Gamblers' GameChapter 51

The game wasn’t just a game.

People were thrown together into a dangerous situation, and stress had always caused people to reveal their inner selves involuntarily. ovmcWx

In here, you couldn’t help but think.

That every criminal had some kind of story, that not every crime would turn someone into a complete monster. That a violent maniac to one might be a gentle friend to another.

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That the nicest smile could hide a distorted mind and desire, like a poisonous flower that was only outwardly beautiful.

That people, in the end, would always grasp at the light of hope they were offered, preferring to allow themselves to sink into the illusion of having a chance rather than wasting away at the thought of impending death. r6eZYR

“I’m out.” River sighed when he got a chance to leave. “Give me the key.”

Rhythm jumped forward, happily handing over the key.

Faced with four pairs of expectant eyes, River wondered for a moment if he should run away.

Four little ducklings followed him like a tail. Used to being at the end of the line, River’s scalp prickled uncomfortably. He resisted the urge to check over his shoulder every couple of seconds and hurried up the stairs.

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As long as it was lunchtime, the area was quite empty. Everyone else kept look-out as River tried the key on the unnamed door, and indeed, it opened.

He motioned for everyone to hurry along inside.

The room was some sort of office. The walls were covered in cut-outs from newspapers, filled with praises for the asylum. In the photos, the people had faces.

A gentle older man with a neatly cut beard smiled into the camera, creases around his eyes from laughing. He had both of his hands on the shoulders of two doctors, who were likewise smiling, their postures proud. In the background was the asylum. ydEM6L

“Fakes don’t need faces.” Aspen’s voice was unusually harsh.

“If they are”, River cruelly pointed out. “We don’t know what this is. A made-up scenario, a copy of reality… Or maybe a true environment. Who knows? Anything is possible.”

Aspen made an unhappy sound.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Lf vlvc’a kjca ab tfiq jmaeji qfbqif. Lf kjcafv atlr ab yf cbatlcu yea j ujwf, klat cb alfr ab gfjilas. YGClND

But River’s interest couldn’t be further away from those possible ties. What he cared about was that this was the first personalisation he had seen in the whole asylum. No other room looked as lived-in as this one, not even the patient rooms.

Dea atf gbbw kjrc’a wfrrs. Pa kjr qblcafvis mifjc jcv cfja, jr lo atlr kjr rbwfatlcu sbe’v yf gfjvs ab ifa batfgr rff ja j wbwfca’r cbalmf.

River let his gaze wander from the left side of the room to the right one.

“Check the right side”, he commanded after some deliberation. “It’s too open. It’s like there’s space for people to pass through.” 4tlNrT

It made a funny image to have several people with their heads either turned to the ground or the ceiling, searching for signs of another entrance. Aspen ended up being the one who found something, tugging at River’s arm to call for attention. “There’s some kind of hole there. Do you see it? It’s kinda hard to tell because of the pattern.”

River squinted at the ceiling. “Hmmm. There should be some sort of long and thin stick around here…”

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Someone placed it into his hand. He lowered his gaze to meet Amber’s.

…She was a great assistant. c3jYOe

River poked the stick into the hole and started to push. There was a little click and a thin plate opened up by just a sliver. He used the other side of the stick – which was a hook, for this exact purpose – to tug it open even further.

The hatch on the ceiling revealed a very simple rope ladder that could be pulled down. After several tries, it fell down, opening their access to the third floor.

“Is it just me, or does it…” Amber didn’t finish her sentence and didn’t need to. Next to her, Plaster was clamping his fingers over his nose, and River’s face was distorted.

Nonetheless, he climbed up, ignoring the nausea. VdTtBn

Upstairs, in the tiny dark room, the stench was even worse.

Muttering to himself, he tried to separate the different smells that were mixing, all the while holding down his hand to help Aspen up.

There was sweat and vomit. Cold smoke, a rancid note of blood, and the uncomfortable stench of rot and mold. Most of these were guesses according to the state that even this little room was in.

