Kramer

This short story is a spin off of the classical movies saw! It takes place in a box that holds a group of strangers that end of having to fight for their lives.

A piercing alarm filled the ears of 5 individuals. It bounced through the midnight box they were being held in. These five individuals woke out of the deepest, nicest slumber of their life; if you ignored the fact that they were forced into this position. No one reacted at first, only covered their ears to stop themselves from going insane. They looked around groggy slowly realizing they were in a pitch-black room, with black walls, black ceilings, no lights or windows. Not a single one knew they weren’t alone yet. Everybody blinked as their eyes adjusted to the invisible light surrounding them. Panic began to set over the room like a thick fog. The piercing noise stopped as abruptly as it started.

“What the-” A girl in the corner began to whisper but was quickly shushed by her neighbor

“He will hear you shut up”.

The silence from before setting in once again, everybody wants to give in to the panic absorbing them. Everybody is terrified of what would happen. Such a simple, possibly meaningless command not to speak was for some reason listened to by everybody.

“Where am I?!” Screamed another voice, a different man in an opposing corner to the first speaker. He was in the deepest slumber and hadn’t heard the previous remark not to speak.

The tv that was set in the middle of the room was turned on seemingly by itself and began making a very annoying static noise. Everybody jumped and scampered to the bed in front of the tv light. They looked at each other examining who everybody was, and then the face popped onto the tv. This face was familiar to any horror, gore, suspense movie fan. A fearful shine on a plastic white face, with red spirals in the middle of the cheeks and thin black hair. A pristine suit with a bright iconic red bowtie in the middle.

“What are we in a movie?” A girl with bright orange hair said

“Oh, that’s great” followed another girls voice

The tv static one more time before the character once portrayed by John Kramer began speaking: “ I want to play a game. My own game,” it began “in this game, your goal is to figure out who here is guilty, and who here is innocent.”

The room was suddenly clouded with judgment, paranoia, and suspicion. What had they done? How were they to figure this out? What would happen if they guessed wrong? What did they have to do to the innocent, and the guilty?

“Play my game, and you will survive. If you don't play properly, you all will be dead by the end of the night.” Jigsaw spoke, and then the tv returned to static

“Okay so that was very vague,” The man who had told everyone to be quiet said

“Hey, there's a flashlight here.” The red hair girl followed and turned it on, shining it on everyone faces

“Where are we,” a panicked voice hollered “ this can't be real, this isn't really... how could this be real?!”

“Would you quit it? This is real now get looking around. We can all get out of this” the man from before said

Most of them started feeling around on the floor, looking for anything that could help them, save them, or explain what was happening. The panicked man sat back trying to collect his thoughts or his breath whichever came back first.

“There's a letter here” the girl with the flashlight exclaimed “It says Blue?” she looked up at the group

“That's my name” the panicking man whispered standing up and slumping over to the redhead, who handed him the letter.

“What's it say,” she asked

‘Blue, Do you remember what you did five years ago? What was his name?’ The letter also held a key

“What did you do Blue??” The red-head barked

“It was an accident,” he says backing up from the group, hands up “ this doesn't make me guilty this was an accident, I’m innocent”

“What did you do?” a different boy repeated

Blue sighed and wiped at his eyes “there was this boy, he was playing soccer in the street with another kid or two. He wasn't looking and I was late for work.” he stopped abruptly like he couldn't get the rest of it out like he couldn't believe it.

“ what happened,” the redhead said

“He killed him” the same boy from before pitched in

The panicked man looked up at him “I’m sorry sunny”

“You two know each other? The red hair chirped

“The boy was my brother,” sunny's calmness turned into anger “what was his name blue hm?”

“Why does it matter”

“That's what the letter said, we have to follow it,” a different boy said

“How do you know,” blue said annoyed

“Because haven't you seen the movies? He will kill you!”

Blue contemplated this for a moment “His name was Cameron”

“Yeah, and he was 8 years old. You killed him, and you left.” Sunny's voice shook the room

Everyone was silent for a minute. Breathing filled the room as well as the tension between the members of the box. The redhead peered inside the envelopes and saw the key filling the space. She picked it up and squinted at the chipped brass on what looked like a regular plain house key.

“Hey there's a key in here” she broke the silence peering at everybody

“That would be helpful if we could see a door!” sunny said, in a fake cheerful voice to hide his impending doom.

“Well maybe be helpful and look!” she faked the same cheerfulness and a fake smile

“Maybe we shouldn't fight guys, we're here for a reason,” the packing girl from the start said, “figure out why that is?”

