Chapter Text
It’s dark in here. I’m walking through the hall after receiving my luck charm and role, Paranoid Scientist, from the slot machine. The staff had clothed me in black and blue and pink with way too many layers, just enough pockets and a lab coat so, well, it was my kind of outfit.
I walk into the lit room covered in red. The only other person approaches me slightly slower than I him. His hands are clasped behind his back, his face obscured by a top hat adorned with a singular purple feather. His outfit was a black and purple suit with coattails and when he looked up at me, he smiled brightly.
“Welcome, partner! Not a great place to meet, but hello!” He said as we came face to face in the centre of the room. He had glittery blush on.
“Who are you.” I say cautiously. I mean, I’m supposed to kill this guy, right?
“Oh, forward, are we? I’m Cecil. Cecil Gershwin Palmer.” He extends a hand, black gloved, though I mean, I also had black gloves so… I shook his hand, still cautious. I did not trust him one bit.
“I’m Carlos,” I say, “I’m a scientist.”
“Well, Carlos the scientist, I hope you survive this. I hope we both survive this. It’d be a shame if someone as beautiful as you were to die.” I eye him suspiciously as I looked down at the table next to us.
“So we put on these cuffs to start the game?”
“Seems so. Best of luck to you.” He tipped his hat to me as he put his on, I do the same. It takes a minute for us to get it right, or perhaps it feels longer because he keeps trying to hold me hand, but eventually we hear the speaker sounds. The room lights up with TV screens.
“Wowie.” Cecil says with a whistle. I look at him in horror because he looked to be in his twenties. Early thirties at most, what the hell? Who says that? Anyway, we’re handcuffed together so we walk over to one of the boards. I let him take my hand, but he wasn’t just holding it normally, our hands were intertwined like a couple. I tried not to think of it though I was thankful for the gloves. We read the rules from the screen in unison.
“1. You have 10 chips to start.
2. Whenever one of you likes you can start a round to bet.
3. You can bet a maximum of 10 chips, or not bet at all each round.
4. Once the betting period is over, you can press the button presented by the game to make the roulette wheel spin.
5. You will win a return based on how close you were to where the wheel stopped.
6. The one with the least amount of chips when the timer hits 00:00 is eliminated.
7. If you receive more chips than your opponent by the end of the game, you will keep the amount of chips equal to that difference.
8. You cannot exchange chips with your opponent.
9. You cannot purposefully handle the roulette wheel or tamper with any equipment.
10. Good Luck!”
“Seems pretty straight forward.” I shrug and try to walk away, but Cecil holds me back.
“Wait a minute, Carlos.” He mutters some lines from the rules under his breath and turns to me. “If we leave it up to chance, there is no sure way to know who will live and though I was willing to fight for my life when I walked in here, after seeing my opponent, I would prefer you live instead of me.”
“What are you saying?”
“We don’t have to start the game.” He says, and though he’s serious, I can tell he's excited about the loophole.
“What?”
“The timer has already started, meaning the game has already started. The clause of the rules state that the looser is the one with least chips, meaning if the chips are equal we will neither win or loose and not one gets eliminated! Do you want to win or not, Carlos?” He took both my hands in his and I looked into his eyes. The were purple with a sliver of a silver moon. Weird. He had a bit of a point. It made sense, when you thought about it. We’d both survive and if we played, we had no way of controlling who wins, but… should he really survive? I mean we’re all criminals and even someone so seemingly nice as him could be hiding a deadly secret and I wouldn’t know.
“Why should I trust you?” I ask. Best to be direct.
“I used to be the host of this show.” He says matter-of-factly. All of a sudden the situation became more clear than ever to me. He likely deserves to die, but if I were to follow his plan, we would both live just like he said. He wasn’t grasping at random clauses here, he knew how this worked and… maybe he’s a valuable ally?
“So you watched people die?”
“The whole world watches people die. No, I was hired back when this was a normal game show and when they made the shift,” his expression changed and hardened, looking up at the top of an iron gate wall behind us where I noticed a devil’s head with a gun in it’s mouth, “well, let’s just say there was only so long I could stay silent. The official reason for my arrest was that I was caught with drugs. An elaborate set up too, but regardless, we are not in for an easy time. Do you trust me or not?” He looks back to me and I weigh up my options. I sigh.
“I trust you... But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try.” I say, making an attempted move towards the table. Cecil pulls me back with the cuff.
“No! Why would you do that? If we both trust each other fully we can both win with ten chips, but if you don’t trust me and play, I can pass each round and you’re almost certainly going to win. Or, I could play and then it’s up to fate who wins, but I’m not letting it get to that.”
“Why are you so set on loosing? Got a death wish or something?” I try to pull away but he steps backwards yet again.
“No, I just don’t want you to die!” He screams, nearly crying.
“Why? I’m a stranger. You shouldn’t care.”
“You’re the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen.”
“I’m a criminal. I could be a murder for all you know.”
“But you’re not. I can tell, I’ve been around people far worse than you. Look, something about you makes me want to get to know you and hold you close and-”
“Just stop it already!” I shout. “That’s creepy. You’re weird. I want to get out of here alive and you’re giving me a free pass on the first round either way, so I’d rather take all your chips and end up with as many as possible so I can have a foot up in the next round.” I reason, trying to convince myself too.
“Are you really just okay with killing another person?”
“I’m not the one killing you. That’s them.”
“But your decision decides my death. Do you really not care about me?”
“You’re a stranger. You don’t know me and I don’t know you so stop pretending and stop touching me and stop trying to convince me. I’ve made up my mind.”
“You really do look perfect. I really don’t think you’re a bad person, but you’re right that I don’t know you. I would’ve really liked to before I died.” He says as he lets me drag him over to the roulette table. A speaker sounds out again, “One minute remaining.”
“Shit.” The realization dawns on me that it doesn’t matter if I had been compliant in his plan, because Cecil had trapped me just how he wanted.
“Haha!” He shouts and he runs in the opposite direction.
“Hey, hey, hey!” I scream as I’m pulled along. He comes to stand with his back against the iron fence and he reaches out as if to pull me next to him but hesitates.
“You were serious about the no touching thing, right?” He asks.
“Now you ask me? Yeah, not happening.” I sigh, yet again, as I stand next to him. There’s a light behind us showing the timer.
“I’m sorry.” He says.
“For what? I’m the one who wanted to kill you.”
“I feel like I did something wrong. Look, I know it’s a hard place to be in, but we’ll make it out, I promise. I want you to live.”
“I just can’t believe you’d care about me.”
“Who wouldn’t?”
The timer hits zero and we both move off the wall as the devil-gun thingy aims at us. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe we’ll both die. I close my eyes and brace for impact.
But All I heard is the breaking of a chain.
“Hey! We’re free!” Cecil says excitedly. The door in the iron gate opens up and we walk to find ourself with two elevators. “See you on the other side.” I say.
“See you, partner.” He winks at me with his strange eyes and we both walk forward into uncertainty.