The One Who Survived

Amber watched as Jessi was carted away, her body covered with a white sheet. What had happened? The rest of the contestants stared at each other in unmasked horror. Jessi was dead.

         The host of the contest, The One Who Survived, glanced at them all and smiled. “As you can see, you now have a better motivation to win the contest.”

         Amber stared at him as a shiver went down her spine. “What do you mean? We were told that Jessi’s death was an accident.”

         The host, Winton Akerman, turned his steely gray eyes on her. “Is that what you were told? That is false. I suppose now that you have seen what has happened to Jessi, I can explain this to you. The show is simple. There are a series of challenges. All you have to do is not lose. If you do, you die.”

         The contestants all gasped in unison. Then they all started talking at once.

         “What?”

         “No one told me about this.”

         “You said the contestants would be eliminated, not killed!”

         Winton smiled again, and Amber noticed for the first time that it was a sick sort of smile. “You are right. The contestants are eliminated.” He sliced a finger across his throat. “Eliminated.”

         One of the other contestants, Darrell, spoke up. “You can’t kill people like that. It’s murder and it’s illegal. My father will not be pleased about this. He is a lawyer and will have you arrested.”

         “Ah, no,” Winton said. “You won’t be able to tell him anything. I have taken all of your phones and made sure that there are no ways for you to get a message out to people.”

         Another contestant, Emily said, “My daddy won’t be happy with you, mister. I am leaving.” She started toward the door, but Winton pressed a button and the door, and all of the other doors and windows, locked. Emily grabbed the door and was shocked. “Ouch!” She yanked her hand back to her side and glowered at Winton.

         Winton spoke again, as if nothing had happened. “Good. Now that you understand everything, you may all go to the kitchen. There shall be no more challenges for you tonight, but I expect you all to be back here tomorrow morning.” He started to walk away, but he stopped and turned around. “Oh, by the way, if by chance you are not here tomorrow morning, it will result in an immediate eliminated.” He repeated his earlier motion. “Just so you remember exactly what I mean by eliminated.” Then he turned and walked away, whistling a tune.

         Amber turned and traded uneasy glances with the other contestants.

         Emily: The rich girl who was forced by her father to join because he wanted her to earn her own money.

         Darrell: The football player who needed money for college tuition.

         Jessi: Now dead. A sweet girl who had wanted to use the money for charity.

         Cooper: A young man who wanted the money to start his business.

 And Amber. All she had wanted was to join the contest to win the $30,000 for a new car, plus to pay some of her bills. But now, she was facing the risk of death, they all were, if she lost. Her stomach clenched and bile rose up her throat. She forced it down.

         Emily burst into sobs. “W-what a-rre we gonnna do?”

         For some reason, they all looked at Amber. She blinked. “I don’t know.”

         Darrell spoke up with his deep voice. “We can escape.”

         Cooper shook his head and a lock of his brown hair fell onto his brow. “We can’t. You saw what happened when the door was touched. Besides, Winton clearly does not want us to escape, so it wouldn’t be easy.”

         Darrell glared at Cooper and took a step forward. “So, you expect us to just sit here twiddling our thumbs while Winton murders us.” He pushed a finger into Cooper’s chest. “I for one will not stand for it. I can figure out a way to muscle myself out of here.”

         Emily sniffed and looked up too. “Don’t f-forget m-me. I’m too valuable to die like this.”

         Cooper shook his head. “I’m not suggesting that we just let him kill us, but we have to think of something and not be reckless. Winton already killed Jessi, and you don’t want to be the next one.”

         Amber spoke up. “Either way, one of us will be the next one tomorrow. We don’t really have time to plan.” She was tempted to cry along with Emily, but she didn’t.

         Cooper patted her arm. “Let’s just all go eat, or try to. And then we will figure something out before tomorrow.”

***

         However, as the next day arose, and they were once again gathered in the main room, they had not come up with anything.

         Darrell looked at Cooper. “So, what’s your plan, smart guy? Because we are still here and probably about to have a challenge that will result in one of our deaths.”

         At his words and the reminder of what was about to happen, Emily started crying, Cooper paled, and Amber clenched her shaking hands.

         Cooper shook his head. “I’m sorry. I could not think of anything.”

         Darrell looked at him in disgust. “Of course, you couldn’t.” He took a menacing step closer to Cooper, his bulky frame towering over Cooper’s leaner one. His next words were almost whispered. “Just know this, I will not be the one to die. I have a career ahead of me and I will not let you, any one you, get in the way of that.”

