You wake up next morning to see Calliope perched above you. She smiles. You shriek and sit up, keeping your blanket gathered up around your neck. She jumps down to land lightly on the floor. "Please head the gym before going to breakfast!" she says. Her face seems to struggle with itself, and then she's back to normal. "But we're going to be revealing the next motive, though."

It feels like your heart has stopped. Another motive. What if it's a good one? You can't help but feel like two more people will be dead in the next few days, and you can't help but shiver at that.

Calliope sees your look and gives you what she apparently thinks is a reassuring smile. "It's harmless," she said. "Nobody will want to kill anyone. It's even more harmless than the last one."

You nod, but you're not quite convinced. She can think that, but doe she really have that much control over Caliborn? From what you've seen of him, you're pretty sure he just wants as much death as possible.

But you have to go.

You take a quick shower before getting dressed and heading down to the gym. Dirk is already there. It doesn't look like he slept at all the night before, and you sit beside him on the bleachers. He looks at you.

Wordlessly, you put a hand on his knee. He manages a half-smile, one side of his mouth quirking up. "I can't believe it's happening again," he said. His voice is rough. He lifts up his sunglasses to rub at his eyes. "It just feels like it's a fucking dream. A fucking nightmare that we can't wake up from. And so soon. We're getting another motive so soon."

You stay silent. Roxy bounds over then, dragging Jake behind her. She doesn't look like she slept much, either, but her lack of sleep seems to have made her a lot bouncier than usual. Her eyes are red-rimmed and she has dark shadows underneath them, but she's grinning and jittering like she's been up all night drinking energy drinks. Jake looks like he got a normal amount of sleep, and nods to you as he approaches.

"I was up all night on Ampora's laptop," Roxy says. She twitches a little and brushes hair out of her eyes. For the first time since you've seen her, her hair isn't casual messy and curly. It's kind of amazing. "And, wow, he had a lot of porn. And some interesting stuff that wasn't porn. And a lot of encrypted files that are running my program on them right now."

Dirk nods, but you can tell that he's not really listening. He rubs his eyes again, and you watch as everyone else comes in. Most everyone trickles in one at a time. Latula comes last. She looks even worse than yesterday.

Once you're all here, you look to the podium, expecting Calliope to pop out and give you something harmless. Something you won't have to worry about.

But Caliborn pops up. He scowls at all of you and clears his throat. "The last motive was boring. Someone died anyway, but it was so stupid. Almost as stupid as all of you. But this one's better, because that idiot bitch didn't make it up."

Dirk tenses, and you frown. You really hope that Calliope takes control right about now. You really hope that she does.

But she doesn't.

"If someone doesn't die in three days, I'm going to kill all of you."

With that, Calliope takes over. The room has been shocked into silence but Calliope, looking harried, doesn't take any note of that as she speaks.

"He won't, it's bad for-"

Caliborn takes over then. "I can and I will. The executions will be awesome."

After that, there's a brief struggle where they flip back and forth before both of them eventually just disappear. The fourteen of you look at each other and nobody's quite sure what to do. Finally, Meenah speaks.

"So," she says. "That the new motive or not?"

Dirk clenches his jaw and stands up. "I'll see if I can talk to them," he said. "There's a principal's office. They're probably in there. I'll fucking demand they talk to me."

He leaves, hands clenched into fists at his side. You look at Roxy, hoping for some normality, but she looks distracted. "Bad for?" she says to herself. She repeats those words a few times, and then notices you looking. She laughs. "Ha! I'm going to go back to opening up those encrypted files. See you later, Janey!"

Everyone trickles out except you and Jake. Jake is looking at you like he's expecting something, and you shift. You're suddenly aware of just how much bigger you are than him. True, this isn't all your fault, because he is weirdly tiny for a guy, but it still makes you feel a little self-conscious. "Do you want to go get something to eat?" he asks, finally, and you nod.

"I made a cake yesterday," you say. "There's probably some left."

He grins. "That sounds flipping fantastic!" He jumps a little before he heads off. You have to hurry to follow him, and by the time you get to the dining hall you're a little out of breath. He looks back at you and grinned. "Well, let's have some fucking finger-licking pastry!"

You blink a little, but nod.

The dining hall is fairly full. Meenah's talking to Aranea – it doesn't really look like more of a conversation, more like Meenah talking whenever she sees Aranea start to open her mouth to say something. Rufioh's sitting alone, with Horuss and Damara at separate tables flanking his. He looks awkwardly into his food. You feel sort of bad for him.

Jake pulls you through the dining hall and into the kitchen. You find the cake and cut two thick slices. He looks at it like it's the best thing in the world and claps you on the arm. "By golly, Miss Crocker, this looks amazing!"

You can't help but blush.

He keeps up the chatter as he gets a few plates, as well as two glasses of milk – "I find milk goes abso-fucking-lutely fantastic with cake!" – and forks. He digs around for ice cream, too, but apparently that is nowhere to be found. He sighs at this, but you think that, even with the additional stress of this new 'maybe motive', that might be a little much for breakfast. Also, your cake is so good you won't even miss the ice cream.

Not that you don't like ice cream. You do. Your cake is just too good for it.

Jake pauses, glances around, and heads for Meenah and Aranea's table. You feel your heart sink into your stomach as you follow him. You sort of like Meenah – you think you could, if she wasn't the thinner, prettier version of you who knows how to style her hair. You don't know enough about Aranea to really make a judgment just yet, but she does wear blue lipstick, and that can't be good.

You're about halfway through the cake when Roxy pokes her head through the door. "Guys? I think I found something important."

And we're back!