Lights Off.
"I did it... I actually did it! I won!"
"Liling... don't you mean, 'we won'?"
Liling's eyes were wide. Wide with what looked like excitement and ecstasy. Her smile only got wider with every moment.
"I meant what I said, Ally," she whispers, still smiling.
"No, no, no, Liling, you're on my team! The good team! That's what your journal said!" Ally rebutted, taking a few steps closer to Liling.
"Oh, come OFF it, Ally! Are you really that stupid? Well, let us read Arielle's journal. I'm sure that will say what we need to hear," concluded Liling, slowly creeping over to Arielle's bleeding body and picking her blood-soaked journal out her pocket. She cleared her throat and began to read with a smug smile on her face.
You are the DARK PSYCHIC, you are part of the EVIL TEAM, you can read a player's team each night. Your goal is to eliminate the GOOD TEAM. Write down whatever you discover in this journal.
Thiago is Good.
That's good to know, but I'd rather find out who's evil, so I know who's on my team.
Mateo is Good.
How wonderful.
Liling is Good.
Amazing.
Marley is Evil.
Finally I found someone on my team, wow...
Colleen is Good.
Ally is Good.
I saw Jonah die tonight. It was very disturbing. I don't like how Liling looked at me.
"I think that should tell you everything you need to know, Ally," laughed Liling. Frozen in a mix of fear and shock, Ally stayed silent, her eyes almost as wide as the girl before her.
"But... that journal says you're good, Liling... I don't understand..." she muttered quietly.
"Of course, you don't understand! Gosh, how can one be this stupid! Liling is good, I am not," responded the girl in the white dress. Confused, Ally took a step back, bumping into the wall behind her. Sweat began to drip down her frightened face. In the corners of her eyes, small beads of tears began to form.
"Huh? I'm sorry, Liling, I just don't know what you mean," she would say, "You're scaring me." From this, Liling began to laugh.
"It took Jonah one good look at me to figure it out. You, on the other hand, are still oblivious... It's honestly impressive how dumb you are," she said, still laughing.
"Liling, I-"
"STOP FUCKING CALLING ME THAT! HOW MUCH MORE OBVIOUS CAN IT BE? MY NAME IS MINJI FUCKING WYSEUTELIA!" she screamed, slapping Ally across the face. She fell to the floor, still scared and trembling.
"Wh- what?" she mumbled quietly, "Minji's dead... her body's over there..."
"No, it is not. That is Liling Mirenai's body," responded the girl. She wasn't smiling anymore. Instead, her face was serious. There was even the trace of a small tear in the corner of her eye.
"Can you please just explain to me what the FUCK IS GOING ON HERE?" screeched Ally, who was clearly beginning to sob, as she started to piece everything together.
"I thought it was clear. Liling and I switches clothes. My eyes are red, hers are purple. My hair has purple, hers doesn't. Then she died. And then the game started. And Arielle has just died. She was the dark psychic. Her journal says I am good, but that is a lie. She was lying to protect me-"
"Yet you still got her voted? You could have voted me and won with her!" Ally protested, backing herself away from the girl. Minji. She was backing away from Minji.
"Such a great loss..." she said sarcastically, "I don't care. I think this moment where I get to finally admit to the BITCH I had wrapped around my finger from the start that I've been the person she lost sleep over- the person who killed her sweet, precious little Colleen- is worth much more than keeping around some worthless girl who was 'on my team'," her lips forming a sardonic pout. Ally let out a sort of loud wail and sank against the wall.
"Don't talk about Colleen like that," she sobbed, pulling softly at her own hair, "You're lying... You're lying! Why? Why would you do this? I trusted you! I TRUSTED YOU!" She felt as though the weight of everyone's deaths was on her shoulders now, "This is my fault... I let this happen! I revived you; I-I helped you! How could I be so stupid?! I hate you... I HATE YOU!"
Through tears, she ran at Minji, trying to attack her. To Ally's surprise, Minji pulled out a knife from her pocket, waving it in her face.
