[ Recommended Song ]: Up in the flames by: Ruelle
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"I'm getting worried, it's been months since we've last had contact with them." Mrs. Xiao walked around, restless. A month? Yes, time is as swift as an arrow being shot. It's been 30 days since Mr. and Mrs. Xiao had seen their children.

What if they died?

No, what if they're calling for help?

What if the squad is in trouble?

The mini devils sitting on top of the couple's left shoulders were doing their job in activating such overthinking thoughts, deliberately.

Devasted and desperate, the couple made their way to the police station hoping to get some help or at least a clue on how their children are doing.

Well, it wasn't only them. When these two came to the police station to request for a missing person complaint, a crowd of mothers, fathers, and families were gathered in there to do the same thing.

A police officer and a detective came out of their offices. They handled the situation calmly, followed by a statement that the department will update the families affected including their sons and daughters that need to be rescued.

"Calm down, honey, I'm sure the police will do something about it." Mr. Xiao hugged his wife tight.

The words "I hope so," escaped from Mrs. Xiao's lips as she rested on the couch.

•

Elijah and Tris were fighting sane human-beings. Killing them so that these two mentioned siblings would have easy access to saving their friend.

"You two are fully aware this is murder, am I right~~?" Said someone anonymously.

"Someone?"

"No, it's not a 'someone' it's a something." Tris replied, he used his fingers to imitate a quotation mark.

The two looked back suspiciously. The voice was a hushed like wandering air.

Tris felt something crawl on his back.

Scales - moving ones to be exact, however, the weird fact about these scales were the fact that their color purple.

"Shit," The older cursed under his breath. He tried to latch the snake off behind him, merely to get hissed at.

There is a possibility that such snakes exist but... why would it easily be found in a school? With chaos and havoc too.

"Tris, don't move," Elijah warned his brother. Before he could hit the rare snake, it disappeared.

"That's probably my... imagination, let's go." Tris pulled his brother and continued to walk.

'You knew damn well it wasn't an imagination.' Elijah thought inside his head, but, that wasn't important right now.

---

Dominic was screaming in pain. The tazor was too powerful for him to bear. "Fuck... you..." He weakly let out as another electric feeling shot him.

"Come now, darling," Said Wisteria with a pout. "Don't you enjoy it? Actually... I might use for... myself."

Snakes crawled on top of Dominic's skin as they rip his clothes.

The latter was helpless and he also couldn't move. Dominic became weak because of countless amount of the tazor's painful electric feeling.

This was pure torture.

---

Meanwhile :

"Jace, aren't you going to move?! YOU GODDAMN SHIT WAKE THE FUCK UP!!" Kai slapped his brother so sudden that Jace wasn't able to dodge it and just returned with a death stare.

"I'm not scared of you this time, Elijah's out there, Tris is out there, what are you doing?!"

"LET THEM BE!! THEY WANTED IT, RIGHT?!" Jace shouted back, Zack went in front of Kai crossing his arms.

"You're supposed to be protecting them, us, Jace. You are the leader of this group, and look at where you are right now." Zack stated coldly. "Do you think fighting everyone is the solution when we all are in trouble? You've always been smart in situations like this, use your brain and think of a solution, don't fucking whine for it because it won't come to you like an obedient puppy will."

"I'm restless, Tris and Dom aren't back yet. It's been an hour." Ryou finally spoke after a long period of silence.

"Jace, I beg you... anything could have happened to those two right now, our forces won't be that strong without one that actually is." Dianna replied in worry. She knew desperation was attacking Elijah from the moment he and Jace argued.
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Survivors' POV:

They were monitoring the cams in distress. The young ones had no time to mourn for their friends' death in order to survive. Joaquin suffered in silence, while Ysakel and Ezra acted like nothing happened as their coping mechanism.

"I can't do this anymore, fuck!" Atlas complained as a tear rolled down his cheek.

"There are two rounds left, just cope with it." Ezra says coldly. "You're a survivor, Atlas, so deal with it."

"For how long?! Till we get slaughtered?!" Atlas jolted, "We were okay, not until you decided to help those other players!!!" He said in anger. "You all knew the rules, why disobey it?! I NEVER SHOULD'VE AGREED, MAYBE ATHEENA AND DAMON WOULD STILL BE HERE! What benefits will we get from that squad, huh?! Them uploading this bullshit and will get hated for after?"

Jonathan stood up and grabbed Atlas by the collar. "Watch your mouth, De Leon." He warned darkly in a low voice before pushing the latter to the ground. "Tell it straight to my face, did I ever force all of you to join? I even declined the fucking help. Do you think I wanted this? Do you think I wanted Damon and your girlfriend gone?! For fuck's sake!"

"Atlas, I know you're hurting but stop this." Seb stepped in between the two and helped the mentioned boy up.

"Isn't it true though, Seb?" Atlas stood up by himself ignoring the helping hand. "Sometimes, it's best to stop being a bitch and break the rules than losing a life." He tossed his weapon aside followed by doing his task.

Ezra and Yskael didn't want to leave the two behind, however, they couldn't deny Atlas was right, breaking the rules led them to lose an important life.
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Meanwhile:

Skin literally burning, the red burn marks appeared on top of Dominic's skin. He could feel Wisteria digging her nails inside while reaching for his flesh.

His screams were muffled from the outside, the pain he was feeling is already unendurable, to the point he wanted to kill himself just to end it.

"JUST FUCKING KILL ME!! LEAVE MY FRIENDS ALONE."

Dominic kicked and kicked Wisteria to the point she got too easily annoyed. She just laughed and laughed like a psychopath before dissappearing and appearing behind Dom.

One...

Two...

Three...

With merely a snap, Dom's neck twisted which caused him to... lose his head and die.

