Six hours later, Elios looks around and makes sure everyone is asleep. He carefully gets up and tries not to make any noise that would wake anyone up. Slowly creeping to the connecting door, he passes by Rey and Kenji quietly cuddling.

  CREEAAAK!

  The door makes a slow creaking noise as it opens and he curses under his breath. Rey's eyes open slightly before he shifts into a more comfortable position and quickly falls back asleep again. Elios sighs in relief, turning his attention, he spots Shinta and Lydia on opposite sides of the room, sleeping peacefully. He closes the door and hides under the desks to stay out of sight. Elios then starts crawling to Rika's corpse and scans for clues that may help them figure out the culprit. As soon as he approaches closer, a strong, pungent fragrance emits around Rika's vicinity. Elios looks up and glares at Lydia. He tries his best to ignore the stench and turns his attention back to Rika.

  "What we have isn't enough to deem Shinta as the killer. There must be something around here, something!" Elios looks frantically. He notices a black, bloody pair of scissors on the ground next to Rika.

  "This is...Shinta's scissors? It's laying right next to-" Elios connects the dots. "I was right! Shinta did kill Rika after all! This is solid evidence!"

  He grins victoriously, snatching the scissors to bring the evidence back to the other classroom. Just as he stands up, a shadow looms over Elios. He turns around to see Shinta holding a pair of scissors above him.

  SLASH!

  A slash to the throat, and Elios slumps over, creating a loud thud. Blood splatters on Shinta and he smiles ear to ear at Elios's shocked face lying motionlessly next to Rika. He takes off the spare jacket that shielded him from Elios's blood and shoves it into one of the many backpacks in the classroom.

  "Should've stayed out of it," He whispers with a hint of glee. "You took the bait. I thought you were smarter than that, Elios."

  Being the light sleeper she is, Lydia starts to wake up, her eyes blinking to see what was going on with all the noise Shinta was making. It takes a second to process before it hits her like a truck. Shinta killed Elios.

  Trying to get up to run to the other classroom, Shinta leaps over desks and sprints to the farthest corner where Lydia was sleeping. He yanks her injured arm and keeps her still, gripping her tightly. Her wound throbs and she recoils in pain, her face twisting.

  "No. You've ruined everything for me already, and I will not allow you to make it worse," Shinta puts the scissors to her throat. The sharp end pokes her throat and Lydia's eyes turn as big as saucers. Tears pool around Lydia's eyes in fear, unknowing of what to do, knowing that she could die right then and there. A smile appears on Shinta's face. He removes the scissors from her neck.

  "I have a better idea than to kill you. But first, I need your full compliance, got it?" Shinta asks. Without much of a choice, Lydia nods frantically out of fear. "Good. Don't make a single noise or I'll kill you right here, right now."

  With no hesitation, he yanks her hair by force and starts dragging her across the room. Jolting in pain, Lydia forces herself to cover her mouth instead of fighting back to muffle screams of agony. He drags her to Elios's body and forces her to face his corpse. She shuts her eyes, her face morphing to fear and disgust. Despite that, Shinta grabs the back of her neck and forces her to look at the bloody body.

  The pool of blood starts spreading and touches Lydia's knees, the uncomfortably cold feeling making her shiver. Her disheveled hair touches the blood with how close her face was, half of it being dipped into the crimson liquid. Elios's slashed throat was enough to make her feel lightheaded, but Lydia could not afford passing out at this moment.

  "If you utter any more words with your loud-mouthing ass, that will be you." Shinta threatens. She nods as fast as she could to make her stop looking at Elios and Shinta drops her. "Ugly, wretched bitch."

  She falls back and gasps in fear, trying to catch her breath and panicking. Her vision gets blurry and a flood of thoughts enter her mind. Being overwhelmed with fear, she dry heaves next to the corpse and quivers in terror.

  "I'm gonna die. He's gonna kill me. No no, only if I tell them. But he could still kill me at any time! No, no, no! I don't want to die! I don't, I don't! I want to live!" She panics in her head while Shinta pays no mind to it and glances at the window. She curls up, horrified, and shrinks into the thoughts flooding in her mind. "What is he thinking? What's going to happen to me?! What do I do?! What can I do?!"

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Meanwhile, Shinta smiles calmly, having already formed a well-thought-out plan and goes back to Lydia. The smile scares her to death and she tries to scurry away, but he yanks her by the hair again.

  "I need you to do a favor for me," Shinta's mouth contorts to a wide, disturbing slit. Lydia gulps in fear. All she could do was helplessly look up at her potential killer, submission being her only option if she wanted to live. "You loved acting right?"

