Event #7 - Help the Medicine Go Down [Tag: Failures]

[Esmeralda Ortiz]

“Miss Lockwood...”

Esme mumbled the first words she thought of as her mind went back to consciousness. Miss Lockwood, a teacher, was with them. That meant more adults would be at the the school. There was a chance! But...how many of them were in on Miss Kishi’s Crazy demon summon idea? Madonna was the only one from what she understood. Miss Lockwood had been far tipsy and liquored up. If Esme told her what all happened, it would be dismissed as a hangover vision. She sat up, glancing at where she had been put down by the mysterious ghost or demon or whatever.

Apparently it wanted to show her some mercy. Esme was in the nurse’s office. And she wasn’t alone. Had she been able to smile, she would have. Her friends were all in the same room!

“A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, she snickered.

[Dawn "Dee Dee" Dreemurr]

“Miss Lockwood...” Dee Dee heard somebody whispering right by her side, while she herself been on a verge between reality and slumber. The girl gently let go of the back of a student she was hugging from behind. A big black mass of hair rose from the ground and the student sat up, looking around.

"Esme," she whispered with a soft smile, still laying down on the ground looking at the ceiling. They are still alive. And thank God they were still together, maybe even in the same room? Why the hell thought she fell asleep so suddenly...

The girl massaged her tired eyes and rose on her elbows. Perhaps she fainted because of the hunger or... Her train of thought was interrupted the moment she saw that she and Esmeralda were accompanied by a couple of new old friends!

"CHRIS! TARA!" the blond clapped her hands and crawled towards both them, pulling them up in a group hug, not letting the poor unfortunate souls to fully wake up from their sweet dreams.

Oh gosh! She was so happy to see Chris again! And Tara! She didn't see Tara since, since... since that slender man died right before their eyes. Dawn couldn't believe how ignorant and blind she was back then until she felt how dangerous this place actually was on her own skin.

"I didn't think I will ever actually see y'all again!" she thought, silent tears running down her cheeks.

[Christopher Kresh]

Exhaustion. Mentally and physically. 
Chris felt how his mind was slowly getting back to reality.  Why? Why couldn't he stay in the comfortable warm bubble he was in. He didn't want to open his eyes to yet another horror. Hesitantly he tried to move his limbs. He was able to do so. That thought kind of made him more at ease. He would be in another classroom. 
Faint voices began to get clearer and clearer. 
"CHRIS! TARA!"
A familiar voice calling out familiar names. 
Chris tried to open his eyes only to be squished in someones arms. " D-Dawn..!" he said as he blinked, his eyes adjusted to the faint lights. He gently got an arm around her in return. He looked next to him seeing his best friend as she still had to fully get back to reality. he smiled however. Tara was alive. 
A sigh of relief left his mouth as he gently got his other arm around tara. Never had he felt this relieved. he felt how emotions began to take over as he fought the tears stinging in his eyes. 
He looked up only to have his eyes meet those of another familiar face. Esme.
His smile grew seeing her as he moved his head a little telling her to join the hug. 

[Tara Macfly]

"CHRIS! TARA!" Tara woke up with a start when she heard the cry. And she hadn’t had the time to realise who had screamed that and what did it imply that the name of her best friend was screamed when suddenly she felt being embraced in a hug. Surprised by the sudden touch, afraid of any possible threats she almost pushed down the person until she recongnized the familiar blond head.

‘’Dee dee ?’’ Tara asked hopefull. She hadn’t heard any news from the girl since she saw her in the entrance hall. She had left her alone with Naya to go after Chris. She was so glad that she was still safe.



Tara suddenly realised that Dee Dee wasn’t the only one hugging her, she felt another arm put around her. The touch was so familiar, she recognised it, imediatly. ‘’Chris !’’ She shouted, tears of happiness falling through her cheeks. ‘’I’m so happy to find you ! I was so afraid’’ Since the tea party, she had tried to know if her friend was alright, but without any success. And now her wish had been realised, he was here at her side. It was almost too good to be true.