Wisteria clicked her tongue in satisfaction. "You're wish is my command, honey... except the last one." She laughed again tasting the blood of her victim.

"Delicious,"

.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Ryou took the lead when they snuck out of the room. The latter had fast senses when it comes to security cameras.

"I'm starting to think this wasn't the best idea we could've done." Diana shivers as she becareful with her steps.

"Nothing in literal is the best idea." Ryou clicked his tongue, he smelled something rotten that made him almost puke. "God, I forgot many people died in here." He gagged before continuing to walk.

"Hey look! Isn't that Elijah's pendant? And a bracelet... that bracelet..." Kiara stuttered, able to identify the circular object (there were to things laying on the ground -- one she can identify and the other not.)

"You've been uttering bracelet for a year now, honey." Callista examined the items carefully. Why not? Nothing can be trusted.

"A bracelet... Dominic's bracelet. The pendant, whose is it? Are you sure this is Elijah's?" Kai questioned, grabbing the two objects found on the floor.

"Let me take a look," Jace insisted, he took the familiar blue pendant in hand. Blue, a thin circle with an inner overlapped mountain curves, in the middle of it was the exact same tear-shaped that was on Elijah's necklace.

"What's wrong?" Zack queries in worry when Jace halted, still, the younger was clutching the necklace in his hand.

"Ge, this is the same necklace I gave Elijah when we were still in the camp grounds. He never took this off, never." The younger kept the item in his pocket. "Do you think he's caught too?"

"Don't forget, Tris is with him. Didn't they accompany each other before and after going out? Those two are too smart to be caught." Diana reasoned, Ryou shook his head in disagree. "No matter how smart they or we are, we don't know who or what are we dealing with, keep that in mind."

"What do you mean by who or what, Ryou? It's a damn murder, massacre, and numerous suicides we're talking about." Kiara arched a brow. Zack contradicted, "Actually... what if it's all intentional? No humane person can do this."

"Save the theories for later." Jace led the way, followed by Ryou then the rest.
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Elijah and Tris managed to somehow get going despite having so many thingd to accomplish along the way.

They heard a loud, familiar, and gut-wrenching scream. Cries followed afterwards, but then it suddenly stopped.

Something was going on inside the principal's office. They knew they had to look.

Tris glared at his brother, in a count of three, they opened the door to see no one but a lifeless body... without a head.

"Good angels..." Elijah's heart began to sped up, who's the monster that would do such thing?

He began to examine the body. However, it was starting to be the habitat of worms which made it more harder than it already looks existing and dead.

Tris used a broom to clean up the mess, his heart swiftly shattered. The clothes... the ring he gave...

"Dom... Domi-" He couldn't say his supposed to be lover's name out loud. He can't shout it anymore. His throat dried and his voice was inaudible.

Elijah stood there, watching his brother cry as he did. He looked back to see Dom's head on the wall, glued. Pale face, eyes closed, and purple lips.

"N-No..." He could only back off in terror of the sight. His best friend's cold body and head separated, one was hung, the other was being eaten by the worms.

They stayed there for hours.

"Dominic you son of a..." Elijah sobbed. He could curse Dominic right now, why did he have to go? "You traitor, you son of a gun!!" He angrily kicked the wooden desk. "You promised you will be with me when I get married, and you were going to go in that aisle first." He trembled. "Oh, God, I wished I... no why... why did you have to die this way, huh?!?"

Round Three: Complete - Game Over

Tris hugged his brother tightly. "Listen, we have to go, okay?" He tried to pull his brother out.

"B-But Dom... Ge, I can't leave without him please--"

"Jah, no, if Dominic was alive would he want you dead? Would he want the others slaughtered?! I beg you, I know it's hard, but we have to tell the others about this."

Elijah took a moment to glance at his friend before leaving the messy room.

These two killed whoever dared to come across their way till they bumped into their group. They were led back to a safe camp, again.

"What happened, Tris? Did you find him?" Kiara sat down beside the male who stayed silent for a while.

"Dead... hang... he's..." Tris couldn't speak properly. That torturing image of Dominic was still inside his head.

Callista's face became blue. "He's... gone... isn't he?"

Elijah silently nods. He doesn't want to have his break down right now. He left while everyone was talking. He used his knife to form cuts on the trees... at one point, even himself. Someone luckily took the knife from him and darted it on the tree.

"FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU SO MUCH!!" Elijah wanted to choke his boyfriend while giving him a venomous glare.

"Shh... stop..."

"Why couldn't I save him early Jace... why... no, why did you stop me? US?!" Elijah let out a hic in between his cries. Jace felt guilty as he should. After all, he was the one who halted everything and... a lot more.

"Elijah... I..."

"Shut the fuck up." Elijah didn't take any explanation from his lover who stood in front of him.

"I... I wouldn't be this miserable of he was alive. Why did I almost gave into you? Why did I choose you over him!?" Asked the younger who couldn't stop his pain.

The pain he felt was like a fountain, falling continously in a river of his problems.

"What do you mean, Jah?" Jace tried to hide the fact that he was already breaking. It was his fault but... what does Elijah mean by choosing himself over Dom?

"He liked me Jace, he confessed to me. He liked me before you did, and now I... I regret rejecting him and chasing you!! " The younger said in angrily.

"I didn't-"

"Enough is enough, Jace Jimenez-Xiao. Please just... separate with me I... I don't know what to do anymore."

Jace looked at him. "Do you regret it? Choosing me over him?"

"Yes, Jace... I do, maybe... maybe this relationship was a wrong decision to make."

Jace nods, he took Dominic's bracelet from his pocket. "Keep this, then... take care it for him." Then he left without hesitation and no more questions.
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I don't know why I chose angst, but, I could've done better than this, I swear, it wasn't that painful so i might add something else.

-Ms. Khi 🦊🖤