Oh, The Choices

You’re confused and silent as you sit in the all white room.It’s big enough for you to sit at that table and scoot back. Nothing more. A steel gray door to your left is your only exit. You sit in an uncomfortable black fold out chair behind a metal table that is melted into the floor. You see the metal mold around the table to see the amateur job that was done. You observe yourself. You lift your hands to view your palms. They look normal; a bit of sweat starts to show on your finger tips as soon as you realize that your hands aren’t sweating. You wipe them on your blue jean pants. Your feet are still in your Adidas sneakers and you wiggle your toes just to make sure they are all still present. You reach up and touch your face. With both hands you palm each side of your face. Reaching your pointer finger to your ears and spreading your hand wide so your pinky reaches to your nose. You then work your way around your head.You’re fine; you just have no idea where you are. You’ve noticed these two objects in front of you and finally observe them. You then see the letter to the right of you that reads,

“Go ahead, Make your choice. The outcome will decide whether you’re ready or not.” You bring your attention back to the two objects which are a golden hammer and a cup that seems to have water.

You contemplate on sipping the water. If you sip the water will that insist that the water is the object that you are truly choosing? Or can you simply yell out that you’re just thirsty but indeed do what the hammer. But what if you do want the water? Or is it the glass you are choosing and the water you don’t need. The cup was not as fancy as the golden hammer, but it was made out of glass.

You continue to think. You can’t remember where you were before this moment; you don’t even remember your name. You look back over to the paper with the directions. There’s no name on that either. You check your pockets in your jeans and find nothing and pat your chest to see if you hand anything around your neck. You reach up and scratch your nose.

Why haven’t you gone and checked the door yet?

You scoot your chair back making a scratching nose and immediately bump into the close wall behind you. You slide out of your chair and walk with your back sliding against the wall to make your way around the table to reach the door. It’s locked. You figured. That’s why you didn’t get up in the beginning. You go and sit back down.

You begin to analyze the objects. You start to think of how the two objects differ. The golden hammer symbolizes strength, power and riches.The hammer is and object used to put nails in place and the gold symbolizes wealth. That’s what you come up with for the hammer.

You look over to the glass cup of water. You come up with the water symbolizing the necessity of life, something just as precious as gold but not as valued. However, the glass cups could symbolize how we see through things and how life is fragile and could end with a simple breaking.

But of course there has to be a down side to whichever you choose. You think what does that letter mean by “Are you ready?” You’re simply ready to get out of the room. “In order to be released from this room you must choose and object.”

You think of your conclusions with the objects. You let out a breath and choose. You reach out your right hand and grab the hammer.

The room instantly goes black. When you are able to see again,you’re sitting in a penthouse with windows all around you. You look down and you see yourself sitting in a wooden dining chair. You look up at the window you’re sitting in front of and its pouring rain in the night time. You stay seated and turn around. You see a woman lying on the ground on her stomach in a black satin dress with blood all around her head. You gasp for air and turn back to face the window. You take several deep breaths then tun back slowly to look at the body. Next to the body’s hand you see the glass that had the water in it shattered on the floor. You look at the dining table next to you and see the golden hammer with blood residue on it.

You grab the arm rests on the chair to try and stand and realize your grip is slippery. You settle back into the seat nervous as you look down to your hands. Releasing the arm rests you raise your hands to see there is blood on your palms. You exhale hard and try your hardest to breathe again. In a panicked rush you wipe your hands on your now black trousers.

“Wait,” you think, “I had on jeans before,” then you panic again because you put the blood on your clothes. You quickly get up and begin looking. But what are you looking for?

Another letter. The penthouse is large and spacious. You see a massive TV and sound system to your left with large plush couches then you see the woman in front of you. You continue to scan the room followed by a sleek dining table and a white grand piano to your right. Behind the piano is the kitchen area and then a door to the left of that.

“A bathroom?” you think and begin to walk over. You make your way around the body, the piano, and besides the kitchen and open the door. Your reach in and turn on the switch. It’s a bedroom.

You see blood on the white floor and sheets on the bed. Your breath quickens as you see another door to your right. You quickly walk over and push it open to see the porcelain from the toilet shine from the light of the bedroom. You reach in and turn the light on to see another woman’s body in the tub. Terror consumes you and you jump back into the door frame. Your hand immediately flies up to cover your mouth to hold in a scream that wasn’t there.

