Chapter Text
I woke up.
I sat up from the bed under me.
I felt the blankets and sheets all tangled up under my hands. I gripped them as I stared at the vacant space of the room in front of me.
I woke up… to nothing.
I felt nothing.
I knew nothing.
What… what happened to me?
The room in front of me, it was dark, dimly lit by a single row of overhead fluorescent lights.
It… what was it?
I carefully stood up with the intention of exploring the room, except, I quickly learned it wasn’t just a room. It was some sort of strange classroom.
It was filled with rows of large square desks, not individual ones meant for a single person, but larger ones, meant to seat four people.
The room was framed by a counter, curving along the entire back wall. The only wall that was spared was the front.
Instead, the front wall had a large whiteboard on it, covered in a mess of erased marker streaks, too light to give any sort of indication of what they previously said, but too dark to hide that they were ever there.
The only exception for this was the corner of the board, which had 1/1/ written in neat, almost robotic in its handwriting. The color of the marks were red.
In front of the board, blocking it’s view just slightly, was a desk with a single computer on it. Nothing else.
The whole room was set up like it was supposed to be used for something, but was utterly bare bones. There were filing cabinets, sinks, and drawers along the counter surrounding the room, but the way they were set up felt void of any real purpose, it felt artificial.
The only sense of personality in the entire room was a large poster of a periodic table of all things, lining the one empty space in the room not taken up by cabinets attached to the ceiling or the previously mentioned whiteboard.
The only other sign of life in the entire room was the bed I had woken up from, as well as a side table placed next to it.
What a strange contrast. A bed and a science classroom.
Wait, a science classroom? How did I know that.
I gripped my hair, it felt soft in my fingers, I looked at my arm, discovering a gold beaded bracelet on it.
Why… did I have that.
Who…
Who am I?
The thought suddenly pierced itself through my brain.
My brain that had no other information in it.
My other hand went up to grasp my hair.
I couldn’t remember anything.
Not a single thing.
Not my name.
Not my purpose for being here.
Not my family, not my friends, not my likes, not my dislikes, my hopes, my fears, my joys, my tragedies.
Not a single thing I had accomplished, not a single thing I was good at.
What the fuck is happening.
I scanned the room again, there were two doors. One on the left wall, and one on the front.
The one on the front had a window where the other was blank, I decided then that was my best chance.
I ran to the door, my arms outstretched in front of me, there was more gold jewelry.
I reached for the door handle, half expecting it to be locked, half expecting for me to be trapped.
I pulled it down, and pushed the door forward, exposing myself to the outside.
It was nothing. It opened to more nothing.
The lighting was dim again, carrying over the theme of having a single row of ceiling lights to just barely brighten up the room.
There were lockers, a burgundy sort of color, a worn red. The rest of the colors were exactly what you would expect, greys, beiges, browns.
To my left, I was quickly met with another wall, with a single closed door.
And to my right, there was an open double door leading to another hallway with more light, much further down to the point where that light wasn’t quite reaching me.
That was my best chance. More light met more of something less of nothing. But I couldn’t quite go to it yet.
Instead I turned right, to the blank wall and the blank door, and put my hand on the handle.
It was locked, I wouldn't get lucky twice.
I turned back to the right side of the hallway and ran. I ran through the dim hallway, through the double door and into the greater lit hallway.
I dashed to the other side of the hall, not paying mind to my surroundings. Not the walls, not the doors, not the paint.
As I ran I was met with the exact same sight, an end of a hallway, a blank wall and a blank door.
I stopped right before it. I stopped.
I took a couple breaths.
Where the hell am I?
What is happening to me?
Who is… me?
There was a person.
It was like I took in all the little details about them one at a time. Their hair- locs- tied into pigtails with pink on the end. Their shirt, mostly black, but the sleeves were pink. Their pants had little bows on the sides. Most strikingly of all, on their arms, laid lots and lots of different bracelets.
There was a girl.
“Uh…? Hello?” Her voice quivered. I hadn't even noticed that she turned around
“...” I stared at her for an awkward amount of time, before eventually giving in and stuttering out a, “Hello…?”
“I- what- where,” she stuttered out as well, seemingly looking for some of question to ask before eventually settling on, “Who are you? Why are you the only other person here?”
I faltered, it’s not like I didn’t want to answer the question, I just didn’t have one. I had nothing.
Well, I had something.
“I’m… not someone to be afraid of, I think I'm a victim of something. Are you the same?” I knew how dangerous the situation was. I knew that something terrible had to have happened to land me in the spot I was currently in.
But at the same time, I felt like I knew what fear looked like on a person not accustomed to it. And this girl was full of fear.
“I… am. I don’t know what’s happening or why I'm here or who even brought me here. I don’t even know if I brought myself here or not. It couldn’t have been me right? Why would I…” She glanced downwards, her eyes focusing on the floor tiles, she was standing in the center of a few colored ones. They were colored in blacks and greys.
I wasn’t sure if I should answer that I was feeling exactly the same way as her or not.
She spoke again after a moment, “What’s your name?”
My lips involuntarily pressed together and my eyebrows scrunched as I glanced to the side. I looked back at her and asked, “Um, what’s yours?”
Her face dropped, “Huh? Well I mean, I asked you first?”
“I know I just…” I couldn’t find a good excuse, I eventually gave in, “I can’t remember it, that’s why I asked for yours.”
“You can’t remember it?” She blinked, “You can’t remember yours either?”
“Wait, are you saying you can’t remember your name as well?”
“No, I can’t. I’ve been trying, really really trying but I just can’t!” She seemed to start panicking, “I-I don’t think I can remember anything, not a single thing!” Once she started speaking it was like she couldn’t stop.
“Woah hey- hey you’re alright, at least for now you’re alright,” I tried to reassure her.
“I- I’m sorry it’s just- I can’t remember anything, not- not a single thing about my entire life-! Or well, I kind of do but it’s so- It’s all vague feelings and sensations and blurs and just, a lot of something but-” Her eyebrows were creased and she held her body with her arms. I couldn’t help but feel bad.
“I’m exactly the same as you.” I stated bluntly.
This got her to look back up at me, “...What?”
“I can’t remember anything either, we’re in the same situation.”
“What the- what the hell is happening?”
“I don’t know.”
She held her hand close to her face, “Are we going to get hurt?”
“I-”
“What, what could I have done to warrant this?”
“Huh?”
“What would convince somebody to do this to me? Who- who-!”
“As-” I felt like I was going to say something, but stopped myself before I did, it didn’t matter anyways, as that got her to look up at me.
