Octavia laid her head on the table, her face hidden by her arms as she sighed. One of the other students, Cinder, looked at her from across the small table, having been in a middle of eating a piece of bacon. She swallowed and spoke to her.

"You good?"

Octavia laughed a little. "Been better. Especially when I wasn't locked inside a school where the principal wants us to die."

Cinder chuckled. "I could see that."

There were a few others in the cafeteria - the black-haired girl, who was named Anatox, and her friend, Tonix, were chatting at another table in the room. Fabian meandered around, uneasy about the whole situation, and Xerc was at another table with his nose buried in a sketchbook. Everyone else was either asleep or walking around outside of the cafeteria.

Two of those people came in not too long later - Addie and Dusk. Addie was trying to comfort Dusk, who was very obviously anxious. Akik came later, along with Spade. Gradient made his appearance only after everyone else was there, his bright red eyes flickering around as if he was preparing for someone to jump him and kill him on the spot.

I guess we all sort of feel like that, Octavia sighed to herself.

"I see none of you are dead yet," Akik said to everyone with a lighthearted, yet anxious smile. "That's good at least, right?"

A few people shrugged or murmured in something close to agreement. Gradient didn't seem to be comforted by that. Xerc didn't even look up from his sketchbook.

"You think Monokumadi's gonna be bothered by the fact that we're not killing anyone?" Octavia said, the question directed at Anatox as everyone else went about their business.

"Come on, what can she do against it?" Cinder smiled, attempting to comfort Octavia. "That wolf can try and blow down the house all she wants, but as far as I know, it's made of brick."

Octavia smiled a little, reassured just a bit.

As if on cue, a voice crackled over the intercom. Monokumadi's voice echoed through the cafeteria.

"All students, report to the A/V room across from Classroom 1-C!"

Before anyone could move she came on again.

"NOW!"

Octavia and Cinder exchanged uneasy glances before getting up and going towards the A/V room.

-

Monokumadi looked over the group, disappointment visible on her black and white face. She stood against the wall, arms crossed and tail twitching.

"Well. It seems y'all need some motivation to get this party started." She sighed. "Where's the guts in this generation? None of you have made a move! Even him!" Monokumadi gestures to Gradient. "The Ultimate Ritualist, for crying out loud, hasn't shed a single drop of blood!"

So that's what he is. Dusk glanced at Gradient, who was glaring at Monokumadi with malice. Explains a bit about him.

"You can't make us do anything," he replied. "And even if I'd love to sacrifice the lot of you to the devil for my own pleasure, I'm no hitman, I'm not killing because someone else told me to."

"You're frustrating, you know that?" Monokumadi huffed.

Gradient smirked at her.

Monokumadi shook her head. "We're getting off track here, aren't we? Anyway..."

The achromatic wolf took something from a table next to her and started passing them out. When Dusk got his, he looked down at it. It was a DVD. There wasn't really anything special about it besides his name written on the top in sharpie.

"You guys go ahead and give those a watch!" Monokumadi was back to her sadistically playful self. "I'm sure you'll love them~!"

And once again she left.

Everyone exchanged uncertain glances. Dusk stared at his DVD, careful while holding it so as to not smudge the disk.

"I'm... getting the feeling that we shouldn't watch these," Addie said. Her tail swayed pensively, ears angled towards the disk in her hand.

"I'm with ya there." Octavia agreed.

"Pff. Wimps." Gradient just laughed at them. "I'm watching mine. Maybe there's something interesting on it."

Spade sighed. "I hate to agree with the devil-follower, but I'm also going to watch mine. I'm curious to see what it contains."

"You sure that's a good idea?" Akik seemed unsure as he gingerly observed his DVD. "What if it's something bad?"

"Come on, what's the worst it could be?" Fabian joined the few who had at that point decided to watch it.

Cinder glanced at Octavia, and as if she'd said something telepathically they both decided in that moment to go watch their respective disks. Xerc muttered something by the lines of "nothing left to lose but a limb at this point" and sat down to watch his, and Tonix and Anatox both hesitantly went to watch theirs.

Dusk and Akik were the only ones left still deciding. Akik smiled down at Dusk reassuringly. "Hey. I'm sure it'll be fine, right? What can that wolf do to make us kill people?"

He walked to watch his.

"...a lot, probably," Dusk muttered anxiously as he finally sat down.

Dusk inserted the disk into the device and put the headphones on, preparing for the worst...

The screen blinked, and suddenly he saw his living room. And there were his parents, and his brother. His dad seemed... hesitant to say anything, with his eyes focused on some random thing offscreen, but his mother didn't seem opposed to acting like she cared.

"Hey, Dusk! How are you doing over there?" His mother said with a smile. "I hope you're having a good time!"

Twilight just stared at the camera. He was probably forced to do this. His mom glared at him, gesturing with her head to the camera. He sighed.

"It's, uh... cool that you got into that school," Twilight obviously was trying to create empty comments on the spot. "Good job. Miss you, I guess."

His father stared off for a moment more until his mother lightly elbowed him. He looked at the camera, red eyes drilling into my soul even through the screen.

"Don't make a fool of yourself."

Somehow that stuck harder than anything the others of his family had said.

His mother just kept smiling. "Hope you c-c-c-"

The video began to glitch slightly, the audio and picture distorting out of clarity. At first, Dusk thought maybe the disk was scratched, and was about to take it out to check before he froze.

