"Hey there kids!" The unnamed voice said. It filled each one of us with a sense of unease. The voice came from no specific area and that made the situation even worse. We all condensed into a larger group. I backed up bumping Xavier on the arm and running right into Jerome. As I was about to apologize there was a noise from the front of the room and we all turned our attention there.
To our surprise a creature looking like a poorly made stuffed doll with button eyes and black yarn hair on one side and white yarn hair on the other. Her dress was opposite of the color pattern of her hair. I decided whatever that thing was I did not like it one bit. Not at all. And it seemed like none of the others did either.
"I'm your headmaster! Daphie the darling doll!" The creature exclaimed in a sickeningly cheerful manner as it stood on the podium. Everyone was confused. "I'm excuse me?" Ivy said after everyone was silent for a moment. "I'm your headmaster." The doll repeated.
The group of us looked back and forth at each other. "Headmaster?" Anna asked. "Yes. Headmaster of this school!" Daphie said jumping off the podium and approaching us. I instinctively tried to backup forgetting that Jerome was right behind me. I heard some other footsteps as well. People were having the same reaction as me, but being more successful. Jerome placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder and I took a breath. Everyone was panicking in some way or another. "What school? Where are we?" Xavier asked. "Why the Academy Of hope American branch!" The doll whose name was daphie said "it's an extension of Hopes peak high school. It's an international school now!" She explained.
Hopes peak. The same name on Abby's jacket. Then suddenly it hit me. This is where I was supposed to be attending high school. It looked nothing like this in the informational packets. I looked around and everyone still seemed confused. "Why are there bars on the window." I asked composing myself and hiding my fear. Daphie looked over at me. "See that's where the fun begins.
She hopped back in the podium and faced us. "There's a very special reason you all were brought here let me assure you." She said. A feeling of dread made its way into the pit of my stomach and Xavier looked back and we exchanged a glance. "You were brought here for a killing game!" Daphie exclaimed throwing her fabric arms into the air.
We were all stunned into silence for a moment. "Killing game?" Rose asked a tremor in her voice. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Marcus asked sounding on edge. "It means exactly what it sounds like. You kill each other!" Daphie explained. "And why the hell would we do that?" Kenzie asked stepping forward. "We aren't killers we're high schoolers!". Daphie laughed at the statement, it was such a joyous laugh, it completely contrasted the situation that we were in. "Because if you kill a classmate and get away with it you get to leave. If no one kills anyone, you will all stay here for the rest of your lives."
We all looked around at each other instantly wide eyed and suspicious. "You can't just keep us here!" Irene shouted obviously on the verge of tears. "You wanna place a bet on that statement?" Daphie asked leaning forward teetering on the edge of the podium. We all remained silent, with the exception of a few small sobs which I would assume are coming from Irene and some quiet whispering trying to comfort her that sounds like Dustin. "What happens to the rest of us if someone gets away with murder?" Arietta asks.
"I'm glad you asked little songbird. After a murder takes place you will have time to investigate and then a class trial where you will determine who done it. Depending on your answer something surprising will happen. More will be explained during the first class trial" Daphie explained "now if you check your pockets you'll find a small tablet I like to call a dollypad. It'll be your lifeline to this school so don't lose it" Daphie said as we all pulled our dolly pads out of our pockets.
When I booted mine up my name appeared. Then there were different tabs. One of which being a map. I clicked on the map and examined the layout of the school. The gym, lunchroom, and school store were the main places on the first floor. There were stairs to the basement and a water covered tunnel to the dorms.
"Now That that's all out of the way feel free to explore the school and murder to your hearts content!" Daphie said before jumping back behind the podium disappearing for now.
We all stood in a stunned silence. After a moment Anna and a few others turned to help Dustin comfort Irene, who's terrified crying echoed throughout the gym. "We have to figure out what's here." Ivy said looking around. A few others in the groups nodded and we split off into groups to explore the school. I opted to go with Xavier because I've been walking with him for this long might as well continue. We were in charge of investigating the dorms.
