"Guys I can't find Alli," Drew told the group when they met up in the front of the cafeteria. "Well where was the last place you saw her?" Fiona asked. She couldn't say she really liked Alli, but she was worried. She didn't want anyone else to die…
"We were in the basement," Drew answered. "We were at the top of the stairs and she fell over the railing. The bottom of her pants got caught on one of the stairs I guess. I tried to help her but she wouldn't let me. She told me to wait outside and I did. I waited a little while, then I heard her scream. I ran back down into the basement but I couldn't find her anywhere. I called her name but she didn't say anything."
Clare chuckled darkly with her head down. All eyes turned to her. She raised her head and looked at them all. "Well don't you get it?" she asked. No one made a sound. "Alli's dead!" she shouted. She laughed hysterically. "She died like the song described. It said 'a sinner without help is a sinner no more.' Alli didn't want to take Drew's help because she was too proud. Now she's dead."
"Don't you think that's a little obvious though?" Bianca asked. She stood with her arms crossed and aimed suspicious eyes at Clare. "I mean, that one wasn't much of a riddle. The first two kind of were obvious, too, but the last four were a little cryptic."
"Then maybe we should try to decode the rest of the song then," Eli chimed in. Always at Clare's rescue. Always.
"The song said 'sinner' a lot," Drew added. "Maybe it's something to do with religion." He turned to Clare. "You're the Jesus Freak," he spat. "You tell us what it means."
All eyes turned back to her and she sighed. "Well there were seven deaths in the song," she began. "It reminds me of the Seven Deadly Sins. KC died by Gluttony, Adam by Sloth, and Alli by Pride."
"So what are the next ones," Fiona questioned.
Clare crossed her arms trying to think. "It's been a while since I read them," she confessed. "Didn't you hear? I lost my faith."
"Gluttony, Sloth, Pride, Anger, Lust, Greed, Envy," Eli filled in for her subconsciously as he stared at the floor.
The next thing he knew, Drew threw him against the locker. "I knew you were behind this!" he shouted. He began punching Eli in the gut and banging him against the locker. "You sorry piece of emo shit! I'll fucking kill you!"
Bianca, Fiona, and Clare ran to Drew, frantically trying to pry him away from Eli who wasn't putting up a fight at all. "Drew stop!" Clare shouted.
Drew stopped hitting Eli then turned around to face the girls. His eyes were wild with fire as he lunged for Clare. He slammed her against one of the doors of the school and began choking her. Her fingers clawed hopelessly at his arms.
Eli ran to Drew and tackled him to the ground, leaving Clare time to catch her breath. Eli held Drew down on the ground, but didn't hit him at all. "Calm the hell down," he ordered evenly. Eli sure was acting pretty calm considering three people, one of whom he was friends with, had been murdered.
Fiona grabbed the sides of her head in her hands and began pulling at her hair. "I can't take this shit anymore!" she shouted. Everyone turned to her as she began to slowly back away from the group. They looked like nothing more than animals to them. "You're all fucking crazy!" she exclaimed.
Then she took off running down the hall. Clare wasted no time in running after her. "Fiona, wait!" she called. Fiona kept running. "Stay away from me!" Fiona called back.
She ran to a nearby room and slammed the door shut, locking it behind her. She scanned her surroundings and found herself in the Grade Nine English room. Then she spotted the gun.
The revolver sat there on the teacher's desk glistening in the moonlight that shined among the trees and through the window. A pink piece of paper beside the gun was folded to where it was standing up. She could see her name written on one side of the paper in thick, black, hand-written letters. It was if whoever the killer was knew she'd come to this room.
Fiona made her way over to it. Halfway there, Clare reached the classroom and tried to open it. Then she started banging on the window. "Fiona open the door!" she demanded. "I promise I'm not gonna hurt you. We're going to get through this!"
Fiona turned around to face Clare with sad, hopeless eyes. She smiled sadly. "You might," she said, "But I won't. I'm here for a reason, and that reason is to die. I can't take this Clare. I just want to fucking die! I hate everyone here and all this running around is pissing me off."
She turned back around and went back to the gun. Clare banged on the window more. "No!" she pleaded. "Fiona don't! We can get out of this. You can get out of this. You don't have to die!"
Fiona grabbed the gun and held it in her hand. The handle was cold, just like her. She really did just want to die. Like the voice had said, she was never gonna have the relationship she wanted with Declan. That made her angry and hurt her. Now Adam was dead. She wanted to be happy with him even if he was really a girl. Now she was just angry.
Fiona put the barrel of the gun to her right temple and faced Clare. "I'm not getting out of here alive," she stated calmly. Then, warm tears of hate started to fall from her eyes. "It's over, Clare." She squeezed her eyes shut tightly pulled the trigger without hesitation.
All she heard was a loud bang and Clare's scream. She didn't feel any pain. That was weird.
She opened her eyes and saw Clare staring back at her in disbelief and a tear-stained face.
Fiona put the gun down on the table and touched her arms. They still felt like skin. She wasn't dead. But…she shot herself. The gun was filled with blanks!
Fiona let out a big scream of anger and threw the gun across the room. It went off again, but it let out another blank. Then she saw the note by the table had flipped over, revealing words on the inside of it. She picked up the note and read it aloud:
"This gun holds both death and life. It is filled with six bullets; five are blanks and one is real. If you're reading this note, then you've probably shot one bullet at yourself first and found it to be a blank. You've also thrown the gun across the room in anger, consequently setting off another blank.
