Ciara fixed her eyes on her roommate strapping her skates on.

"Where are you going, Jo?" She placed her book onto the bed and got up.

"Home." An unshakable resolve tinged the boxer's voice.

"Home?" Ciara frowned. "What do you mean? What about meeting with everyone else later?"

"I can't stay here anymore. At this rate, with so many of dying, it's driving me nuts! I want to leave." Jo twisted her ankle and strode to the door. She glanced at Ciara in her peripheral vision, nodded and hummed. "My gloves are in the drawer. You can keep them."

"What? Why?" Ciara shrieked and tore her hair out. "And the meeting? Can't you wait a little?"

"There are essential oils in the drawer too. Must be nice, being so calm all the time. Hope the rosemaries and pansies will help." Jo opened the door. "Oh, whatever I have to say, it's in the drawer."

"What's going on?"

Jo sucked in a breath. "I just want to be out of this simulation. I want to wake up."

"But you're awake!"

"I'm not. Neither are you! We're all dreamers. This is a dream. Life is but a dream."

"No, Jo, no." Ciara shook her head.

"You don't get it, do you? No one can survive this. Soon, we'll all die." Jo took a step out of the room, one foot on the fine scarlet carpet lying across the corridor.

"You have Checkmate! You can see your target's movement ten seconds into the future. That is helpful! Do it the JJ-Style!"

Jo caught sight of a figure in the corridor, lips moving to tell her something. Words pricked her ears. Her eyes darkened. "I don't have it anymore, bitch. I have lost it. I have lost it all."

Jo left, like Drifblim in the evening skies, fleeting, never looking back.

「」

"Bolso Salsa has led to Galarian forest fir—"

A knock interrupted Ciara and she put her book down to get the door. Two girls stood in the corridor, nodding at her when they met eye to eye. But none of them was Jo.

"Oh," Ciara said while pushing her black hair behind her ears. "Hey, Jade and Mei."

"Uh, you've put on weight. Binge-eating again?" Mei asked.

"Mm." Ciara let them in. "Amity died not long ago. Also, Trump died while trying to swim in the river. That's what I've heard, at least."

"What are you reading about?" Jade took the book and changed the topic. "'The Worldly Bewear Strikes Back'? Galarian forest fires, Unovan shootings and discrimination, the inferno at Kalosian League... When is Unova ever going to ban guns? I don't understand why they banned Occa Berry-coated eggs with tiny toys in them instead of guns. As if choking hazards outweigh all the lives lost."

"There's a school shooting in Aspertia City yesterday afternoon, at that school-gym place. Five injured, two dead. The instigator reasoned that he was a victim of bullying and wanted to get back at the school because the teachers seemed oblivious to it." Ciara pulled two chairs over and sighed. "So, it's quite calm nowadays where we are. Everything fine?"

"Yea," Jade said. "We're thinking of escaping the island. Other than Zayn who took the helicopter out once, I don't think anyone else went out of the island before."

"Sage was part of the cult," Mei added.

"I know." Ciara crossed her legs. "I was, too. I was helping Amity as a whistleblower. But I got found out by Yvette so she hates me a lot now."

"Wait, where's Jo?" Mei blinked.

"She left. She couldn't take it any—" Ciara was stunned by a sudden swipe across the window.

Red zapped past the glass and the trio took a look, peering downwards. Ciara's face turned ash-grey and Mei held Jade's hands. Jade gasped and her legs trembled nonstop. It's so insane. One thing occurred after the other. The breaks in between seemed so insignificant. Sorrow came as a battalion.

"It's not suicide," Ciara said. "Jo wouldn't put on her skates and jump off the dormitory's rooftop. Someone pushed her down. She's not so insensible. She wouldn't leave like this."

"Something strange is afoot then," Jade remarked. "We should head downstairs."

Ciara paused. "I'll take Jo's letter with me." She pulled the drawer and snatched the envelope. "Let's go. Now."

「」

The interior of the elevator felt so claustrophobic even though Clay and Ferro took it numerous times before. In its ascent, the elevator jerked from time to time.

"Feeling better?" Clay felt Ferro's forehead.

"Yeah. Thanks." Ferro bit his lips. Clay was different, more affectionate, more attentive and less annoying. Just what caused this change?

"If I die tonight, would you care?" Clay hung his head upon hearing the words in his mind. It was time to set things right, to mend their relationship. Everything was peaceful. Everything was so peaceful. It had to remain that way.

The elevator doors slid open, but instead of the bright hallway and rooms, what entered their vision was a purple gas.

"Wha—" Ferro jabbed the 'close' button five times while gritting his teeth. Each push on the button was weaker than previous one as the gas slithered into his nose.

Toxic gas. Clay took cover for his younger brother and sighed. Which metal ore is good?

Silver spread across his body as Clay glanced over his shoulder at the boy who put on his Iron Cloak so his skin had some lustre.

"Got a death wish or something?" Clay growled. The gas seemed to have some acidic properties and using iron as a shield wasn't a bright idea if the metal could potentially dissolve quickly.

"I'm not running away anymore. Let me protect you. You need to rest."

"This better not be some excuse to join your Aegislash."

"I—"

"I knew it!" Clay pushed his brother back. At this rate, even if his body was not reactive to the gas, he could not save Ferro from dissolving. His brother was vanishing bit by bit before him and it pained him to be so useless at the moment. Clay lunged at him and embraced him.

"Ha..." Ferro's pulse grew weaker. His shaking hand wrapped around his brother without strength. "It's been long since we hugged." His vision fought against his eyelids, but to no avail. "Don't you agr—"

"No. Look at me. Hey, hey. Hey!"