Then she saw another figure in the room, she recognized easily Esme, who was looking at the display with a small smile. Tara made a gesture to say to Esme to come in the hug too. Last time when Esme, had wanted to hug her, Tara rejected her. It hadn’t been the right time. But now she could hug the raven haired and wanted nothing more. She was so happy to have found all of them.



But her hapiness didn’t last long when she remembered who she left alone in the last room. She looked around the room, no Philip in sight. Guiltiness and woriness surounded her. She left the poor boy alone in the school, unsafe, to go search for some items to help him. But she had found Zara in the other side of the wall, and was still talking to her when the change of room happened –there was no sight of her too here-. She hadn’t had the time to came back and see if Philip was alright. Did he had another horrible headache ? Could he have been attacked ? Everything could have happened to the poor boy.



Now Tara couldn’t profit anymore about her sweet reunions with her friend. Zara and Philip were out of her reach. Like always, now, anything could happen to them, and she wouldn’t know. And now she had found her best friend with Dee dee and Esme, how many time did she have before something took them away from her again ?

[Esmeralda Ortiz]

A pair of slender arms came to hug her from behind. Esme patted the hands gently, consoling whoever, when her mind was returning Dawn had been behind her, and she grinned.

'CHRIS! TARA!"

Dawn was rushing over to the duo, huggign them. Chris was hugging her back, and deep down, Esme felt her heart sink slightly. It was no secret that the three of them were becoming a tight little group. She had been so focused on getting out of here alive that, well, watching a group so full of friendly love when she had no one - Becca maybe, but who knew where she was - kind of stung. The smile didn't reach her emerald green eyes. Why would any of them want to hug her? She had been so aloof and rough. The most she was saying were words of comfort that even now she was starting to doubt. The burdens were...

Until two hands were gesturing for her to join them.

Both Chris and Tara were looking at her. The brunette's green eyes were brimming with tears. It didn't matter what they were, fear or joy, because quite frankly Esme had a huge tidal wave of emotion crash down watching them both silently ask her to join the group hug. Tara had been distraught the last time they were pitted to help out again that she didn't want a hug. Now all of them wanted her here. The smile was full on now. The raven haired eyes lit up and she dashed to join the group hug. Her arms encircled Dawn and Tara and her hands fell along Chris' back. Through her tightly squeezed eyes, small tracts of tears made little salty rivers down her cheeks. Who cared what emotion they were? She was finally accepted into a small circle of friends. Something that she had never fully felt in the drama club with its cliques and branch off friendships.

"I'm so happy to find you! I was so afraid!" Tara sobbed.

Esme lifted her head. The hug was dwindling, but everyone clearly didn't want to let go. Besides, she had something big to tell them. Well, everyone else probably did, too. She had been with Chris and Dawn at the wall, but what had Tara found out? All they had found out was a drunk Miss Lockwood.

"Me, too," she said with her throat coated with emotion. Scrubbing away the remaining water in her eyes, she cleared her throat, tasting the salt of mucus. "So...what all happened before this next blackout? Did you guys run into other people?" Whatever was tormenting them no doubt had picked another set of students to 'play with'.

[Dawn "Dee Dee" Dreemurr]

And so they all just sat there, in the heat of a moment, crying tears of happiness. Couldn't they all just stay like this? Happy. Together. Alive.

Dee Dee let go of both of her friends' backs and brushed away that pesky liquid that just couldn't stop pouring from her eyes. The girl let out a big sigh and looked over at Esmeralda. Even the toughest people cry.

"Me, too," the girl replied to Tara's greeting, while Dawn herself remained speechless. Just sobbing and sniffing almost silently, being a usual wreck of emotions that every second student in this cursed school was.

"So...what all happened before this next blackout? Did you guys run into other people?" she heard as the raven-haired said. This question though was clearly for Tara, because nor Dee, nor Esme, nor even Chris didn't see the gal for quite a while, so Dawn again remained silent, giving a shy smile to the group, eying them one by one with a mix of surprise and mild uneasiness.

She was happy to see them. But... Where is Cameron? Where is Al? The girl hoped that her best friend wasn't mixed into this mess in the first place, but what if she WAS here. She didn't see or hear any news about her. Or about poor Ronnie...

