Caught Between Hope and Despair

Chapter 11: Harder Difficulty

fudge i have to stop writing about the misadventures of the survivors of the first book now

well i had fun

now how do I create an awesome story idea using a fight over a muffin? .-. (that I obviously caused hurhur)

-(I'm honestly feeling like yellow diamond right now if you know what I'm saying)

~

~Back in Ashley's POV, early morning~

I hope Erin's okay after that incident during the execution. She had her chance, and she took it. But she still got hurt in the process.

I got up and walked to the Library to hopefully cease my boredom with Shane.

When I got there, the laptop was nowhere to be found. It wasn't in its usual place.

"Ugh." I muttered to myself as I started searching throughout the library for it.

When I got back to the usual spot, where should be, it was there. I was confused, but not for long. There was an announcement on the loudspeakers.

"Attention everyone! Puhuuhuu! To everyone who is alive to be exact, I am holding a mandatory meeting in the normal meeting place! I'll meet you guys there! Hahahaha!"

Gee, I wonder what got him in a jolly mood. Heck, how did he even come back after the execution incident? We still don't know what happened to him during it.

I went over to the main building anyways and sat down in one of the chairs in the meeting place.

Once everyone has arrived, Monogram appeared at the front of the room.

"Well, I see your numbers sure have dwindled... What's the point of having friends when... Aww, I know, too soon. But what's with the pouty faces? Cheer up a bit!" Monogram said, grinning at all of us.

No answer from any of us. There was silence in the room for a few seconds.

"Alright, so there's you, and you, and... Anyways let us get on with this meeting. Obviously I would not gather all of you people over here just to bore you guys to death, I want the blood! The guts! The torture! It brings such hope to my eyes!" Monogram went on and on, explaining random stuff I wish I didn't want to listen to.

"And your point is..." Lauren said, breaking the silence from all of us.

"Ah! The point is, I've gathered all of you survivors of this lovely game to, well, mix things up a bit." Monogram replied, rubbing his hands.

Some of us looked at each other worriedly.

"The recent trial we had was a bit too... Direct. You guys went straight towards conclusion. Barely any debating! And the worst part is, I didn't get to see anyone die for myself! Oh, it makes me so mad!" Monogram yelled, slamming his hands down onto the table in front of him.

"You recognize this girl?" Monogram pulled out a picture that was still inside its frame.

I looked closely and noticed that the frame was similar to the ones attached to some poles that would take the place of a dead person in a trial. It still had a bloody X smeared onto it too.

Then I realized it was the hologram girl. The one who tried helped us before we got to the island, before she was attacked and destroyed by the dark figure. The Mastermind.

"Oh come on! Say something! I know this clod helped you before!" Monogram said after we didn't reply a word to him.

"Keana..." I heard someone say.

"YEP! That's her name! And I hope she better be dead by the time the sun sets before chaos comes." Monogram said.

"What do you mean by that?" Katy asked.

"Ah! I was just getting to the second part! There's another thing I am just dying to discuss." Monogram said, putting the picture frame away.

"Because of the last trial, I have completely decided to raise the difficulty!" Monogram announced, raising both of his hands into the air. He clapped, and weapons fell in front of us onto the table.

"Here in front of you is a weapon. I have given each of you one to start with. You are free to use it or not, take someone else's, and you are most certainly welcome to kill someone with it, because in three days... I'm turning this big ol' island into nothing but hell! AHAHAHAHA!" Monogram cackled.

We all looked at each other worriedly.

"What a BEAUTIFUL twist to this game! What a way to make it better!" Monogram said, jumping for joy.

Silence among the rest of the survivors still hung among us.

"You know what? Why don't I throw something else into the mix?" Monogram announced, clapping his hands again.

Several more picture frames, including Keana's, appeared on the table.

I recognized some familiar faces in the pile of picture frames. Then I realized that all of these people disappeared from our school and nearly everyone didn't seem to mind at all. I only spotted Allyson's picture in the pile. Where were Megan, Jeewoo, Catelin, and... wait, Lauren? No, that can't be right. She disappeared too, but suddenly came back on the day we were sent here.

Had I been too dumb to realize something obvious?

"Recognize some people? Well guess what! All of them are under this very island, trying to ruin my plans! They think they can hide, but the joke is on them! I'll have them captured and executed right on the spot four days from now!" Monogram announced.

Lauren started looking very worried, and so did a few others.

"Well, if I can get the Mastermind to get the manipulated to get them once and for all..." Monogram muttered.

Mastermind. The dark figure that keeps on appearing, trying to terrorize us. It's still hard to believe that it could be one of us.

"If no murder happens in the next three days, I'll be sure to turn his island to a hellhole! And one more thing. If someone is murdered within three days time, I'm free to alter and mess up the crime scene however I want to! Haha!" Monogram cackled again.

This is really messed up.

"And that just covers it! Who would you sacrifice? Another survivor out of all of you, or your precious little friends that went missing? The choice is up to all of you! Meeting over!" Monogram announced, shortly disappearing afterwards.

Wow. Mono really did f*ck up this survival game for us so suddenly. It was already hard for us anyways.

All of us exited the meeting room quietly. We were torn on what to do now.

~

A/N- I can imagine all of the grammar mistakes I made. ughhhh

And I'm pretty sure that kind of counted as a misadventure of the survivors from the first book because of what Mono is going to do to them now

whoops

I have too much fun with them, I'm sorry