He's losing it. Valerio's mind was there one moment and gone the next. When you love someone, and you're forced to watch them leave this world, it is so very dizzy in a world of goodbyes. Back pressed against an old chalk board. Hands trembling and sweat pouring from the lower half of his back. Valerio is sure this darkness will swallow him whole.
The lights come on and Valerio could swear he hears a scream somewhere in the distance. A silver glint, rust, and chains are organized in the center of the room. This former classroom has been transformed into something terrifying. Hanging on a string above the stain where a teacher's desk once rested is some box with a yellow sticky note. Written on the note is two words; Play me.
Someone has been watching him. Someone knew he'd be down here. Someone set this up and they want him to be afraid. He swallows hard and pushes through the withdrawals. His shaking hands reach up to the box. Up close it looks like a smaller version of a radio. It's got a smaller box inside it and he can see through the plastic pieces some kind of ribbon. It's very strange to him but he recognizes the arrow shaped play button usually reserved for youtube videos and he presses it into the bigger box.
"Hello Valerio, I want to play a game." It's edited, the voice. Scary and full of sarcasm. The massacre isn't over yet and he's all alone. No one is going to rescue him. A minor must do what he must when a monster's snared them and no one else is around to fix it for them.
He continues to listen, "The device in the center of the room is one of choice. It holds multiple things; a key to escaping this room, a key to escaping reality, and a key to escaping life. You can try the doors but the moment you decided to enter this room they all set to an automatic lock. Now, you can sit and wait for death to take you slowly. No one knows this place exists so you will rot from the inside out and that could be an agonizing few days. A week if you're lucky.
"You could also put the shackles on yourself. Pull the pin trigger timer and fight for a life worth living." Says the voice.
He yells back, "I'm seventeen! I haven't had a chance to live yet! This isn't fair! AHHHHHHHHH!"
Of course it's true. Where were his parents when he was making the decisions he was making. They grew weary enough of his problems that they sent him away to a boot camp. His affliction towards his sister was what sent them over the edge. Instead of solving the problem they handed him off and let someone else try. Young men deserve affection, a listening ear, understanding. They only get beaten down and told that men may not express any emotions. So he tried to numb them.
"You've wasted your youth on drugs, perversion, and a personal agenda that does nothing for others. This device is one I call the Engine Fire trap. It's new, innovative, and still holds true to the original doctrine." This is a jigsaw copy cat. John Kramer died years ago but tales of his villainy came all the way down here to Spain, "For a car to run it must have connection. There are three options for you and each one is more dangerous than the last."
The contraption is located inside of a cage barrier divided into thirds. Imagine a small octagon for cage fighting from the perspective of a coach but there's only three sides to the arena. Inside the arena is a giant car engine with several pipes and wires all in a maze outside the metal hunk. On the outside of each section of the arena are barriers made of the desks and Valerio walks, with the radio machine in hand, around to all three of them.
"The first chamber is the easiest, as in it will be over the quickest." They're all labeled as on the desks are etched the bold print number over and over in different fonts for someone took their time with this, "To place your hands in this opening is to ignite all three components necessary to start the engine quickly. Quickly enough to allow the flames to flow you through you killing you as quickly as it can but yes it will be painful."
Valerio, who's face is sunk in defeat and sadness, walks around the left side past sector three to the second sector. Here he finds a rope and pulley, "This second option does not allow escape and it does not kill you right away. It will char your stomach for as long as you stand there but reward is waiting. As for when the flame is eating you another contraption up in the higher mechanisms above your head is cutting down a little gift I have for you. Is your addiction worth the torture."
Valerio looks up into the expansions of the cage and what's hoisted beneath the ceiling tethering to the horrific network before him. Walking left he stops at the third set up. He draws in a deep breath and listens to what he must do to survive.
"At this last port lies a chance at freedom. Rebirth. A life as a new human being, a victim of many kinds, humbled by your experience and ready for the next chapter that being helpless brings you so kindly." Here Valerio finds a pipe wide enough for his arm and a pulley. It's the best of both worlds.
"Keep yourself in place for as long as thirty seconds and the doors will open. The one closest to you now, behind port three, reveals to the tunnels one way out of this collapsed building and back into the world you thought you knew. It will be painful, you will lose so much of yourself. Still, you must ask yourself the question; is my life worth this? If not do you think you deserve a chance to make it better?" This is wrong. He does not deserve any of this. The life he has lived has not yet been proven to be a failed one.
All alone, and with no one to help him, he is left to decide and fortunately not deciding is also an answer. He chooses, for now, to wait. Makes his way back over to the chalkboard and sits down by her purse. Lucrecia's pocket book is all he has with him. So, in despair, he rests his face down between his legs and falls apart for a little while.