**String Us Together - Excerpt 1**  ...I've been thinking this since I woke up, but this doesn't really make sense, does it?  Obviously it doesn't, but what are you talking about specifically?  "A game hosted for the sake of an experiment"... is already a flimsy premise.  Doing research requires eliminating as many variables as possible, to ensure the result is untainted.  And no matter how you look at it, this is only adding variables. Six concludes the thought.  Exactly. There's no way the results of this experiment would be anything worthy of consideration. So why, exactly, are we here? Six shrugs.  It reeks of a power play, doesn't it?  A power play?  It seems like we're all around the same age, and we're all clearly desperate if we ended up here. Someone probably set this game up as entertainment under the guise of research. Eight crosses his arms.  Calling it purely entertainment might be a bit excessive... but you could be right. It's a rather eccentric way to test a technology.  Still, we won't know until this game is over. And that information is the exclusive right of the victor.  Good thing I have no intention of losing, then. Eight's eyebrow hitches up.  You're pretty confident, hm?  Don't forget that this technology has the power to destroy you and that confidence, likely without you even realizing it. He taps the strings in his own chest lightly as he says it.  It can destroy us all if we make the wrong moves. Six feels himself smile.  But isn't that what makes it an interesting challenge?  You may think that way, but I doubt the others will. I suggest for your own sake you at least pretend to be scared.  Oh? And what about you, Mr. Eight? Are you scared? The frown on his face seems to crease a little sharper.  I would call it something more like apprehension.  Something tells me we don't have much to go back to... Six opens his mouth to reply, but Eight cuts him off.  We should continue our investigation. I doubt there's much more to see, but the game could begin at any time, and I'd like to meet the rest before then. He sets off walking again without another word, and Six follows behind.
