I wake up and open my eyes. My memory is foggy.

I did open my eyes, didn’t I?

Everything remains black no matter how many times I blink.

I’m laying down so I stand up, or at least try to.

My legs and arms are bound. Whenever I move my arms, metal jingles and clinks around. I’m handcuffed to some kind of metal bar. If I tug, it moves a little.

My legs don’t make noise when I move them. It’s probably tied with cloth.

I’m blindfolded and gagged as well.

What happened?

Oh, right. Rachel.

She really didn’t kill me though. She was acting pretty psychotic so I thought I was done for.

I rub my face on the floor in an attempt to slide my blindfold off. It takes a couple minutes, but it loosens enough for me to see.

My eyes are met with more light than they can take. The window doesn’t have blinds and the sun shines in. It’s going to take a second for my eyes to adjust.

My wrists are bound with hand cuffs to a school desk.

How am I going to escape? I’m definitely not just going to sit still here.

I struggle to stand with my bound feet and purposely knock over the desk to get up. I highly doubt that Rachel is baby sitting me, so I won’t worry about how much noise it makes.

So, where am I?

I look out the window with my new point of view. About what I expected.

It’s the old school building. I imagine that Rachel wouldn’t hide me in her home, what if I was found by a family member? If she didn’t know any other place to hide me, I guess it’s the easiest to just tie me up here. Sure, others know this location too, but she probably intends on killing everyone before they get a chance to hold a meeting.

Actually, what’s her plan? I guess after taking my gem, she’d go kill… Simon. Everyone is aware of his ability and if singled out, he’s just as weak as the average eighth grader.

Afterwards… maybe Allen? Christina seems pretty tough. Allen always hangs out with Dylan so he probably seems weak in comparison. He’d likely be the best pick between the three options.

Then she’ll go for Christina, then Dylan. Dylan is the strongest seeming. Not only is he tall with a lot of muscle, he also already killed Luke. She saw it. He was powerful. But could he defeat someone who already has six gems? Doubtful.

Finally, she’d kill Kyle. He would be left for last, not because he’s strong, but because he’s elusive. I’m not sure if she’ll be able to track him down at all. Honestly, the final boss wouldn’t be a fight to the death with a fire manipulating body builder, it would be just trying to catch Kyle.

I need to tell Simon what’s going on. I’ll tell Kyle next. He’s smart and despite being so selfish, he does seem to care about the group.

How am I supposed to take these cuffs off though?

Alright, I saw this in a horror movie once. The main character was locked up by their insane ex but escaped with a hair pin.

I’ll give this a shot.

I lay back down and rub my head on the ground until a hair pin falls out.

The cuffs are behind me but I have enough leeway to step over them and bring them in front.

I pick up the pin and put it in the keyhole of the cuffs. Now if I turn in clockwise…

Nothing happens. I can’t turn it too hard or I may break my one chance of escape.

I remove the clip and play with in in my fingers, trying to make the loop at the end wider.

Failed again.

I spend the next several hours trying to escape the cuffs. It looked much easier in the film!

Finally,

Click!

That’s it! I thought I was going to go insane!

After my handcuffs were removed, untying the cloth was child’s play. I also removed my gag.

She wouldn’t leave me with my phone, would she?

Nope! ‘Course not.

I turn the knob to leave the room but I was locked in. Maybe barricaded? I don’t know if these doors even have locks.

In any case, I lift up the desk with all of my might. I’m less fit then I imagined.

Putting my back into it, I throw the desk at the window.

Thud.

The desk bounces off.

Again!

Thud.

This time the window cracks.

Once more!

Smash!

A nice cold breeze blows in. That’s better.

Now how do I contact Simon? I’m going to need to meet up with someone who knows his number. The closest house to the school is… maybe Allen’s? It’s either that or Dylan’s.

