One minute, I'm asleep, and the next, Rena is screaming for me to wake up.  Startled, I sit up in bed next to my girlfriend and immediately see that she's hysterical and in tears.  I grab her hands and repeatedly tell her to relax, and that the van crash is behind us now.  At the sight of her frantically shaking her head, though, I know that something else is up.

"Rena, Rena please tell me what's wrong," I beg, squeezing her hands tightly.  

She takes deep breaths, but the tears are still spilling down her cheeks, and she's now coughing from the amount of crying she's done.  I still have no idea what's wrong until there's a knock on the door.  I kiss Rena's forehead before answering to see Marcus standing there, his tall, muscular stature slumped and shaking.

"We made a mistake," he rasps, his brown eyes looking everywhere but at me.  I stare at him, confused, until Rena finally approaches us.  Her face is still red and her eyes are still brimming with tears, but she's able to finally explain to me what's happening.

"We got a wakeup call," she whispers to me, grabbing my hand. "A wakeup threat, actually.  We were told to go down to the first floor immediately, or else."

"Then we should probably go," I respond, unsure how to react. "It's probably just... an inspection?"

Marcus and Rena both stare at me doubtfully, but trail after me as I lead the way to the elevator.  The ride down is somehow even more silent than the awkward one up from the night before.  When we arrive at the first floor, everyone else is already there, including a man I've never seen before.  He's middle-aged with dark blonde hair brushing the back of his neck, light facial hair, green eyes, and a forest green polo with khakis, a tie, a cowboy hat, and a badge attached to his shirt.  He's a sheriff, if it wasn't incredibly obvious already.  I notice that he fidgets with a silver band on his ring finger as his gaze flicks from person to person.

"Took you all long enough," a distorted voice comments dryly, scaring the f*ck out of everyone.  The owner of the voice slowly emerges from the shadows.

It's the same guy from the front desk, but now I can see that he wears a slightly red-stained gray face mask, and his eyes let off a faint strange red glow.  Odd.

"Welcome to Trivia Murder Party!  ...Well actually, it's Trivia Murder Party 2, but most of you won't really need to know all of that.  Anyways, you've unknowingly checked into my family's old murder hotel!  I sure hope you're all good with trivia, because that's your best chance of being the sole person making it out alive," he says.

"WHAT?!" Tori screeches.

"Hang on, this could just be... an immersive experience," Sora tries.

"Immerse in this, motherf*cker." The guy pulls out a gun.  

Tori screams even louder.

"Okay, let's dial it down, sweetheart.  I can't have you losing your voice before the game even starts.  Wait, I totally forgot to introduce myself!  You can call me [REDACTED]," the guy says.

"Well, [REDACTED], you're under arrest for-" The sheriff guy reaches for what I think is supposed to be a gun, but as soon as his face pales a few shades, I realize that his holster is empty.

[REDACTED] laughs.  "I've been murdering authority figures for years now, my guy.  Your gun has been confiscated.  And so has your ID, Sam Brown."

I see the pained expression on the sheriff's- Sam's- face, and he lets his shoulders slump as he glances from student to student.  The guilt radiating from him is overwhelming; I can tell that he wants to protect us.

"Anywho, the rules are simple.  I'll give you each a whiteboard and dry erase marker.  Then, I'll read off a trivia question and four answers.  Write down the correct answer before time runs out.  Those who get it wrong, well... we'll cross that creaky-*ss bridge when we come to it." [REDACTED] starts to hand out small whiteboards and markers.  When he gets to me and Rena, though, he stops.

"Hold this for a sec," he says, handing the whiteboard to Rena and the marker to me.  Before we can react, he pulls a rope out of his pocket and ties it around our waists.  We're now very much stuck together.

"Sorry, but it's an eight-player maximum," he shrugs. "But I'm willing to bet that you two won't mind being stuck together."

"Anyways, let's get this murder party started!" he continues, pulling a stack of red-stained index cards out of his pocket.  He flips through a few before settling for one and clearing his throat. "Which famous singer starred in the Disney Channel show Wizards of Waverly Place?  One, Selena Gomez, two, Demi Lovato, three, Miley Cyrus, or four, Ariana Grande?"

