I will give proper explanations to how this entire thing works at the end of the story. Don't worry, I wasted plenty of hours and used up lot's of my brain space, trying to make this as flawless as possible.
Enjoy!
Ludwig, Natalya, Marielle, Neeraja, Abdul, Roderich and Muhammad stood shoulder to shoulder, examining the graves in front of them.
"I reckon it's time we talk about what happened." Neeraja said in a small voice.
"I agree..." Marielle sighed.
Muhammad kneeled in front of a grave marked with Agapito, his Filipino friend. "It's not fair they had to all meet such an end..." he whispered, shutting his eyes.
"Who wants to go first?" Abdul asked, staring at them all. "We all don't need to say, just as long as one person from each of the three groups does..."
None of them answered, before Ludwig sighed. "I'll go, I'm the only survivor from my side anyway."
Ludwig Beilschmidt hopped into the bus, on his way to high school. He was due to graduate later that month, so he was prepared to study, study, study and get good grades to determine his university. He took his usual seat next to the aisle and got out his books. The other people on the bus were used to his studying antics and went about their mornings like usual.
The bus soon slowed at his stop and he collected all his learning materials and shoved them back in his bag. He jumped out of the bus, beginning his daily exercise of walking the 2 kilometres left to the school.
He turned the corner, like he usually did, except this time he fatefully crashed into someone who was walking the opposite direction.
"I'm so sorry-" he started, picking himself up. "Are you alright?"
The stranger was in the dark area of the corridor. No matter how hard Ludwig tried, he couldn't see his face. Slightly annoyed that the other wasn't moving, he opened his mouth to talk-
"Hm... You're perfect."
Ludwig recoiled. "Perfect? Perfect for what?"
The stranger started to giggle, his white teeth flashing in the dark alleyway.
"What are you laughing abo- Mmm?!" The mysterious man suddenly lunged at the German, placing a hanky over his mouth. Ludwig tried his best to fight him off, but his head went fuzzy and he passed out, dropping all of his books.
Ludwig woke up in some sort of hospital room. He looked around, his eyes adjusting to all the white, before resting on the desk near the door. He stood up and headed towards it. There was an journal on the table, and an envelope. He took the envelope in his hands and ripped it open.
'Dear player,
If you are reading this, this means you about to embark on a game. 'When the lights flicker, some of you will fall'. Your job is to ensure your side will win.
Good team:
Detective - gets clues to try find out who's on the evil team
Spy - bugs players to see who visits them
Twins - whatever happens to one, happens to the other
Psychic - reads players to find out which team they're in
Muffin man - gives muffins to players
Medic - heals players
Saviour - resurrects a dead person
Survivor - help the Good Team eliminate the Evil Team.
Evil team:
Murderer - kills players
Assassin - kills only one player and is the most lethal
Scout - bugs players to see who visits them
Dark psychic - reads players to find out which team they're in
Witch - blocks other players powers
Neutral Team:
Clown - get voted off to kill someone the round afterwards
To see what role you are in further detail, open the journal to the first page. If your team eliminates all of the other team, the remaining players will move on to the next round.
Use the journal to leave behind a message to the other players in case you die. Examples; your role, your suspects, etc.
Good luck! You will need it.
P.S., it is best not to tell people your role. The other team may target you instantly.'
Ludwig blinked at the note, rereading it again. He reached over to the journal and a piece of paper fluttered to the ground. He bent over to pick it up.
'YOU ARE... SURVIVOR.
You are part of the good team. Help the investigator find the murderer, and most importantly, survive!'
After he slipped the note back in the journal, the hospital room door opened itself. He walked out and into the main room where he saw other people sitting around the welcome desk. He couldn't recognise any of them. All of them were weary and stayed a good distance away from each other.
He counted fourteen other people in the room with him. Eventually, one of them with brown hair and an Italian accent stood up and cleared his throat. "I don't know ANY of you. Why are we here?"
