10

Monday 9:30-11:30

Maddox, 9:30

Maddox stumble blindly around the once familiar woods.

His vision was blurred. He couldn't hear anything other than the humming that had grown to a blaring noise that made his skull vibrate. Barely any air made it into his lungs before it was being pushed back out of his lips.

Pain exploded in his shoulder for what felt like the one-thousandth time as he collided with yet another tree that he couldn't see.

Tears stung as they collected in his eyes, his shoulder hunched over. His legs slowly gave out from under him, causing him to kneel on the damp forest floor. His head lay gently on the ground, forcing himself into a fetal position as he tried to calm his breathing the best he could.

His hands came up cup his ears to try to block out the retched sound. Nails dug into the side of his head just above his ears.

Maddox gasped out in pain but didn't stop pressing. The harder he pressed the quieter the humming got. Of course, it wasn't a small volume but it was at least bearable.

Even when blood began seeping out of the crescent wounds where his nails continued to press, Maddox didn't stop.

Salty tears began slipping out of the corner of his tightly shut eyes as he took in one deep breath in after another.

His fingers began to cramp from the awkward position making his grip loosen on his ears. The high pitched humming came back tenfold when his hurting fingers forced themselves away from his ears.

His heart pounded out of his chest as he took one last breath, filling up his lungs entirely, before letting it rip through his body in the form of a loud scream he couldn't hear.

All he heard was the endless humming of the voice in his head.

Sage, 10:45

A wave of déjà vu washed over Sage as her eyes slowly opened.

Her head pounded to the same fast-paced rhythm as her heart. A scratchy feeling settled in her throat as she looked around the almost pitch-black room.

It wasn't anything but a wooden chair that she sat in, which was in the exact middle of the room, and a dirty white door just a foot in front of her.

She shivered in the cold room as her mind immediately went back to the dream she had only a few nights ago. 

Everything was far too familiar. The darkroom, the pounding head, and the inability to move her arms all sent a chill down her spine as she remembered the fuzzy dream that she barely remembered.

She looked down at her arms, expecting to see to thick ropes trapping her to the chair, but when she looked down she saw nothing. With every bit of strength in her body, she tried to move her arms yet they didn't budge.

As she struggled she looked down at her arms to see something cutting into her arms, leaving them red and raw. Her blood slowly ran down her biceps as she struggled before giving up and slumping back down in her chair.

Sage only remembered two things from her dream. Just her arms being tied down with a scratchy rope and words painted on the wall in blood.

Her heart began to race a bit as she sat back in the chair and looked up at the wall in front of her. Though the room was almost pitch black, Sage forced herself to strain her eyes as she stared at the wall in front of her.

She expected to see the words that had haunted her the night she had her dreams to be plastered on the walls.

Her heartbeat slowed slightly when she saw no writing insight. She sagged in her chair in relief as she waited for whatever was going to happen next.

In her mind, nothing really mattered at this point. She could worry all she wanted but it wouldn't change anything. Everything was already set in stone. They had already lost the game.

Someone was going to die tonight.

Still, adrenaline ran through her body as fear creped into her heart. Nothing about tonight made her feel safe.

Lily, 11:30

Lily rubbed holes in the cold concrete floor that lined room as she paced carelessly. Her mind buzzing around the room switching from one topic to another at random.

She had been here for hours. For the most part, she looked for a way out, thinking this was some sort of test and as long as she could figure a way out she could go back home.

But there was nothing, it was just dark, muddy room with water damage and no door. After a while, she decided this room was just a means to an end that it was just a holding place until midnight when the game would finally end.

Her bottom lip disappeared into her mouth as she paced back in forth. She felt like a caged animal in a glass box, fun to look at yet still protected if it chose to lash out.

With a loud sigh, Lily made her way to the darkest corner in the room with no light and sat down. Her arms wrapped around legs as she pulled them close to her body. Her chin rested on her knees as she watched the center of the room, waiting for something to happen.

As she waited she thought back to the calls.

Murder midnight.

She doubted it could be far from midnight now. In just a few minutes this whole thing would be over and one of her friends would be dead.

The other two would have to try to explain to their parents what happened while not sounding like an insane person who needs to be locked up in a crazy house.

At a time like this, she expected adrenaline to course through her system but there was nothing. Just a sense of... peace and she couldn't understand why.

How could someone feel any amount of peace in a time like this?

With a pit in her stomach and led in her heart, Lily leaned her head back against the wall. Just as she did the dark form appeared out of nowhere.

The pit was gone and her heart was back to normal as a sense of relief washed over her and she felt like she knew what was going to happen tonight.

She didn't like it, but she would rather be theone dying if it meant her friends would get to live.