Rena and I exchange excited glances.  Wizards of Waverly Place was one of our show-binge night picks a while back, so of course we know that Selena Gomez starred in it.  I hand Rena the marker, and she draws a beautiful number one in her perfect handwriting.  We exchange relieved glances, and I feel her hand slip into mine.  

"Time's up!" [REDACTED] announces after a few seconds.  He peeks at each whiteboard one by one.  I hold my breath.  Maybe if we all got it right, then we can all go home.  Then, I remember what he said about only one person surviving.  

Well, sh*t.

[REDACTED] laughs as he passes by Benjamin at the end of the line. "Okie dokie!  Time for things to get fun... for me, of course!  Just follow me and don't wander."

Rena and I exchange frightened looks, then awkwardly try to crab-shuffle-whatever down the hallway.  Thankfully, Sora tries to help us along, which is how I manage to feel how shaky her hands are despite her calm expression.  We all file into a room that [REDACTED] herds us into.  What awaits us inside is nothing short of shocking.

That's right.

It's f*cking plinko.

"Time for some pegging!" our sadistic host announces, turning to wink at Sam. "Wanna go first, handsome?"

Sam looks appalled.  But before he can respond, [REDACTED] laughs, shaking his head.

"Nah, I'm just messing with you.  Anyhow, these rules are simple.  I give you a cute little color-coded chip, and you drop it into my board and try to avoid landing it in any of the death zones." He gestures to the bottom of the plinko board, where I notice that some slots are a bright scarlet with a skull printed on them.  Talk about ominous.

"So... you get a chip... you get a chip... oh, and lucky you!  You get a chip too..." [REDACTED] hands a purple token to Jarred, an orange one to Marcus, a gray one to Benjamin, and a red one to Den.  

Marcus is staring fearfully at Den.  I can't help but feel beyond horrible for the fourteen-year old.  I mean, I feel bad for everyone, but come on!  Den's got the unfair disadvantage of age!  The next youngest is Tori, and she's 17!  And god knows how old the sheriff is!

"And... drop 'em!"

I look up just in time to see the three boys and the smol genderless freshman drop their tokens, and watch as they bounce back and forth.  How the hell do those chips zigzag across the boards like f*cking ninjas or something?!  Well, it doesn't matter, because I'm practically having a heart attack watching the chips bounce back and forth between red and green.  Life and death, right?  Oh sh*t.  It is life and death.

The sound of a token finding a slot at last snaps me out of my thoughts.  Rena shakes me, pointing at where Marcus's chip is safely nestled in a green slot.  I exhale deeply, relieved.  Thank god.  As I'm thinking that, though, a purple chip decides to scare the hell out of me and practically bounces out of a red slot and into a green one.  I guess just like Jarred, his chip can not, for the likes of it, sit the F*CK STILL.  

When Den's chip goes into the green slot, I panic briefly because their chip is literally the color of death in this game.  I'm going to die of my sheer anxiety before anything else if this keeps going.  Thankfully, though, Benjamin's chip seems to have found its home in a slot at long last.  I locate it, and then my soul practically leaves my body.

It's in a red slot.

Oh f*ck, oh F*CK.

"I guess it'll have to do," [REDACTED] sighs dramatically as he pulls what seems to be some sort of gray doll with large button eyes from his pocket. "Hey, you know the saying 'do or die', right?  Well, you didn't 'do', so there's only one option left right now."

Benjamin seems to be trying to figure out what the hell is going on at the moment, but for once, it seems like his genius brain isn't assisting him.  For a split second, I actually believe that this has just been a sick prank after all.  Until the whole-*ss bear trap comes out of nowhere, and I'm splattered with blood.  Puzzled, I look to see a bear trap clamped down on the gray doll, and look up just in time to see the bloodied body of Benjamin drop to the ground, dead.  Blood still oozes from monstrous punctures across his body, exactly where the doll was pierced.  

I completely freeze up.  What the hell is happening.  What the HELL is happening?!  I can hardly even hear Tori's petrified screams, or feel Rena sobbing into me.  All I can do is stare at the dead body of someone who, just seconds before, was a living, breathing friend of mine.  

...I'm going to vomit.

(1618 words)

Betcha didn't expect this from me, huh.  Well Merry last few hours of Christmas!