"YAAAHOOO!!!" MonoWither exclaimed, spinning around in the air with jubilation. "THAT WAS A SHOCKER!!!"

Everyone watched as Seth's smoking body laid there on the floor. Some people were screaming in shock and horror. Others were rooted to the spot, unable to say a word.

Seto ran forward to the still-twitching body and knelt down, grasping Seth's limp arm. He gagged and fought down the urge to vomit when he caught the putrid scent of burning flesh. Seth's body was still warm due to the electrical heat.

The rest of the people crowded around Seth, staring down at the body with horrified silence. Jade stood behind Seto and looked at Seth. "Why?!" the 16-year-old shrieked, burying her face in her hands. "Why, why, why?!"

Seto quickly felt for a pulse. Perhaps there was still a chance... "Teehee!" MonoWither giggled. "Why are you even trying, Seto? There's no way he survived that-"

All of a sudden, Seth coughed weakly as he sputtered back to life.

"What?!" MonoWither exclaimed, their smiles fading. "How is that even-"

"Seth?!" Seto said, gasping in pleasant surprise as he placed a hand under Seth's back and lifted it slightly, resting it on his legs. He cradled Seth's head in his hands. A bubble of hope rose in everyone's hearts as they watched Seth move, albeit slowly. Jade raised her face from her hands and stared at Seth, her eyes wide in disbelief. It was nothing short of a miracle.

"Ggh..." Seth struggled to speak through the random convulsions that wracked his body.

"Stay with us!" Jordan pleaded, kneeling down beside Seth and grabbing his hand tightly. "Come on, just hang in there! You can do this!"

"I..." Seth coughed and spluttered, staring up at Seto. "I- I- I'm... s-s-s-o-o-o-r-r-r-y-y-y..."

 "No, it's okay! Just don't leave us!!!" Tyler begged. "Please Seth!"

"I... re... mem... ber... ev... ery... thing..." Seth mumbled breathlessly. His eyes were wild and frantic, as though it was imperative that he say these words before his final moments.

"Remember what?" Seto asked, realizing that the miracle wasn't going to last much longer...

"H-H-Hen..." Seth uttered weakly, his lungs rattling in his chest as he inhaled. His voice was a mere whisper now and Seto struggled to catch what he was saying. "Hen... is... jay..."

"What?" Seto asked. "What did you say?"

Seth lifted his trembling finger and pointed at Seto's head. "Hen...'s... jay..." Seth took one last shuddering breath and his finger dropped to the floor. He went completely still and his dark, vacant eyes widened, as though in his final moments he had seen something vastly beyond what the living could see... 

"Seth? SETH!" Jordan yelled, shaking the body, but there was no response. "NO! COME BACK!!!" Sobbing, he laid his head on Seth's chest.

Seto desperately felt for a pulse in Seth's neck, searching for any sign that Seth was still alive somewhere, but there was none.

"Seto?" Sky whispered. Seto looked up and realized that there were tears running down Sky's cheeks. "Is... he really...?" He couldn't bring himself to say the word "dead". Seto bit his lip and closed his eyes, bowing his head in sorrow. His lack of a reply said it all. "N-No..." Sky stammered, taking a few steps back.

It slowly dawned on everyone that Seth, their friend who had been alive just a few seconds ago, was now a lifeless corpse. "Oh god...!" Annie shrieked, covering her mouth with her hands.

Jade emitted a loud wail and buried her face in her hands once again.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" Ryan yelled at MonoWither, completely pale. "Why would you kill him?!"

"Because he broke the rules!" MonoWither replied, their smiles even larger than before. "And a simple electric chair is too boring for a reality TV show... This kind of capital punishment needs to be extreme! Exciting! SHOCKING!!!"

"You're fucking sick!!!" Jordan shouted, tears running down his cheeks as he balled his hands into fists. "Seth didn't deserve that at all!!!"

"Aw, don't any of you appreciate the irony that the Super Duper Minecrafter Level Redstone Mechanic was offed by the usage of a pressure plate carefully calibrated to react to Seth's specific weight?!" MonoWither asked. "Anybody?"

"You've had your fun, okay?!" Jason yelled, shaking where he stood. "Now p-please let us out!"

"Before any murders have been committed? This is only a mere fraction of the fun that's about to commence!"

"You've already killed one of us!" Mitch shouted, instinctively standing protectively in front of Jerome as though the bacca was going to be MonoWither's next target (again). "What more do you want?!"

MonoWither cackled. "AHAHAHA!!! This Wither isn't quite satisfied yet!"

