Punishment

Eric entered the code he got and entered the room.

"Eric Starr, twelfth place." Kalea nodded as he entered the room. He gave a half-hearted wave, and then looked to see if Wendy was in here. The good news is that she was, the bad news was that Leonie was talking to her, and a few sparks of electricity were flying haphazardly. Most of them seemed to be attracted to Yun-Yeong. However, Ulrich and Silvia looked somewhat irritated. And while he was tired, he felt the need to step in.

"Come on, Wendy. Tell us. How did you get this code, exactly?" She clutched Wendy's arm with possibly the evillest grin on her face Eric had seen. Yun-Yeong pulled her back in panic by her hood, and she ended up falling to the ground, clutching her neck.

"Oh, come on, Wendy. I thought we were friends! After all, I read all about you! Your home, your lifestyle, the incident with your sister, all that good stuff."

"Y-You know what?!" Wendy cried out. A few stray jolts of electricity were flying out, and Yun-Yeong covered her as the electricity started spurting out of her.

"It was me." Eric stepped out in between the two of them. "I gave her the code."

"Ooh, really?" Leonie took a deep breath, walking up to him. Meeting him eye to eye. "And how would know the code, my dear Eric?"

Eric didn't say anything for a few seconds, before just exhaling slightly and saying, "Lucky guess."

Leonie gained a smug look on her face, looking at Wendy out of the corner of her eyes, and then back to Eric. "You…honestly expect me to believe that?" She asked with a short snicker, before returning to Wendy. She was upright now, backing away slowly, before Leonie violently grabbed her by the neck of her hoodie.

"Come on, tell me about the code! Where did you get it? We can't be having risks to Nova Security running around, can we?" Her face had a fake smile on it, and Eric decided he was done with her little acting performance.

Eric just punched her in the head. She dropped Wendy, who ran behind him. He felt the eyes of everyone burning from behind him as he waited for Leonie to react. She just stood frozen in time with a blank expression for a few seconds, before adding to the eyes on him, a blank expression making its appearance, but with an aura of pure fury radiating off her.

"Who do you think you are, exactly?" She whispered to Eric, walking up to him. "I assumed you weren't this goddamn braindead to break rules for such a stupid reason. I suppose now would be a good time to show how exactly I'll be dealing with rule breakers this time around."

Her eyes turned psychotic, her mouth widened into an evil grin, and Eric felt something brush up against his leg. He tried stepping back, and he couldn't move. His back felt somewhat cold, and he looked around for anything to get away from, but he couldn't see anything. Leonie was about to raise her arm, but Kalea slammed into her at full force, her head hitting off the steel wall, and she fell to the ground.

"Are you okay?" She asked. She had a look of genuine concern in her eyes as she said it, but Eric didn't want to assume she was good. Regardless, whatever was against his leg faded, so he just gave an exasperated thumbs up.

"I know you aren't going to believe this, but I'm on your side."

Eric just gave a quick thank you as he walked up to Yun-Yeong and sat down on the floor beside her, taking off his jacket to reveal a black tank top and resting his head against the jacket.

"Well, that was certainly something." Huang spoke up, looking around the room. "And one of her hosts being on our side, apparently! Truly something."

"She's just a necker, ignore it." Silvia shouted back with an eye roll.

"Necker?" Ulrich asked.

"Some bitch who stretches her neck out for the police. Just stay away from her."

The game continued outside. Valentina and Cyrus made their way in, and then Seeta. Her eyes darted around the room, her eyes fixing on Lloyd, who she made her way to. She grabbed him by the neck immediately.

"Woah now, what's the deal here, young lady?" Lloyd asked nonchalantly.

"You stole my code!" She yelled out.

"I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about. Did you see anything, Aurora?"

Aurora shut her eyes and tapped her head for a few seconds. "Don't recall anything like that, darling."

Kalea sighed while tapping something on her watch, and Seeta's eyes jolted open, and she fell to the floor.

"W-what was that?" Gemma asked taking a few steps back. Lloyd just adjusted his shirt and hair and went back to posing like he knew about a surprise paparazzi shoot around the corner.

"She's just asleep, relax." Kalea replied, as if she was about to drop herself. "Kapil, you wanna get her?"

Kapil silently picked up Seeta, checking her pulse and sitting her down against a wall. Kalea checked her watch at the three people remaining. Akemi, Micah and Odebode. All three were on floor three, and all the remaining codes were on floor two.

"Attention, three remaining. All three codes are on floor two, please make your way there so we can continue the game."

"Okay, I need to freshen up." Leonie said, slightly disoriented. She stumbled towards the bathroom within the safe room, fumbling with her dress until she found her own watch within. She slapped it on her wrist and once again looked up the footage of Lloyd stealing Seeta's code.

"Oh, Lloyd, Lloyd, Lloyd. Just when will I reveal your crimes? It sure will be interesting when that comes to light."