Once they feel rested enough,
Simona and Bernardo exit the resting room. They enter a small room with a small
box connected to various contraptions. These contraptions have spinning blades,
fire, ice, crushing parts, and other things that would cause a person massive pain.
The box in the center contains one vial with a key in the middle of the box and
the box itself is locked. Ms. Mara comes out from the hole in the ceiling.
“Long time no see, am I right?” she
says, “I’m here again to explain what you’re supposed to do. You see, I thought
about which challenge you should do next and I thought this would be best. I’ll
be telling you what you should do for the next set of challenges.”
“Why? What’s going on?”
“In this challenge of love, you
must each sacrifice some of your blood, but since you take the pain of your
loved one and you can’t use all of your blood, you’ll have to share the pain as
married couples do.”
Looking back at the contraptions, Simona
imagines the pain of putting her hand into them.
“You can’t be serious.”
“Oh, but I am! Since there were previous
attempts at doing these challenges that dragged on until forever, the Wanting
will have you wanting to get this over with faster. Good luck!”
Ms. Mara leaves as the Wanting start
banging on the walls, floors, and ceiling. Bernardo and Simona are hesitant to
move at first, but Bernardo urges them forward.
“Come on, Simona! We have to do
this or else we’ll die. I’ll go first. Put your arm in one of the contraptions.
Preferably the least painful one.”
“Mm!”
“It’s fine, I can take it. I’ll try
to take as much of it as possible.”
“Mm…”
The arm of a Wanting breaks through
the wall.
“Hurry!”
Simona puts her arm in one of the
contraptions and pulls it out as soon as Bernardo starts reacting to it. Looking
at the center vial, she only sees a little blood in it.
“Keep going! I’ll tap out when I can’t
take it anymore.”
“Mm-mm!”
“It’s fine, just trust me!”
Simona hesitates a bit before
putting her arm back into the contraption. Bernardo keeps himself from yelling
out in pain and tries to bear it on his feet for as long as he can as blood
starts coming out of their connected arm. The center vial is now filling at a
rapid pace and is more than halfway before Bernardo falls to his knees. Knowing
that he can’t take it anymore, Simona takes her arm out and helps Bernardo to
his feet.
“I…I didn’t say stop.”
“Mm!”
“Yeah…I guess I went a little too
far. Are you sure you want to do this?”
“…mm.”
“Alright…Brace yourself.”
With Simona’s help, Bernardo puts
his hand in a contraption with blades. As the blades cut his arm, the vial
continues to fill while Simona bears the pain. Bernardo holds onto Simona to
give her support. Once he hears the lock release, he takes his arm out.
“Get the key!”
Simona quickly grabs the key, uses
it on the door, and goes into the next room. This room is a glass box where
Simona can see the hordes of Wanting on the other side.
“Mm!”
“What is it this time? I can hear
noise all around us.”
Ms. Mara pops out again and says, “Hello
again! For this challenge, you will use that strength I gave you and put it to
good use. Here come two Wanting for you to beat. Either they’ll get another
chance at the challenges or you’ll be granting them their release. Let’s see
which couple will win.” She then disappears as two Wanting drop into the glass
room with their machetes.
“Try not to move around too much.
We’re stuck together, but they aren’t. Let’s focus on one at a time. I’ll
follow your lead since you can see.”
“Mm!”
Before they can do anything, the
Wanting leap at them. Simona moves to the side to dodge them. The Wanting’s
attack has left them wide open, so Simona punches one of them while urging
Bernardo forward.
“Mm!”
“Got it!”
Bernardo throws a punch at the
Wanting and connects with Simona. The monster is thrown back and heavily
injured. Its partner shields it and becomes more aggressive. Bernardo follows
Simona’s movements as she dodges the monster’s attacks. Once the Wanting is far
enough from its partner, Simona moves in and urges Bernardo forward to deliver the
finishing blow. With its partner dead, the other one dies as well, which also unlocks
the door.
“The other one fell too? I knew we could
do it!”
