Helios, Bradley, and Violet waited in tension outside the room.

They waited, and waited…

“What do you think is going on?” Violet asked.

“They’re supposed to be playing Russian Roulette, aren’t they?” Bradley said.

“Yes, but… it’s weird nothing has happened,” Helios thought aloud. “There’s only one bullet, so we wouldn’t hear it if they pulled the trigger on the empty chamber. But all they need to do to end the game is pull the trigger at most six times. I know people might get hesitant to pull, especially at the end, but taking this long is just ridiculous. …I will go check in on them.”

Helios stood up and opened the door to take a peek.

“…Huh?”

Intrigued by Helios’s reaction, Violet and Bradley got up to see as well. It didn’t look like anything bad was going on, so Helios opened the door further to let them in.

The room was… quiet. Five people were seated at the table—Teddy, Adriana, Emma, Midge, and Ghost. Albert’s chair was empty. The five people were slumped in their chairs, as if they were sleeping.

None of Helios, Violet, or Bradley thought that was very likely.

“Wait here,” Helios instructed the teens, then went over to the table. He tried shaking and talking to them, but none of them moved. When he got to the empty chair, he discovered it was covered in crimson blood.

Helios caught his scream before it escaped his throat. If he reacted, he was sure the children would rush over, and it’d be better for them not to see. However, he then noticed the gun dropped on the floor next to the chair. Helios picked it up, opened the chamber… and a rubber bullet slid out.

“…Are you kidding me?” Helios muttered to himself.

“A-Are they…?” Violet’s quiet voice called out.

“…Yeah,” Helios responded.

Violet covered her mouth, and tears began to roll down her cheeks. Bradley tried to comfort her, while also wiping the tears that were forming in his own eyes.

Null’s explanation of the rules played back in Helios’s head. “So did Albert break the rules? But why…?”

Helios shook his head. This wasn’t the time to worry about stuff like that. This was a time for action! Even though he was probably only the second most qualified to lead the group at this point, he was still the oldest, and that meant he had to lead! He collected the various objects the deceased had been found during the game (although he decided to leave any weapons), and then ushered Bradley and Violet out of the room.

The three sat in the main room.

“…W-What now?” Violets tears had slowed to the occasional sniffle.

Bradley stared silently at the vaccine in his hands. Violet had a matching syringe in her skirt pocket.

“…We can’t give up.” Helios stood up. “There might still be another way to get vaccines. Plus, you each have one adult vaccine. They aren’t enough to save you on your own, but… they may give you enough time to reach a hospital once the door opens. I’m going to search this place. You two can help if you want, but you don’t have to.”

After a few moments of silence, Bradley said quietly, “I’m going to read.”

“I-I’ll come with you,” Violet said, standing up.

“I guess the library is as good a place as any to start searching…”

The three of them went to the library. Violet immediately sat down at a table without even picking out a book to read, but when Bradley went to pick out a cool book about the mob, the shelf swung open, revealing a secret room!

Helios was the first to notice the keyhole with the words “THE CHALLENGER.”

“Could it be…?” Helios pulled out the key he had taken from Midge’s corpse, and slid it into the hole. Suddenly a canister of gas dropped from the ceiling. The three of them fell to the ground, unconscious.

---

Violet’s scream pierced Helios’s unconsciousness, immediately waking him up. He bolted up. It seemed like Violet’s scream woke Bradley up too.

But Helios didn’t have much time to think about that, because he immediately saw what had made Violet’s scream: laying on the table in the middle of the room was Ghost, a fire poker sticking out of his abdomen.

“W-What?! Why is he HERE?!” Helios shouted.

But before he could process the situation any further, Bradley screamed, ran over to the corpse, yanked out the fire poker, held it above his head, and…

Stopped.

“…Huh?” Bradley tilted his head to the side in puzzlement.

Helios watched in horror as Bradley leaned in close to the corpse, dug around in the wound with his fingers a bit… and then lifted his fingers to his mouth.

