Knee-Deep In Blood.
The lights shut off.
Darkness spread across the facility; night was starting.
The dark-haired girl lay slumped against the wall, sleeping. A few hours had passed since everyone split up and the lights shut off. Suddenly, Liling's eyes snapped open. She was breathing heavily, as if she had some sort of nightmare. The girl muttered something under her breath and got up slowly. Once she was up from her slumber, she walked around a little. She walked into the large room. There were a few people lying around: she could see Omar next to a weird-looking control panel against the wall. She walked over to him and sat down beside him. He immediately woke up and stared at Liling.
"Who's there? Oh... Hi Liling," he sounded almost disappointed.
"Omar... I have a question. You're a police officer right? I just wanted to ask- since you seem all trustworthy and stuff- does your role reflect that?" Liling asked. She didn't actually want to ask a question; she just wanted his role. And that was pretty obvious, but surprisingly not to Omar.
"Since you seem somewhat trustable, I'll tell ya. No, not at all. I'm a Twin. The only good thing about it is that my twin is Mateo. Funny, cause we both work together. Did you know that Mateo's actual twin, Indah Syukur, was a victim of the recent killing game? Oops- Yeah, maybe I shouldn't have said all of that," Omar rambled. Liling laughed and said, "Well, okay then. What does a 'twin' even do?"
"If I die, he dies too."
Liling started laughing. "Okay then," she mumbled as she walked over to Vinny's corpse. Her knife was just where she had left it, sticking out of her chest. After picking it up, she walked back over to Omar. This time, he didn't hear her. Quickly, Liling covered Omar's mouth with her hand. Without giving him time to react, she plunged the blade into his chest many times. He had no time to scream. He couldn't. There would be no point. He knew this. Liling continued to stab Omar, but this time, she worked the knife up to his neck. Blood was spraying everywhere and horrible gruesome sounds of flesh cutting, and blood oozing spread around the area. After a while, Liling walked away; Omar was dead. Her hands, face, and dress were all covered in blood, but she didn't stop her rampage. Next, she walked over to Mateo. He was in the cupboard at the end of the large room.
He was sleeping, eyes shut, sat upright in the centre of the room backed against the wall. The closest person to hear the screams was Alex, who was sat rather close to the door, but far enough away that he wouldn't wake up. Liling, knife in hand, knelt beside Mateo. Again, she covered his mouth with her hand and started to jab Mateo with the knife. She was slitting his arms and stabbing his torso with her knife as he screamed from the agonizing pain. After a few stabs here and there, she began to slit his throat. The echo of blood spurting out of mangled flesh bounced of the metal walls. Liling found herself finishing up by putting her hand on Mateo's shoulder and impaling his chest with the knife. The whole room was covered in ruby red splashes of blood, across every wall. There were cardboard boxes on shelves on each wall that were now blood-soaked too. Mateo's clothes had been ripped and torn and were now soaked with his own blood.
Liling left the scene behind and walked away. The building, so quiet, was being disrupted by the sound of Liling's shoes tapping on the cold, hard floor. She looked down at her dress and saw it was covered in so much blood that she knew she wouldn't be able to get off.
She decided to do something that would hurt, a lot.
Lifting the knife into the air, Liling's hands quivered as her whole body trembled.
Stab.
Liling collapsed to the floor, knife sticking out the side of her stomach. She would pull the knife out and wince from the horrible, excruciating pain. Her entire body hurt and her eyes began to water. "Ow... owww," she muttered. Liling dragged herself across the floor, leaving the knife inside Omar's corpse, and crawling away to her original sleeping space. Her eyes were going blurry. She couldn't see, she couldn't think. Liling's idea was to stab herself in a place that she likely wouldn't die from, so she could claim that she had been attacked and it would justify her having scarlet liquid all over her. Before Liling finally closed her eyes, she swore that she could see a figure moving at the end of the corridor opposite her.
Marley was sat in the corridor. She had placed a gun back into her pocket and was now trying to fall asleep. It wasn't working. She couldn't stop thinking about the fact she knew she would have to kill someone. It made her feel uneasy, how she'd have to take someone's life away from them all because she was dumb enough to accept an invitation.
