"I'm sorry, Elijah."
A tall boy with pitch black hair loomed over another boy with short blonde curls. The blonde had tears in the corners of his eyes and his mouth was wide open, and yet, not a single word came out.
The tall boy knelt and stared at the blonde's green eyes. "I didn't want it to be this way," he whispered and leaned forward.
Two pairs of lips met.
The tall boy opened his eyes and saw the blonde's emeralds rolled to the back of his head. Gently, he ended their first kiss.
Blood oozed out of the blonde's slack jaws.
{CONGRATULATIONS! THE SEEKER WINS!}
.
.
.
The ten students fell down in a seemingly endless abyss. Their screams echoed out like roosters in the morning, until everything went silent.
Satisfied by the peace and quiet, the clown's chuckle trickled into their ears.
{The rules of Hide and Seek are simple.} Its words echoed. {Seven people are Innocent, and their goal is to hide until one hour is up. Once eliminated, they'll be taken away!}
Its giggles rang out like a Christmas melody. Then, it stopped as though the signal had been cut.
Yet just moments later, it continued. {One person is the Seeker! His goal is to mark the other players by touching them! BUT!
Be careful~ You can only mark one person at a time! The marked person will be eliminated every five minutes after the round begins~
Another person is the Watcher, and be warned! The Seeker can see through the Watcher's eyes! However,} the clown dragged its words as though a cat owner with a laser in hand, {the Watcher won't know their role until the Protector saves them.}
A hollow laughter had the hairs on their arms stand on end.
{The last person is the Protector! You may mark one player at a time. When the Seeker marks the person you marked, both marks will fail, and both of you won't be able to mark anyone for one minute—MINUTE—minute…} a maniacal laughter rang in each student's ears.
The clown continued, but its voice was sped up. {For the Innocents to win, they must not get eliminated before the timer runs out! If the condition is met, the Seeker is permanently eliminated~ T̵h̷r̷o̵u̷g̶h̵̸ D̵E̶A̵T̸H̸.}
Its words now seemed like ramblings, to the point that they were barely comprehensible.
{For the Seeker to win, they must eliminate all the other players before the timer runs out! If the condition is met, the Watcher is permanently eliminated~ T̵h̷r̷oug̶h̵ ̸D̵EAT̸H̸.}
At last, light appeared below the abyss of endless darkness.
{Let the round of Hide and Seek…}
{B̷E̸G̵I̸N̵~̷~̴~̷!̵}
A vast arena stretched beneath them, and without parachutes, they fell like Icarus from the sky. The oldest of the ten, Adrian Montano, held his breath as he rocketed toward the grass. He gritted his teeth and closed his eyes.
The expected impact never came.
"Ugh," slowly, he opened his eyes. As he guessed, he landed, though he was unharmed.
He stood up. "The fuck…? I thought I was dead meat," mumbles left his mouth as he steadied his heart.
He was the oldest, but he was only 16. He looked around and his eyes met an expansive garden. It was enclosed in fences with the height of two people, and an array of flowers bloomed everywhere he looked.
But the blooms weren't the highlight of the garden.
"Holy shhhit," his eyes widened to the size of plates as he leaned back to see the canopy of the tree before him.
But before he could admire the scene, a puff of smoke clouded his vision.
{WELCOME~} A clown doll appeared in front of him. It looked similar to the clown on the television, but with a completely different energy.
If the one on the television was like a dead rose drunk on caffeine, the one in front of him was akin to a burning daisy.
Adrian stiffened, but the clown couldn't care less as it flew in circles around him.
Finally, it floated toward his shoulder and leaned close to his ears. The clown whispered. {You are in the Garden of Eden! Your role is~}
Adrian blinked, when the clown exploded into white smoke. When it cleared, the clown was nowhere to be seen.
"What the hell was that?" Adrian rubbed the side of his face. He looked around for a bit, before he turned his gaze back to the middle of the garden.
Surrounded by a patch of sweet violets, a tree taller than a skyscraper reached for the non-existent ceiling. There was no sky, it was simply a dark void of nothingness.
Bright red apples hung way below the tree's pale white branches, and next to its trunk was a lectern. It seemed to whisper, like a mermaid wrapped in a seductive song.
He stood and nursed his back, which felt not a shred of discomfort. "It feels weird to fall like that and… nothing," he shook his head and lifted his feet.
Before he could walk toward the giant tree, he noticed someone nearby.
A girl.
Elizabeth Argentina. The top 2 student in their class. She was smart in academics, but she wasn't the most popular in school.
"Elizabeth?" he called out.
Her infamy stemmed from her personality. When he saw her, he hesitated if he should just ignore her. He decided against it.
After all, no matter how arrogant the other party was, surely, they wouldn't show it during a crisis like this, right?
Elizabeth was sitting on a bench with her head down when she heard Adrian's voice. Her waist-length hair was perfectly straight and her bangs covered her forehead. Her eyelashes were full and long, and as long as her lips stayed shut, she was practically a fairy.
But to talk, how could you not speak?
"What's your problem?" Elizabeth's face twisted, and she stood up to match Adrian's eyes. She lifted her chin, and her voice scathed his ears.
Adrian walked toward her. "Let's—"
"STOP! Don't you fucking come near," she cocked her head back and took several steps backwards. She even covered her nose with her hand.
Adrian clenched his fists at the audacity. His brows knitted, and a frown found its way to his face. He was never a patient person.
His voice got louder without his input. "What the fuck is up with your attitude—?!"
"What's with MY attitude, huh?" Elizabeth laughed with the sincerity of a crying crocodile.
"If it weren't for all you fucking nitwits, I wouldn't be here!" Her screech nearly made his ears ring. By now, her fairy-like face had twisted into a devil's.
"Hah," she scowled and looked at Adrian as if she was looking at turd. "Leave, I don't trust you."
"Ha-ha," Adrian could barely find his words, "We could—I don't know, work together?"
"Work together?" Elizabeth guffawed.
"Are you DUMB?! The game is hide-and-fucking-seek! What in the shit do we get by 'working together'?! Dumbass," she rolled her eyes and turned around.
Without another word, she bolted. Adrian stood there, unable to open his mouth for a hot minute.
"What a bitch," he rubbed his temples that felt as though they were filled with magma.
Talking to Elizabeth seemed to come with headaches.
"She's… she's… ah, well," his lips flattened.
"She has a point."