[ Recommended Song ]: Bad Dreams by Ruelle
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Guns, blood, terror, and screams... That was all they could hear from now. The two groups formed were useless. Everyone was fighting for their lives alone, and some made deals with each other in order to survive. You can even say it was a matter of betrayal and partnership to save one another.

Ryou let the game begun. He wasn't the mastermind, nor was he helping them - however, the anger he let out after his sister died was enough for him to point a gun and start the game itself.

It was a whole new level of blood spill, some were even drowning in their own blood, lifelessly laying on the hard on the cemented ground.

Elijah ran to hide, his gun ran out of bullets.

Yes. He was killing... for survival. However, after this, he doesn't know what to do except let himself starve if he survives. He took out extra bullets from his pocket and loaded his gun.

He ran, but stopped. There lay a key on top of the pot - five keys. Jace took them, thinking it might be useful in the future.

"I'VE GOT YOU! HA... HAHAHAHA... I WIN!!" Screamed a voice in a happy maniac tone. This female had gone crazy, super crazy.

Elijah hid the gun in his pocket, "Look, I don't want to shoot you... you're a sufferer of this as well - same as me, so please..."

"HA!" The female let out a trembling breath. "You think I'm dumb... to spare you? HAHA, what a clown-ish behaviour!"

She walked closer and closer, the gun was pointing on Elijah's head. The latter slowly backed a few steps and dug for his gun. "Please... I know you want to live..."

"Good bye,"

A loud shot was heard after those words. He shot her, he killed her -

'This isn't the time to cry about it now, is it? No.' Elijah thought and knelt down to grab the weapon. He dug the pocket of the female and found more bullets and took them without hesitation.

"Stop right there!"

"Ryou?" Elijah gasped and turned. "I'm not the one who killed your sister..."

"Oh, I know - however this situation is a live or die."

Ryou dragged Elijah out, father away from where his previous hiding spot was.

"What do you want from me!?"

Ryou covered his mouth. "Shut up! I'm not going to hurt you." He growled as footsteps passed by. "I need three things from you, one - help me find weapons, two - heal the injured ones, and three - help me find a specific someone."

"Fine! Let me go!" Elijah grumbled as he struggled to get out of Ryou's arm.

They walked with a lot of struggle. It's hard to hide from people - armed with guns, skills, knives and all, even so without weapons they're still strong because of taekwondo lessons.

Throughout the entire walk and fight, Ryou always mentioned a name. It wasn't his sister - in fact the girl had a different surname.

Yua Ikari...

Ikari surely wasn't Ryou's last name, it was Hasegawa. Then who's the girl he keeps on ranting out of his mouth?

Not that Elijah cared much - but, what if this girl was supposed to be the one that... he's supposed to help and find?

"This deathly event will end soon..." Ryou breathed out. "If I can't find Yua, she might die alone."

"How do you know? I felt like it just begun." The shorter male asked. Ryou hummed.

"Hm, I used a timer to sum up how many minutes or even hours this game will last." He said. "Well, its total is eighteen thousand seconds, and an hour has passed so..."

'This male beside me thinks I can convert eighteen thousand seconds to minutes or hours?! Unbelievable! I want to grip on his neck... Oh Goodness! The stress!' He growled at his thought like a mad dog. He looked at Ryou who chuckled at his cuteness.

"Don't like Math? It's five hours, dummy." Said Ryou making Elijah rolled his eyes at the statement.

A question: who doesn't hate Math? Only smart people like them!

...Or maybe not.

"Well, Mr Mathematician, I do not have time for your calculations and - duck!!" Elijah pulled Ryou as a knife flew across them.

"I missed! Grrrr!!"

"What the hell Harisson!?" Ryou mouthed, Elijah placed his index on his lips, indicating him to shut up and stay quiet.

"I don't know where they went..."

"Shut it, find other targets so we can eat! Go!" Roared the voice. The steps faded away - they were safe.

Ryou glared darkly. "What was that for?"

"What do you want? For me to leave you dead? I have conscience you bi-" Elijah cuts his sentence there. "I don't have time to rant, let's go." He dragged Ryou out.

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"How many are we looking for?" Jace questioned Tris who kept counting everyone.

"Four: Elijah, Mia, Kiara, and Callista-jiejie," Tris answered, they plan to stick together - all of them, just to avoid deaths of anyone from the group.

