"Last time one our little game," Edwards greeted the obviously turned off camera, "I decided to let Salem have a little fun by having him send his army of hellspawns to go and wreak havoc throughout all of Hope's Lament. Deena and Davy managed to fight off the creatures for a bit but they met their match when one of the faster demons fought them to the point of exhaustion. Jade and Rival also didn't last too long, as Rival was overwhelmed by monsters and Jade was only able to keep on for a little while before she was beaten by an imp who tricked her into trying to protect Rival. Clover didn't do good either and let herself be overwhelmed, but the beast Edna lasted somewhat long, managing to fight off a significant amount of monsters all on her own. In the end, however, it took George's hit and run tactics and Jacque's pure cowardice to win the challenge, and they voted off Edna for being the uncivilised freak she is. Seven remain... who's going next?"
Intro Start
The intro started off with a shot of the prison, but instead of cameras popping out, the shot just went to static and cut over to the prison library.
"..." Inside the prison library, Aztaroth was reading a book but was interrupted when a loud crash came from behind him.
"..." The crash was revealed to have come from Romeo, who accidentally knocked over a bookshelf with his strength.
"..." After another static cut, Jade was seen picking up bits of litter in the courtyard, with a guard threatening to hit her if she didn't.
"..." Off in the distance, Picollo was washing off his makeup, suggesting that he didn't wanna wear it here.
"..." With the screen again turning to static, the shot was now of inside the cafeteria where Deena was eating breakfast for the day.
"..." Also in the cafeteria was Edna, who was eating god knows what.
"..." The shot stayed on Deena and Edna for a bit, before suddenly jumping to George who was looking outside from an old watchtower.
"..." George turned around, to see that a grinning Clover was behind him, causing the athlete to jump in surprise.
"..." With yet another static cut, we now got a shot of Relinda desperately trying to call someone on the prison phone, to no avail.
"..." Also in the phone room was Quinn, who had a chart of all the other contestants in her hand.
"..." Suddenly, the screen changed over to Davy and Rival, who were trying to avoid Edwards in the main cell block.
"..." Off to the left side of the cellblock, Jacque and Monica were trying to talk, but for some reason couldn't remember their conversation.
"..." Finally, on the right side of the cellblock was Salem, with the demon's eyes glowing with evil as he tapped his fingers together.
"...There is no escape…" Instead of the final shot of the intro being of the campers around some sort of campfire, it was of Abigor grinning manically, while holding the same blade he used to end Chris.
"...Indeed..." The camera zoomed in and pulled back to reveal Truthteller and Lyre, with the latter putting his hands in his face while the former was going over the plan to bomb the prison.
Intro End
Davy let out a loud yawn as he got himself out of his bed. The rocker was somehow full of energy despite just now waking up. Davy walked over to Deena's cell to see the prison girl was also awake, although she wasn't as full of energy as Davy was. "Mornin' love." Davy jokingly greeted Deena, "Look at us, we're a couple of bad eggs still in the game. Davy's so confident in his victory that they might as well give him the money and freedom!" Davy bragged.
Deena laughed in response, "Please, I'm gonna be the one who walks out with the money 'love', if it even exists. I bet Chris was just being himself and lying out of his ass with a fake check or something." Deena rolled her eyes as she thought of Chris. She, like pretty much everyone else, assumed that Chris was alive and was hiding out somewhere in the prison.
"Oh come on, what do you think would be the point of lying about that?" Davy laughed off Deena's claim of the check being fake, "What're they gonna do? Sacrifice the winner to some ancient ritual or something?" Davy's eyes widened at the thought, "Hmm, Davy thinks that could be likely actually. Eh, Davy's sure it'll be fine... speaking of fine, how are you doing after everything the other day? Davy's just wondering if that stab wound is still there somewhere."
Deena put her hands behind her head and yawned, "No. Salem may be a bastard, but his healing does work a hundred percent I'll give him that."
"Oh good, Davy was kinda worried about that." Davy blushed at what he said, "Err, not that Davy cares about you... well, he does care about you, just not like that you know? You're his partner in crime that's it!" Davy forced laughter, "Yep, that's all."
"Uh-huh, that's all." Deena stuck her tongue out at Davy to tease him, "But back to topic, yeah, I'm fine. No worries about it."
While the rocker and delinquent were talking with each other, Clover not-so-subtly was watching them from around the corner of the cellblock. Clover began mumbling to herself as she watched on, "That bitch Deena... I'm going to give her a despair unlike one she's ever experienced... maybe I can use Davy as part of my plans too... yes..." Clover gained a creepy smile on her face, "Being hurt by the only idiot here who's willing to get close to you would hurt, wouldn't it Deena? A despair so painful who knows if you could take i-"
"Oi! Shut the fuck up, Davy's trying to have a conversation here!" Davy yelled at Clover, causing her to immediately run away from the two. "Yeah go run away." Davy crossed his arms as he and Deena watched the spot Clover was watching from, "Davy doesn't know what her problem is, but she seems to have it out for you."
"I'm pretty sure it's about what happened... you know, not too long ago." Deena immediately shivered at the thought of what happened between her and Birsha, she still wasn't over it.
"Oh yeah..." Davy turned his head away, "We should change the conversation to something better." Davy awkwardly chuckled, "You know, lighten the mood?"
Deena nodded, "Yeah... I just... gotta get that out of my head for a bit..."
Rival waited for everyone else to clear out of the cellblock before he lifted up his bed's pillow and revealed he had hidden the book inside of his mattress, "This is definitely worth the neck pain." Rival chuckled as he started to read more of the book, he was finding all sorts of useful information in there, like how certain holy rituals can ward off demonic presences and protect one from being affected by them. There was also a note on how to hurt demons with these rituals, although, they wouldn't be enough to permanently kill the more powerful ones like Salem.
