Alice in Borderland: New York

Side Story 1: Five of Hearts (3)

Alice sat at the lunch table by herself, bored out of her mind. Outside, it was cloudy: a good reflection of her thoughts. Naturally, no one was sitting next to her, but she didn't really mind. It was just lonely, not talking to anyone. Time seemed to move at an extremely slow pace. As she munched her sandwich, Alice noticed someone walking up to her. A tan boy with curly black hair and green eyes.

"Hi! What's your name?" the boy called out to Alice. "I'm Alice." Alice responded hesitantly after a pause. "What's your name?" "I'm Dexter." The boy grinned. "Nice to meet you!" Dexter looked at the empty table. "Mind if I sit down here?" Alice was startled. No one had ever really asked to sit down next to her before. "Oh! Uh...sure!" She replied. "Thanks!" Dexter said, sitting down next to her and pulling out a Superman lunch box. "Oh, is that a Superman lunch box?" Alice said, before she could stop herself. "I love Superman!" Dexter beamed. "Me too! I've always dreamed of being a superhero. The cool kind that can save everyone." Alice was surprised. No one had ever been...this friendly, or this open, to her before. "That sounds great!" She told him, smiling.

From that day on, the clouds cleared.
————————————————
"D...Dexter? Dexter! Wake up!" Alice yelled, shaking him. "Stay with me!" But Dexter didn't move, his head simply rolled limply from one side to the other.

He was still smiling.

"No...please...wake up..." Alice begged him. But when Dexter didn't respond, she felt her stomach slowly drop. Somewhere in the back of her mind...she knew it was already too late. But she kept shaking him, kept calling his name, kept begging him to come back...until she began to sob. 

Alice didn't know how long she sat there, crying, hugging Dexter's corpse. But to her, it felt like an eternity. As she sat there crying, she felt something inside of her...break. She didn't care if she lived or died. Wiping her tears away, Alice slowly stood up and put Dexter's body into a more comfortable position, before standing up and walking out of the closet into the hallway. The speakers suddenly began speaking again. "Three minutes remain. If the Weasel is not dead by the end of the time limit, it's GAME OVER to all players."

Alice kept wandering around the halls aimlessly, until she saw him.

Max.

His hair was unkempt and he'd lost his gun. But he was still very much alive. Alice stared at him with a mixture of hatred and grief, remembering Dexter. Max noticed her and sneered. "What's the matter? Your boyfriend died? Too bad, this is the real world. I had to do it to survive. Since the game hasn't ended...I guess you must be the weasel." Suddenly, as he began running towards Alice, another voice called out. "Stop!" Max stopped moving and turned. It was the brown-haired man.

"You've been killing the wrong people, and now you're going to die because of it." The man snickered, looking around at Alice and Max. "The truth is, I'm the Weasel. And thanks to you both, I'm going to survive." Max's expression darkened and he glared at the man. "You..." he snarled, walking up to him. The man just laughed. "It's too late now. Any second now, I will have won! You will die and your actions will have meant nothing, Max!" He said gleefully, an unhinged look on his face. "Go on. Try to kill me. It's too late, all that bullshit you did in this game because you wanted to live, it all means nothing! Absolutely NOTHING!" the man said as Max desperately lunged for him...

...and pressed the button on the back of his collar.

The man's eyes widened, and he fell to the ground shaking. Alice was stunned. Why had the man so deliberately provoked Max? Did he want to die? Then...the man began to laugh again, slowly at first, before falling on his back cackling.
"What's so funny?" Max yelled. "You're the one who's about to die. I'm alive. I'm going to win!" The brown-haired man wiped away his tears of laughter and, controlling his shaking, slowly made it to his feet. "Don't you get it? Idiots like you, they're all the same. Mindless killers who'll abandon all rationale, getting tunnel vision when they try to kill. All I had to do was waft you a scent of madness, and like a fly to a flytrap...you fell right in."

Max's angry face was slowly replaced by a look of horror as his phone blipped. Suddenly, the intercom system crackled back online. "Player Max, a Monkey, has attempted to press the button of a player that is not the Weasel. As such...it's GAME OVER for that player." "You...YOU TRICKED ME?!" Max said, stunned. The brown-haired man didn't respond, instead waving goodbye mockingly. Only a few seconds after, Alice watched in horror as Max's collar beeped once...and then exploded.

Max's limp corpse fell to the ground, blood splattering everywhere. The man stood up and nudged it with his foot a few times before stretching, apparently satisfied. Alice stood rooted to the floor in fear and shock. Max had been the reason Dexter died. He'd been the one chasing Alice and trying to kill everyone to "clear" this twisted game. And yet...this man had just exploited how he thought, baited him into attacking, and then had him killed without a single thought.

Suddenly, the man began walking to Alice, and smiled. "Now that that nuisance is gone, it's GAME CLEAR for us. He wasn't the Weasel, just as I thought. All we have to do is wait." Alice was still shaking, and didn't say anything. The man went on. "As you heard from the speakers and Max dying, I am not the Weasel. And...somehow, I trust you. I don't think you are, either." He smiled, gesturing to Alice. "Do you want to walk around with me?" He said, offering a hand. Hesitantly, Alice grabbed it, and walked with the man.

As they passed the classroom where Max had nearly killed her, the man stopped and walked inside. "Why are you going inside?" Alice said, confused. "To confirm something." The man said simply, gesturing for Alice to follow him. Alice walked inside the classroom, shuddering at the sight of the corpses. The brown-haired man, meanwhile, looked satisfied. "Just as I thought." He said, walking to one of the corpses. Slowly, Alice followed him, and looked at the corpse, cringing. It was a middle aged man in a business suit and carrying a briefcase. But it wasn't the suit or the briefcase, or even the look of horror on the corpse's face, that had caught the brown-haired man's attention.

Rather, it was the metal collar around its neck.

"Are...are you serious?" Alice said, after a short while. "This whole time...the Weasel was already dead?" The man nodded. "It makes sense. If...Hearts games, as Max called them, are about betrayal, then what better way to damage people's minds and incentivize it than by making it so no one had to die or betray each other?" Alice was thinking about this when suddenly, a school bell rang and the soft voice speaking through the speakers began talking again.

"Congratulations. The Weasel died at 5:50 PM, 10 minutes before the game started. It's now GAME CLEAR to all surviving players."

The man nodded. "Well, that's that." He said. Alice followed him back to the lobby, question spinning in her head. How was this man so calm? So...unfazed by this world?

When they reached the lobby, Alice noticed a small cash register on top of the security desk that seemed to be printing something. Curious, Alice went over to investigate it. She found a small piece of paper that said "Visa", displaying the words 5 days remaining. "Hey, look at this!" Alice called to the man, who walked over. "Visa...is that like a passport?" The other man mused, taking his paper and putting it into his pocket. "I'm not sure, but there's...5 days remaining on it." Alice said. "Just like the 5 of Hearts..."

"I guess the 5 days is the days we have left here, and when we clear one of these...games, we get days. I don't think we should try to find out what happens when you go to 0 days." the man said, looking at Alice before turning to leave. "Well...see you around." "Wait." Alice said suddenly. "Could I...join you? Dexter...was one of my only friends. I don't really have anyone else, or anywhere else to go." She said quietly, and nervously. The man considered this, before smiling gently. "Sure! I could use the company." He said, offering Alice a hand, which she gratefully took. "By the way, what's your name?" Alice asked, genuinely curious. The entire game, she didn't even know who he was. The man smiled again.

"You can call me Charlie."