Teela Robertson- 1st Place

It’s dark, why is it so dark? Where even am I? How did I get here? Why does it smell like old pennies? Why can’t I move my arms?

A million thoughts raced through my head as I opened my eyes to find myself in some sort of large box. My hands were somehow stuck above my head, it felt like they were in handcuffs, clasped tightly around my wrists.  I groggily move my head around to look about me, trying to adjust my eyes to the darkness.  As I moved around, what little I could move around, I started to hear a whirling sound. It wasn’t loud, per se, but in the silence of the space I was in I could hear it clearly. Suddenly, from an unknown source, a projection lit up the side of the box I was facing. At first, it seemed to be just static you see on a TV, but after a second, it cleared up, and when it did I wished for the static again. 

Now, I’m what you consider a fan of horror. I’ve seen many horror movies, learned many horror facts, and love basically anything scary. Classic horror like Dracula? I’m down. The new Halloween Kills movie? Yes, please. I know horror movies. So when I saw what was being projected, I didn’t know how to feel. 

Hello Salem, I want to play a game. You see, you’re the type of person that gives me a headache. You are indecisive, loud, have a very low pain tolerance, and have an irrational fear of blood. With your knowledge of movies that are perceived to be horror, I’m sure you know what is going to happen. Today we will put all of those fears and flaws to bed. As you’ve already discovered, you are in a box with your arms trapped above you. What you don’t know, is that the box you are in is hanging above a bed of nails. Rusty nails. When this recording ends the bottom of the box you are in will open, dropping your feet onto a platform right before the bed of nails. You will have to maneuver yourself across the bed of nails, spanning 23 feet long and 12 feet wide. There is no straight path to walk across, you will have to make decisions to take different paths. You will have to look down the entire time to see where you are going and to decide what path to take. Each decision you make will have different results. Some good, some bad. Your decisions have to be quick, and can not be reconsidered. There will be blood, and you will have to see yourself bleed. This is the first and second part of your journey to rehabilitation.  For the third part of your test, you will have to learn to be quiet. In the box you are in are sound sensors. Sound sensors that will be triggered when your voice goes above a certain level. Though in other situations this may appear simple, in this situation it is not. People, including you, tend to let out loud noises when they experience pain. And you will be experiencing pain. There’s a reason why your hands are bound. Your arms will move along with you as you progress across the bed of nails. Around each of your fingers are rings, rings that are connected to the sound sensors. Each time you activate those sound sensors, a ring will shoot out the hidden blade. A blade so sharp it will instantly cut off your finger. This of course will trigger more pain. It is in your best interest to stay as quiet as you can. All of this can potentially result in a lot of blood loss. You will have to get across the bed of nails, with as many fingers as you can hold on to, in order to reach the key to get yourself out of the box. Live or Die Salem, it’s up to you. 

The projection goes static again and then turns completely off. I heard the sound of metal hinges squeaking and let out a small gasp as the floor underneath my legs gave way. My feet make a loud “thump” as they land on a wooden plank of some sort. I think I can feel my shoulder tear. I slightly bite my lip at the uncomfortable feeling. 

Don’t panic Salem, don’t panic. You’ve seen all of the “Saw” movies, even the “Jigsaw” movie. You’ve got this. The directions were straightforward. Don’t scream, make quick decisions, always look down.

I look down to see myself on a wooden platform, and right in front of where my feet are, I see nails. The most rusty, dirty, old nails I have ever seen. I mentally cringe. Just one prick on those nails and an infection is sure to happen. I take a deep breath and test my fingers to see if there was actually some sort of rings on them. I mash my fingers together and hear the tiny clink of two objects hitting each other. 

Well, at least I know the puppet was telling the truth. 

I look back down and whimper, dreading the pain and torture that was yet to come. A part of me figured that if I just stay here perfectly still, without moving and talking. Then eventually someone would come and find me. But the other part of me reminded myself that that could take weeks, and I could be dead by then. And who knows if there was some sort of time limit I had for this thing. I knew my only real option was to beat this trap and to free myself. I’ve seen enough horror movies to know that no one is going to save me anytime soon. So I squeeze my eyes shut. grit my teeth and I take the first step.

Nothing. I feel nothing. No prick, no pain, no urge to scream. I open my eyes to look down, shocked and wondering if I actually took a step. I’m standing on the nails, but they aren’t poking me. It’s like that trick where someone lays down on the bed of nails. 

I’m confused. No one impersonating Jigsaw would go through all this trouble just for it to be a trick. I don’t trust this at all, not one bit. 

Hello again Salem. You are on the right track. You were forced to make a choice and you stuck by it. But this will be only one of few choices without drawbacks. From this point forward, there will be pain. The amount of pain you feel will be determined by which choice you pick. Your journey continues Salem, make your next choice. 

I mentally scream at the situation I’m in. I’ve always loved horror movies and imagined what I would do if I was actually in one. I’ve even thought up my own Saw traps, contemplated what I would do in traps and bad situations. My thoughts sometimes are just picturing myself in horror movies. But I never imagined I would actually be in this situation. 

Breath Salem. Breath. You can do this. Just take a step. 

I took one step forward and I felt it. The rusty nails punctured my skin and tissue and went straight into my muscle. I let out a loud pitched scream. The pain foreign and unwelcome to me. As I scream out I feel a sharp pain in my pinkie finger. I quickly bite my tongue and swallow my scream. I look up just in time to see the top of my severed pinkie finger fall onto my face and into my open mouth. I gag and accidentally inhale the bloody stump of a finger. I start gagging and choking. I have no choice but to quickly upchuck the finger to get it dislodged from my throat. I began crying as I realized what just happened. 