"What are you getting out of this?!" Steven demanded fearfully.

"What are we getting? Well... Since one of you has actually kicked the bucket..." MonoWither's three red eyes gleamed. "Now you know just how serious we are about these rules... Clearly Jerome's near-death wasn't enough..."

"But why are you doing this to us?!" Jerome asked desperately.

"Why? Because it's fun and the audience is going to love it!"

"...I'm absolutely done listening to your bullshit." Ashley growled before she tried to lunge at MonoWither. She was held back by Annie and Bodil.

"Woah, that was a close one, Ashley!" MonoWither noted. "You almost broke the same rule that Seth broke! Didn't Seth's death teach you anything?"

"How can you talk about Seth so casually?!" Tyler asked, repulsed.

"Ugh, stop asking all these irrelevant questions! He broke the rules, we punished him for it. That's all there is to it! Oh! And speaking of breaking the rules... SETO!!!" Seto jumped at the sound of his name being yelled and turned to MonoWither. "You also broke a rule!"

All the blood drained from Seto's face and his eyes widened. "Wh-What?!"

"Rule Number 3: Sleeping is only permitted in the personal rooms prepared for you in the filming area. Anyone intentionally falling asleep elsewhere will be punished," MonoWither recited. "You fell asleep in the elevator shaft and thus violated the rule! And you know what that means..."

Everyone reacted with panic. "No!" Bodil shrieked in desperation. "Not Seto too!"

Bonks was close to having a anxiety attack. "You can't!"

"You already killed Seth!" Husky screamed hysterically.

"Rules are rules! What kind of hosts would we be if we didn't enforce them properly?!"

Sky immediately pulled Seto up and stood in front of him protectively. "Not on my watch..." Sky hissed. "If you want to get to him, you'll have to go through me first!"

"If we were you, Sky, we'd stay out of this! After all, you'd be no good to your family dead!" Sky's eyes widened but he kept his stance.

"I- I didn't violate the rule!" Seto said as he struggled to defend himself and come up with a proper justification. He stared at Seth's body, which was still lying unceremoniously on the floor, and realized that this could very well be him soon if he didn't act fast...

"Is that so?" MonoWither asked, tilting their three heads to the side. "Explain yourself..."

Seto thought rapidly. "Rule Number 3: Sleeping is only permitted in the personal rooms prepared for you in the filming area. Anyone intentionally falling asleep elsewhere will be punished. You fell asleep in the elevator shaft and thus violated the rule!"

Something clicked in Seto's mind. Intentionally? No, that was wrong!

>>>—INTENTIONALLY-FALLING-ASLEEP—> ((VIOLATED THE RULE))

"No, I didn't violate the rule... Because I didn't fall asleep intentionally!" Seto argued, attempting to keep his voice steady. "I really just wanted to be alone, but I ended up falling asleep by accident because I didn't get much sleep last night! So I didn't break the rule!"

"Hmm... Hmm..." MonoWither thought aloud.

"Please listen to him..." Jade whispered.

"By a popular vote of three, we will see whether your argument is valid..." MonoWither paused for a moment before cackling. "I see, I see! Here is your verdict! Two out of the three of us..." Everyone held their breath as they waited. MonoWither delayed the announcement to savor the pleading, desperate look on Seto's face. "...voted you not guilty of violating Show Regulation #3!"

Everyone sighed in relief. "Count yourself lucky, Seto!" MonoWither said. "Our dark side wanted you dead!" The black head proceeded to open its fanged mouth and release a beastly, glitchy-sounding growl that made Seto flinch. "But in the end we decided that keeping you alive would provide more entertainment for the audience!"

Seto's eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean by that?"

"That doesn't matter! Just be glad that you're still alive, unlike Seth! As for everyone else: Remember what you saw in these videos! Think about it real hard!" MonoWither laughed. "I can't wait to see who will break first..." And with that, MonoWither disappeared.

Sky had his hands balled into fists. "That... bastard..." he hissed.

Bart walked over and knelt beside Seth's body. The Enderman picked the corpse up and placed him on the nearby table. Steven slowly closed Seth's eyes so that it looked like he was merely sleeping peacefully. Bonks grabbed Seth's red hat from the floor and gave it to Bodil, who placed it on Seth's chest. Annie moved his hands so that they were laid over the hat.

Everyone stood there, solemnly mourning the passing of their friend. It wasn't a proper funeral, but it would have to do.

"He was so smart..." Jordan said, smiling through his tears as he reminisced about the memories. "He always had some new invention to show me..."