I would borrow someone’s phone off the street, but I only know my number and my mom’s off the top of my head. Even in a situation like this, I won’t involve my mom. I doubt she’d help anyway. She’s probably busy. I’m not going to hitch hike either. That’s scary.

This will be a while. I’m going to have to walk all the way to Allen’s house.

***

Knock Knock Knock

Who is that?

I was just relaxing in my living room when I got a visitor.

I walk to my door and open it up.

“Sarah. I thought you were at the hospital for your grandma?”

She stops, “What?”

“You messaged me on the phone yesterday, that you wouldn’t be able to make our date.”

She has a sudden look of realization, “That was Rachel. She’s stolen my gem and is preparing to kill Simon.”

My brain needs a moment to register. Excuse me? Rachel ruined my first date!? Here I was thinking that Sarah had second thoughts.

I’ll get her back for this! I was so disappointed!

“Dang. Do we need to go save him now?”

“Yes. And fast. I’ll explain everything on the way. You said you can drive, right?”

I shout to my mom that I’m going out with friends and she allows me to take the car.

On the drive there Sarah explains everything.

She was put on a fake date with me and kidnapped by Rachel. That’s a whole lot to happen while I’m away!

Now that I think of it…

“How’d she text you with my number?”

“It’s a technique that scammers use. I’m not an expert, but she can make it look like you sent a text that you didn’t. It tricks my phone into thinking that your number sent it.”

“I see… but didn’t you reply to the message? Shouldn’t that have gone to me?”

She stops and considers, “I’m not sure why that happened. Did you talk with Rachel recently?”

Uh oh, “Did you come back to my house after you dropped me off two days ago?”

“That must have been Rachel’s first move.”

“You asked for my phone. You said that you had gotten a new one and that you could type your new phone number in.”

Sarah thinks for a moment and places her hand on her chin, “Rachel must’ve blocked my real number on your phone and given you a fake number that she had control of. That way, she can text me with your number, but when I reply you wouldn’t see it. This strategy makes it so she wouldn’t be able to see the text I sent either, but since she sent hers first, it was just a confirmation of our date. She gambled that I wouldn’t ask a question. Although, even if I did, I’d still show up without worrying about it.”

Wow. Rachel is pretty smart. She always seemed like the smart type, but she never did anything remarkably intelligent.

Sarah on the other hand figured out her whole plan in a few minutes! Man, she’s amazing.

As we get closer to Simon’s street, Sarah shouts to stop the car.

She quickly hops out and walks to a trash can on the side of the road. A sick looking boy sits behind it hugging his knees. Good eye.

“Are you alright?” Sarah asks the boy.

He looks up with a deranged face. His eyes are empty and his lips force a crooked smile. The boy’s clothes are torn up. His pants have scratches and holes all over and his shirt is missing a sleeve and has red stains. Oddly enough, there’s not a single injury on the boys body.

It takes a moment for me and Sarah to realize who the fear stricken boy was. His face was so different from normal.

“Sarah- no. Are you!?” He looks terrified but out of the corner of his eye he sees me, “Oh… there’s two of you… she shouldn’t be able to split…”

Simon talks like he’s been possessed. The once cheerful boy was petrified. He stared at the two of us with doubt and distrust.

“Simon. We’re here now. Did Rachel get to you?”

“No- No. She didn’t get me. Not me.”

“Can you ride with us? We need to go somewhere safe.”

“Safe? How can anywhere be safe? Anyone could be Rachel. That may not be Allen with you, and you may not even be Sarah.”

Simon talks in a similar way to Kyle. Not his tone, not his voice… but the content of what he’s saying is almost exactly what Kyle would say. His words are filled with distrust and he wears it proud. He’s not afraid to express the fact that we can’t be trusted. That nothing can be trusted.

“Come with us, Simon. Dylan will be there. He’s strong. We’ll go pick up Christina too.”

“No…” His frightened voice turns to sadness and depression, “She died.”

The news hit seconds after it was heard. Despite not liking how disbelieving Kyle is, I couldn’t believe my own ears.

