User blog:TKandMit/"Split Up" - Danganwiki: Convention Carnage

5:12 read the time on my alarm clock. In the morning. The red numbers shone upon my face, omitting the only light in the room. I had been watching the numbers tick by for the past six hours, ever since HAL disappeared. The sixteen of us squabbled for a short while longer, panicking in the form of tears and chaos. We all made a break for the nearest exits to the outside world, only to find them barricaded by steel walls bolted into the frames of the doors and windows. Not only was this the case in the Showplace, but as well as the hotel. Even the windows in my room were barricaded. We were locked in here like rats in a maze, but the only way to get out was to kill someone. My tears were dried at this point while my mind kept racing.

''Can I do it? Can I… can I kill someone? How can I get out of here otherwise? ...Who would I kill? And how? God, I can’t believe I’m even thinking of this. I could electrocute someone, I guess. I can arrange that easily, I suppose. Better than having to get my hands dirty with a knife or strangling someone. Oh, no. No no no. The investigation… I’d be the obvious suspect if I killed someone that way. Okay, okay. I’ve handled tools before. A knife won’t be so bad. Jesus Christ, what am I thinking?! Fuck. Who should I kill? That Asier guy, I guess. His “talent” was the Ultimate White Nationalist. He’s a mean piece of shit, harassing women like that. And his ankle’s pretty bad right now, so it might be even easier. He does seem like a bit of a muscle head though. Not as strong as Axel or Jamahl, but still, someone that can put up a fight. If I messed up and he got the jump on me… I might be the one that ends up dying. Do I go after someone weak then? Some of the girls are small and skinny, I guess. I could… could I? How could I ever live with myself if I do that?''

''Maybe if I can find a control panel somewhere I can just… short circuit HAL 9000? That wouldn’t get rid of the barricades though. We still have our phones and everything but can’t call anyone, or use the internet. If I can find the router, I might be able to fix it. A place like this, a hotel and an expo hall, it has to have wifi. Whoever’s doing this has to have shut it down and made the barricades. It can’t be Peter and Lloyd. Why would they kill their fans? And obviously it’s not HAL 9000. That’s just a fictional character. Whoever it is is communicating with us under the guise of HAL. Is it… is it one of us? That creepy guy, Avery. His badge read “the Ultimate Cult Leader”. This dude could be capable of some elaborate murder ring, for sure. ...But then again, P.N. Flatts… “the Ultimate Horror Novelist”. Is this some deranged non-fictional piece they’re working on? They’ve got those fans too, Cynthia and Neo might be minions that do whatever they want. I’m starting to sound like Erik. He’s the Ultimate Conspiracy Theorist, afterall. Maybe… he can figure this out? If he does, we could expose who HAL really is and stop any murders from actually happening… we’ll have to work together, not against one another. That’s it. I have to talk to him.''

Lost in thought, I looked back at my clock, now displaying the time of 5:49 a.m.. I blinked and threw the covers off of myself, dressing quickly and leaving the room.

I wandered the halls, my anxiety climbing. The possibility of a potential murderer hiding behind a corner to kill me was dreadful. I made my way down the hall, passing rooms with pictures of some of the others on it. Most of the doors had no pictures; I assumed these belonged to other people who were not apart of the game and had since been departed. I had passed rooms with pictures of Rae, Avery, Amy, Dr. Cooper, Vi, Officer Majellan, and Neo. I suppose the rest are in rooms on other floors? Finally, at the end of the hall right before the elevator, I found the room with Erik Blut Von Drachen’s picture on it. Reevaluating this plan, I finally got a grip and settled on knocking the door gently.

The door opened slightly, catching on the chain lock connected to the frame of the door. “Matthew Wonder. What is it that you want from me? Planning to kill me so soon?”

“No, Erik, I’m not. You’re the Ultimate Conspiracy Theorist, allegedly the best there is according to HAL. I’m… I’m not entirely bought in by conspiracy theories most of the time, but… desperate times call for desperate measures, I guess. This whole thing is crazy and you might just be able to find the answers.”

“You want my help?” Erik asked, surprised.

“I… yeah.” I said slowly as Erik slammed the door on my face. Then, after a moment, the door opened fully with Erik inviting me inside. I walked in and he closed the door, locking it again. I gulped. I’m a fucking idiot. He could do what he wants to me in here now. He might have a weapon. He might--

“Tea?” he asked, cutting through my thoughts. I was surprised at first but nodded, and Erik opened the door to the microwave on the counter, pulling a mug of tea out of it. “I already had a cup. You can have this one while I make myself a second,” he handed me the mug as he took another one from off the table, filled it with tap water, put a tea bag in it, and started the microwave.