You continue to look at the woman; her blonde hair covers her face as she leans against the back of the shower wall, her legs dangling over the tub. Her kneecaps are red but her chest is where the wound is. You lean forward to see the cut on the left side of her chest. You take another step forward to see blood still leaking out. You quickly leave the room and exit the bedroom. You walk past the body and go to the right where the entrance is at and try to open the door.

You think, “It’s not like the last room, I can get out of here,”but you can’t; the door is locked. You pull again, harder and harder. You hit the door once and consider banging the door for someone to hear, then you remember the bodies.

You walk back over to the body on the floor and look at her brown hair matted and bundled around her head. You walk around her to see if there is anything to notice. You take a breath in and squat down a little to see there is blood coming from her mouth under her hair. You scan down her body to see body to see scratches on her left shoulder. Her hair covers her right shoulder as she is laid on her right hand. The glass of water is shattered by her waist and she’s barefoot. You stand back up straight and put your hands on the top of your head and look up to the ceiling to search for answers. You feel tears coming to your eyes because you don’t know what to do. You think about the woman in the tub who had nothing around her but blood.

“What do I do?” You question. Then you look back down to the body to think you may have to move her.

Your head falls back in exhaustion at the thought but what else could you do. You wince as you slowly move down to grab her shoulder and turn her over. You touch her shoulder, still warm, and grab her upper arm and carefully begin to push her over. You don’t realize how heavy bodies can be until you have to adjust your stance and get a firmer grip. As you push her over you see more blood come out of her head. You gag a bit as you see some flesh fall. You get her fully on her back to see it was the blood from her head was on the golden hammer.

Your hands are shaking as you look at her and see more scratches on her chest. You look down and see the hand she was laying on is now beside her and balled in a fist with something white hanging out. You roll your eyes because you want to see what it is. You slowly reach out and try to just grab the white from her fist. You realize its paper and begin to pull it but it won’t move. You bring your other hand over to spread the forefinger and the thumb and pull the paper out.

You exhale and stand up. You unravel the paper, your hands still shaking to read, “Go in the kitchen and choose.”

You quickly walk around the grand piano into the kitchen area and step behind the island counter and your eyes widen to see the shot gun and an old dial up phone.

“Not this again,” you think. You want to get out of here but you also don’t want to get caught with the bodies, so the phone might not be the best option. Plus, you don’t know who to call. You look at the gun and don’t know who it is you need to shoot. The last time you picked up a weapon, you woke up with two bodies lying next to you. You are still holding the now blood stained piece of paper. You flip it over to read, “They’re coming. Pick one.”

Your face scrunches up and suddenly you hear banging on the door. You instantly fall to the floor behind the counter as the banging continues. It stops for a second then it comes back harder and heavier. You realize they have some type of ram they are slamming the door with.

You begin thinking which the better choice is. You wonder if you should try and defend yourself with the shot gun. You don’t know how many men there are. You continue to hear shouting and banging. You think you could call someone, but you don’t know who. At this point you think there is probably someone programmed into the phone and you just have to put it to your ear. You shake your hands to rid yourself of the pressure you feel. They’re still ramming. Louder and louder. The noise is becoming unbearable. You close your eyes and see both of the dead women in your mind so you open them backup with tears present.

They burst through the door and you grab the phone. Tear gas cans are thrown everywhere and one rolls by the bedroom door that’s a few feet in front of you. You hit the green button on the keypad and put it to your ear. Everything goes black and silent.

You open your eyes to a window looking out at the rain coming down. You look down to see a wooden chair and the same black pants. You turn your hands over to see blood. You quickly look to your left to see a golden hammer with blood on it. You abruptly stand up and turn around to see the same woman lying on the floor. You mouthed, “What?”

Your breathing quivers. You realize you’re back where you started. You rush over to the front door and decide to look out the peephole. You see no one, then you try to open it again. You decide against going in the bathroom and shakily go ahead and turn the woman’s body over again. You pull the note out of her hand and read, “Who were you expecting to call?”

A cold sweat comes over you as your realize whatever is happening is real somehow. You turn the paper over to read, “Choose again. Here they come.”