"Well, the note said it was a game-" Ludwig started, but got interrupted by some other blonde with horrendous eyebrows. "Yes, we've all read the note. But that doesn't explain anything."
"It will eventually." a Frenchman snorted.
"Yeah, right. It's probably some stupid prank." the Brit muttered.
Ludwig wandered around, thinking to himself. So it was a game according to the note... but what type? If he recalled correctly, there were two teams... he assumed that if there were killers... people were going to die? Was that right? Pfft, no way.
The overhead lights flickered before stuttering into darkness.
"Eh... uh, maybe we should go back to our rooms?" a Canadian accent pierced through the dark. "I mean, I want to... it's easier to collect my thoughts and try to understand the situation we're in, y'know."
Ludwig had to agree with the statement. "I agree. We should all go. Does everyone have a light source of some kind?"
Using his phone flashlight, he lead three other people, including himself, back to their "room". Strangely enough, the doors had their names on it, so he learnt he had escorted the Italian Feliciano, the British Arthur and the French Francis.
He made his way back inside his room and shut the door behind him. The lock clicked automatically into place, leaving him stuck inside. He sighed and sat down on the bed, reading the note one more time.
This was seriously messing with his head. He didn't even know these people. Was this some sort of social experiment?
He stared at his slowly dying phone battery, noting that it was already on 90%. He read over his role once again. Survivor... What in the world could that mean-
The door unlocked.
Ludwig remained unmoving in confusion. Nothing had happened. Maybe this really was some dumb social experiment. Standing up, he left the room, almost walking into Francis.
They sat back down around the lobby area and waited for everyone to show up.
Except not everyone did.
"Hey, where's the... Chinese man... Wang, was it?"
"I'll go check." the American whose name was Alfred, (if Ludwig remembered correctly), offered and headed off in the direction of Wang's room.
Then there was a scream.
"Alfred, are you alright?" Arthur called out.
"G- Guys, you might want to see this..."
The others in the room stood up and followed Alfred's voice. Wang's door frame was blowing red. The group peered inside the room and Ludwig's breath caught in his throat.
Wang was slumped over the bed, opened-eyed and completely still.
"Is he... Is he dead?" Feliciano squeaked, hiding behind Ludwig.
"Who... Who wants to go check?" the German stuttered, trying to be the so-called brave one there.
The Turkish man, Sadik, rolled his eyes and stepped forward. He placed his finger on Wang's neck. "Nope, he's dead."
He examined the room before letting his eyes fall on the journal. He bent down to pick it up, only to be met by the outroars of everyone else.
"What?" he snapped. "Did any of you take that note seriously? People are GOING to die! We are MEANT to read their journals. WHAT do you think we're supposed to do?"
Before anyone could say anything, he picked it up and opened it. "Damn, there's nothing inside." he muttered, before throwing the book on the floor.
João snarled at Sadik. "So now what? What are we meant to do?"
As if the room heard the question, a ballet box appeared out of nowhere. At the top, it bore the words, 'Who is the murderer?' and a bunch of names.
"Are we supposed..." The Swede, Berwald said. "Are we supposed to guess the murderer?"
"Or anyone who is on the bad team." Sadik confirmed.
"What if... you're on that team? What do you do?" Feliciano stuttered.
"I guess vote out the good team?"
The group stood there, staring at each other.
Feliks and Tino exchanged looks. "Well, I'm going back to the lobby." Tino stated, Feliks nodding his agreement.
The two walked off, Sadik, Kiku, Lukas and Elizabeta following suit.
The rest of them stayed where they were.
Matthew cleared his throat. "Um, can I just put my input here but... do you think Sadik is part of the bad team?"
"Why is that?" Francis questioned.
"Well... it's safe to say that he was the least shocked about Wang, right? He kinda seems like he was aware of this beforehand." he elaborated.
Feliciano nodded his support. "That makes sense... I'm voting him!"
Arthur, João, Francis, Ludwig and Berwald shrugged.
"Yeah, alright. Us too."
