Sorry for the really slow update time, guys D:! But anyway, here's the first chapter of the new case:3! Hope you enjoy cx!
Chapter Five: The Smell of Desperation (Part I)
Monokuma's eerily childish laugh was the only sound breaking the silence that had consumed the trial room, as everyone tried desperately to wrap their heads around the events that had just unravelled right in front of them. "Upupupupu..." The twisted monochrome bear continued to giggle, still perched upon his throne. His laughter seemed never-ending as it planted its seed of despair into anyone that had the displeasure of hearing it.
After what felt like a life-time of being left to their own thoughts, the door opened, and Monokuma stopped laughing. "You are free to leave," Monokuma said in his most serious tone. "I'm sure it won't be too long before we meet in here again..." His mouth grew into a smirk, before he resumed with his laughter. "Upupupupu..."
Trent couldn't help but shiver at both the thought of returning to that room, and Monokuma's unsettling laugh.
"Don't count on it!" said Duncan without so much as a glance in the bear's direction as he left the room.
Everyone filed through the exit. Some looked on edge, others as expressionless as zombies. Lindsay was huddled into Tyler, and Bridgette to Geoff, all four looking unsettled in some way or another. "Make it stop, Tyler," Lindsay managed, her eyes shut with Tyler's arm wrapped around her. "Make it go away!"
In response, Tyler said nothing, though it was clear from his eyes that he was trying to hold back.
As everyone left, Trent waited behind, intending to speak to someone. "Courtney," He said, placing a hand on the CIT's shoulder as she was making her way out, prompting her to stop walking. "Are you... okay?"
"Hm?" Courtney looked at the musician as if to say 'Of course I am' as she tried her best to force a smile. She had wiped her tears away whilst waiting for Monokuma to dismiss them, and ever since, had been trying to stop herself from crying again. "I'm fine." She told him, her expression cold and somewhat lacking in sincere emotion.
"Courtney-"
"I'm... fine," She repeated herself, this time hesitating. "I just need a rest, so if you'll excuse me," She slipped out of Trent's grasp and continued on her way, leaving Trent on his own. Unsurprisingly, Trent didn't waste any time in getting out of the trial room and away from Monokuma himself.
Approaching his room, Trent began to slow down. Something didn't add up... The scratches that covered the door had gone. "Did he... replace my door?" Trent's eyebrows furrowed slightly as he opened the door. Once inside, he saw that his room had been completely cleaned - as if no crime even occurred there in the first place. "What's going on?!"
"I organised a clean-up!" said Monokuma, appearing beside the musician with his hands linked behind his back and rocking back and forth. "You like it?"
"H-How...?"
""Upupupupupu... Monokuma has his ways..." Was all Trent received in response, prompting him to nod his head slightly in acknowledgement. "Anyhow, I'll let you get settled back in!"
The musician turned his head to look at the bear, but it was no use, he had already gone. I can't believe he'd just repair the damage... Expect me to carry on as if one of my friends wasn't actually killed in this very room...
He winced, flooded with images of Zoey's dead body propped up against the shower room wall. Hesitantly, he pushed open the shower room door... Nothing. Not Zoey; not even a single drop of blood. The broken mirror had been replaced. Everything was back to normal... Except, it wasn't normal. Nothing about this was normal.
Whatever it was that Monokuma had done in order to restore the room, Trent couldn't quite figure it out. Feeling overwhelmed by the rough day he, as well as everyone else, had had, Trent fell back onto his bed, where he just lay staring at the ceiling.
"Ding dong bing bong!" Monokuma's voice could be heard in each of the twenty-two teenagers' rooms as their television screens came to life. "Rise and shine, folks! Doting uncle Monokuma has decided to open up a whole new world to you all as a reward for succeeding in the trial yesterday! Have fun! Upupupupu..."
