Hide and Seek with Death

Chapter 2 Reward and Punishment

My name is Evangeline "Eva" Starlight. I am a student at Evergame Academy and a grade 7 student. I am an ordinary student who only want to win the jackpot prize of 5 million dollars. I only want to change my life yet this happened. I am brought to a place I do not know and then a strange white lady with a very weird smile appeared smile.

I never would have thought that I will be here. I never imagined that I will be terrified more than anything in this life. I never even thought that this will happen to me. At that moment, I vividly remember how many times I died.

And as I try to recall what exactly happened at that time, I can somewhat hear the song "Rainy Days and Monday" playing so sorrowfully in my ears.

Yes. I died. If counted specifically, I had died three times just for asking a question but I am not the only one.

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When that white lady first appeared, I clearly remember how my stomach turns over from seeing that smile that is almost reaching the skies. It makes me feel a sense of disgust that overwhelms the fear I felt after I hear laugh at how miserable we had been in being brought to this world. She never had a good impression to all of us.

"Hello. My name is Alpha."

At first, we did not say anything. We just let her do all of the talking. I don't even know who or what she is.

"I am the ruler of this space, and... from... now... on... this will be your place of refuge."

At that time I thought everyone will not yet do anything because she is creepy. It would seem that someone thought otherwise as he talks back at her.

"Place of refuge?! Don't kid me. Take us out of this place or I will report you!", shouts Limuel O'Brien, a grade 8 student with a slick brown hair. He is the first one to speak to her without a care to how loud his voice has been.

He is truly a brave man but he is also the first person whose head blows up in an instant.

"Ahhhh!!!!!!!!"

"Wha- what???"

"He?! He?! He?!"

It does not end at that. Each one who starts to raise tbeir voices after seeing him die causes a chain reaction of all of us dying. It starts to the ones who shouted first then all of those who are just looking also had their heads blow up. One by one we are killed in the moment. All for the reason that he shouted.

It was a very bizarre event. The moment that we thought that our lives had already ended, time seems to turn back for us. All of us are suddenly back to where we had started. I can hear her laugh at us again with a very loud voice. This is a nightmare. I can feel my sweat trickling down like a waterfall. I-I just had died, didn't I?

I tried looking at how the others are and I meet the eyes of Arianne who is also holding her head with both arms. Everyone around is shocked as I did. This is proof enough that I am not the only one who experienced it. The reality of what had happened does not sink immediately because it all happened in an instant. It feels so surreal experiencing a redo for the first time.

"A-are you okay?"

"Yes. I am. I think."

Arianne is truly kind for her own good. She still cares to others despite what had happened. I cannot help but be strong for her as well.

All of us once more stared at the white lady in the podium as she once more begin to speak. She acts in a way as if it did not happened at all. How can a woman like her do that to all of us? Is she a deity or a devil? Nothing makes sense on this world and there is nothing that we can even do about it. We are trapped out of our own will and now we are being forced to listen to a woman who does not appreciate being questioned.

As I became lost in questions within my thoughts, I did not realize what is happening before me.

"Hello, my name is Alpha..."

One man raised his hand. She has long blonde hair, and a blue ribbon tied around as her headband. The mistake made by Limuel was because that person shouted at her. She changed her approach this time and tries to get her attention on the get go. The moment she speak, I then started to held my breath in anticipation.

Alpha, the white lady, looks at her direction still with that eerie smile on her face. She faces her direction and did not do anything until she started to speak.

"Where are we? Can you please tell us, Ms. Alpha?"

The blonde girl known as Maribel Yuriel asks that question very carefully, so prudent that she speaks as slowly and clearly as she can though she cannot hide how scared she is with how her mouth is shaking in a way that each word seems very hard to say. This girl, I cannot help but admire her bravery. She can do something I can do. Maybe even if yesterday comes once more, I won't be able to do the same thing that she did. Yet the white lady did not appreciate the question.

She suddenly tilted her head to reach her shoulders. The sound of her bones cracking can be heard out loud. Her head stays in place like it was broken and it is now angled in a very weird way. I felt foolish on thinking that there could be a possibility that she will respond kindly to us no matter what we do. So foolish!!

The white lady opens her mouth so wide her jaws are separating from her skull. Just like how she smiles, it is so surreal that you can compare how much she opens her mouth to a painting of a woman screaming. After that, she screams a very screeching noise. It is the only sound that can be heard in this closed space and nothing can stop it from reverbearting so loud. I covered my ears on an attempt to block the noise but the sound is too painful to the ear that I can feel something breaking.

As seconds continue to pass, I can slowly feel a warm feeling in my hands as liquid starts to pour out of my ears. What is with this sound!!! How can it be so loud? I tried to look around and then the only thing that I can see are the bodies of my schoolmates lying in a pool of blood.

No. no. no. Please don't tell me it is happening again. No!!!!

Before I had a clear sense of what happened to me, I lost consciousness. I no longer know what happened to them as darkness fills my eyelids.

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My name is Angelo Cielo. I am a student from Evergame Academy.

I am just an ordinary student studying and participating in games within the school premises until I and the 29 others are brought to an unknown place.

Up until a moment ago, everyone are still in a state of confusion. I am in a similar state as I cannot find anything that can help anyone or even myself. There is no way out of this place is what I am thinking until the white lady calling herself Alpha appeared and killed us one by one as long as there are anyone trying to interrupt what she is saying.

This is my second time dying now and I can still remember how warm was the blood flowing out of my ears at that time. Please allow me to note of one thing before I died back then. I do not know if my eyes are fooling me as there are only the two of us being able to stand at that time.. but, I cannot help notice it.

