11.

Gary Arnold is the second of the five to choose a room and once he has chosen a number, he is escourted away just as Keith had been. Almost right away he worries more for the others than for himself. He feels that Keith may just get a raw deal given the situation. He doesn't want any harm to come to Alisha, he doesn't want any harm to come to any of his friends but Alisha in particular. Soon an option will be presented to him where he will have a choice to make, a choice he will in no way want to make.

The journey to his room of choice has his thoughts turn to Alex. Alex probably is the most fearful of the five. He, Alex, was the only one to initially refuse to take on the challenge. He was basically coerced into changing his mind. He will be brave when the needs be though the sights and sounds Gary picks up on are really gonna get to Alex more so than anyone else with the possible exception of Alisha.

This indeed is a worry. Gary will take anything on, or at least try take anything on. He will do the best he can. Alex on the other hand, he will try but yeah, Alex may already be defeated before he even gets to a room. Alisha may just be stronger than she herself thinks, and this is what Gary hopes is a truth.

No time to think about anything else now. Gary is determined to get through his part and anything he can do after that ... well ... he will take things on as they come. The hallways he is walked through are wet and there is blood in that wetness. There most definitely is blood, he can see it, smell it ... feel it even, to the point that there is a stickiness to it. He can hear various screams coming from various locations and considers for a moment as to if those screams are real or are there for his benefit.

He enters into his room freely and the door is locked shut behind him with echoing clanks and clunks. He knows he is in for a difficult time. In no way does he expect to simply stay close by that door and wait ten hours. No matter how eerily things begin, Gary knows that things will take a turn for the worst.

There are two full length mirrors close-by and each of them, as he looks right at them, distort his image and do so in an unnatural manner. This is freakish, in any other situation the reflected images might get to him but here, here he has to expect the unnatural. The lighting is such that he can see the mirrors and clearly see his distorted images and for the moment, there is not much more to see with a present darkness shrouding the rest of the room.

The carnival the five friends had been to, had someone been watching them there and if so, then how much of their lives had they been observed? The house of mirrors at that carnival was the first area to take Gary's, Keith's, and Alex's interest. Out of those three, Gary had been the most intrigued when it came to those mirrors and the effects they had.

Ten hours in here and just a couple of minutes have already passed so far, nothing to get too worried about yet, what next? There is something on the ground no more than fifteen feet away and to his left, it takes him a moment to see it. Oh, hell no, he is about to have his childhood messed with. There is a small orange bowler hat, not unlike the hat the clown at that circus from way back when, was wearing.

Circus music begins to play and before Gary can begin to question it, a spotlight shines about forty feet off and on the other side of the hat. Someone soon steps out of the darkness into that spotlight and this someone appears to be somewhat of a ringmaster. Red jacket, black waistcoat, white trousers, and a black top hat to top it all off. This is a real person, not a projection or something being broadcast.

'Step right up, step right up. Come one, come all and be welcomed to a night of fun the likes you will not see anywhere else ... and we can guarantee you that ...'

'Who are you? ... what the hell is happening here?'

Gary tries to ask questions; no answers will come his way. His heartbeat has quickened, and he has yet to become aware of the fact that his feet have become glued to the spot in his he stands. This is out of actual fear of course, and not to a presence of any actual glue. The ringmaster keeps on talking as if Gary is not there at all.

'We have trapeze artists ... the likes you will see nowhere else ...'

Spots lights light up an area way up above to reveal a trapeze act in full swing. Jeez, how big is this room? No more than ten seconds of a trapeze act is displayed in light before that light is taken away.

'We have the strongest of strong men ...'

Another spotlight shines way off to the ringmaster's left, to reveal a strong man with an enormous black handlebar mustache and he looks to be prepping himself to lift what appears to be a ridiculously large and heavy weight. He chalks up his hands, slaps them together, dust cloud disperses and off he goes to lift that weight with difficultly at first but ultimately completes the lift with ease. The strong man disappears back into darkness before that power lifted weight could be placed back on the ground.

'We have dancers from far and wide ...'

A new light shines double wide upon five ladies behind the ringmaster. He moves clear of the dancers, all in a side by side line, who all look quite alike and are all identically scantily clad, they all begin to dance to the can-can while the line itself too moves a full three sixty and once it does turn a full circle, the ladies too vanish back into to darkness as if they were never there at all. Of course, while the ladies were the focus, can-can music played before returning to more of what had been playing before.

'We have clowns to turn your frowns upside down ...'

Three clowns appear, one quite short, one regular sized and one extremely tall and they all run rings around the ringmaster and crisscross amongst themselves and before long they too are gone. All this comes and goes as if Gary is watching from somewhere else or as of what is occurring is occurring somewhere else, but it is not. All of what is happening is happening within the room.

'And our star act tonight ...'

Without directly acknowledging Gary, the ringmaster directs Gary attention to where another light is about to shine. Gary had been watching up to now at a complete and utter loss for what to make of any of this but what can he do other than take it all in as it presents itself.

What it is that Gary's attention is now being directed to is a wall of individual screens, all next to and atop of one another. The circus music fades and now is not a time for fun and games, things are about to take a more serious tone. Images flash and change at an incredible rate on a number of screens until one by one they begin to go out and they do go out, all except four that is.

The four remaining screens each have an image upon them. Each is fixed on a single individual ... each of Gary's friends. Alex looks petrified, Keith looks determined, Trebor looks lost as lost can be and Alisha is about to walk herself into something serious.

'Pick a friend to die ...' speaks the ringmaster and he does this addressing Gary for the first time.

'Excuse me??'

'Pick a friend to die or they all will die ...'

This is ridiculous, he can't really be saying what it sounds like he is saying.

'Hurry, hurry ... we don't have all day ... the clock is ticking ... 10 ... 9 ...'

'I ca-can't do that ... they are my friends ...'

'8 ... oh but you must ... 7 ... or they all will die ... 6 ... hurry, hurry ... we don't have long ...'

Gary's eyes dart from screen to screen ... what's he to do ... what can he do?

'5 ... time is running out ... 4 ...'

'Alright ... alright ... stop ...'

'3 ... 2 ...'

'Ok I choose ...'