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“The Test”

Tears rolling down my face, sweat pouring from every part of my body, should I dare to open my eyes? My heart’s beating faster and faster, like a bomb about to explode, I fear the worst. My ears prick up at the sound of Brendon’s voice. I’m not alone. The intensity of the light hits me as soon as I tilt my head up. There’s a strange atmosphere floating around the room, but a blind man could tell you that. My head’s throbbing, surely I’m dreaming? Can this be reality? Looking around the immaculately neat room, the only thing I seem to notice is how clean the white walls are. They remind me of hospitals and those fake smiles all the nurses wear. There’s also a terrible smell lingering in the room. It’s the smell of blood; dried stale blood. A handprint is smeared across the gigantic, gleaming gold door. The door has been badly painted, almost as if someone was deliberately trying to annoy everyone who looked at it.

I’m not alone. My heart lazily loops as I see Brendon and three other, as yet unknown bodies. Brendon tries to smile at me, through gritted teeth. I can see the fear in his eyes too. Pointing at a sleeping body, he makes a gagging gesture.
“Who is it?” I whisper, trying not to disturb anyone.
“Lover boy!” He whispers back, sarcastically.
“Oh, your favourite!” I groan.
Dave rolls over, his face paler than usual, his normally neat hair swept across one eye. Sitting up, he turns towards me. He smiles a vacant smile. Brendon takes this opportunity to abuse Dave and slaps his face. Dave doesn’t blink for a second, almost like he doesn’t care. Nevertheless, he gets up and rugby tackles Brendon. They both roll around on the floor, acting like a pair of school children. And then the fourth body wakes up. I don’t recognise this girl until I look at her arms. Those painfully thin arms, that always looked like they were going to snap. I haven’t seen her in years.
“Jade!” I exclaim as I hear more gagging noises from Brendon, “and Dani!” It is great to see my two best friends from high school again, even in this bizarre situation. And then it strikes me, like lightning setting a tree on fire. These people are the worst possible combination of people to be here with. Getting up, Dani tries to unlock the door.
“It’s bolted tight,” she says. “What the hell is going on?”

A telephone shrieks in the silence. All eyes dart to the wall opposite that door. In the corner of the room, the telephone hangs on a steel plate. It’s the kind of phone you see in high streets, except there is something very menacing about this phone. Perhaps it’s the increasing volume, or the deep scratches carved across its top.
“Don’t answer it!” Dani screeches. Her voice doesn’t sound right. Her unusually masculine physique suddenly looks weak and fragile. Her tough reputation, carved by long, hard years in jail, is undermined by the fear in her eyes. I’m seeing the real Dani, the old Dani.

“Answer the phone, Brendon,” Dave says.
“Why should I?” Brendon replies sarcastically.
“Maybe it’s for you.”
“No, Brendon, don’t!” I wail as I try to stop him, but it’s too late, he’s picked it up already.
Through the silence I hear a chuckle, followed by a voice. A sickening, sinister voice.
“Hello. I suppose you’ve all woken up now. Don’t worry. You’re all here because of one thing. You each have something to hide. You may have noticed that there is a gun taped under this phone box. You may also have noticed the keys dangling around your necks. But you probably haven’t noticed that the door has five locks on it. Each lock has a message and each message is for a different person. The question is, will you be prepared to deal with the consequences? You have one chance to unlock that door, or that’s it. Your freedom will be gone forever.” The phone line goes dead. Jade runs to the phone and snatches it from Brendon’s hand. Jiggling the receiver she tries to get through to the voice again but it’s no good, the phone is completely dead. She starts to breathe heavily but Brendon interrupts her panic.

“We should probably use this gun to protect us from whatever’s on the other side of that goddamned door,” he says, checking the magazine. The dim light glints off the shiny black metal.
Guilt clutches my heart like a vice. All I can think about is one thing: my secret. Is this some sick kind of a game? Suddenly the gun seems to be more of a friend, a way out, another option. There is no way in hell I’m going to get out of this situation. I may as well die now, in control of my own life. Looking around me I can see the same thought on everyone’s minds. Death.

We all knew each other at school, but that was a whole different story. Everyone has changed, the long years between then and now have added sins and tragedies to every face in the room. I guess we each have something to hide.

Looking up at the golden door, I notice for the first time the five locks on its right-hand side, each one with a red inscription etched into a white plate next to it. Trying to walk towards the door, my fear kicks in again. My legs feel stuck to the ground with terror. Every part of my body shakes as if I’m about to collapse and die. Staring around the room, my eyes are drawn again to Brendon. His usual cheeky grin has vanished; his normally well-kept hair is dirty, and he has absently scraped it behind one ear. The love has disappeared from his eyes. Well what more can I expect? Kidnapped, trapped and slapped in the face by a stranger. A stranger? For the first time I realise that it’s no coincidence that the five of us are together for a reason, linked by our pasts. But what do we all have in common now? Nothing. The fear-stricken faces around me are not the people I once knew.

Looking at the door I can see the message left for me, scratched in red like an accusation written in blood. I would rather be dead then have them find out which secret is mine.