"Rival." The purple light greeted the guitarist, "It's such a relief to see you and everyone else here are alright. We were very close to intervening out of worry." The purple light glowed, "But less importantly, I have news to tell you, and it may or may not be worrisome, we aren't sure yet."
"What's up?" Rival set the book inside his mattress as he checked the cellblock to make sure nobody was listening in on him.
The purple light moved next to Rival, "For some reason, Salem is hiding in one of the rooms in the prison, the office up on the top floor, we're not sure why he's doing this... which leads to the two big theories, either he's caught onto us and is planning an attack, or he simply isn't needed for the day. We hope it's the latter, but we insist you be careful today, you can never be too careful with that monster."
Rival nodded in response, "I'll be fine... um." Rival let out a small laugh, "I just realized, I've talked to you guys so much and I don't even know any of your names, what do I call you?"
"Simeon." Simeon replied, "Silas is green while Bernadette is blue. Just don't confuse me with Jacob and Leah's son." Simeon joked to lighten the mood.
"Well Simeon, I'm sure I'll be fine... well, you know until the day finally comes." Rival brushed off Simeon's concerns, "But I can't help but worry about the others, like how many will have to suffer until we can win?" Rival asked as he gripped his arm, "It feels like we'll lose in one way or another."
"Rival..." Simeon softly added to Rival's statement, "We know the pains that will be caused no matter what outcome happens here, and we wish we could forcefully change it, but we... well, believe it or not, we're afraid of the worst possible outcome coming true. Salem is powerful enough to kill angels, and if he kills all three of us and finds out you were working with us... what he will do to you... it will make you wish that you could kill yourself to end the pain... and who knows what else he'll do to the rest of the people here?"
Rival sighed as he looked up, "Yeah, I got it. It's just a painful feeling deep down to know you have to wait for a timer to finish before you can help everyone else."
"Don't worry about it Rival," Simeon optimistically replied to Rival, before transforming into him, "I know you'll do it perfectly." Simeon pulled Rival up to his feet and spun him around, "We all have faith in you." Simeon softly cheered on Rival, who let out a small smile in response.
"Well, that's definitely a good pep talk." Rival chuckled, "Well, I'll see you soon, assuming I'm not eliminated or attacked by Salem." Rival waved goodbye to Simeon, who changed back into himself.
"You've got this Rival." Simeon told Rival before disappearing from sight, leaving Rival all by himself in the cellblock.
Confessional: Rival
"I feel so much more hopeful with each coming day." Rival stretched his arms out, "But I still have worries of something bad happening every time someone leaves the prison."
Confessional Over
Not too long later, Edwards entered the cafeteria to greet the prisoners like Chris would always do. "Hello prisoners, how's your recovery from the last challenge been?" Edwards asked the prisoners, but he only got a middle finger from Davy as a response, "Very classy of all of you." Edwards rolled his eyes, "Oh well, I suppose I have good news for you all, Salem won't be with us for the challenge today."
"The demons out today?" Jacque raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms, "Yeah right, what could he possibly be out doing?"
Edwards gave a somewhat innocent smile, "Oh come on, you don't think sacrificing an entire army of hellspawns is easy do you? Obviously, he's gonna have to take time to revive his soldiers."
The prisoners all looked at Edwards with varying amounts of suspicion.
Confessional: Davy
"He's-"
Confessional: George
"Lying-"
Confessional: Jacque
"Out-"
Confessional: Jade
"His-"
Confessional: Deena
"Ass."
"Thank you Simeon for the heads up." Rival smirked to himself as he saw through the host's lie.
"But that is unimportant to the matter at hand today, as today we'll be doing things a little bit differently." Edwards grinned as two interns brought in a person with a bag over their head. The person was wearing an outfit that showed no skin at all, with it being a pair of black gloves, a black sweatshirt, black sweatpants, and black boots. The person was completely limp and wasn't reacting to being moved, "I've noticed none of the challenges Chris had set up for you were fatal enough for my liking."
Jade tensed up at the statement, "What are you implying?" She didn't realize it at the moment, but crystals were already growing on her body just by instinct.
Jade wasn't the only one whose powers were subconsciously activating, Jacque's force field was glowing bright and covered the area around him even more than it already did, George's arms wrapped themselves in tendrils, Rival's teeth gritted with sparks flying out, and Davy was beginning to take deep breaths with small bits of fire coming out.
"The hell are you planning on doing?" Jacque got in a defensive stance as Edwards grinned at him.
George raised his fists up, "Yeah I... uh think the challenges are fine as they are..." George spoke with clear nervousness at the increasing danger.
"Well, I'm sure you've heard of the death penalty before," Edwards looked over to an intern who brought him a fire axe, "A punishment given to the lowest of the low, like this man for instance, he tried using his powers to destroy the prison, and you know we can't have that." Edwards turned to the limp man with his axe, "So as an example of what you will have to face today, you'll have to escape your own special death sentence without using your powers! After you've escaped your possible death you'll have to race to meet me somewhere in the courtyard outside, first to make it to me wins the challenge and is allowed to vote out whoever they choose!" Edwards raised the axe.
"Hey wait!" Rival yelled out as Edwards swung the axe straight into the man's neck. Everyone there, barring Clover of course, instinctively turned their head away from the scene. Some people screamed in horror, others closed their eyes to avoid seeing anything, and Clover... started complaining.
"Oh come on!" Clover whined, "Really? A mannequin? How are we supposed to feel the bliss of despair if you're not willing to go and act it out for us!"