Two have died.

Luke.

Christina.

“Tell us what happened!” I’m getting impatient. Sarah has been talking calmly this whole time. She wants to comfort him, but we don’t have time for that.

“She protected me. I was in pain. The worst pain I’d ever felt. But… Christina used her life to delay Rachel, and I ran. I ran without turning back,” A cruel evil smile was glued to his face. He talked of the tragic event like it was a miracle. He talked about it as though all that mattered was that he got away.

His voice, his face, his words. They’re pissing me off. He’s talking like he’s evil.

Where did the cute justice loving Simon go?

Sarah grabs his sleeveless arm and stands him up. The physical contact makes him visibly shake.

“Come with us, Simon. We can help you.” Sarah says reassuringly.

Simon is silently dragged into our car and he doesn’t make a sound as we pick up Dylan.

“Christina was killed by Rachel!?” Dylan shouts in confusion.

“That’s what it sounds like. She already has four gems and she’ll be coming for us next. We need to fight. She’s evil now, we need to kill her.” I offer my best idea.

Dylan squints and sits in the back of our car. I start driving to the abandoned school.

We text Kyle but he doesn’t respond. That bastard is just going to leave us. What happened to him saying he’d continue to respond to his phone and help us out?

Simon is hesitant to leave the car and still wears his insane expression and twisted smile.

We silently take our seats in the meeting room. The other classroom was now boarded off. That must be where Sarah was kidnapped.

Simon sits in his regular seat. Four empty chairs surround him. Sarah and Dylan sit beside me, in front of the door-less doorway.

Despite coming here to talk, nobody says a word. The atmosphere is eerie and dark. The empty chairs threaten to make us stand up. They threaten to make us leave the room and never come back. If we left our chairs, no one would be left.

The empty chairs silently watch on as we all attempt to cope with the new situation.

Only half of the clubs members remain.

Luke was killed by Dylan.

Kyle ran away.

Rachel betrayed us.

Christina sacrificed her life.

Who will be next? Us, or Rachel? One side needs to die. It’s unavoidable now.

I speak up and voice my best plan, “Me and Dylan won’t be able to defeat Rachel alone. A head shot will be impossible. Rachel has four gems already and I can guarantee that we stand no chance.”

Everyone remains silent. Sarah watches the table while Simon’s eyes dart around the room, vigilant. Dylan watches my face as he listens.

“There’s only one way we can win this… we need another gem. Between the four of us, only two can fight. That means that one gem here is going to waste. We need to kill Simon.”

Simon sits still and stares daggers at me. His eyes are merciless.

The way I see it, Simon is as much of a traitor as Luke was. Simon let Christina die and for that he needs punished. His continued existence will get us all killed. Me, Dylan, and Sarah.

Not to mention, his ability to heal is useless mid fight. He needs direct contact but if he puts himself into the fray, he’ll be killed instantly. He could potentially heal us after our battle, but we certainty can’t win with our current fire power.

Sarah looks shocked at what I said but continues staring at the table.

Dylan immediately raises his voice, “No! We can’t do that. We can’t kill Simon just for our sake!”

“No… not just for us. For Christina. He let her die! Are you just going to forgive him!?”

“That’s not his fault! She sacrificed herself so that he could live!”

“Then what do you suppose we do!?”

Dylan’s angry face shrinks and he glances to the side.

Dylan answers quietly, “I’m not sure but-”

“We need to kill Simon! It’s our only hope! You can have his gem and together, we can defeat Rachel.”

“That might work, but we can’t just kill him! I already killed Luke, I won’t allow anymore needless death!”

***

I sit in the corner alone. Who knows when this could end poorly. I need to keep my distance. Somewhere along the line, I sat down in a seat far from the door. It’ll be hard to escape from this position. I only chose this seat because in the moment I wanted to be as far away from them as possible.

The empty chairs surround me. They whisper threats. At any moment, I may also die. I may run away. No matter what, my life will never be the same.