Each dorm room had a full size bed, a bathroom with a shower, and a lock. The keys were in our room so we each took our own and decided to tell the others once we met up in the dining hall. "The beds are pretty comfy." Xavier said laying on his own bed. I rolled my eyes and continued to look around the room. "No windows." I said quietly. I sigh turning around. "We should go wait and meet up with the others to see what they found." Xavier nods in agreement and the two of us head to the dining hall. Meeting up with ivy and rose who were checking the kitchen
A while after the rest of the students start to join us in the dining hall. First of the group of Kinzie and Jerome, then Arietta and Carson. Two of the groups in charge of checking the basement. More and more people trickled in till we were at last joined by Dustin and Irene who had finally calmed down. We all exchanged our findings.
The basement had a storage room full of a ton of supplies that were too numerous to count, needless to say there was something there for everyone. The basement also was home to a room with a brain on the door that they couldn't open for some reason. I think for a moment and decide to check it out after the meeting. All the windows that are visible seem to be unbreakable and barred up. The kitchen is fully stocked and according to Daphie becomes restocked every day according to how much food we eat. The school store had a bunch of gifts that were available but that didn't really seem useful. On the main floor there seemed to be a few blocked off areas and that concerned us. And there was a room with an eye on it. I would have to check into that later as well.
But that seems to be all that we could find for today so Kim suggested eating something. We all obliged and pitched in to make dinner. Although not all of us were a big help everyone tried. And that stood for something. I wondered how long this would last.
Marcus seemed to pick up on my thoughts. "This won't last forever you know, statistically speaking someone will crack and kill someone else." He said in a hushed tone. I nodded silently. It was a truth we were all trying to avoid but we couldn't. It would eventually happen. And we just needed to be prepared for it.
Over dinner we decided to go over the rules that were mentioned on our dollypads. Don't kill more than two people, no trading dollypads, no hurting Daphie in any way. Rules like that annoyed us all. Not so much the first one but especially the last one.
"So we're fucked either way.." Blake says with a scowl. "It doesn't matter what we do we're stuck here unless we kill someone.." the rest of us either looked at our food or at the person next to us. "But no one is going to do that right?" Abby asked. "Yea. There has to be another way out." Anna said looking at everyone. "We can't let this little doll psych us out. We're ultimates, we can work together and beat this." They said. Their words filled us with hope that maybe there was another way out. "We can rest tonight and pick up our search in the morning." Abigail said and everyone nodded and murmured in agreement.
"There's still one thing to address." Carson said from the corner of the table. "The nighttime hours. From 10 to 7. What do we do then?" He asked. No one had a real answer for that question. We were all trying to ignore that rule because we all knew that we would be more vulnerable at night. "How about we just stay in our rooms at night" Dustin suggested. "We stay in our rooms and lock the doors. Everything shuts down at night anyways so there's no reason to leave our rooms." Everyone murmured amongst themselves in agreement. "So that's settled, we stay in our rooms at night." Said Xavier.
After that the meeting ended. I headed to the basement to see the door with the brain on it that the basement groups had brought up. While I was examining the door Daphie popped up. "I see you found your lab!" She said. I was confused "My what?" I asked. "Your ultimate lab! A place to cultivate and improve your talent." Daphie explained. "Head on in."
At her suggestion I grabbed the handle and heard a click, it must unlock when the labs owner first enters. The lab had an entire wall covered in studies and books on different experiments, there was a giant model of a brain and an interactive screen that could simulate different effects and symptoms of the brain and how that effects the body. I was shocked that one I was getting a place to study, and two that this place was this advanced. "What's the catch?" I asked Daphie. "There's no catch. We may encourage homicide but this is still a school, you're here to improve yourself. Use the lab. Don't use the lab, it's up to you." Daphie said while exiting the room and disappearing again.
I explored my lab for a bit until the nighttime announcement came on. While the announcement was playing I hurried out of the basement and over to the dorms running into Kinzie as I did.
"Sorry, wasn't watching where I was going." I said looking at the girl. She smiled. "It's really no problem. I was trying to hurry back after I heard the nighttime announcement too." She said "let's just slow down a bit so we don't run into anyone else." I nodded in agreement and we finished the walk back to the dorm together. We said our goodbyes and went to our rooms.
As I laid down in my bed I frowned. Why are we being forced to stay here? To be a part of this killing game. Those questions bounced around in my head. There was no clear answer at the moment. But then something hit me. Who was keeping an eye on us? Who was controlling Daphie? I could only come to one conclusion. Someone among us has to be behind all of this. Someone among us is the mastermind.
With that thought sleep overcame me and I fell into a restless sleep.