Light
"YUGO!" Rin shoved Allen and Dennis aside and ran over to Yugo's body.
"Rin, don't touch him!" Yuto warned her.
Rin dropped to her knees just short of him, but paused before attempting to grab his arm.
"Y-Yugo!" Rin didn't even attempt to hold back her tears.
Even at her accusations toward him, Yuya couldn't help but grab Rin's shoulders from behind, kneeling down behind her and placing his forehead on her shoulder. He was crying with her. Yuzu too was in tears, gripping the nearest thing for support, which just so happened to be Yuto.
"But how?" Sawatari asked, glancing around the room in shock and confusion "The first time we searched for Yugo, he wasn't in this room. We checked this room, right? Right?!"
He turned to Serena for confirmation.
"Of course we did" Serena nodded.
"T-Then how…did he end up h-here…?" Sayaka turned away from Yugo's body, trying not to throw up. Shun, who was holding Yuzu's glass of water for her, handed it to Sayaka, which she sipped carefully. She felt weak and almost fell to her knees, but Reira did his best to steady her until Allen moved over to help.
"Sayaka! Are you okay?" Allen asked, slowly setting her on the floor.
"W-We can't stay…in here…" she breathed "C-Can we go to another room…?"
"Sure thing" Shun agreed, looping his arm around Sayaka's waist so he could support her as they walked "Grab a blanket to put over the body."
That was towards Dennis.
"O-Okay…" Dennis stepped over to the large cupboard and reached for a red blanket sitting on a low shelf. He unfolded it and laid it completely over Yugo's body. Rin had continued to stare at the blanket, refusing to look away.
"Rin…" Serena knelt down next to her, taking one of her hands whilst Yuya took the other "We have to go…"
Rin was reluctant to move, but subconsciously knew that staring at Yugo wasn't going to bring him back to life. She finally stood up and walked over to the door, not looking back.
"Let's go" she said in monotone. She refused to look at anyone.
The remaining people: Shun, Yuto, Yuri, Dennis, Yuzu, Yuya, Rin, Serena, Sayaka, Allen, Reira and Sawatari, made their way along the third floor into Gongenzaka's room, upon the orders of Shun. After all, it wasn't like Gongenzaka was going to be needing it any time soon. Yuzu and Yuya didn't particularly want to go into their friend's room, knowing he was lying dead in the main room downstairs, but they did agree none the less.
Everyone tried to keep themselves distracted as they passed Reira's room, where Yuto's bloody handprint was still visible on the doorknob, by reminding themselves that Gongenzaka's room was at the very end of the corridor, as far away from the stairs as it could be, making it probably the safest room on the floor.
Yuzu, the last person to enter the room, locked the door behind her, causing everyone to turn around.
"Why did you lock the door?" Sawatari asked immediately.
"Um…" Yuzu looked around, then back toward the door. She unlocked it. "S-Sorry. I want to think that the murderers are running around the mansion, but now that Yugo is dead…"
Everyone glanced around uneasily at one another. It was bad enough thinking one of the killers was in their group, but now with Yugo dead it was obvious that out of the last twelve people alive, two of them had murdered their other friends. And they were all in this room…
"Well, no more accusing Yugo of being a murderer" Yuri said, mostly to Rin. He felt a little apologetic, considering he knew Yugo pretty well and had still accused him; but knowing that any of their friends could be murderers, it was hard to trust anyone.
"So…tired…" Reira yawned, and Dennis was wiping his eyes next to him.
"You guys can get some sleep, now" Shun offered, helping lead Sayaka over to the bed "Man, this bed is huge! I think all of you can fit on it."
Reira, Sayaka and Serena lay on the bed side by side. Dennis and Allen rested horizontally at the foot of the bed.
"Wake us up in an hour or so" Serena told Yuri "We'll switch over."
"Sure" he agreed.
Sayaka turned on a desk lamp on the side table next to her so that Yuzu could switch off the main light.
