And I know that if you end your life, I will be joining you shortly
Starring: Thomas Sykes Type: Alternate Universe Setting: Abandoned Warehouse Mentions: Lee Malia, Oliver Sykes, Hannah Snowdon, Max Helyer
Tom groaned and slowly opened his eyes as he regained consciousness, and once he had he immediately regretted it. All he could feel was a searing pain in his head and in his arms. It hurt. It hurt so badly. He had never experienced this kind of pain before, despite everything he had been through as a kid. The male couldn’t help but cry out in pain, unable to stop the tears from streaming uncontrollably down his face. Where was he? He couldn’t see anything. It didn’t matter if his eyes were closed or open, it was all the same to him. He wiggled his fingers, but winced as pain shot up his arm and through his body. The pain that he had just felt was pain he was familiar with. This pain was the pain of broken bones. The man bit his tongue to keep from crying out as he continued to wiggle his fingers and move his hand in the hopes of pinpointing what exactly was broken. After a few moments of wiggling his fingers around, he deduced that it was his wrists that were broken, and it seemed to him as if they were strapped rather tightly to the chair he was sitting in. On his head there seemed to be a metal contraption. Concentrating hard, Tom deduced that it was a helmet like thing on his head and the source of his cranial pain came from his temples and the very top of his head.
“Hello?” Tom called out and winced automatically, even the slight movement of his head resulted in a white hot pain felt throughout the rest of his body. This time he wasn’t able to hold his cry of pain in, but even his cry held pain for him.
Almost instantaneously after Tom called out, a light flickered on a few meters away from him. Being careful not to jostle his head, Tom looked at the light curiously. He was still in pain but after spending time with the horrid man of his past, he had mastered keeping his pain to himself. Tom’s breathing was laboured as he tried to focus on the spot of light before him, barely able to see through the pain. If Tom hadn’t been through everything he had been through as a kid there was no way he would have been able to stay conscious through the agonizing pain in his head.
It was then that Tom heard an oddly mechanical voice begin to speak. “Hello, Thomas.” It said from a spot that Tom couldn’t quite identify. It was everywhere, almost as if it was being spoken directly into his mind.
“What’s h..appening?” Tom managed to get out weakly. The British male was now alert with adrenaline, and the need to know what was happening, where he was and how he ended up in this position.
“Most people are so ungrateful to be alive. But not you, Thomas. You cherish every waking moment, don’t you?” the voice said as Tom heard an odd creaking noise. He waited impatiently, desperately wanting to know what the sound was. Tom didn’t have to wait for long because soon enough he saw a tiny little tricycle slowly roll into view in the middle of the light. On the tricycle was a doll. This doll was dressed in a suit with a bright red bow tie. Its face was shockingly white and oddly proportioned with swirls of red adorned on each cheek. Its shoulder length black hair looked greasy and matted. The photographer was confused. What was this doll doing here? What did it symbolize? Where had it come from? Who had moved it there? Tom squinted at the doll, ready to ask some of his questions out loud when his attention was suddenly captured by four more lights flickering on one after the other, just behind the doll.
Underneath each spotlight was a person. Four people that Tom recognized immediately without having to think about it. Tom looked back at the doll in shock, his mind working a million miles a minute as he tried to figure out what was happening here. As if reading his thoughts the doll —or whatever the voice was coming from— spoke again. “Here we have three people who are ungrateful for the life they have been blessed with. All three have attempted to take their own lives at least once. Now, you may recognize these people but these peoples’s fates lie in your hands now.”
Tom gasped in shock and looked at the three people again, but this time took that extra minute to properly examine them. They were standing on pedestals, arms tied above their heads, their bodies wrapped in barbed wire. Tom traced the barbed wire with his eyes, drinking in how it loosely wrapped around their wrists, their arms, their necks, their torsos, their hips, their legs. It was wrapped everywhere.
“Now, when I let you go, Thomas,” the voice spoke again, startling Tom and causing him to move his head which in turn drew a cry of pain from his lips, “you have five minutes to pick who dies. Whoever you pick’s pedestal will be dropped from beneath them and their body will fall tightly into the barbed wire. Their cause of death will be suffocation but they will suffer. If you don’t pick someone to die, the helmet on your head will slowly screw into your brain, causing you to die instead.”
Tom screamed for all he was worth and turned to look at the people behind the glass. The people he loved most in the world and he had to kill one of them. He couldn’t do that. Tom screamed and screamed, all self preservation out the window as he shook around and tried to get out of the chair that he was latched to. He was panicking. He couldn’t do this. He wouldn’t do this. Would he?
“Your time starts now.”
Tom felt the restraints on his wrists and ankles slide off. Without hesitating, he jumped from his chair and ran to the glass, throwing himself at it and sobbing heavily. He banged on it, hands slapping the glass desperately again and again, praying that they would wake up and look at him but to no avail.
“Three minutes. Who are you going to pick? Lonely Lee who has no one? The brother who saved you, who has millions of fans relying on him? Hannah; your best friend with child? Or perhaps Max; the man you claim to love?”
There were four buttons in front of Tom. Each corresponding with a person, he assumed. His fingers brushed over each button before they made their way back to lee, lingering there for a moment before they sweeped over the other buttons as well. That was when Tom made his decision. What was the obvious choice. The only choice there really was. The British man took a deep breath and focused his eyes on Max, not looking away from him for a second. “I love you,” he whispered quietly as he accepted his fate. It was better this way. This was the only way. His eyes never left Max’s form when the drilling began. Only when the pain was too much to bear did Tom close his eyes and scream out before falling to the ground, clutching at his head.
All of the lights flickered off in that little room as the doll on the tricycle wheeled away, the only sound to be heard was Thomas’s agonized screaming.
Until there was nothing but silence.
