JINX

EPISODE 11

Miguel was taken back to the place where they put Melissa and Kyle. Even if he's afraid to be inside the black area again, he is now more afraid of the bright area when all he could see is an evil grin coming from Mister Clock, guys pushing them from one room to another, of course, the thought of staring at the sun that is shining so bright, but you know that maybe tomorrow, you won't be able to stare at it the way you do yesterday.

Light is now scarier than staying in the dark.

"Get in." The man says as he follows willingly. As soon as Miguel steps in, the door slides closed, leaving him blind to where he stands. The cold air contained in that certain area brushes into his skin, sending chills down his spine. The metallic smell stats lingering into his nose, not really pleased to how the smell makes an effect in his stomach.

You've got this Miguel. He tries motivating himself, not really know if persuading himself is even effective at this moment. Not that he has given up, but because he is starting to lose hope. Indeed, it is a tough situation for him to think about the future when he's starting to think that tomorrow may never come.

Because today is the first day of playing in a playground with thorns and fires. He starts to predict what games would they be facing but the longer he thinks about it, the more he feels scared and nervous.

Besides, no one is confident to live in this kind of situation.

"Pst. Miguel!" Someone calls for his attention. With the help of his hearing senses, he easily predicted that the sound came from the left side of where he faces.

"Over here. Just follow my voice."

He starts walking inch by inch, still using his senses to determine if something might come along his way and that he needs to take it really slow.

"Who are you?"

"It's me, Melissa." Miguel instantly sighs in relief, knowing that he's on his way to the person he trusts... At least, he could trust at the moment. A few more steps and his feet hit something. Predicting it could be someone, he then hits it again before someone talks.

"Can you stop kicking me? It kinda hurts." A tone of a guy talks, making him feel nervous again.

"I'm sorry." He apologizes, making his way to the opposite. When he hits his feet into something again, he knew he's close again to someone.

"Miguel?" And that made him realize who it was.

"Melissa?"

"Oh thank goodness! I thought you won't find me... Come, sit here." A hand touches him, pulling him down lightly, signaling him to obey. And not wanting to hit anything or anyone again, he decided to just sit, pulling his knees close to his chest, calming himself to avoid getting scared. He is not the guy who easily gets scared nor easily to play pranks on, but the moment he enters the gates of he can call Doomed or Hell, he can already see how scared he is.

Will there be life after death?

By the thought of it, he wasn't also ready to try and see for himself to the answer that he wanted to not come in a very tragic situation. This is not how he has seen his life going and pretty much sure everyone is, too.

"What happened? Where did they put you?"

"To Mister Clock." He never wanted to lie, not he is having doubts, to tell the truth.

"Oh, that prick? What did he do to you?"

"He—" but at that very moment, he knew he wanted to still keep it all to himself.

Trust no one.

"He just told me that he doesn't want me making things difficult for all of us but I don't believe him."

"I know right? How can he be so concerned when he holds us here as his prisoners? I mean, what is his deal?"

"Maybe this is not just about him killing us." Miguel was a bit startled when he heard the voice, now realizing where Kyle is.

"And what do you think this whole mission is?" Melissa asked, sounding pissed off. She actually doesn't want anyone opposing her ideas and predictions, sometimes.

"I think that this is happening to us because they just want to send a message. Because if their original plan is killing us, then why did they haven't done it just now?"

"Well, maybe they're thinking that torturing us to death is a form of entertainment rather than just injecting us some f*****g poison to not feel pain! I mean, the only psycho dudes would only have the guts to do this mess!" Melissa defended, not wanting to lose in an n argument that Miguel finds it to be unhelpful in their situation. And just by hearing them makes her headache a little bit.

Before they could wait any longer, the lights suddenly flicker on, making them close their eyes to restart vision as they adapt their sights into it. But that is not it.

Two plastic cups stood flat on a small round table. One is red and the other is blue. Below the table is covered with red liquid. The trail of the red liquid forms a straight line, leading to a treasure box. The treasure box comes with two small tables once again on both opposite sides. On those table lies of three cards, white, gray, and black. After the table, comes with two brown boxes but this time, there's a transparent enlarged beaker on opposite sides, with silver-colored items inside. After the sight makes them all curious, but Miguel wasn't so sure if they also feel frightened.

"What the heck are those?" Someone asks. As he turns to see who decided to talk, he can clearly familiarize the voice— it was the person who hits earlier. He then scans the room, realizing that they are all not present.

Where are they?

Soon, Mister Clock, together with Valentine and another man in a suit came walking inside, confidently walking like nothing serious and scary is going to happen. As soon as the three have settled, the man he calls himself "Mister Clock" steps forward, giving them a big smile.

