Academy Murder Party

~:Chapter 60:~

"YOU TOLD ME THE CHEMICAL WOULD WORK," Elle screamed.

"Miss lane! I can assure you it did... It just... wore off on her... It must've been too little of a dose! User era... that's all." 

"I am not talking about that." Elle's face contorted into a twisted smile. "WHY ARE THEY NOT LISTENING TO COMMANDS?!" She screeched.

"I... I don't know what you mean... They seem to be following orders... Wait... what are you doing?"

Elle pulled over another microphone from her desk. She pressed down on the button. "Go to the Applied Arts building." releasing the button as she finished speaking. She watched on the camera, pointing to the hunters that ignored her command, instead aimlessly wandering the halls, hunting down any unfortunate student to cross their paths.

"Strange..."

"If they get away..." Elle muttered to herself. "If they get in the way of the backup of our backup plans, which you assured me would work..." She continued. "There will be hell to pay." She grunted. Her eyes glared daggers into his soul. "Is that clear?" She said, her face returning to a chilling warm smile.

"Y-Yes..." 

"Now. Fix this issue at once." Elle pouted. "My game is being ruined! My research too! My testing! All of it! Ruined... by high school students!"

"To be fair... you also are a high school student..."

"Did I ask you to comment?"

"My apologies, ma'am."

"Now go. Figure out a way to fix this." She commanded him with a waving hand. He nodded in response.

"Yes, ma'am... I'll see what I can do."

"Not, I will see. You will do." She stared at him. Her eyes filled with angry fire, making the hairs on his neck stand up.

"Y-Yes! Of course." He sputtered out, turning away and hastily walking off.

* * * 

"We can't just sit here..." Eric winced as he glanced at the bloodied sleeve of his arm, housing a hole from which a singular bullet penetrated.

"We can." Catherine hastily replied with a single sigh.

"What the hell happened to you?" Eric snapped back at her. "Not even thirty minutes ago, you talked about how we HAD to go, even getting mean towards Yuki."

"That was before we almost died." She replied calmly, desperately trying to keep her cool despite Eric's rising volume. She didn't dare to lock eye contact with him, instead glancing off into space as she talked.

"How many times have we almost died?" Eric asked. He fell silent, waiting for a response which he never got, so he continued speaking. "This entire game has been nothing but risk. Both of us have almost been killed every second we spend here. Why is it not that this matters?! The one time we need to keep going, you want to stop?!" He asked. "Why? Just tell me that?!" 

"Out of bullets," Catherine answered softly. Although it was confirmed that her gun had no bullets left yet, this wasn't why she didn't want to continue. However, she didn't want Eric to know that.

"Bullshit," Eric grunted. He immediately knew her reasoning wasn't the whole truth.

She sighed. 

"I don't want to lose anyone else," Catherine whispered, her voice steadily rising in intensity and volume until it was at an average talking volume. "I don't know if you've realized this, but I'd like to think that you at least mean something to me. I mean, we've been partners since the start." She said to the confused Eric. "You got hurt. I have no way to defend myself. We can't risk it..." She sighed before continuing again. "I thought it was in our best interest to go... but... I don't even know if I believe it's real anymore. I don't know if we can even trust it... I don't know what to do anymore." She sighed, sitting on the prominent wooden teacher's desk next to the scattered knick-knacks and other obscure teaching supplies as she looked down at the carpeted floor of the large lecture room.