Trials by Leon Oaks

TRIALS

Chapter One

     Jason opened his eyes. He was tied up to his chair and was unable to move. His head and left ear hurt as he had been wounded with a blunt instrument that had been used to knock him out. He looked to his left and saw that his closest friends were in the same situation as himself.
     “I was wondering if everyone was going to wake up at the same time or not.” He heard a man say. Jason looked up and saw three figures standing in front of him. They were all wearing sinister masks that shielded their faces.
     The man in the middle who had spoken was wearing a latex mask. The eye sockets from the mask were empty and Jason could not see the man’s eyes. The mask had a normal looking nose, but the mouth was a sinister toothless smile and its grin was from ear to ear. Jason figured that the man was using a black pantyhouse to conceal his facial features. He was dressed with a black sweatshirt, dark blue jeans, and tactical gloves. Jason noticed that the man was wielding a rebar rod. 
     The person standing on the left side of the man was a woman. She was covering her face with a blank faceless mask and was dressed the same as the faceless man. She had dark long hair that went down to her shoulder.
     The third person that was standing on the right side of the man was six feet tall. Same style of clothing as the other two. He too wore a similar blank and faceless mask. His weapon of choice was a hammer.
     Jason tried to move, but he was unable to as they had handcuffed his hands to an iron ring that was nailed to the wall. “Jane? Jane wake up!” He screamed at his girlfriend. “Michael! Lilly! Johnny! Wake the hell up!”
     The Man With No Features made a gesture with his head, and The Faceless Woman and The Faceless Man shook and slapped around Jason’s friends until they woke up. 
     Their reactions were different. Jane began to cry out of fear. Michael swore at their captors. Lillian kept asking them what did they want, and Johnny stayed quiet as he tried to plan a way for him and his friends to escape.
     “Now, now. Please, remain calm.” The Man With No Expression said.
     “Piss off, asshole.” Michael said.
     The Man With No Expression took a deep breath. “Lust, darling?”
     The woman who was identified as Lust walked towards Michael and kneeled down so that she was face to face with him. She tilted her head as she examined him.
     “You don’t scare me, you’re a just a sad bitch hiding behind that stupid mask.”
     Lust took out a knife from her pocket and unsheathed it. She put the tip of the blade against Michaels cheek and began to cut him. She sliced different parts of his cheek and he shook and winced after each cut. “A-S-S-H-O-L-E. That’s seven cuts for your seven letter insult.”
     “He did call you a bitch too, darling.” The Man With No Expression said.
     “That’s right. He did, didn’t he?”
     “Please, please. He didn’t mean to.” Jane pleaded.
     “Babe, don't,” Jason said.
     Lust looked at Jason and Jane. “Listen to your man. Don’t interrupt the process. This whole thing is going to be wonderful. You guys just have to play nice.”
     “Nice? You kidnapped us! You stupid bitch. We ain’t playing your sick games.”
     The Tall Man walked towards Johnny, who remained silent as he stared back at him.
     The Tall Man pointed at Michael and said, “You did this. For disrespecting my Lust.” He wrapped his hands over Johnny’s head and then  began to slam it hard against the wall. He repeatedly kept smashing Johnny’s head multiple times.
     Lilly cried for mercy. Jane pleaded as well. Jason looked at The Man With No Expression and thought about how he was going to escape alive with his friends.
     Michael tried to break out of his handcuffs, but Lust wrapped her hands around his neck. “I will kill your pretty girl that’s right next to you if you don’t stop.”
     “Please. Listen to her.” Lilly pleaded. 
     “Okay, that’s enough.” The Man With No Expression said. “Let’s start with introductions, yeah?” The Tall Man stopped and went back to standing next to his leader. Lust did the same.
     “I hate liars. I think that the only way that we can all move forward is to better understand where we are all coming from. I get it. You’re wondering, ‘why me?’ and the honest answer to that is just, and I’m sorry for using such an overused and stupid phrase, but yes, it’s a wrong place, wrong time sort of thing. Let’s start with introductions, yeah? My name is Sin, my special lady is Lust, and this is Wrath. Now if I point at you, I wanna know your name and what you do, okay? Let’s start with you.” He pointed at Jane.
     “I’m Jane. I’m a nurse,” she said in a trembling voice.
     “Oh, that’s good. It can make the trials last longer if she helps keep everyone alive.” Lust said.
     “Hey, no spoilers.” Wrath said.
     Sin grinned and pointed at Lillian. “Who are you beautiful?”
     “Lillian. Journalist.”
     Sin pointed at Jason and said, “When he screamed for you to wake up, he called you Lilly. Does that mean that only your friends call you Lilly? After I invite you to my home, you still think of me as a stranger?”
     Wrath chuckled, “Come on man, you’re just being an asshole.”
     Sin turned to his friend and said, “I know. I’m just messing with them. Hey, what time is it?”
     “11:50 P.M.” Lust said.
     “Oh, it’s almost show time. Let’s explain to them the rules then.” His tone of voice turned into an excited one. “Alright, listen up guys. This pandemic is bullshit, right? We have all been affected by this pandemic, some worse than others. I’m just trying to make ends meet. After many, many sleepless nights applying for jobs and getting rejected or no response at all, I decided to be my own boss. Have any of you ever heard of a Red Room?”
     “No! Screw you!” Jane screamed.
     “Ah, going by that reaction and the expression on some of your faces, I take it that a few of you know. Jane, could you be a dear and tell the whole room what a red room is?”
     Jane was scared and terrified. She had heard stories of what a Red Room was, but she never imagined that she would be a part of it.
     “He asked you a question.” Lust said.
     “Red Rooms are like, live streams of murder. People, no. Assholes. Assholes like these three kidnap people and then live stream themselves as they torture and kill people while others pay and watch.”
     Jason already knew what it was and stayed quiet. Lillian was horrified by what she had just heard. Michael was now even more angrier than before and Johnny was unconscious.
     “That’s right. But, I feel like instantly killing someone is a bad investment. Think of it.  The longer it goes, the more money I make. Don’t worry, this will go out smoothly. You guys are not my first guests or last ones. The winners will be let go and get a cut from the money that we will make. But, you have to follow the rules, or else.”
     “Or else what?” Michael said.
     “Do it.” Sin said.
     Wrath walked over to Michael.
     “If you’re going to kill me, just do it.”
     Wrath gripped the handle of his hammer tightly and swung. Michael closed his eyes as he waited for his demise, but it did not come. He opened his eyes and saw that Wrath had swung his hammer and had then repeatedly struck Johnny’s skull. Lillian screamed as she saw the love of his life die next to her.
     “Let’s give you guys fifteen minutes to process what’s going on and who is in charge.” The three masked people started to walk away from the room. Before Sin closed the door, he looked at Michael and said, “You did this.”

