Downstairs

Part 4: Takami

“So Evelyn, how long have you been here?” I asked. I was in the suite bathroom, washing the blood off my face. Evelyn was sitting on the queen sized bed, flicking through the guide on the TV.

    “Kinda hard to keep track at this point. I’ve been in five matches though, and won three of them. They hold 1 match a day, but they don’t put everyone in at once, and there isn’t always a winner. Sometimes even the last person standing is too banged up to make it upstairs. One of two things happens: they either die from their injuries, or they struggle to get to the elevator. When that’s the case, they at least get medical treatment and spend the night in the health office. It’s not great, but it’s still nicer than the cages. They get to stay there until they are completely healed.”

    “What about this room? Do you only get to spend the night here?” I said as I walked in and sat next to her.

    “I get to stay here either until my next match, or if someone else wins. There is no guarantee I will be in tomorrow’s match, but if nobody wins, or they are incapable of getting here, I get to stay.” she said and laid back. Her body was curvy, and I did my best not to stare. “But again, I don’t really care. I’d rather just not be here. I… I just want to go home.” tears started streaming down her face. I slumped over, sinking my head. 

    “Ah.. Don’t cry! I’m sure we can figure something out. This really does seem like nothing but a sick game. But even a sick game is a game nonetheless. There has to be a way to ultimately win this and get out of here.” I lay beside her. “We were brought here by portals, which up until now seemed like something completely impossible to me. We don’t know where we are, what’s outside of this place, or if there even is an outside.” Evelyn jumped up, startling me.

    “The men who come on over the PA!” she yelled. “There are three men at the top who dictate everything here, and watch all the matches from a glass window. It’s really high up from downstairs. I believe there is one more floor above this one, and that’s where they stay.” her head sunk. “But it’s no use. They control the elevator too, so we’d never be able to get up there.”

    “They are using portals to kidnap kids. I doubt it’s impossible. You mentioned something called the clearers. You said they put any survivors they find back into cages, and clean up all the corpses right?”

    “Yeah. What about it?” she looked at me with a somewhat sad expression.

    “Well to get up here, they would have to use the elevator. Not to mention, all those corpses have to go somewhere. If the elevator only opens at the end of the match for the winner...”

    “Then they have to use a different way to get upstairs! We need to figure out what that is, and see if that will lead us to the answer. We could save everybody and put an end to this!” her face lit up with hope.

    “That’s going to be tough to do on our own though. We are going to need some help.”

    “Nobody here has any damn sense. I’ve tried talking instead of fighting. It never works. The people who don’t want to fight end up getting killed. Being down here even for a tiny bit just ends up being too much for people. The death, the fighting, the conditions, they just lose the ability to think straight or sensibly.” She stood up and looked at the bed, seeing that she got the comforter dirty. She walked into the bathroom and shut the door. I heard water running heavily, and realized she was about to bathe. I picked up the remote, turning up the volume on the tv. A little later, the bathroom door opened. I looked over and she stepped out, her body wrapped with a towel. I quickly turned my head, I could feel my face getting red. 

    “Um… What are you going to do about your clothes?”

    “Oh, I used the bath to try and wash them as best I could. I’m just waiting for them to dry. If I’m gonna be here, I’m gonna take the chance to be clean while I can.” She yawned, and walked towards the bed. “Anyways,” she continued as she pulled back the comforter. “I’m gonna hit the hay. Hopefully my sweater is dry in the morning.” She turned off the lights, crawled into the bed, and quickly fell asleep. 

I turned the volume on the tv down a little more, and sat back against the headboard of the bed. I felt restless. I was so distraught wondering how I was going to get home, and thinking about whether or not I would die down here. Jason is probably going insane. Everyone is probably wondering where I am, and no one is going to believe him when he tells them what happened. Right now I’m just hoping this is all a bad dream. Evelyn said she has been here a while. I can only imagine how she must be feeling right now. As I stared at the screen, my eyes began to feel heavy. It was getting harder to keep them open, and eventually I found myself drifting off to sleep. 

I woke up to the sound of crying. I sat up, and Evelyn wasn’t in the bed. The bathroom door was shut, and I walked over, putting my ear up to the door. 

“Hey,” I said. “Everything is going to be okay.” There was no reply. I walked back over to the bed, picked up the remote, and started flipping through channels again. I stopped on a particular station that showed a large room with a blood stained floor. Nothing was happening, so I watched for a minute and realized what it was that I was looking at. “Evelyn, come out here! This channel is showing surveillance of downstairs.” 
 
“What?” she said as she opened the bathroom door. “I didn’t know about this. I’ve flicked through all the channels during my 3 stays here, and I’ve never seen this. Nothing is even happening.” She stared in astonishment. Snatching the remote out of my hand, she started flicking through channels, but the screen didn’t change. “What the..?”

“Maybe something’s about to happen.” I said.

“The next match…”