A Choice... (2) - 53
'No... no, no, no, no, no!'
'This can't be happening, this can't be happening, THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!'
The sight in front of me was appalling, something I wished that I would never see again in my life.
I was looking through what I already knew was bullet proof glass. On the other side of the glass was something like a torture chamber, divided into two sections. On one side was Lacida, and on the other was my Onee-san.
Below them, w-was just darkness, absolute darkness, something so black that it made you feel empty just by looking into it.
'I can't, I can't, I can't!'
I looked up at the blue screen that had appeared in front of me as this trial started.
[Trial: A Choice
Objective: Choose...
Difficulty: Easy - Impossible
Rewards: 10 stat points
Punishment for Failure: Death]
How was I supposed to choose?
Either I gave up my sister to death, or I gave up my sister in arms to death, it was an impossible situation.
Above the heads of the two people were timers that were counting down with each second, obviously measuring the amount of time left until one of them was chosen to die.
[10:00]
[9:59]
[9:58]
[9:57]
...
'I have no choice but to choose Onee-san!'
My hand reached towards the button on Lacida's side.
'No! Lacida risked her life for me! She's saved my life more times than I can count!'
My hand moved to the other button.
'B-but! B-but!... I just can't...'
I sat down, my hands covering my head, defeated by this scenario.
I had already chewed my fingernails down to their stumps, a bad habit that I thought I had gotten rid of a long time ago.
But then, as I was sitting in anguish on the floor, trying to keep my thoughts from choosing, like a light shining through the darkness, a message appeared before me.
[Player "Anonymous" has spent 1,000 TC to send you a message.]
[Player "Anonymous" says, "Choose your sister, after all, if she's dead, then what's the point of getting revenge on me?"]
This snapped me out of my reverie as I remembered the reason I had started climbing this tower in the first place.
As if in a trance, as if I was being controlled, a singular line of thought ran through my head.
'Revenge... yes, that was it...'
'H-he destroyed my Onee-san for no reason at all.'
'A monster... one that I must defeat.'
'Yes, this must be the path I have to take! I have made up my mind.'
Narrating my thoughts in my head, I stood back up, brushed the dust off my clothes with a flick of my hand, and put my palm over the button on Lacida's side.
"I'm sorry... Lacida, you were a real one."
A singular tear slid down my cheek.
I felt it travel to my chin, staying there for a second, fighting gravity for the last time, as if stuck desperately to the side of a cliff, before giving up and letting itself relax.
And, as gravity pulled it down, my hand also fell.
At the moment it hit the cold, hard table in front of me with a tiny, almost imperceptible splash, I slammed the button the rest of the way down.
"..."
After a little moment of silence, red lights started flashing in Onee-san's cell as the cuffs holding her to the wall unlocked, and her body fell into the mouth of the void.
"Click!"
"Noooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!"
I screamed, trying... trying to break through the bulletproof glass that kept me from reaching her, from saving one of the only two people I had left in this world... my sister.
I could only watch as her body was devoured, vanishing as soon as it touched the darkness, never to see the light of day again.
"You tricked me!" I yelled in anger, my vision turning red, as I wanted nothing more than to tear the head off of that manipulative bastard.
"You knew that I would press the button for Lacida's cell! You knew that I would inadvertently save her instead of killing her, yet you... you made me kill my sister in her place..."
Hearing myself say this, something broke in my mind, I grew quiet, dazed, as I collapsed on the floor, numb after my realization.
'I killed my sister...'
I felt myself curl up in a fetal position, as I started chewing on my own flesh, my fingernails already gone as I just laid there, my thoughts in such agony that I couldn't feel them anymore.
My feelings were gone.
I sighed.
Even though I had meant for this to happen, it still didn't help with the fact that she had definitely overdramatized the whole process that I had went through myself.
I mean, if you put aside the fact that she had killed so much people, she still was just a young girl, one that was lost and didn't have a home anymore.
So, coupled with the fact that she had just killed her own sister, this would have definitely made her into a monster like me, and that was what I had been going for.
And, although the face of her sister was blurred to me for some reason, I still knew that this was the right decision to make, as, looking at the other players that had gone through this trial, I knew that the family member that they had to choose against was just a fake illusion, so nothing had really happened to the people that had chosen to kill their own family for their comrade.
Of course, "GFishe" wasn't able to see the system message that gave her this information, as she was too broken to do so.
Well, the other reason that I had manipulated GFishe into choosing her sister was because of that other girl, player "Lacida", who was a beast, one that had yet to show its full colors, and I wanted it.
But, of course, a beast that had yet to show its full colors was still a lot less dangerous than a beast that liked to kill indiscriminately, and this was why I knew that player "GFishe" was an even bigger prospect that I needed to create, mold, and finish at all costs.
That was why, I knew that this emotional development was necessary for her.
I had made her indifferent, just like me.
And, who knew what the consequences of this would bring?
Of course, I was just going to be here, waiting to watch the show.
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The last chapter will be in an hour or so. It'll be a sad one, building up the setting for more character development.