System:On [DISCONTINUED]

Chapter 3 - Monster

Aria's POV

"A remainder of twenty students? D-doesn't that mean t-twenty of us w-will die!" a short girl with braids stuttered, eyes twitching.

"Chill, Aile. It's not twenty anymore but nineteen." I said, not sure how I could say that without being controlled by fear.

"Anyways, come on. Let's form a group, Aile." I patted her on the back.

"What about the fact that twenty of us will die, Aria? Don't you care?!" she grabbed onto my shoulder tightly; fingers digging into my skin and sobbed.

"I do and I'm fully aware of that! However, we don't have a choice either. Plus, it's nineteen of them, not twenty." I pushed her off and winced at the slight pain. I feel like she's going to be a pain in the ass later on.

"I'm gonna die. We're gonna die." She continued but I just ignored her.

"Look, Aria. I don't think we should clash so let's separate from here, okay? Do your best and let's make sure we'll make it till the end." Bran gave me a hug and left to join others.

"Just... be careful." I muttered softly. I can't help but think, 'what if he dies?'

'What if I die? What are our parents going to feel? One morning, their daughter had gone missing. And by night, their daughter's dead. Such cruelty.

As time passed by, everyone got into a group of their own; tables joined. I had gotten Aile and Megu in my group. Megu's a friend of mine. She and I will compete with each other in answering the questions given by Aile.

'Let's see how it'll turn out.'

Ding Dong Ding DING!

"Let the 'Question Game' begin! Let's go!" Rainbow cheered, and then, a ballad song was played. Now's not the mood for a genre like that, oml.

"Aria, best of luck." Megu wished. We shook hands and sat at our seats; hoping nothing goes wrong.

Aile took out the stack of question papers and read out the first question.

"W-what is the missing number in the sequence? 1, 8, 27, 64, blank, 216, 343. This question is for Aria. Please answer the question." she managed to spit out the question.

'This is quite easy.'

"125." I answered instantly. "4 to the power of 3 is 64 and 6 to the power of three is 216. There, 125 is the answer."

We paused for a while and nothing happened. 'It must've meant that I'm right.'

"Next, this is for Megu. In what country would you find the cities, Glasgow and Edinburgh?"

She gasped, "Glasgow... Edinburgh... fuck. Scotland?"

and nothing happened. She was right. Now, it's back to me.

'I wonder how's Bran doing.' I peeped on him and there was a perplexed look plastered on his face.

'Oh no. Is he doing okay?' I thought in concerned but he's not the only one in distress. His opponent looked pale.

Devastated.

And it seemed like it was his turn to answer, but nothing came out of his mouth. He went blank. He didn't know how to answer the question.

"NO! YOU'RE WRONG! I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!! ARGHH!" he slammed the table and raged. "I DIDN'T DO IT! IT WASN'T ME!"

Just then, the sound of a siren wailed, and we all covered our ears by instinct. Any second longer and I could've sworn my eardrums were gonna burst.

"Liar, liar, pants on fire. You didn't answer the question correctly, Devan. You deserve an intense punishment for not answering question correctly. You shall die!" Rainbow declared overexcitedly.

"NO! NO! I'M TOO YOUNG TO DIE! PLEASE SPARE MY LIFE! PLEASE!" Devan fell off his chair and scrammed from the seat; rushing to the steel door and banged on it, hoping it would open somehow.

"Three...two...one..." Rainbow countdown.

A gigantic monster popped out of the ceiling right above Devan. Its body hanging upside down, reaching for him. It had the body of a centipede, slimy and slippery in appearance. The head of a crocodile; gigantically huge and it was snapping its teeth eagerly for its prey.

Devan couldn't react fast enough and had his upper half body snapped away. His blood oozing out and his other half fell back.

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?

The creature then took its leave, returning back up the ceiling.

Silence took over with everyone gaping at Devan's lower half.

I slowly brought up my hands and covered my mouth in horror; not able to let out any sound even if I wanted to.

'Oh my god...'

-- 9/12/18

Thanks for reading!