I've convinced myself of her guilt

two convicts we stand in silence

glass stretched between us we couldn't speak even if we wanted to

soundproof, bullet proof, we've been briefed

I see her red button pulse in time with my own

one touch and it will be over

to clarify, this was never voluntary

picked out of our respective prisons

life sentences they figure why not kill them?

she's put together

hair combed and uniform ironed

I wonder what guilt tastes like

"I was framed"

I say it without thinking

a frequent and impulsive statement

I never killed

and I'm not prepared to do it now

but I'm sure she's guilty

so why does she hesitate

we could just sit here

how long would it take for them to get bored of our standoff

what is she waiting for

her eyes are a stark contrast of color against the bland room split in two

bluer than I've seen

we watched each other

I tremble

she steps towards the glass and I step back

I can see her smirk and she steps towards her beating heart of a button

instinct takes over

I race and my fingers stumble over to the light

I look back to see her horrified

it was a misstep

she never meant to kill me

too late my fingers make an indent

the whole world is red

they never meant for either to survive

silly killers

"Hello, everyone! Welcome to the Bloody Axes show!" The announcer yells into the microphone.

The crowd roars in such a twisted way I almost scream at them, "Shut up, you idiots!" But that would get my immediately dead.

I never have thought about getting chosen to kill people on a game show. Even if I did, I never would have guessed that I would be chosen. I was just a regular person, not a serial killer or crazy murderer.

But now I would have to become one of those things or die.

"Now," the announcer says, "for those of you who are new to Bloody Axes, it is a game show in which this young lady right here will have to kill strangers or kill herself. Now, bring out the stranger!"

A small boy, looking about ten or so, shuffled out onto the stage. His eyes were wide and full of dread. In his hand was a picture of a lady who looked like his mother.

The announcer handed me and axe with dried blood on it. "Now, you may kill him or kill yourself," he said. "If he lives, he gets five thousand dollars. If you live, it is the same for you. What do you choose?"

I clutched the axe and moved backwards from the boy. I dropped the axe, hearing it crash onto the ground. "I won't kill a small boy. I will not kill for money!" I exclaimed.

"Oh," said the announcer, "that is a shame. Does she need some coaxing, audience?"

More cheers and screams of "yes" rose up.

"Okay," the announcer said, and cleared his throat. "Young lady, if you kill this boy you will only have to kill nine more people. This boy is a stranger. You have no reason to show mercy for him. And if you kill the rest of the nine people, you will be rich for the rest of your life." He let out a cold laugh. "And not dead, of course."

I thought about his words. It was true, I would be rich, and not dead. But being dead was better than living with the guilt of killing ten people for the rest of your life.

The boy opened his mouth, and I thought he was going to scream, or vomit, or do some gesture of fear towards me. But he only said so quietly I could only hear him, "Go on. Do it. But please do it quickly."

I shook my head, and put the axe to my throat. The crowd was hushed. I felt the cold metal on my skin, and then warmth as I pressed it to my throat. Then pain. Pain so great and so fast, it almost did not seem real. But then the lights went out in my eyes, and I had did it. I had killed myself.

Evan grabbed my waist and began pulling me into his apartment. "I'm so glad we met, Michaela," he whispered, and he kissed my cheek.

I beamed at him, feeling guilty, fully aware of what I had to do. "Me too... Uh, you said something about a movie?"

"Hah, yeah, sorry, come on in," Evan opened the door and led me inside. It was a quiet place- too quiet.

He plopped down on the couch and turned on the tv. "Mind if I look around?" I couldn't handle this... How could I have let myself actually like him?

"Not at all," he flashed me a smile that I couldn't resist mirroring.

I walked around the small living area and escaped into the kitchen. I grabbed a butcher knifes it's sweaty and shaky hands and slipped it into my waistband right as he shouted to me; "Movie's on! Come on back in,"

I walked out to the tv room, my heart beating faster by the minute, the speed of a humming bird's wings. "I'm sorry Evan, I need to go,"

"Oh..." He looked down. "Was it something I said? I thought you'd like this movie. We can change it if that's what you want!"

