The only thing that could describe it was dark confusion.

A huge, slightly dirty potato stood upon the stand, a brown, leather hat resting upon it. Half of the weird living vegetable was seemingly painted with a deep coal black, a dark, powerful red symbol of some kind resting in what I guess you could say...    Where the eye socket would be? I'm not sure, I don't know how to give human features to something such as a potato...

"Wow, isn't it amazing! To see these people in person! Up close! To interact for the first time in forever! And, in the most desirable way!"

"...You made it sound like you were gonna violate us against our will." Zoë stared. A couple people looked at her like she didn't even know who she was. Honestly, I'm guessing I also did.

"Oh quiet now Zoë. Anyways, I am here to inform you about a couple of major things!"

...What is he talking about?

"There is no way out of here. So to that search group that I noticed earlier: Great job at failing to figure that out earlier!"

...

Oh.

I guess I should have known...

"No way out?" Freddy stared at the potato sceptically.

"Mhm! Great idea, isn't it?"

"Not really, Mr. Half-Burnt Bad-Smelling Vegetable."

"Ugh! Didn't I make myself clear earlier? My name is Monopotato!"

"Hold on a minute!" Suzy called out, "You're telling us that there's no way whatsoever to leave this building?"

"Indeed I am, Suzy! That is my great idea! Although, there is one way to leave."

"...And what is that?" I heard Danny ask.

"It's simple! Kill another participant among you! Just as long as you have offed someone else here in cold blood or not, and you have gotten away with it, you are more than free to walk out of this building!"

...I felt like I wanted to vomit after hearing that.

M-Murder? What...    Is wrong with this...   Th-Thing?!

With watery eyes and a clouded head, I slowly looked around at the others. I could see George hugging himself, trying not to shed any tears, while Emily was clinging onto her trunk. Suzy seemed to be freaking out internally, and Gerald was visibly disgusted. And all the time, Monopotato was just laughing his bloody head off.

"Haha- Ahahah...    Now then, I have one more thi-"

"Hold on."

"...What?"

"I don't believe you."

We all turned to the bearer of the voice, who happened to be...       Rebecca.

"Are you seriously saying that...      A potato of all things can force us to kill each other like this? This- This is ridiculous! Surely there's someone out there w-who- you know- Is concerned about us being missing!"

"I can happily argue against that, 'mam, but-"

"NO! NO BUTS! I DON'T BELIEVE YOU!"

Without warning, Rebecca charged towards Monopotato at an extreme speed. Monopotato only smirked, before reaching his arm out.

Everything suddenly went white. Harsh ringing paraded through my ears as my eyes fought against the blinding light. I held my hands over my face as I tried to get used to the white.

And eventually, I did.

It wasn't a pretty sight.

Monopotato had moved to the centre of the courtyard, holding Rebecca by the neck with one arm, the other one bearing what seemed to be a kitchen knife. A harsh slice laid on Rebecca's cheek, blood dripping out onto her fur and eventually falling onto the grass floor.

The look on Rebecca's face said everything.

Monopotato eventually let go of Rebecca, hiding the knife behind his back. Richard rushed to Rebecca's side, followed by Zoë as Rebecca coughed some heavy breaths.

"...You're lucky it's so early in the game, Rebecca. If this was later on in the game, I would have gone...     Straight for the head." Monopotato smirked evilly, before returning to the stand.

"Anyways, as I was saying. The one other thing that I wanted to talk about was this!"

The potato pulled out some small pads with...    Screens on them?

"These are...     Uh...     Dammit, I don't know how to nickname these. These are your E-Handbooks! On each one of these lay a set of rules that are required to be read, as well as participant profiles and a map of the building you are currently trapped within!" Monopotato chuckled, handing the tablets out to everyone. And by that, I mean throwing them to everyone.

"And that is all! Farewell, and happy killing!"

After he finished, the potato flipped behind the stand, the mic following with them. No collapse sound was heard. It was as if Monopotato had disappeared completely.

"...Th- That...     B-Bitch..." I could hear Rebecca cough out, Richard staring at her with a look of concern.

"Rebecca!" Zoë shouted, "Watch your language..."

"So..." Candy scratched her neck, "What do we do now...?"

"I say we read the rules that the...   Thing told us about." Freddy shakily replied, trying to turn on the handbook. I started figuring out how to turn my one on.

I'm not sure how it happened, maybe my finger grazed across some kind of small button roughly, but the tablet switched on suddenly, a smooth violet and teal screen greeting my eyes. Along the top laid multiple options, including "Map" and "Rules".

I clicked the "Rules" tab, and a series of multiple paragraphs showed up. It took me a while to read all of them.

RULES:

1 - Nighttime starts after 8:00 pm, and lasts to 7:00 am. During this time, certain areas such at the kitchen and courtyard may be closed.

2 - It is strictly forbidden to trade or loan out your's or someone else's handbook to another participant.

3 - Attacking or trying to disable Monopotato is a violation of security, and any participants that tries to do so will be punished.

4 - Breaking into locked rooms is forbidden.

5 - It takes 3 participants to see a body to trigger a "Body Discovery Announcement" or BDA. After a BDA has gone off, participants have a limited amount of time to investigate, where they may do whatever they want.

6 - After investigation time has concluded, a playgroup trial will take place, in which all remaining participants will try to figure out the killer (or "blackened",) of the case. Once a decision has been decided, all participants will vote for who they think is the killer.

7 - If a killer is correctly identified, only they will receive punishment. However, if the vote is incorrect, all other participants besides the blackened will be punished, and the blackened will be allowed to leave.

8 - No jumping up and down in muddy puddles. Whatsoever.

9 - More rules may be added if necessary.

...

What's wrong with jumping up and down in muddy puddles...!?

Switching the tablet off after multiple turns of trial and error, I raised my head to look at everyone else. Rebecca seemed stabilised, but still extremely shaken. George was shedding a few tears, Wendy was seemingly emotionless, Pedro looked like he'd seen a ghost...

And to top it off, the feeling of grief and guilt from the start of it all was returning. Now, I had a name for it though.

It was a feeling of failure...

Death...

Grief...

Despair...

____________________

(HOLLLLLLYYYYY SHHHIIIIIIIIIIIT THE PROLOGUE IS FINISHED WITHIN RECORD TIME FOR ONCE-

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed! I'll be working on the start of Chapter 1 now, so stay tuned. See you there!

~ P-22/Oak-44/73)