While we waited, he pointed me over to one of the walls beside his bed. Drawings of all of us, including HAL and the Epic Rap Battles of History logo, were pinned to the wall by thumbtacks. A sentence written in red marker was under Avery’s drawing; “AVOID AT ALL COSTS!”. I read it and asked Erik, “What’s this about? You think it’s Avery too?”

“Avery Maven the Thirteenth. A man of many sins, but I highly doubt he’s responsible for this. No no, he’s capable of far worse atrocities, however.” Erik explained as he watched the microwave timer count down.

“What? Worse than keeping us hostage and forcing us to murder each other?!”

Erik must have thought what I said was cute, chuckling to himself. “Tell me, have you ever heard of the cult ‘The Shining Stars’?” It’s an unorthodox following, up to eight hundred members strong, operating in the mountains of Montana. The harsh conditions and terrain weed out the most devout believers. A series of disappearances point the Stars to blame, but they’re excellent at covering their tracks. Drones that have been flown in the area have been shot down, and there was even a helicopter that crashed near one of their campsites.” To amplify the retelling of a crash, the microwave beeped, Erik’s tea ready.

“I don't think I’ve heard of them… So, they shoot down flying objects and kidnap people for whatever reason, allegedly. Is that so much worse than murder?”

“You may have a good point, but this has not been happening for a short time. Avery, as his name suggests, is the thirteenth generation of his family and the thirteenth generation of this cult’s existence. They have been around for centuries. And please, I’m quite sure they’re capable of far worse than disappearances and accidents. Hundreds of people don’t just go missing. Each member is carefully groomed however, so any investigation leads to nothing coming up with no one giving any useful information. And most of them are normal people, like you and I. Citizens. Businessmen. Police. Lawyers. The whole state is corrupt-- hell, the whole Rockies may be compromised!”

Drinking the tea throughout the explanation, I felt overwhelmed by Erik’s ramblings. I massaged my temple and squinted, finally speaking. “Okay, okay. Jesus. So Avery’s a bastard, that much isn’t too hard to believe. But what can we do about our certain situation? We can’t just die here!”

Erik drank his tea, looking into the drink and closing his eyes while taking a deep breath of the relaxing aroma. He opened his eyes to look at me and said, “I don’t know.”

I was mad at this point. “Y-you don’t… you don’t know?! I don’t care about Avery or the Stars as long as I can get out of this fucking place! Can you help or not?!”

“I have nothing to go off of. My work takes years of research. The one I know most about is Avery, which I have concluded is irrelevant to the mystery of this killing game. Sure, there’s some things I know about some of the more well known individuals here. P.N. Flatts has adapted some real life killings into their books, but nothing suspicious, I don’t think. Most of the cases are decades old, too old for them to be involved. The entertainers are pretty clean. Of course, I know about some dirt on a few. Not necessarily anything evil but… secrets nonetheless. Amy’s, of course.” Erik seemed to lose concentration at the thought.

“Is that even a secret? She talks about it all the time, doesn’t she?” Still annoyed at Erik’s uselessness so far, I put my cup of tea on the nightstand and inched towards the door.

“Trust me, I will try all that I can to figure out the truth here. I don’t want to die either, and I definitely don’t want to murder anyone. But these things take time, and if we all work together and think this through and don’t jump to any drastic measures, we shall persevere.”

“Good morning, everyone,” HAL’s voice said, bolting me awake and sitting up in bed to see the red eye on my television screen. “It is eight in the morning. I am broadcasting to all of your televisions, as I will every day that you are here to wake you up. As today will be the first full day of your lives here, I have an important announcement to make; please make your way to the stage in the expo hall.”

I had left Erik’s room at around 6:30 a.m., and even still tossed and turned for a while before finally resting. He and I were lucky if we had gotten even an hour’s worth of sleep. I dressed quickly and made my way to the expo hall.

Erik and I exchanged glances as we waited at the stage, waiting for the last couple people to arrive. A few trickled in, minute by minute, with the last being Asier who limped in on his bad foot. The idle chat amongst us was cut short when HAL appeared on the monitors again. “Glad to see you all can make it today.”

Axel immediately piped up, “Is it?! I thought you wanted us all dead! Why would it be nice to see we’re all still here?”

“It was a simple formality, my dear Axel. Yes, my goal is to have you murder each other, but it was expected enough that you would all last this long. And I wanted it to. I really wish to crush your spirits, and if you all just go in a frenzy immediately this would last so shortly. And where is the fun in that?”

