I felt my throat clench as the blonde continued to sap the air out of my lungs. I tried my best to tell him the truth, of my innocence, but I couldn't form the words in my limited amount of air. I had been so surprised I hadn't even been prepared to fight back.

My body was slowly slipping away from consciousness as I forced my eyes open. I saw blurry images of some bodies entering the room, followed by the sound of footsteps. The first one that was in was none other than my red-headed nightmare.

I heard her gasp before running at me, or more specifically, Jason. She lunged at him in an attempt to throw him off me. Of course, she was unable to do so and fell to the ground after running into him, but it distracted Jason long enough to allow me to escape.

"What… the… hell man?" I asked him between breaths as I slowly stood up. Rachel ran behind me to the doorway, where everyone else had apparently been waiting. I ignored them and focused on the furious boy in front of me.

"I should say the same thing to you! I haven't seen my sister in years, only to find her killed by you! You cowardly sadistic asshole, I'm going to make you pay!" he screamed before charging at me again.

This time I was ready to fight, he swung a wild punch at me that had been easy enough to dodge. Before I could counter him, a womanly body stepped between us.

"Reyna, what are you doing!? Get out of the way!" Jason screamed, though I couldn't help but notice his anger lowered slightly in her presence. She fixed him with a sharp glare and a light push. Tears welled in his eyes as they fell, betrayal clearly evident within them.

"Don't look at me that way Jason. Calm down and think" she stated sternly before her voice turned much softer, as if she were talking to a young child.

"This boy couldn't have killed her for three main reasons. Number one: There are ten of us in this game. The person we don't see is probably the killer. Number two: did you not notice her hand was chopped off? I doubt Percy has a knife, and even if he did, it would have taken him a while to cut her hand off.

"He would also be bloody right now as that arm bled far too much for him not to get any on himself." She rambled off information so fast I had trouble keeping up. She was defending me better than I could have; no doubt she'd be a great lawyer.

"Lastly, did you actually look at your surroundings? Obviously not, otherwise you'd see the vent above you open" she said pointing to said vent right above Thaila's body. It was opened and just big enough to fit a small person in. Dried blood was easily seeable; whoever killed her hadn't been very sneaky.

Jason noticed this and visible calmed down his anger evaporating, leaving only a sad broken boy. Reyna immediately wrapped a supportive arm around him in an attempt to comfort him. She began to walk out the door before she noticed her scrawny friend was inspecting the body.

"Octavian, what are you doing?" Reyna screeched, causing Jason to cover his ears.

The boy who she called Octavian spoke in a calm, superior manner. His tone was nonchalant, as if the dead body hadn't even fazed him. "Well, Reyna, I plan on escaping this little game. If she has hints that could get me out of here faster than I want them; and it looks like I just hit the Jackpot!" Octavian acclaimed as he pulled out a sheet of paper with something attached to it from Thaila's lifeless corpse.

"This one's a bit long." Octavian said more to himself than us before he began reading. "Congratulations! You got the number ten brand, meaning you get a very special reward! Here is a number two card! Now be careful, the first person to touch this permanently owns it, therefore they're the only one that can use it. If you were to die, the card would then be null and void. Good luck?"

As soon as he finished, he ripped the attachment from the note. It didn't take a rocket scientist to know what that was; a card that looked more like a blue computer chip. Painted on it was a red number 2 directly in the center of it.

"Quick, everyone tell what color branding is on each of your hand" Octavian said quickly, as if receiving a sudden revelation. I had forgotten that the red seven on my hand wasn't natural. One by one we each gave our colored hand as well as the number.

My mom had a white number one.

Rachel had a purple number two.

Octavian had an indigo number three.

Jason had a green number five.

The Native American girl had yellow number six.

I, of course, had a red number seven.

The Latino had an orange number eight.

Lastly, Reyna had a grey number nine.

"Hmm… I see. Then the two main color's were missing are blue and black." Octavian mumbled softly, though we all heard him.

