Pick Your Own Path (Chapter 2) (Patreon)

 This story is a new initiative by Zander Chesney, allowing you to choose how the rest of the story unfolds! At the end of this chapter, you will have a choice that will influence where this story goes!

Enjoy.

Chapter 2
Rules and Release

“A chance?” You say to the voice. “What kind of chance?” The Creator’s voice laughs at you again. The sound of their laugh makes you feel a little scared.

“What I mean is that I have decided that it wouldn’t be as fun to just watch you change and be done with it. I like a little excitement and I’m sure my employees would like some too. So, I will give you a chance; a real chance to escape the fate that you have been dealt and escape with your adulthood intact.” What ‘The Creator’ is saying is making you nervous but you also know that whatever this “chance” is, it is your only one.

“What is the chance?” You reply. “What do I have to do?”

The robot voice boomed out of the speaker into your small cell. “Eager to lose are we? Okay, when I am done explaining I will let you out of this cell. To escape from this facility you will have to make it through all of its challenges. You will have to defeat, “The Gauntlet”. You are currently on Level 5 of this Facility. The lower the level number, the closer you are to escape. You will have to make it through Level 5, then Level 4, Level 3, and so on. Each level has a Guardian that watches over it and the Guardian will give you that level’s challenge. If you can actually manage to succeed, and win all of the levels this facility has to offer then you will be free to go. But, if you lose. If you fail or are captured or defeated then you will become one of our play things and be changed forever.” ‘The Creator’s’ words made your knees feel a little weak with fear; but you had no other options.

“I accept your demands. I will take your challenges and I will get out of here.” You feel confident. You don’t care what will be thrown at you in this place. You will get out! “Prepare for defeat ‘Creator’.” The voices’ laughter once more rang throughout room.

“I enjoy your confidence Challenger… I will also enjoy seeing it broken.” The voice paused for several seconds. “Now… begin.” A loud beeping sound rang out for a few moments and just like that a hidden door swung wide open. You were ready to begin but you were also quite nervous. You walk towards the door and through it you find yourself in a long hallway. As you begin to walk you hear a loud creaking and turn just in time to see the door that led from your cell to the hallway close. You can’t help but feel a little more nervous now. While you didn’t want to be in the cell in the first place, at least you were somewhat isolated and safe.

The hallway you are in is slender and silver, but is silent besides your footsteps as you proceed further into the depths of the Facility. When you reach the end of the hallway you come across a wall with a big glowing sign on it. After observing it for a moment you realize that it is a map! A very strange looking map. You quickly realize that this place is huge! It has multiple levels like the creator said but each level is pretty large in its own right. It appears that the Facility has a sort of central hub area and every level has multiple rooms to them. You briefly wonder where you might actually be because this building would have to be huge from the layout of this map.

Suddenly the sound of mechanisms moving and gears turning fill your ears. It sounds like its coming from all around you. A loud grinding sound comes from behind you and you turn just in time to see a panel slide open in the floor and a table pop up out of the ground before the panel slides back into place as if the table had been there all along. The table is small, rectangular, and silver. Besides the glowing map it is now the only thing besides you in the long skinny hallway.

On the table itself, rest three different items. All in a perfect row lies 3 strange objects: a large bright pink bow, a small stuffed pony, and an elegant tea set. You look at the 3 objects, intrigued but a little concerned. “What the hell...?” You say out loud as you move in a little closer to get a better look.

The bow is a beautiful bright pink color and is made of satin. As you touch it for a moment you find that it is extremely soft to the touch and made of a wonderful material. You can’t help but finding the bow itself to be extremely cute.

The stuffed pony is more of a simple design but still delicate in its own way. The pony is a light brown color and has bright green eyes that stare deeply into you.

The final item on the table is the tea set. You see that the tea set is clearly very fine and expensive china. The designs on the cups appear to be painted by hand and custom made.

As you continue to look over the items suddenly the creator’s booming voice returns on the speakers that you see set up in every room so far.

 “Hello once again, challenger. You have arrived at the first crossroads.”

 “Crossroads?” You ask.

 “Every challenger who has ever come here has had a different path through the Gauntlet. Every life makes its own choices and so shall you challenger. Just like I told you I would be fair and give you a chance I will also allow you to choose your own fate through the Gauntlet.”

 The Creator paused. You contemplated what the Creator had told you. You had chosen this. Whatever happened from here on out would be through your own decisions.

 “As I explained to you before, for every level of this facility you will face a Guardian whose challenge you must overcome to continue onto the next level. But what I did not explain before is that this facility has dozens of possible Guardians. Every level you will be given a choice between three possible Guardians through chosen objects that represent them.”

 You once again looked down at the pink bow, the pony, and the tea set. You now understand why they are there. “These three objects all represent a different Guardian that you will face for your first challenge. When you choose your object, the path to that Guardian will be revealed to you. Now challenger… choose wisely…”

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This story was written by Zander Chesney
You can find more of his content here : https://zanderchesneyoriginals.tumblr.com/