The screen was still showing his living room. But it was torn to crumbling shreds. His parents and his brother were nowhere to be seen.

Dusk swore he nearly had a heart attack and dropped dead.

It seemed that multiple others had gotten similar results on their DVDs. Cinder immediately ran out of the room, not even bothering to take the disk out. Octavia quickly ran out as well to go make sure she was alright, calling for her to come back. Xerc had just punched the screen, interestingly enough, causing it to splinter into glass bits that cut into his hand and caused red blood to drip down his fingers. Multiple others were in visible or hidden distress (besides Gradient, funny enough, who seemed completely unbothered by whatever was on his DVD), Dusk being one of them.

He just stared at the screen, heart pounding in his chest as he saw where his family had been talking to him just seconds before.

They weren't great, that was for sure. But they were all Dusk had, and he immediately began to regret every time in his life that he'd wished them away.

He didn't realize he was crying until his face was buried in his arms, which lay on the table in front of him. There was a hand on his shoulder, Addie's equally shaken voice telling him it was gonna be okay. But he didn't listen.

Was it fake? It has to be fake, right? Some cutting-edge CGI? There's no way they're actually dead, no way. No. Way.

Despite his own reassurances, Dusk couldn't help but feel like this wasn't any CGI.

Someone - Dusk guessed it was Spade - asked if everyone was alright. A few people said yes, most didn't reply, still in shock from what just happened.

Addie eventually managed to calm Dusk down enough for him to stop crying. Most had gotten up and left by then, except for Akik, who seemed to be watching Dusk from afar. He was obviously on edge, his eyes not quite in the present as he stared at the two with worry. Dusk and Addie both made their way to the door, and Akik fell in behind them.

"Are you alright?" Akik asked, the question directed at Dusk since he seemed the most distraught by the videos.

Dusk stared off a moment before slowly nodding, not looking from the ground in front of him. "Yeah. Yeah. I'm great."

The waver in his voice gave way for his true feelings, unfortunately. Akik, however, didn't push him, and allowed him to keep his silence.

Dusk eventually decided to go to his room for the night. Most of the students were gathered in the Cafeteria, playing cards (and losing every time to Spade, who quite enjoyed said card games), with the exception of Gradient, Tonix, Xerc, and Octavia. Octavia claimed to be exploring the school a bit more for anything they could've missed, and Gradient and Tonix, as far as Dusk knew, were in their dorms. Xerc had gone to fix up his hand after punching a glass screen.

Dusk sighed deeply as he closed and locked the door behind him, collapsing onto his bed. He knew his dreams would be of the possibilities of what could've happened to his family, but he was too tired to try and stay awake to avoid the dreams.

This is going to be fine, Dusk thought to himself. No one is going to die.

We're gonna make it out of here...

...aren't we?

-

Dusk had no idea what time it was when he woke up.

He sat there with his face in his pillow. It was slightly wet - he must've cried at some point. He wasn't surprised. After a moment of groggy contemplation, Dusk sat up, got ready, and left his dorm.

It was quiet in the hall. Too quiet. Dusk didn't like it. Was everyone else already up?

Yes, yes they were. Dusk found everyone in the cafeteria. When he walked in, Addie's ears perked, and she turned his way. With a smile, she waved him over. Dusk smiled just a little, happy to have a friend even in the midst of possible death as he walked over and sat down at the table Addie was at.

"You sleep good?" Addie asked. She seemed over what happened yesterday, no trouble in her eyes as she spoke.

"No."

"Eh. I don't blame you," Addie sighed. "Rough day yesterday."

Dusk scanned the cafeteria. Everyone was accounted for, all ten-

...ten. Only ten. Who was missing? Dusk observed who was there. Nothing was out of place until he noticed Cinder sitting by herself in the same place as yesterday, glancing around with a nervous anxiety.

Which was odd... only because yesterday Octavia had accompanied her.

"Have you seen Octavia yet?" Dusk asked Addie. His heart began to pound faster in his chest, hoping for the best and bracing for the worst.

"No, actually." Dusk's heart dropped as she cluelessly looked around, only to find the same result as Dusk. "You think she's still sleeping?"

"What time is it?"

"No idea. She seemed to wake up pretty early yesterday, though, definitely before us."

Dusk didn't hesitate. "I'm gonna go look for her."

Addie was about to object, but instead said, "Okay. I'm coming, too. Now that you pointed that out, I'm kinda worried as well."

Dusk left the cafeteria with Addie close behind him, high on alert and on edge as he searched. The halls were just as empty and quiet as the dorm hall, no sign of life at all in the corridors.

It definitely unsettled Dusk. A sense of foreboding crept over him as he rounded a corner and turned into one of the classrooms.

It was completely empty. But Dusk could just feel that something was off. He entered the room, observing every corner of the classroom until his limbs suddenly locked up. His eyes looked to the ground, a sharp gasp striking his lungs as his heart skipped a beat, tripped, and dropped into his stomach.

He had found Octavia.

Found her in a pool of her own blood, a gash filled with dark crimson that flooded the ground around her rich brown hair. One of her goggle lenses were cracked, tiny bits of glass scattering the floor in the red puddle she was laying in.

Dusk met her dead eyes, rolled up into her skull.

And a scream tore through his throat.

-

2153 words

Gasp someone died

Let's play a game y'all, whoever can guess Octavia's killer by the time I post the next chapter gets a cookie :) 🍪 not a good prize ik but like if you guess it good job