A train slowly moved along the track, causing the room below it to shake violently. Metal rattled and doors slammed, familiar sounds to the man sitting silently, smiling, in the back corner of the room. His eyes twinkled with something horrible as they darted around the shaking body before him, barely six feet away.

The train stopped along with everything else except two chests, slowly filling, then emptying with air. A limp body moaned in pain and a mouth full of yellow teeth grinned. A deep and scratchy voice, from years of smoking nearly four packs a day (he didn’t even know how he did it), echoed through the morbid room.

“Good morning, sunshine.”

Alex tried to move, but his hands felt numb and useless. They were. When he turned to the side, his arm was banded and tied down. He gave a frustrated grunt and a voice from somewhere in the obscurity laughed, which was interrupted by a disgusting, hacking, cough.

“Welcome to my home,” the voice beckoned. A figure began to form in the recently jet-black room as Alex’s eyes adjusted.

“I know you don’t know me, Alex, but I can assure you that I know everything about you. I know what you speak to the darkness when you think no one’s listening at night. But, forget about that because, right now, I want to play a game.”

Alex shivered. It was the only scared movement he could manage as he acknowledged the restraints on his legs and head. His eyes darted to the side and he saw a glint of light off metal that soon proved itself to be a gun.

“What do you want from me?” Alex pleaded, his voice slightly higher than normal. “And what is this place?” he added, the smell of mould and mildew starting to seep through his nostrils. His stomach wretched and heaved as the face and tattooed body of his kidnapper came into view.

“Don’t try to play stupid with me, Alex,” the man said, his voice getting closer and more aggressive. “I said that we’re going to play a game, and the rules are plain and simple: do not speak. There will be a consequence if you do.”

A cord was pulled.

A lightbulb was lit.

An entire world was revealed.

The restraints snapped off Alex’s body with a single flick of a knife held in an old, worn, hand. “And what will happen if I do?” Alex asked, immediately regrettiing his stupidity afterwards.

The man turned.

There was a flash of metal...

BANG!

Alex bent forward and tears immediately began to stream down his face. He wanted to yell, swear at the sick person doing this to him. Blood soaked through his khaki pants and an excruciating pain jetted up his leg.

“That will,” the man in front of him said. He had a look on his face, an amused smirk. “Bienvenue, to the world of Aiden,” he said through chapped lips. The game was on, after years of planning, and it excited him to no end. He already knew what would come of it, but he was the master, he knew everything. A cackle escaped his throat when he heard a whispered curse from the lump of flesh now sitting on the floor. Aiden decided to continue, he couldn’t just stare at the piece of meat forever like a hungry dog.

“The first part of the game is this...” he said, ripping a piece of newspaper off the wall, revealing pictures of a pretty teenage blonde underneath. Alex immediately recognized her. Isabelle. Alex’s baby sister.

“...You put a bullet through her skull,” Aiden continued with a smile playing around the side of his lips as he turned to look at Alex’s reaction. “And in no way possible, am I kidding. There is a point to this, Alex. A lesson you have to learn, and you will learn it, no matter how much pain you go through during the process.” The smile escaped his cruel mouth. Alex gagged.

It had been three hours since the cards had been placed on the table and not a word had been spoken. Alex was afraid to talk, and Aiden was glad that his victim didn’t look to anger him. “So have we got a deal?” he asked, rubbing his thigh after a sudden pain shot through his upper leg.

Alex nearly gasped at his new discovery. He looked at Aiden’s leg and covered a wide mouth with his hand. Aiden had the same gunshot wound that he did.

But that didn’t make any sense. Aiden wasn’t shot. So that must mean... “NO!” Alex screamed. “This is not possible!”

Aiden smiled and Alex continued to panic over the idea that he and the psycho torturing him could be the same person.

“It’s true, Alex,” Aiden whispered, his voice now almost seemingly coming from inside Alex’s head. “I do, therefore I am. We both will die, we both learn, we both kill...” And suddenly. Aiden disappeared, and the world went black to Alex’s eyes.

Alex woke up to smell an awful stench from the opposite side he was facing. He was almost afraid to look. He turned slowly and his eyes widened. He muffled a scream with his hand as he saw Isabelle, dead. “I do, therefore I am,” was carved into her white body.