The Game
“Up until now, you’ve simply sat in the shadows, watching others live their lives. What do voyeurs see when they look in the mirror?”
She looks down, anywhere but at the other alive occupant in the room. Sure, her choice of work wasn’t professional, but when you’re a freelance photographer, you have to make money somehow. Up until recently, very recently (at this very moment to be exact), it's not something she's proud of.
“Now I see you as a strange mix…someone who’s angry and apathetic. But mostly just pathetic. So, are you going to watch yourself die today Fleur? Or will you do something about it?”
Judging by the look on Hermione’s face, she could tell that she was just as confused. What does that mean?
“I don’t get it.” I mean, I get the part about might dying, but the rest of it?
“Throw me the player.” Fleur frowns, trying to decide if this woman is stupid or not. She'll have to figure that out later.
“No! You throw me your tape.”
She watches as Hermione rolls her eyes. “Look, we’re going to have to work together if we want to get out of here. Now throw it to me.”
“I’m not gonna risk breaking it. Toss over your tape.” Turns out, Hermione has a bad arm, either that or she threw it badly on purpose. The tape hits the corner of the room and Fleur has half the mind to glare at her but she just removes her tape, tossing it on the ground carelessly, and replacing it with Hermione’s before pressing play.
“Dr. Granger: This is your wake-up call. Every day of your working life you have given people the news that they are going to die soon. Now, you will be the cause of death.”
“That doesn’t sound good.” She paused as she heard Hermione spoke.
“We’re chained in a bathroom. And did you think after hearing my tape that yours would be any better?” No response. She hesitates, it’s harder to hear this tape than hers. There is distinct coughing that follows every breath, and it reminds Fleur of the smoker's cough her grandmother and mother have. The type of cough she knows she’s bound to get. The cough on the tape sounds just like it, but worse, like it’s laced with pain. Hermione snaps to get her attention and she hits play again.
“Your aim in this game is to kill Fleur. You have until 6:00 on the clock to do it. There are ways to win this hidden all around you. Just Remember: X marks the spot. If you do not kill Fleur by 6:00, your parents will die. And I will leave you in this room to rot. Let the game begin.”
Well fuck.
At least she knows now why she might die.
“It’s probably a joke, right? This can’t be real…” She almost feels sorry for her at that moment. Almost. “Give me that.”
Fleur doesn't argue this time, tossing the recorder which, thankfully, Hermione catches with ease. The words play backward loudly before Hermione presses play again.
"If you do not kill Fleur by 6:00, your parents will die." The blonde wishes she didn't have to hear that again. Not everyone has the same relationship with their parents that she does, and Hermione must really care for hers if they're being used as an incentive to kill.“Let the game begin.”
I don’t hear a difference. She shoots the doctor a strange look. "Listen closely," Hermione says as she rewinds yet again.
“Let the game begin.
Follow your heart.”
It's said quietly, practically on the verge of being hidden by the loud static sound that plays with the recording. She can't tell if it was meant to be left in with how quiet it was but it throws her off.
“Follow your heart. What the hell does that mean?” Hermione scans the room for a moment, jumping and pointing towards something near her.
“There! Right next to you.” Fleur turns and sees a heart painted against the stained ceramic toilet. Like the clock, the paint looks new, bright as if it had just been painted hours ago. As she looks at the toilet, she curses under her breath that she was chained on that side of the room. She feels targeted against- first waking up underwater and now having to look for whatever it is they're looking for in this toilet. Let’s just get this over with… she holds her breath and shoves her hand into the bowl that’s filled with brown, murky water. “Anything?”
“No solids.”
“What about under the lid?” Right. The lid. She lifts it up and places it down gently, reaching in and pulling out a black bag.
“I really wish I had checked in there first.” Her grin quickly turns into a frown as she buries the first items she grabbed, but her grin comes back when she pulls out two hand saws. She crouches down and puts one against the chain, stopping as she heard a rough throat-clearing sound.
"Mind tossing over the other one?"
"Shit, sorry." She wiggles the saw and giggles at the expression on Hermione's face before tossing it over. She hears the saw clatter onto the floor but doesn't pay much attention to it, focusing on the chain in front of her as she quickly moves the saw back and forth. On the other side of the room, Hermione does the same. A minute or two passes before something interesting happens.
The saw in Fleur's possession breaks, the blade snapping off from the handle. “Fuck!”
“He doesn’t want us to cut through the chains, he wants us to cut through our feet.” Hermione stands up, slowly running her finger over the blade of the unbroken saw in her hand. It's dull, but not so dull that it won't do damage, as shown by the small amount of blood on the doctor's index finger. The brunette looks up and drops the saw, biting her lip before speaking again.
“I think I may know who’s done this to us.”