A Tearful Sacrifice Game

● | Three | ●

"God, I wish they would like, close that door off so we don't have to look at his body." Janus grimaces, glancing back to the corpse in the other room. He isn't all that fazed by it now, since the prospect that Remus is dead has more than begun to sink in.

"My brother just died and that's what you say? You're a prick." The boy sniffles as he says this.
It's only now starting to hit Roman that Remus is well an truly dead. He was so young, too. Such a shame, isn't it?

"Hey, I was just saying-"

"At the end of this room, is another gate. Just like before, this gate only opens when another one of you dies. It's different this time though.

In both the floor and ceiling, there are spiked metal spears attatched to pistons that can fall down or push up at any time. The second that one of you is impaled, they'll stop.

The only difference between this and the last, is that if you happen to find yourself pushing another candidate into a spear, well, while that'd be a shame for the deceased, it would be allowed. Good luck."

When the boys look up to the ceiling, they now notice the cylandrical holes in the ceiling, starting about a metre infront of them and lasting for about five metres. Behind that is the gate.

Virgil flinches hard when the first spear slams down from the ceiling, remaining silent.
"Do we just go whenever or..?" Janus' voice is confident and doesn't sound the smallest bit scared as multiple spears jolt up from the floor and down from the roof in unison.

"I would imagine so, although we each have a one in five probability of surviving, no matter when we take our chance. I suppose I shall go first."

He looks backwards to Remus' body. The blood as stopped flowing and begins to dry against the concrete as his eyes look up to the ceiling, void of any life. Then he runs.

More than once does a spiked metal rod barely skim the tall boy's body, but within six seconds he has evaded the space, jumping the last half a metre and rolling across the floor before stopping on his knees and smilng.

"You four have a 25% chance of surviving now. I would come soon, if I were you."

Janus takes a deep breath in and steps back as if about to do a run up. Before he can, Virgil places his hand infront of the other, looking towards the boy. "W-wait!"
He raises his eyebrow. "Yeah?"

"Do you- do you think you could, like, pull me with you? Like, grab my wrist and just drag me through, because- I really don't think I'm going to be able to do this by my own willpower and-"

The emo is cut off by Janus' hand harshly grabbing his lower arm and leaping sprinting through the deadly square of spears, pulling Virgil behind as he yelps, narrowly avoiding around four, due to his lack of control over his own movements.

"You're welcome." Janus says, as the two of them get through unscaved. Virgil wobbles on his feet for a moment before standing properly.
"Thanks."

The three who've made it through look to Patton and Roman, the latter still having a steady flow of tears rolling down his cheeks from the death that occurred five minutes prior.
"Shall we, uh, go together, Ro?"

Roman nods anxiously. The two of them are clearly scared about this. Most would when being faced with the prospect of certain and painful death.

The remaining boys decide to count to three, and then run. Yeah. That'll work.

"Three,"
"Two,"
"One."

Patton shoots forward first, pulling the other behind swiftly.

"PATTON! Patton, help!" Roman cries desperately, Patton turning back momentarily to see one of the spikes from the floor has driven itself through the denim of Roman's jeans. None of the blade has hit his skin or bone, but he's stuck.

The other boy panicks, stepping back and ripping Roman's jeans with his hands so that the other can be freed. While he does this, he leands forward. "There, okay, okay, quick let's-"

A spear falls from the ceiling and impales itself directly through Patton's torso, exiting his body on the other side, coated in a thick layer of crimson blood. He looks down to the metal rod, eyes widened in shock.

He glances up to Roman, a soft whimper leaving his lips before all signs of life depart from his body.

Then, the spears stop their falling, and Roman slaps his hand over his mouth in a mix of fear, shock, and mostly guilt.

The metal rod retracts back into the ceiling, letting the newly deceased's body slide off it and hit the floor.
"Oh, god. I- I just got him killed."

Nobody replies. They just stand in awe, watching.

"Another one bites the dust. Heh, sorry, I understand this may be visually upsetting. Like before, ten seconds - through the gate, chop chop candidates."

Hearing the bars of the gate retract open, and they slowly head through. Roman folows behind, now understanding the severity of following orders in a different way than before.
After all, life can be taken so suddenly it seems.

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887 words