Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-25269013-20140805223756

Hey there, I'm new in town! I'd appreciate if some of you could take a moment and read my pasta submission. I've been hanging around the wiki as a guest and I feel like it's my turn to give it a shot. Well, here I go...

Only Two

As I looked over the tranquil lake, the sun glistened over the flawless water. Nothing could distract me here - not the peaceful birdsong on my right, nor the crickets chirping in the tall grass tickling my ankles. What was that? A sound, close by me yet further into the distance than I could fathom. I'd ignore it for a time. Nothing would distract me here. I called out in delight as a graceful hawk glided over the lake's surface, skimming it with its mighty talons. The surface tension was broken, and the lake rippled, as if pleased by what the hawk had to say. There was the sound again, louder this time. I was sure its origin was on my right side, into the trees. Again, it was ignored as I gazed fondly towards the setting sun. No, I couldn't ignore it that time. It was a strange, unnatural sound, as if someone dropped a small stone into a deep well. Definitely to my right. With the peace of the moment lost, I raised my light body to a stand and entered the trees to my right. The sound was unmistakenly louder this time and it jolted me. Why did it echo? Surely there was no flat surface on which the sound could bounce upon? As I pushed my way through the foliage, I knew that soon I'd be upon its origin and all ambiguity would be quenched. Just a few more steps...

The hollow dripping sound was what awoke me from the dream. It echoed around the room many times before fading abruptly. Wait, it echoed? My eyes shot open at this point. What use was that? I couldn't see a damn thing in the darkness that filled my surroundings. All I could gather was that I was in a very, very dark room that definitely wasn't my own. Water dripped from the ceiling in to small pool of water by my side. With my mind filling itself with endless scenarious, I used my hands to maneuver myself to my right as best I could. My hand touched something cold and I recoiled in horror. It couldn't be, a body! But then it moved. Slowly at first, wearily, but then its shuffled movement was turned into the sound of boots scraping the floor as it, too, stood up and pondered its surroundings (I refer to the body as "it" because it was just too dark to say anything else about the matter).

"What the...?" Came the voice from the body. A man. His voice was deep and rustic, and bore the unmistakable sound of the Germans.

"It's okay," was my retortion. "I don't know who you are, but I'm here too. My name's Henry." A short, defined pause.

"Klaus." Said the shadowed man reluctantly. "What the fuck am I doing in this room?". He seemed agitated, and for what it was worth, so was I.

"I've just woken up, the same as you. I think we should take a look at where we are." Klaus grunted at me, and I assumed this meant he agreed. I was still reeling about the fact that I'd been locked in this god forsaken chamber. What the hell was going on? I shuffled forward with my hand out until I connected with the cold stone of a wall. Four times I did this, and by these means I discovered that we were in a small, cube shaped room. The important factor here being that there was no discernable exit.

"Shit." I mumbled. "No way out." I began to shuffle my way back to the center of the room when I stepped on something. Something that groaned when I removed my foot from upon it.

"Nyughh." Said the thing. "Who stepped on me?"

"Hi. Get up." I said.

"What? Where the hell am I?" The body cried, getting up in a rush.

"I'm afraid you're locked in a room with no way to escape. We're in a similar situation."

There was a short, deafening silence in which nobody spoked or so much as breathed.

I was certain he was about to answer when a blinding white light illuminated the room, stinging my eyes. I gasped and moved my arms up to cover them. Almost as soon as the light had made its apparition, a voice emnated from somewhere above us, filling the room and forcing its words upon us.

"Greetings." The voice was female and flat. Her words sounded rehearsed and repeated. Her voice did not falter. "You have been selected for testing. Do not attempt to escape." I looked around and caught a glimpse of the other two who were looking dumbfounded. Klaus had brown, thinning hair which hung loosely on his scalp. He was heavily bearded and well built, and sported several scars on his arms and neck. The other man, whose name I did not know, was tremendously large and seemed to be sweating. He wore glasses too large for him and had black, beady eyes. The lights dimmed and the voice once more filled the room with its drone.

"You have been admitted to the facility for the testing and examination. You are all convicted criminals."

A nervous shuffle as the three of us were reminded.

