The Voice

The classroom speaker cracked and and a toneless voice said hello. Few of the students casually turned to listen.

“Lets play a game, its gonna be fun. What do you say?”, said the dead voice.

There was a silence followed by chaos of confusion at the uncharacteristic message from the speakers, that usually broadcasts announcements and instructions. A boy from the class proceeded to check out who was at the other end. But he had to stop once he figured out the door to the classroom had been closed, seemingly from outside.

“Where are you trying to go? Are you not playing the game?” demanded the voice.

The realisation of what just happened confused the students. “Since when do we have cameras in here?”, questioned the same boy. The students were scanning the walls for cameras as the voice came to life again.

“Quit searching and start playing. This is round one. Among thirty two of you, only fifteen will still stay in the game. So play hard. All you have to do is write down the names of people you consider your friends in your class. The seventeen of you with the least number of appearence on paper would lose. It would be game over for you. Somebody pass around a sheet of paper. No cheating, I’m watching you. And do not write your own name people”

“This is very stupid”, said one of the girls.

“No its not. Its fun”, the voice said with a kind of creepy humour.

The class was shocked once again at the realisation that the voice at the other end was listening to them too.

“Now start the game”, demanded the voice with overpowering authority.

The class was a bit scared now and someone initiated the game. The paper was passed around and the moment the last person wrote down his list of friends, the voice came to life and said, “Very good, now I have the results, the seventeen of you who are losing out are…”

Before the students could make out what was happening, 17 of them dropped dead. The rest fifteen freaked out and started shouting at the top of their voices. For once the school seemed deserted and banging at the door did not invite anybody’s attention. All of them were crying loud and there was nothing they could do.

“What have you done?”, cried one of the girls

“Stop this game of yours and bring back my friends”

“Friends? I thought you told me they were not your friends. I just wanted to make the game all the more interesting. Now the less popular ones are out, lets go to round two, shall we?”, said the voice.

Everyone was freaked out to even listen. The seven guys and the eight girls still alive were scared to death and shouting at the top of their voice for help. It didn’t help.

“Stop screaming and listen. Or you will also lose. Its always a bad feeling to lose, isn’t it? Even I hate losing. Losing to anyone in anything. It sucks. So lets play the round two”, the voice said.

“Listen now or you will lose”, authority taken, the voice said. The screaming died down a bit as few of the students realised the implications of losing.

“I want to go home to my mommy, please open the door, I don’t want to play the game”, a boy still kept shouting and the next moment, the number of students still alive went down to fourteen.

More screams; followed by sudden silence. Most of the students were crying uncontrollably and at the same time trying hard to control their sound. Once the shouting subdued, the voice started.

“Too bad he kept shouting. Now there’s only fourteen of you and I needed an odd number of you for the second round. What do I do?”, the voice wondered.

“Can you please stop this”, begged one of the girls who was nearly out of voice due to fear.

“Common, it was getting interesting. I am sure you would’ve loved the game from here on. But since you want to stop..”

The girl fell dead.

“So all of you still going strong. You have one minute to pair up with someone else, and the one without the pair would lose the moment six pairs are formed”

There was a huge commotion in the class once they interpreted the message and within five seconds random pairs were formed. A very soft spoken, not-so-pretty girl was left alone and she was trying to push into a pair when she also dropped dead.

“Ha, she was so miserable. Its a good thing she lost, she wouldn’t have gone on in the game for long anyways”, the voice said amid more screams. “And yeah, one more thing, only one of you is gonna win this game eventually. And remember, there are no consolation prizes” .

More screams followed.

A boy gathered enough courage to ask the voice, “What are you, who are you? Are all of these people dead? Who are you and what do you want? Why are you harming us. Please stop this”

“I am the most evil person you guys will ever know. The most cunning person. I am shrewd, I am smart and moreover, I am evil”, the voice burst into a streak of creepy laughter.