They headed off to their designated rooms and wrote 'Sadik' on their ballet slits. They reentered the lobby where a speaker overhead spluttered on and boomed; "Sadik has received the most votes. He will now be removed."
The Turk sighed and shook his head. "Well, you'll regret this." The room's lights flickered on and off. When it finally restored itself, Sadik was gone.
"Wait, so was he a bad guy or not?" Arthur asked.
"We could check his room, because quote unquote, 'We are MEANT to read their journals. WHAT do you think we're supposed to do?'" Feliks rolled his eyes. "Let's go."
They found Sadik's room (whose door frame was now midnight blue) and opened the journal.
Inside it read;
'DETECTIVE:
One of these people are good: Francis, Ludwig, Matthew'
They all stared deeply at it before it sunk it.
"WE JUST VOTED OFF THE DETECTIVE?!" Tino screamed. "AND THIS CLUE LITERALLY ISN'T USEFUL!"
"Well, this is great, just great..." Lukas sighed. "There's no way we'll win now."
"Guys, I'm so sorry, I thought he was on the Bad side-" Matthew looked crestfallen. "This is all my fault-"
"Don't beat yourself up." Feliciano patted him on the back.
The lights turned off, signalling the group it was time to go back to their rooms.
"Good luck." Ludwig whispered to the whimpering Feliciano, who gave a thumbs up in return.
Ludwig flopped onto his bed, as the doors swung shut behind him. He grabbed the journal and the pen and wrote.
'SURVIVOR
Sadik : Detective
Francis : Good team [alabi: detective's clues]
Matthew : Good team [alabi: detective's clues]
Wang : ?'
As he continued writing everyone else's names with question marks at the end, the doors quietly hissed open and he grumbled to himself with annoyance. He stood up, this time taking the paper with all the roles on it.
"Luddy! Guess what?!" Feliciano shouted as soon as he saw the German. "Someone gave me a muffin! Which is good, 'cause I'm starving!"
"The Muffin Man!" Ludwig gasped, looking at the paper, while the Italian stuffed the entire muffin in his mouth.
"Vor voman." Feliciano butt in.
"Or woman." he agreed. "Let's go."
They walked into the lobby, and almost died of shock.
"W- Wang?!"
The guy they thought was once dead was alive.
"What are you doing here?!" Lukas screamed, totally shocked.
"I- I don't know, I thought I died-"
"You did." Kiku interrupted. "I revived you." he stated matter-of-factly.
Everyone stared at him dumbly.
"I'm the Saviour?"
The room gasped in unison.
"Cool! So you can revive anyone?!" Feliks cried out.
"Only once. I can't use it again."
"Oh. Why did you waste it on him? I mean... we don't even know what side he's on anyway."
"I'm the medic." Wang said, irritated.
Ludwig quickly did a headcount... there were fifteen people at the start, one had died but had revived, and one had been voted off... so there should be fourteen...
There were only twelve.
"Guys, there are two people missing." he cleared his throat, announcing it to them.
They searched the rooms, to find João and Elizabeta's door frames bright red.
"I don't understand, how can two people die?" Francis asked, looking around.
They decided to check João's room first and opened the journal.
'TWINS WITH ELIZABETA'
"Well, that just sucks." Feliks said sarcastically. "Now they're both dead and there's nothing we can do about it."
"Can you stop being so insensitive here?!" Arthur snapped. "This isn't fun and games anymore, this is... whatever this happens to be."
Tino rolled his eyes. "Well, I know who I'm voting." he sighed and walked out of João's room.
"Feliks has received the most votes. He will now be removed."
"Good riddance, I say." Tino mumbled, glaring at him.
He laughed in return. "You'll regret that line of thought..." he said, just before the lights turned on and off, him disappearing from their eyes.
"What do you think he means by that?" Wang asked, narrowing his eyes slightly.
Lukas turned on his heel and ran towards a blue framed door. The others followed, and they all piled in the room. They waited as Lukas opened the journal. "Oh no..."
"What is it?" Berwald asked, making the others jump, as they all forgot he was there.