She blinked before removing her hand from her face and nervously asking, “Are we the only people here?”
“Oh- um- I don’t know.” My fave scrunched. I hadn’t thought of the possibility of that, I felt like I was barely catching up with this girl being here.
“There has to be, why else would we be in this whole school and not just confined in one room? What would the purpose of that be?” She looked frustrated.
“That’s a good point,” I placed a finger on my chin, “But we don’t even know why we’re here, there could be just as much reason for only two of us to be here as any other number.”
“That- well we’ll never know if we don’t look, come on,” She said while walking towards the empty door I was looking at earlier.
She tried the door handle, and just like I thought, it didn’t move, it was also locked.
Her face paled at that, it seemed like she also started to come to the realization that we might be trapped.
“I tried another door like this one at the other end of the hall, it was locked too.” I told her.
“I- no, there has to be another way.” She said as she walked behind me and started scanning the hall, “Look!”
I turned to her, then followed her line of sight to a pair of double doors in the middle of the hall. I hadn’t even noticed it earlier, I must've ran right by it while tunnel visioning on the door at the end of the hall.
It had windows on it, similar to the door I had first walked out of, this seemed to give the girl hope.
“Come on!” She shouted, before pushing on the door. I watched as it opened.
I quickly ran to catch up to her, only for her to completely stop in her tracks.
“What are you-” I started to ask, before realizing the lighting of the new room was different, very different.
It was almost natural.
I looked over her shoulder to see something I hadn’t thought I’d see in a situation where I was sure I was trapped.
I saw the outside.
The girl dropped her hands from the double door and walked up to a large tree sitting right in the middle of the immediate outside area, I slowly followed behind her.
Then I heard a yell.
Me and the girl quickly turned our heads to the source of the sound to see a small boy also looking at the tree.
He looked up at the two of us with hesitant fear, the kind of fear of someone sure they were face to face with someone dangerous. I didn’t blame him at all.
“Woah woah woah hey- you-! You don’t need to be scared-! Please don’t be scared-!” The girl took on the role I was playing earlier of trying to comfort the small boy, if a lot more skittish than I was.
The small boy’s lips quivered, the girl slowly walked closer.
“Do you… remember your name?” She asked carefully.
“What- how did you-?” He brought a hand up to his face, his entire body language screams fear, like he was seconds away from up and running.
“I don’t- neither of us remember our names, we don’t remember anything at all actually. Are you the same way?” She asked, her nervousness was gone, instead replaced with pure desperation.
“You don’t remember either?” Though he started seeming less scared, he looked as though started reaching the point of feeling dread instead of just feeling fear, “I don’t like this, I really don’t like this-!” He cried out.
I spoke, “It’s going to be alright,” I said, because it felt right, “We’re outside aren’t we? We can figure this amnesia thing later, right now let’s just go.”
“Outside? We aren’t outside,” He seemed confused.
“We aren’t!?” The girl asked, almost automatically.
“N-no, the ceiling is just glass, we aren’t actually outside I- look-” He said pointing upwards.
He was right, I peered up to the sight of a glass ceiling about 2 stories high, it was tinted, meaning I could barely see the sky and the clouds, but it still let a bit of light through.
“T-there’s stairs here too- come see.” The small boy said, it felt like he was choking the words out, one wrong word and he would probably start to break down.
Me and the girl followed him around the other side of the tree, where sure enough, there was a staircase leading up about a floor. What an odd design for a building.
“What’s up there?” The girl asked while walking up to the first step, I followed close behind her.
“I-I haven’t went up yet,” He said, remaining under the tree, “I just got out here m-myself I was only looking at the tree for a few seconds before you got out here.
“You sure? Because me and her were talking in the hall for a few minutes, surely you would have noticed us?” I asked him.
“Well- a few seconds, a few minutes i-i’m not actually sure how long it’s been b-but I swear it c-can’t have been that long.” He stuttered through panicked words.
“Hey we aren’t accusing you of anything, we’re just- gathering information- yeah that’s right.” The girl tried to consult him.
“Dammit, i’m sorry for worrying you- I-I just, I just don’t know what to do.”
“Walk up these stairs.”
“Huh?” Both the girl and the small boy looked at me.
“As long as we have places to go we aren’t trapped just yet, let’s see what’s up there.” I said firmly, placing my foot on the first step.
The girl looked me up and down, before seemingly making the decision to trust me, and joined me on the staircase. The small boy hesitated, still backing up further under the large tree, before forcing a determined expression onto his face and sprinting up the stairs to join us.
Eventually, we reached the top, and what we saw was a very open hallway.
It was unlike the one we were in previously, actually it seemed less like a hallway and more like a plaza? The distinction didn’t matter, there were still walls on both sides, and open spots that lead to more walls slightly beyond that. There were tables, and a small fence too, just in front of the stairs. It felt like this area was supposed to be outside, but the glass roof ended as the stairs did, and so did any semblance of an area beyond the strange school.
That wasn’t the most interesting part though, no that would be the wall a bit of ways in front of them.
That wall had windows, and though dark, they were able to see into the large room. They were able to see rows and rows of tables and chairs, and more importantly, they were able to see people. A whole geoup of them.
“I was right…!” Came the girl’s voice in a whisper.
“Oh my god, we-we’re not alone.” The smaller boy marveled.
“Let’s go.” I said quickly, not wasting another second.
I sped walked over to the large, glass double doors, and pushed them open with more force than was probably necessary. By then people had noticed me, and I noticed their murmurs that were most definitely directed at me and the strange trio I'd managed to form.
“Hey guys-! New kids!” Came one voice.
“What do you mean?” Came another.
“There’s MORE?!?” Came a third.
“How much does that bring us too?” Came a more sensible tones voice.
“16 total I believe.” Answered a seemingly reliable voice.
“Can we stop adding on people, this is already weird enough.” This one sounded more anxious.
“Seriously we do not need more people to take care of!” This one was just angry.
“Enough of that,” A kinder voice sounded, I was able to actually see who this one came from, as she looked at me right afterwards, “Hey, you three, do you mind if we ask a couple questions?” Said a taller girl.
“Um, no.” I replied, hesitant, not because I was nervous, but because I wasn’t sure if I should voice my expectations or not.
“Of course, we can answer anything you need,” The girl replied as well. The small boy nodded slightly.
“First and foremost,” The tall girl started, slowly appointing us, “Do you have any memories? Like of anything specific."
My expectations were right, “No,” I quickly answered, not missing a beat, “None of us do. Not our names, not our lives, nothing.” I added on, probably uselessly.
