Go

I woke up. I rolled my eyeballs forward 180 degrees from the back of my head and lifted my drooping eyelids like a stiff letterbox. It was dark, too dark. I could feel something clasping my wrists, it was so cold it felt wet against my dry skin; the weight of my body hung from the clasps, I felt pressure against my limbs as if I was being strung up. I was. Suddenly, I realised my body was mounted on a wall, as if I were a tapestry ready to be stabbed with a needle. I was loosing feeling in my hands, the cold metal which had felt wet before started to feel like a distant breeze which brushed my skin.

There was a faint green glow which started to grow from the corner of the room, faint silhouettes started to form from the darkness as if made out of air. I saw multiple figures pinned to the walls, they sagged like forgotten laundry and pain was rigid through out their frame. The small, square room was fully engulfed by the goblin green light, fully visible now were the stacks of books, newspapers and old pictures which littered the ground beneath us. All of a sudden, the shackles which held me against the wall released and I dropped to the stone floor, my face smashed into the harsh rock, and I heard a small crack from somewhere inside my nose.

The people around me began to wake up, some had been in a daze like I, others woken by the hard slap the rock had given. There were 5 of us. I looked around to see whether I recognised anyone, their faces remained nameless as I scanned their features, they were nobodies. So was I. I couldn’t recall my name, my family, my past, or the year it was, I was left in a void of uncertainty. Amongst the piles of paper scattered across the floor lay envelopes which had been perfectly placed in front of each and everyone one of us. I didn’t want to touch this ominous letter; however, I knew that that was the only thing to do. I picked the thick cream envelope up in my icy hands and fumbled it open and held out the letter to read in the dimming light.

Dear Go,

You must pay the price, you must play the game, you must take the dare; only then will you find out the truth.

I raised my head from behind the letter and looked at the terrified faces around me. I stood up and went to confront everyone else on what they could recount. I first walked over to a girl with beautiful blonde hair, it flowed down her back like a stream of liquid gold, her eyes were dark brown, and her nose was sharp like a lemon. I knelt down next to her and spoke in a soft, comforting voice,

“Hello, my name is Go, who are you?”

“Apparently,” the girl said in a feeble tone, “my name is Ichi, I don’t remember it, but that is how I was addressed in this letter.” She looked as if she would faint if she tried to stand up, so I elevated her to a sitting position.

“Do you know what has happened to us?” I went on. From across the room a boy with dusty silver hair crawled his way over to the feet of my new acquaintance. His hands were big enough to cover my face, his neck thick enough to be a trunk and his eyes a dazzling blue.

“That is a question I would like to be answered as well,” he croaked, “my name is Yon, well, that is as close to a name I have” he gave a faint flicker of a smile and then it returned to a dismal expression. “well what are you girls up to anyway?” he said after a few seconds of awkward silence.

“Trying to figure out how the hell we got into this mess I hope” came a cold voice from across the room. His stature was that of an eagle, his hair fell over the side of his face and his lips were pursed like his words were even too sour for him.

“My name is Ni; I presume you are all waiting for me to govern this shamble. I am sure my little toe could figure it out before you four simpletons,” he said in a cruel voice as he gestured over to the little girl sobbing in the corner. The girl couldn’t have been over the age of 10, her little black plaits gently brushed her shoulders and her gorgeous, rich, chocolate skin was blemished with soot and tears. I got up and slowly walked towards her, ignoring my latest acquaintance, and sat down next to her to offer comfort.

“What is your name little one?” I whispered in her ear

“I am San, I don’t know anything, I didn’t even know my name before the letter. What is going on?” she spoke with such haste that her words slurred together as if she had drunken a whole bottle of wine in one go. I placed my hand on her back and rubbed it around in circles to relax the tension she carried in her posture.

“I don’t know anything either,” I said, “We will figure this out altogether, wont we?” I gave piercing glances at my companions, as if to say I would beat them so hard they would forget their names again, if they didn’t allow San reassurance.

