Chapter 3
2:59 AM… 3:00 AM.
Xander has officially stayed up until 3:00 AM.
Growwwlllᜑ…
And he was hungry.
He was too concerned about his confrontation with the others, this time with Teruko. He knew it was going to be a lot more tense than it was today, he had to be prepared.
Growwwwwwllllllᜑᜑ…
Well, enough of that. Xander left the room, it was time for a late night snack.
He quietly creeped his way to the kitchen, navigating through the dark. He’d be lucky if MonoTV didn’t randomly show up, perhaps robot killing-game hosts needed sleep too. Xander finally reached the kitchen, reaching to open the light switch…
“Boo!—“ “GAH!”
An unidentified hand grabbed him before he could open the lights. Xander, startled, reflexively punched the noise beside him. The noise of someone crashing into plates resonated in the room, it made Xander nervous. He turned the lights on, tensing at the sight of Veronika’s body on the floor against the cupboards, blood scattered everywhere.
“Veronika?!” Xander rushed beside her body, checking her pulse.
Nothing.
He stilled at the realization… until he smelled… ketchup?
Suddenly, Veronika opened her eyes and screamed, receiving another reflexive punch from a startled Xander. This time, Xander smelled actual blood, originating from her nose. He didn’t punch with his full strength, thankfully.
“Veronika, was that a prank? Please, don’t do that again if you don’t want to get hurt. You startled me.”
Veronika crouched over, clutching her broken nose as she laughed. “Did you think I was dead? Were you scared? Were you convinced? How was it? Tell me all about my performance!”
“…I felt like I killed someone again, accidentally.”
“Oh, right! You tried to kill someone! That reminds me, you didn’t tell me all about that either!”
“I just want to eat…” he muttered exasperatedly.
After exchanging a few more words, a startled gasp emerged behind them. “Gh—! Xander?! Again— agh, what do we do?!”
Veronika leaned her head against Xander’s shoulder, playing dead once more to Xander’s dismay. “David— she’s, she’s not dead! She’s just playing!!” he explained, desperately shaking Veronika’s shoulder.
“Xander, just tell me what happened.” The motivational speaker placed his hands on Xander’s shoulders with a panicked expression, making the rebel face him, Veronika falling on her face in the process. “We can get through it! We can—“
“David, she’s not dead! This is ketchup! She pulled a prank on me and you were her next victim! I swear, I’d never make the mistake of attempting murder again!”
This snapped David out of his panicked state, glancing over Veronika’s ‘body’. At that moment, Veronika slowly sat up, revealing she was perfectly fine. Well, almost. Her eye was visibly blue and swollen, and blood flowed out of her broken nose. All from two punches.
Veronika and Xander explained everything from both sides. Apparently, Veronika wanted to make a sandwich, but in her boredom found a way to make fake blood with the materials given. With the misunderstanding resolved, the three cleaned the kitchen together. Now, they sit beside each other, Xander happily eating his own sandwich.
Now, in their comfortable silence, Xander observes his classmates. Veronika wore the same thing as always, taking off the extra accessories like her corset and petticoat. Her hair was down too, still drenched in ketchup.
David on the other hand looked… very different. His usual clips weren’t on, and his bed hair (Xander assumed so) looked very fluffy. He noticed his bow untied and the dark circles under his gray eyes. Strange, was it always gray? David only had a few differences from his usual look, but it seemed like his whole demeanor had changed. David was also staring right back at him, Xander noticed. They’d been staring at each other the whole time?
“I noticed…” Veronika spoke, cutting through the tension between the two, “David, you seemed ready to risk it all when you found out Xander had seemingly ‘killed’ me.”
David furrowed his brow in confusion, “What?”
“Usually, people would scream at the sight of a dead body or freeze in place. You were startled, but you recovered from the shock when you realized it was Xander, didn’t you? Now, I could be overlooking this, but it wasn’t until you talked even further that my suspicions were confirmed. Instead of asking about me, the victim, you quickly deduced I was dead and said ‘what do we do?’ Could it be you were prepared to help in the murder? Could it be that after only a few days' time, you’ve gotten attached to Xander?”
Veronika finished her rant with a question. David was left with his mouth ajar, while Xander blinked in confusion, taking a bite of his sandwich.
David stood, stars in his eyes returning. “A-ah… look at the time. Although we aren’t up for cooking today, since we’re already here, I believe we should cook breakfast for the others. But I must excuse myself for a bit… I’ll be back, so… start without me.”
Xander watched David walk away with a rushed ‘bye’.
“Oh! David’s right. What should we cook today? Oh, we should make spaghetti with meatballs that look like eyeballs!” she suggested with a scary glint in her eyes. Xander couldn’t help a small smile. These two didn’t seem to treat him any differently either.