Tossing the piece of shirt, Max stood there waiting for the door to open.

“You have done well, my friend!” Chance mocked.

“I'm not your friend,” Max declared. Full of confidence and conviction, he proudly cut into this man. “You are a disgrace to humanity. You hear me? You think, I fear you? Well, I don’t! I’m not afraid of you! You have no power over me, you freak!” At this saying, there was silence. That eerie silence again.

“Is that all?” Then the metal door slid open slowly.

Max walked in and saw a dark figure looking at monitor screens. Then turning, the figure’s face was covered in a black mask tightly fit to his face as if suffocating him. Black was his garments, wearing leather gloves that squeaked every time he moved. His boots, belt, and whole get-up, except his smile were darkness. A crooked white smile, lazily drawn on the front of his lips, beamed at Max. Around his crooked head was a headset and microphone he used to communicate.

Chance was short but stocky. He didn’t look like a fighter. Max thought he could take him. The liar had a dashboard of all switches and buttons placed around the dark room. Computer monitors were the black mirrors he used to project his prideful self.

He stood behind a young girl tied to a metal chair and gagged. His hands clutched on the back of it as his wicked fingers tapped slightly on the steel.

It was Alice. And she looked dead.

Or so it seemed. She woke and lifted her droopy head, moaning dreadfully.

“What did you do to her?” Max asked horrified.

“Oh, a little chloroform never hurt anybody. Or has it? I’m not entirely sure.” Guffawing, his laugh tormented Max.

“Don’t touch her! Don’t you dare hurt her!” He started to approach Alice to rescue her. But he had to be prudent, he didn’t know what tricks were up Chance’s deadly sleeves.

“Max, don’t worry she doesn’t have a scratch on her. But you, you have done well,” Chance said rather human-like. It was affectionate and full of care and concern. Strolling over to a table filled with guns and knives, Chance imbued an air of horror. Max tensed.

“I wonder, what makes a man, a man? Hmmm, ever thought of that?” Chance asked, muffled by his mask.

“No, I can’t say I ever have.”

“Well, I think I know! It’s whether he can make difficult decisions or not. Wouldn’t you say that? And would you say, that is a test of character?”

“Sure,” Max said to buy himself more time.

“How could anyone become like me, you may ask? Ah, simple choices over and over again.” He picked up a knife as it shined in the halogen light.

“Until you become numb to it. Then it becomes second nature.” He then held up a pistol and brought it over to Max, placing it gently in his pale hands. Neither did Chance or Max dare make a move. Max held the gun up to Chance as he giggled.

Suddenly, a goon ran out of the shadows, pointing a gun against the head of Alice. Alice was still in a dream-like state. She wasn’t capable of helping out.

Max could sense this and tried to see what his next move might be. Standing and pointing the gun at Chance, his side pained him even more.

“What do you expect to do with that?” Chance asked.

“To kill you.”

“But if you shoot me, then he will shoot Alice,” he whispered, “Alice, sweet little, Alice.”

“You shut up! Don’t say her name.”

“Oh, she told me everything, Maxy. She told me about you and how you were abandoned by your parents because they didn’t want you anymore. What a pity. What a tragedy.”

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Why won’t he shut up?

“But they were right. Who would want you? You little brat! No one wanted you, so this is your destiny. The world doesn’t want you, the Great Light doesn’t want you! So, you might as well just pull the trigger and become one of us. You’re so close to being me! Don’t you get it? You could lead my minions, take my place, become me. This is about choices. Isn’t this what this show is all about?” The audience agreed with a “Yes!”

“Your choice was to kill, after all this time of cowering most of your pathetic life you have finally grown up and risen to the occasion. And what was the result? What did this test show? That you kill when provoked! You are a killer by nature and you can’t change. This is who you are!

“Give in and submit.”

Just then another white masked man came out of the shadows behind him and brought a man who had a black bag over his face. He threw him onto the floor into the light. A single beam of light shined on the bagged man in the center of the room. The man thrashed and screamed on the floor.

“Kill.” Evil had possessed Chance to say these words. “Kill him or kill me. Those are your choices. Don’t disappoint.” Proud of what he had accomplished, Chance chuckled. He had tricked Max. He had won.

