Everything in Hotel OJ was just fine... well, as fine as it could be with no more parties, and insufferable cliques. However, Fan must've gotten bored, because he decided to kidnap 16 lucky people, and recreate one of his favorite games- Danganronpa...
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My alarm clock never went off, and I think the stress got to me overnight. I couldn't even remember most of what happened yesterday at this point... I turned to the clock and saw it was right around eleven.
On any other day, I'd be panicking and angry at myself, but my body and mind clearly needed a break if I didn't wake up earlier. But I might have missed the funeral. Once I stretched out a little, I got out of bed and didn't bother to change out of my pajamas as I went to go check the lobby. Blueberry might be down there, so I'll have someone to talk to.
When I set foot in the lobby, I saw that only Paper and Bomb were still there, both silently staring at pictures of the deceased that Paper had hung up on the wall. The photos were cute... but it felt wrong to see them, knowing that they both were gone forever. With a bit of hesitance, I came over and stood beside them.
"Who all came?"
Paper looked at me, that same meek and tired smile on his face. "Everyone but you and Oj. It was nice- I think a lot of people got the closure they needed." His eyes darted to Bomb, but then back to the pictures. "Soap and Pickle were both close to me... I wished I could've said goodbye before it all happened, b-but that's life... I guess."
This... wasn't life. Not for us. They shouldn't even be gone. They should've come back by now- and we should've been pretending nothing even happened. Death didn't matter to us- it never had. As much as I like to prevent it, I couldn't deny that recovery was quite a privilege. I guess I thought we had become immune to consequences. Being healthy felt more like a choice than a necessity, and being careful made you look pathetic when death meant nothing.
I went from being a complete wuss with nobody who respected me- to the one thing that could save everyone in case of major emergency. Would that mean I'd earned respect now? Or would they still be angry and hateful? I had no clue anymore, but I hoped the former would be the case.
I stopped focusing on that nonsense for the time being, and looked over at Bomb and Paper. Paper looked tired and upset, but that's to be expected. Bomb... he looked awful. I never got a good look at him before, but his eyes were sunken and half-lidded, his hair was neat, but only because Apple had tied it up, and that arm was still gone. The wound looked poorly cleaned at best, which certainly meant an infection would occur if he didn't fix it... and I had a feeling he didn't know how to do such a thing.
But even beyond the physical sense, his presence just felt... off. Like his soul had evaporated, and I was left to look at this sickly void of a person. Pickle was close to him, sure, but how could he have changed so drastically? He seemed a little better with Apple yesterday! I opened my mouth to say something, but my mind went blank when Bomb looked back at me. I looked for something to point out to make it less awkward, and that's when I remembered his ponytail. It was up before, but now it was tied to point down, and wrapping it up was that green little bow. Aha!
"I love your new hairstyle, Bomb! It looks... modern." Modern was the best I could come up with. When something looks practical, but not unique or significant, I'll call it modern, if that makes sense? It sounded enough like a compliment to me... Bomb must've thought the same, because his lips cracked another faint smile.
"Thanks," was the only thing he said before looking back to the picture of Pickle. Shortly after that, I heard some loud footsteps coming down the stairs, and who was it? Well, none other than Oj, breathless from running. He took his time to catch his body up, and then went over to Bomb.
"Hey- I need to talk to you about something, Bomb." Bomb didn't move, or even respond. "...Bomb- I- I know you probably are mad at me for what happened- even though it wasn't my fault- but-"
"HI EVERYONE!" I didn't even notice the fact that Fan had showed up a few feet away, but the shout didn't even startle me anymore. His voice can be so grating sometimes... "Guys? Guys- look here. It's motive time! I made an announcement to gather everyone here, but do you guys want yours early?"
The four of us just stared at Fan, whose smile wasn't faltering in the slightest. With a puff of smoke, a pair of handcuffs appeared in his hand, and he spun it around with his finger a little.
"Our new motive, like Pepper said, isn't lethal. But you guys are going to experience your worst nightmare, or just relive some trauma until someone dies! And Oj's is one of the only ones that needs me to do anything beyond the microchips I've put in your brains, which makes this a lot easier. Bomb, can you step a little closer to him? I mean- you don't have a choice, but having good manners is always important."
Bomb and Oj looked at each other, and they shuffled a little closer together as Fan walked over and... cuffed their arms together? Bomb's only arm is now essentially useless since it's attached to Oj's. That's not the worst part, though- that went to Bomb's face. His eyes were wide and glassy as he looked to the cuffs.
"Oj...?"
"B-Bomb-" Oj couldn't even finish his sentence. He looked suddenly pale, and Fan clasped his hands together, holding them to his cheek.
"Aww! Now Oj's worst nightmare has finally come true! But Bomb not only has to deal with that, but he has his own nightmare! What is that nightmare? Well- your voice is now going to be completely silenced. Nobody will be able to listen to you- not that they wanted to anyway... they still think you're a dirty killer, after all."
Without thinking, I suddenly blurted out "Nobody thinks he's a killer anymore you asshole!" The second it got out, I covered my mouth with surprise, and a bit of shame. I wasn't one to swear in my head, let alone out loud! And Paper was right there! Fan didn't seem too phased by the insult, and snapped his fingers. Nothing seemed to change all that much at first, until something began to play in the back of my head... this one album or- song thing that I'd heard about a while back and got horrified by.
Everywhere at the end of time, I think it's called. The music felt so hopelessly depressing the first time I'd tried to listen- and even with nothing else happening, every hair on my body stood on end, and I couldn't shake this oncoming feeling of dread. This is what I get for watching YouTube with my friends late at night. I guess this is all he's got in terms of scaring me, which isn't too terrible... just unsettling. I didn't listen to the whole thing the first time, so maybe this could just be a nice thing to listen to.
I let the somewhat nice music take over my mind for a moment, and ignored the rest of the world. Fan may have wanted a reaction, but I still wanted to enjoy what I could. And if this just faded and led to white noise or something, that'd be fine with me.
As soon as I had begun to pay attention again, I realized that Paper had left, and Bomb was saying...something, to Oj. The exaggerated movements made it look like he was shouting, but I couldn't hear a thing he said. I decided to look for something to do and kill the time, but the question popped into my mind of who.
Blueberry was always my best bet, but... did I really want to spend time with just him forever? Losing Pickle and Soap had made me realize a lot of thing- but one of them was that I needed friends. If I only had one, and (god forbid) he actually died... I'd be alone.
I then decided to spend a bit of time with someone else. Give the both of us space, since I was pretty sure he still thought Bomb killed Pickle. I didn't want to argue about that right now, anyway...
A/N: Now's the time where all the readers get to actually vote on who's focused on in the Free Time Events! You must pick one for all four! There's only going to be four this time around, because this chapter will be over a shorter period of time. Here's the link! Just click (or copy paste probably) and you're good to go! I'll have this set up for a couple weeks or so, just so I can recuperate and write out the important stuff in the meantime.