"Wait what?" Jade turned over to see that the body was indeed a mannequin, with Edward giving her a cocky smile in return to her looking. "Jesus christ! Don't do that!" Jade snapped at Edwards who laughed it off.
"Oh please, I just wanted to play a small game to get your adrenaline pumping for this challenge." Edwards shook off the prisoner's anger, "After all, I'm not here to make this game easy for you."
"That was a dick move of you to do." Jacque crossed his arms and glared at Edwards, not putting up with his attitude.
Edwards laughed at Jacque's statement, "Oh trust me Mr. Metoyer, that was far from the worst thing I've done today."
"What do you mean by far... fr..om..." Deena fell to the ground in a daze, "W...hy can't I..." Deena passed out on the ground, with the other prisoners following suit. "Sorry for this," Edwards 'apologized' to the contestants, "But it is much easier to set this up with all of you unconscious for it. Take them to their rooms." Edwards ordered some of the interns.
Rival groaned as he saw the blur of his surroundings start to appear for him. "W..." Rival struggled to speak, instantly noticing the fact that his mouth was being forced open by a medical gag. That wasn't the worst of Rival's problems either, as a quick look around the room revealed that he was stuck in the morgue with multiple destroyed mannequins surrounding him. Rival tried to pull himself up, but he was strapped to a medical table with multiple leather straps. Above Rival there was a pendulum blade slowly swinging back and forth, while the blade wasn't going down or anything, it being there was enough to fill Rival with adrenaline.
Rival struggled to shout out as he shook his body back and forth out of hopes that he'd be able to break out of the straps, but it was no use, he was gonna have to try something different to get himself out of this situation. Rival looked around the morgue to see if there were any hints in the room, but there was nothing there that could help him out. Rival continued to struggle with his straps, this time by pushing as much of himself up against one side as possible, it wasn't a guaranteed plan, but it was the best thing he had...
"Oh my..." Clover woke up to find out she was locked in one of cellblock C's cells, "They put me in here to starve to death... such a cruel fate for someone... a fate that's... perfectly despair-inducing..." Clover fawned over her own execution as an intern opened the cell door and dropped a tray of food onto the floor.
"Eat up." The intern ordered, before closing the cell back up and walking away from Clover, not even bothering to pay her any attention.
Clover's eyes widened as the food hit the floor, "Hey wait! You're not supposed to give me food! I'm supposed to starve to death you idiot! How am I supposed to feel pure despair if I'm just locked in a jail cell? Get back here!"
The intern simply ignored Clover, mostly due to the fact that he had a pair of earplugs in, making Clover's power obsolete as he couldn't hear the word 'despair'. Though, even if Clover could use her powers it wouldn't matter much as they weren't even allowed in the challenge, so she'd just be disqualified.
"No!" Clover whined as she stomped on the food in her cell, "This is the opposite of despair, this is just regular old boring jail! This sucks!" Clover kept complaining, leaving herself trapped in her cell for the moment...
"Augh..." Jacque dizzily moved his head around and opened his eyes only to see nothing there, it turned out that he had a bag over his head, and he could feel a rope wrapped around his neck. "Ah... fuck..." Jacque groaned as he carefully checked his very limited surroundings with his legs, he noted that his hands were tied behind his back, and that he was on level ground, so he just needed a way to get the rope off of his neck. "Ok... this is really stupid but..." Jacque leaned his head back to tug on the rope, which caused the sound of a loose board to creak from above him.
"Got it..." Jacque moved his legs around to see that he was right up against a wall. Jacque managed to sit himself down on the ground thanks to the rope's length, only to then press both of his legs against the wall as he pulled his head back as hard as he could. It didn't take too long for the rope to give way as Jacque then heard the noise of a board breaking off from the ceiling. Jacque pulled his head forward instinctively as he heard the noise of a board falling and hitting the ground. Jacque then got up from the floor and shook the bag off his head, finding out that he was placed in the chapel. Jacque then looked behind himself to see his hands, "Now to take care of this."
Confessional: Jacque
"This challenge is surprisingly simple." Jacque shrugged as he sat back, "I guess if Salem really was gone Edwards and Chris wouldn't be able to set up challenges as action-packed as the ones with Salem, not that I'm complaining."
Confessional Over
George yawned as he woke up and found himself strapped to a chair in the kitchen, "What the?" George rocked the chair around but found himself still stuck in place. "Oh you gotta be fucking with me." George moaned in annoyance as he repeatedly rocked the chair side to side to get himself out of his situation, "Come on this is too easy, I've seen this done in like... every movie ever." George rolled his eyes as he and the chair he was in fell to the ground, causing the chair to break under the weight of George and the impact of the fall. George winced in pain as he looked at the remains of the chair he was in, "That... was... easy..." George panted in pain as he felt a sharp sting in his shoulder, with it being the same one that he landed on for the fall.
"Oh fuck me." George gritted his teeth as he looked at his injured shoulder, it hurt a lot more than he was expecting, but hey, at least he was free from the chair now. George attempted to pull himself up off the ground but was met with an extremely obnoxious pain that came from his should as he tried to get up. "Ok... maybe that wasn't a good idea." George teared up as he powered through the pain just so he could get off the floor, "This win better be fucking worth it..."
"Huh? Where am I?" Jade shook her head to see she was in the prison's gym, although all of the equipment that was there for Relinda and Jacque's fight had been removed and replaced with posters about 'stopping theft', obviously only there just to mock Jade. Jade tried to step forward only to realize that she was tied to a wooden post with a bunch of sticks underneath her, and it didn't take a genius to figure out what the items meant. "Seriously?" Jade deadpanned as she kicked at the wooden post that she was tied to. "Come on..." Jade gave a serious glare at the post as she kicked it with as much force as she could manage.
