Let’s play a game: Game 2

“Hello, Jimmy.” The disgusting puppet human said. “It’s time for the second game.” “I thought there would only be the one.” The thing just smiled. “No, my boy, that was just the trial.”

As he said that, he snapped his fingers and my surroundings changed. “Welcome to the second game.” Around me I saw multiple mirrors spawn in one after another. “Compared to the previous ‘trial’ game, this will be less painful.” He said, then smirked. “But there’s a chance you’ll never leave this place.”

I looked at the mirrors, studying the infinite number of reflections coming from every direction. “What is this?” “This is just a simple maze game. You choose paths to take and try to find your way out.” He took a pause and then added. “You will be completely alone during the game. Not even I will be able to enter this game. It does pain me deeply…” He mimicked with mockery. “…But at least I will be able to watch you from the sponsor lounge.” I looked up. “…Sponsor?”

“My apologies, Jimmy, I completely forgot to explain to you the dynamic between us.” He straightened himself out and aligned the suit he was wearing. “I am Zeelganus, one of the lesser demons in the underworld. I’m going through my promotion contest along with five others in this part of the underworld.” I looked confused. “Don’t worry about that part, it doesn’t affect you in any way.” It continued. “I was to choose a representative, that would be you, and have you face these trials for me.” “Then how is this a test for you?” he chuckled. “Because, once you win, you will have proven the strength of your soul which already belongs to me from the deal you made with me” “Deal... what deal?” “Oh, I’m being called away. Good luck Jimmy.” And in a blaze of fire, he vanished from my sight.

“I guess I’ll get answers from Zeelganus after this maze.” I looked around, thinking of where to go and how to find my way out so I don’t get lost. “Remember the maze trick.” I placed a hand on the mirror to my left. “Keep to one wall, this way you have higher chance of finding the way out and less of a chance to get lost because of poor memory or poorly chosen turns.” Jim started to walk.

“This seems very calm.” I said walking slowly through the maze and trying to map at least a little bit of the maze in my head. At first, I didn’t pay it all too much attention, but after an hour within the maze, I started to think, if I am just looping through the same path over and over again. “This is getting worrisome.” I started to look for something to tell me if I’ve gone here before, but to no avail. But as I looked closer into the mirrors, I noticed it.

One of the reflections was off. Even though it was many reflections off, Jim could feel that something wasn’t right. The way it moved, the way it looked and even the delay between the reflection’s timing felt somehow off. “I’m probably just imagining things.” Jim tried to make himself believe, but as he moved onward, Jim always kept an eye on the off reflection.

“I think I’ve made this turn before.” Jim said to himself. “Maybe I can somehow mark where I’ve been.” He checked his pockets for anything to mark where he’s gone and where he’s come from. He thought for a bit, and recalled he had his pocketknife. Jim pulled it out and scratched an arrow showing the path he had chosen. “This will work.” Just like magic, once the words were spoken, the arrow disappeared, and mirrors seemed perfect once more. “Or not…”

Astonished by the outcome of his test, he stood gone in his thought of what to do onwards. “I wonder if it only fixes the damage done.” Jim said and poked his finger with the knife to let a drip of blood come out. Smearing it on the mirror wall, Jim looked and waited to see the outcome. After waiting for a few minutes. “I guess, anything that doesn’t damage it, will work.”

Jim started advancing once more, adding a blood smudge to the mirrors whenever he makes a turn to remember where he has gone. This helped Jim realise if he had been walking in a circle or not. Each time he’d meet a path marked with blood, he would choose one of the other paths and if all are smudged, he’d walk backwards and look for the first path without any mark.

“I’ve been walking around for almost four hours.” He made another fresh turn. “I keep leaving the smudges, and I still feel like I’m walking round and round.” Ge looked back from where he had come. The misaligned reflection flashed before his eyes once more. It seemed as if it ran away from the reflection of the blood smudge Jim left before.

“That thing again.” Jim looked closer. “I thought Zeelganus said I was here alone.” The deeper he looked at the reflection, the more normal it seemed. “The more I look at it, the less weird it looks.” While lost in thought, Jim saw a flash of dark in the corner of his eye on a different mirror. He rapidly turned. “What.” Then another flash on a different mirror. “What’s happening?” each time Jim turned to look at the flash, it would be gone and reappear on a different mirror.

“W-W-What’s happening?” The paranoia increasing with each second. “Is there anything actually there?” Stress levels increased within Jim. “Am I just going crazy?” Jim started to turn around with panic. He collapsed to the floor.

“Ha, ha, ha, ha.” A laugh came from an inhumanly wide mouth. “Guess your representative isn’t such a big deal.” The grey-haired boy human puppet looked at Zeelganus. “It’s not over yet.” Zeelganus answered with a smile on his face. “Get up Jimmy boy, you’re making me look bad.” He thought to himself.