I ran that through my head quickly. He was right; we had white and grey but not blue, and we had every color of the rainbow except blue.

"What are you getting at Octavian" Reyna said disdainfully. She obviously knew him before coming here, but apparently didn't get along with him greatly. Though I could understand why, something about him just rubs you the wrong way. Octavian either didn't notice or didn't care about her tone.

"I'm saying that Jason's sister here either a blue four or ten. You see, the card is blue, meaning she touched it, therefore claiming ownership of it. I'm also saying there is a person running around with access to any door with black or blue." Octavian quizzically spoke.

"Wait, why would they have access to both black and blue doors?" I questioned out loud to him. He looked me down like a stern parent would look at a disobedient child.

"Are you unobservant or just that daft? The killer obviously cut off the hand that had her number on it. All you need is the hand to get through a door, not the person."

A few of us gasped in shock. How he remained so calm about this was beyond me. As if killing wasn't bad enough, defiling someone's corpse was even worse. I looked back over a Thaila and began to feel sick to my stomach. The pungent odor of blood was getting hard to withstand, and looking at my friend's lifeless corpse wasn't making me feel better.

"Hey guys… do you mind if we step outside the room to continue this conversation outside? I can't stand looking at her corpse much longer." I asked as nicely as I could muster. The others nodded sympathetically and, in Jason's case, agreement.

I turned and took one last look at Thaila before walking out the room, praying I didn't have to see something like that again.

We all sat in the lobby where we first met; Reyna took leadership by speaking first. "Alright, everyone, we should start with introductions. I'm Reyna; this is my friend Jason and my…acquaintance… Octavian." She didn't seem to know what to call the blond, merely shrugged and looked at looked away with a bored expression. The Native American girl was the next to speak up.

"My name is Piper and this is my friend Leo" she said while gesturing to Leo. Leo put on a face of mock offence.

"Piper, I told you I am to be called Lieutenant Hot Bod." He said with a smirk. Piper turned red with a look of embarrassment and anger.

"And I told you if you say that…that nickname again you'd be lieutenant bruised bod" she practically yelled at him before giving him a kick on the shin for good measure.

I don't know how, but I laughed. Despite what had happened in the last few minutes, this small humorous showcase made me smile. Unfortunately I was the only one who laughed, so Leo heard it. He gave me and exaggerated wink, which earned him another swift kick to the shin.

Before he could get any more bodily harm done to him I decided it was our turn to get introductions out the way.

"My name is Percy, this is my mom Sally and my…er… friend Rachel." I said friend more like a question rather than a statement. It must have been the wrong answer as Rachel narrowed her eyes at me; luckily she kept quiet so no one noticed.

"Alright, nice to meet you all. Now let's try and get everything we know together alright," Reyna said, taking control once again.

"Somewhere in the hell hole there is a door with a (10) on it. In order to enter that door we need cards that create a sum of 10. These cards are found in the form of cards with the number (2) on them. To find these cards we must find them in a numbered door, which are spread throughout the building. We each get a number (2) card, we each get out. I miss anything?" She concluded. Octavian spoke up directly after she finished.

"Yes, only one thing my dear Reyna; one of the (2) cards have already been taken, and their owner killed. As we learned earlier, this makes that card null and void. That means while five of us can get in the (10) door on the first go around, the other three of us; four if you count the killer, will be stuck."

Of course, he was right.

(2+2+2+2+2=10) The first five people with a (2) card will be able to get through the number (10) door.

However that would leave:

(2+2+2+2=8) This, the total of eight, is not enough for everyone else to exit the building.

Suddenly the room got colder as we all looked at each other in suspicion. I wanted to get out with both Rachel and my mom. I'm sure Reyna wanted to get out with Jason (and maybe Octavian) and Piper wanted to get out with Leo. Only five of us were going through that door, and there were nine of us left alive in the building.