Theater Room, Present
An announcer speaks over a PA system, his voice vibrating through the large circular arena. “Everyone take your seats; the show is starting soon.”
Everyone complies, quieting down, their voice to a whisper.
Suddenly, breaking the silence, Arius comes bursting in through the large front entrance.
“Niche! Where are you!” he calls out before seeing the room. His face flushed with embarrassment, Arius looks around and spots a single hand in the air. Quickly finding this hand in the crowd and making his way over to it, everyone stares at Arius as he quickly finds Niche and sits down next to him.
“What the hell is this place?” Arius whispers when the attention goes away and the hushed conversations resume.
“Some kind of show, I think. Good job laying low,” Niche admits sarcastically.
Arius’ embarrassment returns as his face reddens.
The large screen turns on. Instead of displaying a movie or video, the screen is simply a large security computer. There are twenty different security cameras, all focused on one room but from different angles. Ryota wakes up in that room, disoriented with his state.
“Fuck you, Arius.” he whispers to no one. The crowd doesn’t notice this gesture, but Arius, hearing it, feels shame.
“What the hell?” says Niche. “Last time I saw Ryota, he was supposed to be saving you. Did you use him as a scapegoat to take your place?” Niche asks jokingly, turning to Arius. Surprised at Arius’ serious demeanor, Niche realizes, saying, “Oh, you actually did throw him under the bus!” He chuckles, laughing at this situation despite Arius’ seriousness and the gravity of the event.
“10 for a trip,” a voice in the crowd said.
Ryota stumbled out of bed, and trips on a book.
“What the hell? That wasn’t there before,” Ryota mumbles.
He sits down on his chair in front of his computer. A camera is right on his computer.
“20 for a fly,” another voice said.
A fly buzzed in front of Ryota and bugs him for a few minutes.
“I think I know what this is.” Niche mumbles to Arius. “People pay to play with an orphan. Pretty messed up, but not that illegal, besides the cameras and maybe…the kidnapping of the kids.”
“Yeah, it’s messed up,” Arius replies.
At that moment, Ryota’s mom opens the door. “Hey sweetie, breakfast in 10 minutes.”
“Mom?”
Ryota thinks.
You might resemble her a bit, but those eyes are just…dull. Lifeless. That’s definitely not mom.
Ryota asks, “Mom, how are you alive? I thought you were dead.”
The mom is stunned, then Ryota’s dad comes in. “Hey, buddy.”
“Dad?!” Ryota’s voice is filled with anger instead of confusion. “Why the hell are YOU still alive?!”
the dad thinks.
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Arius asks Niche, who is frantically writing something on a piece of paper, “Are those really his parents?”
Niche replies, “No; it’s probably some shifters they hired to make it realistic, so the kid believes it. Really weird what they’re doing, or how they know what Ryota’s parents look like so much they can almost perfectly replicate them.”
Ryota continues, fury and ferocity completely encompassing every word he says, filling them with a passion of intense bloodlust. “I didn’t finish the job the first time, but I will now, ‘DAD!’”
“Letter for 100!” Niche yells.
“WOW! We have 100 thousand to send a letter to this poor boy! What will it say?! Send down your letter, guest!”
“Now, we all know the rules to the letter. For any newcomers, the rules of the letter dictate any words in the letter must be appropriate in the sense they must not reveal anything about the true nature of this system the victim is in. The letter will be read by the collector to verify this single criteria is met.”
Niche writes a letter and hands it to a man who comes to collect it.
“‘Put your sleeve to this paper,’” the letter reads. The man does it. “What? It’s empty. Alright buddy, I’ll send it.” The man leaves, walking down the steps to a room behind the giant screen.
Niche diverts his attention to Arius, his tone serious, “Arius, get out of here. You’ll find Ryota’s boat on the dock. You don’t have to know how to drive it, just get out of here as soon as possible, and when you’re on the boat, duck down with your elbows over your head. Do this now.”