Luckily for Jade, the post itself was made of a fairly old piece of wood, seeing as it cracked and broke not too long after Jade began to kick at it. But her breaking the post turned out to be a curse in disguise, as she fell straight to the floor thanks to the weight of the wood that was tied to her. "Augh... come on Jade... think of something..." Jade rolled onto her side to stop the post from weighing on her and then began to slowly pull the ropes that tied her down the length of the post. This was gonna take a while, but Jade was fully determined to get this off of her.
"Davy doesn't remember smoking before the challenge..." Davy shook his head as he came to, only for the rocker to see that he was locked in the same phone room that he fought Quinn in not so long ago, but that was it... he was just locked in there. Davy looked around the room to see anything he could use to his advantage but the room had been picked clean, and the door itself had been replaced with a heavy metal door. "Oh goddammit." Davy groaned as he kicked at the door in a futile attempt to force it open, with the kick obviously not working out for him.
Davy decided not to waste any more energy with the door and turned his attention to the rest of the room, "Come on, they have to have left Davy something here! This can't just be it!" Davy desperately looked around for something, anything, that could be helpful, but again, there was nothing there that could save him from his situation. "Come on already!" Davy complained as he ripped off his shoe and threw it full force at the door in rage, with there being no effect on the door yet again. Davy groaned as he grabbed his shoe back and put back on his foot, only for the rocker to suddenly get an idea, "Wait... Davy knows what he can do!"
Deena happened to be in the most fitting room for this challenge, seeing as she was in the prison's very own execution room, but Deena didn't know that yet as she was currently locked inside an iron maiden that was missing its spikes. "Damn it's dark in here." Deena felt around the interior of the iron maiden to see if she could find the opening to it, she did end up finding a small light source in the maiden, which was the result of a very tiny hole that was placed in the device most likely there so Deena wouldn't have to worry about needing to breathe while she was in there.
"Good enough I guess." Deena rolled her eyes as she pressed herself against that side of the iron maiden, she didn't know if it was the door or not, but she did know that if there was light coming from that side, that was one side that wasn't pressed up against the wall, so it'd be worth a shot trying it out. Deena kept pushing at the wall but it wouldn't budge, leading to choosing a different wall in the maiden. Deena pushed herself into the wall of the maiden when she suddenly felt the door swing open and she fell straight to the floor. Deena hit the ground with a loud thud as she dizzily got up and looked around to see her surroundings.
Inside the execution room was a bunch of newspaper clippings, all of them linked to multiple different crimes. The clippings were strewn about the entire room, and almost none of them matched up with each other. Also in the room was a safe with a lock on it that read the word 'password'. "Oh I get it." Deena rolled her eyes as she realized that she'd have to put together the correct newspaper clippings to get the password for the safe, something that was much, much easier said than done. "Let's get this over with I guess." Deena shrugged as she grabbed a few scraps of paper from the table and began to read through them, she certainly was in for a 'fun' time.
Deena yawned as she sorted through the papers, "No..." Deena tossed away a scrap of paper that mentioned a lottery winner being murdered in their home, "If I were to guess correctly, I'd say that all of the papers I need are crimes I specifically committed." Deena guess as she tossed another scrap of paper away, this one being about an arsonist lighting a building on fire, "Ah here's one." Deena held up a piece that mentioned a time when Deena had stolen over two thousand dollars from civilians with a scam. Deena looked on the back of the piece to find the number '7' on it. Deena stretched her arms out as she shoved the piece into her pocket, "Alright... here we go."
"Nobody stops despair from happening!" Clover yelled as she viciously kicked at the cell bars, with the intern who gave her food calmly sitting down as he read from a magazine. "Look at me! You're going to regret this!" Clover threatened the not listening intern, only to be annoyed when she didn't get a response in return. "Oh he's dead." Clover looked around her cell for something she could use to escape, only to find nothing helpful around her. "Oh he thinks he's safe, I'll show him! Despair never dies!" Clover then resorted to kicking the wooden bed frame apart and banging the broken bit of wood against the old cell bars.
The sound of the bars being struck did manage to get the intern's attention, who turned around to see Clover hit the cell like a wild animal, "Jesus, relax already." The intern rolled his eyes only for Clover to respond by hitting the bars even louder than before. The intern groaned as he approached the cell, "I'm not listening to you!" The intern yelled and pointed at his earplugs, so shut up already!"
"Got you!" Clover grinned as she reached through the bars and grabbed the intern by the shirt.
The intern struggled with Clover as he tried to get away, "Hey! Let go of me!" The intern panicked as Clover pushed the wooden piece through the bars and straight into his face, knocking the intern out almost immediately, "Ha!" Clover laughed as she reached into the intern's pockets and took the keys out, "Told you you'd pay for that!" Clover giggled as she unlocked the cell door and kicked it open, "I guess I should work on that challenge now, huh." Clover reminded herself as she began to leave the room, well, she made sure to stomp straight on the intern's 'area' before leaving, because why wouldn't she?
Davy took a deep breath as he took off his shoe and began to pick at the inside of it. Davy pulled out the sole of the shoe and kept picking until he revealed a bit of plastic that was used to keep the shoe together. "Not Davy's first choice for a lockpick, but it'll do." Davy shrugged as he tossed the shoe onto the ground after ripping the bit of plastic out. "Now let's see if Davy can get this to work..." Davy struggled to fit the bit of plastic into the lock, obviously due to it's large size compared to the lock itself.
"Davy'll get it right eventually." Davy rolled his eyes as he began to chew into the plastic to break it. After changing the size of the plastic dramatically, Davy stuck the piece back into the lock, with it actually managing to fit in the hole this time. "Finally!" Davy laughed as he moved the piece around in the lock, he was still having difficulty picking the lock due to the fact that he wasn't used to using something like plastic for lock picking, as well as the fact that it wasn't flexible like a paper clip.