"And trust me you did. That's not my fault. Go ahead, try to attack me," she said mockingly after seeing Ally back away slightly. Ally began to run to the other side of the room, near Thiago's corpse. Minji sighed, rolled her eyes, and slowly followed. "There's no way out, y'know? I did that on purpose, obviously," she told Ally, placing her hands on her hip. Still violently crying and shaking, Ally ran over again towards Minji, trying to rip the knife from her hand. She ended up cutting a line through her hand, but she didn't care. She eventually managed to pry it out of Minji's red hands, and ran away, wailing. Minji sighed again. She picked up the discarded, forgotten gun off the floor by Thiago's corpse, and followed Ally into the other room.
She poised the gun in her hand, keeping it at an angle. She saw Ally shakily holding the knife in her hand and laughed.
"Touché," she said breathlessly, still aiming the gun at Ally's sweating forehead. Panicked, the girl in red hastily bolted away, accidentally dropping the knife and leaving Minji with a second weapon. Rolling her eyes, Minji slowly walked over to the blade and picked it up with a firm grasp. She placed the gun in her pocket with no intention of actually using it. Silently creeping into the room Ally ran into, Minji laid her eyes upon Ally and steadily made her way closer, not making a sound. Standing right behind her, Minji placed the knife across Ally's throat and covered her mouth with her hand. Ally let out a muffled scream and Minji took her hand away.
"Please... please don't kill me! I don't wanna die, please! Liling, I mean- uh, Minji, please! I was your friend in this game! Please, please, please don't kill me!" her voice was trembling with fear and sobs. Her face was stained with her own tears as she tried to push Minji away. "Why are you doing this?"
"You wanna know why? Why I'm doing this? Okay, fine, I'll tell you," Minji shrieked, "There is no reason anymore! There is nothing left, I mean NOTHING! The only reason I'm still doing this game is because of Liling! When she died, when I killed her, you were sleeping unconscious in this building! I couldn't quit after that! I had to keep going!"
"You killed Liling?! I thought she was like... your best friend or something!" Ally questioned, still crying.
"Best friend? Best friend?!" Minji yelled, "We were MORE than best friends! Of course... you would know what that is like, would you not? Someone as close as that... dying," she gave a defeated laugh, releasing the knife from Ally's throat, who instantly ran away against the large metal door next to the storage room. To her surprise, Minji held out the knife to her.
"Come on. Kill me. There is nothing for me anymore," a bittersweet smile on her face. Ally didn't trust her. How could she? She had betrayed her. "...Nah, I could still do this. One more kill." Minji pounced at Ally, aggressively stabbing with her knife. The knife hit the metal door with a loud thud.
"For fuck's sake, Ally, you little bitch! You are gonna die eventually, just stop fucking delaying it!" Minji yelled, seeing that Ally had ran away wailing. She leisurely followed, not in any sort of rush. "Allyyyyy..." she called out, "Where are youuuu?" There weren't a lot of hiding places in Area Eight, so it didn't take long before Minji found Ally hiding in the open basement. "Oh, come on. Of all the places, you choose to hide here?"
Ally shrieked and tried to climb up the ladder, but Minji's knife met her fingers.
"Please... there must be another reason why you did this... You killed thirteen fucking people! I... let it happen. Please, just tell me. I want some sense of closure," Ally was shockingly calm in her voice, but the tears flowing down her cheeks like a waterfall said otherwise.
"You really wanna know why, huh?" spat Minji, "I'm serving bitches like you a fucking lesson. You remember who I am, right?"
"You said you're Minji Wyseutelia. Look, I don't get what kind of-" Ally began.
"So you don't remember me?" asked Minji.
"I... don't think so. I-I'm sorry? Should I remember you? I didn't think we had ever met before this... thing," responded Ally nervously.