         Cooper stiffened. “Don’t act like none of us have a life left to live. I have plenty of plans for my life and so do the rest of us. So, don’t you think-”

         The rest of Coopers sentence was cut off because Winton walked into the room. He spotted Darrell and Cooper standing toe-to-toe and smiled. “Hey, don’t go killing each other before the challenges begin. That’s my job.” Then he laughed, like the sick, cruel maniac that he was.

         Darrell and Cooper backed up and stepped beside Emily and Amber, Darrell on Emily’s side, and Cooper standing next to Amber. He grabbed her hand and squeezed. “We will figure out something,” he whispered in her ear. Amber nodded, but still felt dread curdle in her stomach. Still, with Cooper beside her, she felt a little bit stronger.

         Selfishly, she hoped that she and Cooper would both survive whatever challenge Winton had in store for them. But then she remembered that only one of them would live to see the end of the contest. 

         Winton stepped in front of them all and regarded them with a look of glee. “Shall we begin our next challenge?” He didn’t wait for them to answer before continuing. “Follow me.” He gave them all a look that told them that they had no choice but to follow him.

         Darrell walked directly behind Winton, Emily next, Amber, and then Cooper taking the back. They walked past several locked doors and through narrow corridors. Winton stopped at one door. He opened it to reveal a sparsely lit room, and beyond that stood four black tunnels. Amber stepped back; a fear of the dark she had not even known she had coming forth in full force.

         Cooper laid a hand on her back. “It’s okay.” They both knew that it wasn’t, but she nodded nonetheless.

         Winton stopped. “You will each pick one of the tunnels. Three of them are completely safe, but one.” He smiled. “One has a deep hole in it. Both the unsafe tunnel and the placement of that hole will be unknown to you.”

         Amber stiffened. How could this man be so cruel? Now one of them was being forced to walk into their own death. She couldn’t do this, But, what choice did she have? What choice did any of them have? None. That was the answer pure and simple.

         Darrell stepped forward. “I’m picking my first. I am not going to risk being given the last option. He stepped forward and stood at the entrance of the second one.

         “I need to pick my next,” Emily said, and the tears dripping from her eyes dared Amber or Cooper to argue. Neither of them did. She picked the fourth one.

         Cooper nudged her. “You can go next.”

         Amber shook her head. She would forever hate herself if she picked one and got him stuck with the one with the hole. For despite having known him for only a week, since all the contestants had gotten together a week before the contest, she was starting to grow attached to him. And he seemed to feel the same way.

         “Go Amber, I need you to choose next.”

         With a heavy heart, she nodded and walked to the first one, and Cooper took the third one.

         Winton spoke once they were all in their spots. “You may all walk now. And maybe you should pray that you chose wisely.”

         Emily turned to look back at him. “W-where d-do these tunnels go?”

         “Not to the outside if that’s what you are wondering. They go to another part of this mansion. Now go.”

         Amber turned and traded glances with Cooper before they all walked into their tunnels. Amber shuddered at the darkness and the thought that she might suddenly walk into a deep hole. “Don’t think, just walk,” she muttered to herself. She continued to repeat this to herself as she walked slowly down the cold and dark tunnel. Several times, she thought she was about to fall into a hole, but then she spotted a light at the end of the tunnel, literally. She let out a gasp of relief, until she realized that it meant that one of the others had not made it. She hoped that it was not Cooper. Of course, she would be sad if it was Emily or Darrell, but she cared more for Cooper.

         She finally exited the dark tunnel, no worse for the wear besides a bit of dirt from the tunnel. She turned to look and found Emily there waiting as well.

         “Y-you made it t-to?” Even though Emily had gotten out of the tunnel unscathed, she still was crying. Not that Amber blamed her, just the opposite, but it seemed as if she was crying every time Amber saw her.

         They both turned and waited for the last survivor of the day to come out. It was either Darrell or Cooper. Time seemed to stand still, at least for Amber, as a figure stepped out of the dark. It was Cooper. Amber rushed forward and hugged him. “I’m glad you survived.”

         Cooper smiled and returned the hug. Then he looked over her left shoulder and spotted Emily. He pulled back, a somber expression on his handsome face. “That means Darrell…” He trailed off and they all looked at the tunnel that Darrell had went through, but had not come out of.

         Winton popped into the room with that same smile on his face. “Good, you are all here.” His words made Amber want to hit the man. He knew that Darrell had not come out and yet he was acting like this was some fun picnic or something. “I shall see you all in two days for the next challenge. After all, you need a couple days to, well, how you spend those two days does not matter to me.” Then he was gone.

***

The next two days, they searched the mansion for an escape or for a way to communicate to the outside world, but just as Winton said, there was no escape. On the third day, they gathered in the main room, feeling dejected. Another one of them would die today and there was no way for them to avoid it. They all could only hope that they survived.

