Let's play a game

“I can’t sleep, I must not sleep.” Jim said, drinking another cup of coffee. “I feel it’s gaze form the dark.”

“let’s play a game.” A deep corrosive voice came from the dark wardrobe in his room. He quickly shut the door to block the source of sound. “You can’t hide forever.” The sound now came from underneath his bed. It made Jim run off to the living room and quiver while sitting on the couch.

Jim’s consciousness was fading in and out as he tried to fight off the sleep for the third day in the row. “Must… not… sleep.” Jim said as his body caved into his exhaustion.

         Jim awoke and looked around, he was no longer in his living room, he was no longer anywhere where he has been. “Welcome, Jimmy.” He heard the voice again. “What do you want?” Jimmy exclaimed. “|I just want to play a game.” A figure showed up from behind him.

The creature looking down on Jim looked human, but everything about ‘Him’ seemed off. The smile was crooked, movements looked like a puppet on strings, only his eyes seemed human and full of pain, sorrow, and fear.

“What kind of game?” Jim tried to sound sure, but the tremble in his voice gave his fear away. “It’s a simple game.” He lifted his crooked arm in a strange movement to show and reveal a path leading into the dark. “Just walk this road and reach the other side. If you do that, you win this game, Jimmy.” Jim looked at the path. It was a straight simple dirt road leading to nowhere. “That’s all?” The grin on the ‘man’s’ face grew. “That’s all.”

Jim got up on his feet and walked over to the starting line of the path. “How will this work?” The thing walked up to him. “Simple. When you cross the line, the game starts. There is no time limit and no limit on tries.” Jim looked back at the road. “so long as you keep going and only your legs touch the ground, you’ll be fine, if anything else touches the ground, you will have to start it all over and the difficulty will increase.” “Difficulty?” “You’ll see when you start.” Jim took a deep breath and stepped forward.

He didn’t feel anything happen, relieved, Jim started to walk onward. Each step he made, he felt wary. Even though nothing happened, each step felt harder than before till a sudden short and sharp pain came from his head. “Ouch!” he exclaimed as he saw a single hair fall to the ground. “What the?” ‘He just smiled and didn’t say a word to Jim.

Jim slowly moved forward, each step feeling his hair being pulled out one at a time from his head. The further Jim went the faster the hair pulling went up to a moment where they were pulled out in patches with some skin still attached to them. He pressed onwards, tears filling his eyes as he grunted in pain. Why?” “It’s just part of the game. Just walking down a path, wouldn’t be fun.” An evil and dark laugh echoed in his head. The voice no longer coming from the puppet human, but from inside his head. “And this is but the beginning.”

He pushed onward, the ripping of his hair and skin increasing with each step he made. “Where does it all come from.” He yelled. He reached out to the top of his head to see what is left, but to his confusion, each time a patch was ripped out, a new one would grow in its place almost instantly. “What? How?” “This is a game…” the creature said. “… wouldn’t be fun if you just died from bleeding out. No, Jimmy, as long as you keep going and keep standing, you’re going to be fine.” Jim felt the grin he didn’t even see. He could hear the malice in its words.

He pushed onward, more and more flesh started to rip from his body. Patches flew off from his head, arms, legs, and face. His screams echoed the empty place. “You’re almost there. Just few more hundred meters.” His salty tears would touch the freshly ripped patches fuelling the pain even more.

“Listen, Jimmy, you can make this all go away, just give up.” Through the pain of his skin peeling off and regenerating back, Jim pushed through. “What will happen if I give up?” The creature standing next to him leaned in close. “I’ll take your life and soul.” Jim Gritted his teeth and resumed going. “Fuck you!” Evil laugh echoed once more. “I knew you were going to be a fighter. I’ll enjoy breaking you.”

Ten minutes passed and the pain and damage increased to new hights. Large pieces of skin and flesh are being ripped away each step. Bones in his arms are breaking with loud cracks. “I didn’t expect you to last this long.” “I… figu… red it … out.” The puppet man lifted an eye. “What did you figure out?” “Trial … of … flesh.” Each word filled with pain. Each word forced out through all the pain and suffering.

“Trail of flesh. Not exactly, but you are close. This is called ‘Path of pain’. This is meant to teardown people physically. Most of the people fail this task. They fall once or twice, and they surrender to the pain. There are those who pass on first try.” The voice rose in volume. “But there was this one guy…” enthusiasm could be heard in the evil voice. “… he fell down five time. Each time the pain got stronger and stronger, but he never gave up till he finished the ‘Path of pain’.”

The black end of the road was close by. That was the only thing that held Jim together. “Oh, so close.” A sudden snap of his shoulder brought Jim down to one knee. “Oh, are you going to fall?” another snap, Jim keeled over and fell on both his knees. “You were so close.” Jim rested his hands on his legs. “Just give in.” more and more snaps. Pain surging through his body. “Yes, just sit and crumble right here.”

Suddenly a Jim screamed at the top of his lungs. “So, finally the pain overtakes you?” “No.” He lifted his leg to upright position with the help of his hands. “I can do this!” He exclaimed with a roar.

Slowly He rose back up. “I’m… so… close.” He pushed onwards. Step by step he got closer to the end. Laughter filled the air again. “Wow, you’re amazing. All this pain, broken bones, missing fleshes, but you just keep going.” 20 steps away. “I really didn’t think you’ll make it.” Fifteen steps left. Suddenly his leg broke. “AAGH…” he exclaimed. “So close.” Jim fell forward, pushing his hand towards the ground. At the last moment, he forced his knee forward and into the ground. Loud scream escaped Jim’s mouth. “OOH! Nice move, but can you get back up?” he slowly got up once more. “ten more steps to go.” Jim dragged his leg with the shattered knee while he pushed forward. “Five… Four… Thee…Two… One…” Pain and exhaustion overtook Jim and he fell through the black veil.