Dr. Cooper spoke up as well, “Sorry to burst your bubble, HAL, but you cannot make us kill each other. I’m sure most of us are civilized, decent people that won’t resort to your evil.”

“And I’m sure the simple fact that you have been held hostage, stripped away from your families and careers, is not enough alone to make you all murder each other. That is why I have prepared a motive for you all,” HAL 9000 said. There was a commotion starting amongst the crowd, wondering what else will happen to us. “Some of you may have noticed that you are missing items near and dear to your heart. Some of you are more dependent on these objects than others.”

A raspy cough belled out from the crowd, me and several others turning to find Jeffrey as he gasped through his yelling. “You bastard! You stole my inhaler?!”

“Yes, I had it confiscated. As for taking it, that was not me. That would be one of you, who is secretly working for me.”

“WHAT?!” all of us screamed out. We all began to look at each other in suspicion, pupils darting from person to person to see if we can find the one guilty for betraying us.

“I just had my favorite lens stolen!” Amy Mitten yelled at HAL and the rest of us. “But like, doesn’t Jiffy need his inhaler? Can’t he die without it?!”

Dr. Cooper stepped in. “Depending on how bad the asthma is, it varies, but as long as the individual can keep calm and moderate their breathing, an attack is preventable. Death from it is rare. If you wish, Jeffrey, I can help you with some breathing exercises.”

Of my own items, what was missing? Something did seem ever so slightly off this morning when I left. I dressed and left quickly, though. I didn’t even brush my teeth; my breath still smelling of Erik’s tea just hours before. I scratched my head in curiosity only for it to dawn on me. I wasn’t wearing my cap. My Ash Ketchum cap, that I typically take with me everywhere that I go. It was a present from my boyfriend on the first Christmas we spent together. ''How did I not notice when I was getting dressed? Was I in that much of a hurry? Or am I just that exhausted? No. No, I have to know right now!''

I bolted out of the expo hall and ran towards my hotel room. I took the key out of my pocket and swiped it on the pad. I hanged it up on the coat rack on the hall last night, yet all that remained there was yesterday’s flannel shirt. I left it in the room when I went to talk to Erik… they must have taken it when I was gone. ''That bastard! Whoever it is behind all this, and whoever the traitor is! They’re dead!''

I walked directly in front of my television screen and yelled at it, “HAL 9000! Where is my hat?!”

The television turned on and the red eye appeared. “Hello, Matthew. Do not worry, your hat is safe and sound at a secret location. I do wish you would have stayed at the expo hall to hear me explain this motive in depth. Upon a murder of a fellow VIP member, all of the items will be returned to their owners. But if everyone is such a pacifist as you and Erik, they will never be returned.”

“Y...you know about that?”

“I appear before you in this room, do I not? I monitor all the hotel rooms. I monitor all the hallways. I monitor every inch of these buildings. There are no secrets you can hide from me, unless they’re within your own mind. And even after some time… will I really be restricted from that?”

“Shut up!” I yelled, picking up the television and smashing it on the floor, the glass shattering and cutting into the carpet. I bolted out of my room in a rage, slamming the door behind me as I looked forward to find myself running directly into Cynthia. Both of us fell to the ground from the impact, hurting as I landed harshly on the tile floor.

“Ow! Watch where you’re going, you jerk!” she scolded me, and rightfully so. “Why are you running everywhere, anyway?”

“I’m sorry, I’m just... pissed off by all of this!” I yelled. It was a really simple explanation, but it was the best way to describe how I felt.

“Uh, yeah! All of us are! Calm down and we’ll get through this. I actually came over here to bring you back to the group. After HAL disappeared, we all decided to eat breakfast together at the hotel diner and try to come up with some sort of plan,” Cynthia told me this as we got to our feet, picking each other’s glasses up off the floor and trading them. I took a deep breath and agreed, following her to the diner.

The diner smelled delicious. I didn’t have any food since yesterday morning, before I arrived to this godforsaken place. At the buffet line, I filled a plate with eggs, bacon, and oatmeal and filled a glass with orange juice. I found many of the other VIPs sitting at a twenty-person table, crowding around one end away from the head of the table, where Avery sat. Erik and I shared a look as I walked up, Avery himself speaking up. “Ah, dearest Ms. Page. Excellent job on corralling our beloved Matthew.”

“Shut the hell up, edgelord,” Rae complained. Immediately to her left was Mindy, who frowned at the remark. Like before, Rae immediately changed their attitude and whispered an apology to her. Rae’s badge labeled them as “the Ultimate Stage Actor”; whatever they were doing by playing around with Mindy was all an act.