[Christopher Kresh]

’I’m so happy to find you ! I was so afraid’’
Tara cried out. Chris smiled as he felt how he was crying too. Esmeralda rushed over and hugged the group making the little squad complete. The only thing he had to do now was not black out so he could stay with them.  "Me, too," Esme said. Both girls clearly were emotional. Chris was the same. He looked at them. Tara was happy but something was bugging her. Something worried her, he knew that look. Esme seemed really touched. They all needed this moment that much was clear.  With how strong and level headed Esmeralda was people seemed to forget the girl was a human being as well who needed a place to belong just like everyone else. There was one person he didn't hear yet, the one who was the one who was talking most of the time. Dawn. He looked next to him as he looked at the blonde girl next to him as she moved her arms away to dry her tears. Chris let go of the hug too and sat back to look at everyone.  He smiled. " .. I can't be more happy to see everyone is alive and well.." he said. " you all are okay right..? nobody got hurt?" He asked. He just hoped his head wound was the biggest injury.

"So...what all happened before this next blackout? Did you guys run into other people?"  Esmeralda asked. Chris looked up from dawn who looked worried too. " No.. before the.. thing.. happened.." he looked at Esme and dawn. " I .. I met up with Alexander, Max, becca.. and emery.." He said softly. Speaking out emery's name hurt him. He had tried to keep her from bleeding out only to push her off the edge after. God.. Alexander.. Alexander would kill him.  He looked down meeting dawns eyes for a second. He was extremely happy to be able to hold dawn in a hug but nobody should have died.. starting with amanda.  " later on I saw miss Lockwood.." he added. He waited for tara to respond. tara was the one they had not seen in a while. 

While waiting for the others to talk Chris looked around him. He didn't think he would be able to take another black out. His eyes searched around the room trying to see if there was any new info on their situation or a possible way out.

(Chris made a perception check)

[Tara Macfly]

" .. I can't be more happy to see everyone is alive and well.." Chris exclamed. Tara smiled slightly at him returning at their sweet reunion. But Philip was still in a side of her head  "you all are okay right..? nobody got hurt?''

She shook her head ''No not hurt'' she answered. ''And you Chris how is your wound ?'' she asked taking a look. Last time they had been separated by a wall and hadn't be able to see by herself if her friend was really alright, like he affirmed. It seemed to have been well treated. Well, as well as it could have been in their conditions, and it seemed to have cicatrized. She sighed in relief. She was still upsed that he had been injured but at least he was alright. 

"Me, too," Esme said, her throat coated with emotion. Tara gave her a tearish smile, she will probably start to cry again soon.  "So...what all happened before this next blackout? Did you guys run into other people?" The raven haired asked. Tara tensed a little, thinking about poor Philip.

" I .. I met up with Alexander, Max, becca.. and emery.." Chris answered first. Tara noticed how he flinched at Emery's name. Did something happened to silver haired girl and Chris witnessed it ? Tara shivered imagining it. "Poor Emery, no" Tara supplied silently. She didn't dare to ask if her suspicion
was right. " later on I saw miss Lockwood.." he added. Miss Lockwood ? Their history teacher ? Tara was surprised. What was doing here ? First Zara, who shouldn't be in Maverick high, now Miss lockwood. It was starting to became more and more weird. How many people who weren't in the drama club were here exactly ?

"Miss Locwood ? Do you know what she was doing there ?" Tara asked.

Then everyone turned towards her, for her answer. It made her slightly uncorfortable. She took a breath before answering "After I saw you Esme, in the next black out, I talked to Zara through a wall. I don't know if you know her, she graduated last year. Apparently she was here because her brother was in detention." Tara explained "But I was originally with Philip. He wasn't doing very well. he was exhausted and had a lot of headache" Tara cringed remembering the horrible headache the boy had where she had been so helpless. Was he having another one right now ? "I... I hope he's fine" she sighed sitting on the floor.

She stopped, she felt something in her pocket besides the knife. She put her hand in it, and touched a phone who wasn't her. She took it out. The red phone ! She had almost forget about it after meeting Zara and finding Chris, Esme and Dee dee ! How could she have forget the only thing Philip asked her ? She was an idiot ! 

