Hope's Peak Academy — said to be one of the finest institutions in existence, its students go on to become the world's finest scientists, artists, businessmen...or anything else they could possibly hope to be.
Every year, its incoming students are handpicked by the school board. Each student selected is a master in his or her area. I'd already heard rumors of some of the new students this year...
...A "Super High School Level Basketball Star," the most valued member of the nation's most prestigious team...
...A "Super High School Level Journalist," heralded for her deeply moving articles, said to already be a Pulitzer contender...
...A "Super High School Level Scientist," a doctorate in both biochemistry and theoretical physics and still in his teens...
...In other words — Hope's Peak Academy is truly a beacon of hope, a symbol of the future, a haven where talent could be cultivated and nourished, where the leaders of tomorrow are shaped today.
And that is why Hope's Peak Academy has always been my target. In my eyes, no ambition was too great, no star was too far to reach — for I did have talent. From an early age I fell in love with that beautiful goddess, that queen of the sciences which was mathematics. I studied...I excelled...I conquered.
I published my first paper in a prominent mathematical journal at the age of nine. I knew I would fit right in at Hope's Peak Academy. I knew that I was exactly the type of high schooler that its school board wanted. I was the year's Super High School Level Mathematician.
It was hardly a surprise, then, when I received a letter in the mail bearing the emblem of Hope's Peak Academy. And so I found myself exactly where I wanted to be — standing in front of the Academy's doors, waiting to enter.
But that was soon to change.
Opening my eyes, I saw before me a few rows of desks, with a blackboard at the front of the room. I was sitting at such a desk.
Distantly, I heard the sound of voices from outside of the room I was in. Their voices...they sounded so...nervous...
As I tried to find my bearings, a crack of light shone through the door. As it widened, a rather pretty girl appeared, wearing red ribbons in her curly brown hair, looking at me with a curious expression.
"I...I wasn't sleeping!" I informed her hurriedly, as she raised her eyebrows at me. "I was just...uh..."
"...Certainly." I watched as she scowled at me, rolling her eyes. "We're meeting in the gymnasium," she continued, briskly. "You're expected to be there."
I straightened, cocking an eyebrow at her. "Who are you?"
The girl let out a sigh in which I could detect a hint of impatience. "Elizabeth Morgan," said Elizabeth Morgan. "Super High School Level Ghost Writer. Pleasure." She held out her hand expectantly.
For a moment I contemplated kissing it, but I decided against coming off too strong. "Pleasure's all mine," I said as I shook it instead. "Who's expecting me, exactly?"
"Our classmates, simpleton." She gave that eye roll again and went straight out the door. Perhaps I should have just kissed her hand.
I hurried on beside her. "Ugh," I said, as we turned the corner and I spotted our destination, "I hate gyms."
"Everyone...SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Not quite the reaction I was expecting towards my expression of opinion, but very well. I observed that the voice had emitted from a girl with faded pink hair, which she was pulling at in frustration. "WE NEED TO THINK THIS THROUGH CALMLY!"
Standing next to her was a boy with a complacent smile upon his lips. "What do you mean?" he inquired innocently. "I'm very calm."
"We should first figure out who each of us is," said another girl, whose hair resembled a scoop of strawberry ice cream beside a scoop of chocolate. She pinched her lips with her fingers as she spoke, and her brow was furrowed in thought. "We can't do anything until we know who we all are."
I leaned toward Elizabeth, sporting an expression of confusion. "Uhhh, what's going on?" I asked her in a whisper.
Elizabeth rolled her eyes — surprise, surprise. "We all woke up in various locations around the school. We do not know what happened. This is an attempt to find some order."
It made sense. I looked over to the others. "Well, I'll go first then," said the girl with the multicolored hair. "I am Victoria Winchester, Super High School Level Analyst."
"That sounds cool!" said a bespectacled brunette, who was scribbling away on her small notepad. "Tell us more."
"What does an analyst even do?" said a cute yet vigorous-looking blonde girl.
Victoria sighed a practiced sigh. "An analyst analyzes every little detail...Something I doubt you're capable of — race car trash."
The blonde reddened, looking quite disgruntled. "H-hey! Who are you calling trash, here? I could...I could run you over in, like, two seconds!"
"Without a car? Bitch, please."
While the pair bickered between themselves, the introductions continued. One girl bowed her head. "Charlie Bradbury. Super High School Level Huntress, at your service."
