Words: inside, bear, exit, hiccup, register, excitement, episode.
A hexagonal room with a mirror mounted on each of its walls, resulting in Atticus being surrounded by six copies of himself, looking at him with worried faces.
There was a machine in the middle of the room and all Atticus had to do was register a code name into it to get out.
A timer was tied to his wrist and showed the amount of time left. If he failed to enter the password before his time ran out, a deadly gas would be released from the hole inside the ceiling and kill him within a minute.
Most people participated in the deadly games for money, but Atticus was a rich nobleman and only participated in these games for the excitement. In his opinion, life was valuable when you took it to the edge of the abyss of death.
And now it seemed that Atticus had really reached the edge of that precipice. He had passed the previous episodes easily, he had wrestled with the stone giants and had defeated the monsters, but puzzle games were not his strong point.
Minutes passed quickly and cold drops of sweat settled on Atticus' forehead. As his heart pounded with fear, he remembered the moments he had spent with his lover, Dennis. His long curly hair, soft white skin, round red lips, bright eyes and kind look.
Dennis, who was by his side in the most difficult situations of his life. When his family put pressure on him and any success he achieved was insignificant in their eyes, it was Dennis who comforted him with his warm embrace and took him to the garden of happiness.
But Atticus didn't appreciate his presence and was constantly looking for something to vent his anger towards life and that's how he started playing the deadly games.
He would never forget how Dennis had fallen at his feet, shed tears and begged him not to participate in these games. But Atticus had pushed him away with a cold and harsh behavior.
Atticus fell to his knees and began to sob. The timer showed the last second of the deadline and a gray gas entered the room through the hole in the ceiling.
Atticus began to hiccup. Rapidly and continuously, as if all the organs in his body wanted to come out of his mouth. He placed one hand on his stomach and one hand on his chest and tried to stop the hiccups by holding his breath, but failed.
The hiccups became more and more intense, until Atticus couldn't breathe anymore and his face slowly turned blue. Finally, his body couldn't bear it anymore and he fell motionless to the ground.
A doorway appeared in the room with an exit sign above it, and Atticus could see a beautiful garden beyond. An angel with white wings and a face like Dennis came out of the doorway and held out his hand to Atticus. Atticus smiled, got up, took the angel's hand and walked with him into the garden.
