Opening the door, you have to squint as bright lights cut on when you walk inside. The room is harshly illuminated as you step inside, the door crashing shut behind you and locking. As your eyes adjust to the harsh lights, you find yourself staring transfixed at the scene before you.

A man is strapped into a large mechanical device of some kind which holds him upright facing you. His eyes are locked onto you as you step forward. His mouth is sewn shut, but he isn't staying quiet. He struggles against the binds that hold him in place, making incoherent sounds as an old television on a stand nearby cuts on.

The tape plays, showing a puppet like head on the screen with painted white skin, red spirals on the cheeks, and red eyes. It's mouth opens and closes as the voice from the tapes begins to speak again.

"Hello again, Ciara. You should remember the man before you very well. When you were still a girl, the two of you were inseparable. You thought it was love, that he would save you from your own personal hell. But, instead, he introduced you to the drugs that have ruled your life ever since. He used you for years and when he was done with you, he burned you one last time for good measure. Now he is the one who will get burned unless you are willing to pay the price for his freedom. But, does he deserve that freedom, Ciara? Make your choice."

The screen goes to static before showing a clock counting down from sixty seconds. Turning back towards the man in the device, you now recognize Forrest as you look at him strapped down into the device. It's been over a decade since you saw him last, the memory of it is burned into your mind and no high has ever been able to erase it.

For years the two of you had been a teenage Bonnie and Clyde. Mostly robbing convenience stores more than anything, using the money to buy weed, cocaine, and any pills you could find on the market at any given time. At the time, you had believed he was your ticket to freedom. He had sold you so many stories of taking you away from your family and getting an apartment together. But, he never did save you. Instead, he damned you.

As the years went on, Forrest had gotten deeper and deeper into drugs and crime. Eventually, he was dealing for a man who had his filthy fingers in on every kind of black market scheme in the entire city. He was too stupid to be careful and ended up owing the man money. Not having any money, Forrest had offered to give him the only thing of value he had.

You.

He waited until you were too doped up to fight back, then Forrest had stuffed you into his car and driven you to a filthy house in the middle of the worst part of town. There he traded you over to a man you didn't know and walked away free of debt.

Now here he is, strapped down to this contraption completely at your mercy. You have hated him for so long, wished for an opportunity just like this. To watch him suffer for what he did to you. His eyes are wide as he stares at you, watching you contemplate just what it is you want to do as the clock quickly races toward zero.

You study The Trap

Ignoring Forrest, you instead circle the machine he is trapped inside. It looks like what once was a metal gurney, rigged to support him and strap him into the device. Hoses come up from a drain in the floor, more than you can count, where they then travel up the device and latch into what looks like small welding torches situated in intervals around his limbs, torso, and head.

Looking around the room, you spy what looks like a large box covered in a tarp with a note lying on top. Picking up the note, you open it to find printed text on the inside of the blank card.

Which one has the key?

Pulling the tarp off of the box, you find yourself staring down at a metal box with three holes just big enough to stick your arm into. Unlike the boxes before, you cannot see what is inside them. But, the tape had mentioned paying the price for his freedom. It isn't hard to guess that whatever is inside those holes isn't just a key.

You jump as a mechanical whirring starts up, bringing you to look at the countdown and finding it at zero. Glancing back at Forrest, you see flames erupt out of the welding torches positioned at his feet, calves, and knees. He squirms and shrieks in pain through his sewn shut lips, eyes wide in horror.