  5 Hours Later

  Kenji is the first to wake up, as sunlight starts spilling in from the windows and covers the room with light. He yawns and looks over, the corners of his mouth forming a faint smile towards Rey, who was laying on his shoulder. Trying to be careful, he slowly tries to inch him off, but to no avail, Rey still wakes up. His eyes flutter open, Kenji being the first person he sees, making him grin back softly. He presses a soft kiss on Kenji's cheek.

  "What's going on...?" Rey asks, rubbing his eyes. He sits up and yawns loudly.

  "Sorry, I was trying to move you off because I woke up first. Do you still need sleep?" Kenji asks.

  "Forget it. Already awake anyways," Rey stands up and stretches. He looks over to his left and flinches. Shinta and Lydia were already in the same room with them. Shinta was on his desk laying back while Lydia leans against the wall, fiddling with her fingers.

  She grabs her comb next to her and instinctively looks to her right, only to find no one there. Her hands tremble as she quietly combs her tangled and knotted hair, now matted with dried blood, knowing it was useless trying to straighten it out. Despite how messed up her hair was, the blood wasn't exactly visible due to the thickness of her hair. Her appearance may have looked noticeably worse, but it was expected given how long they've been stuck in the classroom.

  "I...should have listened to her when I had the chance," Lydia spaces out, a certain woman with short hair coming into mind. "I should've taken her advice. I should've just taken her advice."

  Rey glances over at the odd pair.

  "I've been thinking about it for a while now, but..." Rey thinks to himself squinting at Shinta. "He's definitely doing something suspicious. He's never acted out like this to us before. Nor does he ever try to win us over with emotional manipulation. Something's definitely wrong."

  "Finally woke up, I see," Shinta looks at them and gives them an odd, lopsided smile. Kenji does a quick scan of the room, Karna is still deep asleep. Elios was absent in the group, however.

  "Where's Elios?" Kenji asks. "And what are you two doing here?"

  "We came here pretty early and took a nap in here. Couldn't sleep in the other room with Rika's corpse. Way too uncomfortable. Isn't that right, Lydia?" Shinta leans over and smiles at her in an oh-so-casually manner. Lydia only nods slowly without saying a word. "As for Elios, we don't know. Maybe he's in the other classroom?"

  Rey's left eye twitches in suspicion.

  "Wouldn't you know?" he asks with distrust.

  "Did you not hear what I just said? We slept in here and Elios was still present. Both of us woke up earlier than you guys and Elios was missing."

  "Why didn't you look for him, then?" Rey keeps his guard up.

  "...Wanted to wait for you guys. Not that big of a deal. Just go check," Shinta responds nonchalantly after a quick pause. Kenji notices and stares at him with suspicion.

  "I can go check," Kenji stands up and walks to the door. Rey also stands up, but doesn't follow along like usual, continuously glancing over at Shinta with wariness.

  Kenji opens the door and freezes in shock. It was Elios's dead corpse and one zombie lurking around the room. Shinta stands in front of the connecting door to block it and conceals an evil smile.

  The zombie lunges for Kenji and he deflects by shoving them away. He grabs a chair and tries to fend it off. He runs to the opposite end of the classroom and throws the chair at it. It does nothing to block the zombie, only making it more wrathful and relentless with its attacks. Kenji pushes a desk to stall the zombie and looks at Shinta for help, but he just watches the hopeless fight with amusement. Panicking, he notices another one enter the classroom and realizes the door to outside was wide open. Kenji screams and gets another chair to defend himself.

  "Stay back!" he screams.

  "The fuck is going on?!" Rey yells, snapping out of his immersion. He tries to get a closer look, but Shinta's whole body was wedged between the door. He enthusiastically watches the desperate struggle. Knowing Kenji was in trouble with the screaming in the background, Rey tries to get Shinta to budge. Karna flinches and sits up, rubbing his eyes and trying to figure out what's going on.

  "Shinta, move!" Rey tries to push and nudge, but it wasn't doing anything. With frustration, he shouts, "I said move!"

  Rey grabs Shinta's shirt and throws him to the ground, sprinting into the next classroom to help Kenji. He grabs a chair and throws it at one of the zombies, temporarily knocking them down. Rey pins it down with a desk and tries to help Kenji fend off the other zombie. He violently swings his chair at the first zombie, only to break a window and cut himself with more glass. His bandages tear and he winces in pain.

  The zombie lunges at Kenji and he holds it up, trying not to fall. He grabs the zombie's neck and pins him down to stop him from attacking.

  "How do we get them out?!" Kenji screams. Rey waves to Kenji and grabs the zombie, then launches it out of the broken window, ignoring the pain from bruises on his body. Rey gasps for air and smiles in victory. The satisfaction is short-lived when Kenji remembers the second one is still in the classroom. He turns around to find it lunging behind Rey.

  CHOMP!