[Chapter 2 - Leave no stone unturned]

(Grian's POV)

Silence hung heavy in the air. Not the good kind either. It was the kind that sucked all energy and life out of everything around it.

And right now, that was all it was. No-one dared to utter a word, them either being too scared to say anything, or, them not being present.

Xisuma was the first to break the silence. "Wha- how could- why..?"

It was as if he had read everyone's thoughts at the moment. Or at least, mine.

A firm hand clasped onto my shoulder. I flinched, and looked up the person. It was False, her expression... empty..

She didn't say anything, just sitting there with me. I didn't know if it was just shock, or if she actually knew Pearl before this all happened, but her aura almost gave off a chilling effect.

"Look."

I looked toward, while grateful for the conversation, her tone was off putting.

"Get up. No use staying in one spot." She lifted me up by my arm, forcing my numb legs to work. Her own voice had a slight shake to it, like she was doing her best to keep her emotions intact.

I look across the room at everyone, taking in their reactions. Phil was consoling his son, same with Skeppy and Bad. Sam was practically biting his thumb off as he bit his thumbnail, most of everyone else was like me, stunned silence.

But Taurtis... oh Taurtis. The poor man was a complete wreck. Large tears streamed down his face, he gently held Pearl's head in his hand as his cries of mourning filled the room.

Mumbo looked completely distraught, and pacing back and forth. "This wasn't supposed to happen... why..?" His voice was quiet and shaky.

I went up to him, and like False did, sat beside and tried to calm him down. It took a while, but he eventually came to his senses and listened.

<POV shift, Zedaph>

I sprinted down the halls, running towards what should've been the exit. I had to find a way out! I could let anyone else die to this person's hands.

You can almost imagine my horror when the doors didn't budge at all. Instead, there was an electronic beeping and my hand was jabbed with something sharp.

Damn it! That hurt! A thin line of blood flowed freely from the new wound. What's worse, I began to feel light-headed. I put a hand on my chest as I began to feel sick. My chest began to burn, like something was attacking it from the inside out.

I coughed violently, wiping my hand on my mouth. I looked at it and gasped, I saw something you'd never want to see.

Blood, speckles of it dotted on my hand. Why was I coughing up blood?! I need to warn the others...

I wearily lifted myself up, trying not fall over as I got progressively weaker and weaker.

Gotta warn the others.

Gotta.. warn the others.

Gotta warn...

My already weakened legs gave out just inside the main room where everyone was.  I could hear a familiar voice (Mumbo, I think) asking what had happened. I couldn't see anything, it was just a mess of color, blurring together into things my jumbled mind couldn't comprehend.

Exhausted, I only managed to slur out a simple warning. "Door locked, don't.. try it...."

Darkness consumed me.

<POV shift, False>

Everyone sat in silent shock at Zedaph's last words. What did he mean? Would we really be trapped here until we died?

The blonde man with a young boy spoke up. "Alright, we should split off into groups of three. We have better chance of discovering somethings to help us."

I stifled a scoff. Had he seen any horror movies? Usually when people splits up, that's when more die. Regardless, I kept my mouth shut.

Everyone spilt off into their respective groups, myself going Taurtis and Grian.

I didn't know Taurtis outside of what I'd learned about him tonight. Grian, on the other hand, was chatting with him like they were old friends. Grian kept his tone soft however, as to not make Taurtis even more upset.

Outside of tonight, he was usually pretty social. Constantly interacting with other people from our team and other's in the lab. But tonight he had been nervous, maybe because there'd be so many people he didn't know, or the fact it was his old friend who threw the party.

The second floor was much different than the first. There were multiple rooms, I think I counted 30 at least. But only half were bedrooms. But still, 15 bedrooms is still a lot. To be honest,  the entire second floor felt like a big maze, and I'm not a fan of mazes.

It was 1 a.m. when we finally called it quits. We had been searching for 3 hours already, and still found nothing but a bunch of rooms.

We got back together on the main floor and went over what we found. Phil, Bad, and Tommy(? I think) had found a hidden door inside one of the spare bedrooms. They said that it could be a passageway that the killer used.

Stress, Impulse, and Tango had been working to repair the phone lines to call for help. Unfortunately, they deduced that the lines had been completely cut, and since the electrical box was outside, there was no easy way to fix it.

The rest had been as lucky as our group, and had found nothing. With nothing else to working with, we decided to get some sleep. Phil suggested that we stay in our group, and have two people each stay up in shifts to keep watch.

We went to the second floor to choose rooms, which quickly became first come, first served. Me, Grian, and Taurtis ended up getting one of the bedrooms at the back.

We did a rock-paper-scissors tournament to see who would sleep first, which I ended up winning. I did my best to settle into the bed, picking up some of Grian and Taurtis's conversation. It sounded like they were talking about video games.

I let my eyes drift shut, although I don't think I actually fell asleep for another hour. Too many thoughts running through my head.

What's going to happened to us?

Why is this happening to us?

Is there even a way to escape?

What if Grian-...

I forced those dark thoughts out of my head, I refused to believe them.

Guess I just have to hope and pray things will be okay.

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Hello guys! How you all doing?

You know how I asked a little question on my message board? Well, here were the results!

Option #1: Have the next person to die be Xisuma. Votes: 0

Option #2: Have the next person to die be Philza. Votes: 0

Option #3: Have the next person to die be Zedaph. Votes: 2

Option #4: Have the next person to die be Grian. Votes: 0

That what y'all were voting for. (I'm sorry I love Zedaph really, it was hard to write his dead scene).