Killing Game Quarter

Chapter 5: Burnt Bodies with No Clear Motive Part 7

Suddenly, a shadow started to emerge from the icy depths, and a hopefully look came across our faces. After a couple seconds, the shadow broke the surface, and revealed itself to be Joseph!

… Joseph’s body, to be exact, which had drifted its way to the surface of the water, unmoving, and frozen. The hopeful look turned itself into terrified fear as we realized that Joseph had either drowned or frozen to death, and a few of us screamed once we realized that Joseph Lombardo was dead.

The floor that had opened up began to close, and I stepped back, hitting my back against the wall. I couldn’t believe what I had just seen. I had tried to act cold and uncaring during the trial, but the truth of the matter began to hit me at that point. Before I could think too much though, the gas entered the room once more.

“No PLEASE, let me get him! He’s ok, we can help him!” Came from Urkstin, who was trying to rip off his shackle, tears staining the rusted metal. Some of the others were in silent shock, like myself, but I could feel the tears welling in my eyes watching Urkstin try.

I didn’t even pay attention to when I had passed out. There was no reason to care. Two more people had died, and one of them had died trying to protect children. I forced that man to die for saving what he loves, and tried to act like I didn’t care.

I couldn’t do that again, I couldn’t. There’s no way I can just act like an uncaring detective, I just can’t. I can’t do that to anyone ever again…

…

  … 

… 

… 

“Hey, are you wakin’ up?” A soft, caring voice got me out of my sleeping state. I slowly regained consciousness, once again on my bed, where Poppy was sitting on the edge, farther down the bed than usual. I sat up, not wanting to even speak to anyone, not even Poppy.

“Right…” He responded, lightly sighing to herself, “I’m sorry for botherin’ ya. Everyone’s in this kinda mood.”

I watched her get up and head for the exit, looking back at my empty gaze one more time before she exited my cell completely. Once she was gone, I fell back onto my mattress, wanting to drift off into sleep again, but not feeling tired at all.

All I could do was think to myself.

‘Why did I try so hard to be Mia in the trial.’

Flashes of Joseph during the trial, smiling with tears streaming down his face appeared in my mind.

‘Why didn’t I just try to help Joseph and find a way out of this mess.’

I heard my own voice during the trial. Cold, uncaring, and hungry for conviction, to the point where I almost completely ignored the motive.

‘I must have looked like such an asshole.’

 Joseph had seen me, staring into his soul, seeing him as a heartless, murderous monster. He must have thought the same about me during the trial.

‘Not as much of an asshole as the person behind all of this.’

It was at that point a specific thought crossed my mind.

‘My motive video said that I had to kill someone… Not Joseph.’

That thought shot me out of bed, grabbing for my motive video under my bed, but… My hand didn’t grab anything besides the cold floor. I checked under the bed, and to my shock, my video was gone!

There was no way to confirm or deny the thought going through my head, but as a last ditch effort, I stood up and looked over to my desk.

Just as I thought, there was another paper waiting there on the desk. I dragged my body over to it, and didn’t bother to read the contents before flipping the paper over to its blank side. From there, I grabbed a pencil, and hastily wrote a message down on the blank paper.

“IS MY FAMILY SAFE” Is all I could write down, as the thoughts continued to fill my brain.

‘If Joseph had killed Jambo to save his students, and ONLY his students, does that mean that my parents are…’

I shook my head, and wrote down more on the paper, anger taking over my emotions.

“If you hurt them, or even TOUCHED them, I swear to god I will kill you.” I wrote down, not caring how empty that promise was, as a tear drop hit the paper. My mind raced back to before we had voted Joseph off, and his words entered my brain.

“You guys got a message saying that you had to kill someone in order to save your loved ones…” He was trying to warn us.

He understood the ramifications of only one person murdering before I could.

He had murdered to stop his motive video from killing his group, and not any of ours. That meant that all of our motive videos were still in effect, and we had two more days to kill before they all died.

More tears hit the paper, and I tried my best to wipe them away, as I stumbled back into my bed. Fear, panic, and regret filled my brain, as I curled up in my bed, fearing what was going to happen to my parents, and everyone else.

I didn’t have much time. 

If I wanted to keep everyone safe, and stop them all from dying, then I had to stop this killing game from continuing.

I had to stop the person in charge of this, kill them if I had to.

I had to save everyone.

And I had to do it soon, no matter the cost.

Otherwise… 

Everyone loses.