I shot up quickly to a sitting position only to have Henrietta stop me halfway.
"Whoa whoa, take it easy Mike, you and Craig have been through a lot so just take it slow."
I laid back down and looked over to Craig he was awake as well.
"Craig, we, we weren't dreaming right" I asked, "last night, Tweek and Butters they, they were executed right?"
Craig nodded, "they're gone Mike, but it wasn't last night."
"What do you mean" I asked.
"We've been out cold for three days" Craig answered.
My eyes widened and my jaw dropped, three days, three days we've been asleep.
I looked down towards the floor and asked Token and Henrietta, "what have we missed?"
"Not much" he answered, "we put up Eric's photo, but Tweek and Butters we saved for you guys." I slowly got out of bed and looked to Craig tears rolling down my eyes.
"Craig" I started, "I'm so sorry, I've been a terrible friend, if I had just kept my mouth shut your husband wouldn't be dead."
"Stop" he said cutting me off, "I don't blame you, or Tweek or even Eric for the shit storm we've just endured." He stood up and made a fist, "we all know whose responsible, and we're gonna make that son of a bitch pay."
"Craig" I said.
"Not just for Tweek and Butters, but for everyone whose died, everyone whose lives were lost because of this damn killing game!"
"Your right Craig" I said standing up to meet his gaze, "so what're we waiting for, we've got a mastermind to kill."
"I appreciate your enthusiasm guys" Token started, "but you're in no condition to be doing anything right now. You guys just lost your lovers and worse of all you had to vote for them to be executed. Take a break, lord knows we all need it after everything we've been through, besides, we're all that's left, we can't be foolish about what we do from this point on, unless we want more casualties we need to play it cool for now."
"He's right, plus we need time to mourn the dead" Henrietta said.
As much as I hated to admit it, they were right, even if we knew who the mastermind was we wouldn't even begin to know where to start looking for him.
"Come on" Token said, "you guys need to eat, and we know what we have to do."
The three of us followed him to the cafeteria, walking in and seeing none of our classmates and knowing that it was because they were dead was an emotional feeling to be sure. Craig and I walked over to the honor the fallen table, we saw Eric's photo, just as Token said it was there, he may have been a spy and a traitor but at the very least we shouldn't disgrace the dead even if they deserved it.
"You ready" Craig asked.
"Yeah let's do it" I answered.
We reached into the box and pulled out Tweek and Butters's pictures, we held them for a moment before placing them on the table. Token and Henrietta walked out with some food and drinks and the four of us sat down to eat. It was a quiet meal, similar to the one we had after Kenny's execution, hard to believe how many of our friends we've lost since then. How many memories, both good and painful, we've made since the killing game began. The wedding, the special outfits, the bachelor's parties, …, the murders, the motives, the loss of sanity that has plagued so many of our fallen friends.
"Hey Mike are you alright" Craig asked. He had snapped me out of my trance, recollecting everything that has happened had made me lose focus for a moment.
"Yeah just, just thinking ya know" I said. Craig smiled, closed his eyes, and put his hand on my shoulder.
"I miss them too" he said, "we all do after all we've lost twelve friends some of them we were very close to, some we loved, some we wish we had gotten to know better. Everything we do from now on, we do for them, that's how will honor them, and when we finally escape this place, will take those portraits with us and hold a proper memorial for each and every one of them." Henrietta and Token agreed with Craig as did I. "And we will get out of here, no matter what it takes, even if we have to swim back to the mainland we will get out of here."
"Craig's right" I said standing up, "as long as we have hope we can't lose, as long as we have hope we can't die, as long as we have hope we can defeat despair!"
Our words inspired each other and before we knew we were all standing up, a look of determination on each of our faces. The day seemed to go rather quickly, the four of us spent most of it together relaxing and recuperating, we had to rest now because soon things would be getting much more difficult. I had just gotten back to my room for the night when I heard a knock on my door, in my mind I thought it would be Butters behind it, as it has been so many times before but I knew that wouldn't be the case. I opened the door and there was Craig standing in the doorway.
"Can we chat for a minute" he asked.
"Yeah sure what's up" I asked.
"Not here, meet me on the pool deck" he said. I nodded, got changed back into my day clothes and went up to the pool deck, there I saw Craig leaning forward against the railing. I walked over and joined him leaning backwards against it, "so what's up" I asked.
"Look at the stars Mike" he said, "do you think Tweek's up there? I like to think he is. Back when we were kids I would take him to look at the stars during the summer, we'd sit there and I'd ramble on about some space trivia. I knew he really wasn't interested in space but even so he sat there wide eyed and smiling. A while back I had a memory return to me, it was the day that we were chosen to be Ultimates, do you remember that day?"
"Yeah I do" I answered, in truth my memories had been returning a lot more frequently but with all the craziness of the last few weeks I hadn't really thought about it.
"It was back in high school, I remember it clear as day, that was the day that Tweek's life went to hell."