*ding dong, bing bong*

"It is now 7 am! Rise and shine for another beautiful day!"

Today's morning announcement seems off.

Is there a reason for that?

It had become routine for me to wait on my sister to get ready every morning after I woke up. Everyday, as if on cue, someone would walk by me in the hallway and I would invite them to walk with us to breakfast.

As much I enjoy talking to the other people here, I hated how used to everything I had gotten. I came here to get my talent reinstated, but instead I got trapped in a mansion without doors or a way out and told my only way of escape is to kill someone else.

Who even wakes up and decides to throw people in a death game?

"Goooood morning, Felix!" A chirper voice greeted me.

...oh.

"Nora?" My eyes widened. "I hardly ever see you in the mornings."

I turned around to see the bluenette with short hair. Unlike usual when she looks like she stepped straight out of the TV, there were the faintest circles under her eyes.

"I'm pretty unwelcome at breakfast and group gatherings." She explained.

I wonder why?

"Speaking of group events," I changed the topic. "What made you want to help out with a killing game anyways? You're just as much at risk to dying as we are. Maybe more since your partially responsible for us being here."

"Yes, but..." She yawned, before continuing. "I have protection."

"Protection?" I curiously repeated the word. "How so?"

"I can't disclose any ground breaking details," Nora said. "But in exchange for being the inside person for the people who trapped you here, my PetalPad is updated with information in regards to who has the highest potential to kill and then if someone does kill."

She would know who the killer is?!

"So you know who to steer clear of?" I summed up. "What kind of inside things do you even do? All you've done so far is bake cookies and bother us with random questions."

"The questions are actually part of my inside job!" The bluenette happily replied. "It may seem random to you, but someone outside of this game values your answers."

They value my answers? Why?

"Another thing—" I tried to say.

"Nope!" She injected, holding up her microphone to drown out my voice. "My turn to ask the questions!"

I should have expected that.

"Go ahead. I have time to kill anyways." I agreed.

"Because today is a special day, today's question is a short answer question." She added.

"Short answer?" I froze.

"Don't worry." The gameshow host assured me with an unnatural smile. "I only ask easy questions."

Since when?

Who would you kill and why? (Killing no one is not an acceptable answer.)

If I can't say no one, then I need to pick someone that I would kill. But who would I kill? I doubt I could even stomach it and I don't have any problems with anyone here.

I could pick a logical answer and kill someone like Blane or Tabitha who I doubt would be able to fight back.

Or I could pick someone like Amelia or Nikolas who always spends their time alone.

Hmm...

"You." I blurted. "Theoretically, if I were to kill someone, I would kill you because you spend a lot of time alone and you aren't particularly strong so even I could overpower you. Also, you aren't the most liked among the group."

"Ouch." She winced, frowning at my answer. "You're the third person to say that to me."

"Is that a lot?" I asked.

"Considering I've only questioned three people, I'd say so." She crossed her arms. "Maybe you guys just need to do more FTEs with me."

"Oh! I have another question." I remembered. "Why did you say today was a special day?"

"No reason." She grinned, before disappearing in a smoke cloud.

Talking to Nora feels like a chore...

"Hey." Fawn greeted me upon leaving her room. "Are we not walking with anyone today?"

"I guess not." I said. "The first person I saw today was Nora."

I didn't need to say anymore. My sister and I walked to the dining room alone for the first time since we got here.

"Do you ever wonder who owns this mansion?" Fawn asked out of nowhere.

"Whoever they are, they must really like flowers." I replied.

Along the halls of the mansion was a desaturated wallpaper with deep red roses on it. Colorful and mismatched pots lined the floors in the area between the rooms and dining room.

I suppose this person's love for flowers explains why our tablets are called PetalPads.

"Do you think they lent their mansion for the game?" I brought up.

"If they didn't, it would probably run the risk of it getting discovered." My sister concluded. "I think it's safe to assume the mansion's owner is in on it."

Now the question is who owns the mansion?

When we arrived in the dining room, the people who typically showed up early were nowhere to be seen. Instead, Blane was anxious sitting at the table alone.

"What's going on?" I asked him. "Did Tabitha and the others not show up yet?"

"Th-They're all in the k-kitchen and th-things aren't going w-w-well." The biologist explained.

"I'll go check things out." I volunteered myself.

I left Fawn to sit with Blane in silence at the table, while I braced myself for whatever chaos I would find the kitchen. I wasn't scared, but I did feel unprepared for whatever I would face.

And I was.

I was glad that the kitchen had doors to shield everyone from witnessing what I had.

"If your not going to help than get the fuck out!" Rory shouted, alerting everyone else in the kitchen.

To no surprise, they were yelling at Tabitha. The influencer had been playing on her phone in a busy kitchen.

"That's rather harsh," Zenith pointed out, defending the blonde girl.

"Yeah!" Tabitha agreed, putting her phone away. "I'm vital to breakfast getting made."

"I don't think you know what vital means," Rory remarked.

The kitchen was fuller than it had ever been before. Excluding myself, there were five people working. Four, since Tabitha was doing nothing to contribute.

