“You have one week before I remove this,” she tugged tight to the man’s jugular, pinching ever so slightly, “from your neck.”

“Please, I didn’t do anything to you.” The man said, his voice barely a whisper.

“No, don’t beg. You haven’t heard the good news. Your life hinges on two conditions. First, I’ll give you one chance to convince me to let you go.” She stepped behind the man, tied still to a chair in the damp, long abandoned room. Water dripped from pipes near the ceiling, while the mirror across reflected nothing but the grime coating it.

“And the second condition?” He said, stuttering over his words.

“Well, dear Gabriel. We won’t need to discuss that if you pass the first. So, state your case. Why should I let you leave this room? You have five minutes. Or until you say something I don’t like.” She began tapping on his neck, counting the seconds with every other beat of his pulse. He scrambled for words, only able to grasp the obvious. ‘I’m innocent!’ She already knows that. ‘I have a family!’ Everyone does. ‘Why would you do this to me?’ Redundant. He lost count of the seconds, increasing his panic.

“I, I… I…” She jabbed his artery with her nail on the next tap, bringing a tear to his eye.

“You, you, you. Would you believe the last participant, the one before that, and the one before that, all began the same way? Not that I blame them, or you. It is all about you, after all. The hero of the story. Three minutes.” His skin crawled, uncontrollable shivers rippling from head to foot. It wasn’t until she mentioned the others that he noticed the dried, almost faded red spots beneath him. He reached for anything human he could appeal to. ‘Empathy?’ Don’t be stupid. ‘Greed?’ You’re borderline homeless. ‘Help?’ You couldn’t hurt anyone like this even if she wanted your help. “Two minutes.”

“People will notice me missing, they’ll find you eventually, and then…”

“Go on. Tell me how I’ll be caught. I’ve only gotten away with… Seven? Soon to be seven. And no, nobody will notice beyond an idle thought, before forgetting you ever existed. Or, they wouldn’t. But I’ll make sure they do. You won’t be forgotten.” She caressed a hand along his neck, the sickening warmth worse than any cold. She let loose a laugh next to his ear and resumed the tapping. “Thirty seconds.”

“Why? Why me, is it because I’m a nobody? Am I an easy target? Couldn’t you cause a bigger panic by kidnapping someone important? They could give you money, or fame, or-“

“Close. Closer than the rest, anyway. But no. That’s enough. Onto the second condition.” His breathing ceased, already feeling his life fading away in the damp constricting tomb, his blood spilling over himself in a desperate bid to warm him, or to escape her. “They always give up before hearing the second condition. If you were given two chances at winning the lottery, would you give up just because the first didn’t pan out? Of course not.” She raised his head to meet her eyes, one finger under his chin. Her eyes gleaned with a stomach-dropping enthusiasm.

“What’s the second condition?” He asked, not hearing himself speak.

“The kindness of strangers.” She smiled an almost genuine smile as if he should join her in glee. She pulled an old flip phone out of her jacket pocket, waving it in front of him.

“The… What?” He tried to focus but thought of nothing coherent.

“The kindness of strangers. The reverse of what landed you here. I used to call this ‘phone a friend’ but my third participant only had two friends, so… Yeah. Not enough. Here’s the basics…” She proceeded to explain all the things she planned to do to him, from the removal of nails one by one to gouging an eye and skinning a limb, and so on. “And finally, that vein carrying your lifeblood from head to heart.” Gabriel turned his head to the side and vomited on the floor, unable to contain his terror any longer. “But, remember the second condition. None of that needs to happen. With the kindness of strangers, you will be fine. Better than anyone, if you’re lucky.” He knew better, but a faint glimmer of hope sprung up in the back of his mind. She stood back and brought the camera up to her eye. “And there we are.”

“What are you going to do?” She smiled further at his voice, no doubt sensing the trace of hope within.

“Have you heard of the unsolved case, about the photos tasking people with harming themselves?”

“I… I have.” All hope vanished. The room began to spin as she continued to talk. The dim blue light blending with the darkening corners of his vision.

“They lack details. But the premise is the same. I’ll send this photo of you to ten numbers from your general area code, and ask them to play a game to save your life. All they need to do…”

“Is cut off a finger.” He finished, voice monotone.

“Correct. If they send proof back, and I am very thorough, they enter the game to save your life. But for each person who doesn’t enter?” She mimicked scissors, gently squeezing his thumb between hers. “And for each round they fail to go through with? Well, you get it.” She typed up a flurry of words on the phone, presumably sending the messages. “The truth is, you aren’t the hero of your story. You’re the victim. Hoping for a saviour to fight the dragon for you. And you know what? All you had to do was tell me to pick someone else. And you would have been freed, subjecting another to this experiment instead.”

“But why do any of this at all?”

“To test the limits of the kindness of strangers. To put you at their mercy.”