Allen seems different to me now. Not in the same way that Christina felt different when she was fake. Allen feels more confident, but it’s a confidence that will surely hurt him. He also feels like an enemy. He doesn’t feel like an enemy because he wants to kill me, it’s something else. I don’t blame him for wanting me to die. For him to survive I can’t live.

“We need to kill Simon! It’s our only hope! You can have his gem and together, we can defeat Rachel,” Allen yells.

“That might work, but we can’t just kill him! I already killed Luke, I won’t allow anymore needless death!” Dylan said.

Sarah remained looking at the table. She’s just as bad as Allen if she doesn’t decide to help me. I need to take this into my own hands. I need to get out of here.

Allen is trying to kill me, but Dylan is closest to the door. If I walk out maybe they’ll be too distracted with their arguing.

But what if they notice? Will they attack me? I need to be ready, but I can’t fight them.

It looks like I can only heal my own injuries now. I haven’t tried, but deep down, I just want to avoid pain. My perception of reality, my perception of myself, has changed.

As I try to brainstorm ways to escape, I feel something in my pocket.

“Dylan! We need to do this! We don’t have a choice!”

“We can’t kill him! I can’t accept that! I won’t let another one of our friends die!”

Sarah grabs Allen’s sleeve and looks up at him.

She whispers, “I don’t know what to do anymore. But, is it really ok to kill him? I know it’s our only chance but-”

I stand up and starts to walk out. I try to walk slowly and casually. Hopefully they don’t stop me.

Dylan abruptly stands up and blocks my path to the door.

He towers over me menacingly.

“Hey, Simon, I’m defending you here. Trust me. But, you need to be here for this discussion. It involves you as much as-”

I need to get out of here!

Suddenly, Dylan loses his voice. He can hardly speak and he slowly reaches out to his stomach.

My hands feel a warm drizzle down them. I grip my pocket knife with all of my strength. Now I need to escape. My first obstacle is down.

Sorry, Dylan. You were defending me, but I can’t die here. I’ll do whatever I can to escape.

Allen launches across the table in a blitz. How is he so fast!?

He slams me against the wall and my vision goes black for a moment. The knife is no longer in my hands. It was covered in blood and slipped right out.

Ouch. That hurt a lot.

He’s significantly taller than me and he lifts me off of the ground by my neck. My feet can’t reach the floor no matter how much I try and I attempt to kick at his body and scratch his hands.

He won’t let go, but I can’t die here.

His grip tightens and I can no longer breathe. Sarah runs over to check on Dylan.

Let me go! Let me go! I can’t even scream.

My head starts to feel light and I can’t think any more. My feet stop kicking and I can’t bring myself to scratch him. I can’t move. He won’t let me go. This is the end of the line for me.

But… I don’t want to die…

Snap.

***

Simon’s body dangles from my hands. I grip his neck tightly and he struggles for moments before he goes limp.

He scratched up my hands and arms and covered them in Dylan’s blood.

I give his neck a final squeeze before dropping his body. I think he’s dead. I killed him…

I had to. I needed to do that. It was our only chance. Not to mention, he killed Christina and stabbed Dylan. He had it coming.

Simon changed. He used to be the kind of person who would sacrifice anything to protect someone. Now, he became the kind of person who would sacrifice anything to protect himself. What happened that changed him to such a degree in less than a day?

Even I know that a person won’t change that fast, no matter what they experience. No, Simon must’ve been like this the whole time. He lied to himself as much as Rachel did. He masqueraded as a person who hated conflict because he cared about those around him, but deep down he was selfish. Masqueraded might be the wrong term. He was truly convinced that he cared about others. That was his delusion.

Simon only hated conflict because he didn’t want caught up in it. Even he must not have known that until Christina died. That’s when he and everyone else saw his true colors.

Serves him right.

Sarah sits down next to Dylan on the floor. He’s laying down and breathing heavily. Sweat falls down his face.

