A Devilish Circle

TIME: UNKNOWN

DATE: UNKNOWN

LOCATION: UNKNOWN

NAME: TENDRA

AGE: 16 - 18

GENDER: FEMALE

That last part is just to clarify for those PC people who are unsure on how to address me. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I just want to break the ice, you know?

Now that that's done, let's get down to the real problem. I don't know where the hell I am, or what time it is. Like, seriously, I don't even know if it's night or day, there are no windows in this cramped metal room.

Ooh!, that's also an important tidbit, what is this place? I woke up in here about one hour ago. In a bed that probably just became a teenager, because it's hard as a rock.

The room, as I mentioned before, is made out of thick metal. It has the shape of an rektangel and it's surprisingly clean. There's one bed in the room, which I'm currently sitting on, and a desk in the right corner. We also have a door to my left, which is locked (believe me, I tried) and just as hard as the walls.

After my attempts at forcing the door open proved to be in vain, I started exploring the other qualities of this cramped piece of shit. When I say that, I'm referring to how I laid in the barely qualifying bed and cried for five minutes before remembering that the desk existed.

The desk was also pretty much empty. There was no chair by it and pens, erasers or paper were nowhere to be found. I did find a midnight blue pearl in the small drawer under the desk. For really no reason at all, except the gratification that came from actually making some sort of progress, I put it in my pocket.

Now that I think about it, I haven't told you anything about myself. I have short black hair and midnight blue eyes. I have a black hoodie on me with a white bunny on it, although the bunny's eyes have red x's over them. My jeans are navy blue in color and on my feet are a pair of black sneakers.

I would talk more about myself if I could but my memory is pretty much blank. I have basic human knowledge, like how to speak, count and live. I also know about our human society and how everyone my age hates it. I remember that the current year is 2020. My name is Tendra, that I know. My age is probably somewhere between sixteen and eighteen, nonetheless, I'm pretty much flat.

I'm currently trying to figure out a strategy on how to proceed, and by that I mean that I'm doing my best to not panic. One of my first theories was that I had been kidnapped, but since I had some type of amnesia, that didn't seem like enough of an explanation. Or at least it didn't seem like the whole picture. I have heard that you can suffer memory loss from getting hit in the head really hard, but I didn't seem to have any wounds or bruises.

In the end, I decided to do the only logical thing. Scream.

"Heeelp!, can anyone hear me! If you can, please let me out of here! Am I kidnapped?! Please, open the door!"

Suddenly the door started moving, it opened towards me without making a sound. I really doubt that me screaming somehow made the door open and it seemed to have happened automatically, so what made it move? Is someone monitoring my room or was the door made to open at this specific moment?

There seemed to be a small corridor outside, it to was made out of metal. Although, windows were still nowhere to be found.

To my surprise, I didn't immediately move out of the room, I stood still, not moving a muscle. It seemed as if taking a step outside would only bring me a world of pain. The room that I had been trying to escape now seemed rather comfortable...

This calm wouldn't last long, footsteps started approaching my room. I first thought to hide under the bed but it seemed pointless. After only a couple of seconds, another person was standing in my doorway. It was another woman, with brown fluffy hair that was about the length of her shoulders. She had a big smile and her lime green eyes that were filled with excitement made me feel comfortable for the first time since I had woken up. She had chocolate colored skin and was wearing a simple white t-shirt. A golden necklace with a teddy bear of the same material was hanging around her neck. She was about half a head shorter than me. While my eyes were inspecting here clothing, I noticed that her left arm was missing.

Before I could make anymore evaluations, she ran straight into me and gave me a big hug. I was stiff at first but started embracing her not to long afterwards. She released me from her grip, which was surprisingly strong, and started speaking.

"Thank god I found someone else!, it was starting to get really lonely. Oh!, by the way, I'm Emeralda and I don't really remember anything more than that. I think I'm about the same age as you, but that's just me guessing. What about you?"

I was hesitant to answer her at first, simply because of how sudden this all was. But that weariness soon vanished and I responded.

"My names Tendra and Yeah, I have the same problem. So you don't know why we're here either?"

She got a melancholy look on her face.

"I'm sorry, I don't..."

