Spade was the one that voiced the accusation, and still he was shocked to see Addie standing there, alive and well, the mastermind behind all the torture everyone had been through. It wasn't something many would see coming, considering she was probably the nicest person in the school. But of course, not all of the insane are evident at first glance.

Addie smiled. Her happiness seemed genuine, not twisted in any way. "Haven't seen you all in a while. Well, actually I have seen you, just not, like... y'know, talked to you."

"...I was... not expecting that hunch to be right-" Gradient admitted, staring at Addie with more confusion than anything else.

Spade immediately felt a bit angry at that - he had led them to this on a guess, which could've very easily been wrong and sentenced them all to death. But, he'd got it right, so he decided to at least be grateful for that.

"Addie...?" Spade stared at her, trying to find any sliver of malicious intent on her face. None. She was bright and cheerful as always. What, was she a psychopath of some sort?

"Hi, Spade," Addie said to him. "It's good to talk to all of you. It seems you've found me - I'm the mastermind behind this killing game."

"But... how?" Akik seemed about as confused as Gradient. "Why?"

"Oh, are we going into villain backstory monologue mode?" Addie perked her ears with an excited smile. "Gladly! I've been rehearsing this forever!"

Addie cleared her throat, prepared to give whatever monologue she'd prepared for this moment. "It all started when I got into writing as a kid. Back when I wrote three hundred-word chapters about animals that made absolutely zero sense and left maybe thirty side plots unresolved, you know?"

She laughed at the joke no one else got, then continued. "I kept writing, and as I got better, I felt a lot more... connected to what I wrote, because I was able to give the characters more personality. And usually, in those stories, those personalities got damaged in some way because of intense, unnecessary trauma I put them through."

Addie smiled. "The trauma may have been unnecessary, but... I loved it. I loved having all that power at my fingertips. I loved watching my own imagination's creations cry and scream in agony as I sent them to hell, brought them back, and then sent them back again. The despair they felt was immeasurable to me, and filled me with a feeling even I never knew I could muster to feel."

Her hands clutched the podium, knuckles turning white as she grinned almost maniacally. Her eyes stared off, a crazed madness in them before she seemed to get a grip on herself, laughing the feeling off and relaxing her hands. "Without it, I was nothing. That beautiful despair... lit something inside of me. A fire that wouldn't die out to matter how many people tried to put it out. But... eventually even my horror fantasies weren't enough. I needed more chaos, more power, more despair."

Addie smiled sweetly again. "So when I got accepted into this school, I seized the opportunity. You see, Headmaster Dragoness, you've seen her before, was working on a project, a machine that would help her run the school."

Her tail flicked in the direction of Monokumadi, sitting limply on the ground.

"That machine, to be exact. But of course, even with student assistance, Dragoness tried to program it herself. But it was... a bit flawed. It didn't quite work right, and had oddly... violent tendencies. I managed to get my hands on it, and luckily I had a specific friend that is not only skilled in her ultimate talent, but in machinery and programming.

Suddenly, one of the other portraits crashed to the ground. Having been focused on Addie's speech, it took everyone by surprise. Cinder's portrait was on the ground, shattered. But there was no one behind it. After a few seconds Addie burst into a hysterical fit of laughter, and everyone turned back to her.

But the person standing there could not have been Addie.

She had Addie's face and body, but her eyes were completely black with a red slitted pupil like a dark sheet slit with a knife. They dripped black, inky tears that stained her skin slightly. On her abdomen opened a gaping hole with white teeth sharp as blades and a whiplike tongue with a pointed end. The back of that mouth seemed to glow an ominous red glow, matching her eyes. And from her back protruded four black tentacles, one of which retracting back to her after pushing the portrait to the ground.

"Made you look!" "Addie" said while laughing, giving the students finger guns with clawed hands covered in the same black substance as her tentacles and tears. Her laughing died away, replaced with a simple, sharp-toothed smile. "But seriously, yeah. Hi. It's me, Cinder."

Well that was even more of a surprise. Gradient seemed somewhat intrigued by what was happening now, but Akik and Spade were both equally surprised. Of all people... Cinder? And possessing Addie? How was that even possible?

One of Cinder's slitted pupils turned a piercing white, and suddenly it seemed to be Addie speaking.

"Cinder and I have been friends for years. She's one of the only people that understood my passions. So I went to her, and of course, she wanted to help me. So she fixed up Monokumadi - of course, not to Dragoness's desire."

Cinder spoke now. "I just tweaked something that would allow Monokumadi to recognize us as friends and masters and everyone else as potential threats. But only to kill when we told her to. It was simple, really."