It was the morning after the deaths of Zoey and Scott, and due to Monokuma's early wake-up call, some of the teens were reduced to groaning as they rolled around in their beds, whilst others had already been awake and had gotten dressed before the announcement, and one teen in particular, Lindsay, had begun humming the well-known Disney song she had been reminded of by Monokuma's choice of words.
After getting washed and dressed, Trent headed to the cafeteria, where he met with Dawn, Gwen, Harold, Izzy and Noah.
"Trent!" Izzy yelled out upon said musician's entrance. "Good morning!"
"Uh... morning?" Trent mumbled, still tired and thus not fully aware of his surroundings.
"Izzy, please," Noah groaned. "Do you have to do that every time someone enters the room?"
"Who knows, it might wake up the others?" said Harold. "Tardy idiots! Gosh!"
"Ooh, ooh! I know! I could go around everyone's door and say I'm housekeeping! That way they have to let me in!" Izzy grinned mischievously. "I could go under the guise of... Maria Jones... Undercover Detective."
Noah simply rolled his eyes in response, whilst Harold nodded, showing his approval of the idea.
Unable to compute Izzy's hyperactivity, Trent slumped down in one of the chairs, his elbows on the table and his head in his hands.
"Long night, huh?" Gwen sighed, sitting across from the raven-headed boy.
"Mhm," Trent managed.
"Me, too."
Trent tried to smile politely but failed. It didn't feel right to be smiling under such circumstances.
"What do you both make of Monokuma's announcement?" Dawn asked the pair after a silence had formed.
"Well I presume he means he's opening up the rest of the school," Gwen told the moon-child. "Or some of it, at least. No way is he letting us out of here."
Next to enter the cafeteria was Heather, who looked surprised to see six others in the room. "What are you all doing here?" She asked the group. "Aren't you going to investigate?"
All six of the teens looked at the Queen Bee with a confused look. "Investigate?" Izzy asked. "Investigate what?"
"The first floor!" Heather snapped. "Did any of you even listen to Monokuma's announcement?"
"So that's where everyone is..." Harold muttered, whilst Gwen and Dawn looked at each other as if to say 'As expected'.
"To be fair, when Mono-what's-his-face talks, all I hear is 'squeak squeak I'm a talking bear'," Izzy shrugged.
"'Squeak squeak'?" Noah raised a brow.
"Well duh," Izzy chuckled. "He's obviously not capable of roaring, so it's the next best thing."
"Hm."
"Well, are you coming or not?" Heather glared at the teens.
With that, all six of them got up from their respective seats and followed Heather out of the room.
After ascending the stairs, the group of seven arrived at the first floor, where the others were currently standing - they had yet to open any of the new rooms.
"I see you retrieved the stragglers, chica," Alejandro smiled to Heather, placing a hand on her shoulder, before looking at Gwen, Noah, Dawn, Trent, Harold and Izzy. "Nice of you all to show up. Now we can proceed with the investigating."
The first things that stood out to Trent about the group was that Courtney and Mike were both alone, the former seemed to be skimming through her e-handbook whilst the latter just looked to be feeling sorry for himself, which was understandable.
Trent used his elbow to nudge Gwen, getting her attention. "What is it?" The Goth asked, slightly irritated.
"Courtney," He said, looking at said CIT. "I think you should go talk to her - see if she's okay. I tried speaking to her yesterday but she didn't say much..."
Gwen looked around to see Courtney standing on her own. "I'm not sure," She uttered. "This might just be how Courtney deals with things... If I tried to speak to her, she'd probably just shut me out, anyway."
"I guess..." Trent sighed, feeling useless. "I'll speak to Mike some time. I don't think he's coping."
Gwen smiled slightly. "I'm sure he'd appreciate it."
"So are we going into these rooms or not?" Justin spoke up. "Because I've scheduled a sleep top-up and it's due to take place pretty soon."
"Yes, we'll start now in fact," said Alejandro. "Remember, everyone, and search for possible escape routes as you go."