"It's nothing you did," And it wasn't. But I knew that I needed to do this if I wanted to save my family. "It's not you, it's me." I'd seen what happened to the families whose children couldn't go through with their task. "Hug?"

He nodded and stood to come toward me. I embraced him, grabbed my knife and pulled it from my waistband. "I truly am sorry," I said. A confused look crossed his face before suddenly drawing straight.

He gasped in pain. "Wha..at?" He murmured. He fell to his knees. Tears streamed down my face but I couldn't wipe them; the blood on the knife had streaked my hands, but I knew it was deeper than that.

"Goodbye, Evan," I sobbed. I took a blanket from the couch and draped it over his blood-soaked body. He reached out to me; took my hand. "F-fake," His eyes pleaded this to be a dream.

I blinked back another flood of tears and shook my head. With that I snaked out of his grasp and out the door. From there, I ran. I ran for my life, my love. My family.

The only question was; where would I go from there?

This is what I get for getting wasted Waking up in a cell. Head pounding. Stomach turning. "Hey." I manage to choke out before puking on the floor. "Hey, I need to use the toilet" what kind of cell doesn't have a toilet? I stand up wobbling the urge to puke rising but I force it back down the best I could. Stumbling I fall into the bars with a clang. The noise rattling my brain. "Hey. Is anybody out there?" Footsteps walking slowly down the hall. The sound of keys jingling and whistling echoing toward me. I curse under my breath as each step pulses in my head. "Mornin'" I look up to see an over weight man smiling down at me. "I've got to take a piss" the man shakes his head "of course ya do. After a night like last night" his eyes shift to the vomit on the floor. "Well come on now. Before you piss yourself" he opens the cell door with a screech piercing my head. He chuckled at the sight of my pain. I walk slowly using the wall as my crutch. Noticing the cameras staring down at me. "What did I do?" His eyes smiled at me "you don't remember?" I shook my head. "Well that is probably for the best" he stops at an open door pointing his arm like a model "there's the can" I make my way inside. Laughing as I see the cameras staring down at me. Perfect I get to piss with an audience. I walk to the urinal when another guy walks in. I ignore him as I unzip my paints. But I feel his eyes on me. Instinctually my eyes dart to him. He seemed nervous shifting. Creep. I try to ignore him as he approaches. Getting a little too close. "Dude. Do you mind?" I look up to see venom in his eyes. Before I could react the gun was raised. Pointed in my face point blank. "Welcome to the game" he says followed by a bang. Then my world went black.

The lights flicker on. I'm standing in a room with only a single door way in front of me. I can hear what sounds like people talking in the other room. Testing the door it's locked. How did I get here? Where is here? The loud speaker clicks on "ten seconds to show time". Show time? What do they mean by that? The door clicks and swings open by it's self. Taking a look around I decide it's that or stay here so I walk threw and the door again swings close by it's self.

The second room was just as fetcher-less as the first only this one had a metal table in the middle with a tarp draped over it. I walk over and pull the tarp back and stagger backwards as I gaze down the items on the table. A knife, a pistol and a ball pin hammer. What could these be for? The intercom clicks on again. "Choose your fate". A door in the floor opens up and a man tied to a chair rises up from the opening. "Kill this man here and now and live. Or kill your self and the man lives".

"What? What is this some kind of joke?". I look at the man in the chair. His arms and legs were tied to the legs and arm rests of the chair and duck tape was over his mouth. But the fear in his eyes was very real. I walk over to him and reach out my hand. He screams into the tape and thrashes violently against the bounds. "Its ok I'm just going to take this off you".

The intercom clicked on again. "If you touch this man you both will die". I jerk my hand back. The man takes a deep breath and calms a little.

No this was not sick joke, but a sick man playing a sick game. But if I didn't play along I would die if the man on the intercoms was real about what he had said.

