90 Days

Jasper | Wake up call

"You are here to kill the other person in this house. You have three months to do so, or else you will both be executed. You can only attempt to kill your partner once a day. If you choose not to at all, we will take no action. If you choose to break that rule, we will kill you. We are always watching. Do not test us. Do not go against us. And please, follow our rules. Thank you for your cooperation."

The booming voice quieted in the darkness. Lying on the ground, Jasper opened his eyes. The message woke him up. Jasper didn't dare move, he didn't want to make a sound. All he saw was a wall of black. He freaked out, his heart rate climbed at a dangerous rate. His eyes adjusted, and in the other corner of the room sat a digital clock and he could barely make out the numbers: it was a minute past midnight. His vision of pure black slowly formed objects around him. A wooden desk at the far wall, a window above it that shed no light, a chair in the corner on the right of a dresser which had the clock, and a bed, the ones with the four turrets but without the curtains. A simple bedroom.

Jasper started to sweat. Questions filled his mind, hitting him like punches to the brain. Where was he? What was that message before? He had to kill somebody else in this house? So many things were wrong. He felt uneasy, the decision of puking was held above him for a while. His stomach was like if someone had decided to blend sour milk and onions to make a smoothie that could kill a hundred cows. Looking up while trying to keep his appetite, he didn't like any of this. And then Jasper heard a noise. A small dragging sound. He shuddered and listened.

Nothing.

The house fell silent again. Not a sound. Jasper knew he wasn't crazy, he had heard a thump from somewhere below him. There was a floor beneath him and his realization made him even more frightened: there really was someone else. Jasper backed up into the wall and curled up next to the bed.

He wanted to go home. He remembered living in a city with his parents, he had a sister, Rachel and a dog named Edward. The world was too big for him and he was comfortable in his cozy home. Not this. He wanted to go back to them, away from this place that wanted him to murder someone else. For what, fun? Entertainment? He was kidnapped, that's it. There was probably ransom money for him, somebody else too was taken, and they're going to try to kill him because a voice told them to. 

The rule hung in his head, only once a day - what a weird guidance. For three whole months, ninety attempts to get killed, he wondered how could he ever survive that long. Jasper felt he'd never make it through one day. Calm down. His mind stilled, processing his panic with this information.

Thump.

And out the window went his calmness.

This time he knew what he heard. It was the other guy. Jasper figured they were already trying to get him. A head start he guessed, it was smart if the other person was desperate to live. Should Jasper try to talk to them first? He figured that he could try to calm them down, but in the end, Jasper was too scared himself. In his life, Jasper had many friends who would just talk to him because he was a cool guy, but nobody too close. He had barely any experience making new friends. Jasper had left his little town with his parents and the four of them with Ed set out for a life in the city. Now under these circumstances in a death house, Jasper didn't want to take any chances with taking the diplomatic approach. As he looked around, he could see much more now as his eyes adjusted to the limited light. There were designs of little swirls on the walls, the dresser was next to a closet and in front of the bed was a door. A door. His stare fell and remained on it. If it opened just one bit he would freak out, hide under the bed and then probably die from a heart attack. He waited.

And waited.

For what seemed to be like forever, there were no sounds and nobody opened the door. He needed to get his facts straight. What did he know? His name is Jasper Hayes and he used to go to BreakFall High. He graduated in the year 2014 and he moved to a big city with his family. Education and jobs, his parents told him. Now, he woke up in a dark place with someone else that was forced to kill him, great. He inched upwards. A lot of time passed. Wow, he thought to himself, I'm a coward. Slowly with a burst of courage he got to his feet. Jasper tip-toed around the room trying to avoid creaking the long wooden planks that made up the ground, to the desk while keeping an eye on that door. The desk had a thin leather book on top of it, he opened it but the pages were empty. Nothing else. No pen or anything, a blank book. He decided to hold onto it, as it was pretty much the only thing in the room, and pressed himself on the door. His hand touched the cold handle, his wrist wouldn't move. Was he going to become a killer? No he didn't want that. He didn't want to find out who this other person would be, what if they instantly charged at him? Would he fight back? Jasper had never been good at winning fights but he could pull off some punches. Maybe land a lucky one-two combo and knock the sucker out. Only in his wildest dreams would that ever happen. The door nob felt heavy, he glanced at the time, it was nearing two in the morning. He felt tired and drained. The bed looked so comfortable, so much that he could sleep, but then a thought brought him back: what if the other guy jumped him in his sleep. Scary. He had no choice but to go out and solve this. Whoever  was out there was going to find him eventually so he needed to take the first step. The book in his hand was covered in sweat, his muscles were tense. He took three deep breaths and opened the door.

