"The voting process is very simple." Tiger the Dog explained to us. "Even Felix can do it!"

...

"Just get on with it." Gabriel demanded.

"Look on your podiums. There are pictures of all 16 of your faces." It told us. "Click the picture of who you want to vote for."

I looked around to see everyone else voting. Vanessa stood at her podium with her arms crossed, while Nora waited patiently for everyone to finish.

I hope I'm voting for the right person.

I clicked Vanessa's face. A check mark appeared on my screen and I stepped away.

"And the all 13 votes are in!" The dog cheered.

"Well?" Rory bugged her, sounding anxious. "Did we get it right?"

"You got the killer..." Tiger paused for dramatic effect. "Correct!"

I let out a relived exhale, finally relaxing for the first time since the trial started.

"Vanessa, the Ex Ultimate Track Star, killed Skyler!" It announced to all us. "Her punishment will start soon."

Oh. The punishment.

"You killed them..." Zenith was the first to speak. He couldn't stop himself from tearing up again. "Why did you kill them? What was so important that you needed to take someone else's life to leave this place...?!"

"I... I..." Vanessa choked up, intimidated by the chauffeur. "I n-needed the money...

I wanted to get my life back on track."

"Why did you need money to get your life back on track, Nessa?" Quartz asked her.

"My parents got really mad when I lost my title as the Ultimate Track Star. I was just about to graduate high school and I had a fully paid track scholarship, since I was an Ultimate." The ponytail began to explain. "But... I lost all that when I lost my talent."

"That's terrible," Minerva said, as if she could related. "If you don't mind me asking, how did you lose your talent."

"It was stupid. Really stupid... I was partying with my friends since were about graduate and whatnot." She recalled, sounding regretful. "One thing lead to another and we all got arrested."

"Everybody makes mistakes," Hunter attempted to comfort her.

"But I never should have gone to that party." She said, tearing up. "The others got scolded by their parents, but I lost my entire future in a single night. My parents have been furious with me every since, all the pride they had in me gone. Sometimes, they act like they don't even have a kid."

...

"Just a couple months ago, I sighed up for a race. The winner of this race would be titled Ultimate Marathon Runner." Vanessa went on, no longer crying. She smiled when talking about it. "I figured having an Ultimate's salary would be good enough to make it up to my parents."

"Is that where you got hurt?" I guessed.

She nodded, tears rolling down her face.

"You came here to your old talent back to jumpstart your life." Nikolas summarized. "But things did go the way you planned."

"That doesn't excuse you killing Skyler." Zenith told her, crying at her story. "I'm sorry, Vanessa..."

"N-No, you have every right to be mad." She cried after seeing him cry. "I fucking killed someone! You all have the right to be mad at me."

I know but...

I can't help but relate to the feeling of getting unlucky and life absolutely fucking you over.

"But... The punishment..." Quartz reminded. "I don't want anyone else to die today."

"Yeah." Rory agreed, joining the cry train. "This never would have happened if we weren't in a killing game."

"I'm so sorry," Vanessa cried. "I'm sorry to Skyler. to you, Zenith. And the r-r-rest of you for making you go through this."

"I..." Isaiah wiped his eyes. "I forgive you."

"Me too." I added. "I would have done the same in your situation."

"I understand your reasoning, so I forgive you as well." Minerva joined in.

Eventually, most of the group had either verbally or silently forgiven Vanessa, aside from Amelia and Zenith who kept up blank expressions.

"I... I don't want to r-ruin your final moments." Zenith told her. "But I can't—"

"I know." She nodded, crying. "It's okay. I just hope you can forget this happened and move on."

"Wh-What?" Rory questioned. "Why would we want to forget you?"

"I want all you to forget about me," The brunette requested. "The good, the bad, all of it."

"But, why?!" Rory demanded to know. "I enjoyed the time I spent with you! I don't want to forget it...!"

"But if you remember what's good, you'll also remember the bad." She explained. "And I don't want any of you to feel bad for me. I did this to myself, okay?"

"Nessa..." Quartz sobbed.

"Time's almost up." Tiger informed us, clearly bored.

"Don't let this happen again." Vanessa commanded us. "Do put anything though what I put Skyler through."

There was a silent agreement between all of us.

"Well then..." Tiger stood up from her chair.

"Goodbye everyone." Vanessa cried.

"It's the moment all of you have been waiting for." The blue dog jumped in joy.

