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One by one, they fell.
Kai watched in horror as the ‘reward’ of getting away with what he had done was fulfilled.
. . .
There had been six of them left that morning; Him, Wenona, Jean, Desmond, Ulysses, and Damon. Kai knew he stuck out like a sore thumb on that list of names. Across a cast of logical, rational thinkers was… him. Whiny, emotional, childish, impulsive…
Maybe that’s why Wenona targeted him.
He didn’t mean to kill her. He really, really didn’t. It just kind of happened that way… After asking him to meet with her in her dorm room, under the false assumption that Kai was meeting with both Wenona and Ulysses, Wenona tried to stab him. However, Kai managed to take the knife and unintentionally thrusted it into her chest, pretty much killing her immediately. He let go of the knife quickly, leaving it in her heart. He had to stop himself from screaming as he shut the door and sprinted to his room.
It took him a while to process what he had done as he washed and changed his blood-splattered clothes. He was lucky Damon wasn’t in the dorm when he sprinted in, and even luckier that Damon came in as soon as he was done.
“Oh, Damon! Hey!” Kai exclaimed cheerfully. Being an influencer who streamed often, Kai was used to acting happy and cheerful when he felt like shit. Of course, it was much harder to do when he had just murdered someone in self-defense, but he managed to do it.
“Hey, Kai,” Damon said, a small yet very much present smile on his face. Kai saw Damon glancing up at the clock and glanced with him. 10:42… Right. He wondered if the time of death would be… Probably like. 10:20-ish? Maybe?
…He needed to stop thinking about this before he broke down sobbing.
. . .
He stayed with Damon until the body was found. That, combined with going ‘influencer mode’, was likely the only reason he survived the trial.
Having only been an exchange that was done on impulse and took probably a minute at most, there was next to no evidence. The only evidence at the scene itself was the knife, and that didn’t lead to anything. They had virtually nothing to go off of, since everyone was apparently alone at the time of death. However…
Damon insisted they were together at that time, recalling when he met up with Kai and checked the clock in his dorm room at exactly 10:32, which was two minutes before the murder.
Kai looked up at the clock in that moment too, having followed Damon’s eyes. He knew it would be suicide if he corrected the time to be 10:42.
So, in the eyes of the group, there were only three suspects. But that was really all they had… Some ideas were formed, but none of them went anywhere. They were at a complete standstill. Despite the logical minds in the group, nobody knew what to do… and everyone was starting to lose their resolve.
Kai, of course, knew he had to act panicked. He hated it, but he knew he had to if he wanted to survive. Because, despite the fact that he was a murderer (self-defense or not), and despite the fact that the other four alive probably all deserved to live more than he did… At the end of the day, Kai would always be a coward. He was scared to die. So, he would lie. His life depended on it.
“Ohhhh, shit! What are we supposed to do? Just guess?! We’re so fu—”
“Tick, tock, tick, tock. That’s the sound of my inner clock losing patience! Let’s wrap this up, shall we? I think we’re long overdue for a vote.”
Oh. Oh shit.
It had been ten minutes at most! Was Tozu already bored?! Well, that kind of didn’t affect Kai. He was the culprit and kind of completely clear… But shit… This wouldn’t go on forever. If they didn’t vote for him…
They were all going to die.
They were all dead, yet they didn’t know it. They had come so far… gone through so much trauma and pain… just for Kai to take it all away.
He didn’t deserve to live after this.
He knew he was too much of a coward to come clean.
. . .
In the end, Ulysses was their best guess. Nobody knew what happened, and Ulysses wouldn’t cooperate, so they had to vote him blind and pray they were right, despite his protests.
And, well. They obviously weren’t.
“Oh? Well… This is quite new, isn’t it? Wenona’s murderer… is not Ulysses Wilhelm. Which means… well. You will all face punishment! All except the true culprit, that is!”
Kai watched as Damon, Jean, and Desmond’s faces all paled. Ulysses’s face was just as fearful as before, and, well…
“…I-It. It was me…” Kai mumbled, suddenly feeling four pairs of eyes on him.
“…Wha. Kai? You did it?…” Damon muttered, voice filled with utter disbelief.
“S-She tried to kill me… I didn’t mean it… oh fuck…” He mumbled, the fear and anxiety he had been holding back finally crashing down. He didn’t just kill Wenona… he killed them all. Why did this have to happen?…
“This trial wasn’t fair. We had nothing to go off of!” Desmond protested.
“Tell that to Damon! He’s the one who said Wenona’s murderer was incapable of murdering!” Tozu exclaimed.
“I… But… There’s no way!” Damon muttered, his usually calm, stoic demeanor completely gone. He was clearly distraught. He stared at Kai like he was the scum of the earth. “Y-You…”
Kai teared up. “I’m… I-I…”
“Nothing you can say will make this better,” Desmond scoffed.
