Fifteen seconds left.

Each second that passed somehow seemed to go by too fast and drag on forever.

A billion thoughts filled up every ounce of Christine's brain at a rate faster than her heart was beating.

The ringing noise was too much. The throbbing headache was awful and Christine could almost feel the Squip overheating.

Maybe this was for the best. Christine didn't want to give up, but maybe this was her only option.

Christine had never heard a voice more annoying than that of whatever was doing the countdown.

Christine, surprised at how much she was able to think with the screeching in her head thought, "Why is this happening?"

Nothing like this has ever happened before with Squips, at least not that Christine's heard of.

She found it really strange that it was only going to affect Squips within a ten mile radius and not all of them.

The math really didn't add up for that one.

Twelve seconds left and the footsteps that kept getting neared stopped completely.

Ten seconds left.

Suddenly, an open bottle of Mountain Dew Red was slipped through the bars on Christine's door. The noise it made on the floor forced Christine to open her eyes. She darted forward and grabbed the bottle.

Christine chugged the remaining contents of the bottle and was met with an sharp,  excruciating headache.

Then, everything stopped.

All of Christine's thoughts were calm, there was no more screeching, no more countdown.

Just complete and utter silence.

Christine was honestly expecting some guilt from all of the things she's done, but there was nothing.

The Squip was right. All of that evil stuff, all of the hurting others was all Christine. The Squip had zero part in that and Christine didn't regret anything.

Christine heard someone clear their throat, so she looked up.

Her heart still hadn't stopped pounding.

Outside of Christine's cell, on the other side of the door, stood the security guard that seemed scared when Christine mentioned Mountain Dew Red.

What Christine didn't know was that soon after that encounter, the guard started experiencing the same overly loud shriek in his head.

"I had one too," the guard told Christine, the confession followed by silence.

"You did?"

"Yeah, I did. I got here as fast as I could, I almost thought it would be too late. I'm sorry I didn't make it sooner."

Christine laughed a little. "It's okay."

She wondered why the ringing and countdown didn't stop whenever the guard drank the Mountain Dew, considering the Squips were all deactivated after the play, including Rich's.

"By the way, you can call me Nick."

"Okay," Christine responded, unsure of what to say.

Nick shuffled uncomfortably as he stood there, before deciding what to say.

"So, how did you land yourself in here?"

"Shouldn't you know? You do work here."

"Nah, the stuffs confidential"

"Okay. Long story short, I dated this guy, was abusive to him and his friend, and then he broke up with me when he caught me cheating.

Nick butted in. "Well, that's not exactly illegal, is it?"

"Uh... no, but I wasn't finished." Christine gave him a look to see if he would interrupt her again, but he held his arms up in defense.

"After he broke up with me, I tied his friend up, cut him up a bit and left him there."

Nick's eyes widened in surprise of what the tiny girl was capable of.

Christine didn't notice this and continued. "He was brought into the hospital and I was arrested, but I escaped from this dump, went back to school and told everyone I was bailed."

"How did you..."

"Why do you think I'd tell you?"

"Good point."

"Anyways, the friend left his almost dead phone in the classroom and I texted my ex on there before the phone died. The friend came back and grabbed his phone, but I don't think he could find a charger. I met my ex where I told him to when I was disguised as his friend, and he tried to run away. So, I shot his foot, cut him up with some freshly sharpened knives and left him in the park."

The guard raised his eyebrow at how violent the girl was.

"Then, I almost drank Mountain Dew Red and didn't before, then I was arrested after hiding. However, the Squip instructed me on how to hide one of those strike on everything matches in my hair. I still wasn't finished hurting the two so after a while I burned down my cell- remember the fire here?"

"Yeah, I did," Nick replied whilst nodding his head.

"So I got in the hospital and threatened them to give me Mountain Dew Red, but they decided to be assholes and refused. This was after my dad who was a doctor stabbed my ex, by the way."

"W-what?"

"You heard me. Then after like a week in the hospital- which was totally unfair- I was brought back here."

Overall, the guard seemed pretty unfazed with slightly biased version of the story Christine told.

He was about to say goodbye and walk away when Christine suddenly thought of something she really wanted to know.

"Um... one more thing. Can I ask why you got a Squip in the first place?"

"You can ask, but I won't answer," Nick replied before walking down the opposite way through the dark hall.

Christine could hear his footsteps walking away, and then the noise faded into nothingness.

For the first time in a while, Christine was truly alone.

A/N: I'm expecting people to be mad at me keeping Christine alive, whoops.