In the control room Melissa couldn't take her eyes off the screen. What she had just witnessed disturbed her so and had terrified her. Her own friend was about to be devoured by man-eating insects. A sudden groan echoed in the room and Melissa turned to see a boy no older than her age.

"Who are you?" Melissa demanded quickly.

The boy's clothes were drenched with sweat and blood. The smell of rotten decayed flesh hung in the air around him and Melissa couldn't help but cover her mouth and nose.

"Don't like my new smell?" the boy said in a eerie voice.

"Hardly," Melissa replied not sure what to think of the boy.

"Then stop," the boy said snapping his head up.

Melissa got a good look at the boy's face. It was torn and bruised terribly. His ear looked like it was shredded up by an animal and his chin dripped with blood that escaped from his mouth. At first Melissa couldn't tell where the blood was coming from until her eyes saw his torn up lips.

"Are you ok?" Melissa said in a dumb voice.

The boy's eyes gave her a vicious sign that she better start explaining or she'll end up worse then he is.

"Ok?" the boy said as he managed to get up on his damaged legs, "Oh I'm far from ok, I'm perfect,"

Somewhere along a dark corridor Lyric sat cradling her wounded hand. The fiery pain still swept her broken and sore body as the memory flowed in and out of her mind. She knew crying for help was far out of the question because there was no one around but her. Blood soaked right through her jeans and shirt now, and her hair contained traces of her blood.

I'm alive she thought to herself and smiled in a crazy way Alive!

Then she remembered Melissa and her betrayal and realized that she should be the one suffering, not her.

I'll find her, I'm a good seeker.

Melissa got some information out of the boy, she found out that his name was Hayden and he was a recent student at a University in Guelph. He woke up to find himself trapped in a room with assorted knives around him and all pointing to him. He explained to Melissa that he had to get past the moving knives to the key that hung near the door which explained the various cuts on his body. Melissa turned away from Hayden not knowing what to say or do, telling him that she is his apprentice would make things worse.

"What's all this stuff for?" Hayden said suspiciously.

"I don't know," Melissa lied.

Hayden gave her a look.

"Seriously I was knock unconscious and then found myself in her with all this crap,"

Melissa hoped that one of the knives damaged his brain.

"So what's with all the screens?" Hayden asked.

"I don't know,"

"Well, what does this do?"

He pressed a button and a fuzzy screen showed a man about the age of 27 or so lying face down on the cold concrete floor. But it's not what the man was doing there that scared Melissa and Hayden, it was why he was attached to so many chains.

Blake Dens woke up to the clinking of chains that crashed around him.

Make it stop, he thought to himself.

Blake agreed to get up but found himself only capable of getting up halfway.

"What the hell?" he said in return came a static noise that screamed in his ears from the speakers just above him.

"Hello Blake Dens, a cold dark voice called," You don't know me but I know you,"

"Creeper,"Blake muttered to himself.

"You go around thinking that you are the only person in the world. You make fun of people who you think are below you and you think everything is a game. Well today this is a game, a game that only you will be playing by yourself and with no cheats. Your life has been a breeze to you but for others you make fun of it's like taking a piece of their life out of them. A large chunk of life. Today's game will consist of of course you and your will to live or die. As you can see you are attached to various chains that will slowly take a chunk of your life away from you unless you can find the key to freedom,"

Blake's face morphed into total fear and horror, "Sicko,"

"The key you are trying to get at is on top of one of the chains. Well you sacrifice some of your bad habits or die with them. Live or die,"

Then the speakers shut off all together leaving Blake to listen to the gears of the chains.

"Is he really...," Jayden tried to say but the words couldn't form in his mouth.

"Oh no," Melissa said in fear.

"That's gross,"

Melissa closed her eyes and prayed for the best.

Blake gritted his teeth in pain as a chain started to pull at him.

Various chains that will slowly take a chunk of your life away.

Blake suddenly realized what the voice meant and he screamed in pain as a chunk of flesh was torn away from his body. He sunk further into the floor sobbing in pain as another gear started up and the chain slowly yanked on his skin. He looked at the clocked that ticked away and saw that he had only 20 more minutes to decide. He then looked up to see one of the middle chains that was attached to his leg hold the key to his freedom. Blake looked and got up only to be invited by the other chains that held tight onto him. He let his body crash to the floor and a sickening ripping sound echoed around the room and he screamed as another gear winded up.

I can do this, he thought to himself as he got to his knees once more, just small bad habits.

He got up once more and pain ran through his body once more. He tired to ignore it and as he jumped up onto the chain that held the key, two piecesdisappeared. Blake let out a stomach twisting scream as two more gears started up.

Fuck!

In the control room Melissa was merely shaking with fear and Hayden wanted to wake up from the nightmare.

"Stop that!" Melissa screamed at Hayden who slammed him head into the wall. She couldn't watch him injury himself when he is already injured enough.

"If I hit myself hard enough maybe I'll wake up from this damn nightmare," Hayden muttered to himself.

"The only thing you'll wake up to is brain cell lose,"

"Oh," Hayden said as if he was disappointed, "Who are you again?"

"For the tenth time in a row its Melissa!"

"Oh ok,"

Melissa didn't know what was wrong with Hayden as he sat down on one of the boxes. Melissa started to worry for the boy and then something hit her; hard.

"Hayden?" Melissa asked.

"Yes?" Hayden answered looking up.

"Do you have a brain disorder of any kind?"

That question seemed to bring Hayden back to earth as his eyes brightened and he hung his head.

"Yes," he said quietly.

"I'm listening,"

"I have short-term memory loss,"

10 minutes, Blake thought to himself.

Huge chunks of flesh now layed on the floor beside him, blood covered him head to toe and the ticking made his head hurt. He looked over and counted the chains attached to his body.

6 more.

Blake knew that he was going to die, he knew that he wasn't going to live through this hell. No one could. He felt his skin been pulled on his shoulder and on his back and he got ready for more pain. Just then he looked up to see a girl standing just above him.

"Who are you?" Blake said, his words were now slurred by the blood loss.

"That is not what I'm here for," the girl replied she had a blood red coat on and tight black jeans.

"Then what?"

The girl didn't reply or make any move for that matter.

"Who the hell are you?"

The girl started to vanish from his sight and he screamed for her to come back. He thought she was just a hallucination, but his mind told him that she was real. Then a sickening ripping sound came from his shoulder and back.

"DON'T LEAVE ME!"

But he knew that the girl was gone and there was nothing he could do about it. He was going to die soon and he knew it. But then he knew that he had to at least try and he got to his feet ignoring the pain of the chains yanking at his flesh. He leaped up and felt the tearing sensation run through his body once more and he yelled as loud as he could. Blake ignored it all until he was about a couple centemeters away from the key when all the gears grinded up and the chains all moved in unision.

FUCK!

The gears slowly started to spin faster until it only took a minute until his flesh was torn viciously from his body. Blake looked at the clock and saw that he had less than two minutes to complete his task before he would die. But it was hard to bear any more pain than he was already taking in and with that he dropped to the floor and as he did the chains gave a final pull and the last of his bad habits fell to the floor with him.