➹ LEFT TO LOSE ➷ chishiya s.

➸ CHAPTER TWO

NOW PLAYING ...
Leaving Tonight • The Neighbourhood

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➸ "Get up." A faint voice snugged it's way into your ears and made you wake up. You lifted your head from its resting position, massaging your stiff neck using your hand. You opened your eyes to find Chishiya being the voice's source, the man you just met. "See," You yawned, "I knew I could trust you." The hooded man didn't look up at you, "It's dangerously easy to gain your trust."

You followed his gaze to see what was occupying him, then you were met with a book in his lap. Chishiya seemed sucked into the words, like nothing could grab his attention away from it. The book had a brown leather cover, it's size and plainness reminded you of your own journal— "Wait," You rubbed your eyes, "Are you reading my journal?"

"Mhm," He flipped the journal around to show you the page he was on. "Why did you draw a cat face next to my name?" You leaned forward to snatch the object that had your entire life documented, "I don't remember saying you could read it." You stood up on your feet, cursing underneath your breath as you've forgotten about your injured foot.

"I don't remember you saying I couldn't read it." Chishiya stood up next to you, "But, you still haven't answered my question."

You gave him the side eye without rotating your head, "Isn't it obvious? You remind me of a cat."

He pushed you further, "How exactly?"

"Do you want me to remember you next week, or not?" You managed to silence him on the matter, now able to look at the new faces. There were multiple people now in the outer circle of the room, all avoiding eye contact with one another. A man with charcoal black hair and a blue buttoned shirt tucked into his pants was the last participant expected to walk up the stairs, there were now twenty people in total. It was relatively quiet in the room, only the air conditioning and whispers amongst your confused peers was heard as you all wait for something to happen.

You looked over to see a boy with a yellow striped shirt underneath fitted overalls, his child-like attire could confuse anyone of his age. Past that, he only looked a few years younger than you and Chishiya, making you look at him in awe. He must've noticed you staring, as his face grew anxious and he kept his eyes glued to his hands. You didn't want him to get the wrong impression of you, so you take a few steps towards him. "Hello," He looked up after hearing your lighthearted tone. "What's your name?" His shoulders relaxed a bit, "I'm Ippei." You offered him a smile, "Cool, I'm Y/N." He shined a bright smile back to you and gave you a nod.

"Difficulty level, Jack of Hearts." A digital voice echoed through the large room, causing heads to turn towards the now-lit screen. "Game, Solitary Confinement."

Yep I was right, you thought to yourself, this will be a mini vacation after all. A long list of instructions was read out to the players, the more that was revealed the more shocked everyone became. Apparently, the collars you all voluntarily clasped around your neck displayed a symbol on the back, and you have to figure out what it is in an hour. Once the time is up, everyone heads to their respected cells to announce their final answer for their symbol.

If they guess right, their head doesn't explode. If they guess wrong, well, it's pretty obvious what happens. Basically, you want to get it right every single time, you need to.

"Wait a sec," The new friendly face you just met spoke loud and proud to the group, "So, that means we just have to ask each other what our symbols are. That's easy, huh?"

As great as that sounds, everyone else knew it wasn't that simple, it couldn't be.

The other not-so-friendly face you just met took the initiative to shut down the kid's naïve dreams. "I'm not so sure, they haven't told us what the conditions to win are yet."

On cue, the digital voice from the screen further explained the drawbacks to the game.

You found out soon enough of what's different about this game compared to a lot of other games. There's no time limit, and your visa days are neutralized until you guess who the Jack is amongst the group. It's a real "wolf in sheep's clothing" situation all twenty of you are at the mercy of. As the conditions to finding out your symbol each round seems relatively simple at first, it's not-so-simple once the Jack of Hearts has somebody else's lives in their hands, unbalancing everyone's trust in the group. "Oh," Chishiya's mumbling made your train of thought stop, "That's good."

Although you were just as on-edge as everyone else in the room, the advice given to you by the game master was extremely ironic to you. The Solitary Confinement game is about how much you can trust your fellow players. Yeah, that's bullshit, how are you supposed to trust anyone when anyone could be the Jack?

Your eyes refocus on Chishiya in the corner of your vision, getting ready to speak to get the group under control. Well, you suppose you could trust him, as something in your gut tells you can. So, you'll risk your life for a simple gut feeling forever and always. Chishiya just felt so... familiar, like you were old friends picking up where you left off after moving away or something. Well, under different circumstances where you were both in the old world, that is. There's no way you two actually knew each other outside of the Borderlands. You were literally isolated from the rest of society, spending your supposedly golden days in a hospital room, and maybe allowed to take a walk in the hallways if you're doing extra good in psych therapy.

"So," Chishiya clears his throat so his voice stretches farther across the open room, "We need to start lying, find the Jack of Hearts, and kill them off, or we'll live out the rest of our days in this prison. Solitary for life."

You raise your fist jokingly, "Solitary for life."

The way how quiet the room got after you and Chishiya said your final words was almost embarrassing, making you lean back into the shadows with Chishiya and Ippei.

Man, you thought to yourself, quite an interesting group to be stuck with for the rest of my forgetful days.

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THANK YOU FOR READING!