A soft glow awakens me. I struggle to peel open my eyes, and with a titanic effort I am able roll onto my back. I blink several times fighting against hazy vision, it seems impossible to focus my eyes on the source of light above me. In time I can read them, the words, shining in the darkness above me with softly glowing block like letters.
“WELCOME TO THE GAME” they say with an ethereal glow. Before my eyes another line drifts into existence. The game?
“RULE 1: YOU MUST PLAY THE GAME” What the fuck is going on, am I in hell? A third line fades in.
“RULE 2: VICTORY WILL BE REWARDED” Victory? Victory over what? What the fuck is this? I must be in hell.
“RULE 3: DEFEAT WILL BE PUNISHED” No, fuck this, kill me now and end it. I won’t play this game, I‘d rather die.
“RULE 4: DEATH IS CERTAIN” Oh fuck, no. No no no no no. I was kidding, I don’t want to die, I’ll do anything!
“RULE 5: THE GAME DOES NOT END” I stare at the last line for a very long time. No new words appear, just the same demonic list of rules. Their soft glow is almost inviting, as if they are attempting to seduce me. I try to get up, but my body is too heavy, too tired, to even protest. Defeated by my power. All I can do is stare at the infernal rules.
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And I stare for a very long time.
How much time has passed? How long have I stared at these god forsaken rules? I am parched, I am hungry, my body aches with a thousand pains, and they just hover above me in permanence, mocking my existence. My mouth is dry, but I am able to produce enough spit to wet my lips. I open my mouth to try to speak, but my vocal cords seize and I close my mouth. I try again, this time I am able to squeeze out a desperate word.
“Help!” There is no echo. On and around me my sweat has dried into a crust. I stare again upon the rules, reading them over and over again in my head. What do they mean, WHAT DO THEY MEAN?
The sound of my heart beat, the sound of my shallow breaths, and most maddening of all, the soft glow of the rules. It’s slowly driving me crazy. I scream. I scream and I scream and I scream until my voice goes hoarse, and I continue to scream until I can’t force any more air out of my broken lungs. The vast darkness swallows up my voice, as if my cries had been just a whisper.
At last, by some insane mechanism in my brain, a solution dawns upon me. Led into temptation, I accept my fate.
“I will play the Game.” I manage to rasp. The words explode with light, their brilliance unrivaled in all of nature, dominating the darkness. I hear, no I feel, a great thunderous reverberation, shaking me to my core. I feel the floor leave me, and I am ripped into the light.