“What do you want of us?”, demanded the same boy. He was the class head as was evident from the badge he was wearing.

“I just want us all to have fun. So shall we play next round?”, asked the voice.

“We don’t want to play. Will you stop this and bring back all my classmates?”

“I hate when people talk too much in a game. You should have lost by now, had you not been so highly placed to win this game. I shall let you play for now. But one more word, and thats the game for you”, threatened the voice. The class head got scared and decided not to speak any more.

“So, for the next round I want all of you to go back to your pair, formed in the last round and hold hands”, said the voice. “Good, now I want you to listen carefully. If you utter the name of your pair, he or she loses. But if he or she utters your name before that, you lose. So in the end one from each group loses. Get it? Ok now, go”

No one moved, or said anything. Everyone kept looking at their pair.

“Hello?” the voice spoke again. “Lets up the stakes, if none from a group makes a move, both from the group lose, that too in the next 15 seconds. So here we go. 15.. 14...13..”

The class head made his move, he said the name of his pair and she fell down dead. Two seconds later, two of them from the same group made their moves at almost the same time. One of them dropped dead.

“..4..3..2..”

Two more made their moves and their pairs lost. The two girls who formed the last pair were hugging each other and crying out loud. As the voice counted to zero, both of them dropped dead.

“Now don’t freak out, I know you would be too excited that you are almost there. I love you people. You played well. Now for the last round.” the voice continued.

“Can’t you stop at least now”, pleaded the only remaining girl. She was unable to speak anymore as she fell to her knees.

“Not yet. We don’t have a clear winner yet, have we? So play, game’s still on”, said the voice. “For the next round, each one of you will have to get a gun from the cupboard. And I guess you know what I would ask you to do…”

The girl gathered herself to her feet, ran to the cupboard. She took out a gun. Then pointing it at herself, she started screaming and shot herself.

“Wow, that was nasty. I hate people who give up. Winning is all that matters, why don’t people realise that? Pity her. What are you three waiting for, play the game. I sure hope you guys are better than that stupid girl”, said the voice.

The three of them glanced at each other and proceeded steadily and slowly towards the cupboard. The class head reached in for his gun first. He saw there were exactly three guns left in there. He took one of them, he moved back. As the other two were reaching in for theirs, he shot both of them at the back of their heads.

There were moments of silence

“Thats why you deserved to win”, the voice came back to life. “You win the game. I sure hope you had fun playing”

The class head boy was not crying anymore. He stood there looking around at the thirty one bodies around him, three of them bleeding profusely. He dropped his gun and turned to the speaker.

“Who are you?”, asked the boy

“The most evil person you’ll ever know”, said the creepily cheery voice.

“How did you do all this and why?”, the boy demanded.

“Because I hate losing. I wanted to win. And thats all I ever cared about. I hated being second to anyone. This game is how I win.”, the voice said, in a very serious tone.

“Why did you do this to my classmates. What did they ever do to you? And how?”

“There is no ‘how’s, only ‘why’s. I told you, because I hate being a loser in anything”, said the voice, not laughing anymore.

“What are you? Why did you do this with my classmates? I don’t understand.”, the boy said his voice more confident than ever.

“I am the most evil person you will ever know.”, repeated the voice. “You still don’t get it, do you?  Lets meet. The door would be open. Come and meet me at the office room”.

The head boy walked to the door, opened it and stepped out. The school was completely deserted and dead silent. He slowly and steadily walked towards his destination. He reached the room and pushed on the door. It opened. Inside was dimly lit like never seen ever before.

There was someone sitting on a chair facing the wall opposite to the door, with the mic to the speakers in his right hand. Once the boy entered the room, the chair slowly turned towards him. The expression of curiosity and fear on the face of the head boy slowly turned to one of disbelief.

A few moments later it slowly turned to one of understanding and fearlessness.

In the room, the boy met himself.

- Srihari Radhakrishnan