"Ahh, so cute!" , I thought to myself.

"Don't worry about it. By the way, are you also from a room like this one?"

"Yeah, mines actually the same"

"Exactly the same?

She started inspecting the room, looking under the bed and searching through the desk.

"Seems like it...although..."

"Did you also find a pearl?"

Emeralda started searching through her pockets and pulled out a small pearl. It looked like mine, except for it's green color.

"I found this in the drawer under my desk, did you have something similar?"

"Yeah"

I pulled the blue pearl out of my pocket and showed it to Emeralda.

Before we had any more time to think about what this all meant, we heard a voice echoing through the corridor. It appears to be coming from various hidden speakers.

"All participants are to follow the red arrows towards the dining room. If you fail to appear within fifteen minutes, you will face punishments"

After the voice had finished speaking, red arrows appeared on the metal walls. They were all pointing left. I was not focused on the arrows though, the things that had been said were instead what filled my mind. We were participants?, had we chosen to be here? What punishment had it been referring to and most importantly, what were we participating in?

We both looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders to confirm that we were both just as clueless.

"Do you think we should follow the instructions?" It was Emeralda who had broken the silence. I was still thinking about what the voice had said, it was hard to hear but it had sounded like a man. "He" had spoken in a manner that made the information we had heard almost seem normal; as if we were getting called to the principals office.

"What do you think we should do... Tendra?"

"Ooh!, sorry. I don't really think we have that much of a choice. I don't really want to be punished either"

"Let's go then!"

Once we got out of my room, I noticed that it was at the end of the corridor. Emeraldas room was probably the one next to mine and the space between them appeared to be about twenty meters. I could see were the corridor ended, even though I was standing at the opposite side of it. It went forward in a straight line, at most, four other rooms would've been able to fit in. Still, that was only accurate if the same distance between rooms remained the same as with me and Emeralda.

We started walking, following the arrows as we went along. Not that they were really needed.

My calculations had been right, we spotted exactly four more rooms as we walked through the corridor. All of them seemed to have been occupied. No one could be found in any of them tough, it was kind of scary how similar every room was.

"Do you think that they're the same as us?", Emeralda asked.

"First of," are they like us" and yes, I do believe that they have the same problems"

Oh!, I'm so sorry Mrs. Tendra. I didn't mean to personally attack you with my obviously inferior grammar!"

" It's okay Mrs. Emeralda, I accept your apology" as I said this, I changed my voice to sound like your average sixty year old teacher.

"Ooh-my-gosh! I'm humbled by your acceptance of such a naive student"

"Don't worry about it Mrs Emeralda, I will make sure that you suffer the proper consequences of your actions. Let's begi-"

"Um... Are you okay?"

We had reached the end of the corridor, and leaned against a wall that you couldn't see until reaching the end of this hallway, stood a man about the same age as us. His face was making a funny grimasch, he appeared to be struggling in order to keep his laughter contained.

"I would like to think that we are, but thanks for your concerns young boy", I would never show my embarrassment, no matter what. Defeat was not a option.

"Okay...", he had short black hair and silver colored eyes. He was wearing a hoodie, it was black like mine but instead of a rabbit, a sentence was written on it. "anime is trash and so am I", the text was written with white letters. He was also dressed with a pair of grey sweatpants. He was about my height and seemed like just as much of a douchebag as me.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Emeralda and this is Tendra"

"I know, I heard your conversation"

Emeralda got an embarrassed look on her face.

"Ooh... You heard us..."

"So cute!... I just said that out loud, didn't I...", he became red like a genetically engineered tomato which purpose is to have a stronger color.

"Yeah, you just said that buddy", not that I blame you tough, I thought to myself.

"Anyway!, the name's Mercury"

"Your name's Mercury?", I said while falling to contain the bluntness in my voice.

"You got a problem with that?"

"No!, I just, you know... Mercury... Yeah..."

"You're totally making fun of my name!"

"Mercury!, listen. I'm not making fun of your name... I'm making fun of you in combination with your name"

"I knew it!"

"I mean, c'mon, Mercury?... Is that a tear?"

"No!, You just spit on my face!"

"I did not, you're totally crying!"

