Seek A Way Out || Trial End - Chapter Start
It’s startling how loud a gunshot really is. Several have gone off now, one in the room with you, more on the screen, and it’s difficult to say which is still ringing in your ears. Maybe all of them.
So many have died today alone that it’s perhaps difficult to grasp the full scope of it. How does the saying go, again? One death is a statistic… what’s thirteen? And what is Frost’s death, or Lioness’, compared to people who were innocent or who were your friends?
There are ten people left alive in the room. Bullseye, Chimera, Cue, Friday, Labrat, Maestro, Selene, Starling, Tomahawk… and Onryo.
“Congratulations for making it this far.” Onryo’s performative cheer is nowhere to be seen, melted into the sarcastic resignation that they’ve been slipping into more and more as time goes by. “I imagine you’re all even more exhausted than I am, and now that Chloe’s dead I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before one of you does something stupid like try to come at me again. I won’t go down as easily, I promise, but just to avoid embarrassing any of you in that way, let me tell you right now it won’t be necessary.”
Onryo steps away from the Wheel, moving towards the back of the room, giving the blood on the floor where Chloe had been a wide berth.
“There’s no more floors after this. And frankly, I’m not interested in continuing anyway. I feel like we’ve reached a natural narrative peak here. Things are just starting to lose impact, you know? So we’d better quit before we fall too far behind. Of course, I can’t just let you go - that wouldn’t be satisfying for any of us. Very anticlimactic. So instead we’re going to play one last little game. I’ll give you all the rest of today and tomorrow. Then, in the morning of the day after, we’ll all meet back up here, and you can try to pick out who the Mastermind is. What am I talking about? For those of you who never received a full briefing on the last projects or bothered looking into them, I’ll explain - I’m only the host. Someone else instigated this, someone else planned it, someone else picked who would spin, someone else laid out the motives, the executions, everything that’s been happening. You’ve all had plenty of practice finding clues and putting them together at this point, so I’m sure that if you look hard enough around this place you’ll be able to find everything you need. Investigate. Prepare. And we’ll have one last trial. If you win, you go free, I’ll call the rescue team myself. If you lose… well, then the Mastermind gets to decide what to do with you. I cannot emphasize enough that you do not want that. This isn’t an opt-out kind of deal either, so I suggest you really give it your all.”
A panel in the wall behind them slides open, and Onryo steps back into it, the shadows seeming to swallow them, leaving them unseen as their voice calls out, “Happy hunting.”
The panel shuts again. The elevator dings, doors sliding open. You’re alone in the Wheel Room, and free to go… at least, free to go back down to the other levels. But if Onryo can be believed, then maybe as soon as the day after tomorrow, you’ll be free entirely. Does that give you hope? Does the thought of finally escaping renew your motivation? Or are you apprehensive? Is it daylight at the end of the tunnel, or a train?
At this point, maybe you don’t even care anymore.
Either way, this is the beginning of the end… better rest up and get to searching, unless you want to resign yourself to a loss, and everything that entails.
[BONUS CHAPTER 5: MASTERMIND INVESTIGATION BEGIN]
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All areas and rooms are now UNLOCKED and available to be investigated. An event channel will be made for public/group investigations in the RP server to encourage participation. Private investigations or questions may still be DM’d to the main mod or made in a private channel. Good luck! It’s been a long wait, but you’re almost there!