A few hours after collapsing in her bed, Jesse found herself in the Velvet Room again.

Her room took in the form of a large, cozy, treehouse on a tree with royal blue leaves that danced lazily around the treehouse. Large blue velvet curtains covered every inch of the walls and there was an open ceiling that revealed the velvet sky. Jesse drinks in the couches that were scattered around the treehouse, then her eyes landed on the long table, expecting to see the long-nosed man with his assistant.

However, he wasn't there. Jesse narrowed her eyes in suspicion. If the man wasn't here, why was she called here?

"If you're looking for someone, I'm afraid no one's here except you and me."

Jesse turned sharply, and her emerald eyes meet a familiar pair of silver eyes.

A girl was sitting on one of the couches in the Velvet Room. At first, she thought she was looking at a more confident version of Angel. Then, she realized it wasn't.

The girl's silver eyes weren't surrounded by golden blonde hair. Instead, it was surrounded by bright copper hair.

The girl had long, bright copper hair, bright silver eyes, and caramel skin. She was wearing a cobalt blue shirt, black leggings, black combat boots, a gold sheath dangling from her black belt, and an emerald green scarf. She was also scratched up, had lots of scars, and her clothes were ripped up. Her hair and scarf covered most of her facial features. She fit Goldie's description that Gill provided perfectly.

Goldie held herself confidently. Her back was straight, her hands folded on her lap, her silver eyes staring straight at her, almost demanding for Jesse to speak.

"You're Goldie," Jesse said in shock. "You're the ghost Gill met."

"And you're Jesse," Goldie said. She dropped her confident facade and sat forward. Jesse suspected she was smiling under her scarf. "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, Goldie," Jesse said. Then her brow furrowed. "I thought you didn't have your memories."

Goldie reached up and pulled down her scarf, revealing a dash of freckles across her nose. She looked as though she was trying not to smile. "I don't remember anything past the age of seven, that's true. But I heard your name when I was a ghost. I was around a few minutes before Aiden's death."

"Oh," Jesse said. She felt her cheeks burning from embarrassment and her gut twisting at the mention of Aiden's death. "Sorry, I assumed you came in a few minutes after Aiden d-d-d-died."

Jesse hoped Goldie wouldn't notice the stutter, but from the way Goldie was looking at her in sympathy, she did. Thankfully, Goldie didn't say anything about it.

"It's alright," she said. "I'm sure Gill thought that as well."

Jesse scratched her neck, "I guess so." Suddenly, she remembered why she was here and who was supposed to greet her. "Um, I don't mean to change the subject, but where's the long-nosed man?"

Goldie blinked. "Long-nosed—oh, you must be talking about Igor. He is here, but he told me he's blocked from talking to anyone."

Jesse's eyes widen. "By who?!"

Goldie pursed up her lips. "By someone named Black Musical. From what Igor told me, she put a spell on the Velvet Room so that nobody can talk to him."

"Then how can I—"

"Just because she made sure nobody can talk to him doesn't mean he can't call his guests to the Velvet Room," Goldie said. "You just can't see him."

"If I can't talk to him, how can you—?"

"The spells only blocks humans from talking to him. I was created from some sort of essence. There's more, but I tuned out everything since it's a bit too much for me."

Jesse laughed nervously. "Wow, his assistant must really hate you for doing that." She stopped laughing when Goldie stared at her blankly.

"You… don't know who his assistant is?"

Goldie shook her head. "No… All I know is that I'm not human because of the essence, then Igor dumped me here to talk to you."

"Oh! Speaking of that, you know all about the shadows we're dealing with, right?"

Goldie rose her eyebrow. "Yes, I do. Ah, I know what you're thinking. You want me to tell you more about them."

Jesse nodded eagerly. "Yes, yes, I do! I can't believe I actually forgot about them, please tell me!"

Goldie stood up to her full height. Jesse groaned mentally when she saw Goldie's at least seven inches taller than her.

"I can't, I'm afraid."

Jesse's mind went blank. "Wha-? Why?"

"The person who put a spell on the Velvet Room also made sure any information shared inside stays inside. So even if I tell you, the information will be erased from your mind until you come here again. You'll have to wait until I turn into a ghost again to tell you."

Rage boiled under her skin. "T-T-That monster! Why does she want to make it harder for us to—"

Goldie held out a hand. "Calm down. There's also another problem. Even if this person didn't prevent information from leaving this place, there's also the fact that she will find out and make it harder."

Jesse furrowed her brow. "How?"

Goldie looked at her straight in the eye. "Promise me you'll keep this between us if you remember this conversation after waking up."

Jesse hesitated, "I… Promised."

The next words Goldie said nearly gave Jesse a heart attack.

"There's a traitor among your midst. A spy that tells Black Musical everything about your group. Be careful of who you trust and what you tell. You'll never know if it will cost your friends' lives."


It was really weird waking up and seeing that Lukas was the first person up.

Angel was usually the first one up, Maya being the next, so when Lukas woke up, he would see them in the living room. Angel smiled upon seeing him and handing him a cup of coffee as he sat down to write in his book. Maya would hug him then went back to whatever she was doing, and they'll wait for everyone else to wake up.

As Lukas laid in bed, he remembered the times Angel wasn't the first one awake. The first time was the morning after arriving. He came into the living room and was surprised to see that Maya was the only one there. When he asked about Angel, Maya shrugged and said "She's dead asleep. I guess she was really queasy last and needed more rest."