“Alright then,” The tall girl sighed and placed a hand on her hip, “Then that puts you in the exact same situation as us.” She smiled softly, not one out of any genuine affirmation, but one of grim relenting.
“Then it’s what I thought, I didn’t just happen to meet three amnesiacs by chance, something happened to us to make us all lose our memories. Something malicious.”
“How could you know that?” The girl suddenly asked.
“Excuse me?” I turned towards her and asked, just as the smaller boy exclaimed, “Huh?”
“I mean, how do you know it’s malicious, how can you be sure of any intentions behind anything going on right now,” The girl advocated. For what, I wasn’t actually sure.
“What else could it-” I tried to argue back, before the tall girl interrupted, “While we haven’t been here that long, none of us can really come to any conclusion during our brief discussions, it’s useless to talk about imaginary things like that before literally anything else.” She seemed a little upset.
Another girl came up from behind her, one with an intimidating feel to her, “You,” she started poignantly, “Weren’t you in the middle on a suggestion, I want to hear the rest of it.”
The tall girl looked back, “Sorry-sorry I honestly didn’t expect there to be more people.”
“What were you suggesting?” I asked.
“Ah-! I was thinking about trying to figure out some sort of way of getting to know each other. If we’re trapped here we have to at least figure out some way to communicate effectively.”
“‘Getting to know each other?’ That’s useless in our current situation, what use is there in asking an amnesiac about themself?” I could feel my eyebrows creasing.
“I don’t think that’s exactly what she meant.” Came a new voice, a new girl, a blonde one, “What they were saying right before you got here was that we need to establish names.”
“Names? I thought that was the one thing you specified no one could remember.” The girl said, turning towards the tall girl.
“That's not exactly what I meant, here come with me.” She stuck a hand out, and even though I was in front of the other two, the girl was the one who took it.
The tall girl led the three of us back to the group. The people in it had formed some sort of strange circle.
“Why are we circling up?” I asked, the question more of just a voicing of my thoughts then an actual question.
Someone answered anyway, “Obviously because a circle is the best method of communication for a group of people.” Came a voice bordering on pretentious, to the point where I earnestly couldn’t tell if it was a joke or not.
“Right so that’s what we're focusing on, got it.” I looked over to the judgemental voice to see a shorter girl looking up at someone with large frizzy hair.
“Quit talking and listen up,” Said the blonde girl from earlier, “I liked this guy’s idea so we’re following it.”
“Who made you the president of the amnesiac club?” Said the intimidating girl.
“Was that supposed to be a joke, I honestly can’t tell.”
“...I’m not sure I just felt like saying it. Nevermind that, what I meant was, why are you suddenly in charge?”
“Well someone's got to, and it ain’t going to be me and it ain't going to be you so I elect ideas guy.”
I heard a chuckle and a scoff simultaneously at that, but I couldn’t tell who or where it came from.
“Uh thank you- um, You, what I wanted to suggest before, you know, is that we should give ourselves nicknames.”
“Nicknames? Not to oppose you, but are you sure that’s the right idea?” Came a rather unimpressed voice. Their voice was muffled, it was hard to make out what the words were and harder to tell what their voice actually sounded like. This confused me until I realized they were wearing a mask.
“The point is so we can get to know each other! And maybe also so we can get to know ourselves.”
“I see that, but not only do we not know each other, we don’t know shit about anything, what are we going to be basing these nicknames off of?”
“I don’t know-” she started, loosely glancing off to to the side, before suddenly snapping and announcing, “Oh-! What about, like, things we have on our person!”
“I don’t really have anything on my person though. I thought we all agreed that we aren’t carrying anything like our phones or even a goddamn packet of gum.” Came a voice that sounded annoyed.
“Speak for yourselves I have these sickass goggles around my belt.” Said a guy that was way too enthusiastic for the current situation we’re in.
“Yeah, that’s what I'm talking about! Our pockets might be empty but we still have our clothes don’t we?” She started, “All of our outfits are too different and too unique to have been from some sort of standardized process. Chances are we dressed ourselves before whatever happened… well, happened, so let’s trust our past selves and give ourselves names based off of that.”
“That’s- a good point. Sure, let’s go with that.” The first ever girl I met here said, and just like that, we started forming identities for ourselves.
“I’ll go first,” The tall girl announced, “Call me… Bowtie.” She smiled brightly while showing off the sea green tie around black dress shirt. The color matches with the grand blue and seagreen coat she wore, adorned with embroidered shapes. On top of that, she had long, medium brown bordering on dark brown hair covered in lighter highlights.
“Aww, that’s nice,” Said the person next to her, clasping her hands together.
“Thank you very much, ” She kept her bright smile on, “Would you like to go next?”
“Oh me?” The person seemed surprised, “Oh I have no idea what I would pick, I haven’t put any thought into it.”
“I got one!” Said the enthusiastic boy from earlier, “How ‘bout Rainbow.” He said with an accenting move of finger guns.
“I- huh that would make sense wouldn’t it.” She said, while gripping the end of her long flowing sweater, which was entirely white except for the bottom, which was colored in pale stripes in rainbow order. The bright colors stuck out against the slightly duller palette of her purple apron, red shirt, and red hair.
“That’s cute! I like it!” Bowtie smiled at her, Rainbow looked a bit nervous at the attention.
“Alright that makes me next, no?” It was the judgemental girl, the short girl who spoke to the frizzy-haired pretentious person, “Honestly I'm not sure how seriously I can take these nicknames, just give me one.”
“Um,” Bowtie tapped her chin, “Maybe something like-”
“PONYTAIL!!!” The blonde girl and enthusiastic boy screamed at the same time.
“That… feels demeaning.” Ponytail deadpanned. But It certainly wasn’t unwarranted, she had hair entirely pulled back until a messy ponytail that touched her shirt and the black collared shirt worn underneath, it was held by a scrunchie in a reddish pink sort of color, “But fine, I accept.”
“Alright I'm up next!” The frizzy haired girl suddenly leapt to feet, posing in a confident manner, “Don’t worry about me like our other two groupmates, I've got one figured out,” She shot her fingers up to the pin in her hair, “I’ll be Star! Like my hairpins, do y’all like them? I think they're so cool! Whoever I was before this had class.”
“Umm, right.” Ponytail looked up at her.
“No I like it, you’ve got that shit on.” That came from the annoyed girl from earlier.
“Hah! Thank you, I appreciate it. That concludes my presentation, thank you.” Star held her hands under her chins before sitting back down. Right as she did that she moved her arm to pat the person next to hers back.
