A timer lit up onto the booth's small screen—ten seconds.
Catherine's eyes met mine, wide, like she was saying without words that we both knew what this meant. The shocker button on her seat turned on. Ten seconds for her to decide if she'd hurt me or not.
If she pressed it, she'd still have all three mercies intact. If she didn't… then we'd both be down to only two mercies. And the game had barely even begun.
We didn't move. We didn't speak, still I could feel my heart hammering in my chest as the seconds ticked by slowly... painfully.
10… 9… 8…
Her fingers hovered over the button. Her lips parted like she wanted to say something, but didn't.
5… 4… 3…
I tried to steady my shaking hands, tried to act calm, tried to think, tried not to look at her trembling fingers.
2… 1… 0.
The button went dark. Nothing happened.
We just sat there for a moment, catching our breaths, staring at each other. The first test was over. But I knew this wasn't going to get easier.
The box lit up immediately, almost like it was daring me to pick the next card.
I stared at it. Part of me didn't want to—didn't want to hurt Catherine, didn't want to force her into anything—but the other part knew what would happen if I didn't. Refusal to play meant being blown to bits.
I took a deep breath and slid my hand in, letting my fingers curl around the card. My eyes flicked to Catherine, still trembling, hands clenched in her lap. She looked like she wanted to disappear into herself.
I held the card a second longer than I needed to, debating if I could just… not read it. But I knew the moment I did, the timer would start, and my mercies would drop from two to one.
Finally, I read it aloud, my voice barely above a whisper.
"Blue… to ask Red… have you ever wanted someone else while being with your partner?"
Catherine went still. Her head dropped slightly, eyes fixed on her hands. I froze too. Part of me expected a firm, clear "no." She was a mother, a wife, a woman whose husband was probably waiting for her back home. She had to say no. That's exactly why I read it—I was almost certain she would.
But then… she whispered it. Soft, trembling, almost swallowed by the air itself.
"Yes."
It hit me like a fist. I blinked. That single word, that quiet admission, stripped something away—maybe my illusions of how the game would let people stay "good," maybe just a little bit of my hope that some part of her, or anyone here, could remain untouched.
I didn't know what to say. I just… let the card slip from my fingers and drop into the other box, the one labeled Drop Used Card Here.
I exhaled slowly, understanding even more that the game wasn't just testing bodies. It was testing souls.
Still, we kept playing. Card after card, each one dragging us further into the game's twisted logic. Six reads in total—four I went through, two I skipped, letting them sit there, unresolved. Every time we skipped, our mercies ticked down, leaving us exposed. By the time the sixth card dropped, we were both down to our last mercy.
The next one… my seventh read… was sitting there in my hand. The moment I looked at the words, I knew I couldn't.
So I dropped it into the box again.
My last mercy gone.
No more safety for me.
From this point on, if I refused to read, she'd have to shock me or the system would kill us both.
For a second I actually believed she wouldn't hit the button the way I hadn't read the card. I really thought she'd spare me, even though I knew she shouldn't. And maybe that was the stupid part—believing she'd hesitate just because I did.
She looked at me, her wide eyes silently asking for understanding… maybe forgiveness.
Then she whispered, "I'm sorry…" and pressed the button.
The shock hit so hard I didn't even understand it as first. Heat, then white, then something that felt like my whole body was twisting against itself. My back arched off the seat as a scream tore out of me before I could even stop it .
It didn't feel like electricity.
It felt like my bones were being wrung out.
Like someone reached inside and yanked every nerve tight at once.
When it finally stopped, I was shaking so much my fingers wouldn't even close into a fist. I was drenched in sweat, trembling from the inside out, and right there, in that awful ringing silence, I understood exactly why the system allowed mercies in the first place—because no sane person would want to feel that twice.
And I knew—God, I knew—I'd do almost anything to never feel it again.