The intercom clicked on again. "30 seconds before incineration". What! Incineration! Do they plan to burn us both alive in this room! My mind starts to race. I look around the empty room for someway out. Just some little glimmer of hope that I could get out of this room. But there was nothing, just the table with the three items on it.

Picking up the pistol I find it to only have one round in it. The man in the chair starts screaming and thrashing again. This would be the most human way, quick and painless. With out hesitation I turn and point to hub at the man. "I'm sorry!". I close my eyes as I pull the trigger and the gun goes off. Opening my eyes I see the man in the chair but he is still screaming. The bullet hit him in the shoulder and he was screaming out in pain. "Shit!". With no more bullets to do the job done right I drop the gun and reach for the hammer. Slowly I walk over the to man. His eyes grow wide when he looks from me to the hammer. "I'm so sorry. But I have a family", I say before I lift the hammer with a shaky arm and bring it down on his head. I hear bone cracking but the man is still screaming so I pull the hammer back again. On the second hit the cracking sound is mixed in this a wet slosh sound but the man still screams. Again and again I hit him until the screaming stops and my face is covered in blood.

As I drop the hammer and fall to my knees a third door opens. Wanting nothing more then to leave this horrid room I slowly stand and walk out in shaky legs. The third door leads to a small stage. A spot light shines on me blinding me when I step threw. After a moment for my eyes to adjust I see cameras all pointing at me. The intercom clicks on again "congratulations! For your participation in tonight's game you have won $50,000". Another opening in the floor opens up. Only this time there is a suit case on a small table that rises from the opening. The top was open and I could see the money inside it stacked high to the rim. I slump to my knees as the lights go out.

It was late at night when the glass shattered. I heard it almost as if it were a dream. The sound was hazy, and a little fuzzy, like cotton was over my ears. Yet I heard it. I creeped down the polished wood steps, my heart beating so loud and fast I thought it would hop right out of me and run away. A nerve wracking thump came, and I stopped mid- step. The sound of scrambling boots echoed through the long stairway.

Cautiously setting my foot down, the stair made a cracking sound, like a broken bone. The heavy foot steps stopped, and I knew this was it. I was finished. Slowly the steps came up the stairs, and with each one I felt a little more dizzy. The crowd roared from outside, cheering on my enemy. The camera hung from a string directly above me, and tears pooled in my eyes as I looked up. The smell of horrible breath turned my attention back to the present. I was staring into the cold eyes of a big, burly man, wearing all black, his bushy beard tree trunk brown. " Give it up." He growled at me. My throat tightened. Opening my mouth to talk, he slapped it shut. " Save it, runt." He cackled, and his icy blue eyes glinted in the light. There was something wrong.....

"Alrighty folks!! We have a winner!" Boomed a cheery voice over a speaker. "Now Hannah, you get to choose to die yourself or kill Guthry!!" Wait a minute, I thought. Guthry won. He's supposed to choose, not me. Guthry was obviously confused to. "Wait wait WAIT!!!"Guthry screamed." I WON! Not that stupid little girl!" " Hannah! Choose!" The voice boomed again, this time with a tint of inpatientce.

Guthrys eyes glared at me. " Umm, uh," I stuttered." Guthry dies....." I trailed off. Guthry stumbled backward, his eyes wide with fear." What??? What???" A solider in navy green stepped up and yanked Guthrys arms behind his back. "YOU!!!!!" He screamed, trying to pull out of the soldiers grip. " I'LL GET YOU ONE DAY!!!" Guthry was shoved into the back of a police car and driven away. I stood there stiff with shock. What had I just done!! Whatever, I thought. What's done is done. And with that, I headed back upstairs to bed.

She stands slowly, the light casting eerie shadows on her face. She had been stuck in this morbid mind game for a week already, and the producers were pressuring her to get on with it. If she kept up with this hesitation, they warned, her chance might be over. Soon.