Everyone on the bed fell asleep quickly. Yuto envied them for a moment. He wasn't too tired, but he had to stay awake and continue being haunted by the thoughts of his friends' deaths. He hoped that they were too tired to dream; he was worried that one of them would wake up from a nightmare.
Yuya and Sawatari sat by the window, watching the snow blow ferociously and listening to the loud howl of the wind.
"We still never got hold of the police, did we?" Yuzu pondered, sitting against the edge of the bed, on the floor.
Sawatari shook his head. "Even if we did, I doubt they would even be able to make it through this awful weather. Someone up there hates us."
"Bet it's the Professor" Yuri muttered, leaning against the wall.
Rin sat down on the edge of the bed, staring at the window with a sigh "Yugo always liked snow..."
No one said anything.
"I can't believe someone would do this…" Shun growled "Why?! Why would someone do this?!"
He slammed his fist on the wall in frustration.
"I don't know" Yuya ran a hand through his hair and clenched his fist "But when I find out who it is, I won't even give them a chance to tell me why they did it! They're gonna pay for killing Gongenzaka and Sora and everyone else!"
Crash!
All of those awake jumped. A loud noise came from outside of the bedroom.
"W-What was that?!" Sawatari flew to his feet.
"It came from the hallway, I think!" Yuya squeaked, half-walking half-jumping over to the door and putting his ear to it "I don't hear anything else."
"But how can that be?" Yuto wondered "We're the only ones left in this house! Alive, at least…"
"Does that mean…there's an outsider in the mansion?!" Yuzu squeaked.
"What should we do?" Yuya asked, actually looking a little nervous "We can't leave this room, but…"
"There's a possibility that someone else in this house is killing our friends and trying to frame us!" Rin insisted.
"That could be true" Yuri shrugged "I think we should check it out."
"But we can't leave them!" Shun pointed out, pointing to his friends asleep on the bed "We should just lock the door and stay here!"
"There's seven of us" Yuya pointed out "How about three of us have a look around and the other four can stay here and watch the rest?"
"F-Fine" Shun didn't sound sure about the idea, but nodded anyway "I'm staying here."
"So am I" Sawatari raised his hand, then quickly putting it down again.
"I'll go" Yuri decided with a 'humph', standing up fully as he had been leaning against the wall.
"I don't think that's a good idea, you're still injured" Yuto pointed out "I'll go. Yuzu, you've got a flashlight, yes?"
"Well, yes" Yuzu's hand went towards her pocket "But-"
"Well you should come too" Yuto decided, cutting her off "You, Yuya and I, we'll check it out. It might just be nothing – maybe our footsteps disturbed a lamp and it's fallen over now or something."
"Alright, you've got a point. I'm not scared" Yuzu agreed, Yuya standing up to join them.
"Great, so I'm left babysitting with Birthday Boy and the two most unstable people in this dimension, wonderful" Yuri rolled his eyes.
"Please, just don't argue" Yuto sighed "It's not worth it. We'll be right back, we're just gonna go look around real quick."
Shun didn't look very happy with this plan, but decided not to push it.
"Be careful" Sawatari warned.
"Will do" Yuya grinned at him, giving him a thumbs-up as he left with Yuzu and Yuto. It was for Sawatari's sake – he was actually terrified.
The trio slowly began making their way down the hallway. Yuto had the idea to have Yuzu walk beside them and Yuya walk backward to watch behind them so that no one could sneak up and attack them.
That worked out well for a few seconds. Then, the lights shut off for the second time that night.
"Aww, no way!" Yuya panicked "What now?!"
"Flashlight!" Yuto bellowed.
Almost immediately, Yuzu turned the flashlight on and shone it on the boys. Yuto raised his hand and grumbled for Yuzu to direct the beam at someone else, so she pointed it at the wall instead.
"Won't the backup generator turn back on after a few seconds?" Yuzu asked.
They stood still for a few moments and waited for it to happen. But once a minute passed, they grew confused.
"W-What?" Yuya tried not to panic and failed "The light didn't turn back on!"