"He's the Clown."
Ludwig consulted the paper. "He can kill someone now that he is voted out."
"That's not good news." Ivan inhaled.
The lights did its thing and the group sighed in unison.
"Good luck~" Francis called, running off towards his room.
When he got inside, Ludwig added to his journal.
'SURVIVOR
Sadik : Detective
Francis : Good team [alabi: detective's clues]
Matthew : Good team [alabi: detective's clues]
Wang : ? - Medic
Arthur : ?
Ivan : ?
Kiku : ? - Saviour
João : ? - Twins
Tino : ?
Feliks : ? - Clown
Elizabeta : ? -Twins
Feliciano : ?
Berwald : ?
Lukas : ?'
He waited impatiently for the door to reopen; the moment it did, he ran out, literally colliding into his neighbour, Feliciano.
"Sorry." he apologised.
"S'kay."
They arrived at the lobby, where there was like, no one except for Arthur and Kiku.
"Everyone said there were going to look for the rooms instead of coming here first. It's quicker." Arthur explained. "Anyway, you're the last people we need to tell, so let's go find the others."
They passed an orange door frame and stepped inside, where most people were currently standing.
Ivan noticed them. "Feliks killed Toni." he stated. "The Clown." he added, even though everyone remembered that fact.
"What does his journal say?" Kiku asked, trying to look over his shoulder.
"It says, 'I'm the Scout, and no, I'm not putting my findings in this book, I want to make life harder for you harhar, hope the Evil Team wins (no offence GT)!'"
"Wait, so if that was the Clown who killed him... Did the murderer kill anyone or-" Ludwig started, before Arthur and Kiku gasped.
"Wait, I don't remember seeing Wang-"
"Me neither-"
"Did he go off and die-"
"AGAIN?"
Ivan, Arthur, Kiku, Feliciano and Ludwig headed round to Wang's room, which was red once again.
"Yeah... he's dead again..." Kiku confirmed.
"Ouch, that's just really sad."
"IT'S BERWALD!" They heard a scream from the lobby.
The five exchanged looks, and nodded. They walked back to the lobby, where they found Francis pointing an accusing finger at the Swede.
"I'm the Psychic, I read Berwald! It said he was Evil!" he yelled.
"Well, funny because I read you too and it said you were evil." he countered.
Francis faltered. "Wh- What? I thought there were only one Psychic?"
"One of you are the Dark Psychic, then." Lukas said. "Personally, I think it's Francis."
"WHAT?! WHY ME?!"
"You're shouting. That shows you're desperate. And people on the losing team are usually desperate." He shrugged. "Just throwing that out there."
Majority of the people were nodding.
Ludwig cleared his throat. "Who remembers Sadik's journal? He is good. That's what the clue said."
"Ludwig has a point!" Feliciano cheered.
"So it is Berwald!" Arthur marvelled.
"Berwald has received the most votes. He will now be removed."
The lights flickered and the Swede was gone. The group all stared at each other.
"Let's go check to see if we voted off the right person..." Matthew stuttered, heading off in the direction of the room.
'One of the Psychics.
Tino is *scribbled out word* Evil
Lukas is Good
Francis is Evil'
Arthur turned around to glare at the Frenchman. "You lied!"
"What?! That's a lie, I promise it is, I-" Francis gulped. "I read Elizabeta, Ivan and Berwald! It said that Elizabeta and Ivan were Good and Berwald was Evil, I promise!"
"Promising isn't going to do any good here." Kiku stated matter-of-factly.
Arthur stormed out of the room, mumbling something about, 'I can't believe that stupid Frenchie!'
Ludwig threw a look of distrust at the man and left the room too.
'SURVIVOR
Sadik : Detective
Francis : Good team [alabi: detective's clues] - Dark Psychic?
Matthew : Good team [alabi: detective's clues]
Wang : ? - Medic
Arthur : ?
