Process of Elimination

Chapter 4: Part 1 (To Trust Oneself)

The following morning after the game, I woke up. My body was covered in perspiration. I rose from bed, exited my room, and proceeded to the hotel lounge. There was only one person present in the lounge, and it was 7 AM. Hello or wake up. He sat by himself, at a table, sipping on a cup of coffee. I silently passed by him to avoid causing any interruption. "Your breath is louder than your footsteps." he said. I paused for a moment. "Come sit. I want to talk." he told me. I went over to the table and sat down in a chair beside him. "Do you trust him?" he asked me. "What?" I looked at him in great confusion. I had just woken up and had no idea what was going on.

"Xavion. Do you trust him?" he asked me once more. "I'm not sure." I told him. "I see. Did you also get that tape last night?" he asked me another question. "Yeah, I did." I explained. "So, I wasn't the only one. Hm. I noticed something very strange about that video. None of the numbers were adding up to what's happening right now." he assured me. "It said 23 contestants but when we started these games, there were 24." Jago proceeded to add. I understood what he was saying since I had also watched the video. The conversation between us broke when Carmen and Morgan walked in. "Oh, hey. I didn't think you two would be out here together." Morgan said. "Mm. I'm not much of a chatter anyways. I prefer to win these games alone and without anyone to bug me." Jago exclaimed as he started to doze off. It seems that Jago gets tired very easily and likes to sleep.

"It's so weird how you two are friends even though you have a large age gap." I told Morgan and Carmen. "Well, Carmen is actually my younger step-sister. Her father got married to my mother and that's what happened." Morgan told me. "Yeah. This all happened when I was around 7 and Morgan was 11." Carmen added. "Where's everyone else?" I asked. They both shrugged and behind them came Micheal and Cale, followed by Xavion. "Sorry, guys. It took a huge amount of energy just to get this out of his room." Micheal pointed at Xavion. Micheal yawned and stretched as he went to go make himself some breakfast. Xavion was his usual self. He sat down at a table and sat quietly. "Hey where's Khuld and Céleste?" Morgan asked.

Suddenly, the TV screen in the lounge turned on. "HELP ME!!" Khuld was on the screen. We all shot up and looked at the TV. Céleste rushed in from her room. "WHAT'S HAPPENING?!" she yelled. We pointed towards the TV. "SOMEONE HELP. I'M STUCK ON THE STAGE IN THE COURTYARD." the TV turned off. We all looked at each other. "Was that.. real?" Micheal asked. "It seemed a little too straight forward. How would Khuld get access to the TV Broadcast?" Xavion inquired. "Real or not, don't you think we should go check?" Morgan yelled. "C'mon!" Céleste rushed out the door, to the courtyard. The stage was on fire and Khuld was in there. There was a note on the table saying "Cut the Rope". As I looked at the note, I sighed. "I knew it. It was a trap." Jago scoffed. "So, if this was an obvious trap, doesn't that mean Khuld is the mastermind?" Xavion asked.

We all looked at him. "You see, if she made this trap, she could be the mastermind. If not, then shes probably trapped beneath the stage and is coughing up all the smoke. If we cut this rope, the fire will either get bigger and we die, or we save Khuld. What are we gonna do?" Xavion boasted. We all just stood there, not knowing what to do. Then, Carmen rushed over to the rope and pulled out a knife from the lounge, beginning to cut the rope. She was nearly done cutting the rope and we all ran away from the stage in case it was a trap. Carmen finished cutting the rope and ran off as well. The fire cleared up from some sprinklers. We all stared and watched as the smoke cleared up as well.

We went back to the charred up stage and slowly crept towards the curtains. We stopped walking right as soon as we heard a beeping sound. We stopped and stared at each other. We looked over at Carmen. Her collar was blinking and beeping. "Huh? What's going on!? What did I do?!" Carmen's face filled with despair as the collar continued to beep and blink. She face watered up with tears as we backed away. We had no idea what was going on. Did she break a rule? There was a brief silence.

Boom.