Killing My Love ||Saiouma||

The Mastermind's Offer

Chapter 2
"The Mastermind's Offer"

The hallway was eerie as I tried to navigate my way through it. Gym... gym... where's the gym? We had all only been here for such a short amount of time, so I found it considerably hard to find my way around. I let my eyes wander the walls in search of the room, soon noticing the familiar door. Ah- I instinctively reached for the handle, but quickly stopped myself. Shit... I can't do this. I pulled my hand back and began to fidget a bit, still staring at the closed door. There's so much that could go wrong here... what the hell do I do?

I could feel my hand start to shake a bit as I reached for the door, yet I couldn't bring myself to open it. I just let my hand rest there for a second on the cold, metal handle. Take a deep breath, and get it over with. I felt my chest rise with the thoughtful inhale, soon releasing my breath to let my heart return to its normal state. Everything will be alright, just relax. I tried to reassure myself as much as possible, but it didn't have much of an effect. Without letting myself get consumed in my concern, I quickly opened the door as if I was ripping off a bandaid.

Oh... it's empty. The small amount of light that had been let into the room by the open door was soon gone as it shut behind me. I slowly advanced to the middle of the gym, searching for some kind of sign of the mastermind.

"Ah! You're here!" The distorted voice presented itself from a large TV that sat atop a podium, the unexpected sound making me flinch.

"So... I won't actually meet you?" The hidden figure began to laugh a bit under their breath. "Of course you won't! Since I don't plan on killing you I can't have you know who I am."

Well, it's good to know they don't plan on killing me, that's at least a decent start. "Even though my offer does involve killing someone~"

I paused for a second before responding, completely taken off guard by the sudden development. "W-What?? Killing someone? Absolutely not, I won't be involved in anything that has to do with murder." I went to turn for the door, but the voice made a sudden addition.

"You'll get Kaede back."

...

I stopped before the door, slowly turning so I could look back at the screen. Just at the mention of her name, I felt as if I could break down again. "You're cruel," I responded coldly, clearly revolted that they would have the audacity to use her first name like they were friends. "Kaede is dead. Don't bring her into any of this."

"Ah, but that's where you're wrong!" Somehow just from the shadow, I could tell the figure was grinning deeply. "She's not dead, yet."

"What are you talking about?? We all watched her die!" I was starting to get a bit pissed off with the unknown voice as they tried to deny Kaede's death. "Well, if I was to be honest, you must swear to not tell anyone."

Their voice seemed to relax a bit as they spoke again. "I mean, even if you did tell anyone about this, they'd just think you're going crazy out of the grief of Kaede's death, so I would just keep this to yourself."

I stood there completely quiet, still trying to let my thoughts catch up to the speaker's words. How could she be alive? It can't be real... but I have to know. "O-Ok, I swear I won't tell anyone."