"Just a little bit... more..." Davy mumbled as he kept playing with the lock pick, eventually leading to him hearing a soft click sound. Davy grabbed the door knob and twisted it, discovering that the door had indeed been unlocked thanks to his picking skills. "Hell yeah!" Davy fist pumped, "First place for Davy!" Davy cheered as he ran out into the halls, only to immediately spot Clover and one other person once he got out.
Confessional: Davy
"Davy's so pumped to win a challenge for once, too many people have stolen victories from Davy here!" Davy grinned ear-to-ear
Confessional Over
Jacque looked back at his tied-up hands as he let out an annoyed sigh, "Huh... this is gonna be such a challenge to deal with." Jacque then let out a very small grin as he revealed his now free hands, "Please, it takes a lot more than that to stop me." Jacque smirked as he looked around at his surroundings, with the only actual item in the room being a giant container full of flour that rested on top of a table.
"Classy." Jacque rolled his eyes as he went over to the container, he tried to tip the container over but it turned out that it and the table were bolted to the ground, much like George's dummy. This revelation didn't seem to phase Jacque all that much, however, as he responded to it by staying calm and kicking the leg of the table. "The things in this prison are old as 'ell, it won't take much to-" Jacque felt the table leg crack from his kicking, "Break it." After the flour was spilled all onto the floor, Jacque followed up his easy escape by quickly digging his hands through the flour, using his fingers to sift through it to see if he could find anything in there.
Surprisingly, finding a little key in a pile of flour is still more complicated than one would expect, as it took Jacque a good few tries to finally get to the key, but once he got it, it was pretty much game set match for him, as Jacque wasted no time opening the door to the chapel. Jacque hurried down the stairs to see if anyone else made it to the entrance, "Here's the hard part, do I put a target on my back?" Jacque thought as he went downstairs to see none other than Davy and Clover, with Clover being the closest to the entrance, "Ah fuck... Clover." Jacque groaned as he saw the two.
Confessional: Jacque
Jacque rubbed his head in annoyance, "Of course the psychotic one had to be the closest to winning, now I have to put a target on my back unless I take a huge risk of being eliminated."
Confessional Over
Jade had just finished sliding herself off of the wooden post that she was tied to when she got a good look at what her goal was supposed to be. "Alright what's next?" Jade winced as she gripped her wrists, the rope that tied her up left a pretty painful indent, but that didn't deter the modern-day Robinhood one bit. Jade looked down at the floor to see a light coming from the ceiling, Jade then looked up to see the light was coming from a very valuable-looking diamond. "Ok... a heist isn't so bad." Jade cracked her neck as she grabbed the rope that was previously being used to tie her up, "This'll come in handy." Jade also made sure to pick up one of the fragments of the broken wooden post.
Jade wasted no time making use of the parts she grabbed, almost immediately putting the rope and wood to use to make a makeshift 'grappling hook', although in this case, she'd be using it to knock the diamond down from the ceiling. Jade twirled the rope around and hit the diamond out from the ceiling first try. Once she got the diamond in her hands she discovered that the diamond was actually a fake, and the real prize was inside of it, the prize in question being the keys needed to exit the room.
"I can still win this, I still have a chance!" Jade gave a light grin as she unlocked the door and headed out, she seemed as determined as ever, and she wasn't gonna let anyone stop her now.
George gripped his shoulder in pain as he got up from the ground, "Fuck you, Edwards, if that even is your real name..." George kept gritting his teeth as his shoulder stung with pain, the quarterback looked around the room to see a football dummy that was bolted to the ground, with there being a note right on the dummy's forehead that read 'if you want the key, you must first knock me over.' George groaned as he stepped back and charged into the dummy, only for him to hurt his shoulder even more than he already did. "Bad... idea." George winced as he stepped away from the dummy.
"You think your hot shit huh?" George grinned as he looked at the motionless dummy, "Well how's this for knocking you over?" George reached over and grabbed a pot from the kitchen's drying rack. Without any hesitation, George slammed the pot into the dummy, with the dummy still not reacting outside of it moving backward slightly. "Oh come on!" George whacked the dummy again with the pot, but there was still no effect. George's eye twitched in annoyance as he repeatedly hit the dummy with the pot, "Just fall over already!" George ended up moving too hard when whacking the dummy, as he ended up pulling his injured shoulder, which caused him to fall to the floor almost immediately.
"FUCK!" George winced in pain and rage as the pain of his shoulder set in, George did everything to stop himself from screaming out in pure agony, but he still ended up letting out a very loud groan of pain as he got to his feet, "Fuck this stupid fucking dummy!" George tossed the pot at the dummy, only for it to have no effect George winced after throwing the pot as he looked around for something to free him, but it was pretty obvious his shoulder injury was gonna doom him for this challenge.
Confessional: George
"Fuck I think I dislocated my shoulder or something." George gripped his shoulder while in the confessional, "I should've just lost the challenge on purpose, at least then I wouldn't have to deal with a broken shoulder until Salem returns."
Confessional Over
"Only one number left." Deena pointed out the number of numbers she needed to get out of her room, she had made a specific pile of newspaper pieces that she determined were useless. "Ok... stabbing, no that's not me." Deena crumped up the piece and tossed it away, "Diamond heist, psh, I wish I got to do that." Deena tossed that newspaper piece away as well, "Come on, that last one has gotta be here somewhere... so where is it..." Deena continued to look through the pile until she stumbled upon a certain article, "Notorious criminal Deena Loveberry caught hiding out in a fast food restaurant's walls, surviving solely off of food that she would take when employees would close the store."