Vanessa was flipping pancakes and putting them onto the serving plate. Zenith and Isaiah working on a second batch due to the shear amount of people here. Then Rory was stirring badder as they announced their grievances about the blonde influencer.

"I do!" The blonde girl argued. "It means important."

"Yeah. You're not important when it comes to make breakfast." They stated. "You never have been."

Before anyone else could spoke, Vanessa fell. She fell and brought all the pancakes on the plate she carried with her.

"Veronica!" Tabitha gasped. "You just dropped all the pancakes!"

"Are you alright, Vanessa?" Rory rushed to her aid. "Are you hurt?"

Zenith and Isaiah also stopped what they were doing to check on the former track star as well. Vanessa has managed to sit up, but she was struggling to pull herself up.

"I'm alright," The brunette replied, after receiving help from Rory. "My ankle's been killing me ever since I woke up though."

"You should stay off of it for today." Zenith suggested. "We don't need you overworking yourself."

"But the food–" The athlete began to argue.

"Isaiah, Zenith and I will handle the food." Rory said in an almost parent-like way. "Tabitha will take you to your room to rest and she'll come back to bring you a plate."

"Wh-What?!" Tabitha protested. "I didn't agree to that."

"You always talk about how important you are," Rory reminded her. "Helping Vanessa to her room is something important."

"I can do it if Tabitha doesn't want to." Isaiah quickly offered.

"No." The food tester denied. "Tabitha can do this."

Tabitha didn't say much. She stumbled when Rory handed Vanessa's arm over to her to put around her shoulder. The influencer struggled to make it out of the kitchen as she helped the track star not put any weight on her ankle.

I followed the girls out, figuring the kitchen conflict had resolved itself.

"Hey bestieeee," Tabitha called to me. "Can you do me a favor?"

"I'm telling Rory if you don't take me to my room." Vanessa frowned.

"Who are they going to believe over me or you?" The influencer asked a horrible rhetorical question.

"Me." The brunette pointed out.

"They won't know." The blonde argued. "Anyways, I was wondering if you could do me a favor, Alex."

"It's still Felix." I corrected her. "But what do you need?"

"My muscles are weak and I'm SO tired from carrying Vanessa all this way." The influencer drastically stretched her story. "Could you take Vanessa to her for me?"

"You've walked like ten steps and I'm still doing most of the work." Pointed out Vanessa.

"Yeah, sure," I agreed.

Right after my response, Vanessa hobbled over to me. Tabitha then sat at table talking to whoever was there whether they wanted to talk to her or not.

"I'm glad she isn't taking me to my room." Vanessa admitted, putting an arm around my should. "She looked like she was about to fall over any second."

"Yeah." I nodded, as we left the dining room. "Nobody else needs to get hurt today."

"Oh, uh, sorry I can't do the laundry today," She apologized. "I put in a load this morning, but then Rory asked me to help them and I never got past that."

"I don't mind doing it," I told her. "I doubt Gabriel will either. I think he enjoyed it last time."

"Next time, I'll do the laundry for you." She confidently announced. "I promise."

"It really doesn't matter to me, but you can if you insist." I said.

When we reached Vanessa's room, she held onto her door and took her arm off me.

"Thank you for taking me to my room." She thanked me. "I'll be fine from here."

"Alright. Make sure to stay off your ankle." I reminded her. "I don't want you getting hurt any worse."

"I will." She simply as she shut the door.

I returned to the dining room to find a puddle of syrup in the floor and an angry Rory.

"How the fuck did you manage to spill that?!" Rory snapped at the blonde influencer.

"It was too heavy for me," Tabitha brushed it off. "Why would hand something so heavy to me?"

"Heavy?" The food tester grumbled. "It barely weighed anything!"

Amongst all the shouting and back and forth between those two, Zenith approached me. I didn't notice earlier in the kitchen but the chauffeur was clearly distraught.

"Have you seen Skyler this morning?" He questioned me.

"Not since yesterday at game night." I answered. "They're probably still cooling off."

"Ah, probably..." He didn't sound like he believed in his answer. "I'm going to get a mop from the storage closet to clean of the syrup before soaks into the floor. Care to join me?"

"Yeah, sure." I agreed, having fun helping everyone out this morning. "I can carry the bucket for you."

Zenith and I walked down to the supply closet. I had some trouble opening the door, but when the chauffeur tried he managed to push it open.

"Something must have fallen over to block the door," He inferred.

Something with a horrible stench came from inside the dark closet. We both smelt it, but Zenith decided to be the brave one and go in the closet first. We held up our Petal Pads for light. A dim light, but light nonetheless.

I ran my hand along the wall, until I felt something small poking out of it.

"I think I found a light switch." I stated, before flicking it upwards.

Along with light came a surprise. A horrifying, nightmare inducing surprise.

A sight that burned its way into my memory sat before me. Pink blood spattered on the wall and the floor. A limp body resting up against the wall that could have been mistaken for sleeping in any other circumstance.

This can't be fucking real...

This body belonged to none other than Skyler, the Ex Ultimate Hacker.

Zenith's scream was next thing I heard before I switched off the light in horror of what I had seen.