"I..." Rory cried so much, they were unable to form words.

"It's punishment time!" Tiger the Dog jumped on a red button.

"I'm not ready!" Rory yelled out, but they were far too late.

A screen turned on, with an 8-bit Vanessa being carried to her punishment by an 8-bit Tiger the Dog.

Over The Line ——— Ex Ultimate Track Star's Execution

A trapdoor in the floor opened up, with Vanessa falling in. When the trapdoor closed, the TV in back of the room lit up showing up footage of Vanessa. A cracking could be heard when she stood, wincing upon putting pressure on her entire right foot. She was standing the middle of an empty city street. Tiger the Dog held up a checker flag up high, before lowering it. A vibration in the ground, causing Vanessa to stumble before she caught sight of something behind her and took off running. She was fast, before whatever was behind approached her faster than she could run away. She passed by a house with two people standing outside on a porch. They bore a heavy resemblance to Vanessa. When she passed by them hoping to get inside, they went inside and slammed the door on her. The rumbling got louder and now a crowd of faceless runners could be made out. Vanessa took a second to catch her breath before attempting to take off again. However, due to her leg pain, she slipped and fell on the hard concrete. In her attempts to get off the ground, she failed due to how tired she had become from running. The stampede of runners approached, now being recognizable as robots. Vanessa cried because she was stuck; stuck on the ground and unable to leave. Anchored down with no way to leave. The stampede trampled her with no expression, as if she were merely an obstacle in their way. Once the robots runners had ran on, there was a pink puddle of Vanessa's remains.

"How beautiful!" Tiger gawked at the screen. "Wolf really is missing out on all the fun with his boring daily life."

What the actual fuck...

I covered my mouth, my throat burning as I tried to keep myself composed.

"That was..." Quartz cried, her horrified eyes glued to the screen. "Horrible. V-Vanessa didn't deserve that..."

"I-I think I'm g-g-going to be sick...!" Blane announced, covering his mouth like I had.

"What the fucking hell, Tiger?!" Rory yelled, wiping their face of dried tears. "Wh-What was that?!"

"An execution!" It cheered.

"I never want to see that again." Nikolas admitted, his face growing pale the longer he looked at the screen.

After taking some our time to cry and compose ourselves after that horrible experience, Isaiah finally spoke up.

"Now that it's over, can we leave?" Isaiah asked. "I don't want to be in here any longer than I have too..."

"I guess." Tiger sighed. "The rest of the mansion's first floor is now open to you. Wolf will now go back to being in charge or whatever."

Tiger the Dog disappeared. The door to trial room reopened upon their departure.

"I'm goin' to get some sleep after that." Hunter announced to us, his voice shaky from the execution.

"I doubt I'll ever be able to sleep without nightmares again," Minerva said, leaving as well.

Everyone fell silent. Some more people left, other couldn't bring themselves to look away from the screen. They couldn't bring themselves to forget what had happened here. They couldn't forget what had happened today.

"I... I forgive her..." Quietly said the chauffeur.

Zenith.

"You shouldn't." The coroner butted in. "She did something to you that can never be reserved."

"What?" Zenith looked up at Amelia, wiping his tears.

"You heard me." She simply said. "She doesn't deserve your forgiveness."

"H-Hey!" Rory stepped in. "Don't tell Zenith what to do! And d-don't say that about her...!"

"Why not?" The pinkette challenged. "She killed someone and died for trying to deceive us all."

"But she had a good reason," They tried to say.

"Many criminals often think they are in the right in doing their crimes." Amelia stated. "But in reality they are not..."

"Yeah, but that's the case in the real world," Nora interjected. "Here, anything goes!"

"If weren't for the game, they would have never died." The food tester said.

"However, because the game happen, they are dead." Amelia argued.

"Can both of you just stop?" Zenith spoke up, his eyes watering. "We've all had a long day and I'm just... tired."

"Let's get out of here." I suggested to everyone.

The rest of us left, Fawn stayed close to side once we left the courtroom. We were both still in shock from everything we had gone through today, her more so than me.

I don't think I'll be able to get anything else done today.

I doubt I'll be able to sleep, though.

"I'm going to my room." Fawn said.

"You can stick with me if you want." I offered.

"I would but..." She stopped. "I don't want to be around anyone right now. Even you..."

"I understand." I told, watching as she left.

...

I can't go through another class trial.

Never again.