She looked at her friends besides her. Should she tell them about this strange phone ? Philip asked her to give it to Thalia, and she remembered him, asking to not tell a lot of people about it, before we knew anything.

But Thalia wasn't here yet. She probably had to wait another room transfer to see her, if she was lucky. And Tara couldn't resolve the mystery of this phone alone, she would need her friends.

"Philip gave me that before we were separating" she began showing the red phone. "Before you abandonned him" her mind rectified but she forgot this thought. "Apparently Tristan found it and gave it to him. It belongs to no one Philip knew and he thinks it might be connected with all of this." She explained. 

"He... He asked me to give it to Thalia. In case he didn't make it." She said wiping tears. she will not have any water in her body if she continued to cry like this.  She really hoped that he was fine and had found his love and his brother. "But maybe before I find her we could took a look at it, for some clues ?" she proposed.

[Esmeralda Ortiz]

"Yeah, I'm not hurt either. At least not physically."

Esme shook her head. The hurt was coming was watching all these sick games. It was like Hunger Games only the whole event wasn't being played on TV. That and, from what she understood, the emcee of all this was a demon. She could still faintly hear Jamie and the drill, and even more disturbing, the crack of Emery's spine. The memories would still haunt her, the gruesome ways they died...the demon had a pretty twisted angle. Come to think of it, she had no idea what the motive was when it came to the demon. It was a huge puzzle piece to all of this. She pulled out the gaming list and turned it over to the backside, where she had been taking notes. Sorry, Amanda.

Chris said he had run into Becca, Max, Alex and Emery. When she had met up with Misha, Alex's name had come up too. So she could still count him on the 'so far alive' category. Hearing the name of her sister from another mister gave a mixed reaction. She was happy Becca was alive, yet at the same time, it bothered her that Becca had done nothing to help her when they had teamed up. Zak had been going nutso and Becca was giving him mouth to mouth; and not in the way intended to save a life. Esme remembered Madonna stabbing herself to ward off the demon - or, at least that was her mind assumed that was what she was doing - and then, well, Misha telling her Madonna was dead, which meant that thing was having a grand time with its games.

Tara brought up the name of Zara. Zaa...she recognized it but from where? If she was in the building at the time...and there was Miss Lockwood. So staff wasn't the only group of adults being affected. If Zara was an adult in the building, that meant she got pulled into this mess, too. Esme had nothing to write with except her finger and she traced the names with her fingernail, watching the paper scar and leave small traces of her nude nail polish so she could read it easier.

Tara also brought up Phillip. Phillip was one of the "infamous five." Esme hummed thoughtfully. Whatever it was, it was going after supposed big cliques. First, it had been Emery, Peyton, and Naya. If it was attacking the big five, it was doing it discretely; the first member of the five she saw get killed was Sig. Thalia's name came up, which meant she was okay. Nancy and Arielle...their fates were unknown right now.

"Sounds like he's been through hell and back if he's that tired," Esme said softly. Did that mean the demon got him more than once? She circled his name with her nail.

"As for me, Dawn and I ended up in Madonna's office with Peyton. I had been there earlier and found out Miss Kishi was going to be fired. So on this visit, I wanted to find out more. I gave Peyton some space, she needed it after...what happened to her friends." Saying their names out loud would be sacrilege because it occurred to her Naya seemed to just...disappear from the school. Naya had been a good friend of Esme's. Not close like Becca, Amanda, and now Chris, Tara, and Dawn, but still a friend; it stung. But she was losing focus. "We found out that Miss Kishi was losing her mind after her divorce. So much so that she summoned a demon. Peyton found a ritualistic knife, and she still has it. From what I understand, everything's coming back to this day. June 11th, something horrible happened. She might have gone through the ritual and now everything's sort of...stuck. Madonna was in on it, too, or probably wanted to stop it before more people got hurt. Now that she's dead...Misha told me...the demon's free to torment us more...until we stop it; the question is how."

