#mcodend

Dancing with Despair

The lights raise slowly on the elegant ballroom of the chateau, entirely empty except for the solitary silhouette of a couple, dancing slowly in time with a slow orchestral tune that drifts faintly from an unidentifiable source within the room. As the lights settle to a dim, somewhat romantic glow, you can make out that the couple dancing is none other than the masterminds behind this whole occurrence; Shin Watanabe and Hoseki Ono, holding eye contact with one another as they move slowly within the center of the dancefloor. However, you begin to notice a faint ticking from just beneath the music, and with this you notice the countdown timer on the chandelier in the center of the ceiling, changing slowly from 60 seconds to 59. 58. 57. 56…

They don’t seem to mind though. They are completely absorbed in one another. If you look closely, they even seem to be carrying on a conversation. But as the time dwindles further down, you notice something peculiar; the ground, around the walls of the room… they seem to be cracking. Slowly, almost undetectably, they begin to grow more and more apparent as small portions of the floor begin to… cave in? They are…

But the couple move no faster. They move in time with the music and the countdown, which seems to be escalating in volume with each moment that comes and goes. The floor continues to crumble, until you notice through the gaps that there is a deep, deep pitfall underneath, with almost no echo as tiles and slabs of the ground fall away, more so as the timer continues its countdown. The ticking grows louder and louder, almost to deafening levels over the music, but continues to guide the despair duo as they dance their final dance.

As the countdown reaches the final ten, enough of the floor is gone for you to see tall, sharp spikes lining the bottom of the pitfall, appearing more and more menacing as more floor gives away. The seconds seem to last eternities, and the manner in which each one passes is almost an eerie peacefulness until Shin an Hoseki stop altogether, smiling at each other for a brief moment before holding on tightly to one another. They remain motionless as the remainder of the supporting floor around them gives way, sending them off their feet as they take the plunge into the deep pit below, with no struggle. As you hear the sickening tear of metal through flesh, the timer ceases entirely, blinking an unsettling bright red ‘1’ as the air settles over the area. There is not a single sound as you view into the gaping maw that once was the ballroom. Pierced through in a horrific manner, are the now deceased masterminds of this horrific mutual killing game you have all miraculously endured.