Caught Between Hope and Despair

Chapter 3: Party? Party.

"You know what, why don't we just try to enjoy this while it lasts? There's no pressure on us anyways, so let's do something!" Christian exclaimed.

"Well, I guess we can..." Sebastian replied, shrugging.

"Let's plan a party then!" Tara suggested.

"I don't see why not." Camryn said, turning towards some of her friends, Patrizia and Morgan.

"A beach party!" Samiksha said excitedly, and other people agreed with her afterwards.

"Alright. Beach party it is!" I shouted, though I felt kinda awkward saying it.

~

So we all just settled in after that conversation. I managed to talk with some people, like Erin and Katy. They are pretty nice people to talk to.

Lauren was also talking with someone before we started preparations for the beach party. I think she was talking with Julie and Darlene.

For some reason, Lauren looked a tad bit worried today. I just never bothered to ask.

Turns out Monogram wasn't lying. A few others, along with me, found the warehouse Mono previously mentioned, and there were tons of food in there. We could probably use some for the party, so we took some bags and put some stuff from the warehouse in them.

Others helped set up with other supplies from a supply room and the warehouse. Somehow umbrellas and several other beach items were already set up, only the people setting up just had to organize some stuff.

Some people insisted that we start the party in a nearby cabana, but I just honestly thought it would be better if we held the party outside because of the nice scenery. We were going to start the party by sunset, so we hopefully expected that it was going to be nice and in our view.

The party was almost ready to begin, and most of us arrived at the beach and helped set up. We planned to start it by sunset, and hopefully everyone would arrive by then.

Thankfully all of the people arrived, unharmed. All sixteen of us. Nobody had the guts yet to commit murder. As the sun started to set on the horizon, we poured our preferred drinks into plastic cups. I decided to have an energy drink, because why not. Monogram seemed to have everything anyways.

Lauren raised her cup and smiled, and I could weirdly tell that she was faking it. God, I forgot to ask her what she's hiding. Probably going to forget overnight.

"Well, guys, we may be trapped here, but at least we've got each other. I know that this short speech is very cheesy but whatever. Let's enjoy this party while it lasts. Hopefully for a while." Lauren said as more people raised their cup.

"To a great trip to this island." Erin said as the rest of us raised our cups.

Many of us socialized and ate food and all that, having a good time at least.

It was not until the sun's rays were no longer visible when out of nowhere, Monogram's voice came out of a hidden speaker.

"BORING!" He yelled, sighing. "I need all of you guys to be feeling all of the despair I'm going to force on ya! This is no time to continue a simple party! Listen, why don't I place a motive now to get all of the drama rolling, huh?"

Everybody stopped what they were doing and looked at the speaker on a nearby umbrella.

"Alright, how about this. If there's no murder within the next 24 hours-" Suddenly, Monogram appeared in front of all of us, holding several papers in his hands. I have no exact idea how the hell he's able to do that. "We're going to play a game of truth or dare! Don't worry, I will be the one picking the questions and the dares. Everybody take a card! Come on! Don't be shy!"

Lauren was the first person to get a paper from Monogram, and she immediately unfolded it afterwards. I shrugged and picked the paper on the bottom, and didn't even bother to open it yet.

"If nothing exciting happens in the next 24 hours, I'll be holding a special truth or dare game where you're forced to do what the paper questions about you, or tells you to do! And of course, punishments are already planned if you refuse to participate! You guys know what I'm talking about!" Monogram cackled again.

"I think some of these may get a little too far..." I hear Julie say.

I looked around and several people were staring at their papers.

"Now, I'd better expect you people in bed in an hour!" Monogram yelled.

"You aren't our parents, Mono!" Someone yelled from the back of the group.

I hear Monogram mutter something inaudible before disappearing.

I read the paper, and I'm just all like, no big deal, it's just a simple dare in my case. Hopefully nobody will have the guts to even kill someone overnight. We've just got here, and we've only started bonding each other. It would be such a shame if something bad interrupted it. But then again, I'm already betting somebody chose a really bad paper. Well then.

The party continued, but with a pretty awkward start. People started talking with each other a few minutes later.

Forty-five minutes later and we all decided to go back to our huts silently.

I decided to read the paper again before I slept. To me, I didn't care if I had to do this dare in front of anyone. I sighed and went to sleep afterwards.