Post by LeMarchand on Aug 5, 2009 13:27:57 GMT -8
SAW – Episode 1: “Math Class”
A women with long, dark, wavy hair, wakes up from a lengthy drug induced nap and is trapped in a brightly lit, huge, very under kept, men’s public bathroom. She is dressed in a black, loose fitting blouse, buttoned up to the bottom of her average sized breasts with a tight pink, string tank top underneath. The slacks she wares are black and tight from her waist to the top of her calves, and then flairs out slightly down to her ankles to expose one of her legs is shackled to the middle of the floor by a large rusty tow chain bolted to the floor. There is no way to separate the chain from the floor, the bolts are too big and the chain is hooked to a huge eye bolt in the middle of a circular metal plate. She tries to yank hard on the large chain, but her veil attempt to free herself only leaves her with cramped, bruised hands, and her very expensively manicured nails broken. There is a big, steel door on the north side of the room directly in the middle of the wall that she tries to get to but is 3 feet away from the handle.
A 19-inch TV with broken off dials from 3 decades past turns on at the south end, loud static echoes within the walls. An electronic voice with the image of distorted black and white vertical lines and white dots of interference of the old television softly speaks from it. “ Hello, I think I should explain why you are here, if I may be blunt, SELFISHNESS, pure selfishness.” “ You only think of yourself, your needs, your wants, ……your desires” “ You never thought of anybody but yourself.” “ You lived your life by using anybody to get what you want” “ LOOK at your poor husband…(the screen flashes on and off, an image of the front page of a newspaper that reads…”MILLIONAIRE FOUND HUNG, WIFE MISSING” the paper has a picture of them both in their wedding attire, posted on the page.) …Oh, Sorry I forgot…why should you care?” “Well you have plenty of time to reflect on your life…or what you have left of it, your choice.” “ As you can see under this television, there are 3 safes that need 5 numbers each to open if you are to survive. They are all the same size 3 times 3 times 3. If you don’t solve all the combinations in the time allowed…a poisonous gas will be released and you will slowly suffocate to death. Answers to this game are all around you written on the bathroom walls. The game is all about numbers, you like playing with numbers... DAMN you won the Lottery when your husband killed himself. Now what would you do with all that money if you get out, 57 million dollars is at your fingertips. You have 6 hours…and please have FAITH…HA HA HA, I couldn’t resist that pun…being that IS your name” The TV turns off with a big loud static sound.
She runs to the three identical safes, black and all with big dials and a pull down handle. She looks around the confusing graffiti covering the dirty walls. All she sees is numbers and words, mixed in with some child-like artwork painted and written on the walls and doors of the toilet stalls in different colors and styles too confusing to decipher in her state of panic. She has to calm down and focus on all the numbers and words. She reads some of the words sprawled across the walls…” WHORE”: “$$$LUT” “LYER” “BYTCH”. She starts thinking about numbers (numbers is all she thought of when she married J.F. Richardson, not love) she looks around the huge room for something to write with. She needs anything that can help her. All of her beautiful jewelry is gone but her wedding ring. The ring was tampered with, the diamonds were taken out and where they were placed was filed down to a smooth surface. Running back and forth to all 4 sides of the room opening the stalls 3 in total and 3 urinals. She looks under the 6 sinks and finds a broken handled, steak knife. She begins carving numbers in the linoleum floor. And goes to the safes (the numbers on the dials go from zero to 99) trying them one by one. But none of them open by the numbers she dials in, frustrated she starts crying.