"H-huntress?" said yet another one of the girls, who was wearing a very regal red dress. "What do you...hunt?"
"People," Charlie stated, smiling fondly for a few moments before letting out a giggle. "Just kidding! I killed Bambi."
The pink-haired girl snorted. "Wow, you're a funny girl, aren't you? Well... I am the great Maggie Singer, Super High School Level Con Artist Extraordinaire!"
"Are you sure you should be bragging about that?" Charlie pointed out — a fair point.
The girl in the red dress was still gaping at Charlie, her face molded into a textbook definition of horror. "But...those poor animals!" she cried as she pouted her lips. "How ever could you do that to them?"
"Wait, that's actually, like, really cool, though," a red-haired girl beside me gushed eagerly. "You've got to show me something you've killed some time. I'm Noella Balmer, by the way — Super High School Level Mortician." She gave us all a sweet grin. I blinked.
"Certainly!" Charlie replied, giving Noella a matching smile. "Girl's gotta eat, right?"
"I wouldn't mind examining a few of the remains either," muttered a scrawny, purple-haired boy. "Lucas Doyle. Scientist."
The girl in the dress shivered visibly, the tremor sending a ripple down the crimson fabric. "Ewww! You guys are all so creepy." Her eyes darted around the room before locking in place, marching up to a boy with bleached hair. "You seem nice enough. I'm Audrey Felicion — Super High School Level Actress, at your service." She flashed him a brilliant smile.
"Er, hi, hi, hi!" said the boy, smiling abashedly. "I'm Jacob, but don't call me Stupid-cob, because I'm funny!" He laughed nervously. "I don't know why they made me Super High School Level Luck anyways, r-r-right?" It was pitiful to watch him, but Audrey laughed along, a charming laugh that echoed throughout the gym.
Another boy let out a deeply weary sigh and spoke. "Let's just get this over with, shall we? Buzz Triton. Super High School Level Trivia Expert. You know, Jeopardy and the like." Looking at Buzz, I found it difficult to imagine him standing behind a flashy podium, engaging in playful banter with a microphone-bearing host, but then again nobody expects a Super High School Level Mathematician to be stunningly handsome, either.
"Psssh. Nerd." I glared at the tall boy who had spoken, who rolled his eyes, punched Buzz in the arm, and walked on by. "Jack Richards," he proclaimed. "Super High School Level Basketball Star."
The collected, smiling boy gave Jack an odd look of approval. "Mmmm," said he. "I'm Hibbert Knowles. There are many names for what I do. I prefer...mentalist." He gave us all a pleasant grin.
A boy wearing an extravagant top hat spun around, striking a ridiculous pose. "But we all know the public loves me more, isn't that right, Hibbie? Je suis Felix Fantastique! Super High School Level Diva."
"And I'm Lexa Axel," the cute blonde began, "Super High School Level —"
"We all know you're a racecar driver already, don't we?" Buzz drawled impatiently. "Next?" He glowered directly at myself with a look of expectation.
"Huh?" I realized I had forgotten to introduce myself. Scratching at the back of my head with a chuckle, I explained, "Oh, I, uh, guess I just sort of assumed everyone knew who I was." Honestly, it was almost as if none of them recognized me.
"Commoner trash," I heard Elizabeth mutter with a scoff. I suspected she had intentionally said it so I could hear; playing hard to get, of course.
The notepad bearer, it seemed, had no such qualms. She grinned a wide grin at me. "Don't worry about Elizabeth, she's just jealous," she cheerfully informed me. "Nobody knows who she is. But I know who you are! You're Marty Wiles, the famous kid mathematician!"
"Yep, that pretty much covers it." I smiled, pleased. "And you're...?"
"Melissa Gazette, Super High School Level Journalist. Pleased to meet you!"
Elizabeth muttered something inaudible this time, giving Melissa a look of distaste. Melissa stuck her tongue out Elizabeth before scribbling away on her notepad once more.
"...Lovely," Victoria stated simply. "Is that everyone?"
Hibbert held out his index finger, pointed elegantly upwards. "Not so quick, my dear." He turned pi radians on the spot. "Who might you be?"
The black-haired girl, the only one who had not yet spoken, reddened considerably and stuffed her hands in her pockets. She glared up at Hibbert silently for a few moments, as Hibbert smiled at her patiently — then, suddenly, with alarming velocity, she rushed over to Melissa and snatched her notepad away.
