Page 31 of The Player
“Welcome to your game of consequences, Mr Stokes, Miss Masters. We’re honoured to have you here with us today.”
Lights flashed in front of our eyes, and I blinked, peering into a room that adjoined this one, hidden behind a glass wall. My eyelids fluttered, adjusting to the brightness as what was in that room became clearer. Behind the glass, displayed in front of us, was a man, an older, overweight man who was chained to the floor by his ankles and shackled to the ceiling by his wrists. Standing with his arms above his head, he had tape wrapped around his mouth, but from the bulge of his eyes and the sweat glistening off his body, you could tell he was struggling, yelling, desperate to escape.
Bryony gasped beside me, but we didn’t speak, just stood together, holding hands, waiting to find out what fucked-up game this was.
“Meet Wilson,” the mechanical voice announced, echoing around the room like a nightmare ready to infiltrate our minds and drag us to Hell. “Or as I like to call him, needle dick.” Hearing him use a nickname like that made my skin crawl and the hairs on my neck stand on end.
This wasn’t a good guy.
“I don’t think I need to explain to you, of all people, why this man is here,” he went on, mirroring my thoughts. “Life isn’t always fair, but sometimes, individuals like yourselves… and me, we step in. Realign the status quo, as it were.”
I could feel my nerves growing, fear multiplying. My leg was twitching as I watched the guy struggle. I’d taken care of scum like this a thousand times; this was nothing to me.
But I knew there’d be a catch.
He said this was a game.
It was obvious he wanted this man dead, but there was a chance we’d fail, and, well… I didn’t need to repeat what would happen if we did. He’d been clear enough about that.
“Here is your task for today. Listen carefully. Because in thirty seconds the door into his cell will open, and you will have two minutes to go in there and complete your task.”
Time stood still as everything around me faded into nothing. All I could hear was his voice. All I could see was our mark. All I could feel was her next to me, and she was all that mattered. I had to get her out of here.
“In the task room, on a table to the left, you will see needles, a lot of needles.”
I glanced to the left and saw a mountain of needles piled up on a wooden table.
“You have two minutes to inject these needles into Mr Wilson. Every single needle has to be pushed down, the contents plunged into his body for it to count. If you fail to inject all the needles in the two minutes allotted to you, you will stay locked in that room and a gas will be pumped through the vents. It’ll kill you. And it won’t be a pleasant, drift off to sleep kind of death. It’ll hurt, strip your skin, scald your insides, and make you feel like you’re burning alive. Time is of the essence.”
Two minutes.
A red two-minute timer appeared on the wall behind Wilson, ready to count down.
“When the task has been completed, the lights will turn green,” he added. “So, that’s it. Two minutes. All the needles for Mr Wilson. And if you do that, you live. Simple.”
We could do it.
I knew we could.
Time would be an issue, but we were working together.
That green light was coming on, no question about it.
“Are you ready to play my game?” he asked, then cackled with laughter as a door to the side of us opened, letting us into the room to start his fucked-up task.
The minute we stepped through, the red number started counting down.
I let go of Bee’s hand and ran over to the table.
“Grab a handful, make sure they’re all facing the same way, and stab on the fleshy parts of his body,” I shouted, grabbing a bundle of needles in both hands and racing over to where he hung.
I couldn’t give a fuck about some guy called needle dick. All I was focused on was getting this done and getting Bee out of here.
He squealed behind the tape like a pig, thrashing in his constraints as the sweat trickled down his body.
“Don’t look at him,” I commanded. “Just stab.”
Bryony didn’t answer, but I felt her next to me, thumping two fists into his stomach and then pushing as she plunged the contents into him.