Deena laughed at the article, "Yeah, that was a fun time." She then turned the piece over to see the final number she needed for the code '4'. Deena pulled out the other slips from her pocket and went over to the safe, now it was just a matter of typing all eight numbers in the right order. Luckily for Deena, she was pretty used to breaking into locked safes by now, so she had no problem typing in the multiple different combinations she had. After a little while, Deena had correctly type in the password, and she was given the key to escape with.
Deena sighed in relief as she took the key and hurried, "I don't even care if I win or not, I just want to get out of here." Deena mumbled as she grabbed her now sore neck. "Augh, that challenge sucked."
After a long while of struggling, Rival had finally managed to free himself from the straps that kept him stuck to the operating table. Rival fell to the floor after freeing himself, causing him to land straight on his arm. "Augh..." Rival gripped his sore arm and lifted himself off the ground, the guitarist got up to see the room he was in in full detail, and he immediately saw what his goal was. The room itself was very repetitive, with it just being a bunch of mannequins on operating tables to replicate bodies in morgues, but there was one thing that stood out from everything else in the room, it was a hospital bed, and Rival already knew what the mannequin in the bed was there to represent.
"Let's just get this over with." Rival clenched his fist as he went over to the bed, which lead to him discovering an 'x' drawn on the mannequin's chest in black sharpie. Rival noticed that a scalpel lay right next to the mannequin and that he'd have to cut it open to find the key to the exit. Rival took a deep breath and closed his eyes as he cut into the mannequin, he wasted no time digging through what the interns and Edwards had placed inside of the mannequin's body. Rival gagged as he felt something slimy that was placed inside of the mannequin, but he refused to open his eyes to see it, he knew that was exactly what Edwards wanted, and he wasn't gonna let him have the satisfaction.
After a little while of digging through the mannequin's body, Rival eventually stumbled upon the key to the room, and he wasted no time rushing out to the door so he could leave. After unlocking the door Rival kicked the door to the morgue wide open and rushed out of the room while shivering, "I'm never going in there again." Rival mumbled to himself as he prepared to go upstairs and out to the courtyard where Edwards would be waiting, he didn't hear anyone else upstairs, so it seemed pretty clear that he had made it out of his room first. "Let's just get this challenge over with, Rival rubbed his forehead, just wanting the challenge to be over already. Rival stopped in his tracks when he noticed something in the basement halls that he hadn't noticed before, or maybe he had, but he hadn't thought about. Right at the end of the hallway he stood in there was one wall with no label on it, and light scratch marks went across the width of the door.
"What the?" Rival went over to the door to investigate, upon closer inspection he could see that the marks were from a knife and not claws, but that still didn't explain why the door didn't have any label on it. Rival thought about everything for a moment and what could lie behind this door, maybe it was just used as an extra storage room, or maybe it's where the prison's electricity came from, but Rival just couldn't help shake the feeling that this door was where Abigor was hiding, staying in plain sight behind a door most wouldn't get suspicious of.
"That's where you are isn't it?" Rival spoke out loud as his hand hovered over the doorknob, "Right here..." Rival took a deep breath to reassure himself, he needed to feel as confident as possible for this, a part of him was even praying that this room was just a boiler room or something, or that the label fell off and it was actually a regular room down here. Not helping Rival's worries was the fact that there was a faint smell coming from under the door, a smell that smelt only like corpses.
"One shot at this Rival... don't be afraid now." Rival mumbled to himself as he began to turn the doorknob, his body shook while he opened the door slowly, he wanted to be confident but his fears shot up his spine. His fears wouldn't stop him, however as Rival still opened the door, only for him to stare in pure horror at what was inside the room. "Why is this here!?" Rival felt the urge to throw up as he covered his mouth with his hand and gripped his stomach.
That wasn't all of it either, as Rival was met with the sudden feeling of someone placing their hand on his shoulder, Rival shot up in surprise as he took the hand off of his shoulder. "Rival..." A familiar voice spoke as Rival turned around, he could've sworn they weren't here though, that they were somewhere else in the prison... Rival let out an audible gulp of fear as he slowly turned to face the prisoner who had called his name...
The three at the outside of the outside door had a small standoff with each other. It appeared that Deena, Rival, and Jade were still lagging behind the group, and that George was still stuck in the kitchen with his injured shoulder. Davy, Jacque, and Clover all stared at each other until they heard the sound of another prisoner running towards them, causing Clover to suddenly start running out the door to stop anyone else from catching up with her.
"Looks like despair is going to conquer like usual!" Clover giggled as she ran out the front door to the prison, with Davy and Jacque not too far behind her. Clover turned around to see the duo chasing after her and waved to them, "Don't stress yourselves too much, despair has already won! You'd have to be a fool to try and keep going after me!" Clover taunted the pair as they made it outside, with Clover in the lead, and Jacque and Davy being neck and neck. Clover kept on laughing as Davy and Jacque slowly started to catch up with her, though the odds were starting to go against her Clover didn't seem too worried, probably due to her secretly hoping she'd be robbed of her victory.
"Out of the way Jacque! This is Davy's victory!" Davy tripped Jacque with his leg and let Jacque fall straight to the ground. The conman fell straight into a mound of dirt as Davy ran past him and laughed at his misfortune.
Jacque lifted himself up from the ground and spit out a little bit of dirt that ended up in his mouth, "Ew.' Jacque gagged as he looked down at the ground, which led to him noticing something somewhat peculiar, "Hey wait a minute..." Jacque looked down at the dirt, with something catching his attention.