But Max looked at the whole scene, hesitating, and thought of what Alice would do.

Be brutal.

He shot the man who pointed the gun at Alice’s head. He collapsed. Quickly, he turned and shot the other one in the corner. Chance lunged at Max before he could get off a shot as they struggled on the floor, writhing for some time. Chance grasped Max’s skull and started to smash it on the concrete surface.

“This is for not playing my way.” Smash.

“This is for not obeying the rules.” Smash.

“This is for making a fool out of me!” Chance was about to smash his head to pieces when suddenly, he screamed in horrible agony. The screech was heard by the whole audience. This time he did not mute himself. The audience screamed with terror.

Max looked up from his bashing and saw Alice. She was standing triumphantly over Chance with a bloody blade that was concealed in her person.

Writhing and gurgling on the floor, blood gushed forth from Chance’s throat. He shook for a minute and then just as quickly, appeared on the screen, dead.

The audience was horrified. Max quickly went to Alice who did not look drugged and softly touched her cheek.

“Are you OK?”

“Yes,” she managed. “The bastard thought I was still drugged. I played it pretty good, doncha think?” Alice tried to smile. They embraced. After a minute, he pulled away.

“I have to say the truth to these folks. They gotta know it.” He ran to Chance’s bloody corpse and ripped off the headset. Placing it on his head, Max hurried over to the control board that showed the audio and video controls.

They turned on and he appeared on the show’s screen. The audience looked with fear.

“Everybody. This man that you saw and heard is now dead.”

The crowd gasped and he heard murmuring. He continued, “Chance was an evil man! He tricked you all. This whole show isn’t staged, it’s real. I’m not a volunteer.” Max spoke with great confidence. Alice couldn’t believe it. She never saw this side of him. She was impressed, wiping her tears away as she listened intently. The whole studio audience did the same.

He explained all that had happened. He was so gracious but didn’t dare exaggerate or leave out anything of the events that ensued. When he finished, he told them to go home and tell everyone what had happened.

Flipping the switch on the screen, Max dropped the headset and collapsed to his knees.

Alice put her hand on his shoulder and said, “We should go.”

They proceeded to rise but noticed the man with the bag over his head who had been one of Chance’s victims, was still in the dark corner. Max stooped down to his level taking off the bag. But what he saw, frightened him.

The man’s eyes glowed in the dark. His smile was strange and otherworldly.

“Are you OK, sir?” Max asked, terrified.

He began with a raspy tone, “Never felt better, sonny.” He perpetually smiled, staring out into the distance. “I should tell you something.” His gaze fixed on Max’s pale face.

“Don’t look into the light. Can you promise me? Never look into the light,” he whispered.

“What light?” Max asked, but he knew what he was going to say.

“The Great Light. Don’t look into it.” The old man’s face fell and his eyes widened. “Don’t fall for it’s tricks, it’s treachery. Don’t believe the stories! It burns the eyes!”

All of a sudden, the old man hit Max in the face, forcing him off balance. Then the crazed man went for Alice. Alice caught him in her arms. He leaned all of his weight into her as they both fell and grabbed her knife as she screamed.

Max dove after them. He got a hold of it and stared into his green eyes as he held the gray blade over the man’s face.

“Do it,” the old man whispered. “Kill me so I can’t look at it anymore. I don’t want to!” Max, full of compassion, lowered the knife and stood up. The old man remained where he was, scared, hiding in the darkened corner, and stared out of the window into the night sky.

Heavily panting, Max said, “Let’s go, Alice.” She found all her belongings that Chance had taken. They both looked at the EXIT sign over a door. Just before they left, Max took one last look at the man who remained on the floor still smiling. He didn’t know what possessed him.

Who was he? Why was he this way?

Alice looked back as well. She didn’t know what it meant. Back at the diner, where they escaped the clutches of Frank and Matilda, another man had said the same thing.

Why wouldn’t they look into the light, she thought. What were they afraid of?

Max looked back at her, nodding. He never was the same after that fateful night. He entered that place a boy but left it a man. A man strong and courageous who would fight alongside his best friend.

Breaking down the door, the duo sprang into the night.