“Uwah!” He suddenly flinched as she did, shooting his hands out in front of his face with a terrified expression. Or at least, what could be seen of his face looked terrified, that would only be about half of his mouth.
He remained silent as all eyes landed on him, shaking slightly, his posture defensive against Star’s touch.
“Uh, you got anything to say for yourself, man?” It was the unimpressed boy.
“...” The silence remained.
“Hey! You! Hair-in-your-face! What do you got?” Unsurprisingly, said the enthusiastic boy.
“I-I- Uh, please just move on.” His voice shook while he spoke.
“Okay,” He started jovially, “You responded to hair-in-your-face so hair-in-your-face it is!”
“That’s way too long.” Ponytail commented.
“Yeah, how about something like ‘Bangs’ instead?” Star leaned herself over Ponytail.
“Move,” The girl in question muttered.
“O-ok, just move on,” He shrunk in on himself.
“Gladly,” Said the girl next to him, “I literally have no ideaa, so pitch me some ideas,” she said, inquisitively glancing around the group.
“Uh well I’m not too sure,” Bowtie started, "you don’t have much in terms of accessories.” She looked the girl up and down, she wasn't wearing much except for a yellow blazer on a slightly lighter yellow collared shirt, she was also wearing a black hoodie, with slightly more golden accents along it. Strangely enough it wasn't currently being worn over her shoulders, resting right on her elbows instead.
“Well, we’ll move on to the next most obvious thing,” Rainbow interjected, “You have a bit of a monotone color palette going on.”
“Don’t ask me why I'm wearing so much damn yellow, I have as much as a clue as you do.”
“No, I actually think it looks nice, it really suits you.” Rainbow smiled at her.
“Alright then, I have quickly become fond of all the damn yellow.” She said, tiptoeing the line between a serious and a joking tone.
“Are you suggesting we nickname her ‘Yellow’?” Bowtie glanced over her shoulder.
“Sure! Why not?” Rainbow continued smiling.
“Heh, i’m nothing like you guys, i’m named after a color.” Yellow boasted.
“Doesn’t Rainbow technically count as a color themed name, and we’re not even done so sit down.” Ponytail sideeyed her.
“Alright, alright, whatever you say fun police.” Her snicker got met with a scoff.
Next in line was the intimidating girl, it looked like she was already prepared, “I think I have an idea, if you’ll accept it,” She looped a finger around the green ribbon in her long black hair, “Ribbon sounds fine enough, wouldn’t you agree?”
“I love it,” Bowtie clasped her hands together, “That ribbon looks really cute in your hair.”
Ribbon held a hand up to her chin, “I- thank you, but that isn’t really what we should be focusing on right now, we need to hurry up so we can figure out what’s going on.” She glared towards Bowtie.
“Of course-!” She held her hands up in defense, “I want to do that too but this is also important, we’re all people right? We need to establish some sort of identity for ourselves, wouldn’t you agree?”
“I never said it wasn’t, let’s just move on.”
“For what it’s worth, I really appreciate what you’re doing for us,” It was the girl, “I keep getting this… suffocating feeling knowing I can’t remember who I am. Assigning these nicknames is comforting in a way.”
Bowtie stared at her wide eyed as the girl awkwardly held onto the front of her shirt, her the neckline of the shirt was cut into a square with an ‘x’ of fabric across it.
the girl spoke again, “Um, well, anyways, if we’re basing this off of accessories, I think mine should be these,” The girl held out her arms, which were covered with a variety of bracelets, most of which were beaded but some were more plastic, and some were more fabric-y, there was even a slightly larger on with small spikes on it, “From now on, i’ll be bracelet,” she spoke.
The next person in line was a taller one, with long, flowy, dark blonde hair covering half of her face, with an equally as long and flowy sweater that was dark blue, almost purple.
The person looked hesitant, before looking to the side and asking, “Umm, can you go first…?”
The question was directed at a much shorter girl next to her, the annoyed one from earlier, who, despite my first impression of her earlier, looked rather content with the request.
“I mean sure,” she started, “But if you’re asking me because you have no ideas, then I'm in the exact same boat.”
“Then it’s our turn again,” The enthusiastic boy nearly leapt from his spot, “Leave the job to us ladies, we can handle this.”
“Actually shut the hell up.” She glared at him.
“Woah hey, i’m just trying to help.”
“Help better.”
“Alright, alright, let me take over this.” Said the blonde girl, “I promise to be less annoying then him.”
“Hey!” He tried to say, before the blonde girl moved in front of him.”
“Let’s see,” She started tapping her chin, as if lost in thought, “Well you have a nice sweater,” She said with a click of her fingers.
“Is that the best you got?” The girl side-eyed her. It wasn’t like the blonde girl was wrong though, she was wearing a rather large turtleneck sweater for her body type, and it stuck out as particularly colorful, having blocks of color of orange, pink, white, and black.
“It’s not the one who dressed you!” She shot back.
“No one was accusing you sweetheart, but fine, fine, call me Misses Sweater for the way I have a cuter outfit then everyone here.” She smirked.
“You do! Honestly!” The blonde girl notes awkwardly, “Ok now you,” she placed her finger on her chin again.
“How about letting this be a group consensus this time? You know instead of just letting it be you.” Sweater remarked.
“Look, your options are either me or him,” she said, shifting back into her spot, letting the boy be seen again.
“What the hell?!” He cried.
“Whay about sometime to do with your hair clips?” This came from a boy, the one who seemed rather unimpressed with the idea of nicknames earlier.
“Oh so now you’re fucking with the nicknames.”
“No, I just felt the need to break up the bickering before it gets worse.”
“Okay, okayyy, we’re moving on.” He rolled his eyes.
“What were you saying, something about hairclips?” She asked, holding a hand up to her hair and running a hand through it, stopping when her fingers met the objects in question , “Oh I am wearing some.”
“Yeah, they’re in the shape of a sun and a moon.” Bowtie pointed out, “We can nickname you something based on that! Or just call you Hairclips maybe?”
“Err uh, sure I can accept that,” She seemed apprehensive.
“Now wait a minute, if you think about it, there could be kind of a double meaning to it. What does a sun and moon get you?” Rainbow started, stating it like an open ended question.
“I see what you’re getting at, you get an eclipse, an ‘e-clips’. It’s wordplay, ” She seemed a lot more fond of the name.