She has already wasted an hour by not focusing and her emotional outburst just made things worse. She slowly regains her mental stability and is focused more than before. She walks to the sink and turns the knob to splash water on her face. There is no cold water; she goes to the next sink, only hot water. The next sink and the next one, all the sinks have no cold water. The steam rises and reveals something on the mirror. Someone wrote on it with his or her finger. She runs from sink to sink turning on the hot water. As the steam rises she reads what is written. “How many $ How many mi$$pelings then + then – then X then + those = 5 #’$”. She runs and adds up all the dollar signs there were 4 on the mirror 3 on slut and there were more she focused on all the words counting them all not missing any, there were 33 in total dollar signs. Now she looks for the misspelled words. One on the mirror two with LYER and BYTCH she adds them all up as she looks around the room all-total to 6. She quickly carves the answers of the math problems in the floor She adds 33+6= 39 then subtracts 33-6=27 and then she multiplies 33x6= 198 but the dial on the safe only goes to 99. She remembers to add THOSE numbers 1+9+8=18. She now has one of the combinations 33, 6, 39, 27, 18. She stumbles to the first safe on the left to try the numbers. DAMN it doesn’t work! The next safe… THAT doesn’t work. She dials in the numbers and with a pull of the handle it opens to reveal a rope tied into a noose. Pissed off and confused she grabs the rope and a key that was attached to it flies across the room. She runs towards where it landed. The chain snaps at her ankle, stopping her from going any further. She cannot reach it. She gives up the chase for the key, because even if she did have it. There is no keyhole for the chain that binds her and more importantly…it is a waste of time.
Two hours have passed by and she only has 4 hours left. The TV turns on again the voice greets her; “ One down two to go…too bad you can’t reach the key, but as you know that key won’t get you anywhere for now.” She turns to the TV and notices a red light blinking above the TV. This person can see her and knows every move she makes. The image knows that she has noticed the camera…” YES my dear I can see you…it wouldn’t be any fun for me if I couldn’t.” “Only 4 hours left, it took you 2 just to figure out one”. She screams at the TV: “ YOU F***ING BASTARD LET ME THE F**K OUT OF HERE!!!!”
…. He interrupts…”Now, Now…such profanity from a beautiful young lady…but you are right I am a bastard…. never knew who my father was, but that is beside the point.” “ The point is I know more about you than you can ever dream about knowing of me…and you are wasting time with your vain attempts for me just to LET you go freely… you have to work for your life…your freedom.” “Working is something you know nothing about HUH…sorry but I still can’t refuse the pun…HAVE FAITH”. With laugher fading the TV shuts off.
She looks towards the sinks and sees that 2 of the sinks are overflowing. She gets up and limps to them to shut them off. As she reaches to turn the knob she slips forward and hits her head on one of the sinks and knocks herself out. Strangely all of the sinks shut themselves off and drain themselves out as if they had a mind of their own.
Her head throbbing, she arises from her deep sleep. Her vision is blurry and looks at the clock above the door she desperately wants to get to. As her vision focuses and becomes clearer she realizes that an hour and a half has passed by. Now she is cold from the water left on the floor she laid in. she looks at herself in the mirror to check herself for bruising and blood. She dips her hands in the stagnant water of the only sink that didn’t drain to wash the blood on her head. She looks in the mirror to look at her bruise on her forehead. Her soaked dark hair clings to her body and equally wet blouse.
Her brown eyes dilate and she flashes back to what that sick demented person said to her the first time: “ Well you have plenty of time to REFLECT on your life…or what you have LEFT of it.” She looks at her reflection and her eyes shift to her left shoulder and sees small numbers written on the stall doors. She walks to the doors and closes the middle one so she could see the backwards message in the mirror. She looks at them again and each number is connected to some kind of Japanese character. She walks to the mirror and on her way picks up the knife and looks at the numbers that where written backwards. While looking in the mirror, she carves them into the floor, starting with the left door that has two numbers 65 and 71, the middle door has one number 4, and the last door has two numbers 95 and 1. She walks over to the safes to check the numbers, now of course she picks the wrong one first. She now tries the other one. SHOCKED she finds out that the numbers doesn’t work.
Maybe she messed up. So she tries both safes again and again without accomplishment. So lost in her failure and in utter state of frustration, she pulls at her hair and screams out. Time passes slowly but still too fast for her taste. She now remembers her husband saying to her that you read Japanese from right to left. She jumps up from her fetal position to try the numbers in reverse 1, 95, 4, 71, and 65. It works like a charm as she sharply pulls the handle down; the safe opens to expose a big brown melena envelope. She opens it and there are photos of her with her lover. Pictures of her naked having sex and others of them having dinner at different places. She pulls out of the large malena envelope, a mini recorder with a tape inside of it.
