The TV blared on in front of Haewon. She woke with a start.

"Good morning, viewers. Today, is the day that we determine our winner to the Utopia games! I hope you all are awake and ready, because, I can tell you this, our contestants definitely are NOT!"

He droned on and on, and Haewon ignored him, and instead went over to Sullyoon. She tapped her shoulder, and she awoke.

"Hm.. Hae- Haewon...? Am I dead?" She asked.

Haewon shook her head.
"No, you're alive, don't worry."

"What about Lily?" Sullyoon asked.
To this, Haewon gave her a solemn look.

And Sullyoon understood it.

"...Let's watch some of the spectacular highlights, shall we?" The commentator said in the TV.

Just then, two guards burst into the room, grabbing both of them and dragging them outside, and through a long corridor.

They were separated, and put through different doors.

Haewon was shoved into a small white room, which had nothing but a fancy chair and a fancy, high tech table. The guard sat her down into a chair, and turned on the TV at the corner of the room.

The commentator blared on.
"Welcome... to the last round of Utopia games. Today, we will determine the winner, the one who gets to keep their own life. And the other, will unfortunately not be as fortunate. This final game will decide between the option of life or death. They will be playing one of our special puzzles. We call it maiden's mangle. It is a very difficult puzzle, in which sometimes even our own loyal guards are unable to solve it. It consists of equations and riddles. One must complete the jigsaw puzzle, all the while, the jigsaw has no colour or picture to go off of. So, it must be solved by matching up the equations to their equals, and the riddles to their answers. Doing that, it will splay a hidden message as the puzzle is completed, which they must figure out. There is no time limit. The first person to finish, will win."

And he clapped his hands once more.

"So, without further ado, let's start!"

The table elevated something onto it.

It was the jigsaw puzzle. Each size was only very small, but the stack was quite large, becoming the size of Haewon's elbow length, but the pieces only being an inch in both dimensions.

They were all white, which was hard to see. But there were black etches scribed onto the front.
Each of them read out a different riddle or answer, or a math equation, and number.

Haewon spent some time sectioning the pieces into their corresponding groups, than began solving, going piece by piece.

...

She was halfway there.

...

Then she was only three pieces away.

...

One piece.

The question read; 'I am the name of a place without fault. What is my name?'

She placed it next to the word, 'Utopia'.

And she was done.

The guard let her out of the room, and escorted her down to an open area, where there was an open field.

And in the open field, there too, was a huge billboard TV. And the commentator was there.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner!" He said.

But the thing was, he wasn't talking from the TV.
He was there. In the field with her.
And the camera was in front of him.

Haewon was pushed forwards, and stood in front of a large, round, white marble table, with a medium sized box on it.

"Haewon. Well done! You have completed the challenge. Are you aware of what your prize is?" He asked.

She shook her head. She didn't know.

"Well then, open the box, and find out for yourself."

She took the box in her hands. It was much heavier than she anticipated. She shook it a bit, and then opened it fully.
What was inside made her nearly gasp in shock.

Inside the box, was a gun.

She took it out, and examined it in her hands.
Some guards with clear riot shields stood in front of the commentator, for his protection; Haewon was technically wielding something that could potentially injure him, and they knew better than that.

"Bring her out." He said.

From the other side, two guards came out of the room, dragging someone under their arms.

Sullyoon.

The commentator smiled at Haewon.
"Your prize is amazing. YOU get to choose your fate. You can decide between life or death. And all you need to do, is shoot her." He said, smiling like it was the easiest decision ever.

Sullyoon wasn't even struggling. She just stared at Haewon.
And nodded.

It was all alright. She could die now.
And Haewon could live.
She accepted her own fate with open arms.

"Sullyoon..." Haewon said, grabbing her attention.

She looked up at her, listening.

"Thank you for playing with me, even if it wasn't either one of our choices. I'll never forget any of us." She told her in a shaky voice.

But there was something Sullyoon didn't know.
Haewon had already promised herself, if someone was getting out of here alive, it wouldn't be her.
It had to be Sullyoon.
Because, for her, living with regret was worse than dying.

Haewon raised the gun to her own head.
"Remember me... please..."

Sullyoon's eyes went wide. She struggled against the guards.
"HAEWON, PLEASE NO-"

BANG

Haewon fell to the ground.

And the game was over.

One winner, six dead.

...

-Sometimes even the best of us don't live to see the days we deserve. Death catches up to us one day or another-

...

"Thank you. For everything."

...

THE END.

is it?