“Should we close this?”, Rhythm asked, having gone up last. He peered down to the second floor with an uncertain expression. 9YNmHI

“Yes. This is a too large change, so there’s a high chance that the shadows would come upstairs if we left it open. We can’t let them notice. I don’t want anything to mess with the situation when we don’t have a good view of everything yet.”

After listening at the door, River slowly pushed it open and entered the hallway. He had to stop himself from retching.

The third floor was disgusting. When he stepped on the ground, his shoes got stuck a bit – there was a sticky substance that hadn’t been cleaned up, gathering dust and other dirt that formed black spots on the ground. There was dark mold in the corners of the ceiling and the air was weirdly moist and cold. Here and there, you could spot darkened blotches on the maybe once white walls, unknown substances that had long dried.

“Oh this is disgusting!” Amber pulled her shirt up to cover her nose and gagged. “This is no place for people!” OthXrY

“You know, all of a sudden I have a newfound appreciation for my little cell.” Aspen reached out a finger to touch the wall, then decided against it and pulled it back. “If there are actual patients living up here, I can understand what they need a whole graveyard for.”

“We should split up and find out what’s up here.”

“……”

Everyone stared at River. The easterner tilted his head, not understanding their problem. Ifn Kx

“W-Why don’t we stay together for another while…” Amber inched closer to the group, the hair on her arms rising when she noticed a discarded, empty old wheelchair in a corner. The simple thing was covered in belts with which you could tie someone up. She could perfectly imagine the wheelchair suddenly moving, old wheels creaking and groaning-

“Fine. We can move together for now.”

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Neither Amber, nor Plaster and Rhythm were good with horror. They stuck closely together while River opened the doors to already open cells, peeking inside.

Just to go along with it, Aspen started holding onto his arm. He wasn’t scared in the slightest, but he had fun joining the play of River being the only one that could deal with the creepy rooms. wumFQK

“At least look into the rooms if you don’t enter them”, he wryly said.

Honestly, the stench inside the rooms was worse, so he himself didn’t want to enter them. They were tiny – just enough space for a bed with no blanket and a thin, discolored sheet over an equally discolored mattress as well as a chamberpot. The bed had countless belts, old material frayed.

River approached one of the walls. Someone had left behind scratch marks, fingertips breaking open and dragging bloody lines over where the window would have been. River turned around, half closing the door to check its inside.

  Uf z5d

let me out

letmeout

letmeoutletmeouthelpletmeoutletmeoutletmeouthelpmeletmeout

  Ss7vB9

When Aspen saw River check the backside of the door, he himself squatted down and twisted his body to check the underside of the bed.

“There’s writing here”, he happily shouted.

“What does it say?”

“Uh… Give me a moment. It’s upside down.” WwYyV8

 

ǝɯoɥ oƃ oʇ ʇuɐʍ ᴉ
sʇɹnɥ ʇᴉ
ɐɯɐɯ
sʇɹnɥ ʇᴉ
ǝʌɐǝʅ ʇuɐɔ ǝʍ
ǝɹǝɥ sn dǝǝʞ ʎǝɥʇ

 

River heard the words and turned quiet. Then he huffed, his voice tinged with sarcastic amusement. yn5rs4

“We might get the honor to be able to watch the methods of old. I’ve never even seen a video of lobotomies and electro-shock therapies, but seeing all this…”

“Can I reject that honor? I think I might throw up…”

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“If you do, go into a cell where it’s not too obvious. I don’t want shadows finding your vomit.” River had no mercy on the pale Amber.

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5 comments

  1. ooooh very good idea the text upside down! On the other hand, luckily I’m on the phone, otherwise I would have taken a funny position, like Aspen XD. (He’s holding River’s arm👍) We’re getting to the heart of the matter, can’t wait to find out more. Thank you so much for this chapter~

  2. Honestly, the upside down words made the scene all the more horrific for me. Got me thinking of the exact reason why it’d be upside down in the first place 💀