She presses play and the same voice that bellowed from the TV congratulates her and says; “ Hello again…you made it this far.” There is something I want you to hear…” the sound of fumbling of a microphone is heard, then she hears her own voice saying; “ I just want him dead, no fooling around, simply dead. You just have to make it look like a suicide.” A mans voice that she knows very well (her lovers) comes from the tape player saying; “ you won’t get the insurance.” She sharply answers…” the hell with a small 1.4 million dollars when I automatically get his 57 million estate!” Her lover humbly agrees with the sound of him trying to get near her to kiss her. And she shrugs him off saying, “Not here, there is enough time for that later.” The mechanical voice comes back on to tell her; “ You can bet I made copies of the conversation dear…I’m not stupid, crazy…yes…stupid, far from it…but if you set yourself free I will destroy them all…say as a reward to you…my, my look at the time…bye for now…oh…you should get that bump on your head looked at.” She tosses the recorder against the wall and it smashes in pieces.
She returns her attention to the photographs. Tediously thumbing through each of them, she sees one photo of her and her lover naked on a bed. Her on top in the dominating position and the double exposed image of a smiling face that she remembers…DAMN IT!!! She now remembers how she got there. The person in the photo is a man she met before awaking in the hell that she is in now.
He bought her a drink and the only reason she took it was that he was waring an Armani suit and looked richer than her husband looked by a long shot. She always complained that her husbands’ simple taste of clothing was embarrassing. Her husband was a “regular guy” and didn’t like to flash his richness around, but she DID and did it well. She took his drink from the bartender and raised it to thank him. He rises from the table he was sitting in and walks over and makes small talk with her. Tall and clean cut he was, short cropped auburn hair, healthy white, smooth complexion. His body was thick and strong looking, as if he spent time some time in the gym. His piercing hazel eyes that looked like they changed from different colored shades of blue and green slightly as the night went on.
As time passes, more drinks were shared and she came to the point that she could not have anymore (strangely, only four drinks in a few hours time made her this stone drunk). He asked if she needed a ride home, in her drunken state she was going to call her lover since her husband was already home DEAD asleep by now but she had to stay away from him until the whole plan was wrapped up. She agrees to have him drive her home and hoping that she would see if HE would turn into a better prospect. Even in her drunken state she was fantasizing about getting together with this RICH man. Her 57 million estate AND him. Hitting the lottery twice, what are the odds of that she thinks to herself as she stumbles the passenger side of his black Mercedes. She gets in the car and passes out from the movement of the long drive. Then, she awakes in this nightmare.
She starts looking around for more clues… adding how many sinks, urinals, tiles all in vain…nothing works…she starts to think of what her captor said the first time she heard his voice. Now what numbers did he say…and in what order, she thinks to herself. There are 3 safes that need 5 numbers, the safes are 3 x 3 x 3, well that equals 27, he said 57 million dollars, and the last number was when he told her that she had 6 hours to complete this game. She has the last combination. Happy and relieved she runs to the last safe to check those numbers. She dials them in slowly not to make a mistake. One slow pull of the handle it opens to show her the tool that will lead her to her freedom. She grabs the bolt cutters and sits down to cut the chains that have bounded her for the better part of her time in this cell of hers. The bolt cutters quickly cut through the last link connected to the ringed shackle around her ankle.
She is free, she runs to the door and turns the knob but it’s locked. She remembers the key and picks it up. The key doesn’t fit…she turns to scream at the camera above the TV: “ I solved your damned puzzles…now let me the hell out of here!!!” Her back to the door her body slides down in a squatting position and cries into her hands.
The TV turns back on and the sound of hands clapping are heard and his voice calls out…”Very good, I am proud of you. But there is one more puzzle left my dear… I did say ALL THE COMBINATIONS; look to your right and next to the stall. On the wall there is a keypad…the key you have in your hand goes to that, and then punch in the five-digit code and the door will open. (The TV flashes as he says “ here is some information for you.”) The screen shows some local news footage. The news anchor tells about her husbands death was a murder and the man who was sort after for the murder was found dead in his home with a self inflicted gunshot to the head.” And the news anchor proceeds to say that the man was stalking the millionaires wife, photos of her was plastered on all four walls of his bedroom where he lied, and the authorities are searching for the millionaires missing wife.