Jim laid on the ground for better half of the hour. “What is this. What is this.” He would mumble to himself the whole time. “This can’t be real, this can’t be real.” For as long as Jim laid down on the floor, he noticed there was no sound, no flashes and he didn’t feel anything else around himself.

“This is strange.” He stopped cowering and sat up on the ground. “No matter where I look right now.” He turned his head around in all directions. “I don’t see the flash, I don’t see the incorrect reflection.” Jim slowly rose to his feet. After getting up off his knees and around two thirds of his full height, he saw the flash again, and it made him drop again.

Jim started to rise even slower, stopping right before the moment he saw the flash. He slowly extended his legs. He saw the flash once more, but he didn’t drop this time. “Oh my god.” He rose to his feet and slapped himself in the face. “The flashes were just the reflections of multiple smudges I’ve left on the mirrors around the maze. I only saw them in my peripherals because I couldn’t identify them, they are always there.” He turned around to see the lines crossing almost all the mirrors at the same angle.

Jim broke out in laughter. “I’m not going insane.” He exhaled a breath of relief. Then his Eyes darted towards the reflection that never fit in. “But what is that?” He wondered. Jim resumed moving onwards. “I’ll have to keep an eye on it.”

A loud deep and echoing voice could be heard even in the maze. “I told you it isn’t over yet.” Zeelganus said. “And how is your representative doing?” He looked into the grey haired mans maze. “Seems like she’s given up.” The grey puppet grunted. “Worthless human.” “Maybe next time, find someone with more nerve than someone who barely counts as an adult.” Zeelganus mocked his ‘friend’.

Jim walked through the maze, but each step seemed to not lead anywhere, because no matter what path he took, no matter what he did, he never felt any advancement. He sat back on the ground and then laid down on his stomach. “The smudge effect makes me think, maybe there’s something else that’s just not right.”

Jim looked around, judging each and every reflection. “Nothing seems wrong in the reflections.” He saw the reflection that was off once again. “Maybe if I track back to what is breaking the reflection.” ‘No, no, no.’ Jim heard a soft voice. “What’s that?” ‘No.’ “It’s coming from below, no from…” He turned towards the disrupted reflection.

Jim reached out to the reflection. “How do I find you?” He slowly rose his hand. He counted first how many hand reflections he saw before it reached the off reflection. He took few turns that he remembered and tried it again. If reflections got more, he would retract and try different turns, if it got less, he would remember the count and do it again.

“It’s here?” He said confused. “But there’s nothing here.” Jim looked around, making sure he’s in the right place. “This is the place.” He laid down on the floor. Looking around, Jim noticed a bend in the mirror down the hallway. “That’s something.”

Upon a closer look, the bend in the mirror was larger than expected. It bent inwards. “There’s a hole here.” Jim went down the hole just to come out on another layer of the mirror maze.

“What?” He looked around, trying to find some other reflection or optical illusion he could see if he knew he had to look for, but what he found was a woman collapsed. Jim ran over to her, grabbing her. “Are you alright?” The young lady turned around to look into Jim’s eyes. “Who?...”

“Guess your boy gave my girl a boost.” Grey haired puppet said. “What can I say Beelgano, you need all the help you can get.” Zeelganus said with a sneer.

“It’s alright, I’m human, just like you, I think you’re human at least.” Jim said. “What happened to you?” The woman pointed at the mirror. “That thing, it’s always there.” He looked at the mirror.

A small shadow could be seen at the far end of the reflections. The shadow seemed to be wavy. Jim laid down on the ground. “What are you doing?” The girl asked, still slightly frightened. Jim rose his hand slowly. “I’m trying to check how far the image is.” She shivered. “That thing that’ been following me this whole time?” Jim looked up at her. “Following?”

“After that thing, whatever it may be, left me here, I started to wander this place. Around thirty minutes in, I noticed the Thing in the mirrors following me.” “Following? Are you sure? I thought I was being followed before, but it was just an optical illusion.” Woman laughed. “Optical illusion. I made sure it was real was the first thing I did.” “How?” “I walked away from it, till I was a fair distance away. After I made sure I was quite far away, then I ran at it as fast as I could…” She stopped for a moment. “… I did hit the mirrors a few times, but that doesn’t matter, when I got closer, I saw it move.”

Jim looked back at it. “How close did you get?” She shrugged. “Five hundred meters, one hundred meters. Hard to say with mirrors everywhere.” “What if we try to close in slowly?” She shook her head. “I don’t know how it does it, but he moved back when you’re not looking.” “Have you seen anything else strange in here?” She shook her head. “Some minor illusion caused by me breaking down from being alone, I’m not good at being alone.” “Well, now you don’t have to be alone.” Jim smiled. “Name’s Jim by the way.” He reached out a hand. She shook it. “Janice. Pleasure to meet you in a place no pleasure to be in.” “Like wise.” Jim smiled.

