The door swings open and they both back away, retreating to the wall.
The room suddenly feels different – the undercurrent of fear transforming into full-blown terror. The two people who dragged Emilia into the room are standing in the doorway, their masked faces peering in at them eerily.
‘Please let us go,’ Emilia says, her voice strangely steady, her eyes wide and pleading. ‘We both have families who need us. You can just let us go.’ She is fawning, doing everything she can to pander to their emotions.
But they say nothing. Instead, they simply step into the room and walk towards Emilia.
‘Emilia,’ a woman’s voice says, standing in front of her. ‘It’s time for you to open your second box.’
Her second box. The box they couldn’t open.
The other person walks over and pulls a key out of their pocket. They hand it to Emilia.
‘Your fate lies in this box,’ they say, their voice a low rumble. A man.
She hesitates just for a moment, meeting his gaze defiantly, before pushing the key into the lock with shaking hands.
It clicks.
Ryan strains his neck, trying to see inside. But he can’t. All he can see is Emilia’s face, her eyes widening, her face growing pale with terror. She whimpers, her attempt at bravery crumbling as her knees collapse beneath her and she cowers away from them.
‘No, please! I don’t want to die,’ she cries. ‘I’m not ready! I don’t want to die!’
The woman stands, the box still in her hands, and suddenly he can see what was inside, in this room with them all along.
A gun.
Black matt metal. Deadly.
Emilia is the one who is going to die. Did they know they’d choose her all along? The man and woman swap places: she backs away to stand above Emilia, and he crouches down. She kicks out, terrified, but he ignores her as he reaches forward and releases her from her chain. He hoists her to her feet. She tries to collapse to the ground, making herself a dead weight, but he drags her up, her legs kicking out helplessly beneath her.
‘No! Fucking let me go,’ she screams, her voice now fuelled with anger. ‘Let me go!’
He holds on to her, his muscular arms wrapped around her from behind, preventing her from hitting out. Ryan stares, unable to do anything as she kicks and cries, her movements growing slower and slower until her limbs finally go slack with exhaustion.
The woman pulls the gun out of its case, the black metal glinting in the fluorescent light.
Emilia whimpers.
The man releases her and she gasps, her body shocked by the sudden absence of restraints.
What … what’s happening?
‘Emilia,’ the woman whispers.
Her voice sends a cold rush of fear up Ryan’s spine – her voice has changed. No longer harsh, and full of menace. It is now soft. Kind.
‘Emilia, you don’t need to worry.’ She lifts Emilia’s hands out in front of her and places the gun in her grasp.
No. No no no no no.
The man strides towards Ryan and reaches for his chain, tugging him violently back towards the wall. Not loosening his binds – tightening them. The lock clicks into place. His leg is now fixed to the steel loop, only a length of an inch or so between him and the wall.
He and Emilia lock eyes, their mouths open in horror, until she breaks away to gawp at the gun held tightly in her hands.
‘You’re not here to die, Emilia,’ the woman says. ‘You’re here to live. You’re here for a very specific reason.’
The man steps towards her. ‘You’re here to kill him.’