"He loved building stuff..." Annie said quietly.

"I remember he said that he wanted to build something that would help the world..." Husky said.

"Seth was trying to save all of us..." Jerome said, trying to honor what Seth had done.

"And MonoWither killed him for it..." Ashley murmured.

"The world... lost a valuable person today..." Jason said, bowing his head.

Jade, unable to take everything, suddenly burst into tears and ran out of the room.

Slowly, one by one, they all filed out of the computer room and went their separate ways.

~~~

It was 3 in the afternoon now. No one had the stomach to eat lunch. Most people just went back to their rooms to think about all that had transpired. Seto laid on his bed, staring listlessly at the ceiling. Seth's screams of agony and the loud buzzing sounds as the electricity fried his insides echoed in his mind. He shut his eyes tightly and took a deep breath.

It had been so long since he'd seen someone die.

"Hen... is... jay..."

"Hen...'s... jay..."

What in the world had Seth meant by that? Hens and jays were both birds, but what did birds have to do with anything?

Maybe Seto was just overthinking things. After all, it was very likely that Seth had been delirious by then, and wasn't thinking straight at all. But for some reason, he couldn't get those dying words out of his mind...

Suddenly, someone knocked on the door. Seto got up wearily and opened it. "Sky?"

Sky looked perplexed about something. "I... I went back to my room and I realized that my golden sword wasn't there anymore. It doesn't make sense, I mean, I locked my door and everything..."

"What? Are you sure you didn't leave it somewhere?"

Sky nodded. "I'm positive I left it on my table this morning. Do you think someone stole it?"

"W-Why would anyone steal your sword?" Seto asked nervously. They both knew why though. "Well... Maybe we should ask the others if they've seen it somewhere..."

"Good idea."

"Let's start with Mitch and Jerome first, since they also brought weapons here," Seto suggested.

They walked down the hallway when all of a sudden Sky stopped and turned to look at something on the wall. Seto stopped as well and gasped. Seth's nameplate now had a crimson "X" painted over it. "That... That monster..." Sky whispered.

Seto grabbed his shoulder and steered him away. He knocked on Mitch's door, but there was no reply. He knocked again, but this time harder. Still no response. "Maybe he's in Jerome's room?" Sky suggested.

Seto knocked on Jerome's door. A few seconds later, Jerome opened it. "Hey..." the bacca greeted, stepping to the side so they could walk in. Mitch, who was sitting on the bed, waved halfheartedly at them. Jerome sat back down next to him, both of their expressions heavy.

Sky and Seto sat down on chairs. "Are your weapons gone?" Sky asked.

Mitch raised his eyebrows. "How did you know?"

"My diamond axe, Mitch's diamond sword, and his bow and arrows all went missing," Jerome explained.

"My sword's missing too," Sky said.

Mitch and Jerome looked at each other, trying to figure out what this all meant.

"When did you find out they were missing?" Seto asked.

"When we went back to our rooms," Jerome replied.

"Same here..." Sky said, rubbing his amulet absentmindedly.

"It can't be a coincidence, so it pretty much confirms that someone actually broke into our rooms and stole them," Mitch said.

"But when? And how?" Jerome asked. "The last time we saw them was this morning. The only time someone could have stole them was during breakfast and when we were looking for Seto. But even then, we locked our rooms..." No one could think of any answers.

"...I hate to say it, but... maybe we should ask MonoWither..." Seto suggested reluctantly. "He probably knows what happened to them..."

Mitch visibly paled. "I-I'd rather not, especially after he-"

"You called?!"

Jerome flinched the moment he saw MonoWither appear and Mitch instinctively grabbed the bacca's arm. Sky clenched his fists. Seto sighed loudly. "Yes, I did."

"Oh! This is so wonderful! Seto-senpai actually noticed us!" MonoWither exclaimed ecstatically, spinning around in circles. "What does Seto-sama want from us?!"

Seto gestured to Sky, Jerome, and Mitch. "What happened to their weapons?"

"...What if we said that we didn't know?"

"Then you'd be a liar as well as a murderer," Seto said tersely, speaking through his teeth.

"Aw, you got us... Hmm, maybe it's best if we make this an announcement..." Suddenly the speakers turned on. "Hello, remaining Super Duper Minecrafter participants! This is an announcement for the 15 of you!" Mitch grit his teeth and growled in anger at the emphasis of "remaining" and "15". "If any of you brought weapons with you upon your arrival, they have all been confiscated by yours truly! Why? Because if we didn't, then you would have an unfair advantage over the others! But don't fret; killing items are sold at the MonoWither Shop near the computer room! Some of you may have already started collecting WitherCoins, which you can find hidden in all sorts of places! Use them to buy whatever tools you need for a proper murder. That's all for now! You may resume your murder planning!"

"That's why you took our weapons?!" Jerome asked. "Because of 'unfair advantages'?!"

"Yep!" MonoWither said happily. "But don't worry. You'll get them back once you end the show! Oh dear, but Seto still has the upper hand over everyone else..."

Seto looked confused. "What?"

"After all, you're the Super Duper Minecrafter Level Sorcerer! We can't take away your powers... Maybe we should have punished you after all..." MonoWither turned to the rest of the four. "Perhaps you should all keep your distance! You never know what he might be thinking inside that pretty little head of his!" The black-and-white Wither turned to Seto, their red eyes gleaming. "Or what dark, terrible secrets he might be keeping..."

Seto shuddered when he saw MonoWither's smiles widen, as though they did know his secret. But there was no way they actually knew, right? MonoWither was probably just joking around in their own sick, twisted way again...

"Seto would never kill anyone," Sky said, glaring at MonoWither. "None of us will."

MonoWither giggled. "Puhuhu... Keep on believing that..." the middle head said, before they all disappeared.

"I wish we had destroyed that thing..." Mitch murmured. Suddenly Jerome's face turned melancholy and he lowered his head. Mitch noticed and looked concerned. "Jerome?" 

Jerome fidgeted with his paws. "If- If I hadn't gotten poisoned back then... do you think we could have defeated MonoWither... and Seth wouldn't have..."

"Jerome!" Mitch said, grabbing his shoulders. "I told you to stop thinking that!"

"It's not your fault at all, Jerome," Sky said. "It's MonoWither's. They're the one who trapped us here in the first place."

"That, and I'm pretty sure that whoever is controlling MonoWither has spares," Seto pointed out.

"...What makes you say that?" Jerome asked.

"Because it'd be too easy for someone to just sneak up behind MonoWither and just smash him with something. MonoWither is a machine, not a living creature, after all. If someone tried destroying it, and the controller didn't have a spare, then everything would go down the drain."

"I'm still trying to understand why someone would trap us here and make us kill each other..." Sky said.

"There are crazy, sadistic people everywhere. Sometimes they just can't be explained," Mitch said. "If I ever meet this guy, he's going to be in for a world of pain, trust me."

"I'm just worried about how we're supposed to get out of here..." Jerome admitted.

"We wait," Seto said. "We wait until we're rescued or we find an opportunity to escape this place, with or without confronting MonoWither."

Sky nodded. "That's our best bet. We have no proof those videos are real in the first place."

Jerome stared at the floor gloomily. "If... If you say so..."

No one noticed as Mitch reached into his pocket and felt for the dozen or so WitherCoins he had collected so far. His amber eyes hardened.