With that, the group of twenty-two split up into four smaller groups: Trent, Gwen, Bridgette, Geoff and Noah formed one group, Heather, Alejandro, Tyler, Lindsay, Mike and Anne Maria formed the second, Justin, Duncan, Izzy, Owen, Katie and Sadie formed the third, and Courtney, Dawn, Harold, Sierra and Cody made up the fourth.
The room that Trent, Gwen, Bridgette, Geoff and Noah chose to search was the first room on the left due to Noah's insistence, as the door had a picture of a book engraved into it.
"I presume this is the library," said Trent, pushing open the door. Inside the room were rows upon rows of bookshelves, all filled with books. At the very back of the room was a desk, complete with a laptop, lamp and sign in/sign out book.
"Don't wait on me," Noah told the others. "I might be a while." He added, before entering the maze of bookshelves, a slight smile on his face.
"There must be thousands of books in here..." Trent muttered as he walked down the aisles. "Damn..."
The five-some dispersed, each choosing to search a different section of the library.
"Yup," Gwen responded, having overheard the musician. She was sitting at the desk, trying to use the laptop. "Too bad this laptop doesn't have internet connection."
"Surprise, surprise," Trent uttered. "Monokuma would never let us have contact to the outside world." He walked over to the Goth. "Are there any useful operations it can carry out without it?"
"I've tried to find maps of the building; things like that, but there's nothing," Gwen sighed. "Nothing that would help us find an escape anyway. Just some useless files the old librarian must've kept."
"Great," Trent groaned. "Hey, maybe Cody could help? He's good with technology."
"Hm. Maybe. I'll ask him later." Gwen said, closing the lid of the laptop, before opening the sign in-sign out book. "Empty. Huh." She furrowed her brows. "It looks like some pages have been ripped out."
"Ah yes, the sign out book!" Monokuma beamed, popping up beside the Goth. "Very useful for keeping record of what books are available and prevents stealing!"
"I'm sure." Gwen rolled her eyes.
"So if we want to read one of the books here, we have to sign it out?" Trent asked the bear.
"Mhm," Monokuma nodded. "Just because there's no librarian, doesn't mean you can just take the books whenever you please!"
"Um... okay..." Gwen raised a brow. "You're okay with us murdering each other, but reading a book without signing it out first is a big no-no, huh?"
"Pretty much!" Monokuma beamed. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I must go and assist the others!"
The bear then left.
"Was that Monokuma?" Bridgette asked, exiting one of the aisles and looking up the middle pathway to Gwen and Trent. "What was he doing?"
"Telling us about the sign-out book," Trent told the surfer girl. "And yes, it was as boring as it sounds."
"Huh..."
Leaving Gwen, Bridgette, Geoff and Noah in the library, the next room Trent entered was very... green. Plants were growing everywhere, and the walls were painted a a sky blue. "A botanical garden..." Trent muttered to himself, taking it all in.
"Beautiful," A soft voice said from behind the musician. "Isn't it?"
Trent spun around to see Dawn's petite form, before sighing in relief. "Yeah, it is..." He answered the girl, his eyes wandering around the room.
"Mother nature is very giving," She smiled. "There are lots of plants here that are often used in herbal remedies, so if any of us should become ill, we can always source ingredients for a treatment from here."
"Really?" Trent looked surprised. "That's awesome!"
"Sadly, though, there are also some known poisonous plants among them," Dawn informed the raven-haired musician. "So I hope no one resorts to using them as a means of..." She trailed off, hesitant in finishing her sentence.
Just as Trent was about to reply, Cody burst out from one of the bushes, out of breath. "Hide me! Quick!" He managed, his cheeks red as he crouched down behind Trent.
"What-?"
"Cody! Come and take the flowers!" Sierra's voice could be heard nearby. "Let me love you!"
Trent smirked. "Now I get it..."