"You know what they say. If you're stuck in the desert, you need to create your own river... With-your-tears"

"You didn't have an easy childhood, did you..."

"How should I know, I can't remember!"

"Ooh!, good, so you're the same as us?"

"I'm the same as Emeralda, a nice and humble soul; I'm not some kind of sadistic monster like you!"

"I'm sorry, okay. Can you find it in your humble self to forgive me?..."

"See, was that so har-"

"...Mercury"

"I think I'm just going to go back to my room, no matter what the punishment is, it can't be worse than getting your individuality spit on"

"Ehm, you guys... I think that we should take this lat-"

"There are only five minutes left until the activities will start in the red room. Please hurry if you're not there yet, or there will be consequences"

"Let's take this later!"

                                     * * *

There were three more people in the "red room", two more guys and one more girl. Red lights were filling the room which surprisingly enough wasn't made out of metal. It was a completely white room, made up of big squares. The squares seemed to be made out of hard plastic material.

There was a stage in front of them with a big screen that had a number projected on to it. "665"

The red lights started blinking and a man walked up to the stage. He wasn't one of the people from the rooms, but an older man.

"Does this number mean anything to any of you?" There was no response. I certainly didn't know what to make out of it.

"That's to bad. Shall we begin then..."

                                  15:12

Blood ran across the floor. Emeralda laid still on the floor. I knew that this was going to happen, but I still couldn't stop it. I'm really a useless friend, aren't I... Her eyes are lifeless, her expression was so joyful just a couple of seconds ago. Aka's hands are shaking. Her flame colored hair no longer seems like it's floating, the fire inside her is slowly fading. Suffocating. The gun she's holding appears ready to drop on the floor any time...

                                 16:36

"Why can't I get this dammed watch off!?

       16:47

I will hide it here, under the loose plate. Please, find it.                      

     18:22

The green room is full of tubes, their filled with water… and something else. Pearls, like the one I found in my desk, in all kinds of colors. they're floating around in the tubes. People are inside them to, their skin is ripped and some are even missing limbs. Although, are they really people? They're deformed and look like the kind of monsters you would've seen in a horror movie. Arms that goes all the way down to their feet and fingers that would be able to reach all the way around your throat. Some doesn't even have faces, at least not human ones, the skin's all tangled up into one big mess and no eyes are anywhere to be found. What the hell is going on here! Time's running short, they are approaching. I can't escape, can I? Three people are gone already, will I join them soon?

      ?? : ??     

The room is dark; no light can squeeze through the thick walls. No, that's wrong, there are no walls. It's simply a darkness that seems to stretch out into infinity. No, that's also wrong, if there exists nothing, then there can be no infinity either. This place is empty, it's nothing. No one should be here, yet something is in front of me and at the same time, it's behind me. "Welcome to my home dear host, or at least it used to be that...", the voice is light, yet strong. It seems fragile, as if it's ready to crumble into small pieces and let the wind carry it somewhere else.

I wonder if I can speak, "H-hey", it feels weird hearing my own voice. "Hello?", the voice answer's confused. "What is this place?", I'm desperate for answers, although I don't know why. "I already told you, it's my home", the voice seems unsure on how to answer, almost as if it's trying to keep some secret from me. "Okay... Then over to the next question, why did you call me a host?", no answer.

I wait without knowing how much time passes, when I feel like there's no response coming, I start talking again, "Are you still here?" At first the result seems to be the same, but the voice finally starts speaking again, "My dear Tendra, I'm so sorry for your suffering, but soon you will realize what all of this is, I know that you will..." My name's Tendra?, I just realized something, I don't know who I am.

      * * *

TIME: UNKNOWN

DATE: UNKNOWN

LOCATION: UNKNOWN

NAME: TENDRA

AGE: 16 - 18

GENDER: FEMALE

I'm alone in this metal room and I can't remember anything. I found a pearl in my drawer, but nothing more. I found a friend and we followed some weird arrows. I met another guy who had a lame name. We walked the last bit together and arrived in a room full of red lights. There were three other people in the room. Some kind of stage was in front of us, with a big screen that had a number projected on to it. "666". "That's the devil's number", I thought.