“Does anybody else know each other here?” Blue asked the group

Everybody's eye started to each other before a boy piped in “Hazel is my ex-girlfriend” he winked at the red hair girl

“Shut up- yes depoisonI over here know each other” Hazel agonized

“Okay, why did you break up,” the panicked girl asked

“Because he-” Hazel was interrupted by the same piercing alarm from before echoed around the room, and a buzz as the room was filled with a pocket of light and heat from a door swung open.

“Great!” blue chimed in again “something is hanging from the doorway”

Dean walked up to the door and ripped the tape player from a string, this made him painfully aware of the fire that spread through the new opening.

“Fire.” he said as he looked down at the tape recorder, “it says Malorie” he looked over at the panicked girl “is that you?”

Malorie nodded and he pressed play

“Malorie,” John Kramer's voice filled, “there is a slow-acting poison coursing through your veins as we speak. Nothing will stop it other than a serum on the other side of this door. Only you know the code to get to it. You have limited time before the poison starts ripping you apart inside out.”

Malorie’s eyes widened and her panic from before engulfed her again. Suddenly big red blinking letters read ‘3:00'' above the doorway. Then ‘2;59’ ‘2:58’. Malorie shuddered and her eyes reflected the fire. She ran directly into it suddenly filled with adrenaline, she screamed as her arms and legs were burned. Everybody stared inside watching her move through the flames, then grab a box on the other side. She came running back out tears falling down her face.

“You only have a minute!!” Hazel said running to her “whats the code”

“I don't know, I don't know” Malorie cried

“The box says burn, does that mean anything”

“I don't know,” she wailed again trying to think but completely engulfed into her pain.

A loud beep filled the room after every second, once they got down to ten seconds. Hazel put in random combinations, Malorie sobbed and held her arms in front of her, watching them get burned from the outside and now inside as the poison ate her flesh. BEEP 3… BEEP 2… BEEP 1 Malorie shrieked and was absorbed by the poison eventually passing out from the pain. Her breathing slowed to a stop and she laid motionless.

“You just killed her!” Sunny yelled at hazel

“She didn't kill her idiot, she killed herself. She was one of the guilty or they wouldn't have killed her.” Dean glared at sunny for blaming hazel

“What about blue, he's guilty nothings hat happened to him”

“Yet” Pitched in hazel looking up at them all

Blue looked at her “ what's going to happen to me?!”

The fire in the next room disappeared and the burned floor and another door were revealed. Hazel took the key and gave it to blue,

“ It was for you, you open it.” She stared blankly at him

Blue stared at the key “ it could have been for anyone”

“It was in your envelope”

Blue glared at her and walked over to the door, key held in front of him. He ran his finger along the ridges of the key. He pushed the key into the lock and very cautiously turned it. Once the lock was undone the door was pushed open to reveal a room with numerous of the same contraptions in it. Opening the door leads to a thick blue fog filling all of the rooms. Blue began coughing, not soon after sunny, dean, and hazel. They struggled to find their balance and soon to even sit upright. Within minutes they all laid, passed out, on the black concrete floor.

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There it was again, that piercing alarm. I echoed through the rooms once more. Everybody woke up again, their heads heavy, chills flooding up their spine and through the backs of their heads. All four of them sat in different corners of the room, legs chained to chairs with big metal headpieces on. The metal headpieces were immediately recognized by all as replicas of the bear trap that was in multiple of the saw movies. Hazel started panicking and moving around trying to free herself. Dean tried screaming to stop but was unable to speak properly. The familiar voice filled the room once again.

“You all have one minute to find the keys I've hidden in ur own bodies. You have all taken life for granted, you were given a second chance at life and wasted it bickering. The only way to free yourselves now is to bear into yourselves”

Immediately, the occupants started to feel anywhere they could on their bodies. A countdown blared through the room 60...59...58...57...56...55…. The air in the room got heavy as everybody breathed harder and panicked even more. With every single second 50...49...48….47...46...45. Hazel cried as she saw an incision made, and stitched up in her ribcage. Dean felt the same thing under the skin in his hand. They both tried to rip out their skin but they couldn't gather the strength 25...24...23...22..21..20. Blue and sunny panicked as they couldn’t even seem to find anything on them to help them out. Blue finally found something, on the inner part of his thigh. He mustered up the courage to rip into and held the bloody key between his fingers. Laughter was heard from the corner of the room 5...4...3...2...1.

Nothing happened. Nobody's jaws were thrown into halves. Only laughter, the sinister laughter, and a whip of red-hair. Then three of the four cages snapped open.