"Good afternoon players! I know you are all excited about the game but we must all consider the fact that we are still currently working on the other games that you all are about to play soon... That is when all of you can make it until the end." He pauses as he scans his audience. Mister Clock couldn't seem to see any hint of fright. All of them were like already been inside the game, and that they're not afraid to face it again. That made him a bit disappointed.

"But don't you all worry because today, not all of you are going to play today."

What does this mean? Miguel asks himself as his gaze never left the presence of the guy in a half mask, a.k.a Mister Clock.

Calm down, Miguel. Calm down.

He tightens the grip to his backpack as he pays attention to what Mister Clock is about to say.

"Today is really something special because today, we are going to witness one's determination to prove their worth to their borrowed lives. Now, we always need to remember that we need to understand one another to be better thinkers but, how far can you do this 'understanding' stuff?... Let them in." Valentine nods his head, waving his hand to give the cue. When that happens, that naked individuals came popping into yhe vision, making all of them really surprised to see them.

Mister Roderick? Miss Camilla? What? He couldn't seem to stop thinking about the same question because he wasn't expecting them to be there, still naked, with a black metal surrounding their necks. Like a collar to be exact.

Fuck! Why are they still naked? Did they sleep without even just a blanket to share for the meantime? A lot of questions came popping inside his mind. When Roderick and Camilla are already standing in front of them, Mister Clock them turn his full attention back on them.

"Since they are both the sinners of this group, we made a game for our ties breaker." He then turns his gaze on Roderick and Camilla, both looking down on their own feet. "Since both of you have been in this kind of situation, you might already know how face-to-face works, right?"

Both Roderick and Camilla didn't respond, Mister Clock's smile turned upside down.

"You know how much I wanted to hear a response, no? Mister Clock asks, making them nod. " THEN GIVE ME AN ANSWER!" Mister Clock shouts, making them flinch.

"Yes we know, Mister Clock." They both say in unison. But what made them all startled is that the man in a half-mask shouts.

"JINX!"

Jinx? Miguel asks himself, not really sure why he would shout that.

"Do you see what's in front of you? This is your course challenge." He pauses as he approaches the items, explaining every use.

"Now I have the privilege to steal your voices. Now, put 'The Peace'.

The Peace?

Still, in the moment of thinking of what Mister Clock means, Valentine hands the two 'bouncer' type of guys with a gag type of item, but what makes it different is ghat, it is big enough to cover the whole lips.

"The Jinx rule is pretty simple, DO NOT MAKE A NOISE because it irritates me. Remember, there could always be unity not until you doubt saving others. Are you two ready?"

No response.

"And I almost forgot, do you see the syringe at the very end of the course?" They shake their head. "That syringe contains an antidote to fight the poison you're about t drink here, in this cup... But keep this in mind that ONLY ONE cup contains pure alcohol and the other has sixty percent of poison there. The poison would only take effect after ten minutes before it will spread completely on your veins, and die. But, that doesn't mean that only one has to face a consequence... That is why we made another twist." The guy in a half-mask pauses, wanting to see any hint of fright, and he didn't fail. But only one person caught his eyes— Miguel. To avoid spacing out, he continues explaining.

"As I said, there is only one who will drink pure poison. That syringe will help you both spare your lives because the syringe falls into the wrong person or should I say, the person who didn't take any poison, it will be over... As I said, there could be unity or doubt. It will be your choice."

Camilla and Roderick were pushed to stand and face the table with two cups.

One with poison. One with no poison.

"If Red is bright, is Blue not? This is a game called FAREWELL, good luck to both of you. And I hope you have paid attention to what I was saying. You only have two minutes."

Roderick and Camilla start studying each other, hypothesizing strengths and weaknesses. With the sound of the bell getting struck by metal, the game starts shortly after.

The game starts with Roderick and Camilla pushing each other to who will get the red cup.

Red is bright! Just by realizing it, he has this idea that there is a very big reason why Mister Clock has said it.

"Give it to me!" Camilla tries to scream her muffled words as clearly possible as she tries to fight back but Roderick didn't let her be a hindrance for him to bottom-up the glass, leaving Camilla with no choice but to drink the transparent liquid from the blue cover. Roderick takes advantage as is the first to open the treasure box, finding himself to looking at a lot of sharp Meat Cleaver tool. From the handle, you will be able to see a foot icon with the word ELIMINATE from it. While Roderick is busy with his current station finding a possible clue, Camilla also chose a sharpened Chef's knife. And just by starting at the exact well-shaped silver blade, comes the encrypt three fingers. She gets it as she rushes for the third station. Both of them are already picking which card they have to choose and in no matter of seconds, they flip card.

GRAY: One cut to your [look for an icon in your chosen item] but make a deep cut for your wound to bleed.

BLACK: No harm. Safe.

WHITE: Totally separate you're [look for an icon from your chosen weapon.]

With no luck at all, none of them chose black.

"s**t!"