Death Wish

Act II - Trapped

Noh Jin Suk can feel the warm solid ground, he woke up with a splitting headache but it was tolerable. He opened his eyes and white bright lights met his eyes. He got up and look around the area. He found himself trapped inside a bright white room. He stood up and touched the walls trying to find a way out.“Hello?”, he called out, hoping for someone to respond. He checked every corner and couldn’t find any way out, the room was closed tight.

Out of nowhere, a timer with marked of ten minutes emerges on one of the walls. The timer was running and Noh Jin Suk doesn’t know what it meant. He felt uneasy, not knowing what will happen when the timer ends. Noh Jin Suk tries to think of anything that is related to what is happening right now or tries to know where he is.

He was focussing his mind to gather some thoughts that might have been the reason why he is inside a tight locker room. He thinks deeply while also keeping an eye out, he can’t let his guard down.

Noh Jin Suk remembers the letter that caught fire out of nowhere, he remembers that the letter flash a blinding light that made him unconscious. He first thought that he may be kidnapped by someone and was bought here to lock him up. He tried to think of multiple possibilities for why he is here, but nothing ever made sense.

One minute left and he was feeling on the edge, he was feeling anxious. Suddenly, Noh Jin Suk screams out of pain. He can feel his head splitting apart, he dropped his knees on the ground as he held onto his head. The pain was unbearable, he felt like something is squishing his head. He began sweeping the floor with his body, his hearing was deafened with loud ringing soundsHis eyes turned reddish and his veins were popping. His scream continued for about a minute and his shirt was soaked with sweat. Noh Jin Suk held out until the end.

The pain was finally gone. He was panting and his heart was beating loudly. The minutes of the unbearable pain was harsh torture for a human. He looked at the top of the room and stared blankly. He can’t think of anything, he feels like his mind was washed.

He finally realizes why he is trapped in such a weird space. He remembers a memory that he had forgotten, the amount of unbearable pain he felt earlier is caused by a lost memory trying to plunge into his head. He perceives that the lost memory wasn’t forgotten by him, it was taken from him.

Looking back into that memory was Noh Jin Suk getting invited to participate in the wishing game. He remembers the dream, the well, the coin, and the transcendent voice that talked to him coming from the well. He remembers every single detail about the uncanny dream he had experienced. The dream happened on the night he passed out on the bridge, he recalls the moment he accepted the invitation of the mysterious voice. The feeling he felt back in the dream was the same feeling on what is inside him right now.

He wished to get a chance to restart his life decisions. He wanted to go back from the past and fix his mistakes and will try to find where it all went wrong. He wanted to obtain the desires that are kept locked inside his heart. He ignored the risk and make the decision that leads him to where he is now. He is trapped inside a mysterious white room because of his own decision.

The timer has reached zero, he got up and waited for something to happen. A hidden compartment at the right side where he was facing opened. He stood up to look through its contents. He saw a large box that has a symbol engraved on its cover. It was started with an ‘X’ marked on it. He took the box out of the compartment and sat at the center of the room. He opened it carefully and finds several items inside. There was a letter at the top of a set of clothes. It's the same letter that he took sticking on her mother’s urn. He opened the letter and there was no written text inside, he only found a gold coin that has the same symbol which he saw earlier.

He puts the gold coin aside and took the set of clothes left inside the box. He knows that the game wanted him to wear it since he once watched a wishing game. He remembers that the wishers were wearing the same type of outfit. The set contains a simple white long sleeve with comfortable linen, an azure hooded zipped vest, black track pants, and a pair of white shoes. He remembered that men get the azure-colored vest and the women get the blush pink vest.

He felt uncomfortable with his current clothes, so he decided to equip the outfit. All the wishers in the game were wearing it, he just conclude to that point. He removes his clothes and wore the outfit. He took out the gold coin from his coat pocket and puts the clothes he wore earlier inside the box. He stood up and wore the vest. As soon as he zips the vest close, one side of the wall suddenly moves. The wall opened like a sliding door, revealing the outside. He saw other people walking out from other rooms same as him.

He went outside wandering around the huge white dome accompanied by bright lights. He looks around and countless people are going out of their rooms. He look up and saw a stunning galaxy full of stars through a glass roof. The people who were with him were stunned by the beauty of the galaxy, “Are we in space?”, the man beside him said. He didn’t answer but countless thoughts were passing through his mind. He saw a number at the center of the dome and it keeps increasing, its rises as the rooms are being opened.

The noise that the people make was loitering all over the space. The other rooms opened one after another. There were countless individuals who are participating the game. Noh Jin Suk knows that the game for all the wishers to arrive so he waited patiently for the others. He went back to the side of the dome and leaned his back outside his room.

The room on the left side next to him opened and a man in his twenties went out, the man checks out his surroundings, he was firmed and calm. He is not like the other participants who went out in their rooms wearing confused faces. He stood straight and looks at Noh Jin Suk, the two met eyes as if they meet each other’s match. The room on the right side opened, and a tedious timid young boy was peeking inside his room. Noh Jin Suk and the other man noticed the boy’s head. The boy turned his head where Noh Jin Suk was leaning. The boy pushes back his head after getting a glimpse of Noh Jin Suk. He thinks that the boy must be scared of him.

After some time, the number stop at ‘514’, and a ten-minute timer emerges at the center of the dome. “The twelfth wishing game will begin in ten minutes, all wishers must gather at the center of the dome”, an announcement was made and it was repeated several times. They know that the wishing game will start after the timer ends. The boy finally went out of his room and stand outside wearing a tense face.

Everyone was agitated, every second that the timer drops make their hearts beat. The nervousness was within, the uneasy feeling was covering them. The anxiousness was walking all over them and the meaning of despair will soon be described to them. They know something unimaginable will happen as soon as the timer hits zero. Not knowing what will be the next move of the game.

The three look up at the timer as it keeps distressing, the other man was calm, the young boy was perturbed, and Noh Jin Suk was keeping his guard up. No one knows their written fates, no one knows what to do. They just have to wait for the time of death to visit them. Their destiny is on the verge of falling into a dark deep hole.

The deaths of many are already expected, the cruel and deadly game will soon be folded out. Survival of the fittest, law of the jungle, a natural selection. There can only be one winner and everybody doesn’t want to know who will stand at the top stepping into the countless lives that will be lost.

A chance of a lifetime, a chance to achieve your own desires. The wisher is willing to risk their lives to get the dream wish they have been longing for a long time. A death wish disguised as a blessing has come to sacrifice the lives of many in order for the ultimate wish to appear.

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[End of Act II - Trapped]

[Next - Round 1, Colors]