Hour 6

Behind everyone on the stage, a towering game board rose from the floor with a mechanized humming sound that vibrated even the rafters. As it settled into place, it was at least 30 feet tall and ran the horizontal length of the entire stage. It came to life in a schizophrenic flurry of flashing lights that divided its length into 5 sections, indicating where each group would stand in front. Holographic words were projected along the top and began repeating in an endless loop: "Team selection in progress." Alex tugged at Emi's shirt as he spoke, "I want to be on your team, but I'm not part of the 25. I think I should stay out of this to avoid breaking any rules." "You're right," Emi agreed. "I think you should wait this one out." Alex shook his head, showing he understood, and said, "Please, be careful, em" before he walked out towards the back of the stage area and sat down. He noticed where they had just emerged from backstage by way of the creepy door now led to a dead end, not that he was surprised.

Emi thought "now, to find a team." Before she could say anything Alice offered "want to partner up?" Emi had clicked with her personality type back in the room they had met in and she saw no reason to deny her request. She formally agreed to her proposal as she stuck out her hand and Alice accepted the handshake. Jake and Richard both asked to join their team as well, which Emi and Alice had no problems with. Richard had claimed Alice and Emi seemed reliable and Jake had remarked that besides Richard Alice was really the only one he got to know at all back in that room. At this point team one had already been established, governed by the man with the dagger tattoo. He hadn't asked for anyone, his whole team was comprised of people who had wanted to join him. Emi thought "I guess it makes sense some people would see him as leader material." The final person to join Emi's team was the old man who had appeared after Emi and Alex had. His name was Paul, he wore a simple red sweatshirt with grey sweat pants, and he was 63 with distinctively hollow cheekbones. Apparently, he had only made it this far by dumb luck; he had killed someone in self-defense to pass the first objective and had, by chance, witnessed how someone else completed the laser tag objective. Emi thought it was worth noting that even though Paul had followed fairly quickly after the person he had watched figure out the laser tag, he didn't go to the same waiting room as them. She had thought, "Maybe the person who finished before him filled the room they went to making it 25/25, so Paul was sent to a different room." Her thoughts continued as she looked around her group. "But then, wouldn't Paul have started a new room? Like, he'd be 1/25 for a new batch? Something isn't adding up, there must be some kind of method being used I'm not understanding. Maybe people are sent to rooms at random?" Then she realized she hadn't thought to ask where everyone was from. She asked her team, "Just out of curiosity, where are you guys from? Me and my brother are from Pennsylvania." Alice said, "I'm from Nevada, born and raised," while Jake replied indifferently, "Chicago." Paul answered "Oklahoma." "Huh," Richard replied. "I'm from Florida, I thought that's where all of you were from, too." Emi thought "Maybe every one of the 25 is selected from a different state? Would it be to heighten the odds of people not knowing each other, thus making teamwork more challenging?" She rubbed her elbows as she thought, "In the beginning, I really did think this was some kind of government plot, either initiated by our own or a foreign one. But, then we were given access to that impossible store that sold things that shouldn't exist. Not too long after that, we fell through some kind of portal. Now a door made from liquid brought us here, to this..." She looked out over the inhuman audience that gyrated with an uncanny flow as they continued to cheer. They had the form of a human, like someone's shadow, but they also seemed to be disconnected from the world, like they didn't belong here, like the outlines of their shapes were fighting to maintain themselves as they faded in and out of corporeal existence. "I don't know anymore, this is just getting scarier as it goes on."

After everyone formed their team and stood in the designated spots in front of the divided board, 5 people in front of each team label, 5 squares rose up out of the stage about half a foot. The gross voice came to life again all around them and instructed, "Please send out your first contestant, chosen at random by the name that flashes below your team number on the board behind you." The man with the dagger tattoo, whose name was revealed to be Liam, was selected for team one. A middle-aged man with a hat and curly hair named Ted was selected for Team 2, Jake for Team 3, a young man with a red Mohawk named Benjamin for Team 4, and a woman with a curly Afro named Dominique for Team 5. The announcer started, "All right, contestant 1, truth or-" but he cut off the voice in a disinterested tone, "Dare." "We dare you to break your left index finger." Without the slightest blink of hesitation, the man anchored his grip onto his left index finger and cracked it sideways. Some of the other contestants cringed, and the audience roared with thunderous applause. No one else seemed to realize it, but Emi did. Everyone was too focused on the man who had just broken his own finger. Emi thought as she looked out over the revolting audience of pulsating shadows. "That voice, it said we dare you... Who's we?"

