"What's she doing?" Jax asked, staring at the muscular brunette displayed on the screen.

Dawn didn't answer, and instead clicked on the next video.

"And you accept?" came the headmaster's voice again.

"Yeah, I accept," Evan Rodriguez, Ultimate Performer, agreed.

The next one was Narwhale, then Ash, then-

"I do indeed accept," the Dawn in the video said.

Jax saw Dawn herself freeze up, confused.

"I don't remember any of that," she insisted. "I doubt that this is real, if I can't recall it ever happening."

After Dawn was Jax.  He watched himself agree to whatever the headmaster had offered.  But what was it?  He never even met the headmaster.  Well, now he kind of had, considering the f*cking urn was sitting on the table in front of him.

"Yeah, if I don't remember saying that, then it can't be real," Tommie agreed as her own video loaded and began to play.

As soon as the tenth video began to load, however, the screen began to glitch out and then died.  The three stood there in silence for a moment.

"...Perhaps we should check out the fifth floor now," Dawn suggested.

Jax stared at the dead computer for a long second, as if he could somehow will it back to life with his totally-existent laser eyes.  Finally, he pried his eyes away, turned, and followed the other two out of the room.

"So what the hell was that, anyways?" Tommie finally spoke up as they ascended the stairs. "The weird videos, I mean.  What would we have agreed to, anyway?"

"Beats me," Jax responded. 

Emerging onto the fifth and top floor of Hope's Peak Academy, the trio were instantly met with two more classrooms to their right.  Following the left path when met with a fork in the road, they discovered the martial arts dojo first.  The room was deafeningly quiet as they entered, because all three knew that someone they lost would have loved it.  They left after just a few seconds.

Next was what they first thought to be the outside.  While it wasn't the case, the sun shone through the glass dome onto the large room of vibrant flowers and healthy leaf-covered trees beneath it.  Jax, as if he really was outside, took a deep breath.  This place was nice.  Even Jackie began to sniff the flowers, and sneezed after burying her wet nose in one.

"You know what?" Tommie snapped a few photos before continuing, "This is my favorite room."

"It is quite relaxing.  It really helps with grounding oneself," Dawn observed.

The trio stood there together for what felt like a very long time.  Jax knew that all three of them felt at peace for once.  It was as if nothing bad had ever happened.  Man, he really loved this room.

"Well, perhaps we should continue on to make sure there is not anything else we've missed," Dawn said, breaking the serenity of the moment.

Tommie let out an exasperated sigh. "Yeah, sure, fine." It was obvious how bummed out she was that they would have to step out of this wonderland.

In fact, Jax ended up having to guide Tommie out, given she began to try taking more pictures as an excuse to stay longer.  Eventually, though, they ended back up in the hallway and worked their way down several twists and turns, winding up at the end of the hall and in front of what seemed to be yet another lab of sorts.  Microscopes were set at each table.  Jars of bugs and marine life in amber and other fluids as well as skulls of animals filled the cabinets and shelves.

"I want to say biology?" Dawn guessed. "I do wish that they put plaques in front of each room to tell us the room names."

"No, I think you're right, it seems like biology to me," Tommie agreed.

Jackie trotted up to the closet door and began to bark.  The three stopped, looking over at the dog in silence.

"...That's weird, she never does that," Jax observed. "She must think something's in there."

He walked over, gave her a quick head scratch, and turned the knob on the door.  When he pulled the door open and looked inside, his breakfast threatened to resurface immediately.

The biology closet was massive, if it even was a closet.  Lining the back wall were glass cabinets of varying bottles.  In the center of the room was a table of some sort of surgical equipment.  And on the right was a wall of large metal doors.  The room felt colder, too.  Why was he feeling so nauseous, though? 

Tommie, ever the brave one, approached the wall of metal doors and stopped in front of the top left one.  

"There's a keypad," she said. "What should I try?"

"11037," Jax responded.

"What is with you two and that number?" Dawn demanded.

"I'll try... 001.  I dunno, it's the first door, so why not?" Tommie turned back to the keypad and inserted the code.  Immediately, the metal door swung open, and she let out an ear-splitting screech.

Jax's gaze moved up to where she was staring, and he immediately understood the source of his nausea.  Inside of the compartment was a wrapped body.  Meaning this room was a morgue.

"Do you know who it is?" Dawn mumbled.

Tommie, with a shaking hand, reached out and gently pulled on the wrappings. "I... I think... it's Amy."

"She was 001 in the video files, too," Jax recalled. "Meaning that... everyone's here, in order of their video numbers?"

"Sounds about right," Dawn said.

Jax's gaze trailed to the bottom right door.  The tenth one.  There was an X painted on it.

"Well damn," he muttered under his breath.

"So what now?" Tommie asked, closing the first door back up again. "I mean, I'm totally done with this killing game.  No matter what, I can't go through any of that again."

"Same here," Jax agreed.

"And here," Dawn chimed in.

"I guess this is our lives now," Tommie sighed. "I mean, I don't mind it, compared to having to kill one of you guys.  The garden is nice enough."

"Why couldn't we have just agreed on this earlier?" Jax suddenly spoke up.  He was getting upset now. "Why couldn't we have agreed from the start??  If we had just convinced Ash that their family would be okay, and all came forward with our secrets, and helped Alister, then nobody would've gotten killed, and Stratus wouldn't have tried killing himself either!  God damn it, why couldn't we all just rebel against this sick game?"

"What happened was beyond our control.  We were all driven by fear for both ourselves and others," Dawn answered. "Who knows what would've happened.  Someone might've died anyways."

"You don't know that!" he countered. "Maybe we could've saved someone!"

Dawn froze.  Jax realized that he'd unintentionally hit a soft spot.

"I know," she said with a sad smile. "That's all I've wanted to do.  And I just..."

Suddenly, her composure shattered for the first time.  Tears dripped down her cheeks as she continued, "I just fail again and again.  I tried to help Narwhale, and she died, and I tried to help Stratus, and he died, and I tried to help Lucy, and she died too."

She was sobbing quietly now.  

After a minute, Tommie found the courage to ask, "...Who's Lucy?"

Dawn rubbed at her eyes. "Lucy Parker, age sixteen.  My first real patient.  She... she was such a sweet girl, but she was depressed.  I... I tried everything I could, but... I couldn't help her.  I failed her.  Just like I failed all of you."

"Was... was that your secret?" Jax asked softly.  She nodded.

"Dawn DeMacury failed her first patient, Lucy Parker," she recalled, swallowing the lump in her throat.

Silence.  Finally, Tommie took a step forward and wrapped her arms around Dawn in a gentle hug.  Unsure what to do, Jax also engaged in the hug.  Seconds later, he felt Jackie jump up on her hind legs and join the clump.

"So sweet!" Ace suddenly chimed in from the speakers. "But how about we address the problem at hand?"

"What?  What's the problem?" Tommie snapped, pulling out of the hug to glower at the security camera closest to them.

"Oh, just that there's one last trial that needs to be held!" they chuckled. "Report down to the courtroom, it's time you kids solve the real mystery- who's the mastermind behind the killing game?"

***

(1362 words)

Any guesses, anyone?