"Heh, there goes Jacque!" Davy laughed as he began to catch up with Clover, "Davy still owes you a bit of a beating for what you tried to do to Davy and for what you did to him in those other two challenges!" Davy threatened Clover as he began to be neck and neck with her. Davy grinned confidently as he began to go past Clover, "Don't even bother trying to catch up, once Davy wins he's gonna vote you out and then he's gonna get to the finale with Deena!" Davy laughed as he suddenly felt the pain of Clover poking her fingers into his eyes, "Ah! You bitch!" Davy grabbed his head in pain as Clover ran off laughing.
Davy shook his head as he looked over at Clover, who was just about to make it to a finish line with Edwards sitting calmly behind it, "Oh no you don't!" Davy shook his head as he ran as fast as he could towards Clover, but soon enough, the victor of the challenge was decided...
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...Clover managed to make it to the finish line first, with Davy just barely being behind her. "No!" Davy fell to the ground as Clover burst out laughing.
"Congratulations Clover, you've won the challenge today, be sure to pick who you eliminate carefully." Edwards told Clover who began to stop laughing.
Clover nodded with a grin on her face, "Oh I'm gonna be very careful with this... I need to know exactly who I want to get rid of..."
"Well fuck." Jacque groaned in annoyance as he went into the prison's library, Clover winning the challenge was huge wrench to his plans so he was going to have to come up with something new if he wanted to keep himself and George in the game, "I mean. I'm certain I'm safe for this ceremony, but I was gunning on Deena and Davy targeting Rival and Jade, Clover's not gonna let Deena stay here... unless." Jacque looked up in realization, "Maybe she'll keep Deena around so she can 'fill her with despair' or whatever she's always going on about... yes, that's it. I just have to plant the idea in her head... but how am I gonna control who she goes after? Maybe I could say Jade or Rival? Probably not Rival, he's been mopey for most of this, but Jade is always keen on trying to escape and such, I should tell Clover to vote for her as she's the most 'hopeful' of us, it's a shot in the dark, but it's the best chance I have."
Jacque smirked at the thought of his plan, it was simple and very risky, but it could very much work out, all he had to do was go find Clover and plant the seeds in her mind, then he'd be safe for the day, "George better be fucking grateful for this," Jacque crossed his arms as he began to try and find Clover's mind with his powers, "I could easily just leave now and screw him over, but I'm playing nice just for him." Jacque continued to search through the prison and eventually found himself in Clover's head, "Got you. Clover!" Jacque alerted the despair-obsessed girl via telepathy.
"Huh! The voices in my head are back!? It's been so long!" Clover thought gleefully, which caused Jacque to let out an annoyed sigh in the real world, "How are you voices doing?"
"Uh... yeah, it's the voices you hear all the time," Jacque played along with Clover's delusion, "We're here to tell you to not vote for Deena, you... need her as a..."
Jacque quickly thought of an excuse to use, "Sacrifice of despair. That's why she's angered you so much, because you're supposed to spread as much despair as you possibly can to her, because she needs to pay for what she's done, and she can't pay if she's not here."
Clover got up and grinned ear-to-ear as she replied, "Oh no worries voice that sounds suspiciously like Jacque, I was already planning on keeping Deena as a despair magnet, but I still need to know he needs to go next... who would be hit with despair the most of anyone here? I bet it's that George guy."
Jacque almost instantaneously answered Clover's question to stop her from thinking about George, "No, you need to target Jade instead, she would be hurt by despair the most of anyone here. Trust me on this."
"Jade? Oh because she'd be separated from her boyfriend Rival! That's a good point voice!" Clover happily thought back to Jacque's voice, still unaware that she was being 'played' by him.
"Not just that Clover... Jade is the epitome of hope and optimism in this prison, if you take her away, not only will she be hit with more despair than she's experienced in her entire life, but the rest of the prisoners will also be hit with despair, how will they function without the hopeful one? You need to get rid of her before it's too late." Jacque fed Clover the idea of why to get rid of Jade.
Clover kept her grin as the thought of spreading despair throughout the prison ran through her head, "Thanks for the idea voice... I'll be sure to spread the ultimate despair to everyone... nobody will be able to stay hopeful once I'm done with them!"
Jacque sighed in relief as he fell to the ground, Clover had been distracted from him and George for the day, and Jade would be eliminated, "Now all I have to do is use Rival against Davy and Deena with the help of George and I'll have taken out the two couples... Davy seems like the much more aggressive of the two so I'll target Deena first, that way he isn't as likely to team up with Rival, and just to be sure, I'll have George give Rival a fake offer of alliance. Most likely Clover will get eliminated next challenge so long as she loses, leaving only George, who I can easily beat in the final challenge." Jacque gained a confident grin on his face, "I win." Jacque whispered to himself, only for him to notice something peculiar off in the corner of the library behind one of the bookshelves.
"Wait is that..." Jacque got up to see what it was from a closer perspective, he had only just noticed a metallic smell coming from there too, sort of like copper... Jacque cautiously approached what he had seen when he suddenly stopped dead in his tracks, "That's..." Jacque put his hand over his mouth as he saw the sight, it was a small red puddle that just barely poked out from the bookshelf... there was no doubt that this was fresh blood...
Jacque was now stuck in the middle of the room, most of his mind was screaming at him to run away and act like he never noticed it, but there was a small bit of curiosity that was telling him that he should see what the blood was coming from. Despite every ounce of common sense in his body urging him not to go investigate the source of the blood, Jacque's curiosity was killing him and he slowly grabbed the bookshelves with his telekinesis and prepared to lift into the air.
