on deaths doorstep

I stood there, gagged and handcuffed as my captor explained the rules. 

“Behind me are 2 doors. We’ll call them the easy way and the hard way.” He began, pulling me by my shirt to look at the doors.

“Behind the easy door there is a room. It has a chair and a rope. Hanging is a quick and easy way out, guaranteed to be less painful than anything you’d endure in the second door.” He spoke in a calm, sickening voice like he’d said those words hundreds of times over. 

“Moving on to the next door. The hard way. This door leads to a staircase. Who’s to say how many floors are in this building but if you were to get to the bottom you could walk free. We’ve set up a few little surprises on the way, I should warn you.” 

He untied the bandana used to keep me quiet. 

“Well?” he asked, grabbing a key from his pocket. 

“I think I’ll have to go the hard way.” I replied. 

He nodded thoughtfully before grabbing my wrist and unlocking my cuffs. 

“Figured I’d give a spitfire like you a bit of an advantage. I’m not a bad person.” He said with a smirk.

“Well, go on.” He said, flicking his hand toward the second door.

“Can you at least tell me why you’re doing this?” I questioned before walking through the door.

“I’ll tell you at the bottom.” He said before pushing me through the door and locking it behind me. 

I had to give it to the dude; he may have been a sadistic sociopath but he definitely had a flair for the dramatic. 

I continued down the first flight of stairs. My plan was to find a window to see just how tall this building is. 

First floor down and there were comically large axes swinging with a door between each and a lock on the next staircase door. The axes were set up so one would have to run between them in time. Considering that was dumb and risky I decided to crawl between each instead. 

The first door on the right side of me was unlocked. I walked in to see a room similar to the one I started off in. There were handcuffs on the ground and a door off to the left. I opened the door, regretting it immediately. Inside was a room the size of a walk-in closet with A chair pushed over on its side, a rope, and someone hanging from it. 

I quickly closed the door, pressing my back to it to catch my breath. The body seemed fresh, meaning there might be other players. I walked out of the room and kept army crawling to check rooms. On the fourth door I went in to check “the easy way out” room. Luckily there was no one in it but atop the chair sat a key, hopefully to the next staircase. 

I picked it up before having a rope thrown over my neck. Someone was behind me trying to choke me out. I kicked out behind me, loosening the grip on the rope and giving me time to grab the chair in front of me. I spun around, about to smash the chair over this man's head before I saw him. He was this shrimpy little man, tears stained his face and he had his arms crossed over him, trying to deflect the next blow. A blob of curly brown hair was pressed down to his head, covered in sweat. 

I grabbed the rope from him before asking 

“Who are you?” His eyes widened and his hands were shaking.

“Caiden. You? Also are you a player or are you a part of… this.” He said, waving his hands around. 

“I’m a player. Going to assume you are as well. The name’s Eve, by the way.” I replied, trying to give him some sense of security. This man was clearly shaken.

“Well, Eve. That key in your hand is our only way out.” He spoke, his voice quivering.

“Do you want to team up?” I asked him. He nodded, reaching for the key.

“I’m going to hang on to this.” I said, walking out the door, back into the hallway with swinging axes. 

I watched as he leaped between each axe, sweating and barely missing the blades. I waited for him to finish before crawling back towards the staircase. 

I unlocked the door, making Caiden go first so I could keep an eye on him. 

The second floor was suspiciously comforting. There didn’t seem to be anything bad on it. The staircase was on the other side of the hall this time. 

“Do you think it’s a trap?” Caiden asked.

“Obviously. The question is ‘What is it?’ just try to find the key fast.” I said, walking down the hall. 

“You take the left doors, I’ll take the right.” I continued, not waiting for a reply. The first door had desks pushed to the walls. If all the rooms were like this there would be a lot of drawers to look through. 

The bottoms of my socks started to soak, making me realize two things. One of those things would be that this floor is filling up with water, and that these guys stole my shoes. The second one was less of an issue but was just incredibly rude. 

I tried to keep my cool, searching through every drawer. The water was rising slowly so we had enough time to search. I decided to open all of the room's doors. The water was almost up to my knees now and there were five doors on each side of the hall so it would be hard to open the fifth door and I was trying to save myself and Caiden from unnecessary struggle. 

I moved to the next room. Still no key and the water was rising quicker. 

My movements were starting to become more reckless as the water rose to my waist. By the fourth room I was holding my breath to check drawers. By the last room the water was almost to my shoulders. We had checked every drawer but still no keys. 

“Go see if you can slam the door open.” I told Caiden.

“What are you going to do?” He asked, barely keeping it together.

“I’ll go recheck the rooms.” I said, trying to ignore the fact that the water was at my neck. Luckily we had a bit before the water hit the ceiling so I had somewhere to come up and breathe. 