The TV flickers and the voice comes back and says;” I guess you are relieved that you made it this far but you don’t have much time left. It looks like you have a half hour…and I cannot say this enough…have FAITH!!!” She starts thinking about what he said. But nothing comes to mind as she looks around the room. She sees the noose. It was a piece of the same one that hung her husband …she knew it was. She held it in her gloved hands before, wishing that it were her choking the life out of her husband.
She thinks CHOKING damn...She looks at the time (10 minutes left) and she juggles through her thoughts and pinpoints on how many times he said FAITH. It was three, but that is not enough information. HOLY S**T she thinks to herself…” I guess you are RELIEVED…relieved she thinks to herself ”. She runs to the third stall from the right and looks around nothing at all. She sits down on the toilet as to pretend that she is RELIEVING herself. She looks up and sees the stall door slowly close. The words on the back of the door read: “ FOR A GOOD TIME CALL FAITH”. And taped to the door was one black rose. “This wasn’t here before?” she thinks to herself. “ He must have entered here while I was knocked out and wrote this?” Feeling more violated than she did before she closes her eyes and violently shivers as if a cold draft snuck up behind her.
She looks at the writing and notices small numbers written under her name. Under the “F” the number 6 , and under the “H” the number 8. She thinks about what numbers correspond with the other letters. She counts on her fingers, A=1, I=9 and T=20. She jumps up and runs to the keypad. The lights begin to flick on and off like a strobe light as her shaking hand insert the key. She looks at the time 30 seconds are left. She punches in the numbers but she is too late the gas empties in the room like a thick fog. She still punches the remaining numbers in and hears a loud beep and a click from the door. She runs through the cloud of green gas and holds firmly on the knob of the door and pulls. It won’t budge, but there is a little play in it. Someone is holding it from the other side. She screams; “ PLEASE…LET ME LIVE…I AM SORRY…I’LL TURN MYSELF IN…JUST LET ME LIVE!!!” a voice comes from behind the door similar to the voice from the TV but not covered by an electric device: “ No, I’m sorry Faith…your time is up…all games have rules…you lose!!!” she begins gagging and feeling faint and drops to the floor shaking and coughing. The gas closes her lungs to the size of pinholes and with four last gasps of air she stiffens up and dies.
………………………………… Whistling and loud echoing footsteps are heard fading from behind the unlocked door.
A women with long, dark, wavy hair, wakes up from a lengthy drug induced nap and is trapped in a brightly lit, huge, very under kept, men’s public bathroom. She is dressed in a black, loose fitting blouse, buttoned up to the bottom of her average sized breasts with a tight pink, string tank top underneath. The slacks she wares are black and tight from her waist to the top of her calves, and then flairs out slightly down to her ankles to expose one of her legs is shackled to the middle of the floor by a large rusty tow chain bolted to the floor. There is no way to separate the chain from the floor, the bolts are too big and the chain is hooked to a huge eye bolt in the middle of a circular metal plate. She tries to yank hard on the large chain, but her veil attempt to free herself only leaves her with cramped, bruised hands, and her very expensively manicured nails broken. There is a big, steel door on the north side of the room directly in the middle of the wall that she tries to get to but is 3 feet away from the handle.
A 19-inch TV with broken off dials from 3 decades past turns on at the south end, loud static echoes within the walls. An electronic voice with the image of distorted black and white vertical lines and white dots of interference of the old television softly speaks from it. “ Hello, I think I should explain why you are here, if I may be blunt, SELFISHNESS, pure selfishness.” “ You only think of yourself, your needs, your wants, ……your desires” “ You never thought of anybody but yourself.” “ You lived your life by using anybody to get what you want” “ LOOK at your poor husband…(the screen flashes on and off, an image of the front page of a newspaper that reads…”MILLIONAIRE FOUND HUNG, WIFE MISSING” the paper has a picture of them both in their wedding attire, posted on the page.) …Oh, Sorry I forgot…why should you care?” “Well you have plenty of time to reflect on your life…or what you have left of it, your choice.” “ As you can see under this television, there are 3 safes that need 5 numbers each to open if you are to survive. They are all the same size 3 times 3 times 3. If you don’t solve all the combinations in the time allowed…a poisonous gas will be released and you will slowly suffocate to death. Answers to this game are all around you written on the bathroom walls. The game is all about numbers, you like playing with numbers... DAMN you won the Lottery when your husband killed himself. Now what would you do with all that money if you get out, 57 million dollars is at your fingertips. You have 6 hours…and please have FAITH…HA HA HA, I couldn’t resist that pun…being that IS your name” The TV turns off with a big loud static sound.