Jacque tensed up in preparation of something disastrous happening as he suddenly lifted the bookshelf into the air, though Jacque almost immediately dropped the bookshelf onto the floor when he saw the sight that lay behind the shelf, it was a body... but it wasn't just any old intern or victim from the outside world, it was one of the prisoners. They had a stab wound in their chest as they laid unconscious up against the wall of the room. "Oh jesus christ..." Jacque bit into his hand as he looked over at the stabbed prisoner, "Rival..." Jacque looked at the guitarist in horror as he immediately ran over to him to check for a pulse. Jacque placed his hand on Rival's neck and found a pulse coming from Rival, he was alive, but who knows how much longer he'd last if nobody else was told about this?
There was still a voice in Jacque telling him to not get involved with this, but the guilty thought of letting Rival bleed out overpowered his selfishness as he rushed to the cafeteria, the surrounding rooms of the prison becoming a blur to him. Jacque ran faster than he had ever ran in his life as he made it to the cafeteria. Jacque panted hard as he hit the wall to the entrance and the other prisoners noticed him.
George looked up from his dinner, with the athlete's arm now being in a sling that was given to him by the interns, "Jeez, what's gotten into you? Was your execution that bad or something?"
"Yeah what's wrong with you?" Deena asked, "You usually seem pretty emotionless."
Jacque kept panting as he wiped the sweat off hid forehead, "Rival's... been... stabbed." Jacque's words alerted the rest of the prisoners, with all of them except for Clover getting up from their tables.
Jade got up and ran over to Jacque, "What did you say!?" Jade yelled with a tone that sounded like a mixture of sadness and anger.
"I can show you, but you need to hurry..." Jacque gestured over to the direction he came from, with all of the prisoners minus Clover following closely behind.
The prisoners all rushed into the library, with even Clover following behind, though she probably just wanted to see Rival in pain. "Rival!" Jade rushed over to the fallen guitarist and wasted no time covering his wounds with crystals. After the bleeding was stopped Jade hugged Rival's head into her shoulder, "What happened!?" Jade let out, trying to sound confident, although it just came out as a sort of whimper.
Davy and Deena both glanced at Jacque suspiciously, George looked relieved that it wasn't him who got stabbed, and Clover seemed to be in her own state of bliss at all the despair happening in the room. Jacque put his hands up defensively, "I found him like this! I didn't do anything!" Jacque stated the truth, knowing people were already getting suspicious of him.
"Well, my my, what do we have here?" Edwards' voice boomed into the library, "It appears that Rival is in a very fragile position right now, what a shame." Edwards shrugged as he entered the library, immediately being met with harsh glances.
"You did this!" A look of rage donned on Jade's face as she got up and formed her armor, "You stabbed Rival!" Jade accused the host who shook his head in response.
"You'd love to believe that wouldn't you?" Edwards taunted the modern-day robin hood, "Unfortunately for you, I wasn't the one who stabbed Rival, and believe it or not, the culprit was one of you, I even got it on video." Edwards gestured over to the filming cameras.
Davy crossed his arms and scowled, "Oh come on, that's a load of bullshit! Everyone knows it's obviously you!"
"As I said before, I caught it on camera, but don't worry, I plan on letting you figure out who the attacker was later, as that'll be a new challenge for later today, but first, I'll have to have a few interns drop Rival off at a hospital, it wouldn't do just letting him die here." Edwards left the room to go grab a few interns, not even bothering to speed up his pace.
"Rival..." Jade kept holding Rival next to her... she just needed the moment alone.
Rival was carried out through the halls of the prison on a makeshift stretcher, with Jade following him and watching over him the whole time. "I'm sorry Rival, I can't believe I couldn't get to you in time..." Jade teared up as she watched Rival be taken away.
Suddenly, Rival awoke with a fit of coughing, Rival didn't even notice Jade was with him, he just coughed and spoke, "I'm sorry.. I ruined... everything..." Rival coughed again and passed out on his stretcher. Jade collapsed to the ground in despair as Rival was taken out of the prison, she didn't trust Edwards enough to take care of him, and even if he did, this would be the last time she'd see him. Jade wiped off her face as she formed a small dagger with her crystals, she then carved a lightning bolt into her palm with the dagger and teared up, "I'll never forget you Rival..." Jade cried, losing her closest friend here...
The three angels watched over the sight in solemness until Silas suddenly spoke up, "Rival... thank you for your sacrifice..."
What a tragic way to end a chapter right? Well, this is technically a two-part chapter as the challenge is themed around Danganronpa, and what Danganronpa challenge would be complete without a trial? Put your predictions on which contestant'll be revealed to stab Rival, as that will be revealed next ep.
Reasoning For Elimination: Rival was the perfect main character, he had all the qualities and traits of one... which is exactly why he made for the right contestant to eliminate here, I mean, would the prison be called 'Hope's Lament' if the most protagonist-like of all the contestants got to make it to the end? Of course not! But yeah, I wanted Rival to seem like a main character, only for the reveal that he was just another step in the path of the real main characters this story, who still have yet to be revealed...
Remaining Prisoners: Clover, Davy, Deena, George, Jacque, Jade
Elimination Order:
14th ~ Romeo Darnell McFarland - The Toxic Farmer (BigBadBrad)
13th ~ Quinn Potter - The Pyromaniac Matchmaker (GirlPower54)
12th ~ Giuseppe "Picollo" Bilancia - The Clown (lordgemini) [ESCAPED]
11th ~ Monica Rosette Lee - Little Miss Perfect (xxPrincsxx)
10th ~ Matthew Matthews 'Aztaroth' - The Underground Gambler (MorbidGinger) [FREED]
9th ~ Relinda Temple - The Clumsy Waitress (BaseballCapClyde)
8th ~ Bella Prince/Edna Cullen - The Crazy Sadomasochist (BadLuckAE)
7th ~ Rival Seizon - The Emotional Guitarist (SinWriter7)