Moments later, Sierra burst out from the bush Cody had just emerged from. "Cody?!" She panted, before noticing the tech-geek behind Dawn and Trent. "Cody!"
"Save me..." Cody muttered, as Trent backed away.
As Sierra lunged towards Cody, Trent quickly exited the garden.
Having exited the botanical garden, Trent looked for another room to check out. He approached the room nearest to him, one with a picture of a dumbbell on the door, before entering it.
Upon entering the room, Trent was met with Alejandro, Heather, Tyler, Lindsay, Mike and Anne Maria, who were all examining the room, which was evidently a gym.
"Trey!" Lindsay greeted him by calling him the wrong name, in typical Lindsay fashion.
"Hey, Lindsay," Trent smiled back.
"Isn't this great?" Tyler turned to Trent. "This place has a gym!"
"Yeah... fantastic..." Trent raised a brow, not particularly excited about the room.
"There's not much that sticks out as being notable about this room," said Alejandro. "No escape routes, just some exercise equipment."
"I can see myself hangin' out here..." Anne Maria nodded. "Checkin' out the view..."
Heather pulled a disgusted face. "Gag."
"What was that?" Anne Maria scowled, glaring at the Queen Bee.
"Nothing." Heather looked away, as Anne Maria growled.
Ignoring the two girls, Trent approached Mike, who was looking rather worse for wear.
"Mike," He uttered, getting the boy's attention. "Are you okay?"
Mike looked up at the musician. "Huh?" He was clearly out of it, not really paying attention. "I'm... okay..." He told him, though his mind was evidently on Zoey.
Trent half-smiled sympathetically. "I just don't want you to be caught up in despair," He told him. "That's what that stupid bear wants."
Mike looked down at the ground. "It's kinda hard not to right now..." He said. "Breaking up with Zoey was the worst mistake I ever made... Maybe if we were still together, she wouldn't have went to get the knife and maybe-"
"Don't... Don't torture yourself..." Trent sighed, interrupting him. "None of this is your fault, and Zoey wouldn't want you thinking that it was."
Mike didn't say anything, instead, he just continued to look at the ground.
"Just... don't do anything stupid, yeah?"
Mike smiled ever-so slightly.
Trent half-smiled at the boy in return, before opening the door and leaving. However, as he did so, he bumped into Gwen.
"Oh, sorry, didn't see you there!" said Trent, composing himself.
"It's cool," Gwen responded. "What's in there?" She asked, looking at the door he had just exited from.
"In there? A gym," Trent informed her. "Not really much else to say about it."
Gwen nodded in response.
"Mike was in there; I had a word with him," He told the Goth. "Told him not to do anything stupid."
"And his response?"
"Well, he didn't say anything," said Trent. "But he did smile slightly."
"I guess that's something..." Gwen said, still nodding slightly. "Did you check out the garden?"
"Oh, yeah, Dawn told me all about it."
"And there's a classroom beside it. Nothing to note about it, though." Gwen told the musician. "Which leaves those two rooms over there." She pointed to the final two rooms, which were located right beside each other. One of them had a red cross, whilst one had a skull and cross bones.
"I'm not really confident about what's behind either of those doors to be honest..."
"Well, we won't know what's behind them until we see for ourselves," said Gwen, a worried look on her face. "I suggest we try the door with the skull on it first; get it out of the way."
Trent nodded, before the pair began walking to the door. Once at said door, Gwen pushed it open and then the pair entered, seeing Justin, Owen, Katie, Sadie, Izzy and Duncan, all with disgusted looks on their faces as they gazed up at the back wall.
"Is this a...?" Trent uttered, taken aback.
"Morgue?" Duncan turned around to the pair. "It looks like it."
"There... There are eight in use..." said Sadie, trembling. "And they have names on them..."
"Eight?" Gwen raised a brow. "But there have only been two-"
"That sick son of a bitch killed some of the others." Duncan stopped the Goth. "He even took down Eva."