As soon as you finish reading the last word you hear a loud bang. You quickly run behind the counter, your breath short and you grab the gun. The banging continues as you place your back against the counter facing away from the door and hold the weapon to your chest. You take several deep breaths in trying to keep yourself composed as you think, “I’m going to have to shoot at people.”

You hear the door finally burst open and see the can of tear gas roll by you. You quickly get your footing and push off the cabinet and stand up in the smoke and aim the gun in the general direction of the door. You have no time to hope you cocked the weapon correctly and pull the trigger. The gun fires. The blast is loud. The recoil of the weapon comes back and hits you on your chest and you fly back into the refrigerator.Your eyes close and everything goes black and silent.

You feel pain on your shoulders and chest and try to lift your head. You realize you’re lying on a hard surface. You manage to get your right arm out from under yourself and feel something in your hand. You open your eyes to see brown hair in your face. You bring your right arm up in front of you and use both arms to push yourself up so you’re seated on the floor. You see you no longer have the pants on anymore, but a dress and your legs and feet are bare. You move the hair out of your face and look forward to see a man sitting in a wooden chair with his back to you with the side of his head bashed in and blood dripping onto the floor. You look to the left to see the golden hammer on the table. You quickly look around to see you’re still in the penthouse and you’re the body that was on the floor. You reach up and touch your head expecting to feel a piece of your head gone; there is no gash and you somehow switched people.

Confusion has taken you over. You carefully stand up since you’re surrounded by glass. You think, “This i-is so crazy,” and tears began to form in your eyes. You tip toe out of the glass and walk to the kitchen area to see nothing. You then remember the piece of paper in your hand and read it.

“Open the refrigerator. Choose.”

You open the white refrigerator to see two plates of food sitting on the top rack and nothing else. You open the freezer to look, just because, then close it. You look at the uncovered foods; mac n cheese and spaghetti. You’re distraught and sigh at the idea of eating in the current situation you’re in. You then think to turn the paper over and read, “Eat it all.”

Your arm gets weak as you hold the refrigerator door open still. Your knees buckle at the thought of having to eat either plate. You look at both of the foods trying to come up with anything related that would guide your decision to choose.

You think, “They both have noodles. One is cheese sauce and the other is marinara.” Your thoughts are interrupted by the thought of having to relate noodles to the fiasco you’re in. You reach in and grab the spaghetti. Marinara looks like blood, so that is your choice.

The fork is already on the plate so you grab it and move it to the island counter, begin twirling the noodles, and eating. The first bite was heavy and saucy. You’re overwhelmed by how thick it is and how dry your mouth is. You take another bite and struggle to swallow. It lumps in your throat. You have to chew so much. You look to see how much is left and it looks about 4 more bites. Your knees go weak again having to eat all the noodles.

You finally have one last bite. You scrape all the noodles and sauce to one side and see a small message written on the plate. You quickly scrape more sauce off the words then scoop it up and eat it to read, “Look under the piano. Think fast. Choose quickly.”

You drop the fork on the plate and with spaghetti sauce on your mouth, you move around the counter and lift up the piano lid. Before you secure it in place to stay lifted, an explosion happens in the penthouse outside. The shock from the explosion broke the glass windows next to you. You are knocked over and fall beside the piano. You lay there remembering what you saw in the piano; a bag that read “parachute” and a sniper rifle. You sit up in the smoke and are hardly able to see but you make out little red dots over in the explode neighboring building. The next thing you hear is a gunshot and then a ricochet. You duck down and look around noticing little red dots on the kitchen island.

“More people shooting at me,” you think. You try to slide back to the end of the piano and think which one you should choose. You don’t think you can or have the ability to aim correctly so you settle for the parachute. You try to carefully stand as bullets fly by you. The smoke is still everywhere so the shooters can’t see you fully but one bullet grazes your arm. You let out a cry, push the piano lid up, grab the backpack, then hurry and put it on. You stop for a quick second, standing barefoot in the broken window glass and realize you have to jump out of this building. You hear a funneled pop sound then look back to the rifle and another explosion happens at the opposite end of the penthouse. You’re thrown against the island as you see nothing but fire where you once laid. You know the body of the man that was in the chair is gone. The smoke is aggressive and surrounding you. You quickly get up forgetting about all the glass and run out the open window.

