THE GAME

EPISODE 6: BROKEN RULE

"O little one, My little one, Come with me, Your life is done. Forget the future, forget the past. Life is over: Breathe your last."

-Abarat (Clive Barker)

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"What the hell did you just f*cking do?!"

"I promise you, I didn't do anything! I caused nothing."

"What have you done, Franz. I thought you'd be there for me." Lee stated as he threw the bag on her. With a shock, she could see that the bag is wet, and it is dripping red. With trembling hands, she opens the bag with so much fright.

"No!" Franz woke up with a sudden headache as if she could feel herself about to throw up. In she runs through her bathroom as she carelessly kneels on the blue marbled tiles, facing the toilet. She starts throwing up as if she had eaten something bad from last night.

"Franz, sweetie, breakfast is ready!" Her aunt called out as she took long deep breaths, hoping that it could somehow make herself any better. "Sweetie? Aren't you up yet? You'll be late for school now."

"I'm fine. I'm fine aunt Lei. I'll be just there in a minute." She mumbles as she helps herself up, with so much tiredness. Yes, she did get herself some sleep, but she felt sore at the very moment. After a couple of minutes, she was able to find herself an orange hoodie, paired with her black cargo pants with matching Nike orange sneakers. She styled her hair in a Messy Waves with curls, as she decided to pick up her backpack. She was about to go when she saw the dark paper bag on her nightstand, as her nightmare from last night came flashing back. "Not today. My head is aching so much, my body is kind of sore and I don’t know why, and I don’t want to think about that stupid nightmare anymore. Okay? Calm yourself, Franz, calm yourself." She talks to herself as she took three deep breaths, closing her eyes, just to think of the happy thoughts.

When she's done, she picks her phone from the nightstand beside the bag, as she goes out of her room. When she's down, aunt Lei is already taking a good bite on her toasted sandwich, as she watches intently. She glances at the TV to see a football game, replaying. She smiles as she takes a seat in front of her auntie, as she devours the food right into her mouth. But just as she was about to swallow her food, she could feel her throat, as if it had been drying for a long time. So, she had the bottle of milk bottoms up, as she gulps deliciously.

"Slow down, sweetie. You might choke yourself." Her aunt chuckles as she takes another bite into her caramelized bread. She poured herself another glass of milk as she continues eating, too busy that she couldn’t notice that her auntie is looking at her.

"Sweetie, you came home late last night." Her aunt said as she slowly chews her food.

"Yeah. Eight o'clock."

"Yes, because that's the time they sent you home."

"That's not late, aunt Lei." "It’s not. But you came home at nine last night." "Shoot. Did I? I kind of felt so heavy last night. I am dizzy and-"

"You smelled alcohol last night."

"But-"

"I need you to be honest with me, Franz. Were you drinking last night?"

"No, auntie. Alcoholic beverages are not allowed in school. All we had is Cranberry and another flavored juice, as I had taken four-" she stops as she realizes what she was saying.

"They mixed the alcohol on the juice." She mumbles to herself

"They what?" She gave Aunt Lei a look after her realization. Even if she wanted to keep this realization to herself, she cannot hide the thought to her Aunt Lei. She cannot keep secrets from her.

"Last night, all I can remember is that I got out of school, and that's it. Aunt, please believe me. You know I don't lie, right?" Her aunt looks at her intently as she rests her hand on top of hers. She caresses it as she felt so worried.

"Of course, I trust you."

"Thank you. And oh, I guess I must go now. I will be back probably at five or eight later because were still having a celebration."

"Do you want me to drive you to school? You're almost late."

"Okay." She said as they decided to pack things up, before going to school. While on the ride, Franz opens her phone to see a missed call from 'PRESIDENT LEE'.

"Hey Aunt Lei, did you hear my phone ringing last night? Our class president called, and I wasn't able to get in touch with him."

"Sorry, hon. I don't recall you having a call last night. Why? Is something wrong?"

