Puzzle: Jigsaw's Daughter

.:9:.

I could not wait to start work on my 'project' so, right when I woke up the next day, I skipped into the basement. Amanda and John called it a workshop, but to me it sounded wrong. They informed me that soon they would be moving all of the equipment to an abandoned warehouse. That way nobody could track them down. I raced down the short flight of stairs, unable to wait any longer.

My first priority was to find suitable materials for my idea. I looked around the room, finding some needed equipment. I picked up a bottle, made out of thin but very sharp glass. Perfect. Another item I took was a timer, which I set to exactly one minute. Finding some cogs and machine parts, I used those too. I was left with a collection of wires, metal, glass and mechanisms. The hardest part came next. Building.

I had the perfect design in my mind, but creating it would not be so simple. I questioned Amanda all about the man: his height, weight and more details about his problem. He was an alcoholic and refused to take therapy. My trap would be ideal for the man, named Matthew. John helped me with recording the tape, explaining how to use the voice changer. It was simple enough and, with working over night, I was finished. My trap presented the shape of a man, there being a place for everything.

Jason, who turned out to be one of John's 'pig men', assisted me in transporting my trap and the knocked out man to the new location. The journey was at least two hours long. I guess you can never be too careful. The building was huge and isolated from civilisation. Massive windows were scattered on the front façade of the warehouse; some were shattered, others barred, or covered up by nailed-on planks of wood. We obviously did not want to use the main entrance and took the back door instead. I wheeled my creation inside and set up my masterpiece. I made sure that it was possible to survive, but with a few injuries. After all, there must be some sort of punishment.

Finishing with setting up my trap, I secured Matthew in it and waited for the effect of the chloroform to ware off. It took a while, but I was a patient person when I wanted to be. John and I were in a room filled with medical equipment and soon Amanda joined us. We watched the show through hidden cameras. Matthew started waking up and I was beaming with excitement.

He blinked a few times and attempted to move, but his legs and arms were strapped down onto the large chunk of metal. The man tried calling out for help, in panic, to be greeted by the end of a bottle in his mouth. The container was handing off a metal pole, which I glued to the grey ceiling. On the inside of the formed glass rested a key, which could potentially give him a chance for life. On the vertical pallet was a 'cap', holding his head in place. It was, once again, made out of iron. I was very curious about what he would do when the recording played. As if on queue, the tape started itself.
"Hello, Matthew," spoke the muffled voice. "You are probably wandering where you are. The restraints are keeping you from escaping and there is one way out. When this tape ends, you will have exactly one minute to free yourself. I know that you have a drinking problem. The only way to get out is by biting through the glass to get to the key. This will pierce the skin inside and around your mouth, causing a great amount of pain. But what do you value more - your life or your lips? If you do not succeed within the time given, the straps around your body will close in on themselves, causing suffocation or even worse..." I had to stop myself from jumping up and down with excitement, as the audio was about say the last sentence. "Live or die, make your choice." And the timer on the wall started ticking.

I was on the edge of my seat. Amanda hugged me reassuringly from the side, with a warm smile.
"It's great!" She exclaimed, still keeping her eyes on the screen. The number of seconds decreased, as Matthew thrashed against the metal, static flashing across our view. "What do you think, John?" Both of us turned to him with hopeful eyes. He just carried on watching the events unfold in the monitor. John had heard us, but decided to concentrate on my trap rather than chatting. It was a timed process after all. I did not blame him though, I would have ignored myself as well.

I swirled around to face the man, who deserved to learn a lesson about valuing life. He calmed down, but now had only 45 seconds left. If Matthew did not hurry up, it would be too late. And just like that, the man fiercely bit into the glass bottle. At first a cracking sound was heard, then the material shattered in his mouth, breaking off the end of it. The pieces were getting stuck to the interior flesh of the man. Rattling, the key regained his attention. He groaned in pain and spat out the fragments of the container, along with lots of blood. Matthew took deep breaths, his time moving to an even lower number. A small, but sharp, chunk of transparent textile pierced his skin and poked out of his cheek, but he carried on.

For some reason, this was oddly amusing. Like watching one of those TV shows, which was all about fate. It was mesmerising, the thrill of not knowing what would happen. I had a good feeling about this.