3x3

Kalea woke up on the floor, her body aching. She felt a cotton blanket on top of her but was on the wooden floor surrounded by shards of broken wood on the second floor of the old Zamasan restaurant. Above her was Leonie in a crude wooden bed, her candy-coloured hair looking incredibly messy. Her head was pounding, and she needed a drink. At least something which could take the edge off whatever happened to her recently. She wandered over to the door, forgetting what she was doing for a brief second, before hearing a voice croak behind her.

"Kalea?"

Kalea turned around to see Leonie looking at her. She looked like a genuine wreck, with her hair in all directions and what looked to be tearstains on her eyes.

"Are you okay, Kalea?" She asked.

"Pretty bad headache, but other than that I'm okay." Kalea croaked.

"And that's it, right?" Leonie replied, her voice trembling. "Mersache said you can take today off if you don't feel up for it."

"Really?" Kalea replied. "If that's the case, I'm going to the bar."

"Good, good. Take the time off, you deserve it." Leonie said calmly, with what appeared to be genuine warmth to her voice.

Kalea gave a quick nod and went back to opening the door.

"Actually, Kalea. Before you go."

Kalea turned around again.

"What did Mersache do to you, exactly? Like, how did you get all the souls of the Rosethorn commanders?"

Kalea's hair stood on end when she heard that statement. Did Mersache tell her about the chimera process? Did she just guess?

"How do you know about souls?" She was probably just awake during the ordeal in the bathroom. They were pretty loud, after all.

"I…actually don't know." Leonie replied, looking at her bedsheets in contemplation. "You had a bunch of souls shoved into you, right?"

"How do you know that?" Kalea asked, looking at the door. If she was given to order to kill her, she could run.

"I…don't know. The ideas just showed up in my brain, you know? But anyway, Kalea. If you need help with something, you can just ask me, okay? It's just…you're the only person I ever really…cared about, I guess? If Mersache were to leave or die, I don't think I'd care that much, but if you died…I'd feel kind of bad, I think. I'm rambling, but I'll be able to tell you more later."

"Oh." Kalea replied. She didn't know what else to reply with. But Leonie stopped talking. And for the first time, seemed to be showing genuine emotion. It was off putting, like the warmth in her voice was heating up a portal to hell.

"I'm…going to leave now." Kalea replied softly. "And the show starts in a couple hours, so you should get ready."

Silvia lay in her bed, the one closest to the door. Wendy took the bottom left corner, Amber took the top right corner, and Vanessa took the bed next to Amber. All three of them were still asleep. She checked her watch, which read five AM. As hard as she tried, she couldn't get back to sleep. Even after forty-five minutes, when she got her next message from the producers.

"Get ready and come outside. Make sure no one is following you."

She did as instructed, getting into the open shower room. Just a pure white room with some shower nozzles and no stalls. She began washing off while hoping that nobody heard her. Once she got her clothes washed and dried in a few minutes, she stepped outside, where Leonie was waiting.

"Hello there, Kalea." She said, as jovial as ever. "Ready for today's mission?"

"Guess so." Silvia replied, as calm as ever.

"Great to hear, great to hear." Leonie said, clapping her hands together. "Now then, for the challenge, you'll need this."

She handed Silvia a small device with a button on it underneath a plastic case.

"Put that safely in your pocket or under your hat or something. Just be sure not to sit on it or do anything that'll set it off."

"So what is it, exactly?" Silvia asked, inspecting the small device. Even with the casing, she could probably ball up this device in her fist without pressing the button.

"It's a device you put on Wendy. We're bringing back the exploding smilers today, right? And when one of them brushes off her, you take it out, press the button, and stick it to her. She'll probably be slightly confused, but she'll be dead a few seconds later, so you don't need to worry about it!"

"You're a real sadistic bitch, you know that?"

"Hey, I couldn't come up with something like this if I tried." Leonie replied with a quick shrug. "But anyway, challenge is in two hours, best of luck!"

