Endless Cycles

[Chapter 7]

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The teams had split up, and everything was normal. For the most part at least... People still treated Brandon differently for how he acted when confronting Ant. It scared him, thinking that he could be anything like Ryan. Ant had still been kept alive, and was fed regularly, but he stayed in the shed. Two guards were posted outside at all times.

Brandon sat in the library, reading a book quietly to himself. Since the murder of Ryan, a new room had opened up. It was just a regular closet, so Brandon found it useless. Why would the game-makers waste their time on a closet? Perhaps there was a secret... Brandon thought and stood up from his chair and decided to check it out.

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Arriving at the small closet, Brandon opened the door and stepped inside. He looked around for a hidden button or something of that sorts, but found nothing. He sighed and turned to leave, but he tripped on a bucket that was left in there. His eyes widened and he fell over, hitting the ground. A loud rumbling came from behind, and he noticed that there was a tunnel leading somewhere. Glancing back, for a moment, he decided to check it out.

Going through the dark tunnel, he found it came out to a small, dimly lit room. His eyes widened and he took a step back. There were various weapons and items of torture hanging upon the walls, and various machines to kill with. It made Brandon sick. He quickly ran out of the room and made sure that it was closed when he left. He had to make sure nobody found it...

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Things had gotten worse for Brandon. Not only were people treating him as if he were Ryan, but now they thought of him as a leader. Brandon was no leader! He could barely take care of himself during this situation, much less everyone else. Stress was starting to build up inside of him, and he felt like snapping. He couldn't though... He had to do this.

Brandon had made sure no other deaths had occurred by checking on everyone. As he passed by some rooms he stopped in front of Gavin's. It made his heart ache to remember his friend... Gavin never wanted to be the mastermind. He never wanted any of this. None of them did. Brandon swallowed to stop himself from crying, and he continued on.

As soon as the last person was checked on, he decided to see how Ant was doing. As Brandon made his way to the shed, he noticed no guards were posted outside of it. He stood in front of the shed and rolled his eyes. Tom and Smiffy were probably off playing poker or some crazy shit like that. As he grabbed the doorknob he heard choking noises inside. His heart quickened and his eyes widened, and he quickly opened the door. Ant was pinned against the wall, his body floating above the ground. A faint purple mist surrounded his neck. His eyes were watery and he was gripping his own neck.

He was choking himself! Brandon quickly grabbed Ant and attempted to stop his choking by ripping his hands off of his neck. It took effort, but after a few seconds Ant was breathing again. His breath came out in short, dry breaths and he coughed.

"Ant what the hell?! Why were you choking yourself?" Brandon asked, boiling with anger.

"I-I wasn't! I was sitting here and something made me choke myself!" Ant exclaimed, out of breath.

"What? How is that possible?"

"I don't know!" Ant replied, close to tears. Brandon began to feel sympathy towards him. Sure he killed Ryan, but he was scared, and no one deserves to die, no matter what they did.

Suddenly, Tom and Smiffy came in.

"Brandon!" Tom said, obviously shocked. Brandon stood up.

"Why did you leave your post?! He almost died for fucks sake!" Brandon growled.

"W-We can explain!" Tom replied.

"Well? What is it?"

"We were going to get some food for him, but as soon as we got it we saw the door was open and we rushed over here." He said. Ant spoke up.

"You fucking liar! You two said you didn't want to watch a murderer like me and left!" He said furiously. Tom glared at him, his eyes full of hatred.

"No one asked for your opinion you fucking murderer." Ant stood up and tackled Tom down, punching him in the face. Tom growled and shoved Ant off of him, and the two continued to go at each other. Recovering from shock, Brandon pulled Ant off of Tom, and Smiffy helped Tom up.

"Now's not the time! You two are acting like children!" Brandon shouted. Ant and Tom exchanged looks of hatred before calming down. "Smiffy, take Tom to the hospital and help clean him up. I'll take care of Ant." Smiffy nodded and the two quickly left Brandon and Ant alone. He took Ant by the arm and began leading him back into the building.

"I can't fucking believe you Ant. You're too mature for this!" Brandon said. "I would expect this behavior from him, yes, but you?" Ant sighed.

"Well he doesn't like me, so why should I like him back?"

"Because, you're supposed to he the adult and ignore it." Brandon rolled his eyes. "Besides, why doesn't he like you?"

"I don't know! He's just always been like that."

"I've never seen you two show any hatred towards each other though." Brandon replied.

"It's not really noticeable, he'll just bump into me 'by accident' or glare at me across the room or something stupid like that."

"Well, from now on I want you two separated." Ant nodded and Brandon brought him to a bathroom to clean up the few injuries he had. Tom had gotten the rougher side of it, but Ant still looked tired and beaten up.

After cleaning him up, Brandon sent him to his room, and told Tiffany and Adam to watch him for the time being. Hopefully no more incidents like that would happen. Brandon sighed.

He really wasn't a good leader...