THE GAME

EPISODE 17: HIDE AND HIDE

"There are more dead people than living. And their numbers are increasing. The living is getting rarer."

-Eugene Ionesco

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"Look what you've done to me... You killed me!"

"No! I didn't kill you."

"If it weren't for you, you should be the one dead by now and not me."

"Please, Mr. Officer. I didn't want any of this could happen-"

"You need to die, Ms. Brown."

"No, no, no, no. Please don't. I still want to live."

"But I don't want you to. You cost me my life, and I am taking yours."

"NOOOOOOO"

"Angelica. Angelica wakes up!!!" Her friend Erika tremendously shake her, as she starts to panic since her friend, while eyes closed, is screaming."

"ANGELICA WAKE UP!!!"

"Urrrrrrhhhhhhh" she inhaled longer than normal as she sits up straight from her bed. Immediately, as she turns to her friend, she clung into her shoulders, as she starts to cry...

"I don't want him dead, you know. I didn't want that officer to die because of me." She curls up like a baby into Erika's hands as she didn't stop from crying...

"Shhh... No one's blaming you for his death, okay? Just calm down."

"How can I, Erika? After what had happened? I saw it, okay? With my bare eyes, I saw what happened to him, clearly! And what happened to him, was all my fault. Tell me, am I a bad person?"

"No, no you're not. You just did what he told you okay?"

"I would never forgive myself."

She cried for more than a minute. Erika didn't leave her all alone until she's too tired to even shed another tear. As she is vulnerable, she was able to get her sleep as Erika patted her back.

As soon as she drifted off to sleep, so does Erika decided to go home because she just got notified that the Halloween activity will resume. She, together with her classmates, of course, got angry because they thought it was a sign of disrespect, as they were getting them all in danger but little did they know, that the police had come up with a plan to catch the culprit.

[And who is this individual that we will be using as bait?]

"Mr. Heaven Anderson"

•••

Later that night, Caesar was too scared for his safety. So, at exactly nine o'clock, when he assured that everyone in the family got themselves locked up in their own rooms, he decided to come and go out from his bedroom, walking tiptoe on the stairs, silently sliding the door open from their kitchen, leading to their backyard. He used his phone as a source of light, to not draw any attention.

He continues walking until he reaches the gate made of planks and nails, leading to their vegetable garden. He closed the door slowly as possible, as he leads himself to the area where he buried the head of his classmates. But he was too surprised to even see the hole he had dug, is now a pit.

And the head is nowhere to be found.

Only the dark paper bag he used to place the corpse.

"Hey Caesar, what are you still doing here?"

He gulps as he turns to his right to see his sister, carrying a blue plastic bag, with a stain of old dirt. He looks at her eyes.

"I- it's not what you think it is." He stutters.

"What did you do, brother?"

•••

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Morning

7th day of Halloween Celebration

School

"I just can't freaking believe they're doing this. How can they ever continue classes when they know that someone is after us?” Mia said as she places down her bag in her chair, setting her attention to her classmates who had painted their faces with worry and anger.

"I don't freak know. This might be their way to respect our grief for our losses." Steve started as he drinks from his water bottle. "Maybe they're too heartless to even let us attend school and not on our classmates-" he paused as he reminisces what happened to his classmates that he knew, they were also his friends.

"And all I wanna do is punch them in their freaking face! Whoever is doing this!!" Johnson said as he clenched his fist.

"Calm down, John. You know that being driven by our emotions leads to a larger disaster, right?" Franz asks as she stops him from stepping out of the room.

"Right now, we need to stick together, okay? I noticed that the killer only attack and kill if we're alone-"

"Well, how can you explain to what happen to Kezee, then huh?" Heaven asks as he stood up, walking straight to where Franz is.

"Hey, Heaven!" They warned him as they don't still know what happened at Kezee's house. All they know is that he died.

"You know what? Why bother listening to this b*tch, if she's the killer?"

"What?"

"How is that possible?"

Gasps and murmurs are all around the area.

"That's a big accusation, Heaven. Knock it off."

He stops ten steps away from her and pointed her. "I was with Wilhelm and Caesar when we went to Kezee's house the other night. Wilhelm called this b*tch to come over because they THOUGHT, they're getting something from this stupid BLACK CAT."