She runs to the three identical safes, black and all with big dials and a pull down handle. She looks around the confusing graffiti covering the dirty walls. All she sees is numbers and words, mixed in with some child-like artwork painted and written on the walls and doors of the toilet stalls in different colors and styles too confusing to decipher in her state of panic. She has to calm down and focus on all the numbers and words. She reads some of the words sprawled across the walls…” WHORE”: “$$$LUT” “LYER” “BYTCH”. She starts thinking about numbers (numbers is all she thought of when she married J.F. Richardson, not love) she looks around the huge room for something to write with. She needs anything that can help her. All of her beautiful jewelry is gone but her wedding ring. The ring was tampered with, the diamonds were taken out and where they were placed was filed down to a smooth surface. Running back and forth to all 4 sides of the room opening the stalls 3 in total and 3 urinals. She looks under the 6 sinks and finds a broken handled, steak knife. She begins carving numbers in the linoleum floor. And goes to the safes (the numbers on the dials go from zero to 99) trying them one by one. But none of them open by the numbers she dials in, frustrated she starts crying.
She has already wasted an hour by not focusing and her emotional outburst just made things worse. She slowly regains her mental stability and is focused more than before. She walks to the sink and turns the knob to splash water on her face. There is no cold water; she goes to the next sink, only hot water. The next sink and the next one, all the sinks have no cold water. The steam rises and reveals something on the mirror. Someone wrote on it with his or her finger. She runs from sink to sink turning on the hot water. As the steam rises she reads what is written. “How many $ How many mi$$pelings then + then – then X then + those = 5 #’$”. She runs and adds up all the dollar signs there were 4 on the mirror 3 on slut and there were more she focused on all the words counting them all not missing any, there were 33 in total dollar signs. Now she looks for the misspelled words. One on the mirror two with LYER and BYTCH she adds them all up as she looks around the room all-total to 6. She quickly carves the answers of the math problems in the floor She adds 33+6= 39 then subtracts 33-6=27 and then she multiplies 33x6= 198 but the dial on the safe only goes to 99. She remembers to add THOSE numbers 1+9+8=18. She now has one of the combinations 33, 6, 39, 27, 18. She stumbles to the first safe on the left to try the numbers. DAMN it doesn’t work! The next safe… THAT doesn’t work. She dials in the numbers and with a pull of the handle it opens to reveal a rope tied into a noose. Pissed off and confused she grabs the rope and a key that was attached to it flies across the room. She runs towards where it landed. The chain snaps at her ankle, stopping her from going any further. She cannot reach it. She gives up the chase for the key, because even if she did have it. There is no keyhole for the chain that binds her and more importantly…it is a waste of time.
Two hours have passed by and she only has 4 hours left. The TV turns on again the voice greets her; “ One down two to go…too bad you can’t reach the key, but as you know that key won’t get you anywhere for now.” She turns to the TV and notices a red light blinking above the TV. This person can see her and knows every move she makes. The image knows that she has noticed the camera…” YES my dear I can see you…it wouldn’t be any fun for me if I couldn’t.” “Only 4 hours left, it took you 2 just to figure out one”. She screams at the TV: “ YOU F***ING BASTARD LET ME THE F**K OUT OF HERE!!!!”
…. He interrupts…”Now, Now…such profanity from a beautiful young lady…but you are right I am a bastard…. never knew who my father was, but that is beside the point.” “ The point is I know more about you than you can ever dream about knowing of me…and you are wasting time with your vain attempts for me just to LET you go freely… you have to work for your life…your freedom.” “Working is something you know nothing about HUH…sorry but I still can’t refuse the pun…HAVE FAITH”. With laugher fading the TV shuts off.
She looks towards the sinks and sees that 2 of the sinks are overflowing. She gets up and limps to them to shut them off. As she reaches to turn the knob she slips forward and hits her head on one of the sinks and knocks herself out. Strangely all of the sinks shut themselves off and drain themselves out as if they had a mind of their own.
