It took Spade a moment to process what had happened. Ten minutes, and suddenly Xerc was violently murdered before his eyes. He should have seen such a horrid death coming... but he didn't.

He didn't let himself break. He couldn't. Not when all lives present were now at higher stakes.

Gradient seemed quite pleased, and
clapped with an eager grin on his face at Monokumadi's handiwork. "Beautiful. Beautiful. Great job there."

Akik snapped his eyes to him, angrily taking a breath. "Is this a goddamn joke to you?"

Gradient blinked, unfazed, and gave him a smile. "Yeah. It's not to you?"

His hands tightened into fists. "Why is this so funny? There were eleven people here. Eleven! And we've picked each other off by the force of some psychotic wolf that wants us tortured and dead! That's what you call a joke?!"

Gradient shrugged. "Yeah. What're you gonna do about it?"

It was obvious Gradient was just provoking Akik at this point. Spade put a hand on Akik's arm before he had a chance to lash out. He looked up at him and shook his head. Akik stared at him, conflicted, before relaxing, shooting Gradient a glare before backing down.

"We can't fight amongst ourselves, we're the only few of us left," Spade said to both of them. "I understand the situation is not ideal in the slightest, but we have to remain calm."

He glared at Gradient. "That means you, too. You won't be trying to attack us at any point under my watch."

Gradient just exhaled, rolling his eyes. "Wasn't there something you wanted to show everyone? I mean, I know what it was, but I think you mentioned it."

Spade had nearly forgotten about the mysterious body in the lab, with Addie's death. "Right, right... we've all seen it, I believe, but let's check to see if it's still there."

Warily, Spade brought Akik and Gradient up the million flights of stairs between the first floor and the fifth floor and to the biology lab. Immediately Spade walked across the room, looking around the counter...

...the body was gone. Not a trace of it was left.

"Where'd it go?" Akik said aloud, staring at the empty place in confusion.

Spade sighed. "I guess whoever I assume cleaned up Addie's body found it. But why didn't Monokumadi announce it?"

"It obviously wasn't a student," Akik pointed out. "Maybe it... got in somehow."

"But how? This place is sealed tight, there's no possible way for anything or anyone to get in," Spade said.

Akik shrugged.

"Hey, have you guys checked in here?"

Spade and Akik turned to where Gradient was standing. He was near what seemed to be the closet, which they had, indeed, not looked in. Spade and Akik exchanged glances as Gradient gave them a smile and slid into the room. They quickly followed.

A wave of cold air hit Spade like a truck. The closet was massive. One wall were shelves of glass jars, and in the center of the room seemed to be a table with different surgical equipment. The remaining walls were lined with metal doors.

"What is this?" Akik said in puzzlement, observing the walls.

"This, my friends, seems to be a morgue of some sort," Gradient said, taking in the whole room. "I've been in one of these before."

"So... in those doors, there's..." Akik's eyes drifted to the wall of metal doors, suddenly seeming a bit sick.

"Most definitely, yes," Gradient smirked at him. "What, still can't take the thought of being in the same room as a dead body? Please, they're not gonna do anything, they're already dead!"

Akik's eye twitched as he glared at Gradient, but he didn't say anything.

Spade walked to one of the doors, seeing a big red X painted on it. "This one's different."

Akik shook his head, probably trying to focus. "Is it empty or something?"

"I'd say it's just been cremated," Gradient shrugged.

I guess it makes sense the murderer in the room knows a bit about morgues, Spade thought. He took his hand off the door, not really wanting to check inside.

"Maybe the body we found is in here," Spade thought out loud. There were eight doors seeming to be occupied, plus the one with the X. Meaning the tenth would possibly be the one with the mysterious corpse.

"Maybe," Akik shrugged.

There was a keypad next to it, as there were for all of them. Spade stared at it for a moment, unsure of what to type. It was the tenth door, so maybe it was that.

010.

The door clicked, and Spade opened it hesitantly.

Nothing. It was empty.

He sighed, pushing it back. "Not here. Should we check the others?"

Akik looked sick. He shook his head firmly.

Spade nodded. "Understandable. But if the body's not here, where could it be?"

"I'd say there's clues around somewhere," Gradient chimed in with a shrug. He had his knife out again. Akik looked like he wanted to stab him with it.

"The serial killer would be correct!" The few remaining students were surprised to hear Monokumadi speak over the announcements. "Because I've unlocked all previously locked rooms! Go ahead, check them out! Maybe you'll find something~!"

The three students exchanged a glance.

"Wasn't there a locked door on the fourth floor?" Akik said.

"There was," Spade said. "Let's go check it out."

-

The room with screens in it didn't change at all - Spade was sure to check. But what did change was the locked door next to it.

Spade opened the door and peered inside. There was close to nothing in the room. Just a computer and a paperback book sitting next to it. He walked towards it, wary of the empty room and the two other students following behind him.

The computer required a passcode.

"Maybe... try..." Akik thought for a moment. "I got nothing, never mind."

"DeadPeople13," Gradient said jokingly.

"There's no way that's the password."

Spade tried it. Akik was right.

"HopesPeak?" Akik shrugged.

Not it either.

Spade thought for a moment before typing a guess in himself.

Monokumadi.

The login screen disappeared.

"What do you know?" Akik said, surprised.

Spade searched around the screen with a mouse cursor until he found a file. He clicked on it, and it opened into a video.

A woman sat in front of the camera, with curly, dirty blonde hair falling to her shoulders. She had a pair of dark blue glasses on, hidden slightly by her hair, which partially fell over the right side of her face. She looked like she hadn't slept much prior to the video's recording.

"We have a base down, at the least," the woman said, brushing some hair from her face. "The project's going along somewhat... slowly, but I'm sure we'll go along just fine from here. The students are a fantastic help, I couldn't do any of this without them."

She exhaled. "I don't know how long it'll take to get this done, but I'm confident that we can do this. Right? Yeah, totally."

The file ended.

Akik stared at the screen. "Is that..."

"The headmaster, most likely," Spade confirmed, recalling the torn photo in the office.

"So she was... helping us?" Akik tilted her head. "But if she's on our side, why is all this happening?"

Gradient stepped forward, taking the book from the desk. It was titled Challenger Deep, by someone named Neal Shusterman. There was a bookmark in it, about three-quarters of the way through. Gradient opened it to the page marked, and tilted his head.

"...I think I know why now."

He set the open book down. The page was bloodstained at the edges, a specific sentence highlighted in red blood. Spade read it, and could much too easily imagine the gruesome scene it implied. He stared at it a moment before turning his head away from it.

"Well, that answers that," Spade sighed. He searched the computer more until he found more files. He opened one of them up.

"Do you accept?"

The voice was of the headmaster.

Sitting in front of the camera was none other than the ultimate engineer, Octavia Towerfall, alive and well.

"I do."

-

1371 words

Three chapters in one day, I'm on a roll- :D