The pain he felt was gone. The breaks and rips he had disappeared. “I…Is it done?” “The path of pain? Yes, the game? Not so much.” Jim gathered himself together and got up from the ground. “You said I’d be done if I reached the end of the path.” A low chuckle sounded. “That is true, but…” he snapped his fingers and a bright path of light lit up, leading deeper into the void. “The path goes on.”

Jim fell back to the ground filled with dread of his current predicament. “Oh, don’t look so glum. This path is not as painful as the previous. It also has a lot easier rule.” Jim looked up at the thing pretending to be human. “What is this road?” “I like to call it ‘trip down memory lane’.” Jim looked down the crooked road. “All you have to do is…” suddenly he turned his voice mockingly high pitched. “…‘Follow the yellow brick road’.” “And that’s it?” “More or less. Just make sure to not step off of it. We wouldn’t want you to get lost in memories.”

Jim started off. The walk felt light and easy after getting through the hellish path of pain. Unknowing what this place will try, he pushed onward cautiously.

He could hear voices come from the void. Jim recognised some of them from his childhood, some lost in the memories of years gone by. Jim could see images of himself playing with friends in the playground. All this brought him calm mind and joy. “This is nice.”

As he went onwards, he saw all his break ups, all the times he said goodbye to his friends for the last time. He saw all the pain he had caused others with his choices. Each step, each memory filled him with sadness and sorrow.

He still pressed onward. Tears streaming down his face. “This path doesn’t stop many people.” The voice said coldly yet calmly. “This brings out sadness and pain within you. To some people this helps, but to some, this is more painful than the path of pain.” The voice drifted off. “I’ll only see you at the end, if you make it to there.” And just like that, Jim was alone.

He marched on. Quickening his step. “This is a simple test.” He said to himself to fill in the silence between the memories. As he had reached a halfway point, he heard a voice, a memory he dreaded to hear. “Daddy?” Jim looked to the side and saw her. It was his daughter. She was barely three years of age in this memory. He saw her run towards an image of him almost ten years ago.

“No.” Jim teared up as another image passed by. This time it was his wife laying in bet together with him. “I love you.” Jim from the memory said and his wife just smiled at him and gave him a kiss. Jim saw the picnic the three of them would go on each month. Jim looked at them, eagerly wanting to join them, but he fought the urge and forced himself to move forward,

The deeper Jim went the harder it got. More memories of his wife and daughter. More sweet memories of his past. After walking for a while, a long vivid memory came out. It was the three of them in a car. “No, not this memory.” He said stopping. As he stopped, the memory stopped with him. Jim looked at the image of his wife and daughter, wondering if just staying here would be worth the loss of his soul.

After looking at it for an unknown amount of time, the image started to disappear. “No, Jim took a step forward and the memory came back into high definition, but it moved forward.” The image of the three of them getting into the car and onto the road.

Jim moved slowly, paying attention to each scene, each memory of his loved ones. Each step bringing closer and closer the calamity Jim already knew. He tried to speed up his walk to try and not see what is to come, but it did not help at all. As the end of the memory came, the memory slowed down. He got to see in slow motion the crash that took them from him. The memory ended, crushing Jim’s spirit as he crumbled down to the ground.

“Daddy?” a voice came from the side. “What now?” he said quietly through his sobs. “Daddy?” He lifted his head. He saw his daughter looking straight at him. “Dolly, is that you?” She ran up on the road and hugged him. Jim returned the hug tenfold. “I missed you so much little doll.” He hugged her tight. “Then why did you kill me, Daddy?”

He backed off from his daughter as she twisted in his sight. “Daddy?” She kept going and going. Jim got up and started to run down the pathway. “Why did you kill us, Jim.” Form of his wife came from the void. “I didn’t do it.” He kept saying as he ran down the path. “It was an accident.” He kept running. The forms of his wife and daughter filled the void around Jim.

“No, please stop.” He kept saying as the ghosts closed in. “It should’ve been you.” Jim head his wife say. “We never loved you. You were a disappointment since you were born.” His parents had been added to the mix.

Jim just kept running faster and faster. “It should’ve been you who died in the crash.” Voices of his friend and family flooded the void. “You killed your own family” Jim could hear his mother say. The tears in Jim’s eyes never stopped flooding. The pain in his heart growing with each voice, each word and each sound.

“No! No! No!” He closed his eyes and kept running faster and faster. Jim kept running and running, more and more voices and ghosts joined in. Every voice pressing more and more on his mental state. Then, suddenly, his mind broke and his eyes went blank. The ghosts all slowly went away into the void.

“You managed to reach the end.” Jims eyes were empty as the thing talked to him. “Am I done now?” “You’ve won this game.” Jim fell on the ground. “You’ve passed the trial, walked the paths. I congratulate you.” It placed a hand on Jims’s head. “I’ll return you to your home.”

A month later, Jim’s mind still hadn’t truly recovered. While Jim was getting better, the game had broken him in many different ways. He felt like his heart and soul, even if not taken by the devil, were missing.

He laid down on his bed, prepared to sleep through another night, till hr awoke in a red room. He heard the same evil voice as from before. “Hello, Jimmy. It’s time for game 2.”