"...hey Roni?"

"Yeah?"

"How long are they gonna take down there?"

"Hmm, I don't know.  I guess it has already been a while."

"It feels like a few minutes, but hasn't it been almost two days?"

"I think so.  Do you think they're gonna be alright?"

"I'm sure they'll make it.  They have to." 

"But I mean after.  When they make it out."

"..."

"Too hard to answer?"

"Yeah..." 

"I get it." 

"...I told you who it was, right?"

"Yeah, you did."

"They weren't even doing it willingly.  They were just as scared as I was."

"Whoever's running this stupid show can go to hell."

"You're right about that.  But for now... let's just watch, ok?"

"Fine.  I'm gonna go get some chips first though."

"Oh my god, you're dead!  You don't need chips!"

"Bold of you to assume I eat them because I need them."

"WHAT?!"  Ash screamed at the speaker before turning to the rest of us.  "WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!"

"Yeah, I thought we all decided it was either Alex or Jojo?"  Dan spoke, just as confused as everyone else.  "Who voted for Ash?" 

"I accidentally did,"  Lukey admitted, looking at the ground.  "I was trying to vote for Alex but my hand slipped."

"I... I don't trust the evidence all that much..." Ally said, shaking her head.

"Ok, but even with the Investigator's double vote, that's still only 4 votes against 17 others. Who else voted for Ash?" Sabrina asked.

"Oh, wouldn't you like to know," Ash growled at Sabrina. "You were one of them, admit it!"

"That'd still be 5, Ash!" Sabrina shouted back. "And you are in no position to-"

"Alright alright settle down." The announcer spoke up. "We get it, you two hate each other because you both have issues, but you can think about that more another time. Now, if I may continue..."

"The conclusion is..."

"Incorrect! The Murderer remains on the lose!"

"See! I told you!" Ash said.

"Well sorry, some people here have more than half a brain," Sabrina spoke sarcastically.

"Now the accused person will be removed from the game!" The announcer shut off again, but before the lights could go out, Ash growled.

"If I'm going anywhere, I'M TAKING YOU WITH ME!" He barked, grabbing tightly onto Sabrina's wrist. She yelped and tried to get out of his grasp, but the lights flickered out too soon.

What followed was a barrage of screams and shouts, only ending when we could hear the two being yanked up like Veronica. Thankfully, we could hear Sabrina being dropped back onto the floor and the lights coming back on only proved that she was still there.  Ash, on the other hand, had disappeared without a trace. 

Well, except for one thing.

Sabrina sat up and rubbed her head for a second before stopping to look at her wrist.  She screamed and threw something across the room and into the kitchen, right in front of the closet. Jackson kneeled by to comfort her while the rest of us took a look at the item. 

It was Ash's severed hand, bloodied and twitching on the ground before us. It continued to leak the red substance for a good minute until it finally ceased all movement and just sat there, dead.  

"Holy shit,"  Jojo muttered just loud enough for us to hear.

"Yep, that was the most difficult fighter I've had to deal with in a long time."  The announcer spoke.  "But anyway, since you're all a bunch of idiots, another innocent has been voted out, and now you'll have to wait once again for the Murderer to strike.

"Wait, a long time?!"  John said.  "You've done this before?!"

"Oh sweet mercy of myself, YES!"  It shouted back.  "Have you not been listening to a single thing I've been telling you this whole time?!  You guys are more braindead than I thought."

"At least we're not the ones kidnapping people and forcing them to kill each other," Kai remarked.

"At least I have my reasons.  You dolts are in high school.  Grow up." The speaker shut off once again

"Hey, uh," Kees said, "is it just me or does that voice sound familiar?"

"I don't think I've heard it anywhere," I say, shrugging.

"Well now that you mention it..." Alex muttered.

"I guess we're gonna have to wait this out again," Alicia said. We all just silently agreed and went our separate ways. I walked over to the note with our names and took a look at it again.

Now along with Lara and Veronica, Liza's name was marked in red, and Ash's name was marked with blue. Both of them had "Survivor" written on the side of them.

***

"So what'd you wanna talk abou-" I tried to ask before suddenly being met with a hard punch to the face.  I stumbled back completely in shock, looking up at Alex. 

"You fucking traitor!"  He yelled at me.  The bedroom door was closed, so it's not likely that anyone heard him.  "Why'd you do it?!"

"D-do what?"  I asked, my breath now shaking.  Taking my hand off of my face, I noticed that my nose had begun to bleed.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about!  You left me to fucking die out there Kees! You AND Rosemary!"

Wait a minute.  That name brought back a lot of memories, ones that I thought I could push down into the pits of my brain.

"You thought you could just forget about it and move on, didn't you?  Didn't think it'd come back to bite you in the ass?  News flash dip shit, it's a small world out there, and it looks like we came a full fucking circle." 

"Yeah, great to see you too, now can I-" I walked towards the door, but I was promptly cut off again as he grabbed the collar of my shirt and yanked me off my feet, throwing me against the far left wall. I flinched as he walked over to me again. I didn't have much time to react before he kicked me right in my chest, making me double over in pain.