“You killed Wenona…” Ulysses muttered, talking for the first time since he was accused.
“She was trying to kill me! What was I meant to do?!” Kai exclaimed.
“Just stop, lads,” Jean interrupted the conversation. “If Kai is speaking the truth, everything he’s done up to this point has been for survival. It’s human instinct to lie when telling the truth will lead to your death…”
The room fell into a tense silence at that.
“Well… I guess nobody has anything to say! In all honesty, I never expected the culprit to win, so I never had a dramatic speech planned for you all… I suppose we shall get on with it!”
“Let the show… begin!”
. . .
One by one, they fell.
Kai watched in horror as the ‘reward’ of getting away with what he had done was fulfilled.
Ulysses, being the person they voted for, was first. He was forced to evade various artifacts in an fucked-up obstacle course that had the setting of an ancient temple. Ulysses, not being the most physically active person, clearly got injured by sharp artifacts, yet he kept going… Well, he kind of had to, lest he wanted to be crushed by a giant boulder. At the ‘end’ of the course, there was a giant pit… One that would surely kill him. The boulder kept rolling towards him.
Kai closed his eyes, not wanting to see what came next. He did the same for the rest of the time… He didn’t want to see them suffer. He didn’t want to know what was happening to these innocent people… they didn’t deserve this.
None of them ever deserved this.
He was forced to listen though, his body paralyzed in fear and guilt. He heard the screams of Desmond, whose body was being torn apart by arrows. He heard the painful choking of Jean, who was drowning…
He heard Damon arguing with someone. Kai guessed that if Damon was executed after being the culprit, the debate topic would have been ‘do you deserve to live’, but since it wasn’t…
“Does Kai deserve to live?”
“Yes.”
He found the courage to cover his ears after that.
. . .
Eventually, all of the yelling and screaming seemed to stop. Kai hesitantly opened his eyes and uncovered his ears, just to be left with nobody there. Tozu seemed to have left without a word.
It was just him.
He sheepishly took the elevator back up to the tree of ignorance and the now empty school.
That morning, there were six of them.
Now, there was only one.
He found himself sleeping in Damon’s dorm room. He wasn’t sure if he even processed what happened yet. He didn’t even give them the dignity of a goodbye. He didn’t even tell them he was sorry! What was wrong with him?!
Then again, would a sorry even help?
They were all dead regardless. They didn’t need the pity of a murderer.
That was all he was.
He murdered five people, whether it be direct or indirect. All because he was a coward.
…
Kai found himself putting a copy of Damon’s tie and cardigan on. He wasn’t sure why, and maybe it was disrespectful (it was like he was dressing up as someone who should be alive instead of him), but it brought him the smallest semblance of comfort.
He barely even spoke to Damon during the trial, nor acknowledged him. He felt far too guilty for that… Damon trusted him with all his heart, yet he betrayed him. He betrayed him just like he remembered Eva did. He betrayed him just like the person Damon cried to him about long after her death…
Him and Damon depended on each other. Damon was the only reason he managed to make it through the game without going crazy. Now, he was gone.
What did he even have left at this point?
He had his life… He was uninjured. But… that was really it. There was nobody to talk to, nobody to cry and vent to after the trial. It was just him and his stupid, cowardly nature.
There was a knock on the door.
He flinched violently when he heard it. Was it Tozu? Well, yeah, duh. Who else would it be?…
He opened the door, sighing as he saw Tozu there regardless. Some delusional part of him hoped to see Damon, or maybe Desmond, Jean, or Ulysses. Hell, he would’ve been happier if it were Wenona.
“There’s somebody who wants to meet you, Kai!” Tozu exclaimed cheerfully. “Or, well, re-meet you.”
“…Huh?..” Kai muttered. He never really thought about what would happen next. He kind of assumed he would just stay trapped alone… All thoughts of escaping were completely covered by the hopes of survival.
“I do hope you give him your utmost respect! After all, he is the creator of the killing game! The mastermind behind it all, even!”
Kai froze.
What?
He thought Tozu created the game, with him being the host and all… There were more twisted people out there who enjoyed this just as much as he did?…
Now he was going to meet the person who was truly behind this shitty game, wasn’t he?
He hesitantly followed Tozu to the courtyard, countless thoughts running through his mind. Tozu said he was going to ‘re-meet’ them, so… it was somebody he knew. What did that even mean? Was it some sort of deranged fan? Someone in his family? Or…
One of the students?
After Eva’s death and the whole traitor perk thing, Kai kind of worried about one of his classmate working with the kidnappers. It always seemed like an unrealistic theory though… Now, however? It was likely.
Tozu led Kai to the courtyard doors, treating them like they were the most sacred thing to exist.
