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Eloise hadn't expected this to happen. Well, she hadn't expected most of the events of the past week or so to happen, but especially not this.
She had been sitting in the dark of the dining hall, eating alone by the light of her small, personal candle. This was how she had spent most of her meals for the past… day or two, though she couldn't give an exact number. That was due to the nature of Tozu's new motive, the fresh carrot on a stick to drive them to continue playing his twisted game. The mastermind had cut off power to every part of the academy except for the security cameras. Even the fake sky above the courtyard was dimmed, trapping them all in an unending darkness. All they had to combat it was a stock of tea light candles and matchboxes they found in storage, and their numbers were dreadfully limited. The omnipresent shadows that could hide a killer around every corner, the slowly dwindling light sources, the looming threat of the refrigerated food eventually going bad, the hours they had no way of tracking…
It was enough to put a girl on edge.
That was when she heard it. The push against the door, the creak of the floorboards against a foot's weight. In the inky black, she could make out a silhouette… clad in what seemed like an animal mask…
A million fears flashed into Eloise's mind in a millisecond, like a flame erupting from an over-greased pan set on a stove top. Was it Mara? Or another enforcer that they weren't aware of? Did Tozu get so bored with the lack of a murder that he sent someone in to get the game moving again? Was she about to be killed?
The apparent danger sprang the fencer into action, her brain running on pure survival instinct. She snatched her fork and, with the swift steps her craft demanded, came upon the encroaching figure and jammed it into their neck before they barely got a syllable out. They were pushed into the wall from the blow and the still-terrified Eloise, high on adrenaline, stabbed it in and out a few more times for good measure. It was only when the gurgling from the other started to weaken as they collapsed to the floor that she really got a grip on herself. Only when the other fell silent could she muster up the courage to carry the candle over to check the fresh corpse.
It turned out that it was not an animal mask she saw. It was an animal helmet , the dog-eared helmet that belonged to the Ultimate Drag Racer, Jett Dawson. So did the racing suit and unmoving body beneath it.
Jett. She… she just… murdered Jett. Jett, the class clown who tried to get Mark out of his shell, whose goofy antics most of them couldn't help but be charmed by. He bled out on the dining room floor, and it was her doing.
She cried, of course. She felt like she cried for years. The regret was suffocating, filling her lungs with every breath, and no amount of sorries could bail it all out.
Then, when she couldn't cry anymore, that's when reality set in. She was a killer. Soon, they were going to host a Class Trial, and if they found out what she did, she would die. She would die . The panic set in anew, squeezing her heart until she thought it would burst. Oh, why couldn't she just disappear?!
That last word echoed in her mind. Disappear…
Her eyes traced over Jett's body. A heavyset body, much like her own. His suit… it couldn't be much different to move around in than her own fencing gear, right?
Feverishly, Eloise started unbuttoning her uniform. Everything had to go. It was the only way she could disappear, her only means of escape. Down to her undergarments, she moved to do the same to Jett. A chorus of unbuckling and unzipping sounded until he was in the same state of undress. She dragged the racing suit over her ample frame, fastening it snug around her, and then put on his gloves and boots. Then, finally, she took off his helmet.
"I'm so sorry," she apologized once more, looking away so she didn't disrespect him even further by viewing his face without permission. She slipped it over her head and the transformation was complete.
Now, it was time to obfuscate the evidence. She dragged Jett's body, loosely draped with her discarded clothes, into the kitchen area. She spread cooking oil all over the corpse and held her tea light candle solemnly, as if holding a brief vigil. Then, she sucked in a breath and tossed the candle onto the heap, which erupted in flames.
Eloise ran. She ran blindly through the blackened halls, until she reached the door to the courtyard. The panic and lingering smoke burned her lungs, and once she was on the other side she collapsed to her knees. She coughed, as if her anxiety could be spat out just like that.
Out of the edge of her vision, the glow of another flame approached. She sat up, hand to her chest to still her heart. When she drew it away, she saw pink smeared on her glove— the blood that streaked down the suit's collar and torso. Morbidly, she was thankful that she chose to attack the neck in her delirium, as an apparent throat injury was the best excuse she could hope for not to talk…
She looked up at the student who stood above her. The LEDs on the ear cups of his headphones bathed his shocked expression in a sickly yellow glow. Mark spoke in his soft voice, unmistakably shaken to his core.
"...Jett?"