~~~

Seto entered the cafeteria to grab a quick bite when he saw Jade sitting at the tables. She was shuffling a deck of poker cards, shuffling them over and over again, as she stared at the table with a blank expression. The cards seemed be in sync with her hand movements as she shuffled them repeatedly in all sorts of ways.

Seto was about to ask her if she was okay but then realized what a stupid question that would be. Of course she wasn't okay. No one was okay. After all that had happened just that afternoon... Seth... Those videos...

Seto sat down in the seat in front of her. "Why do you have cards?" Seto asked, hoping to temporarily take her mind off the traumatic experiences.

Jade squared the deck in her hands. "I'm part of the magic club at school," she said quietly. "I bring my cards everywhere. I'm not really good at actually doing the tricks, though. I usually mess it up somehow." She spread the cards faceup on the table in one neat row. Her voice was almost monotone. "Every shuffle creates a different order. The number of different orders of a card deck is 52 factorial. The likelihood that you will ever, in your entire life, encounter the same order by randomly shuffling is extremely unlikely." She brought the cards together and squared them again. "Sometimes... I think that Fate is a card player, always shuffling the deck of our lives... And we can't control what order we get. We just have to go with what we have..."

Then Jade shook her head and blinked rapidly, looking at Seto as though she had just realized that he was there. "I- I'm sorry, I don't know why I said all that-"

"-it's all right," Seto said.

Jade stared at her lap. "Why do you think that Fate, or whoever's up there, would let Seth come back to life, only to end it again?"

"...I don't know," Seto admitted.