Unlike others on the hit new game show, she had to kill someone that she was close to. Someone who had no idea of the secret rules in place... Someone completely innocent. Everything was carefully orchestrated, because, if not, mistakes could happen and she could be discovered. That was the thing with the show, it couldn't be known that you killed them. It had to be a case that would baffle the authorities forever.

All she had to do was invite her fiancé to be on an episode. That was it. It was an odd show, and he loved odd things, so he'd be all for it. He'd get on a flight booked by the company that sponsored it, but would never arrive. The pilot would be on a suicide mission. His job was to simply fall out of the sky.

She couldn't bear to do it, but failure to complete the simple task would result in her termination... And not just out of the game, either.

Out of fear and concern for herself, she picks up the phone.

"Drew, darling. You'll never believe what I'm about to say..."

I had been stuck in this box for some time now and entirely clueless on how I ended up here. The entrance I think I came in from lacked a door knob on the inside and when I slammed my shoulder against it didn't open it either. On the opposite side there was a locked door and a clock hanging above and it was counting down the minutes until the door was opened. Three minutes and fifty four seconds were left to be exact. I also noticed that one of the walls had ten commandments as if it was some sort if sick joke. They were as follows:

1. You must go through the door is soon as the time turns to zero and the door is opened.

2. No talking is allowed when you enter the room.

3. Choose and pick your weapon as soon as you enter.

4. Do not use the weapon until the horn goes off.

5. Kill the other person in the room as soon as you hear the signal which will be a horn.

6. Once your opponent is dead you will be released and never disturbed by us again.

7. Money will be given to the survivor.

8. If you decide you don't want to follow through with command five, kill yourself.

9. Be sure to have fun.

10. Any failure to follow the instructions will result in the death of both participants.

These rules gave me a laughing fit. Each rule seemed a little more crazy then the one before as I went down the list. Maybe it was all because of my nerves or because I got more stressed out when I looked up at the clock and the seconds seemed to go faster. The ninth rule kept coming back into my mind as I wondered what kind of sicko would come up with a game like this. I paced around the room hoping it would all be a very bad in depth joke. "Come you guys this isn't funny any more." My voice catches in my throat as I talk to the walls. Unfortunately the walls don't reply and I glance up at the clock again. There isn't enough time to decide what to do. Will I kill someone or myself?

5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . 0

I charge through the door unwilling to find out how they would kill us at the same time. I barely get a glance of the other person's face before I am looking down to grab a weapon. On the table in the room there were to guns of equal distance to both doors. As the horn goes off we both fire our guns. I aim at the other person without thinking. Blood quickly drains out of the hole I created in the person across from me. As I watch the lifeless body crumple to the floor I realize that my gun fired a blank and the stranger has shot himself.

The game had been rigged the whole time so someone would always win and more importantly live.

With this realization the guilt came rushing into me. I was so selfish that I would have shot a honestly good person who would and did sacrifice himself for me, a complete stranger. I drop to my knees and cry for those who would also cry for him.

The world is cruel by always plays favorites to those who are undeserving of good fortune.

The door in the room that went unnoticed until now opened with a a light creak. Written in the door was, " Thank you for playing. You are free to leave and take the money with you. Everything else will be taken care of before you have a chance to return. I hope you had fun."

I balled up my shaking hands into a fist and slowly walked out of the door. There was a metal suitcase right next to the exit and I presume that was were the money was. I reached the conclusion that nothing important was in that silver case. I had no interest in the money or anything that would remind me of this event. As I stepped outside a wave of sunlight washed over me and in my mind I had already forgotten everything that happened. This was for the best.

In the other room two people in white lab coats are surveying the area. The one in the middle starts the conversation. "This experiment subject has, by far, gotten closest to our humanoid robot."

"I agree the test subject was also one of the few to leave behind the money and paperwork explaining this experiment."

"Oh well, time to set the experiment back up and get the next test subject. In the mean time report these results to upper management and have someone continuously watch that last experiment subject."

THE END

(I think)