"No. Nothing. I was just wondering why he called me last night. And it’s the first time he'd call." She said, hiding the fact that something is wrong.

"Well, how about you give him a call now?"

"Or, I could just ask him at school. Don't want to bother him or something." As she got down from the car, she bid goodbye to her Aunt Lei as she reminded her to visit Dr. Wilson. She nodded with a smile on her face, as she continues walking inside the university. While walking into the main hall, her phone vibrated, indicating that someone messaged her. Probably Lee. She thought to herself, but only to see a message from an unknown user. It registered no number, no face. Just message.  With so much curiosity and precaution, she only replied punctuation marks, hoping that the person pranking, behind all this, will stop.

But she thought wrong.

  

She gasped as she could familiarize the picture, but not sure if what she thinks is right. She was about to reply when the person continues to message her.

  

She shrugs the message off and closes her phone, as she calmed herself up. Nothing bad had happened. It was just a prank. And when you get into your room, they will tell you that they're just trying to mess with you.

She steps inside their dark classroom, Zeke immediately close the door that made her jump out of shock. As she continues to walk, she could see her classmates' sickened look plastered all over their faces. Aside from that, her nose also detected a foul smell around the room that made her block her nose with her handkerchief.

"What the hell was that smell!?" She asked with frustration building in. As she walks right into where her classmates are looking at, she could see a dark paper bag in the middle, soaking in with the red-stained liquid. She looks at her classmate with such curiosity.

"What the heck is that?" She asks, and no one seems to answer.

"WHAT IS THAT THING!? IS THIS SOME KIND OF A JOKE!?" She asks as if she's traumatized enough from her nightmare. Her nightmare and what she's seeing right now are similar. With a bit of courage, Heaven steps close as he carefully opens the bag, revealing the horrendous sight of a human head.



All of them gasped as they could see the head cracked open, brain scattered, eyes are missing, the tongue is missing. Then, the message earlier came crossing into her mind. Some start crying as Regina begins to panic even more.

"Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh." She exclaimed as she walks back and forth. Franz could feel her stomach circling and she couldn't handle the sight anymore, pushing herself out of the room. "Calm down guys. We need to just stay calm for now because-" Paul, being the Disciplinary chairman of the class tries to take hold of the class but failed as the terror had been encrypted to their minds.

"How can you be so calm on this one, you motherf*cker!? No. No. I am calling the police!" Regina was about to give a call when her phone vibrated. All of them stop as they look at her. She lifts her phone as she slowly answers the call, tremulant.

"Hello?" She asks in a shaky voice.

[You see, miss Regina, things don’t work like this anymore. No police, no big scene.] Franz came back as she got more curious that the area seems to quiet down. Luckily, Regina was able to click the speaker on, making them hear the whole conversation.

"Who is that?" Franz asks, mouthing the words.

"Who the f*ck ARE YOU!?" She shouted, making the caller laughed. "What's so funny, ya b*tch? You think this is funny!?"

[No. It's quite thrilling.]

"F * C K. Y O U." She utters.

[Let's cut to the chase, shall we? So, let's start by introducing my name first. I am a black cat, the one who knows each one of you, with your dark destiny. Remember that game?]

"Yeah, we remember."

[Now, I am going to tell you how this game works... The code names were made for you to not know which is which. And the rules were simple- DO NOT TELL THE OTHERS WHO ARE YOU IN THAT GAME. And unfortunately, one of you broke the rules.] They gasped as the caller knew what was happening.

[Now, if you try to do anything stupid, you die. And you trying to call the police, Miss Regina, is not what pleases me. So, you have a choice to make. You tell the police, or you let anyone know, YOU DIE. But if you don't, I'll spare your dear lives.]

And just like that, the call ended, leaving them all in a puzzle. Franz looks at Lee's head intently, seeing a mark of three straight lines on his cheek, and a hole in the middle of his nose. Like a cat.