"It's just too cruel... But then again, the world's always been a cruel place, right? I think the hardest part about being a writer is describing all the goodness, the badness, and all the stuff in between..." The 16-year-old put the deck down on the table and paused to collect her thoughts. "Seto, will we ever get out of this place?"

"I'm sure we will..." Seto said hesitantly. Then he tried to sound more confident. "Yes, we will get out of here. We just have to think positively! The people outside will come rescue us eventually."

"And... if they don't?"

"If the people outside can't help us, then we'll just have to find a way to escape ourselves."

Jade thought about this for awhile before smiling slightly. "You're right. We just have to keep on working together."

"Oh no, Seto!!!"

Seto and Jade jumped as they turned to face the black-and-white Wither. "What the hell are you doing here?!" Seto demanded.

"Y- Your magic wand!" MonoWither said, panicking.

"His what?" Jade asked, bewildered.

"His magic wand! I can see it! It's rising! It's growing bigger and bigger! It looks like it's about to burst!"

Jade looked extremely uncomfortable and Seto turned an angry shade of red. "The fuck is wrong with you?!" he yelled, disgusted.

"You should be asking yourself that! After all, Jade's underage and you're in your 20s!"

"Get out of here!!! Stop saying perverted stuff!"

"I'm just saying that such inappropriate behavior is unacceptable for TV! Please keep all romantic pursuits PG-rated!"

Jade shifted awkwardly and Seto had the urge to blast MonoWither to smithereens. He was fuming by now. "Just go away and leave us alone!!!"

"Okay fine, but I just wanted to remind you that Night Time is in half an hour! You wouldn't want to be locked in here for the whole night without being able to sleep, now would you? Sleeping would be breaking the rules, and I don't think you could talk your way out of that..." MonoWither grinned and disappeared.

"He manages to aggravate me every time somehow," Seto said, clenching his fist.

"He scares me," Jade admitted. "Well, actually, the person controlling him scares me. I mean, those videos..." She looked at Seto. "...You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but what did you see in your video?"

Seto shivered. "Brice, Kyle, and Ty... They were dead..." He decided to spare her the gory details.

They suddenly heard a loud crashing sound and turned to see Sky in the kitchen.

Seto immediately ran over to him. "Sky, what happened?"

Sky's arms were crossed over his chest as he stood over a shattered plate on the floor, shivering. His reply was hushed. "N-Nothing, I just... heard what you said... about your video..."

"...Oh..."

Sky forced a grim smile. "It's okay. Those videos aren't real anyway. There's no way."

He knelt down to pick up the shards, but Seto raised his hand. "It's all right, I got this." With a sweep of his hand, all the pieces levitated in the air. Seto moved the pieces over to the trash can and dropped them in.

"Thanks Seto," Sky said, placing his hands in his pockets. "You didn't have to."

Seto shrugged. "It was no problem."

"You know, I don't think I was hungry in the first place..." Sky said.

"...Sky... What did you see in your video?" Seto asked tentatively.

Sky stared at the wall and fidgeted with his amulet. "...I don't want to talk about it."

"All right."

Sky yawned. "I'm actually pretty tired right..."

Seto realized how hard it was for him to keep his eyes open. "Yeah, same... It's almost Night Time anyway."

They walked out of the kitchen. Seto noticed that Jade had left the cafeteria, probably to go back to her room as well. They made their way into the hallway with their personal rooms. "Well, good night," Sky said. "See you tomorrow."

"Good night, Sky," Seto said as he entered his room and shut the door.

Seto removed his cloak and laid on the bed. It was unnerving to him just how well he was adapting to living in this place.

"You see, Seto, you and I are different from the rest of the world. We're the strong ones, the ones that will survive and outlast the weak..."

Seto involuntarily punched his other arm and inhaled sharply. Why in the world was he thinking about that now? He didn't want to remember him...

The day had been emotionally exhausting for him. He closed his eyes as he drifted off into an uneasy sleep full of nightmares.

~~~

MONOWITHER THEATER

The first person to survive a botched execution by electrocution was Willie Francis, who killed a pharmacy owner. He was 17 when he was deemed guilty of murder and sentenced to capital punishment. However, the executioners drank a little too much that night, and when they strapped the boy in and turned on the juice, the boy didn't die! He kept screaming, "Take it off! Take it off! I can't breathe!" I bet he had the total shock of his life! They claimed that it was a miracle that he survived!

They finally tried executing him again a year later. He sure didn't survive that time!

It just goes to show that there's no escaping one's punishment...