DeadLocked

Chapter 10- Silence of Grief

Chapter 10

Silence of Grief

~12 players remaining~

~O~

[ Bradley's POV ]

For the rest of the night, all I could do was think about what my grandfather could have possibly done. I'd been half asleep against the wall when it suddenly hit me, and I realized how much of an idiot I was. "The Anarchy cult." I said aloud, even though everyone had retired for the night. I stumbled up and walked over towards Alice, waking her up carefully. "Alice, oh my god please wake up." I shook her gently, and she peeped her eyes open. "Yeah..?" Sitting up and rubbing her eyes, she took a moment to really wake up. "I know why, all of this is happening- it's really our fault." I huffed, earning a very confused noise for a reply. "Arc, she's doing this because my grandfather dissolved this cult back when he was alive. It was called the Anarchy cult. This Arc bitch has to be the same woman who formed it." I breathed, and Alice's eyes grew wide. "But if it's really her, how would she still be alive...?" She asked, and that's how we ended up back in the study the next day, searching for any books related to the situation at hand.

I sat with piles of books and papers surrounding me, and because of the incident the day before, everyone was in the study. Also, Viola hadn't spoken a word to me since our argument. It was safe to assume I'd lost my sister, but I'd gained the support of everyone else. I was sad ever still, Viola wouldn't even look at me. It was like I no longer existed to her, and that pained me.

Amelia was slumped over in a desk, quietly sobbing into a notebook. I looked up once I'd noticed her shaking. I walked over slowly and placed a soft hand on her shoulder. "Hey..are you alright?" I asked, and she shook her head painfully. "What is it?"
"I don't...understand. How everyone can be so calm and collected." she looked up through tears and grabbed my sleeve. "B..Bradley..I don't want to do this anymore, not if we're all going to die in the end." She growled, her hand tightening its grip on me. "No one else will die. I promise, we're figuring it out-"
"No you aren't! You have no idea what you're doing do you?! We should all just give up and say, 'We're all fucked anyways. Let's just turn ourselves into Abigail and her ilk and get it over with." Amelia stood up, the chair screeching as it was pushed away.

I backed away slowly and watched her carefully. At this point in the game anyone would be breaking down, but Amelia seemed like the first person to finally crack.

"Don't say that! I'm going to talk with Abigail tonight, she's civil sometimes and maybe I can persuade her to give us more information, or even help us get out!" I said, choosing my words carefully, but not carefully enough. "Amelia, don't lose your head. We need everyone to try and focus-"

"You would work with the monster that murdered our friends? And is holding us hostage in some fucked up space realm?" My cousin asked through shallow breaths. She looked up at me with disgust and sadness. "Scott didn't deserve to die. Neither did Addie, Kate or Jason." She stepped towards me, fists ready to fly. "And if we keep sitting around, and reading books, more of us are going to be on that list." She yelled. Her voice stung, and I felt like some part of her was trying to be reasonable. "If we fought back, we could stand a chance! There's twelve of us, and one of her. We can take her down!" Amelia smiled, but then her smile faded once she saw that I wasn't going to budge on our previous plan.

I turned around and knelt down, picking up a few books. "Amelia, I know you mean well. But you've seen what she can do. Imagine what Arc would do." I sighed, standing back up to place the books on her desk. "And I'm just as devastated about our losses. Do you think all of us are just ok with it?" I asked, feeling my heart ache for my friends. A still image of Addie flashed in my mind. Her smile was always the brightest.
"I'm just as hurt." I winced. "I think about them all the time, every second we've spent in here has been filled with regrets about losing them." My voice wavered. "And...And I want to cry. I'd love to cry until I run out of tears and it's so hard holding all the pain back...but look at everyone else.