Ferro was no longer in his arms. The space was filled with the malicious gas. That was the first time in forever that they hugged each other, and the last time too.

"No. No. No!" Clay let his tears run free. The elevator doors met with huge force, but it was too late. Why? Why must it only close now? Why, when Ferro was gone and some of the gas had entered? Why, when Ferro was stolen just like that? Why couldn't he protect his brother? He only wanted to repent.

The interior of the elevator felt more claustrophobic than before, the walls pressing onto him, moving inwards to squash him. His blur reflections in the walls wailed as the elevator plummeted. He elbowed the alarm button and heard the ringing echo and fade. His world grew topsy-turvy as he sank in his turbulent emotions. His world flashed red and grey.

Clay's cries diminished. He beat at his chest, harder and harder and harder as his yells tore through the air. His body was dented in many areas. His voice clawed at his throat till his skin reddened and he sounded so hoarse he thought the unearthly howls belonged to someone else. His body returned to normal and he sniffed in some of the purple gas.

With a final shriek, he wrenched his heart out of his chest with metal claws and watched the vital fluid drip onto the floor with his whites. A few drops fell into his open mouth as the organ tumbled away from his motionless body and both organ and body hit the cold, grey floor.

When the doors opened at the ground floor, blood's fingers barely crossed the gap. A girl bent down, put a finger in the fluid and shoved it in her mouth.

"So this is how human blood tastes like." She dipped her finger in again and sucked the red off her finger. "I wonder if the blood of sinners and traitors taste differently from the innocents."

She looked at a nearly identical building in the vicinity and blinked. "I wonder if Wyatt is done at his side. That guy is so good at faking his death, so good that he fooled and killed that new, naïve one.

"Ulysses, huh? You're too young to understand the abstract concept of justice."

Yvette dragged the bodies into a nearby bush. "I ought to bury Amity somewhere nice. I loved her, after all."

A bittersweet smile etched on her face, she glanced at the tattoo on her left shoulder. A feathery, scarlet Y and two blue ovals stared at her.

"Thank you for answering my pleas from before. Without you—and my lies, of course—it wouldn't have been this successful."

「」

The blades on the girl's skates were caked with blood. Her black hair covered her acne-filled face, her broken nose facing up. She was in a white vest and track pants which were now stained red.

Is this what poetic justice is like? Ciara's shoulders heaved. She squatted and held Jo's cold wrist. It had cuts and the word "useless" all over.

"Who would do this to her?" Jade asked and took a deep breath.

Mei gazed at the rooftop and spotted a torn fabric at the edge. "You think she was struggling?"

"Seems like it. There's blue fabric in her nails," Ciara said. "I don't know if it's Yvette, but I'm suspecting Nick."

"That narcissistic brute?" Jade raised a brow. "I heard he's quite aggressive."

Mei groped around and fished a note out of Jo's vest. "It says here, 'I got what I wanted. I don't have to live anymore. It's not like anyone knows I exist anyway.'"

"I don't think she wrote that. But who?" Jade asked. "Should we go to the rooftop?"

After leaving Jo in the shade of a tree, the three girls climbed the stairs to the rooftop. Up there, there were pools of blood and shredded fabric, evidence of a struggle. Near the edge, Mei picked up a picture of a boy with black hair and brown eyes in a dojo.

"It's really Nick," Jade said.

Mei dipped her head and blinked. There were two possibilities: one, Nick came here and pushed Jo down; two, someone else came here, pushed Jo down and left a photo of Nick to frame him. Which was it? It seemed too out of place, too strange for a seemingly careful murderer to leave something like that. Or perhaps, the murderer was leaving clues on purpose. If that's the case, why? Was it to cause discord amongst them to stop their escape? Or, was there another story waiting to be discovered?

"Let's question him. With Ciara here, we'll know if he's lying." Mei glared at the picture in her hand.

「」

"It really isn't him. He's speaking the truth." Ciara crossed her arms. She wiped her brows right after, and swept a finger down to block her tears. She might not have been as close to Jo as she wanted to, but Jo was a great roommate, albeit too shy and introverted. She knew something was off when Jo left so abruptly.

"Yeah," Nick said. "Heck I'm not lying when I say I saw Yvette dragging Ferro and Clay into the woods too. There's some purple gas coming out of the elevator at the ground floor so it's probably toxic. And uh, just now, the stairs were blocked and all the doors in the dorm were locked from the outside."

"You're saying you can't get out of your room?" Mei mumbled.

"I got out. But I was restricted to my floor. There's some wall blocking the stairs and the elevator buttons don't work on my floor. Oh, Gin's out with his band."

"Who do you think killed Jo?"

"Not sure, but I think I saw Valencia walking to your dorm with a knife." Nick coughed. Just what was going on? Moments ago, Zayn came to talk to him about gathering everyone to escape the island and now, three of them were dead. Did someone amongst them tell Valencia and Yvette about it? How else was it possible for those two to take action right after this huge decision? Who could be that traitor, that whistleblower?

"Does Titan know?" Mei lowered her voice. She glanced at Jade who was silent all this while, and Ciara who was fidgeting a little, her eyes focused on the boy.

"Yes. He called me and said something along the line of 'Even if it kills me. I will not give up till justice for Ferro and Clay is served.' I think he might avenge them."

Now, what do we do about our escape plan? Jade lowered her gaze at Nick's feet. She sighed and wiped her brows.

Jade straightened her posture. "Seems like they are always one step ahead of us."