I cannot remember his face or what her looks like or what he is wearing, but there is certainly one man standing there like he is unaffected. His ears are bleeding profusely from the pain of hearing a noise that the ears cannot tolerate yet he does not try to cover it. I cannot help but feel sorry for him as I am unable to do a thing for him before I lost consciousness.

Snap!

We are back to reality again. This time I can now hear people shouting from going crazy. All of us seem find it unbelievable that we are alive again. That is also what I think and it is indeed the right thing to feel. i feel like inveighing with a very loud voice right now but getting out of control is not an option here after all, I am not the only one suffering.

Ah, that girl is trying to stab herself this time. I have to stop her immediately.

As soon as I grab the pen she is holding, the hysterical laugh once more reverberated. At the same time the white lady calling herself Alpha appeared. She does the same thing, like our deaths did not happened at all. What a piece of..

"Hello, my name is Alpha."

This time no one tries to interfere. No one dares to talk as we all remain in place. The man named Mint is distancing himself from everyone as he crouches at a corner. No one even noticed that he moved and I can tell that it is due to a weird aura surrounding him that is blocking his presence. I cannot help but see him as I want to find someone who can also compose himself at situation like this.

"...and welcome everyone!"

I cannot help but be insulted in every word she says but I cannot also deny the fact that dying two times makes me learn my place, our place as there is nothing that we can do against her.

A brown and blonde tried to talk to her but it was not able to get through. This time, surely. There will be no one who will be brave enough to do anything idiotic, or so what I believe.

"... I want to hear your names once you reach there and only there, so..."

At that time the white lady calling herself Alpha smiles and glances at the woman walking towards her. She is no one other than the woman who woke me up. Eva.

The surprise made me loosen my grip on the pen that the girl has been desperately trying to take away from me. My eyes are now focusing to her as I watch what she will do next. I do not know what is going through her mind but there is definitely no person in their right mind who will try to approach the person who had killed them twice already.

I cannot help but smile at her bravery and forget the fear that had been budding in my heart after being brought to this world hoping for a measly 5 million dollars.

The white lady named Alpha is know looking down at her and does not do anything. She seems amused as she allowed her to speak.

"So I will answer whatever question you have but it will come with a price."

Eva is gripping something in her hand but I cannot see it clearly from where I stand. I only know that she is doing so with how her hand is balled to a fist and the sound of something breaking inside it.

The two braided women near me started whispering the moment that she was given a chance to ask a question in which the white lady will gladly answer. I, as well, cannot believe my eyes and be filled with worry on how reckless she is.

"What will happen to our names from now on?" is what she ask.

Everyone started to hurl insult at her for asking such a foolish question but nobody was able to say a word when the white lady starts to speak once more. No, the lot of us stops speaking intuitively in fear of what will happen to us if we try to interfere.

"Your names... your names... Yes, you will now have new names. Your mind knows your new name but it only know yours.."

"..."

"I did not say that your name will vanish but you cannot speak of it anymore because this is a special place."

"..."

"Words here have meaning beyond your imagination. Your new names... are... the... keys... to... the... doors... if you want to reach the end."

"..."

"You see... the doors are very special and will only respond to creatures with names that can fly. That is why you must forget and remember your names, but... you must also remember what you will forget."

No one was able to speak a word after she gives the answer, because what comes next is beyond what we expect.

I look at my hand and saw lacerations forming in it. I am used to pain but this one is beyond what a human can normally tolerate as the wounds in the body just increase in number and brings you pain.

I do not know how long we have been at that state. It is futile to remember because it only involves pain. At that time, nobody was able to move for a very long time when we all return at that time.

Nobody was able to talk and nobody dares to move a muscle. That is beyond what a normal person can take. It is simply ridiculous and crazy.

If possible, I would prefer being punched by delinquents than experiencing that again. It is not something you will want to remember, and who could have think that is the price of squeezing an answer from the white lady.

This world is not normal at all. Nothing can be called normal. Just being in here will make you crazy.

We did not wish for any of this. What we wanted is to only play a simple game of hide and seek and now we are being forced to something that is beyond our understanding, in human understanding.

"If there is a good measure for reward and punishment, then this place knows nothing of it", says Mint who comes to him in a familiar manner. "No one here deserves any of this."

"I agree."

What he said is true, there is no proper logic or reasoning on what we are experiencing right now. This can only be call hell and not a game. I do not even want to think about what will happen to us at this point. I don't think I can, anymore.

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After repeating the nightmare of dying again and again, the wall behind the white lady finally opens. From then on, everyone at this place will be forced to play a game of hide and seek where their lives are on the line.

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Basic Facts:

After Alpha stated the words please forget your name but always remember them, all of the students in the hollow cave simultaneously receives their new names.

For convenience of keeping track on who is who, the WIC Company has brought to you the second to the last partial list of participants.

1. Stork - Leo Marie Gonzales SN. 110031

2. Parakeet - Lady Marcelina Ignatov SN. 121321

3. Owl - Leticia Mae Johnsons SN. 121007

4. Hummingbird - Reina Kamisu SN. 111213

5. Penguin - Marianne Leto SN. 100101

6. Duck - Arvis Neil Mackinson SN. 120114

7. Crow - Michael Montefalco SN. 104457

8. Ostrich - Gael Moore SN. 101115

9. Emu - Michelle Moore SN. 101118

10. Kingfisher - Estelle Notes SN. 105120

* where SN stands for Student Number

Additional disclaimer: the names above are all fictitious names intended for entertainment purposes. If they happen to match with names of real person, events, or landmarks it is all a coincidence with no relation to real person, events or landmarks in reality.