He accepted the reason and forgot about to worry about it when Angel woke up later on and made his morning coffee before playing DBD with Adrian and the Blaze Rods.

The second time the morning after Maya died. He woke up to Ariza's shouting and was looking for Angel and Maya in the living room until he realized the latter was dead and the other was missing, which bothered him as he heads back into the dorms. When he saw Angel was dead, he remembered mourning the fact that he was now the only morning person in their group as he comforted Jesse, with only Angel's morning coffee, her motherly and protective nature, and the spark in her eyes as she advanced on jerks to remember Angelina Amari by.

Lukas felt sad. He felt like he'll never get used to being the first one to wake up, even after escaping the lodge, if they did escape.

He was still getting used to it. To get it off his mind, he went to the TV and tried to turn it on, but instead, the screen turned black with a message written in white.

The Television is now officially unavailable from now on. The news is way too informative about the outside world, which is not relative to the Hunting Games. It will only be available when the Games start.

—The Black Musical

So now he was sitting in the kitchen. Seri had come in twenty minutes ago and sat across from him, eating cookies. Jesse followed five minutes later and after he told her the TV was now unavailable for watching the news, she fell asleep.

"Morning, Rin," Seri said sleepily as Renee walked in.

Renee nodded in greeting and headed over to the coffee machine to make herself a cup of coffee. Lukas noted with amusement that Renee looked rather like a zombie with a massive bedhead.

Lukas averted his gaze from Renee to stare at Jesse, who was dozing silently on the table. The sight was adorable until he remembered what Maya, Angel, and Aiden would say when they notice.

"Seriously?" Angel exclaimed, laughing as she head over. "You don't have the balls to ask her out and yet, you stare at her like this? Come on!"

"Looks like you became a stalker, Lukas," Maya teased as she followed Angel.

Aiden shook his head and threw his arm around Lukas. "They're right, you know. You two are getting ridiculous."

That memory just made him even more depressed, which add to the anxiousness he's been feeling since Black Musical randomly popped in the living room TV and announced that there will be two victims instead of one for now on.

He sighed and got up to get a glass of milk, gently directing Renee's head from the salt to the sugar in the process. "Good morning, Renee. Did you hear her message?"

"I did," Renee said sourly. "I can't believe this, it's hard enough to save one victim, now it's upped to two? Ugh."

Lukas frowned and glanced at Jesse. Jesse wasn't woken up by the message and had to be woken up and explained about what the message was. If Renee, who was said to be dead to the world when asleep and blows off anyone's head if they try to wake her up, was woken up by her, why wasn't Jesse?

"Hey, Seri," Renee said suddenly. She sipped her finished coffee and said, "Did you visit Angel before she, you know…"

Seri looked up and nodded. "Yeah, I did. It was a few hours after she went to bed… why? Something wrong?"

Renee rubbed her eyes, "I decided to look into her murder and found a plate with cookie crumbs in Angel's desk drawer. Seeing as you're famous for cookies, I assumed it was you who gave her the cookies."

"Oh, yeah, that was me. I gave her a plate of raspberry cookies to cheer her up. When I came in, she looked horrible. N-No offense to her or anything, but there were tear tracks on her cheeks and she had red, puffy eyes. Morning, Anna."

"Morning," Anna said back as she walked in.

As the two friends whispered to each other, Renee frowned to herself and quietly sipped her coffee. Lukas didn't know what she was thinking, but before he could think more about it, Jesse stirred.

"Mmm, what's going on?"

Lukas hid a smile, "Nothing much," He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "Renee and Anna just woke up and we found out Seri visited Angel two nights ago."

Jesse straightened up and met his eyes. "Did she?"

Lukas nodded. "Yeah, she did. Seri said she visited to give her cookies."

Something flickered in Jesse's eyes, but it vanished as quickly as it appeared. She looked away and reached for his hand. "I see…"
They sat in silence. Other time, everyone gradually came in, some tense, some grim-faced, and some looking anxious.

Then she popped in.

"Good morning, everyone~" Black Musical chirped. "Has everyone heard the message~?"

Nobody said anything. They didn't need to.

"Excellent!" Black Musical squealed. "Now let's get to it! Three of your beloved friends are already dead, one is by mysterious causes, so now eighteen of you are left. The amount of members in each team is still the same as always, no need to worry. TV is now unavailable, as you may be informed. The reason for this is revealed upon turning it on. Any information spoken about Goldie is now strictly prohibited."

This made gasps erupt in the group.

"What?!"

"Why?!"

Lukas glanced at Jesse and saw her emerald eyes widening, then lit up with a spark that says I-have-a-plan-and-you-can't-stop-me. He wondered what was.

"You have a plan?" Lukas whispered in Jesse's ear.

Jesse glanced at him, pointed at the TV, which displayed Black Musical, then looked at him again.

I'll tell you later, Her eyes seem to say. Lukas understood and turned back to the TV.

"Goldie is not apart of your group and therefore, counts as a person outside. People outside cannot help you and that includes information about the shadows you're dealing with. Very sorry~"

With the way Black Musical said it, Lukas had a feeling she wasn't sorry. He resigned himself to watching her happily dragging away Petra and Axel to start the game.


"AGH!"

"JAMES!"

"I'm fine, go! I'll catch up!"

"But—"

"GO!"

"HISSSSSSSSS. DIE!"