---

Panic started to rise in his chest. As much as he could see in the bedroom, it was the same out there. The door slid across his vision and opened up to a short hallway. To his right, there was a couple other doors, closed and beckoning to be opened. Jasper gulped and looked to the left, where he could see spiralled staircase that went down to the floor underneath. He stepped out of the room, felt the bend in the wooden flooring as it gave way to miniature squeaks and he felt his way through the darkness along the wall. Jasper decided that before going down, he would check the other rooms to make sure it was safe and not a trap. At the end of the hallway was a window.

The moon covered in clouds shed light over the world. Jasper gazed out and saw a grassy field turning into a forest. Beyond that, a city. It was different, the whole environment seemed to make a circle around the house, as if the whole place was built for the kidnap-a-child purpose. The house was in a circle. The closer the buildings were to the house, they were small strip malls and gas stations, but as the streets kept on, larger buildings fell into place. After that, through the cracks of the streets Jasper saw a shiny grey fence that marked the border of this world. It spanned his entire vision, most probably circling around like everything else. It was all so far away, Jasper guessed that it would take forever to walk from the house he was in. But if that was his exit, it needed to stay in his mind.

He braced before pushing the door across from the bedroom open. The last thing Jasper remembered getting into bed. It had be a very uneventful day, he had school in the morning, classes that bored him to death. After that he did the groceries, walked his dog, the usual business for a college student. His day had been quiet, if not anything else. Nothing out of the ordinary, and to find himself in this environment the next day didn't settle well. Kidnapped. Afraid. Afraid of who else was in this house, and afraid of what he was going to do when he found them. The voice didn't even say what would happen when one of them were killed. Could he be set free? But that would mean ending someone else's life for his personal gain. Jasper almost slammed the door open. His anger rose as more questions came to him. Why would somebody want to kidnap children and stuff them in a house to murder each other, it sounded unthinkable. If anything, in the end Jasper promised himself that he would find a way out, without having to kill anyone. There had to be a way.

The bathroom was almost as large as the bedroom. It had three main components, the sink area with the towel racks and the toilet area which was on the left of the sink, toilet paper and everything. Finally, both sides joined in to make a capital letter "T", the long stretch leading into the Jacuzzi-bathtub. Everything was so organized, it creeped Jasper. To think that somebody took time planning and placing all these items, Jasper was dealing with a whole new level of danger. He could tell everything was clean, all the items, the toothbrushes, the soap containers, they were all brand new. And then something caught his eye. On the wall was a painting that he'd seen before. He didn't need a lot of light to know what it shown.

It had two trees, one was green and one was red. The background was a nice baby blue sky and the grassy ground was pickled with flowers of all colours. It was carefully crafted, a piece of art.

It was the same painting that he drew when he was in elementary, without a doubt. Jasper was tasked to draw what he loved so he looked out the window and drew the world down on paper. That day he brought it home and his mother placed it in his bathroom. This memory was too nice for a place like this. He felt as if he was trespassing, how a bit of his life was here without him knowing.

Not only did whoever put him here take him, but things of his life were in this house. Was it random that they put it in the bathroom of all places? He denied it. It couldn't be a coincidence. His captors knew things about his past and they must've put that there for a reason. To psyche him out maybe, so that the other person could get to him first. So that he would give up the fight.

He turned the picture over, he knew that he needed to remain calm. Jasper did a quick search of the gigantic bathroom and found nothing else out of the ordinary so he slowly went back into the hallway. His gentle movements that he had before were replaced by his quivering jerks of his arms and legs. The book that he had held onto felt like bringing a knife to a gunfight. It was heavy and soaked, and probably useless. He struggled to inch his way forward, towards the stairs. The sun hadn't risen yet so it was still dark in the house. Jasper guessed the time but his fear of the other individual, mixed with the dread and curiosity, controlled him. He moved to the other hallway when something below him crashed.