Ivan : ? - Good [alabi: Francis (Psychic)]
Kiku : ? - Saviour
João : ? - Twins
Tino : ? - Scout
Feliks : ? - Clown
Elizabeta : ? -Twins
Feliciano : ?
Berwald : ? - Good Psychic?
Lukas : ? - Good [alabi: Berwald (Psychic)]'
His door hissed open and Ludwig let out a long sigh. He was tired of this already. He had barely stepped outside of the room before Arthur came running towards him.
"Francis is dead." he stated. "And I know who."
He pointed to Feliciano who just ran out of his room. "It's him."
"HIM?!" Ludwig shouted. That was the least person he suspected!
"What about me?" he asked innocently.
"You killed Francis, right?" Arthur glared.
Something flashed across Feliciano's face but it disappeared just as quickly. "Me? Why are you accusing me? If I knew any better, I'd say it was you. You literally said earlier that you 'couldn't believe that stupid Frenchie' or something."
"Well, that doesn't matter! You still killed him!"
"I doubt there's proof. Have you even gone into his room at all?"
"The proof's not in the room... argh... Fine. Let's go, shall we?" he added sarcastically, still glaring at him.
The three made their way ever-so-awkwardly over to Francis' room. But unlike all the other door frames, his was black.
And unlike the other deaths, Francis' was bloody.
Well, not that much, but he actually looked like he was murdered in his sleep, instead of 'just-happened-to-die-while-I-was-sleeping' vibes like the rest of the deaths.
"I-" Arthur stuttered, staring at the body. "I don't get it."
Then something clicked in Ludwig's brain. "The Assassin..."
"You're the Assassin?!" Arthur whispered, colour draining off his face fast.
"Correct!" Feliciano smiled. "Of course, I can only kill once and, of course, I didn't realise the death would look like this but-"
Arthur turned around and walked away without a word.
Ludwig shared a pained look with Feliciano. "I'd never would have guessed." he said, following Arthur.
They meet up with Kiku, Matthew and Lukas who were in the lobby.
"Ivan's dead." Matthew cut in, before Arthur could say anything.
"Ivan?" Feliciano asked. "Did he write anything?"
"Yeah, he's the Muffin Man." Lukas nodded. "Here, if you want proof." He threw the journal at Ludwig, who caught it.
"Feliciano's the Assassin." Arthur said.
"What? Really?" Kiku gasped.
"He killed Francis." Ludwig replied.
"How do you know that?" Lukas asked.
"Because-" Ludwig started, faltering. He turned to look at Arthur. "How did you know?"
"Because I'm the Spy. I bugged Francis, and it told me who visited him. I assumed depending on whether the Murderer's thought of line, they'd think that Francis was the Good Psychic and would want to kill him. And that is what happened. It told me that Feliciano visited Francis, thus killing him." Arthur concluding.
"Oh." Matthew said. "So, we're voting him out?"
"Yes, who else?" he snapped in retaliation.
"Feliciano has received the most votes. He will now be removed."
And then there were four.
Feliciano's journal was blank, but that really didn't matter as they knew his role. Ludwig quickly wrote more in his.
'SURVIVOR
Sadik : Detective
Francis : Good team [alabi: detective's clues] - Dark Psychic?
Matthew : Good team [alabi: detective's clues]
Wang : ? - Medic
Arthur : ? - Spy
Ivan : ? - Good [alabi: Francis (Psychic)] - Muffin Man
Kiku : ? - Saviour
João : ? - Twins
Tino : ? - Scout
Feliks : ? - Clown
Elizabeta : ? -Twins
Feliciano : ? - Assassin
Berwald : ? - Good Psychic?
Lukas : ? - Good [alabi: Berwald (Psychic)]'
He blinked. The conclusions he had come to didn't add up. There was no one who could be the Murderer. He stared harder at his notes. What did this mean?
He left the room and walked round to the lobby. He passed Kiku's room, which was taunted with red. He shook his head sadly. 'I'm so sorry.' he mouthed and continued on his way.
Arthur, Matthew and Lukas were already there waiting.