“Does that make it FINALLY my turn! Jeez, I've had my nickname decided, for, forever,” He took the goggles off his waist and snapped them over his ginger hair with a rough rubbery sound, “Ow, ok that hurt more then I thought, NEVERMIND-! I’ve been graced with these sick-ass goggles so naturally i’ll be henceforth known as ‘Sick-ass Goggles.’ Thank you, I'm a genius, I know.” He said, with a challenging grin on his face.
“I genuinely cannot tell if you’re being purposely facetious or not.” Said the blonde girl from next to him.
“I’m in it for the love of the game.” Goggles leaned back onto the floor a bit.
“That doesn’t help my point,” She sighed, “Anyways, since i’m next, I was maybe thinking-”
“BLONDIE!” Yelled Star suddenly, pointing excitedly at her.
“Yeah! Blondie!” Sweater concurred.
“Blondie…?!” Ponytail looked concered.
“Oh- I,” She looked startled, before her face dropped, with a strange sort of look of reflection, “I really should’ve expected that, wow.”
“Why does she get Blondie? Aren’t I blonde as well?”
Clips asked.
“Yeah but you’re soft Blonde, she’s yellow Blonde. There is a MAJOR difference.” Sweater said like she was teaching something.”
“Don’t be rude.” Ribbon scolded.
“Woah there, I’m not saying anything that isn’t true.”
“Well I mean personally I was going to go with ‘Beanie’,” she grabbed the bright red beanie on her head, it had a few music notes on it, “I think this hat is really cute but I mean… if the group unanimously decided on something else then…”
“Well hey! I like Beanie.” Rainbow spoke up.
“Honestly, me too.” Bowtie agreed.
“Well I like Blondie, feels like it fits her.” Yellow smirked.
“How can you possibly know what fits me?” She spoke, a bit seriously.
“Have you ever heard of vibes? Aura? First impressions?” Yellow clicked her fingers.
“Well it’s not like I know what fits me or not, if Blondie I give then Blondie I shall be.”
“HELL YEAH BLONDIE!” Goggles yelled, holding up a hand towards her.
Blondie looked at him questioningly, then softly high fived him.
Someone scoffed, “This is annoying as fuck, move the hell on,” a rather unsavory voice spoke. I looked over to the source of the voice to see a girl with a rather sour look on her face. She had yet to really speak yet, but it was obvious to see she was reaching some sort of limit.
She was next in line, so in a moment, all eyes fell on her, “This stupid ass nickname shit is honestly pissing me the hell off. I don’t want one, move on to lame-ass next to me.”
“Oh hell no,” Goggles started, a dangerous look in his eyes, “You’re getting you whether you like it or not!”
“While I wouldn’t put it like that…” Bowtie nervously interrupted, “I do agree with the sentiment, we can’t just skip you, that'd be unfair.”
“I literally don’t care, I couldn’t care less, actually.”
“We can’t have people being uncooperative, let go of whatever pride or hostility or whatever you’re holding on to, and just work with us,” Ribbon glared at him, “There is no gain from being obtrusive, you’ll only hinder yourself.”
“Jesus Christ, fine, give me a childish nickname and forget about it, I won’t be remembering it.”
“Challenge accepted,” Blondie, once again, placed a hand on her chin, this seemed to be a habit of hers, “Well you've outfit is kind of plain, you have that hoodie, that thin sweater, your grey pants, and uh, what’s that around your waist?"
Blondie, peered over her, trying to see what was on the other side or her. The unimpressed boy from earlier, who now, all things considered, seemed pretty lax on his distaste for the nicknames answered the question for her, “It’s an empty lanyard.”
“A… lanyard?” Rainbow inquired.
“Yeah, like those shitty identification things you wear around your neck for, like, business and stuff.”
“Right, I knew that."
“How do you not remember what a lanyard is???” Sweater asked.
“I would assume the same way we can’t remember anything about our lives.” Blondie covered her mouth with her hand as she spoke.
“Oh, yeah… right...” Sweater faltered.
“You specified it was empty, what do you mean by that?” Ribbon asked.
“I mean exactly what it sounds like, it’s empty, there’s nothing in the part where you would put the ID.”
“Someone probably took it, if it was my lanyard then I'd be able to figure out a lot about myself pretty quickly.” She explained like she was above the explanation.
“How can you be so sure that it was deliberately taken?” I asked out loud, without even thinking about it.
“I’m sorry?” She asked judgementally.
Even if I didn’t mean to speak out loud, I did anyway, now I had to double down on my thoughts, “Why would somebody take something just so you can’t figure out who you are? What logic is that based on?”
I expected some sort of scoff or deadpan from her in return, but instead. She laughed.
“Pfft- are you… are you fucking with me right now?” Suddenly she leaned closer, and looked at me with wide eyes, “We’ve lost all our memories, and seeing as we’re in an empty school and not a goddamn hospital, it’s safe to assume we’ve been kidnapped as well, quite possibly imprisoned as well. That is the natural conclusion anyone with half a fucking brain would draw given our cicumstnaces. We aren’t safe, the situation we’re in is deliberate, and here we are, chatting about fuckass nicknames like it’s a regular school orientation. Like we’re one big happy class. Now FUCK OFF.” She bared her teeth while flipping me off.
I had to catch myself from falling as I recoiled from her words.
“WOAH WOAH WOAH,” Bowtie jumped in front of me panickedly, “There’s no need to be so overtly hostile! J- She cut herself off, quickly glancing to the side.
“I- y-yeah-!” Bracelet jumped to my defense, “I-, R- uh, um… Them-! Whoever they are, has done nothing to you! In fact all they’ve done is help me and that boy over there and be cooperative with the group, get off their back!”
I couldn't help but wonder what made her defend me like that. Was it because I was the first person she had met here?
“That’s is not at all the point she was trying to make,” Ponytail suddenly cut in, “Clearly it was nothing personal, she’s just telling the truth to the person who asked. I don’t care if I get jumped for this but I can’t help but agree with her, she’s right! We are in a dangerous situation, we could get attacked by whoever brought us here any moment!” She threw her hands up suddenly, “We are in such a delicate-”
“QUIET.” Ribbon yelled, her voice stronger than anyone else's, “All of you! You aren’t helping! We have four people left to go, so get off your high horse, and let’s finish the current task at hand.”
“Four? Don’t we only have three.” The unimpressed voice asked.
“No, we have you, the girl we’re currently trying to name, and the two people to your right.”
“Weren’t we going to go with ‘Lanyard’? That’s the primary thing we were talking about.”
“That’s a dumbass name.” Sweater crossed her arms.
“Not any dumber than ‘Sweater’.” The unimpressed boy shrugged.
“You got me there.” She snarked.
“I am NOT being named that dumbass shit.” She gritted her teeth.