Arius complies immediately without question, motivated by Niche’s tone. Niche looks back at the screen.
The dad says, “Wait, bud. You received a letter from that pen pal of yours. ‘From Niche,’” he reads off the cover.
Ryota, realizing, immediately calms his anger, playing the clueless part.
“Oh, ok.” Ryota takes the letter and opens it at his desk.
“Breakfast in 5 bud!” His dad says quickly before closing the door.
Ryota sits back at his desk, letter in hand. He opens the letter and puts his arm against it. Nothing happens for a bit, but suddenly Ryota’s arm catches on fire. The audience collectively gasps at this as words on the letter light up, hidden from the view of any of the cameras and only accessible to Ryota. Ryota, after skimming this letter, looks up straight at the main camera on his computer facing him, a smirk on his face. He reads straight off of the letter.
“’No one move. I have rigged this place with traps. If anyone moves, they will set off the trap, killing off every person in here. Only one person may move, and that is the one who took this letter and delivered it to the actor playing my father. Everyone else will stay silent and still. Now, I have instructions for the man who delivered this letter to me: give the young man who is paying one hundred thousand dollars a letter with the answer to one question on it: who is running this place? I will know when this demand has been met when my arm sleeve ignites in flames once more.’”
Ryota’s fake dad tries to burst in his door to stop him but immediately ignites in flames, screaming as he burns. He continues to scream in agony as Ryota continues the monologue unphased. “That is what happens when you disobey orders. That man was your only warning, audience members. On the next unauthorized movement, everyone in this place will be burning just as this man behind me is. These flames, additionally, will not go out under any circumstances. Now move, chosen one.’”
The same man as before hurries to Niche and hands him a letter. When Niche opens it, it reads, “Saturn was the founder and ran this place for most of its time, but he has passed. It is currently run by one who goes by the name of Neptune.”
Ryota’s shirt sleeve is outlined by the glow of a fire controlled by Niche.
“Thank you,” Ryota says. “Now, the world will finally be cleansed.”
Ryota’s Boat, Present
Arius, finally making it to the boat, immediately jumps in, crouching down and covering his head with his elbows. After a minute of no signals, Arius lowers his arms and peeks up, looking back at the building from the boat. That second, the entire building erupts in a flame.
Orphanage Theater Room, Present
Inside the building, Niche stands, laughing while everyone else in the grand room burns. The screen has now turned off, and the only noises heard are the rupture of the flames and the screams of agony, with a faint laughter in the background.
“Drown in my eternal flames, you disgusting animals!!!”
Niche’s maniacal laughter is cut off by a gunshot. The product of this shot goes through Niche’s head, leaving a hole in its center. After his regeneration, Niche, seeing the firer of this gun, immediately going to confront him in utter rage.
Niche goes up to the civilian and punches him, first to the ground, then repeatedly after that. When the man is beat beyond recognition and Niche’s eternal flames burned the remains of the man, Niche looks at his disaster, not with regret, but with urgency.
Niche goes out of the orphanage from the entrance – which no one thought of escaping from as they were all too occupied with their torment – and around the building to the backrooms.
Seeing Niche from the boat, Arius tries to call him over, but Niche ignores him, continuing his sprint.
All the doors in the backrooms now burned off, Niche runs through, looking at both rows of doors simultaneously until he reached Ryota.
Niche’s original protection still worked on Ryota, so Niche picks Ryota up from the burning rubble and makes his way back to Arius.
Ryota’s Boat, Present
After making it to the boat, Niche, not needing to regain his breath, suggests, “Okay. I think our job here is done. We can go now.”
Ryota was too enraged by his fake father to feel the full extent and logically interpret the gravity of the event. Indifferently, he agrees with Niche and starts the boat.
Arius stays ducked in the corner not even trying to hide his fear as the entire building burns on fire and crumbles down while the three of them get away on the boat.