Winton walked in and explained the challenge. It was a spelling bee. Such an innocent challenge for the most sinister contest. Winton led them to a room where three contraptions stood. He then instructed them to stand on them and strapped them all in. “If you get a question right, I will move on to the next person. You get one wrong and you will be dropped into a room with a venomous snake. You will then be locked in there until…Well, I think you know what will happen next.”

Amber bit her lip. She had never been good at spelling, but then again, she never had to spell something right in order not to die. She only hoped that someone was a worse speller than her.

Emily started crying, who would have guess. Winton walked over and slapped her hard across the face. “No more of that now.” Then he stepped back. “I shall start with you.” He pointed directly at Amber.

“Your word is pseudo.”

Amber took a quick breath and her mind went blank. Pseudo. Pseudo. How was that word spelt? She wasn’t sure if she had ever heard that word before. “Can you use that in a sentence?”

Winton shook his head. “I do not have time for that. You will just have to figure that out on your own.”

A bit of sweat dripped into Amber’s eye and she blinked rapidly. “Um, pseudo.” She knew that it could not be spelled the way she thought it was, but for the life of her, she could not figure it out. She was going to die today because she could not figure out how to spell the stupid word. She looked over at Cooper, trying to tell him she was sorry with her eyes, but she noticed him mouthing something. She watched him repeat it and realized that he was telling her how to spell the word. She looked forward, hoping Winton had not caught it. “Pseudo. P-s-e-u-d-o.”

Winton stared at her for a long time. “Good. Next is Cooper.”

They all answered a few more words without anything happening. Then it came to Emily. Amber had noticed just barely that Emily’s words sounded a bit harder than hers. But she wasn’t sure. And, she didn’t care that much if it saved her and Cooper, even though she felt guilty.

“Your word is chiaroscurist.” Winton said this word with particular glee.

Emily paled. “Chiaroscurist? Um, i-is there a definition?”

Winton nodded. ‘There is, but I cannot tell you what it is.”

A silent tear trickled down her cheek. “Chiaroscurist. C-h-i-a-r-o-s-k, no, I meant, c, please, I meant-” But before she could finish, Winton pressed a button and she fell into the hole. She screamed as she made her descent and then Winton pressed the button again and the door closed.

Amber and Cooper traded horrified glances. Amber turned to Winton. “You can’t just leave her down there to die.”

Winton smiled. “I can. That is the name of the game. Well, the name of the game is The One Who Survived, but I think you get the point.” He unlatched them from the contraptions. “It would appear that you both are the final contestants. Tomorrow, we will find out who is the last man or woman breathing. Until then.” He gave a mock salute and then sauntered out of the rooming, whistling the tune he had whistled that first day.

Amber stared at Cooper. He in turn stared at her. “You know what this means.”

Cooper shook his head. “Don’t say it, Amber.”

Amber felt her eyes well up. “One of us will die tomorrow.”

Cooper repeated his gesture. “I will think of something and if I don’t, I will sacrifice myself for you.”

“No!” she yelled. “Don’t say that. You can’t. I will sacrifice myself for you. I care about you too much to let you die.”

 Cooper grabbed her hand. “But it will hurt me more if I have to live without you. We will figure this out.”

***

         Winton made them face each other before revealing the last and final challenge. His face was so gleeful that Amber had to restrain herself from attacking him. “For the last and final challenge, you shall do the work of choosing the winner for me.”

         Cooper and Amber both looked at each other and then Winton in confusion.

         “I see you are both confused.” He pulled out two daggers and handed one to each of them. “You will fight to the death. The winner, if you don’t kill each other, will be able to walk away with $30,000. Though I suppose money is the last thing you are thinking about. I am sure that you lovebirds are sad to have to fight each other, but remember your life is at stake. If you resist this challenge, you will both die. I have been looking forward to seeing this.”

         Suddenly, Amber realized something. Somehow, Winton had knew Amber and Cooper would be the last ones. Whether he had set it up or it had played into his hand, he had known. And now, he wanted them to fight each other.

         Amber glared at him, feeling a pent-up hatred. “You sick man.”

         He only laughed.

         Amber turned to face Cooper. She either had to kill him or be killed by him. She hoped her face showed an apology for what she had to do. He gave a sad head nod. She lifted the dagger, holding it for just one moment as she realized she was about to end someone’s life. Then, she turned and planted the dagger in Winton’s chest. He collapsed to the floor with a thump.

         She watched as his lifeblood leached out of his body and nearly fainted. After a moment, his breathing stopped and he was gone.

         She ran into Cooper’s arms, knocking the dagger from his hand. He held her tight. “We both survived.”

         Amber nodded, but then remembered all the contestants who died, plus Winton. “But at what cost?”