"What if they don't make it?" Dominic voiced, Tris looked at him.

"Don't say that, Dominic. They're all skilled and hopefully armed, you know how strong they are so... just avoid thinking that way." Jace comforted, shaking his head at the thought.

"J-Jace, a group found us," Diana stuttered, "they're coming!" She exclaimed in panic.

"How many are they?" Jace questioned vaguely. "No one will part from this group, trust me and do as I say."

Everyone nodded.

"Nine of them, they're all armed with guns, one even has a damn riffle!" Diana moaned in frustration.

"Do we fight? We're only six!" Kai blinked after her words.

"Pft, plus three is a double fun," Jace said and smirked murderously. "Arm yourselves with something, come on."

Everyone armed themselves. Jace led them out, of course there was fear, Jace was reckless - and the only one who matches his level is Tris, or maybe even Elijah, the rest of the group were out.

"Good afternoon, what brings you here?" Jace crossed his arms. He looked as though he was willing to negotiate with the other group.

"Meals," The voice said in a raspy tone. He cocked his gun. "We've had enough hunger for the day."

Jace pointed the gun at them. "And so do we,"

The other group shot carelessly, no bullets targeted Jace. "Oops? Those were guns you found inside the comfort room. I had to take a few bullets when we exchanged. You never were a trust-worthy student - neither your group, Angelo." He said in a deep voice.

Jace shot his gun.

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No bullets.

"We're both dumb, aren't we?" Angelo smirked then attacked, and so the fight began.

Jace tried to take Angelo down, the rest handled the others.

"ANGELO STOP!" A female voice yelled. "You promised to respect their wishes - you're the fool, you took their trust away!"

"SHUT...UP... YUA IKARI!!!" Angelo threw a knife at her which led to slaughter her.

Someone tried tried to help Angelo, but guess who rescued?

"YOU BITCH!!" Kai yelled and taking a fire extinguisher and thumped it to his enemy's head.

Dead on the ground.

"Well, it's me and my fire extinguisher against these aliens." He let out a breath before helping to fight again.

"I used to like you, Jace, you know?" Angelo hoaxed, "I didn't knew you were such a fake and backstabbing friend. Add your recklessness! We don't have any difference, I see."

Jace stepped on Angelo's foot and twisted his arm. "I don't care if you used to like me..." His chest pumped up and down. "Even if you did, sadly, the feeling is not mutual."

Angelo's other hand was still free. He managed to get a gun which had real bullets in it and pointed it at Jace's leg. The latter let go once he noticed this.

Five over nine were down from Angelo's group. He had four left - Jace's meanwhile, had two wounded.

"I see now, the way Elijah spoke about you... you were powerful in his thoughts - but guess what? You're an opposite..."

"No Jimenez-Xiao is the opposite of smart, Angelo..."

Angelo felt a gun on top of his head. The dark female voice made him quiver.

"You're just like a student who cheats and gets karma. My brother read the whole book and you only read half... what a shame."

Angelo locked his eyes with Jace's. "I killed them! I shot them! I swear!" Fear was visible in his gaze.

"No, you didn't get us..." Jace chuckled as he leaned to whisper on Angelo's ear. "Silence is our greatest ally, and your worst foe." He smiled before nodding to Angelo's side.

The latter was the only one left.

His mates were dead, all dead.

Angelo ran as fast as he could, but ended up shot by someone who the Zàijiàn squad doesn't know.

Truly, karma's always on the right.

"Jace... how..." Diana questioned, Jace winked at her.

"Angelo and his group are not too smart. Callista's location was on, these three were still alive when I texted. I told them to stay in place till I could use help. Some things saved them from being shot."

Diana's mouth hung ajar. Is this how Jace's cleverness measured? If so, wow!

"Elijah's the only one missing, I guess?" Kiara looked at Jace cross-armed.

Nodding to the sentence, Jace looked around. "We need to find him before this round ends."
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Elijah groaned after getting stabbed on his side. "Oh, fuck this..."

"I told you to be careful and what?!" Ryou rolled his eyes. Elijah took his handkerchief and used it to prevent bleeding.

"Shut your mouth and just walk," Elijah stood up and walked like nothing happened. Ryou tutted.

"Tsk, tsk, how about treating and getting help, no?"

"What about that girl..."

"I'm going to find her some other time... the game ends in three, two... one."

Round two: Complete - Game Over.

