agent cried as he released the grip of his left hand and brought it up further above his right. He clutched his hand against the needles and blood squirted from his already-damaged hand.
"I'm sorry! Stop!" Alex pled, as his face was less than a foot away from the mask.
"Too late now!" Geoff screamed as he brought his right hand above his left. He squeezed the chain tight and his flesh chirped as the needles entered his muscle.
Geoff pulled hard as Alex's face dived right into the iron mask. "Aaaah! Aaaah! Aaaaah!!" Alex shrieked in pain as Geoff gave the chain some slack, allowing Alex to push against the pole and pull away from it.
Slam!
Geoff yanked the chain again and Alex found himself shrieking in pain once more. "How do you like it, bitch?" he screamed as moved his hands forward to allow Alex to pull his mangled wreck-of-a-face from the spiked mask.
Slam!
Slam!
Slam!
The agent performed this deed several more times before yanking hard against the chain and continued to pull forward.
"Aaaaaaah!!!" Alex yelled. Geoff could practically hear him gargling on his own blood.
He pulled hard; Alex's face seemed to not want move forward anymore. But a click rang out from the middle of the room and Geoff's cuff suddenly came undone, popping open.
Geoff opened up his hands, but the chain wouldn't simply fall. The spikes were dug far into his skin.
"Damn it, damn it, damn it—aaaaah!!" he screamed as he pulled his arms away from the chain. Skin stretched and snapped as it stayed attached to the bloody chain.
Pulling himself away from the unlocked the cuff, Geoff walked toward the television set, which had a key laid on top of it. A door right behind needed this key.
However, Geoff turned from the set and walked to Alex, whom had his arms dangling by his side and his face dug into the iron mask.
"Let's see that pretty face," Geoff muttered as he grabbed a handful of Alex's brown hair and pulled hard.
In a blood curdling sucking sound, Alex's face was pried from the mask. Strips of skin hung by his cheeks and a mess of red and liquid covered his face. His eyes were horribly scrambled in their sockets.
Geoff let go of his hair and, like a magnet, and his face fell right back into the mask.
"Come on, I got you," Kevin said as his back pushed against the door out of the dark room and into the hallway which had the appearance of an old, abandoned, office building, but all windows were sealed shut with steel.
Kevin aided Paula who hopped on one foot out of the room. "Damn it, it hurts," she said with closed eyes as Kevin brought her against the wall.
"Easy…" he warned her as she slid slowly to the ground. Paula's hands locked onto the ankle of her foot as the fingernails dug into skin. She tried her best not to grab the bottom of her burnt foot, which now was beginning to turn an odd purple color. "…How is it?"
"It hurts!" she reminded him as Kevin stood up straight.
"So what happened with that SWAT agent?" Kevin asked as Paula let the back of her head bang against the wall.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Well, she turned around and full-out decked you with her gun," Kevin explained as Paula looked Kevin into the eyes with a confused look on her face.
"I thought it was Jigsaw. Didn't he have something set up?"
"No, I saw it. Right before he took me out. He's old, but he knows how to bring someone down."
Paula looked to the ground for a moment. "So what did he put you through while you were in that building?"
Kevin went to spoke but stopped. The only person who ran through his mind was Jade.
"I wasn't really hurt. But apparently I didn't follow the rules. I got my hands cut up a bit on some spiked ladder steps," Kevin said, showing Paula his hands, which were wrapped in white medical tape. "But I guess Jigsaw didn't want me getting an infection and dying before he got to throw me into another one of his sick g—"
A door shut down the hallway and Grace walked out from it. She was rubbing her hands together as if she was attempting to soothe them.
She walked down the corridor and looked up at Paula and Kevin. An instant connection came to her mind. Grace had actually helped set up one of Kevin's traps. "You stuck here too?" she asked with a small attempt at a smile.
It seemed she would have to play innocent again.
"Not for long, hopefully," Kevin said as he looked at Grace's hands. They were a bit bloody on the palms, but nothing major.
"I'm Grace," she told them.
"I'm detective Kevin and this is my partner, Paula."
"You're…officers?" Grace asked, pretending to be surprised by the fact that officers were playing Jigsaw's games.
"I guess so," Paula said with her head turned the side.
Another door creaked open in the same direction where Paula had her head turned.
Geoff stepped out, holding Alex's black shirt in his hands as he closed the door behind him with his shoulders. "Hey, could I get some help over here?" he asked as Kevin began to move toward him.
"…Kevin?" Geoff asked with a surprised look on his face.
"Geoff," Kevin said as he stopped in front of the agent.
"You've been missing for a couple days! Is this where you've been?" Geoff looked to Paula who still sat on the ground. "And there's Paula!"
"I guess we've been here. I just woke up a few minutes ago," Kevin said as he scratched the back of his head, his eyes wandering down the next hallway. "What's that?" he asked as his eyes met with writing on the wall.
Geoff turned around to look as Kevin read, "Live your life."
Grace immediately moved down the hallway and stopped as soon as it came into view. The words 'Live Your Life' were written large in blood on the wall. It looked as if someone had written the words with the paintbrush that was almost out of liquid. The letters weren't fully developed and some spacing and patches were missing.
"Mock me all you want, you bastard," Grace muttered as she stared at the wall, remembering what Roy had told Alison before she died.
"I'll live my life all right…" she whispered in a hiss, "…by making sure you don't get to live yours." Anger filled her body as she clutched her fist tight.
She wanted nothing more than to see John die before her.
To be continued…