Leonie skipped away, looking at what remained of the city. Silvia walked back into the girls room, laying on her bed. The explosive was inside her hat, and nobody would suspect anything.

Especially not Wendy.

Nothing else to do, she got out of bed once again. She went to the vending machine, getting herself a bag of potato chips. Even though her stomach was on the verge of cannibalising itself, it seemed to also dread the idea of her eating something. So halfway through the bag, she already felt like vomiting. She just stuffed it inside her pocket, hoping she'd feel up to it by the start of the challenge. And for the final time, she went back to her bed.

Her watch buzzed. 7AM. Time for everyone to get up.

"Morning, Silvia." Vanessa said. "You know where the towels are?"

"Storage locker. Second door on your left." Silvia croaked. "Took a shower this morning, it's not bad."

"Not bad?"

"Not as good as the dorms, but it's still water on your body. Also it's communal."

"So…is the water cold? Like, cold enough that you'd need to be close to someone else?"

"Nah, it was pretty warm." Silvia replied calmly.

"Ah, got it." Vanessa sighed. "Well, see you in a while."

Silvia stood in front of the hospital, waiting for the rest of them to come out. Cyrus was first, well dressed with his hands behind his back, as per usual. Then came Wendy.

"Morning, Silvia!" She shouted with a head shake. Not as happy as usual, but more than she expected considering what happened yesterday.

"Morning." Silvia replied calmly, the sweat starting to multiply on her forehead.

Eric walked out afterwards. Then Odebode, Andrei, and Micah. And finally Amber and Vanessa. Once the nine of them were out, Leonie approached them with a smiler at each side of her. The one on the left had a red '1' painted across its shirt and the one on the right had a red '3' on its shirt.

"Good morning." She announced excitedly. "Today is the first day I'm looking at more survivors then dead men! Isn't this great?"

"Where's the other one?" Amber asked.

"She's a bit…under the weather after yesterday's event." Leonie replied with an eye twitch. "But she'll probably be ready tomorrow, Kalea fans! Don't worry! But health updates aside, time for me to tell you what's happening! Today's event is a three for three! Three smaller challenges with three players each. We've selected who plays what behind the scenes, so let's get the teams started! Odebode, Silvia, Wendy. Please follow smiler number one. Andrei, Micah, Vanessa. Please follow smiler number three. And Amber, Cyrus, Eric. You three are with me! Now, please follow your assigned guide to your locations!"

Eric waved Wendy and Silvia goodbye and walked with Amber and Cyrus.

"So, Eric." Cyrus started, once they were away from the group. "How are you handling today?"

"Uh, pretty fine?" Eric replied, snapping into focus.

"You sure?" Cyrus asked calmly. "Losing a friend can take a toll on you, so I just want to know."

"It sucks, man. But hey, if I die now then everything up to this point will be pointless, you feel me?"

"A good attitude to have." Cyrus responded with an approving nod. "It appears you're handling this better than I thought you would."

"Well, we're here!" Leonie interrupted. The three of them were in front of the small warehouse where the third challenge took place.

"Wait, what are we doing?" Amber asked. "Is it just the smiler bombers with less people?"

"One way to find out, and that's getting in there!" Leonie yelled. "Now, have fun!"

Leonie melted the doors, revealing a pitch-black room. The three of them stepped in, and Leonie reformed the doors behind them.

"So…what's the challenge?" Eric asked.

"Not like I can see it." Amber snapped back.

"Your challenge is facing me." A voice replied.

"Who's that?" Cyrus asked, slowly summoning some blades on his elbows.

The lights turned on, and what was once a warehouse teeming with metal boxes was now an empty room with a floor of multicoloured metal. The only thing inside of it other than them was a man in a suit on the other side.

"Can you three hear me back there?" He asked calmly.

"Yeah." Amber affirmed.

"Good, good." The voice replied. It belonged to a man who appeared to have crimson skin.

"Now, I feel the need to establish a motive. My name is Mersache. I'm Leonie's boss, your challenge is to face me."