'Don't pay attention to Mina.'

Immediately, Magnus turned his head around to look at Mina. He did not see anything unusual about her.

'What's with Mina?'

Mallory stroked her hair behind her ear. 'She is wearing a face mask to prove they can suffocate you. For the sake of science, she has not done any activities recently, because those could kill her as well. Yet, she started that experiment six weeks ago, and she is still alive. So I think she decided to join...' - Mallory raised her eyebrows and was quiet for some time - 'whatever we are going to do to speed up the process a little.' Mallory rolled her eyes. 'Actually, scratch what I said. Pay a lot of attention to Mina and make sure she doesn't die so that she has to make peace with the truth.'

'Ah-ah.' Magnus fiddled with his thumbs. 'We are going to a class for fashion models, by the way.'

Mallory pushed her hair the other way again. 'Oh. And why did we sign up for that?'

'Can't remember. I don't think we signed ourselves up. Maybe it was Halfborn and Alex pulling a prank.'

Both Mallory and Magnus nodded. That sounded very likely.

They walked into the room. The teacher, a woman in shorts and a tank top, rolled her eyes when she saw Mina.

'Welcome, folks. I am Zarina. We'll have a photoshoot today...'

'Don't we first need to learn how to pose and stuff?' Someone from the back of the group yelled.

'This world is live or die, missy!'

'More like die or die,' Magnus whispered to Mallory. 'Will you die this way, or that way? Who knows!' Mallory hid her grin behind one hand.

'I prefer that way, to be honest.'

'Who's our first volunteer?' Zarina demanded. Nobody answered. The crowd stayed silent for a few minutes, before a girl in the front raised her hand. 'Come here.' The girl took a deep breath and walked up to the front.

'Stand before the green screen.' The girl did as she was told. Before the green screen stood about twelve camera's and a few lamps.

She shook her shoulders loose. 'Alright, do I...'

She did not get any further. The camera's began to shoot and the lights were blinding. The people who were watching on held their hands in front of their eyes. The girl in front of the camera looked shocked in the small moment they could still see her, before they couldn't see her anymore because of all the flashes.

After half a minute, they heard something drop to the ground. Zarina pushed a button, and the cameras stopped. A screen above the greenscreen went on and displayed a lot of photos, all next to each other, so that they were too small to be seen. The girl that had volunteered was laying on the floor, with her mouth a little open. She disappeared a few seconds later.

'Hm. Guess I made them too hot after all,' Zarina mused. She walked to her computer, which was standing on the side, and began to click through the immense amount of photos that were made.

She looked through them at an inhuman speed. 'Alright,' she told the rest of her group. 'These three are acceptable.' On the screen, she showed them three photos. On all three, the girl had a different expression. On the first one, she looked confused, on the second one she was trying to crack a smile and the last picture was one of genuine fear.

'The first and last photos are the best ones,' Zarina announced. 'You can see the genuine expression in her eyes.'

Now why would that be, Magnus thought to himself. He looked at Mallory, who was clearly thinking the same thing.

Zarina clicked some buttons on her computer. 'Alright, it should be fine now. Who's next?' Nobody moved, until after a few minutes Mina made her way forward.

Zarina pursed her lips. 'Alright then.' Mina slid in front of the cameras, with her mask still on. The woman turned the camera's on, and everyone held their breath.

After a few seconds, the cameras stopped. Mina looked at the woman. 'Why are you doing...'

Zarina displayed a single photo on the screen. 'Because I knew we would get to see this.' On the screen was a picture of Mina with a look of sheer determination and confidence in her eyes. 'You look like you own the world here. It was just what I was looking for. To the rest of you, this is what I want to see!'

Mina turned away from the camera's and strided out of the room. 'I'll find a way!' She yelled over her shoulder.

'You would think that by now she would know that those masks do not suffocate you,' Mallory whispered to Magnus.

'I think this has become a challenge for how long we can keep her alive,' he whispered back.

'Certainly. I think she has already broken the record.'

'Anybody else who wants to give it a go?'

This time, a young man was quite fast to walk to the camera's.

'Give it your all,' the teacher told him. He answered with a confident nod.

The cameras went on, and the guy began to pose. The onlookers could not fully see what was going on, but they could see it was intense. He jumped from one leg to the other, flailed his arms, probably did things with his face, went left, right, to the side, skip it, slide and a whole lot of other things.

After about a minute, he made a jump that was so crazy that the green screen came crashing down with a loud bang. The guy screamed, after which nothing else was heard of him - because he had been crushed.

Zarina cursed. 'Come on, a little professionalism!' She pulled the green screen up. 'These things aren't free! You can be dangerous all you want during sword fighting to the death, that is right after this class!'

She strided over to her computer and smashed a few buttons. A picture of the guy appeared, and immediately some people fell to the floor and disappeared. The photo model might have been dead, but he had taken some peers with him with the most dangerous weapon of all - his good looks.

Zarina groaned. 'I can't believe that just... I swear, sometimes this hotel...' she shook her head. 'All of the craziness aside, who wants to go next?' This time, a few people raised their hands. One of them was Mallory. The woman pointed at her. 'You. Try me.'

Mallory curtsied, before taking her place in front of the camera. She took a deep breath. 'Go for it,' she said, even though the cameras had already begun flashing.

Magnus closed his eyes for a moment in order to catch a break. In the next moment,Mallory screamed and fell to the floor. The cameras stopped flashing. 'Wha...'

'Oh, I should have told you guys, I just didn't think anybody would be this stupid,' Zarina said, suddenly talking in a deep, dissappointed voice. 'That girl flipped off the camera and that made the inhabiting spirit angry,' she explained.

'I'm sorry, the what?' A girl from the last row screamed.

'This is the camera of someone who took a hike in the forest to get some pictures and never got out,' was the explanation. 'The spirit of that person still haunts it. He is a great cameraman, but also demands respect.'

Magnus let it dawn on him for a while. A ghost camera. Sure, why not?

'So, who's next?' Zarina put her hands on her hips. Nobody dared to move.

After five minutes went by, Zarina sighed. 'I'll pick the next person if no one gets over here,' she told them sternly.

The people Looked at each other. It was clear that they all collectively decided to let fate guide their way. After the minute was over, they turned towards Zarina like one, ready to let her pick the lucky vict... model.

Zarina was visibly disappointed. 'Alright. Alright then. You!' She pointed straight at Magnus, who cursed himself for standing at the front. He put a step forward, but someone walked to the cameras before he could. Surprised, he took a step back again. Zarina gave the new model a weird look, but she did not complain.

The new model took his place in front of the camera. They began flashing and the model was blinded. Yet, he did nothing about it. He just stood still and let it happen.

His strategy seemed to work, for about half a minute, the time period in which all strategies in hotel Valhalla seem to work. After that, the cameras stopped. A soft voice chirped: 'well, how am I supposed to work with this!?' And the camera shot a warning shot at the model. Maybe it was supposed to miss him, maybe it was totally supposed to hit him right in the stomach so that he did not have to walk all the way back to his room.

Zarina shrugged and pointed at Magnus. 'You were.' Magnus took a deep breath and stepped in front of the cameras. While they were going off, Magnus struck a few awkward poses. He laughed a little and moved his hands a few times.

The cameras stopped. Magnus expected to be shot any second, but nothing happened. He turned towards Zarina, who shrugged. 'It's fine.' She showed a few pictures on the screen that weren't even that bad. 'You can leave if you want to.'

That's the best idea I have heard all day, Magnus thought. He thanked her and walked out the door, not understanding in the slightest how he had survived that. But he did not complain. It was the way it was.