I just tasted my finger. My own finger.

The tears flow freely as I softly sob. I stay there for about a minute before I start hearing ticking sounds. 

Tick Tock Salem. Your second decision awaits. 

I take a deep breath and look down. Seeing a fork amid nails. Right, or left. 

Come on Salem. Think of what you know. Wait! Remember Hunter X Hunter! Kurapika said that studies indicate when people are lost or have come to a fork in the road, they usually go left. So go left! Wait. No! When it continued they picked right. Because the person probably knew the same thing and the left path has more peril! So right!

I go on to the right path. And I feel immediate pain. No more than the first step I took but no less. I feel as all the nails pierce my foot at the same time, all poking into my tissues and causing blood to pool at the base of the nail bed. I want to close my eyes. I want to look away but I know I can’t. I have to see where I’m going. I pick my left foot up and take another spot forward. Feeling every little bit of the nails as they exit my foot. And then as new nails enter my foot in new spots and angles. I cry, I can’t help but cry. I haven’t felt pain like this in a long time. 

I keep walking, feeling more and more blood leak out of me with every step I take. I make more decisions. Take more paths. So far all I’ve faced is nails. I’ve managed to keep my voice quiet enough to not get another finger chopped off. 

I come to another fork. But this time. There are 3 choices, forward, left, or right. Up til now it’s only been left or right. But now there’s a new variable. 

It’s a trick! It has to be. They would only add another option if they wanted me to have a break in the others. This must be where every path meets for the first time. 

I don’t know what to do. I start panicking. I can’t decide what to do. I’ve managed to avoid the other extra traps until now. But this had potentially 2 paths with bad consequences. 

What do I do??

I hear a ticking sound. Very faint, but ticking. And then I hear a countdown. I can barely hear it. 

5….4….3….2….1

A shot, and then a scream. The scream was me and the shot was a gun. I screamed louder than I ever have before. I’m in excruciating pain. I look down and see a hole in the center of my left foot. It starts pouring out blood. I can see the tissue and muscles of the inside of my foot as well as the tendons. And it’s all stained red with blood. My blood. It seems as if I’ve been shot in the foot. As I scream I hear the clear sound of bone shatters. My finger bones. The rings on my ring finger of my left hand and the pinkie finger on my right hand activates and cuts them off cleanly. Falling on top of my head and then onto the bed of nails are 2 more of my severed fingers. It appears as if the bone of my ring finger is jagged. It has a harder time being cut off. Blood is still pouring from the tops of the fingers. I can feel the crimson liquid drip down from my fingers down my arms and onto my head. 

I quickly bite my lip so hard I can feel my skin break. I silence my noise as I wreck myself with silent sobs. 

Better make your choice unless you want the other foot to have a hole in it as well Salem. Tick Tock. 

I silently curse him in my head. My mind bringing forth all the curses I know and all the bad juju wished upon him. I shakily take in a breath and just step forward. With my next step, I can both feel and see as a nail goes straight into the bullet hole in my foot. I don’t know how much more of this pain I can take. 

I take another step forward. And another, and another. And I keep going. Determined to beat the game and win and not die in this God-forsaken place. I WILL win!  I keep on going forward. 

And then, I stop. I hear a metal noise start-up and a type of windup noise. I don’t know what it is but I know I won’t like it. I hear mechanisms start-up from somewhere under my feet. And I know something is about to happen. I start to make myself walk forward, ignoring the pain as I go fast and faster, the sound seeming to follow me. As I raise my right foot to move forward, I feel something pierce my heel, going at an angle from my heel into the side of my ankle where the bone was. I utter a short loud gasp and feel as the blade from a ring is inserted into the side of my finger, but not all the way to cut it. A silent scream is torn from my body, My voice too raw and hoarse to make much noise. I keep trekking forward, somehow feeling as if the end is near. I walk about 10 more steps until I feel something hit my hand. I use my fingers to feel it and I find that it is a key. I quickly scramble to get a good grip on it to undo the handcuffs. As I stand there struggling to undo the lock, I can feel myself sink further onto the nails, lodging them deeper inside my feet. 

Finally, I get the lock undone, releasing my fingers from the rings and my wrists from the cuffs. I duck under the box so I’m squatting on the nails. I let out a wretched scream, feeling all the pain at once and the feel of defeat. I look up to see a tape recorder dangling in front of a door, just out of reach. I try to take a step forward but my feet are stuck to the nails. With a loud sort of battle cry, I yank my foot up off the nails and onto solid floor. I hold my knees to my chest as I just cry, and keep crying. After I don’t know how long, I crawl myself forward to the tape recorder and hit play. 

Congratulations Salem, it appears as if you have passed your test. You have been rehabilitated. Outside this door is your freedom. All you have to do is to open it. But as you may know, those nails weren’t the cleanest. You need to go to a hospital, Salem. The only problem is that the nearest road is 5 miles away. And the nearest town is 12 miles away. Let’s see if you can make it to town in time to save your body from the growing infection. It’s up to you now. 

“This is Amanda Myers reporting to you live. I’m here about 2 miles past the town of Yanderaya where apparently a body has been discovered. Through dental records and an identifying tattoo, the body has been identified as Salem Kit. An 18-year-old who was reported missing a little over a week ago. Salem appears to have undergone extreme and unusual torture in an abandoned building located 13 miles away. Police have stated that although they can not be 100% certain, they believe this to be the works of yet another Jigsaw copycat. Will the tortuous views of John Kramer ever go away? This is Amanda Myers signing off.”