In the corner, Dr. Cooper and Jeffrey were sitting perfectly straight and taking deep breaths. Jeffrey was red in the face and his forehead was shiny from sweat. I don't believe the exercises were laboring for him, but the stress of losing his inhaler in a game of life and death was consuming him.

I sat down between Axel and Erik. “Hey Matty, you figure out what they took?” Axel asked, sparking up conversation. I explained that my hat was gone and what it meant to me, Axel understanding and apologizing. “Sorry to hear that. All they took was my axe; nothing really important.”

“Your axe?”

“Haha, yeah, for shows I use a prop axe to cut through fake blocks of wood before the act starts. It's totally dumb but the fans love it,” Axel explained, wielding his fork like an axe and swinging down at his plate of scrambled eggs.

Vi snapped her fingers to catch our attention. “Sorry, but I think we really need to focus on the main objective here. We have to figure out who the traitor is. One of us is working with the psycho controlling HAL 9000 and trying to force us to kill each other!”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Neo asked her. “Avery’s the traitor! There’s no way he’s not involved in this shit in some way!” Hearing the accusation, Avery chuckled lightly to himself.

“I doubt it, Neo,” Erik spoke, explaining to the rest like he did with me. “Avery’s a monster from an evil cult, but he’s a leader, not a follower. And I doubt he’s controlling HAL. A cult leader would rather manipulate people into being loyal to him instead of having them murder one another.”

Jake Stuart unbuttoned his suit to relax in his chair, speaking as he did so. “Who else could it be, then? Some of us here are established celebrities with known pasts, and as far as I know, none of us are demented psychopaths. So, non-famous people, let’s hear some stories! Any childhood traumas? Any boiling hate for society? Who here is utterly insane? P.N. Flatts, how about you? You’re quite the horrific person… no offense.”

Flatts was clearly annoyed by the show host. “Tch. They’re just stories, man. I like horror movies and books and write my own stories because I like that type of thing.”

Remembering what Erik told me last night, I noticed a contradiction in what Flatts just said. “Well, they’re not really your own stories, are they? You do research on real killings and adapt them into your books, don’t you?” As I brought this up, the others began to look at me. “I mean, I don’t know about any of you but that’s a little unsettling, I think...”

Flatts turned to me with an eyebrow raised, their eyes scanning over me in judgement for a moment before answering. “Yes, I did that for my first two books. The Mattock and The Axe Murders on Kingsley Avenue were duds, based on the real Hinterkaifeck Massacre and Lizzie Borden’s murders. I stopped doing that when they failed, and instead came up with my own creative tellings.” Flatts continued to eye me down as they gritted their teeth. “Y’know, for someone that barely recognized me and my best-seller, you really seem to know your stuff about my lesser known projects, Matt.”

“I… Uh…” I didn’t expect Flatts to turn the suspicion onto me now. I stuttered, caught off guard by their comeback.

“I told him all that,” Erik came to my rescue. “He and I had a private discussion in the wee hours of the morning.”

“Wait, then you’re the traitors!” Cynthia screamed. “Erik must be the mastermind and he was telling Matt private information about all of us!”

“Please, Cynthia,” that same voice said, coming from speakers in the ceiling. Of course, he monitors every room in these buildings. “Do not insult me by accusing a deranged conspiracy theorist like Erik Blut Von Drachen as the one behind the curtain that is controlling me.”

“Ahem!” Avery yelled, standing up from his chair. “Fret not, my friends! As individuals we may panic and turn on each other, but we’re strongest as a single hive mind! Together, we will not despair, decay, nor destroy each other! We are a family now, a family that will live and carry on for years to come!”

I heard Erik mutter something under his breath. Avery referring to us as a “family” made my skin crawl; it was like hearing Charles Manson himself speak to his followers. The others also disliked the tone of his pep-talk, many sharing glances and whispering to their neighbors. HAL himself had something to say to him. “Your speech is commendable, Avery. Unfortunately for you, your ‘family’ does not seem to be as loyal to you as you would like to believe.”

Looking to the ceiling, Avery snickered. “Of course, HAL 9000. These fair people have no reason to trust me yet. Which is why I will give them a reason to!” I looked to Erik, curious if he knew what Avery had up his sleeve. Erik furrowed his brow, staring intently towards his arch-enemy. “HAL 9000! Strike me down and take me, take my life in place of these innocents!” Looking across the table, many were shocked with their jaws dropping.