Esme massaged her temples. Even just saying this out loud made it sound crazy. She wanted to wake up and find out this was a bad dream. Tara shared something else. It was a scarlet red phone. Red, like blood. Esme felt her entire blood grow cold. A phone. That was still active. Was that how the demon was sending nasty texts? It was the only way to explain why it as. She also hadn't received any anonymous requests in a while. Then again, her phone was dead. Tara was determined to give to Thalia and find more clues. Esme nodded in agreement.

"Clues and maybe supplies," she said agreeably. "I gave one of the pills I found to Peyton. She needed it more than I did."

[Dawn "Dee Dee" Dreemurr]

Everybody kept talking and sharing the experiences they've come through. Esmeralda took some notes, Tara was telling about roommates she had been with for the past few days. This seemed almost like a daily routine now. Get paired with somebody, share information about your previous "experiences", blackout, repeat.

But it's not normal. They shouldn't get used to it!

The moment Dawn heard the name of her deceased friend, her heart skipped a bit and she looked away in confusion and guilt. She was more than happy that she survived, but at the same time, the girl felt bad both for Emery and her brother, Alex. She knew them both closely and she believed that none of them deserved this. Nor the siblings, nor her.

This is all unfair.

"Philip gave me that before we were separating" Tara said showing a mysterious item. Dawn turned her head back to the group to take a look at the device. Looked like a regular mobile phone. "Apparently Tristan found it and gave it to him. It belongs to no one Philip knew and he thinks it might be connected with all of this. He... He asked me to give it to Thalia. In case he didn't make it," the brunette continued and then suggested, "But maybe before I find her we could take a look at it, for some clues?"

Sparkles in the girl's deep brown eyes lit up at a thought that maybe they indeed can get something out of this thing! Or at least, since looks like it's the ONLY working phone left, call for help!

"Let's take a peek inside," the girl suggested with a shy smile and, while Chris has finished his unsuccessful scavenger hunt, all three girls could finally witness the messages from the past that this phone kept inside.

The phone was opened on a messenger app. Oldest, first top three messages from the user called "Mom" stated:

Date: unknown

Phillip? Is that you?!
PHILLIP HELP!
PHI̶̸L̶̡͠͝͝L̕͜I̵-̵̷͢P!

Then they were followed by a wave of messages from the same profile:

Date: unknown

"Took you long enough!"
"I left hints all over the place! How could you be so BLIND?"
"Oh, no, that's Alex. Haha!"
"My bad."
"Do you enjoy the game so far?
p.s. You are doing great!"
"I hope you do! Sorry for spamming."
"I will check on you later. B-bye!"

The last message was from that time Phillip was paired up with Tara, it stated:

Date: unknown

"Oh! HOW SWEET! Didn't think you actually go great together! Like a pair of movie cops!"
"Whoops! Bad connection, ha ha! My bad!"
"Tell Misha "Hi!" next time you see her!
I meant if you see her again. Ha ha! <3 *hug*"

Also there were a few new messages from a user called "Dopey":

Date: 16/09/2018 18:20

Dopey: 25 files send
Me: You fucking piece of shit, you didn't think I will not notice the difference!
Dopey: ?
Me: Get me fucking real photos, you dumbass I don't pay you for fucking google images

Date: unknown

Dopey: Who are you? Why are you sending me this? Do you know what happened to Andrei?
Dopey: I’m Misha. I’m in the Computer’s lab. I’m safe. I hope you’re fine.

And that was it.

"Do you.. Do you recognize any of the nicknames?" the girl asked Tara, as they scrolled up and down through the application.

And yes. Yes she did.

The girl could recognize her own nickname there. Hermione Capulet. It was her and her friends' private chat. It was Snooty's phone. But before the girl could reply or react in any kind of way - the group received a call, startling them all at once. It was an incoming call.

From a user called "Mom".

---

Dice result: 1D10 => 2
Failure; you didn't find anything useful.