“Seems we’ve got our name!” Goggles boasted.
“Oh my FUCKING god. Shut the FUCK UP,” Lanyard looked like she was seconds away from jumping him.
“Ok, ok,” The unimpressed boy put a hand in front of her, “It’s my turn now, give me a name, any name I do not care at this point.”
“Ok-” Blondie started nervously, “You have the same sort of issue of not having a lot of accessories. I mean besides that mask, but-"
“Go with the second best, go with your color palette." Rainbow commented, rather quickly.
“Uh…” The person, the boy now that I'm getting a better look, in question looked down, “I’ve got this light green jacket and this sort of bright blue shirt, oh and my shoes are the same blue.”
“‘Blue’ then? You seem like a blue kind of guy.” Rainbow tilted her head.
“Yeah! I like ‘Blue,’” Yellow smiled towards Rainbow.
“I’m confused why we don’t just use the fact he’s wearing a mas-” I tried to say, in earnest, but I was talked over.
“A blue kind of- You know what? Nevermind, Blue it is.” He relented, before glancing over his shoulder.
The second to last person, the only person left beside myself, it was the small boy I had met in the very beginning.
He looked nervous as all eyes fell on him, his head fell as he pushed up his glasses, “You can give me a name, I won’t mind.” He smiled, a bit of awkwardness poking through.
“Heh, would it be funny if we just name you ‘Glasses’,” Blondie remarked, “You did just do the signature nerd pushup.”
“What? I can’t be the only one here wearing- I am?!” He looked at her with an expression far more serious then it should have been.
“The odds are low but never zero. Plus, look at you, you’re wearing a yellow tie with a floral pattern and you have flower patterns on your pants, you’re a total nerd!” Beanie teased him.
“Stop picking on him,” Blue said, he’d leaned back a bit while they had their conversation.
“Yes, right now is not the time for unnecessary conversation, we have one more person to go, and then an entire investigation to do.” Ribbon said, right before turning and looking me in the eyes.
That look was quickly followed by 13 others, well 12 excluding Bangs, who still refused to participate. I grasped my wrist in my hand as I spoke, “So, my name?” I asked nobody in particular, while quickly peering across the whole group.
Everyone was silent for a moment, loosely examining me, searching for an idea, but I was confident I already had one.
I gripped my wrist again, and just as I was about to talk, Blondie unknowingly interrupted, “Well you sure do like red…?”
I could feel my face contort as I looked up at her with confusion, “I…what…? What do you mean?”
“Do you- do you not know what you look like?”
“You dummy, ‘course the guy doesn’t.” Said Goggles.
“What do I look like?” I asked, with a bit more urgency then my last question.
“You’re hair, it’s dyed red.” Blondie met me in the eyes expectantly.
I took a strand from my hair, a piece by my ear, and examined it, “...This is brown?”
“You grabbed the wrong piece! Just, hey look your back is already towards the window, turn around and see for yourself.” She told me.
And so I did exactly that, I leant back a bit as I repositioned myself facing the window. I placed a hand on it as I tried to adjust my eyes to see my reflection.
Sure enough, Blondie was right, parts of my hair were dyed red, my bangs, notably, but also two back pieces at my neck, that curved ip slightly on my along my chin. The rest was my natural color of brown.
“You’re right, but I wonder why I didn’t just dye the whole thing, it looks incomplete.”
“Hey! My hair’s also partially dyed.” Blondie pointed out, grabbing a streak of black in her own bangs, she also had longer pieces that went over her shoulders that were also dyed the same color.
“I was just making an observation, we’re getting off topic.”
“No I think we’re totally on topic, join the color club, you know you want to.” Yellow met my glance towards her with a large grin.
“What, are you suggesting-”
“Wait yeah! Let’s call you Red!” Blondie proudly declared, like she had just made some profound realization.
“Red.” I repeated. The name, it felt odd, I felt a sory or odd fondness towards it. It certainly didn’t feel like my name, not even a bit. I didn’t necessarily feel comfortable with it, no it was more like I was comforted.
“Is that everyone then?” Asked Ribbon, promptly standing up.
“What a useless question, of course it is!” Lanyard said, somehow getting up even faster then Ribbon and crossing her arms.
The rest of the group followed in slowly standing up.
“Hey, at least we got it done finally.” Blue said, crossing his arms as well, though with a completely different attitude then Lanyard.
“Hey, I know we were a bit all over the place with that,” Bowtie started, a slightly awkward grin on her face, “But at least we all have names now, and we even got to know each other a bit, or the parts we have left of ourselves,” she clasped her hands together and crossed her feet as she spoke to the group.
“While I agree, I do have to say how I feel like I'm not going to remember most of what we just discussed.” Rainbow added, a bit softly.
“I wasn't going to be the one to say it,” Yellow held her hands up, “There is a 100% possibility I'm gonna forget one of your names, sorry in advance.”
“If you forget anything, just come to me, I'll remember.” Ribbon said.
“Really? Alright if you’re sure.” Yellow gave her a bright grin.
“Enough of that though, we were going to investigate we’re we?” Ribbon walked ahead of the group towards a more empty part of the cafeteria.
“Oh wow! What is that?!” Goggles said dumbfounded, as he ran ahead of her.
“I was waiting to see it someone would point out the GIANT FUCKING SCREEN IN THE MIDDLE THE ROOM.” Lanyard gripped her forehead.
“The giant fucking screen with two bigass horns sticking out of it!!!” Goggles added, still shocked.
“I mean that’s one way to describe it.” Blue said, being one of the first to follow them.
“Why are they black and white?” Rainbow looked confused.
“I mean it would be one thing if it was just a big screen, those can always be useful, but the horns are NOT it.” Star commented.
“I hate to say it, but it’s almost creepy in a way…” Ponytail held her head down.
“Ok wow, fucking rude.” Came a voice from nowhere and everywhere at once. It was a voice that had yet to speak yet, it belonged to none of the people I’d just met. It belonged to someone else.
I, who had been keeping to the back of the group, stopped in place, much like how everyone else had.
The large screen, it now had a faint buzz to it. It was full of static, faintly glowing on the entire group looking up at it.
I don’t know what compelled me to do it, but I moved, I pushed past a few of the others that I barely comprehended and landed at the very front, just as the voice spoke again, and the screen lit up fully.
“HE-LLO EVERYONE!” A boisterous voice proudly addressed, drawing out its words. And just as that happened, an image appeared on the screen.
It was a logo, seemingly for some kind of school, and it was painted in reds and golds.