"What does that have to do with Franz killing him? You just mentioned that she was there later than you guys?" Jovani ask.

"When Kezee decided to hit some cocaine or I don't remeber what powder was that, he left the three of us downstairs. When Franz arrived, she was the only person to enter the room."

"Oh my goodness."

"No freaking way."

"We asked her what he is doing and all she said was 'he's deep asleep' and f*ck because we believed her-"

"Can you just f*cking shut your mouth, Heaven? Because if I am the killer, I would've had killed you after you attacked me at the police station"

"What!?"

"That's something."

"He's gone mad."

They could hear these words from their own classmates, not believing in what they were hearing. That made Franz boost a bit of confidence to fight for herself.

"Why did you attacked be back there, huh? Was it because you're the next to be interrogated and you don't want to slip everything out because the interrogation might be too much for you, and you'll end up telling them that you did this? All of this freaking mess?"

"What-"

"I've had enough of your bullsh*t, Heaven. Because between you and me, you're acting so guilty, and you're actions are proving something that YOU DID something really, really bad. And you just want to blame me because I was the only one who went to look for him? At least I had a f*cking concern to still check him up! What about you? Why are you so sure that something won't happen to him until I came?"

"BECAUSE YOU'RE THE KILLER-"

"Mr. Anderson!" They all look at the person on the door, not so surprised enough to see the detective, standing by the door frame.

"What the heck are you doing here, huh? Wasn't my interrogation enough!?"

"Why do you bother coming here, detective? Did you come here to tell us that you don't f*cling care about our friends' death!?" Franz asked with rage in her voice.

"We are here because we all want your cooperation."

"And what is that? Killing us all?"

"No. All we want is for you to follow our lead in catching the culprit."

"And how do you do that?"

"Simple. We will do it here."

"And how are you so sure that the killer is here?"

"Because you are all here."

"One of us is absent..." Paul said after counting the present students.

"Angelica is in the hospital," Mia stated.

"No, there's someone absent," Erika said after double-counting them all.

"Oh right. Trish won't be able to come today." Steven said after realizing who is absent.

"Why?"

"I remember her texting me earlier that her parents didn't let her come to school today because of the fright brought by the incidents." He said.

"What time did she messaged you?"

"7 o'clock I think? Wait. I'll just look at my phone."

They made the plan for the past three hours as they had an early lunch, before coming back to school by 12:30. They start the plan by 13:00 and up until now, they were still waiting for a suspicious movement.

"I'm scared, Franz."

"Me either, May. But don't worry, we will get through this because I'm sure this plan will work."

She nodded as they silently sit at the school bench, under the creepy tree where she saw the dead janitor before.

And as much as she wants to decline, she needs to toughen her self from her fear of her past. Because what they were about to do, will be for the silence and peace of them all.

While sitting at peace, Franz turns her gaze into the building near the school garden. From her position, she could read the letters hanging tall into that building.

H I G H S C H O O L C L I N I C

And from there, she realized something.

"The killer knew." She mumbles, but enough for May to hear it, but couldn't understand.

"What?" She asks as she turns to meet May's curious gaze. She gulps as she looks at her watch.

"We've been sitting here for like two or three hours now, right?" May looks at her phone and then back at Franz.

"Yeah, I think so? Kinda lost track because we're comfortably sitting here."

"Sh*t"

"Why? What's the matter?"

"May..." she paused as she looks at her with fright and at the same time, worried.

"The killer knew."

"What do you mean the killer knew?"

"The killer knew we're going to do something today, and..." she paused again as she could feel her heart starts beating really fast.

"Oh my Gosh." She said as Franz stand up.

"Angelica."

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"Sir, are you sure this will work?" His assistant asks.

"Yes, I'm sure it will work."

He opens his walkie as he talks over, the others listening.

"Do you see any suspicious movement yet?"

They all had disagreed.

"Sir, I think we should wrap this up for today." His assistant talks again.

"No, not yet."

"But sir, they'll be going home in two hours!"

"Not just yet."

"What if the killer knew were coming?"

"What if he's just aiming a perfect time?"

"What!?"

"Stop her, right now!!"

They start running for her as they targeted her as the suspect.

all of them panicked as they tried to catch her, but failed.

"What is going on with you, Miss Simoné?"