Trent grimaced. "W-Who else?"
"Zeke, Jo," Katie began. "Staci, Sam-"
"Even that Lightning guy!" Owen burst out.
"So that means..." Gwen uttered. "There are still some of us unaccounted for?"
Duncan nodded. "Deej, Beth, LeShawna, and four of the new guys."
"They're called Brick, B, Cameron and Dakota." said Izzy, in a tone much quieter than her usual.
"Hopefully wherever they are, they can come and rescue us from this hell!" Justin cried. "This torment is too much!"
"Oh please," Duncan rolled his eyes. "If Monokuma could find these guys, what makes you think he hasn't found the others?"
"Duncan!" Gwen glared at the delinquent.
"What?" Duncan frowned. "I'm just saying it how it is!"
"Maybe, but you don't-"
The Goth was cut off when she and the others were subjected to an ear-piercing scream, originating from the next room.
Promptly, the group ran to the last room - the room marked with a red cross - where they found Bridgette, sobbing into Geoff's chest.
"I-It's okay, Bridge," Geoff tried desperately to console his girlfriend, but his eyes appeared to be set on something on the far side of the room. "It's just one of that bear's tricks..."
Intrigued, yet scared at the same time, Gwen lead the others into the room, and gasped upon seeing what Geoff had been looking at: B, Beth, Brick, Cameron, Dakota, DJ and LeShawna, all hooked up to life-support machines.
"Oh my God..." was all Gwen could say. Though she had never met B, Brick, Dakota or Cameron, the sight of them hooked up to hospital machines was just as painful as seeing Beth, DJ and LeShawna.
"That Bastard!" Duncan clenched his fist. "This is sick! If he thinks he can do this to people and get away with it, boy, does he have another thing coming!"
"I can't even look at this..." Justin paced back and forth, his hand covering his eyes as Katie and Sadie hugged each other tightly. "This... Ugh. No."
Trent didn't say anything, instead, he just looked on at his seven ex-Total Drama co-contestants in shock. H-How...? Why?
It wasn't long before the others had arrived in the room, and after everyone had gotten past the shock of seeing their friends in hospital beds, hanging onto life, an eerie silence had formed, the only sound breaking said silence being the sniffling of Lindsay, Harold and Mike, who were standing beside Beth, LeShawna and Cameron respectively.
Soon enough, the screen situated in one of the top corners of the room, above the hospital beds, came to life, revealing Monokuma's smug face. "Upupu!" He laughed. "I see you brats have stumbled upon the next motive!"
"M-motive?" Sadie stuttered.
"Yes! Motive!" Monokuma was glad to re-affirm the chubbier BFFFL's suspicions.
"You're sick in the head!" Duncan's urge to punch something increased drastically as he glared at the screen. "Why involve them?!"
"Because it's the perfect motive!" Monokuma beamed. "Kill to save one of your friends! Am I a bear-genius or what?"
"To save them...?" Katie looked up at the screen. "What about the others?"
"Oh, the ones in the morgue?" Monokuma began to laugh. "They were useless! I only had seven beds so I killed the ones that would be less likely to cause one of you bastards to murder!"
Izzy sighed, recalling her time spent with Eva.
"So, I'm willing to make a deal!" Monokuma revealed. "Should one of you commit the perfect murder, I will save any one of your comatose-friends! However, if none of you have the guts to pull of a murder in three days... Upupupu! They'll all be killed!"
"No!" Lindsay snapped, looking at Beth's motionless form. "You can't kill them!"
Monokuma stopped laughing. "Oh really?" He leaned forward. "Try and stop me, Blondie!"
Lindsay began to cry even more, as Tyler rushed to her side, glaring at Monokuma as he did so.
"How could you do this to my luscious LeShawna?" Harold questioned the bear. "How?"
Monokuma simply laughed in Harold's face. "So, if that's all, I'd like you all to evacuate the room," He told the group. "After all, family only!"
