Hour 8

"What?" Emi meant to ask, but no words came out; her mouth didn't even move. "Kill your brother" Liam repeated without remorse. He hooked his thumbs into the belt loops of his jeans while he looked around the stage as if he were looking for the disembodied announcer and asked, "That should be allowed, right?" The voice answered, "Correct, that is fine." Emi thought, "No..." She looked at Alex across the stage as she thought, "I can't kill Alex... I'd never!" Alex fidgeted in his seat on the floor next to Paul, who was holding the shotgun. Alex was obviously doing something in his lap, but he was too far away to see clearly. Liam leaned forward and asked, "What's the matter? Are you saying you won't, are you saying you lose?" Emi said, "No, no! I'm not, I..." She realized Paul and Alex were now walking to her, the last thing she expected. As they approached, Emi started, "Paul, don't let him-" but he threw his hands up as if she was a cop pointing a loaded pistol at him, shotgun still under his arm, and said, "he made me, he told me he had a plan!" As they stopped in front of her she was shocked by the confidence in Alex's step, the frightened image she had made of him in her head challenged right in front of her. He took off his backpack and rummaged through it before handing her the .44 which he had taken back after his nap in the waiting area. She refused it with the back of her hand as she tripped over her words "W-What the hell are you thinking!?" Alex pushed the bottom of the handle into the palm of her hand with a strength she didn't know he had. "Please, just trust me, Emily." Emi's hand had accepted the gun before she had made a conscious decision to do so. Alex very rarely even called her Emi, and she couldn't think of a time he had ever used her real name before. She still hadn't accepted the premise yet but the look on Alex's face, while clouded with a layer of fear, also undeniably had an aura of calculated conviction. Liam whistled "Kid, I didn't think you had any balls. I'm impressed." Ignoring Liam, Alex repeated himself to Emi, "Trust me, I think this will work." "You think it will or know it will!?" Emi asked in disbelief, her emotions causing her to raise her voice. The announcer interjected, "You have 10 seconds to kill your brother, or you will die." Alex stepped back, closed his eyes, and gave her a thumbs up, the same exact goofy thumbs up she had given to him in his room when she had been trying to convince him not to worry about the text message he had gotten. Then, Emi shot someone in the chest for the second time that day. The announcer had been on the number "7" of his countdown when she fired the deafening round and on "6" when Alex's body slumped to the ground. She fell to her knees around the same time Alex had, like the act of pulling the trigger had drained all her strength from her legs. Liam laughed hysterically as he put his face in his hand and said, "I can't believe you did that! That's hilarious!" Rage contorted Emi's pretty face into something raw and sinister. Before she could turn the gun on him she heard her phone beep. As she checked it, she saw she had only gained about an hour or two for killing Alex. "That's weird... Alex should've had well over 100 hours?" She wiped away her tears as she thought, "Maybe this has something to do with his plan...?" Then she heard his voice; she heard Alex say "Hey... It worked!" She turned so fast she almost lost her balance where she sat. Alex was standing, rubbing his chest where he had been shot. Blood still soaked his white shirt but he seemed to be fine. Emi scrambled to him in a frantic run, her feet barely able to keep her balance. She hugged him hard and asked, "What the hell! How did you do that?" Alex took out his phone and asked "Remember back in the car when I used our Bluetooth to share that weird store from your phone with mine? Remember how I told you there were special items?" She responded, "Yeah, yeah, I remember." He explained, "I bought a revive with the hours I got from that guy; it cost 140 hours." Emi saw the purchase window on his phone that said, "Instant revive: die once and come back to life just like in those video games you love! Be careful, though, it can only be used once per person, and when you revive, you will only have 24 hours left. Try not to die again!" Emi buried her head into his shoulder as she hugged him again and said, "You're a genius... But don't ever do anything like that again without telling me first." Alex said. "Sorry... I didn't want to let anyone know. For all I knew, they could say it was against the rules, but as long as they hadn't stated that, I knew it should work. "What a touching