Jim spent half an hour looking around and walking with Janice. They filled in some silence with idle chatter to save some of their sanity.

“Any ideas, idea man?” Janice mocked him jokingly. “Very few.” “Oh really? Like what?” “Two ideas mainly.” He looked back at the shadow. “One, depending on where we turn, the shadow, or whatever you want to call it, either closes in or moves away.” Janice looked back as well. The shadow does seem closer than before. “What’s the other?” Jim smiled. “There is a light draft coming in. It can be felt either low to the ground or high on the ceiling of the maze on each cross.”

Janie looked at Jim amazed. “Wow, how did you figure all that out?” Jim made an awkward embarrassed smiled. “I… I’ve played way too many computer games, so I tend to see little things… Easter eggs and such.” Janice laughed. “Out of all the things, Hell’s game is being figured out like just another computer game.” Jim joined in with her laughter. “So then, Jim. Are we going towards the draft, or the creature?” Jim looked at her. “Well, that’s the third thing I just figured out.” “What exactly?” “They the closer we get to the draft, the closer we get to the creature.”

Carefully and slowly, Janice and Jim closed in on the mystery shadow and the draft coming in from somewhere. “So, Beelgano, how does it feel to need MY representative is saving your ass?” Beelgano laughed. “He’s helping not at all. She would’ve done it all on her own. Your guy is just piggy backing off of my Janice.” Zeelganus scoffed. “You’re full of gorgons shit and you know it.”

Around an hour after deciding to move forward, Jim and Janice had gotten few tens of meters from their goal. “What do you think the shadow will end up being?” Jim asked. “I think it will be another one of those creatures to play a disgusting trick on us again.” Jim stepped forward carefully. “I’m expecting it to just be a door outside and shadow be someone forgetting to close the door.”

As they made the second to last turn, they heard a loud growl. “What was that?” “I don’t know.” Jim bent around the corner. He saw what was making the sound.

What Jim saw was a decrepit creature with twelve legs going out in many different directions. The flesh was rotting away, the three heads each looking at different place. Hot steam coming from its mouths, acidic saliva dripping to the ground. “What do you see?” Janice asked. Jim walked back. “You don’t want to know.”

“So, a disgusting demonic beast is where the breeze and shadow is coming from?” Janice said. “Feel like I was right about what we’ll find.” Jim looked back to make sure about the beast once more. “I don’t think that he’s supposed to be there.” “Why?” Jim pointed at the mirrors all around. “The thing has no reflection. Why would they put a horrifying creature like that in and not show it to us for their entertainment?” Janice thought for a moment. “You’re right. What will we do about it?” Jim shrugged. “No idea, never been good at dealing with dogs, or first boss encounters.” Janice just shook her head. “Inside people.”

Janice looked around. “Are there more than one entrance to that area?” Jim nodded. “Two more paths that take us there. Why?” Janice walked backwards. “Can you mark the path over there somehow?” Jim pulled out his pocketknife. “Yes.”

Jim returned after marking with blood the turns needed to get to the other side. “What now?” Janice smiled. “Now we piss it off and run like hell.” “What?” But before He could comprehend all that, Janice had gone and thrown the dagger Jim was holding at the Cerberus.

Cerberus ran after Janice. It’s claws scratching against all of the mirror walls making it slip. It ran pass Jim with barely paying any attention, just a quick bit from on of the heads went towards his direction, not close enough to even startle the man. “Janice!” he shouted after? “Just get out and make sure we can leave, I’ll deal with the puppy.”

Jim did as he was told. He went towards the door. Behind the door, he saw a world filled with darkness and stone. Creatures slaving along, moving piles of different rocks and things Jim could not identify. “I guess this is hell.”

Zeelganus popped out of nowhere. “Now, now. Looky here, you’ve made it.” “This, this is the exit? The end of the game?” “Well… yes and no.” Jim looked questionably at the thing. “This was the exit to Janice game, you kind of found a bug in the game. Now, come.” Jim was about to leave. “What will happen if I come out?” “The door will close, and you will have been the winner of the selection. Only one winner per section.” “No.” Zeelganus dashed in. “I’m not asking!” Jim looked up. “You can’t kill me, you need me. And I’m not leaving without Janice.”

“Jim!” Janice Called from behind him. He turned to see her running at him, smile on her face and the two-meter-tall horrific beast charging behind her. “Come faster, the door will close.” She sped up and jumped, tackling Jim as both crashed to the ground outside the maze. The large Cerberus jumped after them, but as its front half got through, the door closed shut and cut it in half.

As they hugged and relaxed, a small red fat bat looking thing popped out. “Two at once? This is a first. I guess there are no real rules. Anyway, welcome victors, ‘WELCOME TO THE PURGATORY’.”