Checkmate

It was dark. That’s all Sammy could remember before he woke up in a small dimly lit room. The only light was from a light bulb that was hanging down from a wire overhead. The four walls surrounding him each had a door in the center. The room was painted a ghostly white, it seemed almost a step past white. However, each of the doors were black. Upon closer inspection, Sammy discovered that there was a tiny light above each of the doors. There was nothing else in this room, except for him. No one, and no thing.

He started to plot his escape, when a buzz went off, the same buzz that sounded before they opened a secure door in a prison, and the light above the door to his left lit up. The light was black. Curious, Sammy slowly twisted the knob and opened the door. Peeking through the crack, he saw a person on the other side. Still cautious, he asked who they were, ready to slam the door at any sign of hostility. The person did not answer, but just stood there, but when they realized someone had opened a door to the room, they started to cry. Sammy was confused, and hoped that he had not disturbed their sanctuary, and upset them somehow.

“Just make it quick.” she said through the tears, still unsure of herself. “At least I was useful to a point, right? That’s a good goal to hit.”

Sammy hesitated a second, thinking about whether or not he had missed some lengthy introduction that had explained everything. When he was satisfied that he was certain he had been through nothing of the sort, he fully opened the door and asked, “What do you mean? I just got here, I’m actually not quite sure what’s going on.”

The girl swallowed hard, and didn’t turn away from the direction she faced. “Reach into your pocket, use the knife. Go for my throat, it’s the best way.” she choked out through the tears.

Sammy reached into his pocket, and pulled out a knife. He had no idea how the knife had gotten there. It was a small butterfly knife. He studied it, looking at it as if it held all the answers. Then he looked back at the girl, and saw that she held a knife in her hand too. He thought to himself that maybe this was all a trap, and maybe she just wanted to lull him in close, so she could kill him. “Why am I here?” he asked her with fear accenting his voice, “why did you bring me here?”

She didn’t turn, and told him, “I didn’t bring you here, I just follow the rules. You have to kill me, and I can do nothing to stop you, those are the rules. You’d better hurry, they don’t like having the game held up.”

Sammy was getting close to being hysterical. Murder? Rules? They? Game? What had he fallen into? How could he possibly get out? Then there was a flash of the lights above the doors, and what sounded like an alarm of sorts. Bwoop bwoop bwoop. It rang through his ears, and he saw her sit down and put her hands on the ground, as if it was something she had practiced for a long time. Then through the doors behind him, and in the room she was in, large men in black outfits, with masks covering their faces rushed in. Before Sammy knew it, they had fired something at him. Strings shot out into him, and immense pain shot through his entire being. Then everything went dark.
When Sammy woke up he had a strange feeling around his neck, like something was poking him. He reached up, And found he had some sort of metallic collar on. “What the…” he said as he tried to inspect it with his hands.

Then a noise came from the collar. “You have been disrespectful of our time.” The voice was a computer generated one, like you would find on a computer’s speech function. “This game already takes long enough. When we make a move, you make sure to get it done. Next time, you will be punished.”

Sammy was scared, he didn’t know what was going on, and what all the mention of games was. Then he realized something, he was in a different room then what he started in, but the room seemed familiar somehow. This room had walls blacker then midnight, with doors, and lights above them, white as white can be. He felt something as he stood up, and he realized he now had two knives. He was so scared, and so helpless, all he could do was wait, and hope it would be him walking into another room, not someone else walking into his.