"H-hey!" Melissa cried out. "I have some very important notes on there!"
The silent girl ignored her as she pulled out a pencil from behind her ear and began sketching something on the paper.
"She's Penny Cecil, Super High School Level Artist," Victoria supplied, giving Hibbert a pointed look. "She's mute. And you call yourself observant."
I gazed over Penny's shoulder, looking at her picture. In those few seconds, she had already managed to draw a picture of herself. The picture of herself was drawing another picture — the same picture that the real her was drawing. "Wow — infinite recursion," I remarked. "That's really impressive."
Penny jumped at the sound of my voice and looked up at me, wide-eyed. Then, with what looked like immense effort, her lips curled up into a small smile.
That smile was not to last.
We stood there in the gym, making idle conversation with each other. Nobody, however, seemed quite capable of explaining how we had arrived within the school in the first place.
"Whenever I try to remember how I got here," Lexa explained, "I get this huge headache."
Although that sounded admittedly quite strange, nobody appeared to be particularly disconcerted. After all, what other reason was there to suspect that something was amiss?
As a shrill voice suddenly blared through the air, I had a feeling that question was about to be answered. "Upupupupu!" the voice cried.
"Eeeep! W-what was that?" cried Audrey, as we all looked skyward, searching for the source of the noise. "Is someone screaming? Is someone hurt?"
"That didn't sound like screaming," Victoria pointed out. "It was more like —"
"Laughter." Somehow, Hibbert continued to smile. "Somebody's mocking us, no doubt."
"Upupupupu!" the chilling voice shrieked once more. "Welcome to Hope's Peak Academy, you bastards!"
"It's coming from behind that podium," said Buzz, pointing at the stage at the front of the gym, which appeared to double as an auditorium. On the stage sat a simple wooden podium, upon which the emblem of Hope's Peak Academy was painted.
"Upupupu," that terrifying voice cackled once more. "That's right, you bastards! I am Monobear, the principal of you little brats."
With a loud swoosh, a large black-and-white object flew out from behind the podium, landing before us on the edge of the stage.
"What," said Lexa, her mouth gaping wide. "The. Fuck."
For the object that had been only a blur while airborne was now standing still — and it was literally standing, as it seemed to be a bear.
"Is this...some sort of joke?" asked Melissa, anxiety underlying her words. I sympathized; much like Victoria's hair, the bear was a polar bear on its right half and a black bear on its left, though it looked more like something out of a cartoon than something out of a zoo. While its right eye appeared normal, its left eye was a jagged red streak. While the right side of its snout resembled that of a usual stuffed bear, the left side extended into a row of sharp, gleaming white teeth.
Victoria shook her head. "If it were a joke, it would have ended by now."
"Upupupu! She's right!" the bear exclaimed. "I am your headmaster, and I am delighted to tell you that you are going to live out the rest of your puny lives in here!"
The rest of our lives? That was no small statement. But unless I was mistaken...the bear meant it.
Noella let out a sigh of disappointment. "Awww. I guess I won't get to see one of your animal bodies after all, Charlie. I was kinda looking forward to that."
"That's what you're worried about?" I said to her, a little awestruck. "Seriously — what's that bear thing going on about?"
The bear rubbed its furry little paws together; I spotted razor-edged claws protruding from them. "Oh, no, don't worry. You'll have plenty of corpses to see."
"...Corpses?!" Charlie repeated incredulously, not the first person I would have expected to make such a remark. "What are you, Voldemort?"
"You see," the bear continued, ignoring the interruption, "you can leave this school...if you successfully murder someone! Upupupu!"
We stood there for a few second, most of us looking dazed.
Then suddenly the room erupted in noise. "Murder?" "What do you mean?" "Why not?" "Murder?" "I won't stand for this!" "You can't...you can't do this..." "...Murder."
Hibbert's voice carried above all of the others'. "So that's it. I figured there was some sort of criminal activity going on, what with all of these conspicuously empty hallways around here. But what is it that you mean about murdering, Mr. Monobear?"
The bear's voice lowered in pitch as he leaned forward towards us, his face darkening into a sinister red hue. "This is a school of mutual killing! Kill or be killed! Kill one of your friends or live the rest of your life in here!" The bear erupted into laughter before continuing. "Oh, and there are a few rules...But as long as you follow them, we'll enjoy a nice, relaxing, stress-free murdering spree! Upupupu!"