“Wuh-HUH-!” Star shrieked, almost cartoonishly jumping back, and bumping into Ponytail in the process.
“What the hell?!” Ponytail clenched her teeth, half in reaction to the voice and half in reaction to Star.
There were other sounds of exclamation, seemingly coming from everyone and nobody, but they were cut off by the overpowering voice.
“You would have that kind of reaction, wouldn’t you?” The voice said, full of confidence, “But that’s besides the point, HELLO ONCE AGAIN, to all of you gathered here!” It said, voice full of cheer, despite it’s text-to-speech sounding nature.
The screen changed again, showing, unexpectedly, an animated character…?
I stared up at the figure, it was a simple, round, cartoony character, with its right half entirely blacked out. It had a set of black and white striped horns, as well as a long tie, with the same kind of patterning. Its face, or the half that’s visible, was all geometric lines and dots for the eye and eyebrow, and a slightly oddly bent triangle for its mouth. Its hair was geometric as well, triangles poling out a bit from under its chin, and the top of its head, but notably, not on the side that’s blacked out.
It looked finished, in a way, like this wasn’t the final product.
“What the hell is this…?” Lanyard shouted, practically throwing her hands in front of her of disbelief.
“Oh i’m so sorry? My bad, earnestly, a good host such as myself is only as good as their stage name.” The animated character changed its pose to some sort or animated gif of the character wagging it’s finger, “My name is Monohorns.”
“Monohorns…?” Rainbow practically whispered, she seemed surprised she even spoke.
“That is right you -what did you guys decide?- Rainbow?”
She gasped at strange character acknowledging her.
“But my good name aside.” The character changed again, this time clasping it’s hands together and swaying side to side, “I would like to humbly welcome you all to the ultimate decider that is what you’re about to participate in!”
“Ultimate… decider…?” The words felt strange on my tongue.
“And what are we deciding, dear students, you might be asking?” The screen suddenly blacked out, until reappearing as a mess or glitches and scribbles, “We’re deciding which two of us gets to get out of here alive.”
My throat tightened.
My throat felt unbelievably dry.
What did I just hear?
I could feel myself struggling to speak.
What the fuck.
“WHAT THE FUCK?!” I heard someone, Goggles I think, yell out.
“What-what’s that supposed to mean?!” Stars sounded almost offended.
“STOP TALKING FUCKING BULLSHIT.” Lanyard sharply pointed up at the screen.
“I-i’m sorry, I- can- can you elaborate- or- uh.” Bowtie said breathily, the words barely making their way out of her mouth.
“Of course I can darling, call it want you want, a decision, a competition, a- well a killing game of sorts, at most only two of you are going to be alive by the end of this, if all goes according to plan.” The figure came back, clasping its hands together and smiling brightly.
“You’re going to kill us?!?” Glasses yelled out in fear.
“What in the- what us happening to us.” I barely heard Blue whisper from a few feet next to me.
“If you’re going to k-kill us, why haven’t you done so already? What could you possibly be gaining from this?” Ponytail gritted her teeth.
“I’m so glad you asked! I’m not gaining anything from this at all, in fact, the only people who have something to gain are you lot.”
“And how is that!?” Sweater screamed in frustration.
“What can we possibly gain from you having this much power over us?” Ribbon demanded.
“You get to decide who lives. Let me give you the basic rundown, if you’d be so kind as to tune in and to listen,” The character went back to pointing, “If you want to be the one to leave this place alive, you have to just do one simple thing. You have to kill someone." It’s robotic voice almost seemed tense, “You have to kill someone, and get away with it. When one of you is found dead, you will discuss the incident in order to figure out who did it, in a mock trial of sorts. Once you reach a conclusion, you will vote; if you vote for the killer correctly, that person will be killed, and you will get to try and live another day, but if you accuse the wrong person, all of the rest of you get killed and the killer gets to live.”
“Oh my god- THAT’S BULLSHIT.” Lanyard shouted so angrily it was almost scary.
“Please- I- you can’t mean that, this can’t be real life.” Clips' voice wavered heavily.
“No! No! You can’t do this! No!” Bracelet desperately shouted, tears forming in her eyes.
“Hold on- is that- i’m sorry- is that everything?” Bowtie had a distressed look on her face.
“Well, Misses Bowtie, there are a few rules you have to make yourselves aware of, but no, are you looking for more or a show?”
“No- it’s just- you’re not going to kill us…? Directly that is?” She was shaking.
“No, not without cause, again, rules will be discussed soon, but-! If you just follow them-! You will be left alone with nothing but your own internal motivation to stay alive.” The character smiled brightly.
“Then we’ll just stay alive.” Her voice steadied, the first steady voice I had heard in the past few minutes.
Despite that, I heard a stutter of confusion follow her words.
“I mean- think about it- if things really are as simple as that, then all we have to do is not kill each other-!” She turned to face the group, her face shrouded in darkness with the light of the monitor framing her figure.
“Are you fucking insane?!” Ponytail held a hand close to her chest, her fingers scrunched together.
“Are you?” Yellow started, her voice high, “I mean she does kind of have a point?”
“Y-yeah, tall girls right, if we just don’t fucking kill each other then we won’t die if what that half and half scrible said is true!” Goggles yelled.
“Ok now i’m with Bowtie,” Sweater interjected, “How do we know this creep isn’t lying out of his ass.”
“YOU’RE BEING REALLY FUCKING ANNOYING ABOUT THIS!” Lanyard stormed up to Bowtie, before eyeing the rest of the group, “We’ve been kidnapped, we have no memories, and you’re trying to power-of-friendship your ass out of being slaughtered!”
“You know, the only thing stopping her idea from happening is you rejecting it outright! You’re the one making it impossible you dick!” Yellow grabbed her shoulder.
“I really don’t give a shit what you think! I’m not dying here!” Lanyard practically spat in her face.
“EVERYONE CALM DOWN.” Bracelet shouted, positioning herself between the two girls, “Nothing has actually happened yet, you’re getting all worked up over nothing.”
“I wouldn’t call getting told we’re all going to die here ‘nothing,’ darling,” said Star with a rough kind of sarcasm in her voice.
“But we aren’t dead, nothing is actually hurting us, it’s just words, please we can work this out!” She pleaded.
The girl desperately looked around the group, her eyes searching for any kind of salvation in each person and everyone there. I couldn’t help but follow them.
I looked from Yellow and Lanyard, who were glaring daggers at each other, to Goggles who looked seconds away from restarting the argument, to Rainbow who looked like she was dreading the formation of another argument.