I turned to see Caiden slamming his body against the door before I dove into the water, frantically searching every room. All the windows were blacked out and too hard to break with bare hands. 

After rechecking most of the rooms the water was almost to the ceiling. We had a few inches of an air pocket left. And that’s when the key dropped down from the ceiling. It fell from a little box in front of the staircase we came from. I swam towards it as it sank to the bottom. 

After I got it, I decided to go back up for air before swimming towards the door where we needed to go out. My lips had to touch the ceiling for me to breathe. Caiden was at the end of the hall, his head tilted, trying not to drown as I got there. I dove down. Trying to keep my eyes open underwater definitely burned and the room had finally filled completely so there was no going back up for air. I jimmied the key into the lock and pulled Caiden close to me, knowing that when we opened the door we’d crumble down the stairs. I kicked the door open, keeping a hand around Caiden's arm as he screamed and managed to catch the staircase railing with my other hand. A burning pain shot down both of my arms but I held on until the water slowed down enough for us to get down without being hurt. I let go and slid down the stairs, taking a moment to breathe. 

Caiden got up beside me. 

“You ok?” He asked, out of breath and shaking more than when I first met him. 

“Yeah, I’m fine. Let’s go.” I said, standing up and walking down the rest of the hall. The door to the other staircase was already unlocked but Caiden stopped me. 

“We should check the rooms first. If this were a videogame this floor would be like a checkpoint.” He said. 

I nodded, not arguing because we both deserved the break anyways. 

Instead of 10 rooms there were 2 rooms. One on each side of the hall. The room on the right had a few weapons, a bunch of loonies and toonies, and some chairs.

I pocketed the change and walked over to the left room which had vending machines, comfortable chairs and couches. 

When I got in there, Caiden had already smashed the glass and gotten into the machines.

“OK, then.” I said, grabbing a pop and some crunchy cheetos before sitting down.

“So, you have anyone back home? You know, someone that’ll notice you’re missing?” I asked Caiden.

“My mother will notice. I visit her nursing home once a week and I’m supposed to go tomorrow. You?” He said.

“My girlfriend maybe. We moved in together a few months ago so she’s probably noticed I’m gone.” I replied, licking the cheeto dust off my fingers. 

“Good. we’re going to get out of here, right?” He said, trying to sound confident but it came off as a question. 

“Yeah, we’ll get out of here. You ready to go?” I asked, standing up.

“Not really but sure.” He said. Before we continued down the staircase he pocketed some snacks and I grabbed a hatchet from the other room. 

When we stepped down the staircase the whole floor was just one big room, which just seemed like bad designing. In the middle of the room sat the man from the first room.

“Ah, you’ve both made it! Sit, sit!” He said, gesturing to the seats around him. We sat down around a circular table, opposite to him. 

He poured us both a cup of tea, gesturing for us to put sugar in. 

I kept my cup of tea in front of me while Caiden slammed his down. 

“Congratulations, you two! How do you feel?” The man asked.

“Great, other than being kidnapped and almost dying.” I replied.

“Yes, that does seem like a not so fun day. Sadly, only one of you were supposed to live.” He continued with false sympathy. 

“That really is a shame. I don’t mind a tie, though.” I replied. Caiden watched us, his hands were shaking so bad that he was starting to vibrate the table. 

“I suppose you’re correct. But whoever got to the bottom would win 50,000 dollars. Now, no one knows either of you are here. So, if one of you wanted to kill the other and take the money, no one would know.” Caiden and I stared at each other for a moment.

“We’re not going to kill each other!” Caiden yelled in disbelief. 

“Yeah. I mean, if I wanted him dead it would’ve happened already.” I said, trying to lighten the mood. This may not have been the best time to do so. 

“That… really is a shame.” The man continued, “If you won’t kill one another you can always choose which one of you dies.”

“What if neither of us died? We could split the money. I don’t even want the money.” Caiden stammered. 

“Alright. I can work with that. The door to the outside is right behind me. But if you walk out that door, you won't get any money.” The man spoke.

“Fine by me.” Caiden said before standing up and sprinting to the door. I kept my hands on the table, watching both men carefully. The man across from me winked before putting his feet on the table. Caiden dropped right before he got to the door, foaming at the mouth and spazzing before going completely still. 

“What happened to him?” I yelled, my eyes going wide. 

“Poison.” The man said before pointing at Caiden's teacup. 

I stared at Caiden for a moment before getting up and walking over him to the door. 

“A shame, indeed.” I said, giving him a little kick. 

“But before I go. I believe you owe me an explanation.” I continued.

“Oh, right. Yes, I guess I do.” He said, getting up and walking towards me. 

“Well, you see. It just gives me such a rush, you know?” He asked, before swiftly trying to stab me in the chest. 

“Yes,” I said, plunging my hatchet into his head before grabbing his chin, forcing him to look at me.

“I do know.”