on the seventh day however , something is different . they take longer to come down and give you food and talk to you . though perhaps that's just the lack of a proper day / night cycle finally warping your sense of time . seconds tick by . minutes . maybe even hours ? and they do not show up . you fall asleep again out of having nothing else to do .

you are awoken by the hatch above you opening and the curses of someone , who isn't your captor , alongside the all too familiar voice of your captor trying to soothe them . what you watch now can only be described as rather pathetic . the person that's being dragged down into the basement to join you is wriggling around and trying to fight but is doing a terrible job at it , only proving to make it more difficult to get down the steps safely . after enough squirming your captor just drops them , letting them fall down the flight of stairs and onto the hard concrete floor beneath them .

a crunch and a pained whine escapes them . you stare at them , their clothes are pristine and they are clean , but they are tied up . you were not tied up when your captor brought you down here . no , you just had a gun pressed to your temple and a low threat in your ear . this makes you assume that whoever this person is is either much more of a fighter than you , or someone your captor has no care for . the fact that they just got dropped , with no care , confirms which one it is .

the other person finally looks up , there's blood pouring out of their nose and some more from the side of their face . your eyes meet and they give you a confused look , opening their mouth as if they're about to say something . no words come from either of your mouths as your captor marches down the steps and cuts off the rope binding them .

then your captor turns , they look at you as they always do , but there is a certain glee in their eyes that makes your chest feel heavy . they speak , just as they always do but now there is a giddy tone in their voice . they remind you of all the things they want you to do to other people , horrible things that made your gut churn previously , but now , in this context , makes your fingers cold , your heart thud against your chest in fear and your breath grow shallow .

then they leave you with a choice : do the horrible things they have told you they want you to do to this stranger , or get tortured . and not some light torture , no , no , the type of torture that , if you do not die from , will leave you terribly disabled for the rest of your life .

they hand you their knife , blade in their hand while the handle is pointed towards you . you stare at the other person in the room with you , who has now managed to sit up and is holding their head while they stare right back at you with terror in their eyes . you look back at your captor , they wait patiently for you to pick , their face is split ear to ear with a grin ; they will enjoy either outcome , it is simply a choice of whether you wish to live at the price of taking someone else's life , or if you wish to die a painful death for someone else to roam free . it seems a hard choice , yes , but the stranger is weakened and you are a far better executioner than your captor would ever be .