reunion" Liam retorted. He had picked up the .44 Emi had accidentally left behind in her excitement when she saw Alex back up. As he admired the firearm, he added, "This game was fun at first, but I'm starting to get bored now." He pointed the gun at his own group and shot one of them in the skull erasing half his face while misting the others in a spray of red. As his team scattered in blind terror, he shot two in the back as they ran, and before he could execute the fourth, they slipped off the stage and were consumed by the audience, their screams quickly muffled by the sounds of chewing. Emi screamed, "What are you doing!?" Liam sang in an uncanny cackle, "As long as 5 people remain, that's all that matters! I can kill anyone as long as I'm not currently challenging them in truth or dare!" He pointed the gun at Emi's team, his eyes infected with madness as he said, "Me and the girl count as two, meaning only 3 of you will pass. Who will it be?" Emi shouted, "I dare you not to kill anyone until the game is over!" The man laughed, "You didn't ask me truth or dare, sweetheart." Emi yelled, "Truth or dare!" The man sighed, "You're no fun," as he shrugged, still holding the weapon. The voice instructed him, "Please answer the question." "Truth," he said. Emi asked, "Why did you kill Daniel Wyatt? He was found shot dead at the end of Burgundy St in South Pennsylvania 14 years ago." Liam used the barrel of the gun to scratch his head. "Hmmm... I already told you I don't remember the people I kill, but that sounds familiar." Then he said, "Oh, I remember! The asshole cut me off! He even begged for his life and said he had a wife and kids. A lot of people do that, but I remember him because he had a military uniform on. I took one of his medals as a souvenir." Emi felt like she had swallowed a piece of lead, and Alex became stiff. Liam asked, "Truth or dare?" Emi was quiet for a moment prompting the announcer to ask, "Do you forfeit?" Emi spat, "Truth." Liam then said, "One, two, three, four," as he pointed the gun first at Paul, then Jake, Richard, and Alice. He told Emi, "I marked each one of them with a number between 0 and 100. Your truth is: what's your favorite number between 0 and 100? Whoever's closest to your number gets blown away." Emi looked at her team, and they looked back at her, eyes wide with unease. Emi thought, "There's no way around this; if I try to stall, the announcer will force me to continue... But I have to try." She said, "I don't have a favorite number." She was trying desperately to think of something she could do. Liam snorted, "Come on, you're no fun at all." He steadied his aim at Jake, who fell back in fear, hands raised in a useless attempt to shield himself. Liam said, "Blame her," as he nodded to Emi. "you might've been spared if she had the guts to make a decision." Paul drew the shotgun he had been holding in such a clunky way that it was obvious he had never used one before. As he tried to aim at Liam he was shot in the chest with the final round the .44 contained. He fell backwards in a way that made him look like a contortionist and the shotgun was released from his grasp. Alex ran to him but it was too late, Paul was dead, killed instantly. The announcer instructed, "Since only 5 players are left, the finalists have been decided, and the game is over. Please exit the stage using the door on your right." A door, one that hadn't been there before, was now built into the frame backstage. Liam began walking towards it, and Emi made a sprint for the shotgun by Paul. The announcer warned her, "The 5 winners have been decided. Anyone who kills another now will die themselves." Emi stopped, her hand already wrapped around the shotgun. She could still feel the warmth from Paul who had been holding it while she was unconscious. Liam taunted her, "Too bad for you," as he exited through the new door. Before it could close, he disrespectfully threw the empty .44 out behind him." Emi screamed, "What are we fighting for!? What's the point of all this!?" Surprisingly, the voice responded, "If you make it past the next few objectives, we will tell you. You are close." "Close to what!?" She screamed but there was no answer this time.

Her group gathered their thoughts; Alice slipped her clothes back on, Alex retrieved the empty .44, and Emi, Jake, and Richard sat next to Paul. Jake was shrouded in a quiet somberness and he couldn't find it within himself to say much. They quietly entered the door at their own pace, all feeling the weight of this last game in their own ways. As the door shut behind them, the shadow audience engulfed the stage and began feeding on Paul. emi's phone buzzed:

New objective: You're It