"Well, I guess it's time to guess." Arthur sighed. "My guess is..." He pinched his forehead, deep in thought. "Lukas!"
"Me?"
"You seem way too serious and calm about this whole ideal. Like, to the point where it is awfully suspicious." Arthur accused.
Matthew and Lukas stared at each other for a while. Ludwig felt like they were having a silent conversation. Finally, Matthew pulled away.
"I think you're right." he agreed. "It is suspicious."
"Lukas has received the most votes. He will now be removed."
Lukas closed his eyes. "Well, good job." he smiled. "It was tight."
Arthur and Ludwig beamed. "Did we win?!" Arthur squealed. "Oh, thank Go-"
"You guys didn't win." Matthew interrupted, the grins sliding off their faces. "I won. The Evil Team."
"What?" Ludwig jumped.
"You just voted off the Witch. The one who blocks other people's powers."
"I don't understand-"
"I'm the Murderer."
Matthew's confession stunned the two into silence.
"Excuse me, what?"
The lights flickered on and off.
"Well, good job anyway." They could hear the smirk in his voice.
'SURVIVOR
Sadik : Detective
Francis : Good team [alabi: detective's clues] - Dark Psychic?
Matthew : Good team [alabi: detective's clues] - MURDERER!
Wang : ? - Medic
Arthur : ? - Spy
Ivan : ? - Good [alabi: Francis (Psychic)] - Muffin Man
Kiku : ? - Saviour
João : ? - Twins
Tino : ? - Scout
Feliks : ? - Clown
Elizabeta : ? -Twins
Feliciano : ? - Assassin
Berwald : ? - Good Psychic?
Lukas : ? - Good [alabi: Berwald (Psychic)] - Witch'
Ludwig stepped out of his room, where Matthew was waiting for him.
"Arthur's dead." he stated.
"Are... Are you going to kill me too?" he stuttered.
"What? Oh no, I can't. There are only two of us left and it's time to vote. Since there are only two of us and we'll instantly vote the other, it means the Evil Side wins. But because you didn't die, you still get to live."
Ludwig didn't quite understand what he was going on about, but he nodded anyway. "How did you- How did you win so efficiently?"
Matthew blinked. "Well, that goes back to the very start of the game. You see, apparently the Assassin knows who the Murderer is, so he came up to me and told me that we were on the same side."
He glanced over at the German to make sure he was getting all of it.
"That same round, Tino bugged Wang, the person I killed at the start. So he found out I was the Murderer straight away. However, Berwald, the Dark Psychic, by the way, read Tino and found out they were on the same side. So Berwald confronted him, and Tino confronted me. So I already knew four of my teammates. The next round when I killed the twins, Berwald read Lukas and that's how we all knew who was who."
Ludwig was stunned. That quickly?
"It's easier to win if you already know who's on your team. And it's easier to know who to manipulate." Matthew stared at him. "Believe me when I say this though, if I had a choice, I would have never picked to the Murderer."
"Then... Then why did you kill?" Ludwig asked.
He silently put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a note.
'YOU ARE... MURDERER.
You are the leader of the EVIL TEAM. Find the rest of your team and do not let any survivors leave alive...
PS, if you do not follow these requirements, we will hunt down your family.'
"You really believed that?" Ludwig scoffed.
"No, not really. But they make people die peacefully. They could resurrect them. I knew if they were making us do this, it would be better not to refuse..." he whispered.
"Oh, Matthew." Ludwig patted the former-Murderer's back. "Let's go."
And the two walked out of the grounds, via a big hallway that had opened at the lobby.
GOOD TEAM
Detective - Sadik
Spy - Arthur
Twins - João, Elizabeta
Psychic - Francis
Survivor - Ludwig
Muffin Man - Ivan
Medic - Yao
Saviour - Kiku
EVIL TEAM
Murderer - Matthew
Assassin - Feliciano
Scout - Tino
Dark Psychic - Berwald
Witch - Lukas
NEUTRAL TEAM
Clown - Feliks