The ultimate chocolate experiment

When Matt woke up all he could see was darkness. Black ever so heavy darkness. He tried to move his head and he couldn’t. He blinked a few times but the blackness did not go away. I tried to listen to any noise but there was nothing. Hold on. That was not right. He could hear something. A faint buzz. Such a familiar sound but he could not get to it. It was at the tip of his tongue, as they always say. He put out is tongue which made him chuckle a bit. He always has acted silly in serious situations. This was probably just a prank, he thought. Or has he really gone blind?

He felt a bit of weight on his head and realised that the reason he could not see anything was that he had a black fabric bag over his head.

“Okay” he thought. “Here we got a typical hostage situation, with ME being the damn hostage!” What the heck was going on?

He tried to move his arms but his muscles seemed paralysed. It was agony, he could feel everything but could do nothing about it.

Could he speak? Well he was breathing so he must be able to speak. He tried to make a sound but only a grunt escaped his throat. Not even a whisper.

He felt panic starting to rise like a wave. Getting stronger, ready to wrap him into its endlessness.

He tried to calm his rapid heartbeat by taking a few deep breaths.

Suddenly he heard footsteps coming closer. Was he going to get killed now?

He heard the steps being not in sync, which made him assume there are two people or even more approaching him.

He heard keys rattling and chairs being scraped against the floor. Then a hard umph as someone just sat down. Another lounge noise made him flinch but indicated the keys were dropped onto something. A table maybe?

“Are you going to take the bag off?” A female voice impatiently said, interrupting the buzzing silence.

“I just sat down” another voice moaned. Male this time.

Silence again and then a sigh. “Alright, Alright I’ll do it!” Another scraping sound on the floor and suddenly there was light. Too much light!

Matt shut his eyes immediately.

After a few seconds, he slowly dared to open his eyes and blinked a few times. In front of him was standing a big bloke, holding a black straw sack. He seemed out of breath but had an ugly grin on his face.

“Sit down Gary!” the female voice ordered. Gary slowly walked behind the table and sat down, giving Matt finally view to the other person in the room.

The woman was busy writing on a chart, not looking up. Her blond bob looked fake from the amount of hair gel it was containing.

There was an awkward silence which gave Matt the opportunity to take in the environment. The room was completely white, including the chairs and tables. There was one door, and he noticed a camera in the corner of the room. The buzzing sound came from the fluorescent lights above him.

He still was unable to move his body but noticed he could swallow and move his tongue.

“Barbara, should we make a start?” Gary cautiously said.

Barbara finally looked up, puzzled. “Oh yes! Apologies! Hello Matt, how are you?” she cheerily yelled.

Matt looked at her. He hated her. “Oh, I see, I promise soon you will be able to use your voice again. But of course not the rest of the body. Your internal organs are all working fine, however the paralysis will last for another 4 hours”

“Aaaaargh” Matt croaked.

“You are probably wondering why you are here.”

“Aarrrgh”

Barbara laughed as if he just made a hilarious joke. “Of course, you are honey. Well, do you remember this flyer?” she asked and pushed a piece of paper across the table.

Matt looked at the flyer.

Free chocolate cake tasting

Join our chocolate cake tasting with a twisting surprise.

Are you a natural or is your fate to obey the sweet poison? Do you have mental fitness and can withstand the physical and emotional pressure?

By signing this waiver, you take responsibility of your own wellbeing and will not be resuscitated.

Please send YES to 666 and further information will follow.

This flyer had been posted through his letter box last week and when he first read it, he had to chuckle. He thought it was funny and twisted, supposed to be a joke so he signed it and send the message.

Here he was now. Captured. Tied to a chair under complete paralysis. He could not even remember to be knocked out. How did he get here? Did he eat any cake already? Has he had an allergic reaction maybe?

He tried to force his brain to forget the anxiety and remember how he lost consciousness.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

Barbara slammed her hands on the table and he flinched. She laughed. Suddenly the door opened, and another man walked in. He did not even bother to look at Matt. “Participant 2, death by natural causes” Barbara nodded, and the man went back out.

She then focused her attention onto her chart.

“Right. I just need to confirm I few details if I may. Your name is Matt Holden, you are 45 years old, weigh 90 kilograms, and have no underlying medical conditions. You are divorced and currently living alone. You have a 15-year-old parrot which will pass of cancer within the next two months. You have a bad relationship with your neighbours, and you hate your accountant job, because your boss absolutely disrespects you. You spend your evenings at home, having 2 -3 cans of Budweiser a night until you pass out on the couch.”

