I felt my heart slow down and....

Yup.

Hello, familiar white.

I stood up and looked around.

The cloud swirled in front of me and dissipated, revealing Rayn.

"Hi, Rayn."  I said sullenly.

She sighed.  "This is your final life, Jerome.  Be careful."

I raked my paws through my fur.  "Ok.  Ty to Jess.  Derp....  Do I have to go through that again?"

She turned away.  "Unfortunately, yes.  But, like last time, you'll survive.  Barely."

I let out a guttural groan.  "I really don't want to go through that again, but if it makes it all go away in the end, fine."

I continued.  "Anyways, Ty to Jess, Derp to me but survives, Felix to Nick, Mark to Jin, V-Crainer to me but survives, and Ross to...possibly everyone."

Rayn, who had just been floating around, froze.  "Possibly...everyone?"

I nodded.

"N-NO!  That's not right!  That...."  She trailed off.  "I'll be right back."

She disappeared.

Umm...what freaked her out?  I mean, yeah, Ross probably killing everyone isn't good, but....

Rayn reappeared, looking more calm than before.

"Phew.  That's resolved."

"What's resolved?"

She smiled.  "Don't worry about it.  Now, you have the correct thoughts of what's going on, but...this time, don't go up to Ross, k?"

I scoffed.  "Don't have to tell me twice.  I am NOT going up there again."

"Well, you still need to find it again, though, just don't go up there after your Smash Bros. thing with...Mitch."

I nodded.  "Yeah, got that.  Anything else I should know?"

She thought for a bit.  "Mitch will still remember.  Other than that...nah, just good luck.  I hope you succeed."

I looked down to see the cloud swirling around me again.

"I hope I do, too."

The cloud enveloped me, and the world of white became black.

~~~~~~~~~

I shot up swiftly in the bed and looked around.

Ok...back in my room....  Alive....

I sighed and leapt off the bed, quickly walking out the door and to the Grand Hall.

Surprisingly, or not, I was STILL the last one in.

I saw all the dead roaming around....  Ty, Jess, Felix, Mark, Nick, Jin....

I tried not to look at them in fear that they would see the sorrow for their upcoming deaths in my eyes (though they would just see the sorrow) and deem me...the mastermind or something.

Though...I've been getting these...feelings that I know who it is, but...not yet.  I don't want to make random conclusions yet.

I walked up to the group and stood by Mitch, who said nothing.  We just intertwined our hand and paw to where no one could see them.

...Cue MonoKirby...yep.  There he is.

I growled under my breath, but thanks to Mitch, I didn't go bacca-crazy again.

I zoned him out for his dumb introduction to the killing game again.

Though...something felt off.

Sky asked his question of why we're really here and MonoKirby answered, but...he didn't look trance-like at all.  He looked directly at me as he spoke.

"The mastermind brought y'all here.  And...they're among us.  They're always among us.  Isn't that right, Jerome?"

I let go of Mitch's hand and took a step back, a look of shock on my face.  "Wh-What?!  Are you saying I'm the mastermind?!"

I could see looks of confusion on most faces, but a single face stood out from the rest.  A look of anger.

Quentin was just staring me down.

MonoKirby giggled.  "Oh no, Jerome, boyo!  I'm simply saying that you know who it is but refuse to believe it because it just couldn't be right!"

I stayed silent, shocked.  He was joking.  My feelings couldn't be right...right?

He giggled again.  "Anyways...."

He did his continued explaining of the castle, but I stayed separated from the group.

Mitch came over and grabbed my paw.  "Biggums?  What does he mean?"

I shook my head.  "I don't know."  I whispered.

We all introduced ourselves as normal, but the group of 14 seemed to stay a bit away from me.

It kinda hurt, but as long as I have Mitch, I'm goochi, or gucci, or however you spell it.

Mitch did his suggestion of the splitting of groups to explore like the last life.

We sat down at the table and talked a bit.

I told him the progression of things, as well as why we ended up starting another life.  Mitch told me what had happened.  Said he had just gone to a white world after going to bed.

"So...Ross is going to...kill everyone somehow?"

I shook my head.  "Rayn said something about it being resolved.  Not sure what she did, though."

Mitch sighed.  "This is going to be a boring...I don't know.  How long were we into the last life?  Like,  a few weeks or something?"

I counted in my head.

I think about 4 days to the first motive.  6 days until Jess.  2 days after Ty.  Probably 4 days after my....  Yeah, that.  3 days after Felix.  4 days until the weird movie motive.  Jin was right after that the next morning...so...5 days there?  2 days until V-Crainer.  3 days after MonoKirby's story.  That was also the day I...died.

Mitch waved his hand in my face.  "Fluffy, you ok?  You zoned out."

I nodded.  "I was just trying to figure out how long we were in the last life.  I think...29 days?  And that would be...22...15...8...1....  Yeah, about 4 weeks and a day or so.  So a little under a month?"

Mitch leaned back in his chair and raised an eyebrow.  "Ok, who are you, and what have you done with my biggums?"

I laughed.  "Hey!  Just because baccas don't math doesn't mean I can't at least attempt it!"

Sky's group came back in from the kitchen.

(At this point, the author goes back to chapter 1 to figure out who was in that group because she can't remember)

Jin looked at us for a bit.  "Do you two...know each other?"

Me and Mitch looked at each other.  What did we say?  We couldn't say we've lived through 2 other lives.

I looked at Jin.  "Umm...yeah.  We had lives before this, you know?  We probably should've forgotten, but...not sure why we didn't forget each other."

Mitch held my paw.  "Yeah, we're a thing."  Mitch said, smiling.

Jin threw a sideways glance at Sky but quickly looked away.  I swore I saw the tiniest of blushes on Jin's face.

The other groups slowly came back in.

I sighed and muttered under my breath, loud enough for only Mitch to hear.  "Let's get this life started...."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

:D

I'm 15 today!

In case you're reading this at a later date, this was posted on September 8, 2016.  ;)

Man, I started writing books on Wattpad last year in early September before my birthday, so basically, I've been writing books since I was 13.  :D

Also, thanks for 2.1k reads, 76 votes, and...dang!  219 comments!  It was fun reading every one of those!  Though probably about 50 of those are mine.  xD

Smash that vote button at hyper speeds, Hyperfans!

-Becca  <3