Thursday, October 23rd, 2028

  Day 0

  14/14 Alive

  Prologue: Elite School of the Northwest

  The instant I stepped onto the campus of my new school, my new life, I was knocked out. I awoke in a strange room. The air reeked of old, moist carpet, and did not look modern like the images the school’s website had shown at all. Next to the door was an old clock that was slightly crooked, and there was a poster on the door with a picture of the school’s crest on it. I should get introductions out of the way. My name is Roy Trahm. I was invited into a prestigious school, which got the name of “Elite School of the Northwest” where other students here are said to be “The best at their specialty”. I wish I was one of those. My luck is usually horrible, yet I somehow managed to get into the school through a lottery of one million people.

  Anyone who graduates from this school tends to become either super rich or easily recognized. The only thing that sucks about this pce is the dress code. There’s no real restrictions for the boys besides the uniforms, but girls are forced to wear heels at all times. Let me go through who was supposed to be here at the school…. Ah, Xavier Ronaro, the elite football pyer… Then there’s Halima Vang, The elite actor. There’s Brady Young, the elite chef, Kendrick Houston, the elite gamer, Evie Brown, the elite model, Mya Walker, the elite track champion, Aisha Baker, the elite artist, Gabriel Bck, the elite chess pyer, Faye Burns, the elite singer, and a couple others. I think I’m missing about 5 that got accepted this year, so it should be only us in the school. But why? Why did I get knocked out upon stepping in the giant academy?

  We were told to meet at the gym at 7:40, so I'm not te- My eyes move over to the clock hanging in the modern cssroom which I awoke in. What..?! It’s 7:45! I was out for a while, wasn’t I? I rush over to the door and leave. I don’t even know where this gym is, so I better head out. Now.

  I go over to the right side of the hall and see a sign that says “Elite School of the Northwest dorms”. Why would there be dorm rooms in the building? Doesn’t it seem kind of weird? I mean, why would we live inside the building?

  Eventually, I made it past the long corridor and took a sharp right turn into the gymnasium main doors. Everyone had already gathered, and the first thing I saw was the elite gamer, Kendrick Houston, staring me down, obviously pissed off at me for arriving 2 minutes te. “About time we all showed up,” spoke a voice in the far left corner of the gym. “What, did you sleep too long?” Said another voice. “Speaking of which, why did we all pass out?”

  The other people… They passed out too? Kendrick spoke up. “Probably one of us idiots that did somethin’. I ain’t in the mood for all your tricks, people.”

  Behind Kendrick stood Landon Robinson, elite ventriloquist. He was not a talker at all, quite the opposite, actually. Jack Mummert, the elite baseball pyer, and Aaron Ko, the elite criminal, also appeared te. Those two appeared to be buddy-buddy with each other, going wherever the other one went, and sometimes thinking the same way. Then, the first friendly, well, er, least miserable looking face I saw was Sky Turner, the elite illusionist. She was a girl wearing a light blue shirt, her hair a yered cut. “Yep, that’s probably true! Bet it was probably you, Xavier, huh?”

  She said this with a slight sarcasm in her voice. Xavier Ronaro was the tallest out of the sixteen of us in the room, and definitely had one of the best builds. He was the elite football pyer, after all. On the contrary, Tristan Piles, the elite rare figure collector, had much more… Space taken up in his stomach. He was the next one to speak up. “We’re all here, and no teachers or staff had shown up. What’s going on?”

  Murmurs broke out between the students like wildfire. “I'm sure it’s fine,” I said. “They should show up eventually.”

  But that turned out to be untrue. Gabriel Bck, the elite Chess pyer, was dressed in all bck, as if we were at a funeral. I approached her. “So, uh, you like wearing bck?” “I guess so. It’s pretty much all I wear from head to toe. I don’t really like any other type of clothing, if that makes any sense.” “Oh, uh, sure.” I approached Brady Young next, the elite chef. “You’ve got an interesting specialty. You got a rich family or something to get you all the high-end cooking supplies?” “No. The opposite. My family is poor, and we hardly get by as it is. The only reason I was titled the ‘elite chef’ was because I made a 5-star meal using cheap supplies. It would be really nice if I could get extra money, and with the full-ride schorship, I had to accept.” That’s fair, I thought. 5 minutes passed until a strange voice sounded from the loudspeaker. “Hello? Is this working? Ah, There we go! Sorry, students! We were having some technical trouble with the speakers! But I can hear you loud and clear, and you should be able to hear me loud and clear!”

  The voice sounded like a standard cheery school principal, only a bit…. younger. “That being said, all the windows and doors should now be bolted up and locked!”

  Everyone was confused, and some ughed. But all the ughter would soon go dead silent. “You think this is funny? Well, take those smiles off your face because I am not joking!”

  The ughter in the room was soon repced by fear. “There is no way to leave this school.” the voice said. “Are you serious?”

  Said Gabriel with a small amount of fear in her voice. “Ah, ah, ah, you didn’t let me finish! It’s true that there’s no way to leave by force. However… There is a certain rule to the school. One that would allow you all to leave!”

  Everyone was still in fear, but they were also intrigued. Sky spoke. “You mean this could be over for all of us if we follow a stupid rule? I’m in!”

  The voice spoke again. “That’s the spirit! This rule is pretty simple! All you need to do is… Murder one of your fellow students!”