Game of Fates

Chapter IV

For the longest time, instead of having a private chef of some sort as one of the dorm staff, we normally ended up cooking our own food instead. In fact, we never had any kind of dorm staff, since Blackwood Academy wasn't the most affluent institute. Particularly, it was always Katie, Brett, and occasionally Lillian and Elise who cooked the best, though I will say: The latter, Elise Brown, was a wheelchair-bound person. She didn't move around much, and she didn't show up to breakfast, lunch, or dinner all that often, instead being fed in her room, courtesy of her roommate, Scarlet Turner. Though, thanks to what happened, she did arrive at the table today. In fact, she happened to be on my left, while as usual, Lillian was on my right.

"So, this dinner we're all sharing the emails Juliet sent us on FATE," stated Kiara. "While we're eating, for those who haven't already checked FATE, please do. Because I'm not taking 'I haven't read it' or 'I dunno' as an excuse! Got it?"

"I-I'll start," volunteered Austin, of all people. "Um... So... J-Juliet said something about... um... Something like, 'Intelligence and happiness are inversely proportional, and I'm very intelligent.' Or something..."

Weird. Juliet was always enthusiastic about learning new things... Was she hiding some issues with us? I doubt...

"Huh, okay, and did she ask you to do anything?" interrogated Amy.

"Not really... She said a parcel of some sort would arrive at my dorm in a few days. Hard to imagine this was all her work done with a program..." Austin rambled. But what did he expect? It's Juliet, after all.

"I'd like to share mine next," said Brett right after he had swallowed a portion of his steak. "Juliet said it's never pure strength or smarts that gets you out of a situation, but rather, the ability to adapt, which I fully agree to, and she'd then asked me if I would promise to protect one of two people, though I'll leave their identities secret for now."

"See? I knew Katie was lying!" shouted Pip.

"Yeah, we all did," I replied. "Just cut the crap already!"

"Kay, fine. I deleted mine," Katie admitted. "I don't remember the first bit, and just like Brett, I'm keeping what Juliet asked a secret." She could've just said that from the start. But why the hell would anyone want to delete an email from their dead peer? That was their final wish...

"For fuck's sake," sighed Amy, whose face had quickly turned red (probably because of the chili pepper she just ate). "None of you should delete the emails! You're just making it harder for everyone!"

"Well, shit, ya coulda told me earlier," commented Charlie. "I deleted mine as well. I didn't look at it, either."

"I also deleted mine," confessed Pip.

"Wait, you did?!" screeched Amy.

"No, I just said that to throw you off."

"But what's this thing called 'FATE' you've all been talking about?" asked Charlie. "I got an email from Juliet, but I don't recognise anything called 'FATE'. Just look!" he continued, showing his phone's home screen.

"Maybe he deleted it," suggested Ed.

"No, we all know you can't delete FATE," Amy countered.

"Really? I just deleted my FATE," refuted Pip, smirking slyly as she rested her head on her palm.

"Huh? Really, Pip?" gasped Katie.

"No, of course not, you idiot!" Pip chanted.

I was looking at the Hawthornes when someone started speaking again. "Well, shit," Katie wailed, resting her elbow on the table. "Well, I'm done." I didn't know what she referred to as being done: The fact that she'd finished her food early, or that she was done sharing what she did with FATE.

"So, Charlie," spoke Jens, a natively Swedish guy. "Since you've already spoken up about your email, why not be the next to share its contents?"

"I don't remember," he admitted. "I deleted it, and I don't remember." I expected this sort of thing to happen with the shut-in guy. He didn't care about anything but video games and relaxation, and funnily enough he was also a neat freak, always pissed at seeing his room or email inbox dirty.

"I wanna hear Pip's," spoke Jonathan Kingsley.

"Alright, I'll share mine," replied Pip, smiling as usual. "So Juliet was saying stuff about how she'd rather be a child forever, then the thing she asked me to do was finish one of her robotics projects and all that fancy technical biz."

"That's hard," I reacted. "Can you do that on your own?"

"Nah, not really, but I'm gonna learn!" Pip jeered. "I've always wanted to ask Juliet if robots have dicks!"

"Pip, none of that while eating!" scolded Amy.

"Hey, it's a valid question!" Pip shouted.

"Well, anyway, I'll talk about mine next, since I'm done eating," volunteered Amy. "What she said was really depressing. She was talking about how hell was not a place, but rather people. Then she asked me to investigate people who might have gotten instructions to kill someone else in this class, hence why I can only be suspicious of the two people here hiding their emails from us."

Brett sipped his tea. "Katie's email asked her to keep both of us safe, so none of you better target us!"

Katie blushed. "Uh, yeah... What he said," she repeated before she started gulping down some water. "Brett," I heard her whisper. "Why'd you tell?"

"Is there something wrong with it? Why'd you keep it a secret?" retaliated Brett.

"Hold on," Lillian cut in. "Why's everyone being so conscious about the instructions on each email? I mean, I know it's good to respect her death and all, but if we're going to resort to killing and all, then-" She paused. She was right. Why were we so conscious? Even if I were to get an email saying, "Kill Pip" for example, why would I do it?

"Lillian's got a point," Ava added. "Let's just finish dinner and head off to bed as soon as possible. I'm sleepy anyway!"

"Yeah, I'm done," said Jonathan. "I've leaving." I rose up from my seat as well, along with a few others. We all finished eating anyway.

"Hey, Angel," whispered Ava. "Mind helping me unpack a few more things before we hit the sack tonight?"

"Sure, why not," I answered, pushing my chair back. "I'll just put my plate in the kitchen."

We eventually all fell asleep about an hour or two later - except for the select few who I for sure know suffered from having a chaotic sleep schedule, namely the jetlagged Ava as well as me because I was helping her sort out her stuff. It was probably well past midnight when we slept. Sleep wasn't the main issue, though. The real discomfort I had came when we all woke up the morning after.