In an attempt to comfort him, Yuzu offered for him to hold the flashlight, which he all but snatched out of her hands.
"Sawatari did mention the backup generator could fail in the blizzard" Yuto tapped his foot against the ground and folded his arms "Good for the killers – I guess they really wanted those lights to stay off."
"What now?" Yuzu asked, also worried, leaving Yuto the only one in the 'staying calm-ish' group "It's dangerous to be wandering around here in the dark!"
"We should at least find out what fell in the hallway so we can determine if there really is someone else running around this mansion or if it fell on its own" Yuto humphed "If someone's bold enough to take on three of us, they can try!"
He was sick of hiding. He was a former Resistance solider – he fought people face-to-face, not cowering in the dark.
"Y-Yuto, I'm not much of a fighter…" Yuya was shaking, the flashlight beam waving in every direction.
"Do you want me to hold that again?" Yuzu offered, holding out her hand.
"N-No!" Yuya shrieked "I feel better protected with this with me!"
"Okay, okay!" Yuzu waved her hands in defence "Well, let's keep looking."
The trio stayed relatively close to one another, since Yuya was the only source of light they had and Yuto kept on tripping over things. They walked in silence for a while, beginning to wonder how long this hallway really was.
"Man, I didn't realise how long the third floor hallway was" Yuto sighed "It's never-ending. Surely we must be near the stairs by n-OW!"
"Yuto?!" Yuzu squeaked, and Yuya immediately swung the flashlight around.
"Oww!" Yuto held up one foot and was nursing it with his fingers "Who's been leaving glass on the floor?"
Yuzu and Yuya knelt down, shining the light toward Yuto's feet. He had stepped on broken pieces of a vase.
"I think this is what fell" Yuya examined the vase pieces "I can't believe we heard it crash from all the way down the hallway. Where did it fall from?"
Yuzu looked up, snatching the flashlight and shining it against the wall trying to find the source. "I think there's a shelf up there. But that's pretty high up…"
"Hey, do you hear that?" Yuya asked out-of-the-blue.
"Hear what?" Yuzu grunted, staring up at the shelf and wondering if maybe Shun could reach up there. Maybe someone slightly taller than her jumping could reach it?
Could Yuto have been right in that just the vibrations of just them walking had dislodged it, rather than an unseen assailant? She wanted to believe that was true but…
She winced on instinct as a loud noise just beside her nearly shattered her eardrums.
"Aaaaaaahhhhh!"
"Yuto?!" Yuya looked around frantically "What happened?! Yuzu, shine the light down here!"
"Did he step on the vase again?" Yuzu turned the light downward and his eyes widened at what he saw.
"Y-Yuto!" Yuya yelped "N-No!"
Yuto lay dead on his side, a knife through his neck killing him all but instantly.
"Oh my god!" Yuya shrieked "H-How?! I was right here! He was standing right next to me and I didn't feel a thing!"
"Does that mean the killer is close?!" Yuzu shone the flashlight every which direction, trying to remain calm "Did somebody get out of the room?!"
"We have to go back to Gongenzaka's room!" Yuya insisted, practically screaming and hyperventilating "Now!"
He grabbed Yuzu's wrist and sprinted down the hallway back toward the bedroom. Yuzu could hardly keep up, she kept stumbling over her own feet.
"C'mon, Yuzu!" Yuya cried, all but dragging her.
Yuzu couldn't find any words to say back to him.
The two kept running, reaching the bedroom pretty quickly. They burst into the room, slammed the door shut, and locked the door.
"Yuya? Yuzu?" Rin, Sawatari, Shun and Yuri were immediately at the pair's side, the two having collapsed onto the floor trying to catch their breath. Having slammed the door stirred those who were still asleep, a few of them were sitting up and trying to figure out what was going on.
"Wait, where's Yuto?" Shun asked.
Yuya was having a hard time looking him in the eyes.
"K-Kurosaki" he huffed and puffed "Y-Yuto is dead."