The placard above team 1 flashed from 0 to 1 and the man decided to stay. The announcer then asked the middle-aged man with curly hair representing team 2, "Truth or dare?" He confidently chose "truth" with a smug expression. One of his teammates muttered "damn, he's taking the easy one on us. Guess I can't blame him though." The voice then asked, "Truth: what did you have for dinner at 6:42 pm on April 18th, 2004?" The man's smirk dissolved as the facial muscles under his skin sank. "Uh, I mean, I don't know..." One of his teammates yelled out, "Guess, you idiot! Just say something, anything that covers a variety of foods!" The man lowered his head in brief thought before raising it quickly and asking "Pasta?" "Wrong answer!" Boomed the voice." The audience booed in disapproval as the score below team 2 was downgraded to -1. Since the man with the dagger tattoo on his neck, Liam, had won his round he was asked who would come out for team 2 now. He picked the next player at random, obviously not caring an ounce for the game's more strategic elements.

Jake had volunteered to go first for Emi's team, team 3. He asked for "truth" as he thought, "I don't have the pain threshold to play out any messed up dares. my only real option is truth." He was asked, "What were your parents arguing about 9 years ago on August 1st, 2016?" He was quiet for a moment, lost in confusion by the looks of it. "9 years ago?" He thought. "I haven't seen Mom since then because that's when they divorced, and I went to live with Dad, but..." Any hint of determination that might've been displayed on his face evaporated in an instant. He looked as if he had been turned to stone; for a moment, Emi thought the voice had done something to him. Then Jake spoke, his face pale and starting to sweat, his voice soft but labored. "My mom... Regretted not aborting me... And left me and my dad..." He walked off the square before he could hear the announcer reply, only it was more of a lurching, swaying stumble than a walk. He did, in fact, earn a point for his team, though, their 0 flashing to a 1 as he made it back to where his team stood. The look on Jake's face was shadowed by an indescribable emptiness. Emi asked him, "Are you alright?" It was a stupid question but it was all that she could think to ask. He said, "I guess." He looked at his hands as he said, "It was like a repressed memory. I hadn't thought about it in well over a decade." His fists clenched as he continued "One night I heard my parents arguing, and it was about me. There was a fight, I heard things break... I saw..." He shook his head. "It had been so traumatic that I just... I dunno, I was a kid at the time. I guess I just repressed it." He looked at her with broken eyes, and as Emi tried to support him as best she could, Alice volunteered to replace him on the square.

The man with the red Mohawk named Benjamin was next, representing team 4. He thought on his options for a moment, his thin chin buried in his fist like some kind of philosophical punk statue. He finally shrugged and said, "screw it, it's cheap, but I don't want any crazy dares. So, I pick truth." The voice asked, "What was the dominant color on your first pair of shoes?" "Shit," the man replied as he threw his head back in anger, causing his Mohawk to jump. "I dunno... White?" It was a safe guess for baby shoes, and he was right, earning his team a point. Ted from team 2, who had failed to guess his dinner from 20 years ago, scoffed, "his truth wasn't as hard as mine!" Emi admitted to herself "his question did seem a bit easier, especially compared to Jake's. I wonder if there's a reason for that?"

Dominique, representing team 5, chose a dare, to which she received the challenge to "shave all your hair off." The dare seemed unfairly easy until the woman admitted that when her mother, someone who had been a hairstylist for over 20 years, had died of cancer 4 years ago, she had sworn on her deathbed that she'd never get rid of her Afro. It had been her mother's favorite feature of hers and she had lost her own hair to the chemotherapy. Her final moments had been sealed with that promise, something they had laughed over as they thought of old times and happy memories. The voice offered to provide her with a way to complete the dare if she had no way of trimming it herself, but she declined, saying, "Don't waste your time. Even if it kills me I'm not breaking the last promise I made to my mom. Screw you and screw this edgy game." She returned to her team, and a point was deducted from them, but no one spoke up as they could feel the animosity radiating from her. As Benjamin chose who would replace her since he won his round, Emi thought, "This is just cruel."

It was now Liam's turn again from team 1, his left index finger still twisted in an unnatural arc. Since he had picked dare last time he was forced to take on truth this time. The voice asked, "Why did you kill Daniel Wyatt on December 19th, 2011?" Emi froze, the blood iced over in her veins. That was her father's name and the day he died, the same father she was robbed of at only 4 years old, the same father her family kept a framed picture of by the kitchen. The one she said "good morning" and "good night" to every day.