A House Closer to Death ||| Book 1: The Game that Ended it All

Round 1, Chapter 9: His Pen Name

10... 

"Huh?  Where am I?"

9...

"Are you ok?"

8...

"Who are you?"

7...

"I'm here to help you out of here.  I'm guessing you're friends with all the other people?"

6...

"What other people?"

5...

"Lara, Veronica, Liza, Ash, and Alex.  Or am I wrong?"

4...

"No... you're right.  But what about-"

3...

"I can talk to her later about that.  I'm sure you I can get you to contact Lukey sometime.  Now c'mon, we need to get you out of here first."

2...

"Wait, so who are you?"

...

Finish the countdown Charlie. 

I snapped out of my thoughts and jumped at the sudden voice.  It wasn't the announcer this time, no, it was something else.  It didn't sound like anyone around me at all.  The voice was deep and it had a sort of echo to it.  I looked around but nothing seemed unfamiliar.  When I looked back down to my tablet I realized my thumb tapped the screen when I'd been startled and I'd accidentally voted for someone.  Let's just hope I still voted for Kees. 

"Aaaaaaand the votes are in!"  The speaker announced.  "Since the last error we've encountered messed with a whole bunch of things and I can't just magically repair this old machine within the day, I've decided to hand count these final few votes myself.  It may take a bit, so get comfy.  Or don't.  I have no say in the matter." 

It shut off once again and we were all left to wait in a very intense silence.  Jo looked more nervous than almost everyone else in the room.  I don't blame her, we're all nervous about this.  We always were every time we'd be voting someone off.  These were our friends, dare I say our family.  It was bad enough to see them get murdered, but to drag around the guilt of killing someone ourselves, even if they were evil, it's scary. 

A few minutes passed, and the announcer finally spoke again.  "Alright, I finally tallied up the votes!"

"The house believes Kees is the Murderer."

Welp, no surprise there.

"The conclusion is..." 

"Correct!  The Murderer has been identified as Kees!"

I sat there in complete and total shock.  It felt like my limbs were cemented into place.  I didn't even dare to breathe.  There was no collective gasps or screams, it was dead silent.  There was nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  And to be honest, it was more terrifying then when there was noise. 

It was him.  He watched as we voted for Veronica and Ash and Alex.  He killed Lara and Liza and John and...

me. 

One of my best friends tried to kill me. 

That's not your friend anymore.

I shivered to myself again.  Where the hell was that voice coming from and why can no one else hear it?!