Chapter Text
Oakhurst woke up to see 14 people standing in a circle. Abolish could see Scott, but also Martyn, Cleo and Pearl, although all of them were wearing different outfits. And hang on, was Cleo a zombie?!
Suddenly, the person in an obnoxiously bright red jumper spoke.
“You have twenty-four hours to live. Good luck.” He walked forward and the incoherent shouting started. Pearl was barely able to make out “Oop, no um ok.” From the majority of the group before a timer started counting down. A green 3, yellow 2 and red one before displaying “A timer has begun.”
”Ookay. Now what the fuck is happening.” Legundo said, looking at the timer counting down at the bottom right corner of the communicator, the only familiar thing he could recognise. He saw it tick slowly, counting down to what Abolish would assume death when 24 hours were up.
“Woah what?!” Apo exclaimed when they were suddenly no longer at the place they were previously. The other 12 people looked up and saw a view of the treetops from above. It looked like a video, though there was no way it was able to play without a screen.
The person who first spoke, the guy in the red jumper, started speaking again, seemingly to an audience that didn’t, shouldn’t exist. Well, apart from Oakhurst.
”Welcome to Limited Life, where we have twenty-four hours to live. 14 people, consisting of elves, avians and other hybrids are battling to be the last one standing. Their abilities, such as flying, will be disabled to ensure a fair game.”
“There’s flying?!” Shelby gasped. “I thought avians and hybrids were a myth! Though I suppose vampires exist… but still! Vampires can only fly when their bats!”
Abolish nodded quietly agreeing to their statement. Thankfully there was no hardcore evidence this had happened, so unless someone here talks about it once they are out of here, out of seeing Scott play in a death game, Abolish would not need to do the paperwork if he did not feel like it. Which was most of the time.
In the background, M was writing in the background, seemingly writing notes for his books or whatever ‘fanfiction’ he was writing.
”And in this series, you are green if you’re above 16 hours, yellow if you’re above 8 hours, and red if you’re above zero.”
”It's so cruel to limit and assign colours to one's life!” Pearl said, snarling.
”Every time you die, you lose one hour of time. And if you successfully kill someone you gain 30 minutes.” The video showed someone kill another person and had ‘+ 30 minutes’ on the screen.
”Yellows can attack greens, and of course when you turn red you become hostile and can attack anyone.”
”That’s scary. Fucking scary. Does that mean killing is normalised in this world?” Pyro yelped. Everyone was in clear agreement.
”Well… to be fair, murder is normal in Oakhurst.” Drift said, also getting murmurs of agreement.
”And of course, if you run out of time you are eliminated from the series. There’s a few more surprises in store so let's get started.” The voice said, before the world went back to normal and they were back to where Scott was leaving the circle.
“Why in the void was that guy chopping a tree with a fishing rod!” Owen said, visibly disgusted.
“I dunno.” Pearl said. “They're weird.”
”And there we go! Welcome to Limited Life. So in short, you’re green if you are above 16 hours, yellow above 8 and red above zero. If you die, you lose one hour and if you kill someone, you gain 30 minutes. You can only kill and fight the people above you. We’re also bringing back boogeyman from Last Life this series.” Scott said.
”Is Scott talking to us?” Owen asked. “Cause it sure feels like it.”
“I don’t think so Owen.” Legundo said. It didn’t escape Abolish’s attention to how Owen leaned slightly on Legundo, using his warmth. They really needed to have that talk, but Abolish was sure not going to be the one to break the news to them. Owen and Legundo were practically the last ones to realise that they were both pining for each other.
If it was to be someone, it would be Shelby to tell the two, wouldn’t it.
”It’s very strange that this vampire looks so human, don’tcha know.” Renheart said. Void, he really didn’t even fathom to know how Ren’s voice would be so hard to understand.
“Because he’s not one here. I think he’s an elf in this specs.” Martyn said, ears twitching at every sound. “Same as me.”
“Another thing that makes it slightly different this time is that if you die to a boogeyman, you lose 2 hours. Double the time you lose if you just die normally. However, if you are the boogeyman and fail to kill someone, you go down to the next colour. Essentially making you lose 8 hours.”
“Boo-geyman?” Apo said, raising an eyebrow. “It sounds like one of those corny DJs or something like that.”
“Watchers, don’t say boo-geyman. It makes you sound like Lizzie, and that’s a Liz exclusive to boo-geyman.” Martyn said, rolling his eyes before slapping a hand to his mouth.
“I said nothing. Ignore what I just said.”
“Martyn…” Abolish asked. “Who is this Lizzie person?”
“No one. And goodbye.” With that, Martyn seemed to disappear.
“It’s gonna be a real possibility that I am the first boogeyman so it makes sense to get myself ready and set up pretty quick.”
“How does he know?” Cleo asked.
“Now I decided for this series I’m going to live in the water.”
“The water? Really? Of all places, the water?” Sausage asked, scribbling down in his book.
“Don’t make fun of Scott like that!” Shelby said, smacking M on the arm. Deserved. Although Scott was a vampire, they still had free will.
“Now not in the water as in under it-“
“Phew. I thought he literally meant ‘living in the water.’” Drift said, sighing.
“But I want to I think build like a little floating island or something over there. I mean, it’s a good spot.”
“That’s actually going to be smart. Both tactically and aesthetically which Scott does a lot.” Abolish said, observing the scene.
“It’s backed into some corners, you know but we’re going to go and have a little search around, a little look, see what else exists and we can always come back here.”
“Sire is so smart.” Pyro said.
“Okay now, Pyro, you don’t need to suck up on him when Scott’s not there.” Avid said.
“You're just jealous that sire likes me.”
“I don’t like Scott!” Avid replied.
“Okay now, boys, stop fighting, you’re both pretty.” Cleo said, rolling her eyes before throwing a nearby twig at them.
“Ouch! Cleo what was that for!” Avid said.
“To make you guys shut up.” Cleo then resumed braiding Pearl’s hair.
“But in the meantime I need to kill some cod.”
“I’m surprised Scott didn’t just drink its blood.” Legundo said, petting the half-asleep vampire by his hair then immediately retracting when Owen attempted to bite him.