The Secrets Buried With Us | COMPLETE

3| The Final Countdown

Nova's POV

WHEN I FINALLY CAME TO, my head was pounding wildly. My eyes fluttered open, the white light burning my eyes so I groaned. The ground felt strangely soft against my aching body, and I forced my head to tilt upward. The handcuffs were gone.

My callused fingertips pressed against my pounding temple, my throbbing headache worsening as I stared into the blinding white light above me. Shading my eyes from the light with my hand, I allowed them to adjust and so I could looked at my surroundings. A couple of feet away, Blaire and Callum were laying on the floor, still unconscious.

We were in a white room; the ground and walls covered with a cushion-like material. The air was slightly chilly, and I rubbed my hands against my arms to warm myself up. There seemed to be no door, no hint of an exit. Panic kicked in, my heart pounding wildly against my chest. There was no sign of the Reapers either, but the lack of their presence wasn't exactly reassuring.

My eyes met with Ace's piercing green ones and he seemed eerily unfazed and expressionless. He sat with his back against the wall, twiddling his fingers repetitively. He quickly tore his gaze away from me.

"There's no use in trying," he said, looking blankly at the white walls. "We're stuck in here." I didn't answer, choosing to ignore his lack of optimism.

There had to be a way out, right? If the Reapers had brought us in here, we would just go out the same way. I kneeled down next to Blaire.

"Whatever, Ace, let's just try to wake the others up," I said, more as a command than a suggestion. Ace sighed loudly before coming over to shake Callum, and I did the same to Blaire, who slowly awoke, her big brown eyes widening with confusion when she saw my face. She sat up.

"Where are we?" she whispered to herself. I opened my mouth to reply but was interrupted by the sound of a voice coming from above us.

"You have disrespected the ways of your Leaders," boomed Head Counsellor Aurelius's voice from a hidden speaker. We exchanged solemn glances. It was easy to play the blaming game, to blame it on Callum for speaking out of turn, or maybe place the blame on Blaire who had insisted we see the tape in the first place.

At this point, it didn't matter anymore. It wouldn't change the fact that we were all in this room together.

"Newport can not welcome murderers. One of you is responsible for the murder of Nick Emerson, or all of you were accomplices. For this, you must be punished." I could barely hear anymore as the blood whooshed through my ears and my heartbeat quickened. I felt nauseous, sick to the stomach.

No, no, no. This couldn't be what I thought it was. I closed my eyes, awaiting my doomed fate.

"Every hour the amount of oxygen in this room will decrease. One of you must confess, or you will all die at the hands of the real murderer. Should the one responsible for this crime choose to step up, the rest will have their lives spared. You have twenty-four hours." The announcement ended without any adieu and we were left in the room with only each other. Blaire was the first one to break.

She erupted into a sobbing mess, fat tears streaming from her eyes as she choked back her pain. Ace rolled his eyes and went back to his corner of the room.

"I don't want to die," she kept repeating to herself, hugging her knees tightly to her chest. "I swear I didn't do anything." I rubbed her back reassuringly, trying to calm her down.

"Hey, it's okay Blaire, we're going to find a way out of here." I was lying to her and myself, but it was the only thing keeping me sane. I'd heard things about this room before, and nobody ever made it out alive. Although murders didn't happen too often, people often paid for their crimes and lost their lives in this room. We were going to be next.

I began touching every wall and crack in the room, looking for some way to escape, but after a couple of minutes, it was evident that I wasn't going to find one. Ace looked at me knowingly, and I narrowed my eyes at him, hating that he was right. One of us was a murderer; either the real murderer would step up and die alone, or we would all die together.