The light flickered on, bouncing off the metallic walls of the vault. A person laid on the floor next to each wall, unconscious. A metal table stood in the centre. Four safe deposit boxes laid out on it, with each box pointing towards one of the people.

One by one the group was roused from their slumber. Randolf and Kevin woke up first, immediately alert of their surroundings. Finding themselves in an unfamiliar place, and not knowing how they got here, they looked around the room warily before locking eyes with one another. Their hearts sunk when they noticed Bill and Jared.

Quietly, they got off the ground and huddled together.

“What happened? How’d we get here?” Kevin whispered.

“How the fuck am I supposed to know.” Randolf said, all the while looking around warily. His eyes darted over to Bill and Jared, before turning back to Kevin. “Should we wake them up?”

“I don’t see a reason why not to.”

They split off and tiptoed over to them. Randolf quietly woke up Bill, while Kevin went to shake Jared awake.

Jared woke up with a start, staring at the face above him in fright. He was just about to scream when Kevin placed his hand over his mouth.

“MMMM!” Jared’s screams were muffled as he tried to push Kevin off of him.

“Jared. Jared, it's us.” Bill ran over to calm him down.

Jared calmed down and stopped fighting, finally looking around properly to see everyone. He looked around in confusion, not sure where he was, nor how he winded up here with these three instead of at home in bed.

“What’s going on?” He asked at a volume much louder than what everyone else had used.

The others looked around alertly the second he spoke, listening out for any changes. Jared, to his credit, looked around as well, but was completely confused as to what they were doing. Looking around the room, he realised that they seemed to be trapped in what looked like a bank vault.

Upon not hearing anything, the three breathed a sigh of relief, before Randolf turned back to Jared to answer his question. “We don’t know. We woke up just before you did. Do either of you remember how we got here?” He asked to both Jared and Bill.

“No, not really.” They both shook their heads.

“This place looks like a bank vault. Do you think there’s cash in here?” Jared asked, looking around excitedly at all the safe deposit boxes.

“I don’t know. Let's try and take a look.” Bill said, eager to try and find some cash.

They all tried, but they couldn’t find a way to take the deposit boxes from the wall.

“Hey guys. Come take a look at this.” At some point in time, Bill had wandered away from the wall, and was checking out the table in the centre of the room. He called out to the rest of the group, who all ran over to him. “Why do these boxes have our names on them?”

They looked at the boxes, each finding one with their name on it.

“What the fuck?” said Jared as he stared at his box.

“Good morning, everyone. You must be wondering why I’ve brought you here. We’ve been watching you all for a long time. We have seen everything you’ve done. All the lives you have endangered in your pursuit of wealth. You have sinned over and over again, and now it is time to face your punishment.

Each of you should see a box in front of you with your name on it. Each box contains everything you will need to survive. But survival comes at a cost. You must sacrifice that which is integral to your role in the crimes you have committed. Your life will be difficult, and you will have to make an honest living, but you will survive to see the light of day again as long as you are all willing to suffer. Good luck everyone.”

Buddie’s voice came from all around them, leaving them scared and confused. They scanned the entire room for where the voice was coming from but found nothing. They looked between each other before turning their attention back to the boxes in front of them. They each pulled out a few different items. Their hearts were filled with a mixture of relief and worry as they found bundles of medical supplies. They grew increasingly worried as to what they would have to do.

Jared and Kevin each grabbed a large, incredibly sharp looking hand saw. Randolf pulled out a razor-sharp scalpel blade, and Bill pulled out a hammer, and a set of forceps.

“What are we supposed to do with these? Ow!” Jared poked one of the teeth on the hand saw, immediately drawing blood.

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The saw clattered along the ground as Jared tried to shake the stinging pain away. “That’s fucking sharp!”

Kevin looked at the saw in his hands and carefully put it back in the box.

“Surely this is all just a joke, right?” Asked Bill, looking nervously around the room. “There’s gotta be a camera somewhere, right?”

“I don’t think so, but let’s see if we missed something.” Randolf said.

The group split back up, each now desperately searching the room for anything they might have missed.

Jared walked up to the vault door and used all his strength to try and push it open. The door didn’t even budge. The group crowded around, putting all their weight behind trying to force the door open, but they failed.

Breathing heavily, they dropped to the ground, and leant back against the door.

Wiping the sweat from his face, Kevin sighed. “There’s nothing in here other than those stupid boxes.”

“Maybe we can just wait it out?” Jared said hopefully, but on the inside, he knew that it wouldn’t be that easy.

Hours passed in boredom. The group tried everything they could to stay sane, but being trapped there was starting to get at them.

“You must sacrifice that which is integral to your role...” Kevin mumbled to himself while sitting in the corner.

No one heard him, as they had all completely zoned out and were off in their own worlds.

He sighed as he got up and moved towards the table.