POINT OF VIEW: MARLEY PHOENIX.
I wake up the next morning to the sound of rather loud footsteps. My eyes open suddenly as I feel the touch of another person. Oh, it's Arielle. She's tapping on my shoulder. Gosh, she scared me to Hell and back. I look at her and see a small piece of paper in her hand. Wow, how discreet.
"Take it," she mutters.
"Couldn't even say 'Hello?'" I say back. She looks at me sternly and I take the piece of paper out her hand. I read it. Sarcastically, I respond, "I am so happy you told me this. Thank you so much, Arielle."
She rolls her eyes and walks off.
As I'm getting up off my feet, I instantly feel sick. It's like I can just tell when things have gone badly. I walk out the corridor and see people scattered around. Some are crowded in the bottom level of the room, and some are on the main floor, like me. I go don't use the ladder to get down, since Alex is blocking the way down. So, I jump instead. Plus, it's nice to make an entrance. I see what everyone is staring at.
It's...
Liling?
She's lying there, in the green acid, bleeding out of a hole in her chest. Her entire dress is soaked with her own blood. I notice there's also a tear in her flesh on the side of her stomach. That's a weird place to stab someone, but-
Wait...
How is she even dead? She's the murderer! No, this doesn't add up! How did she die if she's the murderer. I look to the person next to me. It's Jonah.
"Jonah, have you guys read her journal out?" I ask her. They shake their head and say, "Nah, not yet. We only just found her like this. You can read it if you want to."
"Oh, thanks Jonah," I respond sarcastically. I do just that, reaching out for the small blood-soaked book in Liling's dress pocket. After clearing my throat, I read it aloud.
You are the- There was a whole bunch of smudged and scribbled words. You are part of the GOOD TEAM. And the rest was scribbled, too. Wow... Well, I know that's not true, at least the good team part. Unless it's possible to be a 'good murderer,' but that seems weird.
I showed the journal to the others so they wouldn't think that I was lying. Not very many people were talking, but then Alex spoke up. He was on the main floor, above most of the others.
"It's Thiago," he says. Thiago, surprised, turns around and raises his eyebrow, staring directly at Alex.
"What did you say, punk?" he shouts.
Another person interrupts.
"Oh my gosh, can you quit it? In case you haven't noticed, we're missing two more people! Mateo and Omar!" yells Ally. Thiago stops.
"Omar?... Shit..." he mutters. As he climbs up the ladder, her pushes Alex out of the way and moves into the large room, "NO!" he screams. His eyes start to water. They look like bright shiny marbles, glistening in the light and dripping with tears. I can only assume that means Omar is dead. It's like this game is created with the sole purpose of destroying everyone and all their hope in the world. That's not gonna be the case for me, though. I don't care enough about the people here for this 'game' to reduce my sanity. And I'm not going to die. Thiago is crying a lot. He's loud. To be fair, I never expected a tough guy like him to act like that in front of a bunch of others. But I guess his friend did die. Oh well, not my issue.
He's crying really loud now. Everyone else has crowded around him, comforting him. Eventually, as a group, we move on. And then I decide to walk away. Smart idea, Marley, really good job...
Mateo's... He's dead. His corpse has been slit many times, in many places. His neck had a large cut and so did his arms. You could see how deep each cut went... It made me wince as I stared into each gaping split in his flesh. Oh, wow... I know Liling was the murderer but, gosh, did she have to be so violent? All I had was a gun. All I could do was shoot someone. I'm not jealous of her for having a knife, no that'd be weird, but- No, I don't even want to kill anyone. I shouldn't be thinking like this. As soon as my eyes lock onto his corpse, I let out a scream that felt like my lungs had been torn out of my body, but it was Mateo's lungs that had been torn out of his body.
Everyone soon came over to me and began staring at his corpse too. I can't help but tear up. I don't want to look weak like Thiago did when he cried, but I just can't control it. I cover my mouth as my eyes ooze with tears. I don't even want to cry. Be brave, Marley, it's okay. At least I'm not dead. That's the only positive I can possibly think of. Oh well.