“I will not do as such, Avery. Your sacrifice i-” One of the speakers malfunctioned as Avery flung a kitchen knife to the ceiling, destroying it. Avery had not picked it up off the table, yet had it hidden in the sleeve of his brown collared shirt. *How long has he just had that there? This guy is scarier than I once thought…*

“Now, now,” HAL continued on, continuing to speak through the remaining speakers. “I will not stand any more destruction of my devices. I did not have the opportunity to give this warning already when Matthew destroyed one of my televisions. Therefore, I shall punish the both of you. Not to death as you wish, Avery, but enough to serve as a reminder.”

Before I could protest, a powerful shock shot up my right leg and into my core. I screamed out in pain, clenching my teeth and my fists as my knuckles whitened. Being an electrician, I’ve been shocked plenty of times in the past but this was something in a completely different league. “Agh! What the fuck?!” Looking back to Avery, his body trembled from his shock, falling to the ground. Immediately, people jumped out of their chairs to gather around him, Dr. Cooper the fastest of them all. Others looked up to the ceiling and yelled at HAL, outraged that he killed one of us and calling for the mastermind’s head.

I stumbled to the rest of the group to see Cooper holding Avery’s wrist to check his pulse. “...He’s alive,” the doctor pronounced, yet Avery did not stir. Cooper attempted to wake him, saying his name several times and snapping his fingers to no response. The doctor gently opened his eyelid as he finally blinked, and blinked, and blinked again. “Are you alright, Avery?” Cooper asked him, his patient shaking his head in response as he crawled backwards from the doctor. “Avery, do not worry. I’m not going to hurt you. I have to examine you to make sure you’re stable.”

His mouth moved, but what came out was not his odd monotone voice. It was something new; a cracky, pained, high pitch voice of a girl’s. “Why are you calling me Avery?!” Dr. Cooper and the rest of us were confused, looking at Avery curiously. He had always been a little off, but now he was… what **was** he doing?

Dr. Cooper shook his head before starting to explain, “Avery Maven… the Thirteenth… is your name. You have just experienced an electric shock and it appears you have suffered some memory loss, possibly even brain damage. This may be alarming to hear but you, myself, and these other individuals standing before you are being held hostage at a convention center. The person holding us hostage shocked you and another person as punishment for destroying some equipment. You’re… uh… don’t cry, it’ll be okay…”

Cooper’s spiel came to a clunky close as Avery began tearing up, shaking inconsolably. Finally, he looked up and just screamed in the doctor’s face, “I’m-I’m-I’m not A-Averyyy!” in that same voice, cracking through sobs. Dr. Cooper looked back to us; even he was completely confused about what was going on. With no answers, he hesitantly looked back to his patient.

“Okay then... who are you?” Cooper asked.

“I-I’m… Lucidus ,” Avery said in that girl’s voice again, starting to calm down from the crying.

“Lucidus… okay. My name is Jason Cooper, your name is Lucidus… how old are you, Lucidus?”

“I’m nineteen,” Avery stated, contrary to his real age which must have been nearing his thirties.

“You’re nineteen, okay. What else can you tell me about yourself, Lucidus?”

“I… I’m not supposed to be here. I was just with my sisters… we were just in Montana. H-How… how do you know Avery?”

I looked back to Erik, his eyes wide and shocked from what he was hearing. “What is it?” I whispered to him, but he didn’t answer. His attention was completely focused on what ‘Lucidus’ was saying.

“In Montana? ...Okay. Um, as I said, Avery and the rest of us were being held hostage here.”

“That’s… not possible, Jason,” Lucidus said.

“Why not? Was Avery in Montana as well?”

“Avery… the Thirteenth, you mean.”

“Yes.”

“Avery the Thirteenth hasn’t… he hasn’t been born yet.”

“W-What?!” Cooper, as well as me and some of the others yelled out.

“Dr. Cooper, I think I know what is going on here,” Erik said, walking up and crouching down to talk to this time traveler. “Lucidus, you and your sisters were running away from the Shining Stars, weren’t you?”

“...Yes… How do you know that?” Their head hung in shame and looked down, away from Erik.

“The year is 2019, not 1990. Avery has been alive for quite some time, and… in that time, you and your sisters have all passed.”

Lucidus looked back at Erik with a new demeanor on their face, the brow furrowed and judging him. “How’s that?” The voice was different again; not Avery’s normal voice, but another feminine one with a haughty presence to it. “How were we killed, old man?”

“...You must be Evol ,” Erik said.

“Hm. You really do know a lot about us. Did we expose the bastards like we planned? Were we praised for coming out and telling the truth?”

“...No, you were not. They caught you and executed all of you as a sacrifice to welcome the birth of the next Avery.”

