Needles of Forgiveness

As if waking up from a nightmare to have another, I felt shivers throughout my body. The stale smell greeted me soon as I gain consciousness.

I woke up inside a room, laying on a slanted enough bed for me to appear halfway seated. A strap held my head and belly to the bed and my arms and legs were completely immovable due to the cuffs.

The room was made of worn-out planks of wood. You could see some holes in the walls and in the ceiling yet only darkness peeks from it.

At my left stood a wooden chair and a table that holds a gas lamp that serves as the only light source in the room.

There's not a single window rather, in front of me is the doorway. It has no door, only a flower-patterned curtain hangs from above reaching halfway to the floor.

It was hot. Even though, I am wearing only a tank top and a short not exceeding below my knees.

Screaming could be heard from everywhere. Below, above, and on both sides, the loud wails of others kept knocking on the walls of my room.

The screams of the player in the room at my right are the most audible.

"I forgive you! I... forgive you!!"

He kept repeating these words along with his cries.

After a few seconds, the screen appeared.

"Forgiveness is a Means to Freedom"

"The old lady has been tending to you for a long time. Despite her age being around a hundred, she still insists on 'healing you' in an unorthodox way. Due to her age, most of her movements are sloppy. What the old lady hates the most are unforgiving people."

"Objective:"

"Say 'I forgive you' every time the old lady asks for forgiveness. Not doing so will anger the old lady."

I could see my legs. It appears to be without a single tiny scratch, yet the feeling of it being sawed remained in my head. The eerie feeling the room emits also gave me anxiety.

The dim orange light that came from the gas lamp combined with the screaming and the knowledge about those screams, filled me with intense nervousness.

While my legs still shaking, someone stood in front of the doorway. She brushed off the curtain and then went inside.

It's the old lady. She wore an old lady's scarf around her head covering her hair. Her eyes shrunk in size due to her face notwithstanding the passage of time. Her upper body leaned forward as if her spine curved like a wire. Walking half a step at a time, her long flower-printed house dress swept the floor as she walks.

Carrying two tin boxes with her, she sat down on the chair and placed the boxes on the table. While opening one of the boxes she looked at me with a big smile.

Her smile would've been less scary if she has dentures, I thought.

Somehow relieved when the old lady took out her dentures from the tin and wore it, I let out a sigh. After wearing it, she leaned close to my face and "examined" me.

She pinched my short black hair slowly pulling it. Placed her index finger around my eyes as if she were tracing their almond shape. Then, she stretched my eyelids to look closer at my dark brown pupils. As if not enough, she also pinched my nose and made a comment about my brownish complexion.

"De-Dear... you don't, lo-look... well."

"No. I feel so great. If you release me, I think I'll feel better."

The old lady stayed still and showed a better smile on her face thanks to the dentures she wore.

"Y-you... look so sick. Let me heal... you."

As if she didn't hear me or I spoke a different language, the old lady ignored what I said. She turned back to the other tin box on the table and opened it. The box is bigger than the other one that has her portable teeth.

The old lady took out something from the box. As she turned around, the old lady pinched a big needle with her delicate hands. Placed between the thumb and index finger of her right hand, as if trying to show me how big the needle is.

A bit longer than my little finger and thicker than the common needles I have seen. The old lady moved towards my legs. She's slow, sliding her feet on the ground I could hear the sound of her slippers as she moves.

She stopped, facing my left leg.

Everything moved slowly again from my perspective. I gawked at the old lady's hand which holds the needle. Having a hard time to breath, I wheezed at a fast interval.

Touching my feet up to my leg, the old lady seems to be looking for something. As she touched my left leg with her left hand, she rested her palm on the top of my left foot.

"Th-this will.... hurt a bit."

My body felt hotter. The old lady pricked the top of my left foot with the needle, it made me startled.

"I-I'm sorry. D-does... that hurt?"

Somehow relieved that the old lady only pricked the top of my left foot, my breathing became much calmer. But the relief didn't last long as the old lady gripped my foot hard enough to make me curse aloud.

"I am sorry!"

"I forgive you, d-dear."

She smiled, "Did it hurt?"

Compared to the last task I did, it felt like a mosquito bite. I calmed myself and replied.

"Only a little."

She had a brighter smile.

"I-Is that... so. Then, let's... continue. Shall we?"

"Ye-"

I screamed at the top of my lungs. My breathing became unstable again and I kept on chasing my breath.

The old lady inserted the needle she was holding inside my left foot. In the same area, she pricked earlier. Looking at it, I could see only half of the needle peeking out of my foot.

Fluids kept leaking out of my body. Sweat, my drooling saliva, even a bit of snot from my nose.

"Forgive me. D-did it... hurt?"