"Klaus. You shot a man between the eyes for the mere sum of a thousand pounds. I hope this made you feel a thousand times a man."

"Ralph. You committed severe identity fraud, and your actions brought bankrupcy upon countless helpess and innocent individuals. I hope your heart holds out longer than."

"Henry. For thirty years you've manipulated people's addictions for your own profit and gain. Your own greed has become your addiciton. I hope nobody sees this and manipulates you similarly.

I bowed my head in shame as these words sunk in.

"For years we have surveyed your actions and behaviours, all three of you. We have constructed an experiment that matches your personalities and traits perfectly."

I heard the sound of glass on stone and twisted my neck to see the commotion. On the floor laid three syringes filled with unusual, pale liquids. The droning voice returned.

"You will each inject a single syringe's contents into your veins. Failure to do so will result in certain death inflicted by the poison running through your bodies."

There was a small silence pierced by nothing but the sounds of breathing.

"Two of the syringes contain the cure to this poison. However, one contains absolutely nothing. Choose wisely."

Silence again.

"Oh, and one last thing. You may leave the room freely after a week has passed - as long as exactly two of you remain alive."

The voice shut off with a sharp snap of static which left my ears ringing in the now deafening silence that followed. As I contemplated the information I'd been delivered, I couldn't help but feel a wave of panic overwhelm me. My knees weakened and I had to lean against the wall. Just this morning the only thing on my mind was the upcoming clients I'd be dealing to the next day. It never occured to me that I'd ever be in a situation like this, trapped in a moldy room with a maniac and a sleazy fraudster. It remained this way for a good minute, the three of us saying nothing, just standing there. Suddenly, Klaus' face twisted into a leer of pure malice and rage before he threw himself at the rough concrete wall.

"Fuck this!" He screamed violently as he pounded the wall with his fists, crying out loudly. "Get me out of here!" He continued to beat the wall furiously, until the greasy fat man spoke out.

"Stop. You're being irrational."

Klaus stopped his wall pounding and turned his neck slowly, facing Ralph. He mumbled under his breath, barely audible "What did you say?" It was at this point that Klaus completely lost his shit. He charged at Ralph like an angry bull, knocking him over. He proceeded to throw punch after punch at Ralph's face, knocking his glasses clean off.

"That's ENOUGH!" I screamed. The sheer volume of my voice stopped the pair's fighting in their tracks. "Look at yourselves! What good can this do?" They looked at me quizzically, but I could see the redness fading from Klaus' face. "We need to conserve energy. We have no food. No water. Calm the hell down or we'll all die anyway!" They had seperated from each other now, retreating to seperate corners. I too backed in to a corner, and we stayed like this for a good amount of time to collect our thoughts. After some time, I flicked my eyes over to the syringes.

"What are we doing about those?" I asked quizzically.

Klaus strode over to the syringes and examined them, closely, and one by one. He seemed to be examining them for signs of difference. Finding none, he grunted in disgust and took the one he was holding back to his corner. I was shocked to see that without hesitation, he pulled back his sleeve and injected the fluid. I stared at him in wonder as he cast the emtpy syringe aside.

"This one has a cure." He said, apparently very sure of himself. His wavering voice, of course, failed him. Ralph was the next to take a look at the syringes. After a while spent peering at the contents with his beady eyes, he decided upon one and injected it in a similar manner. The sweat on his brow seemed much thicker. He was taking very short breaths, the way someone would when they were cardiovascularly challenged. I didn't doubt that for a second, going by his size. And then it was my turn. I walked over to the last syringe nervously, and picked it up. The same unnatural, pale liquid swam in the syringe as I stared at it intently. Was I really sure about this? What would happen if I didn't inject it at all? No. I knew what would happen. I bravely pulled back my shirt sleeve and injected the liquid into my arm. It was cold. much colder than I'd expected, and I felt sick instantly. I thought I saw Klaus snigger as I lost consciousness.

The next three days went by like a blur. Shapes and colours raced by in my dreams as I dipped in and out of consciousness, dark thoughts plaguing my mind like a terrible infection. We spent the time laying on the cold stone floor, saying very little, and doing even less. And then on the fourth night, Ralph caved.