* * *
At the first click I hear a sound of relief from everyone’s lips, yet the atmosphere grows increasingly tense. Dani steps back from the door, the open lock in her hand.
“Only four left to do now” Brendon smirks. He finds this hilarious. I begin to wonder if that last secret is his. No, it just can’t be. I know Brendon has changed, but not that much. He wouldn’t.
“You find this funny, do you?” Dani yells accusingly at Brendon, her embarrassed face turning into an evil, angry grimace. Her face turns as red as blood, spit drooling from her mouth. I am as ashamed for her as I am for Dave, who also shares her secret – that she has spent ten years in jail. I’d always suspected that they’d been an item in high school. However, I’m proud that Dani could admit to her secret in order to spare our lives.

“If Dani can admit to that, then I guess I can admit to this too.” Jade’s gold key glints in the light as it slowly turns in the lock. And then Dani notices the message scratched next to Jade’s lock.
“You bitch! You, you did this to me!” Dani screams, her face as red as blood.
“No, that was a long time ago Dani” I try to reason with her, try to keep the peace, but it’s useless. “This is exactly what he wants us to do.”
Now Dani turns and screams at all of us. “She… she had me locked up for ten years for a crime I didn’t commit! None of you have any idea how that was, the squalor, the beatings, the pain!”
Jade’s face, turning paler and paler, has a dazed expression, almost as if she is about to faint. “I… I’m so sorry Dani… I…”
“Oh, you will be” Dani interrupts as she starts coming towards us.
“Megalolz, ain’t this fun?” Brendon smirks, his smug little grin turning into an evil smile.
“Oh, if you think this is so funny, then why don’t you own up to your little secret then?” I spit back at him. I can’t believe it. The Brendon I once knew, once loved is not the same Brendon I’m staring at. He must be drugged or delusional or, maybe he’s changed, inexplicably changed, into a monster.
“Nah, I don’t believe in none of this shite to be honest” he grins.
“You think this is a game, some sick little dream. Well it’s not. Grow up!” I yell back, tears running down my face now. I can’t even bear to look at him. I feel so alone, so trapped and vulnerable and Brendon, my supposed best friend, isn’t even here for me.

“Fine. You want me to play this stupid game, I will.” Brendon screeches.
Looking into his eyes, I don’t recognise the soul locked beneath them. It’s like staring into a void, an empty heartless void. He angrily jabs his key into the middle lock. Reading what it says I feel light headed, almost as if I’m going to throw up. I run to the corner of the room and violently throw up, sweat dripping off my forehead, until I’m empty. I feel numb with pain.

“So what? You all know I have a mental illness, it was just this one time when I weren’t on no meds or nothing” says Brendon, turning back towards us.
“How do I know you won’t do it again?” I stammer, holding my tears back.
“You see any knives here?” Brendon replies sarcastically.
“What about after we get out?”
Brendon laughs at me cruelly, the evil grin back on his face. “We ain’t never gonna get out of here, are we, dumbass?”
“What makes you say that?” Dave asked. “How can you be sure?”
“Well look at that last secret. Neither of you two are gonna own up to that now, are you?” Brendon says, sliding down the wall into a slumped heap.

Five faces turn to look at the inscriptions next to each lock.
Jailbird.
Swindler who had her best friend locked up.
Drug-addict and attempted murderer.
Two-timing bitch.
Psychopath.

I see my life flashing before my eyes. It all made sense now. I heard that Jade and Dani drifted apart just before Jade came into a lot of money. Brendon, who once was the love of my life, had turned to drugs.. they say he tried to save me. Dave and I… we were a couple, a good couple, until I cheated on him, then… And then darkness speeds towards me, like a bullet.

* * *

Waking up the light hits my eyes first. I can see four faces standing over me. Jumping up, my memory comes back to me. “You!” I scream at Dave. “You’ve locked us all in here!”
It’s then that I notice the gun in Dave’s hand.
“Yes. I put you all in here. A convict, a swindler who cheated her best friend and got her locked up, a drug-addict and attempted murderer, and a two-timing bitch! You’re all worthless and I know all your secrets.” He turns round and shouts at me, “I loved you and you cheated on me, with him!” Pointing at Brendon, Dave yells at the top of his voice, the veins in his face looking as though they are about to burst. He points the gun at Brendon. “Too bad for you that the psychopath has the gun.”
“No!” I shriek, jumping in between them, a shield.
Almost immediately I realise that I’m wrong – that wasn’t Dave’s intention. Dave turns the gun round, jabs it into his own temple, and pulls the trigger. The sound of the explosion, smashing through skin, flesh and bone, is deafening. And then, the screaming starts. Watching the most horrific event of my life, the only thing I can think about is getting out of this cursed room. I grab the key from Dave’s blood splattered neck… and then I pause. I’ve done this.

Snatching the key from my hands, Brendon runs towards the door and starts to unlock it. “I need your key too, bitch!” Brendon yells at me.
Feeling dazed I pass over the key. Unlocking the door, Brendon turns round and spits at me. “I hate you.”
Jade and Dani give me a sympathetic look and then stagger out, leaving me alone with the blood-splattered corpse.

* * *

I pick up the gun and check the chamber. There’s one bullet left.