Still chasing my breath I forced myself to reply.

"I... forgive you."

The old lady smiled. Hearing those words must've been like music to her ears.

"Y-your left... foot. Still needs more."

She went back to the table to get more needles from the tin box. Sliding her feet on the ground, she slowly reached the table and took out a lot of needles. The old lady patted me on the head.

"I-It'll be... alright."

I looked at her, still breathing heavily, and couldn't say a single word.

Holding the needles in her hand, she moved again close to my feet. The old lady touched the area around the needle she stabbed in my left foot. Tilting her head as if trying to figure out where to place another needle for her healing process, the old lady took her time before inserting another needle close to the one she left buried like the sword Excalibur.

Screaming again, I gagged with the overflowing saliva in my mouth. I felt the needle almost pass through the bottom of my left foot. The old lady seems to only hear things she wanted to hear.

My screams are like background noise to her as she continued piercing my left foot with needles. I tried to somehow distribute the pain by imbuing my fingernails to my hand.

After inserting the last needle in her hand to my left foot the old lady stopped.

"D-does that hurt? Please... forgive me."

"-give...you. I, forgive you."

After hearing how I forgive her, the old lady always has a bright smile. And it seems like it is the only thing she wanted to hear from me.

Now finished with my left foot. She moved back to the table to take more needles from the tin box.

"Oh... Seems like we're o-out of needles."

The old lady decided to go out of the room. She's moving too slowly as if the exit is hundreds of meters away.

When I looked at my foot she kept on stabbing, it became like a pin cushion filled with needles. The needles were a distance apart.

I don't know how long I waited. Felt like it took her years to return.

"N-next is... the other foot."

Though I am not losing a lot of blood since the old lady decided to let the needles stay in my body, I started feeling light-headed. But I can't lose consciousness, I kept convincing myself that the pain I am experiencing is only in my imagination.

I'm not sure how long it has been. Every time a needle pierces my body it startles me and results in me letting out a scream. Time seems to have slowed down with my continuing torture. After making my right foot look like a pin cushion as well, the old lady moved to my legs.

She makes sure that I felt her "healing "for a long time as she always heads out of the room when the needles in her hand run out.

My screams blended with the cries of everyone else who was in the same predicament. We're like an orchestra, and the sound of our wails seems to be music to the ears of our torturer.

With the passage of time, the number of needles buried in my limbs kept increasing. From my feet to my legs now to my hands and arms. There's also some around my belly and chest area, but the old lady seems to know how deep to stab a needle since most around my body are buried deep enough but not hitting my organs. At least that's how I felt.

Every once in a while, the old lady says that she's sorry about something. I decided to continuously say "I forgive you" since I am struggling just to retain my consciousness.

Screams that came from me grew weaker as I became tired. Somehow, I became a bit numb from the continuous pain. But every time I am pierced with a needle the pain is heightened.

"Don't lose consciousness. You'll die." As I talk to myself to fight for survival, the old lady spoke,

"W-we're... almost done."

The word "done" lifted my spirit, somehow bringing back a bit of energy that I myself didn't know from where it came.

But when my visions aligned, I saw the old lady's hand in front of my face. She pierced both my cheeks. It didn't go through, but I could feel the needle make a bump inside my mouth.

My nose didn't escape the old lady's needles as she inserted a needle on each side. I could feel it block the air going in and out of my nose.

"D-done."

Where's the screen? I passed right? Let me out, let me out! These words kept running through my head when I heard the old lady say she was finished with her "treatment".

"Oh, S-sorry... there's one left."

She pierced the remaining needle through my left eye. The energy I somehow got out of nowhere, is now converted to screams as I felt the surge of intense pain.

"I said, sorry."

The old lady said as she wiggled the needle stuck at my eyeball.

"Fu- I forgive... you!"

After she heard me say those words, she let go. Moved out of the room swiftly, like she could run a marathon now. Then the screen popped up.

"Congratulations!"

I didn't care about what was written on the screen. The binds that keep me strapped to the bed also vanished. Bumping my nose to the button on the screen which has the label "Exit" written on it, I couldn't move my arms. Pierced with a lot of needles, I became a human pin cushion.

"Logging out in 10 seconds."

I cursed. Another countdown. My mind is filled with wishes for the countdown to go faster.

"Logging out in 0 seconds"

I woke up screaming, with the VR helmet still in my head, and some sort of tubes stuck in my arms. As I removed the helmet, I saw the tubes stuck in my arm through needles and removed them.

Seeing the needles gave me shivers, even though they are the common ones used to provide supplements to the body through the tubes.

The sensation of the needles being buried in my body remains. But being in this room gave me relief.

I never thought that I'll miss my room in this prison.