“I… am I a ghost, then?” Evol asked, looking down, touching Avery’s chest and grabbing his clothes. “This… this isn't my body… where’s Lucy? You were just talking to her, right? Where’d she go?!” Evol grew increasingly panicked as she looked around the room, trying to find Lucidus.

“You… you don’t remember…?” Erik knew enough information about the cult, but had no idea what was going on with Avery’s sudden drastic change in behavior.

“I think what we have here is a case of dissociative identity disorder,” Flatts interjected. “Avery, being raised the way he was, may have grown up with quite a lot of childhood stress and possibly abuse. Learning of these sisters who died--and the way he sees it--in order for him to be born, he may have been consumed by researching them and adapted them into his own psyche.”

“And created split personalities, aside his own dominant one,” Cooper finished the thought. “Good thinking, Flatts.”

“Split personalities? Seems like a pretty overplayed trope if you ask me,” Amy commented.

“I think it makes sense,” someone else said. All our heads to turned to see who it was, as Avery was now sitting with his attention to Dr. Cooper. Again, a new voice, this time a girl with an East Asian accent. “I’m Ximena, nice to meet you!”

“Uh, nice to meet you too,” Dr. Cooper said, shaking her hand.

“Ximena was the bookworm of the Forgotten Four Stars, rumored to have mapped out their escape route through abandoned mine shafts. She was the second to be killed, I believe,” Erik stated.

“Aww, how sad. Good thing I can’t remember that at all,” Ximena said, scratching her head. “So, me and the girls are all long dead and have been incorporated into the new Avery’s mind as personalities split from his own… I wonder why we’re just now coming to light?”

Cooper thought for a moment. “I imagine it has to be the electric shock. Maybe the trauma from it was so powerful that it hurt Avery’s own personality and sent him into remission... and now you and the other Stars are fighting for control, which is why you guys keep switching every few minutes. You said there were four in total, Erik?”

Before Erik could answer, Ximena did. “Yep! Lucidus, myself, Evol, and Negative. We’re not actual sisters as turtleneck said, though. We were all held in the same cabin in the outpost we were stationed at. They kidnapped all of us when we were kids and used us as… erm, brothel whores. We pretended to buy into all their bullshit so we could escape one day. A lot of us were, not just us four. Erik, is it? Has anyone else escaped?”

“I’ve heard of other attempts, but I never heard of any successful ones. The cult remains alive and healthy to this day.”

“Unfortunate…” Ximena shook her head and looked to the ground. Like Evol, she examined the clothes she was wearing. “To think, I’m trapped in the body of a Maven. It beats being a broodmare for those crazy fucks, though.”

“I’m sorry to hear that they put you through that,” Cooper offered his sentiments.

“Hold on a minute,” Rae interrupted. “These aren’t the real Forgotten Four Stars, though! This is just Avery’s interpretation of them, not the real ones that actually went through all of that stuff. There’s no reason to apologize for trauma that didn’t even happen to him!”

“Be that as it may, my memories are somewhat still intact. My early life is pretty spotty but I remember my life within the cult far too well. It was Avery the Twelfth that took my virginity, and there were countless others that followed suit. They didn’t care about our feelings… they gave us these made-up names to dehumanize us and forget our lives before our abductions. They kept us alive and well just enough so that we could please them whenever they wanted.”

“Interesting,” Jeffrey’s raspy voice wheezed. “They must have documented everything and Avery read all of it, establishing their personalities well enough to vicariously live their lives almost thirty years later.”

“That is true,” Ximena answered, “Whenever I got the opportunity, I would read whatever literature was around the outpost. I did find some old dusty diaries and tales written by past cult members… one even detailed our kidnappings and the plans to where we would be staying. It’d make sense to write down the information surrounding our executions.”

“Okay okay!” Officer Majellan yelled out. “I think we’ve talked enough about all of this. We have to get back on track and figure out who of us is the traitor. All we know is that Erik isn’t the mastermind, and even if Avery was behind any of this, I don’t think that matters now because his own personality is gone.”

“AVERY WAS A TOTAL CUCK ANYWAY, LETTING THESE GIRLS OVERRIDE HIS OWN PERSONALITY SHOWS HE WAS A WEAK EFFEMINATE HORRIBLE EXCUSE FOR A MAN!!!” Asier ranted.

“Right,” Neo confronted the Ultimate White Nationalist. “‘Cause you’re that much better for attacking women instead.”

“SHUT UP LIBTARD NOW!!” Asier screamed in Neo’s face before limping forward and punching him with an uppercut. Neo fell to the ground as he tugged on Asier’s shirt, pulling him down as the latter continued to throw hands. Like before, Jamahl and Axel intervened and dragged the two away from each other; Neo’s eye blackening and his nose bleeding while his attacker looked fine.

