Running on Spite and Fury

Eleanora stood there frozen, staring at the skeleton of a long-dead princess. She had on an old, tattered dress and a dainty pearl necklace hung from her neck. In one hand she held a small, stuffed panda. As she gently grabbed the panda, a small tear fell down Eleanora’s cheek, the girl couldn’t have been any older than ten. “I will stop this, no more innocent girls will be killed here,” he said, voice cracking. In the girl’s other hand was a letter and a metal file. Sniffing, Eleanora took the letter. It read:

“Dear Princess Eleanora,

You have exceeded what we expected of you. But please know most of the other princesses haven’t made it much farther than this. To be honest, most haven’t made it this far. And for that, you must be commended. Eleanora, you may have noticed the two levers in the middle of the room. Here are your choices, 1) Go back up to your room and for a certainty live, or 2) Pull one of the levers and either meet your death or get one test closer to freedom. You decide. But remember, after this, there is no turning back. Just look at poor Lizzy.”

Eleanora’s chest was heaving, she cried hot, angry tears. Looking back at Lizzy she knew she couldn’t turn back, she had to do this for her. She would get out of this tower and defeat the wicked, evil people who did this to innocent children.

Eleanora clenched her jaw and held back sobs as she walked up to the levers. The lever on the left was green and the one on the right was red. Eleanora’s head was spinning. For it is commonly known that green is good and red is bad, but then it would be too easy for the correct lever to be green but the one who tested her must know that and so on. So, Reader, you can see how our poor Eleanora’s brain was racing with the endless circle of is green actually good or are they just trying to trick me because everyone knows that red is bad? Or do they know that I know that they know that I know it would be green because they know I would choose red because it is usually the wrong choice? And etc.

As Eleanora’s head began pounding she noticed a small check engraved into the floor in front of the red lever and the green one had an x engraved in front of it. She felt her heart sink as she remembered the metal file in Lizzy’s hand. She had used her last moments trying to help the princesses that would come after her. With a sad smile, Eleanora pushed the red lever. And then she pushed again. And again. And again. And then finally a fifth time. She then had the brilliant idea that she might need to pull the lever. As she pulled it she hoped whoever was doing this did not see that.