His high pitched screams woke us in the dead of night, piercing the air like a knife through butter. Try as we might, we couldn't calm him, and he continued to scream despite all of our attemps to silence him. He must have eventually stopped, because I soon found myself drifting back in to the dazed stupour that had overcome me before the screaming began.

On the fifth night, Ralph became violent. He was sitting quietly in his corner when he leapt up and threw his fist at me. I could do nothing as his fist connected with my jaw and I saw stars. He hit me again and black spots appeared in my field of vision. He hit me a third time and I remember no more from that day. All I know is that I awoke some time later to find my face heavily bruised and bleeding, and Ralph on the floor. His body was sprawled at an awkward angle, almost as if he'd been knocked down. He was breathing, but otherwise seemed to not be conscious (thank god). I think Klaus must have retaliated and attacked him, and maybe even saved me. Hearing him cough, I glanced over in his direction, and was surprised to find him sleeping soundly.

On the sixth night, Ralph remained deathly silent with a grin spread wide across his sweating face. This was perhaps the most unnerving thing he'd done throughout the whole ordeal. He coughed and shook violently at regular intervals, giving the clear indication he was quite ill. By this point both Klaus and I were dead certain that Ralph had injected himself with nothing more than water, and I personally was overwhelmed with relief. I'd surely survived the odds and injected one of the cures into myself. We'd be out in a day and I could see my wife and daughter again.

"So thirsty." Came a rasping voice from Klaus' direction.

"Me too. Just one more day and two of us are out of this. Just hang in there." I comforted him with.

"REALLY thirsty." Came Klaus' voice again, and I could hear more desperation creeping into it.

"I know. It's only for one mor-"

I didn't get the chance to finish that sentence. He stood up wildly and screamed.

"LOOK AT HIM, HE'S BASICALLY ALREADY DEAD FROM THE POISON. I NEED WATER AND I NEED IT NOW, I'LL DIE SOONER THAN TOMORROW COMES!"

"Klaus, no, don't-"

"WHY CAN'T I JUST KILL HIM NOW? WE'LL GET OUT A DAY LATE, I'M TOO FUCKING THIRSTY TO WAIT. FUCK THIS"

"KLAUS, NO-"

I watched in horror as he stumbled over to Ralph and fell upon him, beating him senseless with his hands, feet, anything withing reach. Punch after kick after headbutt was landed as he beat Ralph's bloody face over and over again, each pound creating new crimson cuts in the man's face. I tried to get up stop him but was quickly beaten back by Klaus' wrath-infused fist. I could only watch as he took one final, massive swing at the side of Ralph's head and knocked the life from him. Ralph died right there on the floor, and the now blood-covered smirk that adorned his face didn't fade a second earlier. Klaus stood still, panting heavily - his head swivelled around, searching, looking for the exit that must surely now appear. He seemed to stop for a moment, frozen in time. Then, he collapsed to the floor, his body nothing more than a rag doll as I stumbled over to him. I looked at his face as he choked on something, coughing violently and spewing blood from his mouth while his body spasmed uncontrollably.

I saw the light leave his eyes.

One of us remained.

''In case the ending or anything else in the story was unclear, or I didn't explain it properly, this should help. Three criminals are locked together in a stone room, and they're offered a syringe each. Two of the syringes contain a cure to the poison already within all of them - and I've implied it takes about a week to kill a man. Throughout the story, Ralph displays several telltale symptoms of sever cardiovascular disease - google the symptoms. When he was brought in to the room, he was already severely ill and prone to a heart attack. Anything could set him off. He's so ill it LOOKS like he's the one who took the poison, after all, would you think otherwise? The rest is fairly explanatory, Klaus gets dehydrated and fed up, tries to kill Ralph "early", ends up sabotaging any means of escape. He dies shortly after, obviously the real taker of the poison. With both men dead, this leaves only one man left. As per the rules, he can never leave. Starves to death or kills himself, who knows.''

''Klaus' anger and murderous was tested many times throughout. Murder.''

''Ralph's deception was shown when he neglected to reveal his condition. Fraud.''

''Henry tries to keep peace in the group and manipulate klaus near the end by telling him they'd be out in a day and everything would be fine. Manipulation (maybe?)''

''I know that there will be plot holes and many things I can improve. Please help me to do so! :)'' 