Her head throbbing, she arises from her deep sleep. Her vision is blurry and looks at the clock above the door she desperately wants to get to. As her vision focuses and becomes clearer she realizes that an hour and a half has passed by. Now she is cold from the water left on the floor she laid in. she looks at herself in the mirror to check herself for bruising and blood. She dips her hands in the stagnant water of the only sink that didn’t drain to wash the blood on her head. She looks in the mirror to look at her bruise on her forehead. Her soaked dark hair clings to her body and equally wet blouse.
Her brown eyes dilate and she flashes back to what that sick demented person said to her the first time: “ Well you have plenty of time to REFLECT on your life…or what you have LEFT of it.” She looks at her reflection and her eyes shift to her left shoulder and sees small numbers written on the stall doors. She walks to the doors and closes the middle one so she could see the backwards message in the mirror. She looks at them again and each number is connected to some kind of Japanese character. She walks to the mirror and on her way picks up the knife and looks at the numbers that where written backwards. While looking in the mirror, she carves them into the floor, starting with the left door that has two numbers 65 and 71, the middle door has one number 4, and the last door has two numbers 95 and 1. She walks over to the safes to check the numbers, now of course she picks the wrong one first. She now tries the other one. SHOCKED she finds out that the numbers doesn’t work.
Maybe she messed up. So she tries both safes again and again without accomplishment. So lost in her failure and in utter state of frustration, she pulls at her hair and screams out. Time passes slowly but still too fast for her taste. She now remembers her husband saying to her that you read Japanese from right to left. She jumps up from her fetal position to try the numbers in reverse 1, 95, 4, 71, and 65. It works like a charm as she sharply pulls the handle down; the safe opens to expose a big brown melena envelope. She opens it and there are photos of her with her lover. Pictures of her naked having sex and others of them having dinner at different places. She pulls out of the large malena envelope, a mini recorder with a tape inside of it.
She presses play and the same voice that bellowed from the TV congratulates her and says; “ Hello again…you made it this far.” There is something I want you to hear…” the sound of fumbling of a microphone is heard, then she hears her own voice saying; “ I just want him dead, no fooling around, simply dead. You just have to make it look like a suicide.” A mans voice that she knows very well (her lovers) comes from the tape player saying; “ you won’t get the insurance.” She sharply answers…” the hell with a small 1.4 million dollars when I automatically get his 57 million estate!” Her lover humbly agrees with the sound of him trying to get near her to kiss her. And she shrugs him off saying, “Not here, there is enough time for that later.” The mechanical voice comes back on to tell her; “ You can bet I made copies of the conversation dear…I’m not stupid, crazy…yes…stupid, far from it…but if you set yourself free I will destroy them all…say as a reward to you…my, my look at the time…bye for now…oh…you should get that bump on your head looked at.” She tosses the recorder against the wall and it smashes in pieces.
She returns her attention to the photographs. Tediously thumbing through each of them, she sees one photo of her and her lover naked on a bed. Her on top in the dominating position and the double exposed image of a smiling face that she remembers…DAMN IT!!! She now remembers how she got there. The person in the photo is a man she met before awaking in the hell that she is in now.
He bought her a drink and the only reason she took it was that he was waring an Armani suit and looked richer than her husband looked by a long shot. She always complained that her husbands’ simple taste of clothing was embarrassing. Her husband was a “regular guy” and didn’t like to flash his richness around, but she DID and did it well. She took his drink from the bartender and raised it to thank him. He rises from the table he was sitting in and walks over and makes small talk with her. Tall and clean cut he was, short cropped auburn hair, healthy white, smooth complexion. His body was thick and strong looking, as if he spent time some time in the gym. His piercing hazel eyes that looked like they changed from different colored shades of blue and green slightly as the night went on.
As time passes, more drinks were shared and she came to the point that she could not have anymore (strangely, only four drinks in a few hours time made her this stone drunk). He asked if she needed a ride home, in her drunken state she was going to call her lover since her husband was already home DEAD asleep by now but she had to stay away from him until the whole plan was wrapped up. She agrees to have him drive her home and hoping that she would see if HE would turn into a better prospect. Even in her drunken state she was fantasizing about getting together with this RICH man. Her 57 million estate AND him. Hitting the lottery twice, what are the odds of that she thinks to herself as she stumbles the passenger side of his black Mercedes. She gets in the car and passes out from the movement of the long drive. Then, she awakes in this nightmare.