Sarah applies pressure to the wound and tries to calm him down. The stab is really deep.

I can’t help Dylan, I don’t have the knowledge or the ability. Right now I need to take care of Simon.

I go through Simon’s pockets, searching for his gem. If it’s anything like Sarah’s, it should be clear now. I’d guess that on contact it’ll switch ownership. That’s what happened with Rachel.

There it is. I feel it in his right pocket.

That’s not right.

His gem continues glowing green. He’s still alive!? I broke his neck!

A hand reaches up and grabs my wrist that holds the gem.

Simon’s deranged eyes stare into my soul. He slowly stands back up.

“I… won’t die that easily.”

Damn! His ability must have changed from healing others. I bet that he has self regeneration now. He’s realized how selfish he is and embraced it.

Sarah looks over at us with sad eyes.

“What should we do?” I ask Sarah, I’m really at a loss. Killing feels bad and I already killed Simon once. Do I just… keep hitting him? “What do I do?”

“I hate to say it, but I’m with you. I hate the idea of killing but we have no chance against Rachel. She promised that she wouldn’t kill me, but I don’t want you or Dylan to die,” Sarah looks down at Dylan while she speaks.

Desperate, I look towards Simon. It would be so much easier if he understood us. It would be so much easier if he just agreed to die.

“Simon… we need to kill you.”

“Yes. You do. In that case, I need to kill you.”

Simon dives for the knife on the floor.

It’s almost pitiful. His Delusion doesn’t allow him to fight for his life. All it does is make sure he doesn’t die. How can I fight that? He’s a weak opponent, it feels cruel.

He grabs the knife and rolls over, I immediately kick it out of his hands and stomp his fingers.

He grunts in pain and I feel a few fingers break.

In the next second, his fingers have already healed.

Simon tries to stand up but I kick him as hard as I can, throwing him back to the floor. My strength has faded. I no longer feel like I’m protecting anyone. I feel rotten. But, we need to do this.

Simon lays on the floor for a second, he got the wind knocked out of him from my kick.

It doesn’t take more than a couple of seconds before he attempts to stand again.

I kick him, but he tries to get back up. The cycle continues for many rotations.

Why won’t he just lay down!?

My foot starts to hurt and as soon as I think that, Simon lands a punch on my face. I only looked away for a moment, but he took the opportunity.

Even a weakling who throws a proper punch can do some good damage. That’ll definitely leave a bruise. Ouch.

In response, I throw the hardest punch at his face that I can. I aim for exactly where he did too.

My superior strength sends him stumbling back into the wall, but moments later, he’s completely healed.

My jaw still hurts.

“See now?” Simon taunts, “You can’t beat me. I’ll fight all day, but I won’t die.”

This fight isn’t going anywhere. Actually, it’s heading towards my loss. I’m the only one who’s sustained any damage.

He can’t be immortal, can he?

I’d guess his regeneration works the same way as Rachel’s. The only way for him to die is for his brain to take enough damage to stop him from thinking. As long as his brain works, his Delusion will keep him alive.

What do I do?

Simon hits me again while I think. It’s another hit to my face.

That cocky little…

Is he trying to make me want to kill him!?

My fists hurt from punching him and they’re covered in scratches. Dylan’s blood still stains my skin.

Simon stands before me in a fighting stance, I corner him against the wall. His goal isn’t to beat me, it’s to run away. He only wants to survive.

Simon doesn’t have a scratch on his body. He looks like the fight hasn’t even started. Yet, I have a red jaw and scratched up hands. Simon may be the worst opponent to face. As long as he has the will to live, this fight will never end.

Dylan stumbles on his words from the floor, “Allen, don’t kill him. We still need to talk this out.”

Simon screwed over our only chance to beat Rachel. Not only did he wound our strongest fighter before the battle, he selfishly kept his gem.

He needs to die, before he can cause anymore harm!