'A second chance? That means I'm dead doesn't it? So what's this then, is this God?'
William chuckled.
'No, usually when you get a second chance like this, the house wants to dupe you some more. If anybody's going to be the house here, it's probably God.'
'So God wants to dupe,' William chuckled. 'This is all ridiculous but it's a good chance, let's say fifty, fifty, even split.'
'Either there is or there isn't a catch, let's see, but still I've never heard of anyone dying and coming back to life so...how would this even work with a bullet in my head.'
William sighed, he had stopped falling, he felt like he was frozen In mid air. He stared at his options waiting to see if they'll go away.
William had grown to be quite cautious, it was part of his trade, he wasn't just going to jump on any offer, more often than not that's how you get conned.
He felt trouble brewing in his heart and the more he thought of her the more he felt like choosing [YES]
'If she hears I'm dead, I dont know how she'll handle it, she'll get worse that's for sure, she may even lose her will to live, she's an actress after all, they're all so dramatic.'
'Alright I'll make a choice, I choose yes, you hear me god, I said I choose yes!'
Nothing happened and William began to doubt if he had done it the right way. The blue screen dissolved into bits of light like a mass of stars and they shot at him and blinded him with their bright light.
William felt his mind shutting down and he fell into a deep sleep.
He had no idea how long he slept but even before he was conscious enough to open his eyes he could hear low footsteps and the sound of numerous people talking.
As he grew more aware the sound got louder and louder and then some tripped over his foot and he realized he had a body again.
He slowly opened his eyes and the first thing he saw were jagged pointed rocks stretching downward, it was a cave covered with various rock formations with glowing crystals embedded in them.
All the light in the room came from these crystals.
'I'm in a cave,' William thought. 'Must have been a hell of a party.' William felt a sharp pain in his head. 'ouch a hangover! damn I promised her I wouldn't drink again.'
"What do you mean a dungeons!?" some one screamed.
"I don't know" another person said in response, by his voice he sounded much younger and more terrified.
'What's all this talk about a dungeon? I'm not into those sort of parties, Ouch my head hurts why did I drink so much.'
Her sickly pale face flashed through his mind, he could see her sitting alone on the train waiting for him.
'What the hell I I doing at a party!'
William sat up and looked around without processing a single thing he saw, he was just looking for the exit and he blocked out everything else.
He got up and turned around and saw a giant stone gate at the end of the room.
'Where the hell am I? It must be in the basement of a rich snob's house, probably a castle, which means there'll be a lot of nice things to steal. Shit…. Well maybe one last time…. Let's get out of this place.'
William finally saw the people around him, the nearest person to him was dressed in very old military attire from several centuries to his time.
"Where are we," he asked the man
"I don't know, kid."
Kid? William finally saw the man outfit. Why the hell did he call me kid?
He looked around and saw everyone was strangely dressed, in attires from different centuries and civilizations.
'Hmmm…it must be a costume party. That guys even dressed as a peasant.'
"It moved!" someone screamed and a coupled people gasped.
William saw the man who had screamed pointing towards a giant statue he had completely ignored.
I guess we all had too much to drink.
William asked around and no one had any idea were they were or how they had got here.
William searched his memories but he too had no clue how he got here, so he studied the place. Other than the jaggered roof the whole place looked well made and clean with square tiled floors.
The black and white pattern of the tiles gave him the feeling of being a small piece in a much larger game.
'I wonder if we're playing chess or checkers,' William thought to himself.
The statue was of a giant skeleton about eleven feet tall on a large elevated throne with five marble steps leading to it.
The throne itself was carved out of white stone marble and covered in golden embroidery that had William foaming in the mouth. He hadn't seen that much gold in a long, long time but then he too saw the statue move.
It was only a twitch of a finger. I'm seeing things, William thought, and as if to reassure him, it moved again. He gasped this time and did his best mental leap to find a logical conclusion.
Ahh yes, it's an animatronic, bloody robot they had me fooled for a second,hmmm….. not bad… not bad at all.
The statue held a large clock made entirely out of stone and before anyone knew the clock began to move.
The hands of the clock were large enough to be seen from their distance to it but no one notice until a whole minute was gone.
"The clock it's moving."
"But that wasn't it." Another man screamed, "it was the finger, I saw it move."
"Alright, I'm getting out of here," William said. He turned to the direction of the large stone gates.
'They could be lighter than a look, what's that thing about not judging a book by its cover.' Even from this distance it looked heavy. Oh boy the contents of this book might kill me.
Most of his best scams have been on the premise of being judge by his cover, dress as a bureacrat and they'll treat you like one,who has the time to read a book anymore?
CRACK!
A thundering sound echos through the whole room, it sounded like a large rock had been broken to piece with a single hit but in reality it was the statue cracking it's neck.
Some of them screamed but they all stared with their mouths wide open. William was facing the other way but seeing the looking in all their faces, he turns back and he wasn't convinced.
'Nice sound effects,' he thought.
"We're doomed!" some one cried.
'Jeez what in the world did we all drink?'
"Hello," a loud voice thundered through the whole room. "You're the new entries are you?"
Entries? Entries? They murmured to each other. The angst in the room was nearing its peak and William had stopped walking as the speaking statue had caught his interest.
William began looking from clues to this trick, like a magician watching another magician perform, he believed he was watching a con being performed.
'We must have all been drugged and brought here, they'll make us believe something fantastical and trade our money for something.'
He kept on looking for a camera or hidden speaker that made the voices loud enough to shake the room.
"Yes, you've all been selected by death itself."
'He's really selling it,' William thought. 'Look at their faces.'
William saw a couple sceptical people, he saw a man who looked neither worried nor fazed by the talking stone skeleton but the man was unable to contain himself he burst out in anger, screaming at the towering statues.
"What the hell is this? Is this some kind of joke? Tell us where the hell we are or I'll smash you to pieces."
The spot of yellow light that shone out of the statue's eyes turned red and grew larger and brighter.
Then the crowd felt a wave of energy rush past them and even the sceptical William something like a force run through him and wash away a fraction of his strength.
PARDON MY MANNERS
The statue spoke and William gasped not because not because anything was different to its voice but because those words sounded like they were spoken directly to him, like the large figure stood inches away from him and said it into his ear.
Willam rub his ear and his mind raced around trying to fit a logical explanation to it.
'Did it even speak or was it inside my head?'
The statue pulled it back of the seat and moved it head down towards the crowd, then it said in a thundering voice that shook the earth under their feet,
"WELCOME TO PURGATORY!"