Chapter 4 - Emma

Emma woke up to the blaring light of the panel that replaced the window of her room. Scarlett slept quietly beside her and Emma sighed loudly, thinking about the exhausting day ahead of her. She realized too late that her sigh might have attracted the girl in the hallway.

A door cracked open from beside hers, causing her to perk up. Silently, she walked on her toes to the doorhole, glancing through and seeing Willow walk up to her room. There were bags under his puffy red eyes, and he looked worse than yesterday. He must have cried himself to sleep, she thought. A small tinge of pity surfaced in her heart.

Willow knocked on the door softly. "Ms. Emma, Ms. Scarlett… It's morningtime. The intercom man just called us for breakfast," he muttered. She opened the door quickly, ignoring her messy hair and barely awake eyes. He seemed taken aback that she had opened the door so quickly, but it faded instantly from disinterest.

"...Good morning, Ms. Emma."

"Morning, Willow. You look awful." He laughed bitterly, and they stood in silence for a while. "Ah- what happened to the girl in the hallway?"

At this, Willow flinched, biting his lips and turning away. Tears started to resurface from his eyes - he was such a crybaby- and he ran out of the hallway sobbing. It was enough for Emma to guess that at least two murders had already been committed.

After Scarlett woke up, Emma forced her down the stairs, explaining that her facial products could be applied later if they magically spawned by the bathroom sink. There was only one flight of stairs, to Emma's pleasure, but she was unfortunately met with the sight of what seemed to be a jail cafeteria.

Now, although Emma actually never went to jail despite her murder (her only crime), the overwhelming amount of orange jumpsuits told her easily what she was witnessing. The staff had graciously offered jackets, which Emma also graciously took, trying to find her "group" by the two blondes and the red-head. 

Her table was in… mixed spirits. Willow had ceased his crying and now looked, rather than deathly afraid, dull and sad. He reminded Emma of a baby who had grown exhausted of crying and about to fall asleep. He picked idly at his food, before pushing the tray to Ren and laying his head down in his arms. Emma noticed as she sat down that they had gotten rather close.

Will was being obnoxious as always, saluting the girls as they arrived, which Scarlett waved back nervously to, before returning to force feed a blank-faced Oscar the porridge which looked as dull and sad as Willow's face. There was a new addition to the group, who was having a rather heated cuss battle with Ren, a girl with long brown curly hair and hazel eyes. Scarlett awkwardly sat next to her, leaning as far away from her as possible, glancing around the room at the other "inmates."

There was one really buff guy. Scratch that – there were many. There were also many insane people, some angry, and one who had jumped on a table begging for mercy looking in desperation towards the ceiling. Perhaps her group was one of the more mild ones.

"Where's the short kid and the buff guy?" Emma asked casually. 

Wait.

Right after she asked that question, it clicked in her brain. The girl beside her was the one in the hallway last night. Axel and the buff guy were killed by her. The silence of the group made this clearer. Emma sighed, deciding to drop the conversation and picking at her food. She didn't have much to take about, and after her question, the awkward silence made it uncomfortable for anybody to keep speaking.

"My name is Hannah," the girl smiled, looking towards them. Scarlett smiled, introducing herself and Emma, who was squeezed in the middle, forcing food down her throat. Emma looked towards Willow, whose head was still down.

"Hey, 303. Eat your food. You don't know when the next time you'll be able to eat."

"I'll just throw it up anyway, so no need to waste food on me," Willow muttered back, ending the conversation as Emma turned towards the girls who were still talking to each other around her body, sighing and eating another dry handful.

Emma entered the white room for the second game first, since she was number three hundred. It was similar to the room they waited in for the car, but this one had stools. She sighed, sitting down in one of the chairs, and was handed a name tag with her number with the number "5." Scarlett sat next to her, gasping a little as she paled at her number. It was most likely the number of years she had. Hannah sat to the other side of Emma, sighing in defeat as she looked at hers.

"Please don't share your years, contestants," the intercom added as the door shut behind them. "Ahem. Goooooooood morning. I hope you all had a good sleep yesterday. 301's strategy was certainly something, hah." Every guy in the room glanced at Will uncomfortably. Hannah laughed.

"Anyway, if you haven't figured it out, the number beside your identity number is how many years of jail you would serve. Oh, by the way, it's probably not accurate but somewhat close, but that's the number you'll be competing for. Before we start the second game, your team only has seven members now, and we need eight to play."

There was silence, since nobody knew what this meant. There was a low quality sound track that started playing in the intercom as the door to the white room opened slowly, letting inside two guards and a boy with heterochronic eyes, though Emma only knew since the intercom announced it. His brown messy hair covered the majority of his eyes and he was a little bit shorter than Willow, which was probably below average for an eighteen year old boy.

Emma realized 309 was the only person, other than herself, that she knew the age to. Oscar, Ren, Will and Scarlett looked in their early twenties, while Willow and Hannah looked fifteen but were most likely older. Emma herself was twenty one, but she wasn't going to share that.

309 went to sit down in the corner of the room as the intercom continued. "Oh, the second thing. In this room, one person is lying about the degree of their murder."

Well, that was obviously Willow.