Chapter Two

     Sin, Wrath, and Lust all sat down on a couch. They took off their masks and each took a sip of their drinks. “Holy crap, that was intense. Baby, the way you cut that dude and spelled out why you cut him so many times? That was badass.”
     “Not as badass as when you said ‘You did this,’ that gave me chills, and Nate, the way you swung that hammer? Fuck, that was brutal.”
     Nate, who went by Wrath, smiled. He then looked at Sin and said, “How much money have we made so far?”
     “Oh, shit. I haven’t even checked. Let me see.” He grabbed the laptop from the coffee table that was in front of them and refreshed the page. “Damn. We have thirty five members in our room. That’s seventeen-thousand that we’ve made so far, and we haven’t even started. That’s just the fucking buy-in.”
     “We have to make it last for as long as possible. How much is each request?” Lust asked.
     “Five hundred.” Nate said.
     “Remember though. We can’t get carried away. We can rough them up, but no more killing. That poor bastard was just to make an example and show them that this is real. Okay?” Sin said.
     “This whole thing is so messed up and it’s turning me on.” Lust said as she looked at Sin, her lover.
     “Let’s do it right here. We got a few minutes to spare. Nate, can you take care of the body?”
     Nate nodded and put back on his mask. He then went back to the red room where they had their victims chained up. He unlocked the handcuffs that were on Johnny and then looked at Lillian. “I’m sorry for your loss, miss,” he then pointed at Michael while still looking at Lillian and said, “but he did this.” He picked up Johnny with ease and began to walk away.
     “Wait. Wait, please. What are you going to do with him?” Lillian begged. Jane’s eyes were dried up from crying. Jason was in shock and Michael was filled with guilt.
     “This, all of this, it can end well. We’re not monsters. It was just a wrong place, wrong time type of thing. But I will give him a proper funeral, I promise.”
     Lillian was angry and saddened, but she learned already that it was best to just play along. “Okay, thank you.” She wondered if she could win him over and make it out alive.