Matt looked at her stunned. If he would have a voice, he would have no idea what to say. It felt as if his vocal cords have been cut. The way she described his life right now, made him realise there was absolutely no one who would know where he was, even who he was. He felt pathetic and lonely.

Matt sensed streams of sweat running down his forehead.

Barbara noticed and smiled.

“Gary! Get the cake!” she commanded.

A few minutes later, Gary came back with three plates on a tray, each covered with a cloche and put them in front of Matt, removing each cloche carefully and with theatrical motion.

Under each cloche was a piece of chocolate cake all looking the exact same, with a small fork placed next to them on the plate.

The door opened again and the same man as earlier waltzed in. “Participant 5, death by chocolate”

“Really? The chunky one?”

“Yes Ma’am”

“I would have thought due to her adipose fat, she’d rather leave us as a natural, but hey ho”

Matts breathing started to fasten. He now realised this was not any sort of tasting. It was an experiment and he was terrified.

Barbara clapped her hands again and grinned.

“Righty, lets get to business. As you might have already guessed you will need to eat a bite of each piece of cake. They have the exact same ingredients but one slice contains a deadly poison. When you signed the waver you agreed to eventual death. When you decide not to eat the cakes you will die too. How, is part of the experiment which cannot be disclosed. Do you understand the terms and conditions?”

While Barbara announced all the information with her robotic voice, Matt noticed not one hair on her head has moved since he first saw her. How much hairspray was in there man? Or was she wearing a wig?

“Stop it! Stop it!” Matt thought to himself. It was not what was important right now. Nothing was, apart from his life.

Just while Matt tried to gather his thoughts the door opened again, and a woman dressed in a white leather suit walked into the room. She was pushing an EKG machine and stopped next to him.

She bent down and started to unbutton his shirt. “You have hair on chest, Sir?” She spoke in a Russian accent.

“This is crazy” Matt thought.

The woman looked at his chest and said “No hair. No rrrrreeal man!” she placed the electrode patches on his chest and turned on the machine.

It was reading 120 beats per minute.

“Time to eat some cake Matt” Barbara said. The machine showed how his heart rhythm went up and the space between the waves became less and less.

“A little nervous Matt?” Gary hissed.

“Fuck…you!”

“Take the fork and take a bit!”

“Aaargh, I…. can’t”

“Your right arm is ready to move now. Take a bite now!” Gary directed.

Matt looked away. He could hear the peeping of the machine. Steady and fast.

“Your little parrot Mikey will die of cancer unless we make sure his death will be even more painful”

Matt closed his eyes. Oh no, poor Mikey!

He clenched his fist and raised the arm. He took the fork and stabbed it in the cake.

Tears were now streaming down his red cheeks. The peeping was getting faster. He was now at 200 beats per minute. The cake felt moist and spongy. He put a piece in his mouth and let it sit on the tongue. It tasted sweet and artificial.

“Swallow it!”

He swallowed and waited. Barbara stopped a timer and looked at the chart. “Nothing on C1. Take a bite of the next one!”

“No!” Matt murmured.

Gary suddenly stood up and grabbed the cake. He slammed it into Matts mouth. Matt tried to scream but the cake was too sticky to let out any sound.

“Uuuurrrgh” he gurgled.

“Swallow it you loner!” Gary yelled. Barbara giggled hysterically.

Matt swallowed as much has he could before he would choke. He was sitting there now with his head bowed, his face full with chocolate, breathing heavily. After 60 seconds the timer peeped. Nothing on C2.

Matt lifted his head and looked his capturers in the eyes.

“Please….please…”

He knew the poison must be in the last piece of cake now.

Barbara started to hum. She was excited! “You know what is cooooming now” She sang more to herself than to him.

Matts heart was racing. His memories passed through his head. His ex-wife, his parrot. “I am sorry the way I treated you Olivia”, he thought. “I don’t want to die.”

He felt his chest tighten. He looked over to the machine and his heartbeat was at 320 beats per minute.

“We have got abnormal cardiac activity going on.” Gary said. “Yes, I know that, Gary! I am not stupid. He is in ventricular fibrillation. It wont take long” she snapped at him.

Matt closed his eyes. With his heart going into overdrive, he knew this will be his cause of death. After a few more seconds the machine flatlined and Matts head sank onto his chest.

Gary jumped up and shook his fists above his head. Barbara quietly handed him a tenner, shaking her head in disappointment. She could not believe the weakness of the participants, so terrified of dying that they are dying because of that and not due to the poison. Stupid humans.

She made a last tick on her chart, Manner of death - death by natural causes.