I looked to Beanie, who was just staring up at the screen with an unreadable expression on her face, to Bangs, who despite having his entire face cover, somehow had a perfectly readable expression, one of pure fear.
I looked to Ribbon, who was looking back at Bracelet with poorly contained annoyance, to Star who looked almost offended at everyone for existing near her, to Ponytail who was breathing roughly.
I looked to Clips, who had a look of pure terror, to Sweater, who had a hand on her shoulder, despite looking angry herself, to Glasses, who had started to cry.
I looked to my side, where Blue had a hand on the mask he was wearing, pulling at it like he was trying to hide behind it with a stone cold look in his eyes.
And finally, I looked to Bracelet, who was staring straight back at me, her eyes wide and glossy.
“Red- I-.”
“I’m with you, Bracelet.” Bowtie said softly, standing right behind her.
“Huh…?” She quickly whipped her head around to look up at the taller girl.
“Please, I need someone like you with me, I can hardly believe what’s happening, but I- I want to try to stop people from dying. I don’t know what’s happening, but I know what I don’t want to happen, please stay with me.” She looked like she was in despair.
“I- I, of course. I-”
“While the show in front of me is certainly one you can’t get anywhere else, I'm afraid I'm going to have to interrupt it, my sincere apologies, truly.” The computirized voice spoke again, my eyes flashed back to the screen to see the animated figure staring back, a large, fake, smile still plastered on its face, and beady, hollow eyes still watching our every move.
“What do you want this time, Monohorns?” Blondie spoke softly. I had almost forgotten the name that thing had given to us.
“The rules of course! It’s my job to give everything to you as transparently as possible, so I humbly request for you to take another few moments to listen to what I have to say, before I let you go.”
“Just get on with it.” Ponytail rolled her eyes.
“What kind of rules could you even have in a place where we’re supposed to get killed.” Rainbow asked, a hand in her hair.
“I’m so glad you asked you Colorful Rainbow! Now first in foremost, " The screen made a sound like it was clearing its throat, which I didn’t think would even be possible, “You cannot destroy property, at least not intentionally, so don’t even think about tearing down the walls as a means to escape, that won’t slide around here.”
“Where’d we even get tools for something like that,” Goggles asked with genuine curiosity.
“Wouldn't you like to know Nerdy Goggles, but moving on, the next rule is that there will be a mandatory breakfast, lunch, and dinner time right here in the very cafeteria you’re standing in. Food will only be served at those times. You get snacks at other times if you're nice.”
“May I ask what the point of that is?” Ribbon inquired.
“Order, dear. Moving on; most of the doors, with a couple of exceptions of course, will be electronically locked between the hours of 12 am to 8 am, please do try to be in a building before they lock, or there will be consequences.”
The voice went quiet for a moment, almost as if it was waiting for something. I hated the way the silence felt after everything that had been said in the last few minutes.
“No question or witty remark for that one? Wow! That’s a first for this group. You should all be proud of yourselves! As a little prize, you can have the next rule: if I call you all to one location, attendance is absolutely mandatory, you must come within a few minutes.”
“'Absolutely mandatory,’ that’s dumb, what if we’re like, bleeding out and dying?” Yellow asked, a bit sarcastically before noticeably flinching at her own words.
“Thank you for that amazing segway Tacky Yellow! The next rule is that the aforementioned rules can be bent slightly in the case of a murder. For example: destroying evidence or purposely making another student miss a meeting.”
“Shit, shouldn’t have said that out loud,” Yellow sucked in her teeth.
“The next few rules are in regards to murders, make sure you’re paying close attention!” The voice paused for dramatic effect, “When someone is killed, I will not interfere until three or more people discover the body, only then will I announce that one of the group is dead, and give you time for you to investigate. I will not be disclosing who died or where, it is up to you all to all to disclose that information to everyone.”
“That’s bullshit.” Lanyard snarled, “What happens if we don’t give a shit about the rules?”
“Thank you for your insightful commentary, Smartass Lanyard, you might be after a job,” Lanyard noticeably flinches at the words, “There is a punishment in store, but I'd rather not say. You can find out for yourself if you so desire.”
“What the fuck?!” She said, physically repulsed.
The voice made a sound akin to a small laugh, before pausing for a strange amount of time, “Now, let me begin telling you what you really need to know.” It paused, before starting up again sounding like a robot reading a list, “If two people kill before a trial is held, you will have to solve and vote for both, but only the person who killed first will be killed for their murder, the second gets another chance at living. If someone dies from suicide without any oustide influence, that person will be both the victim and killer, you must vote tor them in the end, no one will get killed. If a suicide happens before a regular kill, the ‘first kill’ rules no longer apply, that second person would have to be found out and voted for. If a kill is determined to have been done equally by two people, both of those people will be considered the killer, and must both be voted for. A person may kill as many people as they want, if it’s two or more, you will have to vote for the correct killer for each victim.” The voice explained, sounding like it was reading off a script, which struck me as odd.
“Lord on earth….” Clips exclaimed.
“Ok you might actually be fucking insane.” Sweater slapped a hand to her head.
“How can you just, say all of that, that’s, you just described several scenarios of people dying.” Glasses’ voice wavered.
The voice didn’t sound for a few seconds, despite it being pretty quick with responses earlier.
It got me wondering, the figure on the screen, it spoke with human cadence, but not with a human voice. Is this ‘Monohorns’ thing a real person?
“I must be prepared for any outcome, really, I have these all prepared in order to effectively serve as the host for this killing game, if another scenario I have failed to mention happens, I will have an answer for you in regards to what counts as what if needed.”
“What are you exactly?” I found myself asking, “You talk like a person, portray yourself as a cartoon character, and call yourself the host. Be honest, is there a real person behind that screen?”
The screen returned to its earlier mess of glitches and scribbles, before displaying the still image of a wide smile and blank eyes, “I am not a real person.”
Silence followed its words, not out of fear or confusion, but out of a sense that there was more to that sentence than what it said.
I pursed my lips and exhaled before saying, “What does that mean? What are you?”
“I… am an algorithm made for this killing game, I am made to appear as someone with charisma and a knack for showmanship, because that’s what the people who set this up wanted me to be. I am not a person.”
“You’re… not a person?” Beanie asked it.
“No, not at all. In fact, the person who’s idea this whole killing game was, is one of the group.”
“What?” I could feel my eyes widening and my shoulders dropping, and from what I can tell, that sort of reaction was common.
“Feel free to explore the school at your own disclosure, I have some things waiting for you. And to all of you, earnestly and almost equally, I hope you’re the one to make it out of this alive.”