Epilogue:

Out of The Ashes

I wake to the glimmering stars in the sky graced with smoke.

I, despite of my groaning joints, get up to find the walls of Carter Hollow Academy, burned to the ground. I see sirens flashing in the distance and I dusted off my tattered suit and rubbed a weary hand through my messy, ash-filled hair as I watched the smoke slowly drift off in the cool night air. That's when I get up and soon I see the corpses, all burnt and lifeless.

Destiny Harkon, the librarian, was a troubled soul who had come to learn her courage to be happy for the students and the staff. Jane Rundolf, the vice principal, would not be forgotten as her bravery to risk her life lasted until the very end. Adam Black, a student, I had suspected him as Trace for a while, but judging by his corpse, he was not who I thought he was.

I walk close to a police car, where I see Leonidas Ramirez, he was the other I suspected. Judging by his handcuffed hands, I soon understand that he was the one who had killed fifteen of the twenty four lost to the game that was played.

I walk away and soon see the two teenagers huddled under a tree.

Bryn Hafer and Ariadne Rane was clutching each other, presumably comforting each other as they had lost the friends they had shared good memories with before the end of the end began with the fire. Adam and Danielle, killed by the other friend they had.

Leonidas Ramirez was certainly a teenager who would not be forgotten by so many people. I don't hate him for destroying many lives, I only blame him for it. That's when Bryn raised his head to meet my eyes. His eyes widen and I watch him and Ariadne, who also has her eyes on me. That's when I leave them toward the police crowd.

A familiar voice hits my senses as I walk closer to the police crowd around the collapsed entrance of Carter Hollow.

"You guys are giving me a migraine and I need a break!" Arabella Blackwell yells over the crowd. One police officer enquiries to her, "Do you know where Mr. Bennett is?"

That's when I took my chance and called out, "I'm here and alive as well."

That sentence brings a shocking silence over the crowd. Then Arabella calls out, "Adam!" as she rushes toward me. "Arabella, it's a pleasure to see you again." I smile with a crooked smile.

That's when the long night began.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
I sat on the deck of Arabella's beach house, wearing a collared shirt and pants that I was able to obtain from my suitcase that I had left away from the fire.

I flipped through my belongings as I thought.

"Well that was some dramatic changes we had," Arabella grumbles as she walks out with two mugs of coffee.

"You weren't kidding. This definitely painted a whole new world for me. Although that world is similar to a world I had discovered before," I said back as I sipped from my mug of coffee.

"Well, what are your plans now that you're out of a job?" Arabella inquiries in which I promptly answer, "Home. How about you?"

"Well my grandfather has started to cut some stress off my back so I think I'm going to go somewhere too," Arabella replies.

I think for a silent moment before I ask her, "Would you consider coming with me?"

"Sure, we are friends after all. And I'll go anywhere away from this goddamn hellhole," She mutters the second sentence under her breath and I hold back a snicker.

I look out into the ocean, "Well I agree with you. We need to get away from this hellhole," at which Arabella smiles.

The trace of an old era was falling back behind as the dawn broke beyond the horizon.

Author's Note:
This epilogue is an alternate ending to the actual contest's ending. Also if I feel like it, there could possibly be a sequel to this epilogue.