[Christopher Kresh]

When tara asked Chris about the wound he looked back at tara as he had not found anything useful in the room. He shrugged it off trying to act nonchalant about it.  " Its okay don't worry" he told her with a weak smile. The boy had a slight headache nothing more.  He would live. 
After his talk tara looked at him "Miss Lockwood ? Do you know what she was doing there ?" Chris raised his eyebrow slightly. " drinking." he scoffed. " she was drunk." He added. It had been.. quite the disaster. 
Tara told them about a woman named Zara. Chris didn't know her other then from small fragments of stories tara had told him. When she mentioned Phillip he sighed. He had not been that close to Phillip but the guy seemed allright. He had not seen him since the start of this whole thing so he was glad that he was.. well alive. It made him think of Alejandra. Was she okay? He still hoped nothing happened after he.. well wrote her name down on that piece of paper. 

Chris listened to Esme as she told the group about what she and dawn had been up to.  It sounded like a lot. No doubt Peyton would be emotional. 
He looked up when tara brought up the phone. he looked at her and back at the phone. this was .. strange to say the least. Who did It belong to?
"maybe before I find her we could take a look at it, for some clues?" Tara asked.  Esme seemed to agree. Even dawn was eager to look into it as she took the phone. Chris was worried. What if they found something.. bad..?
He sighed as he looked at the girls who were looking in the phone. he didn't trust it. what if-

the phone went off making him jump a bit. They were being called. Chris didn't take any chances as he gently took the phone from dawn not wanting anything to happen to her. Weird things had happened and if anything were to happen to the person who held the phone he would make sure it was to him and not any of these girls he held so dear to his heart. Chris took a deep breath. " .. Im gonna.. .. pick up.." he said. Maybe they would finally get some answers. " and put it on speaker.. " he added. 

The boy looked at the screen as he picked up and put it on the speaker. " Hello..?" he asked softly

[Administrator]

On the tenth second of the "conversation" - the phone screen flashed, asking to insert a number from one to ten. The moment one of the group members has entered the number, the caller "replied" and in about 10 seconds it was finished abruptly.

Attachments:

MOM.mp3 (585.68 KB)

[Tara Macfly]

"Clues and maybe supplies," Esme agreed with Tara "I gave one of the pills I found to Peyton. She needed it more than I did."

"Let's take a peek inside," Dee dee suggested.

The three girls approached the phone while Chris was still looking around the room for some supplies. The phone was oppened on a message app, and they looked into the most oldest messages. They where from an user called "mom" and seemed to be adressed towards Philip.

So weird. So this person knew, that Philip had the phone ? How ? Was it this ''mom'' the person with supernatural power behind all of this ?

Some messages made her shiver. Like the one stating that Alex was blind. Was it true or just an horrible joke ? Or the one who seemed to have been send during the time she had been with Philip. It means that this person had watched them during all their reunion. She knew since a long time that no place were safe here, and that they were probably watched every moment but it still made her sick to be remembered of this. And this person had probably saw Philip suffering and had done nothing and was probably even enjoying it.

But finally it seemed this was nothing compared to the messages send by the ''dopey'' contact. 25 files of perverted pictures from the internet. Lovely. And apparently it didn't fool the previous owner of the phone. Who was this mysterious person ? If they discovered who was this person, will they discover who their tormentor was ?

The last messages from "dopey" were sent by Misha, who asked about Andrei. So Andrei was "dopey" and was blackmailed to send perverted pictures to someone ? Why ? Who would be this insane ? Tara rubbed her eyes, she was starting to have headache too. More they were looking into this phone, the more questions she had.

Then dee dee called her back into reality.

"Do you.. Do you recognize any of the nicknames?" the blond girl asked. Tara was sure that there was no chance she knew by some miracle one of the contact of the phone but looked at it anyway.

Her eyes grew in horror when she saw the contact's name. Hermione_Capulet. Her name. And this conversation... She recognised the texts, she send some of them, and the others were from... Snooty.

Dee dee was looking at her expectantly but Tara was speechless, she couldn't make any noise. Something broke in her. She couldn't believe what she was seeing in front of her.

Suddenly a ring, get her out of her trance. It was coming from the phone. "Mom" was calling them.

Tara was frozen. She didn't want to answer the phone, she knew nothing good could happen, but if they didn't answer something worse could happen.

" .. Im gonna.. .. pick up.." Chris said taking the phone from her hands. Tara hadn't seen him coming near her during her state of shock "and put it on speaker.. " he added.

" Hello..?" he asked softly.