"We're not kids anymore Kees," Alex growled. "You can't just walk past me and expect whatever argument we're having to end right then and there. Things have changed, and you're not going anywhere until I let you know exactly what that change felt like."

He grabbed something from his pocket, and soon after a clicking noise followed. I looked up to see him holding a pocket knife.

"Hold on dude, let's talk about this." I nervously smiled, not wanting to believe he was serious.

"You had your chance to talk about it 4 years ago."

I scampered up as soon as he brought the knife down on my face. It stuck into the wall instead, giving me some time to run off. It wasn't enough time though, because he easily ripped it right out of the wall and threw it straight into my back, making me lose my balance and fall flat on my stomach. The smell of my own blood instantly hit me and made me want to vomit, but I held it in so I wouldn't be face first in a puddle of my own innards. Alex put a foot on my back and pushed me onto the floor, pinning me to the ground as he ripped the blade violently out of my flesh. I screamed and gasped for air, beginning to get dizzy from my nausea.

"And to think you might've changed while I was gone," Alex muttered. "Pathetic."

He pressed his foot down a little more. I swear I felt him bringing his hands up, ready to put me down for good, but before he could finish the job, I heard the door to the bedroom open, and someone screamed.

"ALEX WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YA DOIN?!"

***

We heard Annie scream from the doorway of the bedroom and we all ran over to see what had happened.  I let out a gasp at the sight before me. 

Alex had Kees pinned to the floor by his foot, a purple-colored pocket knife in his hand.  Kees was bleeding out from his back and onto the floor, staining the already darkened wood. 

"Oh my god..."  I whispered to myself. 

"This isn't what it looks like I swear!"  Alex said, accidentally dropping the bloodied knife as he turned to face us.  Kees shakily sat up.

"Y... you-"  Kees tried to speak, but couldn't get much out before he vomited onto the floor. I ran up to him and kneeled beside him, wrapping an arm around him even if the blood stained my coat.

"It was you?!" I heard Thomas scream.

"No it's not-" Alex began, getting cut off by Annie as she tightly grabbed onto his wrist.

"Cut ya bullshit, no one 'ere's buyin' it." She snarled at him. 

I helped Kees up from his spot and brought him over to the couch in the living room.  Ally grabbed a medkit from the kitchen and helped patch up the wound on his back. 

Annie held onto Alex for a long time, watching over him carefully.  Even when she finally let go of his wrist, she kept a close eye on him, as did the rest of us.  We were only calm because we knew the Murderer could only kill people after the lights went out. 

But then, why would he try to attack Kees in broad daylight?  I have no clue, and I'm pretty sure no one else does either.  Both Kees and Alex refuse to talk about it, so we all just wait around for the day to pass. 

I was starting to get a nervous feeling in the pit of my gut, but I quickly brushed it aside.  Maybe the Medic could save someone tonight, then we'd be able to vote off Alex and be done.  And if they can't then... at least they would've tried, right? 

I looked up at the clock on the wall. It was already 1:40, just 20 minutes before the lights would go out again. I take a few deep breaths to try and ease my nerve, but the fear of death kept coming back and hitting me like a brick. I'll be honest, it's more terrifying than I ever thought of it to be, how one moment you could be living your best life and then all of a sudden just have it be thrown away in front of you, and it wouldn't even be up to you on whether it happened or not. 4 of us were already dead, how many more? Without thinking about it, my breathing started to become rapid. The noises of the outside world were drowned out, in fact, the pure sight of my surroundings faded away in my eyes. I fidgeted with my hands, trying everything in my strength to keep calm.

Is this what real fear is like?

Before I could truly begin to panic, I felt someone tap me on the shoulder. I jumped at first, but I turned around to notice it was just Jo. She had a couple of polaroid photos in her arms.

"Are you ok?" She asked, a hint of concern in her voice.

"Yeah, just kinda spaced out for a second." I lied, smiling nervously. I could tell she didn't buy it, but she didn't push on. Instead, she just sighed.

"Good. Vinny wanted me to process these so we could see the photos," Jo held up the pictures she had, "but I need to talk to Ally for a moment. He brought a couple of containers and a light, you think you could set it up for me while I'm busy?"

"Of course!" I chirp. At least now I'll have something to keep me busy. "Where do you want it?"

"The bedroom's fine." She said. "I would say the kitchen, but I don't want it to be out in the open for anyone to come and mess it up."

I nod and stand up. She hands me the photos and tells me Vinny left the rest of the items on the bed. Quickly, I make it to the bedroom and shut the door, locking it just to be safe. On the bed were a red-tinted lamp, a long plastic container, and a bottle of what I assumed to just be water. I set it on the ground next to the bed, since the bed shook around a lot.

A few minutes later, I had just finished setting up the photos when the lights went out. I could only tell because the lamp stopped working as well. Thankfully, I set it up near the back wall, so I had plenty of room to get up and hold onto the bed frame. I stayed where I was for a long while, not taking my eyes off the door for even a second. I locked it, didn't I? Yeah, I did. I should be ok.

And that's when I could hear the doorknob click like I hadn't done anything to it, and it slowly creaked open before me.