"So it killed Dragoness," Addie popped back in control of her words. "And both Cinder and I took over the school. And boy was it fun!"

"But... if Cinder's with you," Akik said, "Why'd she die in her execution?"

"That," Cinder rolled her eyes. "Was not supposed to happen."

Addie chuckled at Cinder's annoyed hiss. "What? They were hungrier than I anticipated! I, personally, think it would've been better had the ultimate zoologist took more part in training the wolves."

"You said you had it under control! You told me not to help you!"

"Shut up, you useless spirit!" Addie suddenly snapped, both of her eyes suddenly flickering back to normal. Her tentacles, chest mouth, and the black sludge that dripped from her eyes and covered her hands seemed to disappear. She angry panted for a moment, eyes quivering before she was suddenly back to a reasonable level of anger as if nothing had just happened.

"Hah! Sorry! I lose my temper sometimes," Addie sheepishly angled her maroon ears backwards. "But like she said. It was an honest mistake, but she's still here now in spirit, so that checks out."

Spade processed what just happened before finally speaking. "What... happened to everyone else? Surely, someone tried to call the police at some point?"

"That's the kicker!" Addie said with a grin. "No one called the police because there was no one else to do so! Observe!"

She pointed her open hand to a television that had just come from the ceiling and now hung over Monokumadi's throne. It turned on to static, buzzing with white noise for a few seconds before revealing another screen.

It was the outside world, the world they'd neglected to see for days... weeks? Spade had lost track. The screen displayed what looked like something from an apocalyptic dystopia. The sky was blood red, clouds dark against it as they floated sadly over a barren landscape. A broken city, a dusty wasteland, and... people. Not living people, bodies. There were a few scattered in rubble. Spade didn't recognize any, thank heavens, but he feared that someone he might know was down there.

Akik stared at the screen in silence for a long moment.

"This... what?! This isn't real, it can't be!" Akik objected. "W-we've only been here a few days, it's not possible!"

"That's where you're wrong!" Addie corrected him. "Remember how you all blacked out as soon as you came into the school?"

Spade and Akik shared a glance at each other.

"Well, it was more than just a blackout!" Addie excitedly wagged her tail. "That was two years of memories erased from your heads! Y'all showed up here two full years ago, and have been here ever since!"

Two. Years.

We've been here... for two years?

"For two years you all lived normal lives with the rest of the population of Hope's Peak," Addie continued. "But once the disaster struck, Dragoness called a full lockdown. It was a plan she'd been ready to execute for a while now, actually. A program that allowed all students to remain inside the building for the rest of their lives. That's what you guys were agreeing to in the video. Everyone thought it was safest that you guys remained in here forever, continuing your work from here."

The TV turned to static again, before switching scenes. Instead of the apocalyptic setting it showed earlier, it now showed the trial room, with all four present students inside.

Gradient blinked in surprise. "Is... that..."

"Yup!" Addie grinned. "Almost forget the best part! You guys have been live on TV this entire time! Sure is peak entertainment, eh?"

She laughed at her own joke. No one else joined her, too stunned at the load of information hitting them over the head like a large rock.

"...w-who would even watch something like this?!" Spade was shocked, though he casted a side-eyed glare at Gradient once the comment had left his mouth. "Present company not included."

"Oh, come on, you're still doing this?!" Gradient spat, scoffing to himself before running his fingers through his hair to calm himself down.

"You'd be surprised at what people would watch when the end is upon them," Addie said.

"So... t-they've just been watching all the murder this whole time...?" Akik stuttered as he spoke. "This is sick! This is awful!"

"I know, hon, that's the point," Addie gave him a smile, shifting her weight onto her hands in the podium.

"So... what now, then?" Spade said to Addie. "We caught you. Now you'll let us go?"

Addie flicked an ear. "Not so fast. I'm giving you all one more little vote before I let you go."

"What is possibly left to vote on?" Akik objected.

"I'll give you one chance," Addie smirked. "You have two choices: hope or despair. If all of you choose hope, I receive my due punishment. But if even one of you chooses despair..."

She chuckled.

"You're stuck here. Forever. Fair?"

"Do we have much of a choice?" Spade said, deadpan.

"Nope!"

"That's what I thought," he sighed. He looked around.

"I guess we're doing this one last time."

-

1819 words

Hah! You thought Addie would have a tragic backstory! But no! She's just a damn psychopath! :D

Thoughts like that in Addie's little monologue there have actually crossed my mind before, yes, my brain is a little silly-