She starts looking around for more clues… adding how many sinks, urinals, tiles all in vain…nothing works…she starts to think of what her captor said the first time she heard his voice. Now what numbers did he say…and in what order, she thinks to herself. There are 3 safes that need 5 numbers, the safes are 3 x 3 x 3, well that equals 27, he said 57 million dollars, and the last number was when he told her that she had 6 hours to complete this game. She has the last combination. Happy and relieved she runs to the last safe to check those numbers. She dials them in slowly not to make a mistake. One slow pull of the handle it opens to show her the tool that will lead her to her freedom. She grabs the bolt cutters and sits down to cut the chains that have bounded her for the better part of her time in this cell of hers. The bolt cutters quickly cut through the last link connected to the ringed shackle around her ankle.
She is free, she runs to the door and turns the knob but it’s locked. She remembers the key and picks it up. The key doesn’t fit…she turns to scream at the camera above the TV: “ I solved your damned puzzles…now let me the hell out of here!!!” Her back to the door her body slides down in a squatting position and cries into her hands.
The TV turns back on and the sound of hands clapping are heard and his voice calls out…”Very good, I am proud of you. But there is one more puzzle left my dear… I did say ALL THE COMBINATIONS; look to your right and next to the stall. On the wall there is a keypad…the key you have in your hand goes to that, and then punch in the five-digit code and the door will open. (The TV flashes as he says “ here is some information for you.”) The screen shows some local news footage. The news anchor tells about her husbands death was a murder and the man who was sort after for the murder was found dead in his home with a self inflicted gunshot to the head.” And the news anchor proceeds to say that the man was stalking the millionaires wife, photos of her was plastered on all four walls of his bedroom where he lied, and the authorities are searching for the millionaires missing wife.
The TV flickers and the voice comes back and says;” I guess you are relieved that you made it this far but you don’t have much time left. It looks like you have a half hour…and I cannot say this enough…have FAITH!!!” She starts thinking about what he said. But nothing comes to mind as she looks around the room. She sees the noose. It was a piece of the same one that hung her husband …she knew it was. She held it in her gloved hands before, wishing that it were her choking the life out of her husband.
She thinks CHOKING damn...She looks at the time (10 minutes left) and she juggles through her thoughts and pinpoints on how many times he said FAITH. It was three, but that is not enough information. HOLY S**T she thinks to herself…” I guess you are RELIEVED…relieved she thinks to herself ”. She runs to the third stall from the right and looks around nothing at all. She sits down on the toilet as to pretend that she is RELIEVING herself. She looks up and sees the stall door slowly close. The words on the back of the door read: “ FOR A GOOD TIME CALL FAITH”. And taped to the door was one black rose. “This wasn’t here before?” she thinks to herself. “ He must have entered here while I was knocked out and wrote this?” Feeling more violated than she did before she closes her eyes and violently shivers as if a cold draft snuck up behind her.
She looks at the writing and notices small numbers written under her name. Under the “F” the number 6 , and under the “H” the number 8. She thinks about what numbers correspond with the other letters. She counts on her fingers, A=1, I=9 and T=20. She jumps up and runs to the keypad. The lights begin to flick on and off like a strobe light as her shaking hand insert the key. She looks at the time 30 seconds are left. She punches in the numbers but she is too late the gas empties in the room like a thick fog. She still punches the remaining numbers in and hears a loud beep and a click from the door. She runs through the cloud of green gas and holds firmly on the knob of the door and pulls. It won’t budge, but there is a little play in it. Someone is holding it from the other side. She screams; “ PLEASE…LET ME LIVE…I AM SORRY…I’LL TURN MYSELF IN…JUST LET ME LIVE!!!” a voice comes from behind the door similar to the voice from the TV but not covered by an electric device: “ No, I’m sorry Faith…your time is up…all games have rules…you lose!!!” she begins gagging and feeling faint and drops to the floor shaking and coughing. The gas closes her lungs to the size of pinholes and with four last gasps of air she stiffens up and dies.
………………………………… Whistling and loud echoing footsteps are heard fading from behind the unlocked door.