"Hell no! You can't just expect us to leave them here!" Duncan yelled, walking over to DJ's bed.
"What's that?" Monokuma stopped laughing for a moment. "You want me to kill DJ right here and now? Well, if you insist..."
"No!" Geoff jumped in. "We'll... We'll go..." The party-boy placed a hand on the delinquent's shoulder. "Let's go, dude..."
Duncan looked down at DJ, then up at Monokuma, before turning around and reluctantly heading for the door, without saying a word.
Harold kissed LeShawna's hand, before parting with her, whilst Tyler tried his best to persuade Lindsay to leave Beth.
"Come on, babe, we have to go," He told her, though she was still refusing to leave her best friend.
"But I can't just leave her here!" Lindsay sobbed. "She needs me!"
"She... She needs her rest..." Tyler sighed, knowing that, though lying was the only way to possibly get through to her, it was still an awful thing to do. "You can see her when she wakes up..."
Lindsay turned to look up to Tyler. The pair looked at each other for a few seconds, before Lindsay burst out into tears once more, standing up to hug her boyfriend.
"It's okay, Lindsay," The hopeless Jock tried to tell his girlfriend. "It's gonna be okay."
Meanwhile, Mike lightly smiled down at Cameron, before leaving his side. "You can push through it, buddy." He said, before leaving the room as Trent and Gwen watched on.
"He's just lost the love of his life and now his best friend," Gwen sighed. "This must be killing him..."
After everyone had left the room, Monokuma toddled along with a key, the end of which resembled his face. Using the key, he locked the door. "There we go!" He smiled to himself. "Student twenty-five should've just enrolled in the school... Upupu..."
"Twenty-fifth student?" Trent raised a brow. Both he and Gwen had chosen to wait around nearby hoping to confront Monokuma. "So they were in the building after all..."
For once, it was Monokuma doing the jumping in surprise. "Oh, Trent! Gwen! You shouldn't sneak up on the principal like that!"
"So which of them is it?" Gwen questioned him. "Who was your twenty-fifth student and why are they not part of this..."
"High-School life of mutual killing?" Monokuma filled in the blank. "And like I told you, they didn't show up at the time, so I had to treat them like all of the others!"
"And who exactly is this student?" Trent added, noticing that Monokuma had neglected to answer the question when Gwen had asked it.
Monokuma chuckled. "That information is classified, Trent! Now, I have some important business to attend to, so, goodbye!"
Trent and Gwen watched on in frustration as the small bear waddled away.
Who could it be? Who is that twenty-fifth student and how... How did they have the option to turn down this nightmare?! Something doesn't add up...
After getting caught up in his thoughts, Trent was brought back to reality when Gwen spoke up. "Are you coming?"
"Huh...?" Trent muttered, having not paid attention.
"To see the others?"
"Oh. Yeah, sure. Sorry."
New Rooms: Library, Botanical Garden, Gym & Locker Room, Classroom, Morgue, Medical Room.
Alive: Alejandro, Anne Maria, Bridgette, Cody, Courtney, Dawn, Duncan, Geoff, Gwen, Harold, Heather, Izzy, Justin, Katie, Lindsay, Mike, Noah, Owen, Sadie, Sierra, Trent, Tyler. (22)
Comatose: B, Beth, Brick, Cameron, Dakota, DJ, LeShawna. (7)
Dead (Mutual Killing): Zoey, Scott. (2)
Dead (Pre-Mutual Killing): Chris, Eva, Ezekiel, Jo, Lightning, Sam, Staci. (7)
Unaccounted For: Blaineley, Chef. (2)
There it is. The first chapter of case two. Any idea as to who's gonna be bumped off? Or who will do the bumping off? o:
I'm really looking forward to writing the next chapter - I just hope I don't make the victim/murder too obvious in the process! :$
Sorry for the slow update time! The next update won't be anywhere near as long!