"What sort of rules?" I demanded. I saw no harm in playing along. The bear did appear to be terribly insane, after all.
"Well, for one thing, to leave this school, the murderer can't get caught!" the bear screeched. "When a murder occurs, you bastards who aren't already pushing up daisies must participate in a school trial! If the mystery is solved, the culprit is punished! Upupupupu!"
"P-punishment?" Melissa asked, her eyes round and wide. "What does that mean?"
"Why, that's simple!" the bear replied, his voice dripping with mockery and twisted delight. "Punishment with a capital P — in other words, capital punishment! Upupupupu! See what I did there? What we'll be going for is nothing short of cold-blooded execution! Or warm-blooded, if that's more your thing. I have fried students to crisps before, you know!"
"Stop! That's disgusting!" Audrey cried, slamming her hands against her ears.
"What about...the other rules?" Lucas asked hesitantly.
The bear continued. "Allow me to finish. If the culprit is not caught, the culprit graduates! Everyone else is executed instead!"
"Well, we can't let that happen, can we?" said Noella. "We won't kill anyone. Then nobody will die, right?"
"That's right!" Maggie yelled. "Nobody's gonna play your stupid little game!"
"It's up to you bastards, then!" The bear continued to taunt us. "You'll all be holed up in here for the rest of your days! You might all be friends right now, but what about fifty years from now? How are you going to feel then? I'll let you chew on that. Nom nom nom! Upupupupu!"
And with that, the bear vanished from view.
For a long while, all of us were silent. We looked between each other, our faces displaying disbelief, apprehension, terror...suspicion...
Finally, Melissa broke the silence. "Uh, can someone explain what just happened?"
Soon everyone was talking at once. "Talking bears?" shouted Lexa. "What next, flying zebras? What the hell is going on here?"
"And what was that about...murder?" asked Buzz, looking concerned.
"Morons!" Elizabeth scoffed, retreating to a corner of the gym alone.
"It would appear that we must stay here unless we get away with murder," Victoria noted. "...Fascinating." She, too, wandered off from the rest of us.
"Well...now that joke I made earlier is a little creepy, huh?" said Charlie, with a nervous, perhaps almost delirious chuckle.
"H-Hey! Jokes are my thing!" Jacob cried, his voice cracking. "B-But maybe we should look for a way out?"
"Yeah, smartass, maybe we should! Like, I dunno, let's not run away from the creepy teddy bear!" Maggie rolled her eyes. "Please, you have the IQ of a flea." She marched off in disgust.
"Do let's try and stay calm, shall we?" Hibbert said, the only hint of his unrest being that his voice was rather softer than usual.
"Victoria's completely wrong, isn't she?" Audrey asked of us, desperately flicking her eyes over each of us in turn, seeking some assent. "It's probably just a stupid prank. Right?"
"We might as well look for a way out, then," Charlie pointed out. "Otherwise we won't be able to tell."
"Hmph," said Jack, his arms crossed in defiance, "It's probably a hazing, for the new students. Or...or something to weed out the weak before classes." He walked off with a yawn.
"The windows looked like they could open," Hibbert pointed out. "I doubt the solution would be so simple, but perhaps one of us could check?"
"I'll go," Buzz groaned, as if somebody had forced him to. He trudged away, his hands in his pockets.
I glanced over at Penny, who seemed to be positively trembling with fear. She held up a perspective drawing of the hallway I had walked through to enter the gym, with windows lining either wall. While the ceiling, floor, and walls conveyed a sense of realism, within each window was a cartoonish flower or tree. I spotted Victoria in the distance, frowning at the picture as well, no doubt wondering what it could mean.
"What if...there's really no way out of here?" Melissa said. "I mean, I get that it's a boarding school, but that's a little too extreme...isn't it?" Like Audrey, she looked between all of us hopefully.
"Yeah, I was hoping there'd still be the occasional field trip," said Noella with a sigh. "Oh, well."
Charlie spoke up. "If all of this is real...I mean, this would make a sick movie, but in reality? It's all a little..."
"...Depressing." Felix made a show out of dragging out each syllable.
I looked around the gym. By now, half of us had already left. I decided that it was time for myself to make an exit, as well. After muttering some excuse, I strolled off, deep in thought. What a day it had been...I needed some time to digest everything that happened. Dozens of questions and conjectures bounced around in my head. One thing, however, was clear.
Hope's Peak Academy was no longer a beacon of hope. It had been filled...infected...contaminated...with despair.