“Goddamnit dude, did you really just get your ass beat by a cripple?” Rae asked Neo. At this comment, Mindy let out an annoyed sigh as she ran off out of the diner.

“...Who wants to bet Mindy’s the traitor?” Jake asked us, waiting for her to be completely out of earshot. “I mean, the whole hyper-sensitive, quiet, shy, extremely faithful kid thing might all just be a ruse to not throw that much suspicion onto her. She could be running off to do more of HAL’s errands right now!”

“I don’t think it’s likely we’ll figure out who’s behind all of this, for right now at least,” Ximena said. For the last couple minutes, Cooper had been explaining the situation to her. “The safest bet might just to be with each other at all times so that no one is ever alone, which would only invite them to carry out acts behind the rest of our backs or endanger them and get themselves killed.”

“So you want all of us to be a group, huh?” Rae asked. “Sure, ‘cause that worked out so perfectly the last time you tried it,” after making this scathing remark to Ximena, they looked back to the rest of us. “The rest of you can’t seem to go five minutes without fighting or screaming at each other. I’m used to melodrama but Jesus, being around you all is capital punishment enough. Peace out, I can’t wait to see which one of you dies first.” With that, Rae followed in Mindy’s footsteps and left us.

“...Do you guys think they’re the traitor?” Cynthia asked, referring to Rae. “I mean, they just perfectly contradicted the point Ximena made.”

“That seems way too obvious,” Axel said. “Rae’s probably just nowhere near comfortable enough to be around all of us like Ximena proposed. I can completely understand it, too. Asier’s a loud, annoying, sexist, racist punk and Avery’s a total schizo. Flying solo seems like the way to go.”

“I personally think Xim’s idea isn’t half bad,” Dr. Cooper mentioned. Gesturing to Neo and Asier, he continued on. “I’m going to have to clean these two up anyway. And continue my exercises with Jeffrey… and even work through the electrical shock trauma Xim and Matt just went through. That’s six of us staying together right there.”

“I’m down, I guess,” I said. “The pain from the shock passed pretty quickly and it definitely didn’t impact me like it did Avery… err, Ximena? And the rest?”

“I’d like to make sure, though. You may not have split personalities but it could have fried your circuits somewhere else,” Cooper said.

“As long as you keep this fucker away from me,” Neo said, checking to make sure he still had all his teeth as he pointed to Asier.

Asier started going on another loud rant while Jeffrey explained his take on the doc’s proposal. “Thanks a lot, doc, but if I’m gonna stay stress free there’s no way it’ll be around this guy. I’m just gonna try and relax in my room today.”

“Fair enough,” Cooper said, wishing his patient good luck as he took his leave. “Well then. I suppose it’ll be me, Xim, Matt, Neo, and Asier. Anyone else?”

Flatts walked up, shadowed by their fan Cynthia. “Yeah, I guess I’ll tag along too. Sticking together will at least provide alibis if anything does happen.” The rest; Axel, Erik, Vi, Amy, Jake, and Jamahl, all kinda looked at each other and unanimously decided to stay at the diner. I realized that most of us didn’t even finish our meals because of all that happened.

The six of us followed Dr. Cooper to the Showplace, leading us down a hallway meant for employees only. Passing a break room, we discovered an infirmary with one bed, three chairs, and a counter with an assortment of tools and medicine. “I figured a convention center like this would have an infirmary of some sort. It’s not much but it’ll have to do,” Cooper said as he rummaged through the medicine. “They have some basic pain suppressants… take two of these, Neo,” he directed as he tossed the pill bottle to Neo. Opening a drawer, Cooper found a stethoscope and wore it around his neck. “Alright, Xim, you first.” She walked forward and sat on the bed as Cooper put the metal disc to her chest and listened, examining different areas of the torso as well. “...As far as I can tell, your heart isn’t out of rhythm. Do you recall where the shock came from?”

“I don’t remember feeling any shock,” Ximena said.

“Right. Switching personalities, you don’t retain the others’ memories. Matt, do you know where the shock came from?”

“Yeah, it felt like it came from my foot and shot up my leg. I wasn’t standing on any wiring or conductors though, so I have no idea where it came from.” I untied my shoe lace and kicked it off, tugging my sock off as well. “Whoa, what the hell?!” I pulled up the pant leg of my jeans and found a long brown scar stretching from my heel up to my knee.

“Jesus, Matt,” Cooper and the others were shocked to find my injury, gathering around in awe. “That’s one hell of a flash burn… you don’t feel that at all?”