Elijah nods, his eyes wandered for help, maybe at least one person.
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"Hey, isn't that..." Tris pointed at a human figure walking toward them. "MY BROTHER?!" He ran to Elijah almost slapping him for Pete's sake.

Jace followed him. "Why are you wounded?!"

Just then, guards accompanied the group to a safety zone where their bags were stored.

Callista had the chance to treat everybody, as well as with the help of her girlfriend.

"So, Ryou Hasegawa huh?"

Elijah nodded. "Yes, he's a pain in the butt."

The two laughed. "Alright, you're good to go, just becareful for a bit."

Elijah gave his thanks and went out. "So? You haven't eaten a single thing?" He questioned Ryou who raised an eyebrow.

"No, I don't dare to eat after killing innocent lives, no, no."

"Fruits?"

"I'll take that,"

Elijah tossed an orange which bounced on top of Ryou's head. "That hurts!"

"Well deserved, Hasegawa."
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Jace watched Elijah as he talked from afar. Mia noticed it. She bit her apple and questioned "Jealous?" In a muffled tone.

Jace chopped his apple hard. The blade almost cut the poor wooden board in half. "Who says?"

"The chopping board," Mia looked at the chopping board - a line was drawn by the knife.

"Hey Mia - Jace... did you just... cut the board?" Elijah looked at him in disbelief.

Mia pretended to fan herself. "Oop, bye lovebirds..." she left not wanting to be in trouble.

"It's nothing, just eat." Jace says coldly, leaving the area.

Elijah raised an eyebrow. 'Did I do something?' He thought.

"He's jealous," Dominic giggled. "Too much interaction with Ryou, I guess."

"No way! Ryou is like an annoying brother! I don't know what's wrong, oh come!" Elijah groaned and left.

"Well, what a show..."

When everyone ate their food, Jace kept ignoring Elijah the whole time. Elijah couldn't force anything out except: "Hm?", "Mhm", "Oh", "yes", and "no".

He just ignored Jace as well, maybe he was having a bad day, until...

"Okay, enough," Elijah stopped his lover from walking and dragged him to a room. "What the fuck is wrong?!"

"Did I tell you something was wrong?" Jace questioned. "No, right? So nothing." He continued.

"Really? I might as well go talk to Ryou then?"

Jace could feel his blood boil, he felt a bit of sadness as well. "Then, go. You might sleep with him too!"

Elijah bit his inner cheek. "Are you jealous?" He sat on the bed, "I know you ~"

Jace frowned, "A lot - I want to slit his neck anytime now."

Elijah laughed, "His girlfriend is Yua Ikari, we're only friends, love. Posessive much, hm?" The latter stood up, only to be pinned.

The younger wasn't shocked though, "I guess sorry isn't enough."

Jace smirked. "I'm glad you know," he kissed Elijah's nape, leaving hickeys on the latter's neck.

"Mhng~" Elijah hummed, kissing - no, devouring his lover's lips. "I'm not into a make out right now, wounded stomach hurts."

"Mh? Who said anything about make outs?" Jace inserted his hand inside of his lover's pajamas and started to finger him.

"O-ow! Eek! That feels weird! Hmpph..."

"I thought so,"

When Elijah came, he was... unbelievably tired. He felt sleepy, Jace volunteered to clean themselves.

'Since when did this tire him?' Jace chuckled at the thought.

"Took him down? Jace, right?"

Jace stood up, "Ryou, do you have anything to talk about to him?"

"Relax," Ryou crossed his arms. "I'm not interested in your lover, neither to you." He said. "I have my own girlfriend, I don't want to be a... paramour."

"What do you want?" Jace questioned.

"Help me find my girl, Yua Ikari..."

"Ryou... Yua Ikari's dead."

Ryou tilted his head. "No, she's not! How do you know?!"

"Angelo killed her, and Angelo's also dead..."

"I - I was supposed to be a dad by now..."

Jace's eyes widened. "F-Father? You have a child?!"

His ears perked, Angelo killed two lives, one who's not yet born and an innocent life.

"My child, my future wife - they were murdered..."

"Yua Ikari was a good friend, Ryou..." someone says softly, she smiled at Ryou's direction.
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A/N: Merry Christmas peeps! For now, I'm organizing another story since this book might end around 30 chapters. But eeeehhh! Enjoy ~~ ♡

-Ms. Khi 🦊🖤