"Fuck this," Minji said, her eyebrows furrowed, and a severe expression painted across her pale face. Her hands were firmly clenched, the knife still in one. She leaped forward, trying to stab Ally once again, but she blocked it and pushed the knife across Minji's face, towards her other hand. The blade scratched the surface of her skin on both her cheek and hand before she pulled it away. "For fuck's sake, why is it always the hand?! Guess we're matching now..." she shouted, but then smiled. She kicked Ally away, and muttered, "Get off me, fucking bitch."
Sighing, she shook her hand a little bit and then wiped her face. It was a pretty deep cut, yet she didn't care.
"People like you are the reason I am doing this!" Minji continued, grasping her hand with her other hand, pacing around in a slow circle, "Pathetic, ignorant shitheads like you! It's all a punishment! Nobody here is innocent! I knew every single one of you. Liling, of course, Adanna, Vivienne, Alab, Omar, Mateo, Alex, Thiago, Marley, Colleen, Halona, Jonah, Arielle, and you! Did Colleen never mention she and I knew one another? Even if she believed me to be Liling, she would have recognised the dead body of the real Liling dressed as me."
"YOU'RE DOING ALL THIS BECAUSE A FEW PEOPLE DON'T REMEMBER YOU? GET A FUCKING GRIP! THAT'S THE MOST PATHETIC THING I'VE EVER HEARD! YOU KILLED... THIRTEEN PEOPLE... BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T REMEMBER WHO YOU WERE?" Ally screamed, her lungs forcing out air to try to keep up with her aggressive tone. Her voice was hoarse, rough, and sounded like a lot of pent-up anger was finally being released.
"You don't fucking understand what it's like!" Minji cried, waving the knife around violently. In her mind, there was now a clear intent to kill. Ally ran away.
"Come back, you pathetic excuse for a woman! You're going to die eventually!" she continued, following her. Ally was finally beginning to accept her fate.
"Just kill me already! You have the knife, you have a gun, you have an apparent reason! Just do it! This whole time you've been insulting me, acting as if you're all high and mighty, but no, Minji, you're just like me! But I'm glad I never remembered you, you bitch," her words were filled with venom, "You're a goddamn awful person. I pity everyone who has the unfortune of holding you in their thoughts. Look at what you've done to everyone. You don't just kill people, you obliterate them. You've gutted people, dismembered them, hanged them from the lights. How do you live with yourself, huh? I certainly can't live with you still in my memories. You've made me actually want to die, Minji. At least 'Liling' was much nicer to me. Why can't you be like that all the time? Why did you even create this shit? What could you possibly gain from killing thirteen- soon fourteen- people? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! YOU GAIN NOTHING. YET YOU STILL CARRY OUT THIS SHIT! You call me pathetic, but really, you're the pathetic one. Is that not even a bit batshit insane?"
Minji's face was as red as the blood leaking out of it. She held the knife up.
"Go ahead. Kill me," Ally demanded.
Minji lifted the knife high into the air, locking eyes with Ally, who slightly flinched. Minji's eyes narrowed.
"Goodbye, Ally."
She vigorously sliced the knife down through the air, cutting the thick tension, and stabbing Ally right across the chest. She dragged it back up, causing a blood-curdling, weepy scream to spill from Ally's lips. She instantly fell to the floor, coughing up her own blood, choking on the last words she desperately tried to force out.
She started letting out hoarse, weak breaths between pained groans.
"Goodbye, Li- Minji..."
Her now-lifeless corpse fell onto the floor with a thud. She was... dead. Minji silently, remorselessly walked away, leaving Ally's bleeding body where it was. She looked back, a soft, small smile on her face, yet a tear forming in the corner of her eye. She walked past all the corpses in various places, each one pale and lifeless. She was the only living person left. Minji continued to walk until she reached the corridor in which Liling's body lay. A few minutes later, she was in a completely different outfit. A pair of ripped blue jeans, a white ruffled shirt with a red bow, a black garter belt, and black fingerless gloves. She took a small key out of the jeans' pockets and unlocked the door of the room opposite. There was a small little power generator on the wall of this room, of which she flipped the switch.
I could... do that again. I could win again.
She stayed in the dark room for a little bit before opening another door.
She was alone again, in darkness, the lights off.