"What temperature does water boil?" he asked.
"Are you kidding me? Is that the question you are going to ask?" type thoughts started to swirl in my mind. No, no, no. He actually wants to kill me as a result of my own choices. He isn't trying to torture me; he wants to end me completely.
"100 degrees Celsius," she said before I could answer.
"Correct," the man stated. The door behind her opened because she was about to receive the punishment.
"W-Wait, she is half correct," I said, halting them. Only at normal atmospheric pressure does water boil at 100 degrees.
The door closed as I answered, "You are right; congratulations. Now, could you please extend your other arm on the table?" the man next to me said.
I did as he said, closing my eyes. "Please count from a hundred backwards, subtracting three each time," he said.
"I can't. With the pain, I can't calculate that much," I said, hoping that maybe, just maybe, I could stop thinking of numbers and just focus on the pain.
"No, the rules clearly state that you need—"
"Then shut up and do it, asshole," I yelled. I'm not sure why, but I was starting to get angry. But the problem was that I wasn't angry at anyone, including him.
My brain had begun to overwork itself in order to respond to pain and perform simple calculations. This was causing me to forget and lose control of my emotions, feelings, and sense of self. I wasn't sure if I could take the second nail on my arm, but I forced myself to start counting backwards while a man hammered the second nail into my left hand.
Of course, the pain was unbearable to the point where I began to lose sensation in my arm, but the bigger issue was that I was becoming dizzy.
The game continued for the next few questions, and I tried to answer them all on my own, not allowing her to take the lead so she wouldn't get hurt. The more I did it, the slower I became, and I began to wonder if it was worth it.
My legs were already nailed to the chair I was sitting in, so even the slightest movement of my body caused pain.
Six questions had passed, and I had two nails on both arms and one on each leg, with only four questions remaining. I did take the next two nails, but not because I wanted to save her; rather, I did it out of habit, which hit me on the last two questions.
"Why should I even care?" I asked myself, "Is it really worth it? She won't know what's going on, and she probably won't know why. Why should I take someone else's place?
Because of these thoughts, I decided not to answer the final questions. And because I didn't, the door opened, and a man with a hammer and nails emerged from her side. They extended her arms over the table and nailed them with a hammer, taking their time.
She did not understand, panicked, and tried to flee, but they did not allow her to do so, and despite her screams, they nailed her arms to the table, and she did not pass out until a few minutes later. Of course, she did not die, which was exactly what I hoped for. Even though I stopped feeling and caring about things, I never wanted anyone to die.
When the game ended, they took her out of the room. The man on my side also left, leaving me alone in the room to continue with the next game.
"Congratulations on your victory; you did survive the game, which I thought you could not. Honestly, I did not expect you to let her take a nail, but boy, aren't humans weird?" The text was on the wall.
"Are you happy?" I asked, not looking up for a second, "Torturing me was not enough, but you made me lose my mind. I can't even think straight right now."
The text on the wall changed again.
"Come on, I'm not trying to hurt you or anything. I'm just running an experiment to learn more about human psychology."
"So I am a puppet, huh?"
Text changed again.
"Yes, you are a puppet. But I would like you to answer a different question, the one I have been asking you all the time. Daniel, Who am I?"