“definitely”

“100%”

“If we must”

Came the voices from the opposite side of the room. I hoisted myself up and walked to the pieces of paper in the middle of the floor. All the words were in Japanese. I looked around for a sentence of English but couldn’t find a word. Ni crouched down next to me and smiled down at the floor,

“I presume again that I am the only one who can read Japanese, well then.” He picked up the piece of paper and began to read it allowed

“Round 1, I dare you to climb the walls of this room and grab the scroll from the top hand corner”

Everyone looked at each other in amazement, so this was a game of truth or dare. After a few minutes of silence, digesting the information, it was decided that Yon was the best for the job. He went to the side of the room and pressed his hands against the wall and started to edge himself up. A few times the sweat on his hands gave way to a slip, however, he managed to hoist himself up to the top and sit on the ledge which bordered the room. With his gigantic hands, he fumbled around and picked up a tiny scroll which was held together with a small red ribbon.

“That wasn’t so bad,” he cried down.

Unexpectedly, a panel from the floor opened up beneath Ichi’s and he frail body fell through, with a terrifying shriek she disappeared, and her cry stopped. I rushed towards the large chunk missing from the floor to find her and help her out of the abyss. When I peered down to find out why her scream had ended so abruptly, her body lay crippled and pierced by two foot long metal spikes. Her dark brown eyes looked up at me, her mouth had been torn through by the point of a skewer, so the crimson blood leaked from her oozing throat. I stifled a sob; I couldn’t let San see this. I gestured for Yon over to help me place the panel down again, the look in his eyes was painful to look at, like pools of souls screaming for help.

“I thought I completed the task,” Yon whimpered, “this is all my fault, I should have done it quicker, I didn’t know there would be a time limit.” I gave him a hug to tell him it wasn’t his fault, but I know that wouldn’t mean anything.

Ni now had the second piece of paper,

“Round 2, I dare you to tell your deepest secret”

Everyone looked at each other. There was only one problem. No one remembered anything. San chirped in for the first time and suggested that she might give it a go. Yon gave me a frightened look, we both suspected that this might be a bad idea, but we had no other choice.

San knelt down on the floor and said in a timid voice, “My deepest secret is I do not believe in death. I believe that there is a God up there who will grant us life eternal, and I am not afraid of my rebirth.” She glanced up into by eyes and I knew what she had done. Even though our memories had been stripped, our faith remained, and this was what she hadn’t told anyone.

Ni began to crack a smile, when a chunk of the ceiling fell down on top of him and in a flash all that remained was a slab of stone and a grey hand half peeping out. I couldn’t contain my scream this time, I yelped as I saw another one of my friends die before my eyes.

We had done what it had asked, why isn’t it working?

Attached to the top of the rock was another note. Ni was the only one who could speak Japanese, their death certificates might as well be signed already. San lay on the floor crying into her hands, but I had no time to comfort her as I wasn’t going to lose another one.

I took the note and started comparing it to the pieces of paper on the ground, I could de-code it the old fashioned way.

“Final Round, I dare you to kill yourself”

As the words left my lips my hand slapped my mouth shut. This couldn’t be happening. I closed my eyes and tried to remain calm, I opened them to find Yon on the top of the ledge again, this time with a long piece of cloth ripped from his shirt tied in a loop.

“Get down from there”, I cried.

“I wont let you two die, I couldn’t save the others, but that girl is too young, and you need to take care of her” he whimpered from above.

And with that, he let go of the ledge and when I looked up again he was gone. San looked at me, she knew what he had done for her, and she felt the blame weighing on her young shoulders.

Then, a tiny hole opened up in the wall, I screamed, but I was too late. The bullet came zooming out of the hole and it ripped right through San’s chest and through to the other side of the wall. I rushed over to her and held her dying body in my arms.

“I am scared,” she said, “I am scared of death, I don’t want to die” she began to weep and so did I. San’s last dying moments were spent in sorrow as I couldn’t conjure any words of comfort and she died in pain.

A voice crept out of the walls and filled the room.

“You have one the game, now you get the truth. You were all named after the Japanese numbers, Ichi, Ni, San, Yon and Go, in this order you should have played, in this order you should have died. Therefore, the only way to survive is to play on your turn, which all failed to do. Now it is your dare…

Level 2 Round 1: I dare you to play the next game!”