Just when Helios felt the vomit coming up, he heard Bradley’s voice. “It’s… cake.”

“…What.”

“It’s cake,” Bradley repeated. “And the ‘blood’ is strawberry jam.”

“R-Really?!” Violet immediately ran up to the “corpse.”

Bradley was right. It wasn’t a corpse at all, but a large, meticulously craft cake decorated to look like Ghost’s corpse. The fire poker was real, but that was about it.

“…A cake,” Helios echoed. “Why a cake?!”

“I don’t know, but… um…” Violet started hesitating. “We need to keep our energy up, so why not… eat it?”

“Are you out of your mind?!” Helios shouted. “Who knows what kind of poison Null could’ve put in it?!”

“…If Null wanted to do something to us, she could have done it while we were knocked out,” Bradley pointed out. “…I would be okay with some cake.”

When they entered the room Helios thought there wasn’t any silverware, but he noticed now that there were three forks and a serving knife next to the cake.

“W-Well, if you two really want it…”

Helios felt a bit gruesome doing it, but he took the serving knife and slid it into the cake’s torso. However, after sliding it an inch into the cake, it stopped.

“Huh? There’s something in the cake.” Helios put the knife down and started scooping the cake away to reveal a colorful cardboard box.

“Hello. Helios.” Null announced. “Welcome to your trial.”

---

Helios was covered in a cold sweat.

Even though it felt like a waste, they had shoved the massive cake off the table to make room for the board game. Helios was sitting at one side of the table, with Bradley and Violet across from him.

“C’mon, you can do it!” Violet encouraged him.

“You made it this far! You need to finish it!” Bradley said resolutely.

“N-No, I…” Painful memories flashed through Helios’s head. “I… I can’t do it…”

“Yes you can!” Violet shouted.

Slowly, Helios placed a trembling hand on the draw pile. He didn’t move any further, however.

“You’re two spaces from the end,” Bradley pointed out. “As long as you don’t get one green or one red, you win! Plus, you’re so far ahead of me and Violet, even if you don’t win this turn, you’re definitely gonna win before we catch up!”

“Even s-still…” Helios brought his other hand to his head. “I… I-I…”

---

Nine days later, a massive explosion reverberated throughout the facility. The large “9” door had been busted open. One group of people in hazmat suits entered and split up to search the facility, while another worked on quickly sealing the entrance they had just broken up.

As they approached the library, they could smell the stench, even through their suits. A couple had to pause and steady themselves, lest they vomit in their suit.

They first found the body of a young boy. His body was covered in welts, and his neck was a mess of torn, bloody flesh. His fingers were also covered in blood, and some of his fingernails were broken.

Lying in what appeared to be the entrance to a secret room was the corpse of a teenage girl. She was covered in small, short cuts. What appeared to be… papercuts? While normally a minor nuisance, she was covered in hundreds, maybe thousands of them. Her body was covered in dried blood from the cuts, and her clothes were soaked in it as well.

Going past her into the room, they found… it.

It looked like it was a human man. With “was” being the operative word. It was completely burnt and charred, making recognizing any portion of it nearly impossible. There did seem to be a couple of scraps of fabric clinging to the body, and they were the same color of the suit Senator Helios Tesla had been wearing the last time he was seen. The body’s left arm was twisted backwards into an unnatural position. The right foot seemed to have been entirely removed.

But most peculiar of all, the twisted left hand was tightly gripping a perfectly pristine piece of paper with a purple square printed on it.

END?

BANG!

Ghost was knocked out of his chair, falling to the ground. Everybody’s restraints immediately unlatched.

“G-Ghost!” Adriana shouted.

“O-Ow.” Ghost rubbed his head with his gloved hand. “I-I’m...alive?”

“Was it because of the helmet?” Midge asked.

The door swung open, Helios rushing inside. “W-What happened?!”

Ghost pawed at the floor, grabbing something. The bullet...it was rubber.

“Congratulations. Ghost.” Null announced. “You are the winner of the game.”