The sudden movement caught everyone’s attention. They all looked at him with confused, hazy eyes.

He grabbed everything from his box and sat it down on the floor beside him. Leaning back against the table, he tied a tourniquet tightly around his calf. Gripping the saw tightly in his hand, he calmed his breathing as he waited for his foot to turn numb.

The others watched on in sickening horror as Kevin brought the saw down on his leg. The teeth dug into his calf. He groaned in pain as the saw came to a stop before it even reached the bone. He had foolishly hoped that it would just cleave right through. Blood gushed from the wound as he slammed his fist into the ground over and over again. His other hand gripped tightly onto the hand saw, his knuckles turning white.

Bill vomited in the corner, while the other two turned away, paling at the sight of it.

Pushing through the pain, Kevin shifted the saw back and forth, ruthlessly cutting through flesh and bone. He howled with pain as the saw chewed through his leg, eventually reaching the other side after agonising minutes of dreadful pain.

He threw the saw away as he hurriedly bandaged the bloody stump.

Bill had stopped vomiting and had turned back around after hearing the saw get thrown away. His face paled as he saw the bloody sawn-off foot. He hurriedly looked away and continued to vomit.

Kevin finished dressing the wound, making sure that it was on there nice and tight. Struggling to get off the ground, he placed his severed foot into the box.

The table opened up and swallowed his box before closing again. Three boxes were left on the table.

“Hahahaha yes!” Kevin fell back onto the ground without a care in the world. He cheered victoriously. He could already see the end of this nightmare approaching.

Everyone turned around and stared at him as if he was mad. Only Randolf noticed the change that had happened in the room and looked between the table and Kevin with wide eyes. He trembled in excitement as he ran over to Kevin.

“What did you figure out?” He half shouted as he shook Kevin’s shoulders.

Kevin smiled, his breathing laboured and heavy. “Do you remember what that voice said? I threw my foot in the box and it disappeared. I think we all have to sacrifice something in order to get out of here.”

Randolf looked excited, while Bill and Jared somehow paled even more. They looked at Kevin and Randolf as if they had gone mad.

Randolf pondered for a moment, as he slowly came to a realisation of what those tools would be used for. Preparing himself mentally, he picked up the scalpel with one hand, and stretched his ear out as far as possible with the other. In one swift motion, he sliced through his ear.

Kevin helped to clean and dress the wound, as Randolf threw his ear into the box.

They waited with bated breath for the box to lower, but nothing happened.

“Did I get it wrong?” He asked himself. The searing pain in his ear caused his mind to ring.

“Maybe you just have to put more in? There’s still another tool in there” Kevin said into his one good ear.

He looked at the remaining tool, and then an idea popped into his mind. “Help me with this.” Picking up the tool, he lined the pointed screw in the middle with his eye, and with the help of Kevin, it pierced directly into his eyeball.

With a squeeze of the trigger and one massive yank, the eyeball popped out of its socket. The tool clamped down around it, severing the connection between the eye and the rest of the brain.

Randolf blacked out from the pain but was caught by Kevin just before he hit the floor.

Kevin did his best to try and patch it up, only stopping after Randolf’s breathing lightened a little.

He placed the eye in the box and watched as it disappeared into the table. He laid back on the ground, completely spent. He eyed Bill and Jared, waiting for them to do what they needed to.

Bill had shifted away from the vomit corner, but still wasn’t feeling well, and Jared had watched everything as if the world had gone mad.

“It’s your turn now. Just cut off a hand. We’re almost out of here.” Kevin said, pointing at the boxes on the table.

Jared looks down at his hands, shaking in horror. “I can’t. How will I play football? I’ve got my whole career ahead of me.”

Kevin locked eyes with him and stared him down. “If you don’t do this, then you want have any life at all, let alone a career. Now cut off your hand before I do it myself.”

“I won’t, you can’t make me.” Jared backs away, looking into Kevin’s fierce eyes in horror.

Kevin got up, grabbing the hand saw off the ground as he stared at him. He hobbled over to Jared on his one foot, trying to get him on the ground.

Jared ran away, escaping from the crazed Kevin for a while, but eventually toppled over Randolf’s body, crashing to the ground.

“Come and help me!” Kevin yelled at Bill, who hurriedly helped hold Jared down.

Jared tried to fight back, but he wasn’t fast enough. Kevin put all his strength into slamming the saw down onto Jared’s hand, cutting it straight off.

Jared screamed in pain as he blacked out.

Kevin threw the hand and watched as the box disappeared. But before he could rejoice, the last box went down with it, then the entire table disappeared.

“You have failed, so this shall be your end. You forcefully took Jared’s hand. He was not willing, and thus you have failed to meet the requirements for your freedom. Enjoy Hell, everyone. Goodbye.”

While Kevin and Bill were still processing what they just heard, the walls closed in on them, and they were crushed into a fine pulp before they could even scream.