“Now, Kai! Do not avert your eyes. My boss has taken quite a liking to you, y’know. He’s very happy to meet you in this setting! So, please. Put your hands together when you see him!” Tozu exclaimed dramatically, opening the door. Kai hesitantly walked through. He was going to meet the person behind it all… the person behind his suffering. He spotted a silhouette and hesitantly walked towards it. When he got closer…
No.
No.
There was no doubt. It was undeniably him.
“…Damon?”
Damon (what the hell, how was he there?) turned his head and gave Kai a small smile, as if he weren’t the one who created the goddamn game.
“Kai. You’re really here,” Damon said, a calmness in his voice Kai had never heard before. In the game, Damon always seemed on edge…
Were any of those emotions even real?
He felt tears slip down as he tried to process it all.
“You… no. It can’t be you. Anyone but you…”
“It is me… Oh? Why are you crying? I saved you. You should be happy, shouldn’t you?” Damon asked gently, wrapping an arm around Kai’s shoulders. He gently wiped Kai’s tears off his face. Kai hated that it still gave him the same comfort he did on those desperate nights after trials… That was when he thought Damon was just another victim of the fucked-up game they were playing. Now, however?…
He didn’t know what to do. The person he loved and trusted the most… the person he thought he betrayed…
“Kai… You know you’ve changed me, right?” Damon asked softly, making Kai snap out of his trance.
“Huh?…” He asked quietly.
“…This all kind of blew up in my face. I found myself getting far too attached to people… Tozu, uh. Kinda forced me to participate too. Yes, the game was my idea, but… I didn’t realize how awful it was until I was in it…”
“…You still created it…”
“I did. And you probably despise me—”
Kai cut him off with a kiss.
He was angry. So, so angry. Why the hell would Damon make a game like this? Why the hell did he act as if the lives of sixteen people weren’t important?! Why did Kai still love him?!
Kai poured every emotion he had into the kiss. He didn’t even know why he was doing this… Damon was right. He should despise him, yet…
He felt his heart pound as he pulled away.
“Where the hell did that come from?…” Damon muttered.
“You asshole… Why the hell would you do this?!” Kai yelled before his voice softened. “And why the hell do I still love you?…”
“You love me?…” Damon mumbled, face going bright red.
“Of course I do… God, this is so fucked up…” He mumbled, hugging Damon’s arm tightly. Damon smiled solemnly.
“You do… Huh. I really don’t deserve this…”
“Why did you do it?…”
“…” He sighed quietly. “I used to think humanity was awful. Just a bunch of selfish people who would only look out for themselves. Everyone always shunned me for that opinion, so I wanted a way to prove it… Something like humanity’s ‘best’ being completely selfish, which is how I came up with the idea. Tozu created the game itself and decided to put me in it as well so I could see for myself… I never really got much of a choice, but I realized just how awful and inhumane the idea was as I got further into the game…”
“…” Kai sighed. “Karma’s a bitch, y’know?”
Damon chuckled dryly. “Damn right… I’m sorry you got caught up in all of this…” He mumbled.
“…It’s not fine. It’ll never be fine, and I don’t forgive you… But…”
“But?”
“I still love you.”
“…I love you too.”
. . .
Kai held Damon close as the train began to move.
“Y’know, I’m surprised you don’t want to go home,” Damon commented. “What about your fans?”
“…I think my fans have already moved on. They tend to do that after months of not uploading…” He mumbled.
“And your parents?”
“I don’t even live with them… I probably don’t own my apartment either,” Kai explained.
“Ah.”
Kai sighed, resting his head on Damon’s shoulder. It took him a while to learn that despite coming up with the game, Damon really had changed due to it. He was just as trapped as the rest of them.
“Hey, Kai?”
“Yeah?” Kai asked, shifting his head to look at Damon.
“Do you remember when you kissed me after finding out I created the game?”
“Hm? Yeah, why?”
“…That was my first kiss.”
Kai blinked. Oh. Honestly? That kind of made sense. He wasn’t even sure why he kissed Damon at that time… It was probably done on impulse. No, definitely done on impulse.
“Are kisses always that overwhelming?”
Kai chuckled at the question. Damon clearly had no clue how that sort of thing worked. It was kind of cute.
“No. I was angry, so it was an emotional kiss.”
“Oh, alright…”
“Do you want a more normal first kiss?” Kai offered. Damon’s eyes widened.
“Uh… sure,” he agreed hesitantly. Kai cupped Damon's cheeks and gently pressed his lips against his. The kiss was much softer and sweeter than the angry, emotional one Kai gave him at first.
Kai pulled away, a smile on his face. “So… is that a better first kiss?” He asked. Damon smiled before begrudgingly answering.
“…Yeah. Better.”