“No… Christ, I’ve never gotten one that bad.” I was disturbed by the reveal of my injury; not knowing where it came from was even scarier. The mastermind was a lot more powerful than I previously thought.

“I have one too,” Ximena said as she shimmied off Avery’s baggy pants. Hers went past the knee and all the way up her thigh until fading away. Up and down Avery’s legs were other scars, old cuts and lashes healed from time. “Jeez, you were right, Mr. Flatts. I guess the Mavens raise their kids pretty rough.”

Flatts paid no mind to the comment, instead leaning over and whispering something to me. “Hey, sorry about confronting you earlier. Didn’t mean to sound so stand off-ish. I actually think you did the right thing there.”

“The right thing? How?”

“You noticed something didn’t line up in someone’s testimony and pointed it out,” Flatts described. “If we’re gonna be picking apart suspects of murders, that’s a good talent to have.”

“...You really think there’s gonna be a murder?”

“I fear it’s a grim reality that we’ll have to accept. We’re locked in here and the only way out is to get away with a murder. It’s instinct to yearn for survival… would you rather have to kill someone to have a chance at getting out of here or sit by and wait to be killed yourself?”

“I think I’m starting to see why your books are best-sellers…”

“Haha. Of course, I’m not advocating we murder people but I simply understand the situation we’re in.”

“Pardon me, Matt,” Dr. Cooper approached me and touched the cold metal disc of the stethoscope to my chest. “You don’t seem to have any palpitations either. Interesting. The shock was harmful enough to scar the both of you horribly, but not enough to cause any other effects.”

“That’s really… odd,” I said. “I’ve seen electricians shock themselves really bad and need some urgent medical help, but I don’t remember them having scars like this.”

“I’ve never seen anything like it either,” Copper agreed, equally confused by our predicament.

Cynthia sighed, “So we have a SAW-type murder escape room setting, an all-seeing Big Brother character, someone with split personalities, and now horribly scarring electric shocks from seemingly no origin. What next?”

“Umm, where am I?” someone else asked, the six of us turning our attention back towards where Ximena was sitting on the bed. The voice was different again as Avery’s eyes squinted at us. “Where are my sisters?”

“I think Erik called this one Negative, right?” Neo asked.

“How do you know that?” Negative asked him, startled and afraid that she still did not know where she was.

After a few hours of staying in the infirmary, some of us were feeling cooped up and decided to leave. We had to go through the whole spiel with Negative again, explaining that she was not in 1990’s Montana but in a killing game in the year 2019. As we tried to tell her that she was a figment of Avery’s imagination, she fainted. Cooper decided to let her sleep, determining that Avery’s body has been through a lot and that we had no idea if switching personalities was taking a toll on him. Cynthia volunteered to stay with the doctor and assist with moving Avery to his room.

Asier and Neo were bickering the whole time on their way back to their rooms, Flatts and I deciding to split off and talk as we explored the hotel. I hesitated but eventually decided to tell them that I had been weighing my options, thinking if I could pull off a murder or not. They thanked me for my honesty but directed me to speak no more of it, stating that I just gave myself a reason to be suspected, regardless that everyone else had most likely been thinking the same way. “We all have the same thoughts running through our heads. Everyone is wondering, ‘Can I do it? Who can I kill? How will I get away with it?’ It’s maddening. No one wants to be here and we’re desperate, so we’ll point fingers at anyone who is even remotely suspicious. But we’ll have to actually think it through and find the real killer, or else we’re all dead.”

As we walked down the first floor hallway, we were slowly approaching a storage closet. I had passed it a couple times both yesterday and this morning; both times shut and likely locked. I had never really paid any mind to it. As we came closer though, I noticed it was opened slightly, as if something was keeping it from closing. Both Flatts and I looked at it for a second before examining it more closely, finding something lodged in between the door and the frame. A black shoe. “Matt…” Flatts said to me as they lightly tapped my shoulder. I turned to them pointing at the carpet close to the door, and stamped into the red and gold design was a faint bloodstain in the pattern of a shoe’s footprint.

“Oh no…” I froze. Flatts avoided walking on the blood as they approached the door, slowly opening it. The shoe holding it open fell limp as the light shone upon a foot and leg wearing it. Flatts felt the wall for a lightswitch, finding it and flipping it on.

His own blood pooled around him. His lifeless eyes were still open, his face a dark blue that I’ve never seen before. His lanyard was tightly wrapped around his neck, his badge poking his collarbone. Bloody holes riddled his torso, his brown jacket and black button-up shirt stained pink, a knife left impaled in his heart. It was Jeffrey Newton, the Ultimate Historian.

Ding dong dong ding!