Disclaimer:

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, events, places, etc., are either product of the author's imagination used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to an actual person, living or dead, or to actual events is purely coincidental.

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"You choose this over anything else. You could've stayed seated comfortably on your chair while watching the games, but you didn't. Now, upon the power vested in me, I announced you, Avy Demascenia... who will now hold the Ace of Hearts card, as the fourth and last Main Player of our Death Games."

Yet, of all the goodness in this world, I didn't expect that Madame Evee would agree as fast as flash for me to take over Rise's fate. While I walk past the bleachers where my schoolmates are sitting, I steal a glimpse of the stage where I was headed to.

I felt like a rat in a maze, with every intense stare of the other Blackwoodian Citizens are showing; I guess they disagree with my decision. Glares of sympathy rose up from them, and that's where the reality struck me hard. I think I just made a decision that I would definitely regret again.

My hands are a bit trembling in fear, and it became a tangible, living force that crept over me like some hungry beast; it seemed to ruin the steady stream running of my brain, holding me captive. As I reached the very first step of the mini stairs, the pulse beating within my chest crept up to my ears, blocking out all other sounds.

"What's taking you so long to be up here, darling? Are you perhaps scared? Do you regret volunteering yourself, now?"

I was paralyzed to the spot, the menacing aura of Madame Evee holding me in a tightening grip. I steady my breath and try to calm the panic that was creeping up in my system. Before I could even unclasp my lips to reply, the wicked Vice President had revealed three chairs in the middle of the stage, and she passed through it like a gliding shadow.

"I might be the biggest liar of all humankind if I'll say that you can take back your decision, darling. Well yeah, technically, you can do it, though, but I will not let you. Remember our golden rule? Once you check in on something, you can never check out. All of you know me; I don't have plans of bending to my rules."

Fuck her rules. I took a step forward, as my heart was throbbing in my ears, loud and irregular, but I barely heard it, for my mind was clouded with something else. Earlier, I just realized that I was not frightened, nor was I was afraid. What I felt was beyond such mere nouns.

"Come here, darling. This is a special seat made for the Main Players. Don't make it wait for its owner." Madame Evee gestured me to come over as the other two main players, who turns out to be Winter Syracuse and the mysterious president of BWH, Light Blackwood was making their own seats on the odd chair of our dark fate. When I reached the area, Madame Evee held out my arms and forcefully made me plop down on the middle chair. She buckles up some kinds of stuff on our seats while wearing her sinister smile. After she's done, she made her way back to her podium stand, her gown leaving traces of dead flowers beneath her every step.

I tried to unbuckle the freaky stuff, but it seems like it's automatically locked seconds earlier. Darn it. I wanted to run for safety, but my feet would not allow me to do so. Madame Evee would not let me too, obviously.

As I was about to force myself to escape within my locked seat, I saw Madame Evee impudently pushed a button on her reach. Seconds later, the whole auditorium turned into chaos. I can evidently hear students screaming and crying out of terror. Their voices became an eerie chant of darkness as Madame Evee, I, and the other two Male main players watched them being buckled up on their seat, heads being enclosed with some odd helmet-shaped headpiece.

Once again, the Evil Dark Lord Madame Evee plastered her sinister smile as her fingers were reaching out and clutching another button beside her. While the other players and I were grappling with the hook of our misfortunes in the hand of the evil Vice President, she pressed down the second button, and in a blink, the bleachers and stage begin to move downwards.

When the whole stage area stopped moving, I found out that we are now sitting somewhere deep in the abyss of Blackwood High. As of the looks of it, it was a large tribune, who I don't know why, but I felt like it probably came from the idea of a scientific observatory. Basically, it was a glass dome that was inside an underground cave, and upon witnessing what Madame Evee has done, it's a dome where the bleachers go down in a single press of a button.

Now, we were definitely transported through the secret dark underground battlefield of BWH.

"The Below Zero," my dried lips found it's way out, for it to read the weird name engraved on my side. I let my hand touch the ambient metal of the engraved letters and wall, no longer hot from the day nor cold from the soothing effect of the evening air. It was as if it could vanish as if the atoms themselves could choose to be free, to be something new yet deadly.

Reality struck me hard when noise from the other Blackwoodian Citizens filled the underground cove. They were screaming until now, clanking their seats, trying to break free from its locked and robust grip. My heart almost jumped when a horde of monsters appeared through the screen, it was the same monsters whom Madame Evee explained earlier. Upon closer look, they looked like an absolute living beasts. When they moved, they generated a massive splash of black water, which wet all of us. It seemed like what protects us from the predators was just a mere electrified fence.

Panic peered into my whole body once more as I sat here in my seat, watching my other schoolmates on the Tribune, crying and begging for their freedom. I wanted to do something; I wanted to scream yet, I know... I couldn't. I could only open my mouth to find that even words have deserted me. Every muscle in my body screamed at me to flee, but I remained frozen on my spot.

I glanced to Light on my left, and there I saw his mask, cascading onto his face, leaving his appearance once again, behold reachable for me. We sat together on our dark seats, we were so close that I could feel his body heat, but we weren't quite touching. At the same tick of the clock, we met each other gazes, his gray eyes penetrating through mine.

"Hold on me, Avy. We've got this," he said as he rotated his palm parallel to mine and interlocked our fingers. My heart began racing as soon as he started to hold my hand. Mixed emotions stirred on through my stomach as I watched him, ushering his dark eyes shut.

Meanwhile, on my side, I caught a glimpse of Syracuse. I heard him take a deep breath as if he was going to say something, but it got cut off when a black garment enveloped his whole mouth. The bright color and playful aura quickly drained from his face. His eyes were now transfixed with horror, unable to speak and scream no matter how much he wished to. As I stared at him unbelievably, I heard a groan once again. Now, it's coming from Light. The same thing happened to him, and his mouth was covered with a tight black garment, preventing him from speaking.

And before I could even protest, my mouth has been enveloped by the dark embrace of the cloth. Until then, muffled sounds can be heard from each student here at the auditorium and me. That's when I saw Madame Evee stand at the very center of the stage, holding a microphone. With her last few words about the golden rule in the game, she smiled as if bidding goodbye to us.

"When your character dies inside the game, simple... you'll die together with it."

A few seconds later, the whole Below Zero walls darkened, lights flickered off, and then we were forcefully undergone through a machine, "Now, my dear Citizens, that machine will transfer your minds and body inside the game field. This machine will make all of you forget your own persona, names, and memories. Making all of you, the characters and players that... I, Madame Beverlyn Celestia, have always been dreaming off. With missions ejected on each of your heads一, you have to venture through different islands and dangers and retrieve the Book of Peace and Light in my hands as I will be playing the character of Eris, the goddess of Chaos and Darkness."

When I got to face Madame Evee, she showed a smile that hitched the dungeons of my breaths. A very shallow smile with deep piercing eyes and an evil mind. A cruel smile that betrays all innocence and hope, "Happy Death Games, my dear citizens."

Her voice marks the start of the adventure and journey of me, Light, Winter, and the rest of the Blackwoodian Citizens. Her voice marks the beginning of the great survival mission...

The Death Games.

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To be continued.