"There are four others still alive besides yourself. Right now, one of them must die. The live bullet is hidden somewhere among the blanks. You can choose to fire the last four shots at yourself, or take turns at shooting at everyone else and hoping someone dies.
"This is to be your reckoning. You'll take your own life or the life of another and cleanse your soul. But I'll know if you do not kill anyone, Fiona. And if you do not kill anyone after reading this note…well I'll just have to kill you myself. Have fun making your choice. And P.S. Whoever you kill, aim for the forehead. Your little death threat inspired this note. Time is ticking."
Fiona put the note down back on the table. Kill or be killed, she told herself. She made her way to the gun lying at the other end of the room and Clare started beating on the window again. Now everyone else was crowded around her to see what was happening. "Fiona don't!" she shouted. "We can keep you safe. Don't do this."
She didn't look at Clare. She just kept walking towards the gun. "I have to Clare," she stated softly. She picked up the gun and walked back to the teacher's desk. She pulled herself up to sit on it, grasping the note in her free hand.
She put the cold metal of the gun's barrel to her forehead. She'd made her choice; she wasn't going to kill anyone but herself. If this really was "reckoning," then she surely wouldn't be saved if she killed someone else; she would be killed anyway. Killing myself would take off a few burdens, she thought to herself.
She pulled the trigger again. Clare screamed when the loud bang filled the school and everyone else gasped. They all sighed in relief since it was another blank.
Fiona let out another scream of rage. She was really starting to get ticked off now. "Fiona please!" Clare pleaded. "Please don't kill yourself."
More tears fell from Fiona's eyes. This time, they burned. She could feel her blood boiling with adrenaline and anger. "I have to!" she shouted with her eyes clamped shut.
Fiona hesitated once more and drew in a deep breath. She pulled the trigger. This time her head vibrated from the sound of the bang, but it was just another blank.
Clare banged on the window more. She wished she could break the window and unlock the door. Maybe banging on the window would get Fiona's attention. And if she got Fiona's attention, maybe she could make Fiona change her mind….
Fiona screamed in anger once more and started sobbing loudly. She couldn't do it. It was stressing her out. She was angry enough to kill herself, but the pressure of blanks vs. real bullets was driving her insane. She held the gun in her lap and slowly rocked back and forth on the desk sobbing.
Then an idea came to her and she stopped crying. She hopped off the desk and ran to the door. Clare jumped up and down in excitement, desperately clinging to the idea that Fiona wasn't going to die like this.
Fiona unlocked the door and opened it. Clare rushed to her and hugged her tightly. Looks like death really made her emotional.
"Get off," Fiona demanded coldly. Clare's muscles stiffened and she backed away from Fiona. Fiona turned her eyes to the rest of the group. She held up the gun and everyone backed away with a loud gasp.
"One of you take this and shoot me," she ordered. No one moved. Was she really serious? Could she really want someone to shoot her?
"I said take it!" Fiona shouted. Everyone jumped in their skin at her sudden anger but still no one moved.
When Fiona saw this, she fell to her knees and started crying again. They weren't going to help her. They wanted her to suffer like they would. Did they hate her that much?
Bianca shoved past Eli and Drew and snatched the gun from Fiona's hands. Kill or be killed, Bianca thought to herself.
Fiona looked up at Bianca with blood red eyes and Bianca pulled the trigger. She'd gotten to the gun and the trigger before anyone could do anything to stop her.
Clare screamed. Her face went pale white as she stared at the small bullet wound in Fiona's forehead. What scared her most was that Fiona just sat there for a moment. She sat there as blood trickled from her wound and down her face.
Then her body fell towards Clare with a loud thud.
A/N: So I'll say this one more time: For those of you who want to bitch and moan about me copying from "A Night To Die For" or anything else, shove it up your ass and stop reading my story since it bothers you so much. Like I said, inviting guests to dinner and killing them off in a murder mystery was Agatha Christie's idea. This is just my abridged version of it. People copy stuff all the time. Get over it. My content is what's different and that's what matters. As for those who complained specifically about the laminated windows, I'm sorry to say that I did copy that from xa-thousand-milesx because I didn't know how else for the characters to explain the windows being unbreakable. Get the hell over it.
On a brighter note, I opened my e-mail and I had alerts about reviews, people favouriting my story, and people subscribing to both me and my story. I've never had fans before, so this is a really good feeling to me. :D You guys rock!
I'd like to think I'm a nice author, so I'll take suggestions if you guys want me to write stories specifically for you. They can be about anything you want even about any show you want. If you want me to do a story about Declan/Fiona romance though, I'll say this: I'm sticking with my idea that Declan's adopted because the thought of incest kinda weirds me out. Anyway, feel free to request anything.
Oh, I almost forgot. I got some comments saying some of my chapter titles sounded like a song by MCR. To be honest, I didn't know that until someone pointed it out. I guess that shows how much of a die hard MCR fan I am. Go Killjoys! (Revise: So...my slow self realized what those comments were talking about. "House of Wolves" is an MCR song and one of my favourites. I thought it would be the perfect title. My bad!)