“Mm!”
“Let’s keep going.”
When they go into the next room, they
come across a narrow corridor.
Ms. Mara comes out and explains, “The
narrow corridor before you is a simple straight path to the exit, however, you’ll
be hit by the Wanting that can cut you through the holes. Most people are killed,
but to avoid it, one person must take all the pain and carry the other one to
the exit-”
“I’ll do it!”
“Volunteering to take the pain for
your loved one even before I finish talking. This is really what true love is
about!”
“Mm-mm!”
“Don’t worry about me. Just keep your
faith in me and we’ll make it through it.”
“He already chooses to suffer for
you, Simona. He really does love you. It’s so precious!”
“Mm…” Simona muffles with a blushed
face.
“I’ll heal your wounds to give you
a helping hand. Please, bear the pain and make this true love story continue!”
Bernardo and Simona are healed. Now
that he’s healed, Bernardo picks up Simona and is positioned to walk down the
narrow hallway. The Wanting start stabbing their machetes through the holes above
in anticipation for his arrival while leaving the ones on the bottom empty.
“Mm!”
“Hold on, Simona. I won’t let you
go. I promise that we’ll make it through this.”
“Mm!”
“Here we go!”
Bernardo heads into the narrow pathway
both with confidence and fear. He’s cut by the blades of the Wanting mercilessly
as Simona tries to avoid as many as she can to lessen the pain. She doesn’t
help much because of how many blades touch her. Bernardo keeps a positive
mindset as he’s cut repeatedly without a chance to catch his breath as he feels
a constant cutting feeling around his face and body. He knows how worried
Simona is, but can’t open his mouth to say anything other than to yell in pain
and to empower himself to keep going. After seven agonizing minutes of cutting,
Bernardo makes it to the end of the hallway, through the door, and into the resting
room where he collapses.
Now more worried than ever, Simona
shakes Bernardo while listening for a heartbeat. Ms. Mara enters the room through
the hole in the ceiling as he is being healed.
“He’s such a brave man. You have no
idea how many men make the women carry them to the end. Sure, some of the women
I picked were more muscular than them, but still.”
“Mm! Mm!”
“I know you must have strong words
to say for me, but that will have to wait till the end if you can make it there.”
“Tell me, are we near the end?”
Bernardo says as he regains his strength.
“Mm!”
“You’re almost there. Just a couple
more challenges and your love story will be complete.”
“Where are we? Can we even make it
back home from here?”
“You’re in an underground series of
changing rooms controlled by the force that allowed me to find lovers like you.
The next room you go to is the choice of that force. You should be able to make
it back home from here. If you can beat the challenges, then you can beat
anything!”
“Why did you pick us? What makes us
so special?”
“Oh, it’s just something that I saw
in your bond that stood out to me from the rest. You’ll have to wait till after
your next challenge to find out what that something was.”
“Mm!”
“There aren’t many more important things
I can tell you, so I’ll give you your extra special reward now.”
Two appendages come out from the
hole Ms. Mara is in and stab themselves through the heads of Bernardo and
Simona before quickly retreating back.
“What did you do to us this time?”
What did she do this time?
“Congratulations! You can now hear
each other’s thoughts and communicate with one another with your minds.”
“What?”
Is she serious?
Simona, is that you?
Bernardo? It’s me. I can hear you…somehow.
“It must be amazing to talk to each
other through your minds. I wish I could do the same, but enough about me. Your next
challenge starts now!”
What the heck?! The walls of the
room closed in on us!
It’s so tight! Can you move?
No. It looks like we’re going to
stay pressed up against each other like this.
“This is so precious seeing you two
like this. You must use your new ability to complete the three hidden challenges.”
“Three hidden challenges?”
“Yes. Your hint to complete them is
that they have to do with true love of course. Bye-bye!”
She’s gone.
Great just great.
Well, at least we can finally talk
to each other.
That’s the problem. I didn’t want
to talk to you, Bernardo.
What?
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