You see the men still firing at the penthouse but you’re falling so fast they immediately disappear from sight. You begin reaching for the draw string but can’t find it. You’re panicking. You find a string and pull it and nothing happens. You see the ground coming near. You pull another string and the string comes out and is still in your hand. You open your hand and release it and begin to flutter wildly, as you scream and grab the air with your hands above your head. Your body begins to rotate so you’re now falling horizontally, your feet no longer the first point of impact, but your body as a whole. Lower and lower you fall. You put your hands out in front as if to break your fall. Closer and closer you get. Your face seizes up and your eyes close as you abruptly meet the ground. Blackness.

You’re still alive. You don’t know how. You saw yourself hit the ground. Your eyes are still closed but your feet are cold and your knees and body hurts. You realize you’re sitting uncomfortably on something hard. You finally open your eyes to see its pitch black. You reach your arms out forward and begin to slide. Your knees are dangled over a small wall so you grab that and pull yourself up. You place your feet on the ground and take a small step. You instantly run your shin into something on your right. You say ouch and reach down to touch it. You move your hands around. It feels like a toilet. You gasp, then while still bent over you feel your way from the toilet to the sink then to the wall to turn on the light to see you’re now the girl from the tub.

You back up hard into the door and slide down. Tears fill your eyes and escape down your face. You’re wailing. Your throat hurts from your cries. You began to think death from the jump would have been better than this.

Then it comes to you, “I moved onto a new person so I made the right choices.” The tears are still falling from your eyes as you slowly head out of the bathroom to the bedroom to the open room to see everything the way it was in the beginning. The man was still bloody, the hammer is on the table, the woman is back on the floor, bloody, and the rest of the apartment is intact. You walk over to the woman, wipe the tears out of your eyes, bend down and roll her over. You grab the paper from her hand to read, “Go to the closet. Put it on.”

You look over to see there was a door next to the front door of the penthouse. You walk over to it and look inside. There is nothing but several hangers and a white bathrobe. You grab it, put it on and tie it around the waist to cover up the scratches on your chest. You pull it tight. Then reach into the pockets and feel another piece of paper. You unfold it and read,“Go to room 400.”

The paper crumbles to a ball as you close your fist on it. “The door must be open then,” you think.

You reach forward and open the door. You let out a large breath then begin to walk quickly down the hall. You see the elevator several yards in front of you. You’re almost running you’re walking so fast. You get to the elevator and press the down button several times until it finally dings. The elevator door opens and it’s vacant. You step on and aggressively press 4. You press it until the doors are completely closed.

You nervously grab the belt around your waist and begin twisting it in your hands at your stomach. You went down numbers of floors. You stared at the numbers casually decreasing over the door. You were in the penthouse; you know you have a long way to go. The elevator felt like another trap. You’re waiting for something crazy to happen. You want out of the confined space now. Then you start to get close. The elevator stops on the 6th floor. You feel pressure on your chest and tears forming in your eyes. Your mouth moves silently saying, “No, No.”

You try to hit “door close” and the “4” button to keep the elevator going but the doors open. You see a happy couple look at you then step in. You cower to the back left corner. You put your head down as the doors close and the elevator goes down two more floors. You bite your lip out of nervousness. The elevator stops and the couple steps to the side to let you off. You’re still fiddling with the belt as you take steps forward out of the elevator and the doors begin to close behind you. You quickly turn around and put a flustered hand out to stop the door.

“Help me!” you cry out to the couple before the door is fully open. Tears fill your eyes so you are barely able to see the people. The door is fully open and they step forward and both put an arm around you. They don’t speak but suddenly you feel your hands and your neck being gripped and a bag pressed over your head. You began to smell something weird until you…

Feel yourself sitting on a hard chair. You try to open your eyes; it’s just too bright. You begin to lift your hands until they bump something. It’s cold. You open your palms to feel it’s a table. You bring your hands towards yourself and put them over your eyes. You try and block out some of the light with your hands as you gradually open your eyes more. You begin to spread your fingers letting more light in until you see a steel table in front of you.

“No,” you say and force yourself to look into the light. It’s painful but you drop your hands to see a gold hammer and a glass of water.

You can’t breathe. You try to swallow but fail. You slowly slide the piece of paper towards yourself and begin to read, “You cheated. Start over.”