We all talk to one another in the group. They make me read out the two journals again. It's funny how Liling, the murderer, used to read them and when she died, they got me, the assassin, to read them. I started with Mateo's journal since we were right by him.
You are the TWIN, you are part of the GOOD TEAM, you do not have any special abilities, but you and your twin are linked, meaning if one of you gets attacked, healed, or given a muffin, the other will suffer the same. Your twin is OMAR. Your goal is to eliminate the EVIL TEAM. Write down whatever you discover in this journal.
So, Omar and I are twins, huh? Weird since we're best friends. I can't tell whether it was random or not. It's not like we have a huge target on our back, I think we're both nice to others.
"Twins?" Ally butts in, "That explains why they're both dead. Is there any point in reading Omar's journal? It'll just be the same, probably." I shrug. No one else responds. I just walk over and read Omar's book anyway.
You are the TWIN, you are part of the GOOD TEAM, you do not have any special abilities but you and your twin are linked, meaning if one of you gets attacked, healed or given a muffin, the other will suffer the same. Your twin is MATEO. Your goal is to eliminate the EVIL TEAM. Write down whatever you discover in this journal.
Mateo? Well, okay then. At least it's someone I know.
"So... they both died from the murderer? What about Liling then? It doesn't say anything about 'triplets' does it?" Ally continued. She was following me around. I was okay with that, but I don't see why she had to follow me. Colleen was near her too, why couldn't she follow her? Oh well, it doesn't matter much. I didn't respond to her somewhat idiotic statement, and instead I just stand in the group with everyone else.
Alex looks around at the group. I can see him staring at Thiago in a rather weird way. I think he noticed.
"Alex, what are you starin' at?" he asks. Alex suddenly looks away and folds his arms.
He responds, "I'm staring at you, Thiago," he seems to enunciate the 'ng' sound of the word 'staring' in a way that made Thiago angry.
"You better not be mocking me, eh?" he takes a step closer to Alex. The height difference between the two is making me laugh slightly. Alex is SO short compared to Thiago, there's probably over a foot's difference between them. Alex shrugged, "Maybe I am." Thiago's eyes widened and then he furrowed his eyebrows. Again, he took a step closer to the black-haired boy in front of him. I'm pretty sure Alex is older than Thiago, which honestly makes it even funny for me. Yeh, Thiago is twenty, like me... I'm pretty sure Alex is older.
They kept bickering for a while. It's so tiring watching others argue over nothing without even bringing up any actual evidence. But... wait...
"Well, Thiago, care to explain why you 'visited' Arielle last night, huh?" Alex yelled, pointing his finger at the tall man close to him. Thiago smiled at him.
"Care to explain how you also visited her, huh?" he laughed. Alex suddenly looked scared, as if he had been called out. Thiago continued, "And here we have, ahem- 'You are the SPY, you are part of the GOOD TEAM,' oh, and also, 'Arielle was visited by Alex,' which means that you, Alex, are some kind of evil counterpart of me, because there is no more than one of each role, except for the twins, but guess what? They're dead anyway!" I think I was more surprised than anyone else to hear Thiago talk to rudely about two people who had just died. It was clear, to me at least, that he didn't mean it at all, but was only saying this to get his point across that Alex was evil instead of him.
"I swear, I will fucking cut your face off with the sharpest goddamn knife in the world."
Alex stared at Thiago again, but this time he had narrowed his eyes. Honestly it was hard to trust him at all after that threat but...
It seemed everyone else agreed because we all suddenly turned on Alex instead. What had started as an accusation towards Thiago, ended as Alex getting the blame put on him. It was obvious he wasn't the murderer, not even because I knew who the murderer was, but because if, like he said, he had the same ability as Thiago, he must have just been an evil counterpart of that role. Jonah seemed to be the one leading the argument against Alex. Unsurprisingly, Ally was trying to stop it all. It was clear she wasn't too fond of our arguments. Despite her intentions, it seemed to make matters worse. Without thinking, Thiago had slapped Ally around the face, knocking her to the floor. Instantly, Colleen rushed over to her and made sure she was okay. She was fine, it seemed.
"Was that a threat, huh?" Thiago snarled. Alex laughed.
"No, it was a promise."
It was hard for me to not laugh my guts out then and there. Gosh, I know Alex is evil- wait, so am I. Eh, I guess that means I have the right to find him funny.
Their stupid pathetic riot continued for a while until Alex's smartass response to one of Thiago's claims got interrupted by the beeping of a familiar ten-minute-timer. The whole ten minutes was full of shit. No genuine claims, no solid evidence. All of it was based on trust. Whoever you trusted more, Thiago or Alex, is who you would believe. And right now, it seemed like everyone believed Thiago. Around the timer's five-minute mark, Alex walked away mid-argument to go and vote for Thiago. That started the voting spree and soon everyone had voted, including myself. I brought myself to the voting room, doing my best to ignore any corpses on the way there, and I voted. I voted for Thiago.
Fucking hell, it was hard. A guy I've known practically all my life from school. But that's the way it works in here, it seems. He wasn't a part of my team, and so why would I kill someone from my own team? Obviously, I had to vote him. A single tear seemed to drip down my face as I pondered my decision after I had just left the room. I was the last to vote, and by now, I'm pretty sure everyone had already voted for Alex. But I hadn't. Well, I guess that's one good thing about me. I'm pretty loyal. Although I'm sure nobody on this team would kill another one of us, that'd be... pretty stupid.
Oh shit.
The lights
They're
flickering
It's gone black
I hear screams
Loud ones
Ow
FUCKING HELL, IS THAT-
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO
The lights
They turn back on.
The lights turn back on, and I see... a corpse. A new one.
A boy with black and purple hair has been pinned to the wall in front of me with an array of knives. His shirt is black, he has purple and black striped sleeves. The picture on his shirt appears to be a black and purple image of a forest. He's wearing a pair of black jeans with a few belts. He also has a black hat on his head that has now slipped down slightly, I guess from the force of being pushed onto the wall by the blades.
It's Alex. He's dead. He's... Wait, he's still breathing? There's blood dripping from his mouth, he's choking on his own blood. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much any of us can do.
He splutters out a singular word, "Sorry..."
I feel so bad, it's like I got stabbed too. I don't want to do this. I have no choice, I'm gonna must win, but I don't want this to continue. If I could just die-
No.
I won't. I'll live; I'll win. Me and the other Evils will survive. We must. There should be... three Evils left? Oh, wait. Two. I can see everyone else staring at the dead body of Alex, just as I am. Jonah looks incredibly hurt too. I wonder if they were close with Alex. Alex and Vinny seemed to have been friends, but... I'm not sure what Jonah and Vinny are like. I think they were friends. They seemed to have talked a little bit. Actually, I'm pretty sure Jonah hates her. Oh well. I look around the area, my eyes scanning each person, trying to see if I can see someone that doesn't seem all that sad. Cause, maybe that'd mean they were evil. But I couldn't see anything. Not anything past the tears flooding my eyes.
Of course, a few minutes later, once someone had finally spoken, I got asked to read out the journal again. I didn't mind though. I reached into Alex's pocket and pulled out his journal. I read it out loud:
You are the SCOUT, you are part of the EVIL TEAM, you can 'bug' a player each night which will reveal everyone who visited the person you bugged. Your goal is to eliminate the GOOD TEAM. Write down whatever you discover in this journal.
Halona was visited by: Alab.
Ally was visited by:
I guess that means nobody visited her.
Arielle was visited by: Thiago.
"Hm. So, this proved our suspicions" Arielle huffed. She was retying her bandana. Thiago never said a word. He walked off to go and sleep. A few others and I had a small conversation before dispersing and going off to bed.
I sat in front of the voting room again; I had pretty much chosen that as my resting place each night. I take out the gun from my pocket. It's small, silver, and only had one bullet. So, I'd better not miss.
I'm gonna use it.
Tonight.