Tara hold her breath, afraid of what was coming to them.

After some seconds the phone screen suddenly flashed, asking to insert a number from one to ten. Tara started to panick. She didn't want to pick any number. This stak seemed innocent, but they have been through too much to not realise that there was probably something behind this. They probably need to choose fast, if not they will probably all die. Tara took the phone from Chris' hands and taped the first number who came in her mind. 5. Her lucky number. Like 5/05. The date she met snooty. Pretty pathetic.

Just after she hit the number, a weird message came from the speacker. A voice modified,who reminded her a little of the voice who came from the speakers before Jamie was killed, said uncomprehensibles words. What was it ? Code ? Was it talking reversed ? She didn't have time to resolve the mystery because after only some seconds the call ended abruptly.

The room was now filled with silence. Tara had a hard time to breath. Too much things. The texts from "Mom", and "Dopey". The call, the number she had to choose. Will it have any incidence ? Did she did something wrong by choosing 5 ? And the messages with Snooty. Snooty. SNOOTY. SNOOTY. SNOOTY. SNOOTY. SNOOTY. SNOOTY. SNOOTY. SNOOTY. SNOOTY. SNOOTY. SNOOTY. Tara wanted to scream she was becoming crazy.

"I... I need to leave the room guys" Tara almost cried "I'm sorry.. I... can't breathe"

Without any others words she left the room.

[Tara choose the number 5]

[Tara left the room. Next thread, is noise in cafetaria]

[Esmeralda Ortiz]

"Let's take a peek inside."

Esme, DeeDee, and Tara all glanced at the scarlet red phone. With each screen they looked at, Esme felt her skin tightening into thick knots. Alex had gone blind in one text, and whoever did it seemed...pleased. If she ever ran to Misha again, she had to tell her the bad news. Unless they happened to be in the same group and she could see for herself? Alex had been blinded, no doubt in one of the messed up games.

There were other messages which made other things fall into place. Most of them were inapprorpiate pictures of the girls in their class. Oh, the mocoso who owned this phone would be tasting rubber when Esme got her hands on him. There were dirty pictures as well as several other messages. She ignored the messages sent by Misha, figuring the redhead was just as determined to crack the case as she was.

So that meant whoever owned the red phone previously had their arm twisted in the events, just like the students. If the owner said no, their head would be served with a side of salsa verde. Was this a sick means of getting back at the drama club? For what purpose? Did Miss Kishi's demon summoning get tangled in the mess, too? It was the only explanation to why certain people were the target of such events.

"Do you recognize any of the nicknames?"

"Nada," Esme answered. Her online nickname, MamasitaRelleno, didn't even appear once in the chat. Just a reminder of how lonely her life was, even online. The raven-haired glanced over at Tara, who seemed to be hypnotized by the phone Esme may not have recognized any of the names, but the brunette looked fixated.

"Tara...is one of those names Am..."

But before Esme could finish her question, the phone began ringing. The caller ID flashed with the word "Mom". Esme felt pale and sickly. Her green eyes flicked from one member to the next. What would happen if no one picked up? Would it go off like a bomb?

Chris volunteered himself and a part of Esme's heart cracked. He was too genuinely sweet to die. He had helped her win a game. He had been there to support her while the other guys were probably too busy trying to get into pants. Harsh assumption, but who knew what people did. She held her breath as Chris answered the phone, with it speaker so they all could hear; courteous.

The noise it emitted made Esme's blood run cold. She heard the screams still. They had no choice. They had to pick a number or else there would be hell to pay. The phone call was so fast that she didn't have time to figure stuff out. Tara typed in a number 5 before excusing herself. Esme looked at Dawn and Chris. They were capable of looking out for themselves. They'd be safe.

"I'll follow her," she said. "Maybe check for others behind the walls, too." Giving her friends one last smile, Esme followed Tara.

[Esme joined Tara in the next thread]

[Dawn "Dee Dee" Dreemurr]

Before her frozen in indecision buddy Tara could reply, Dawn was caught off guard and almost dropped the phone the moment it vibrated in her hands. "FUCK!" she yelled, her eyes widened and her heart pumping like from a jump scare from a silly indie-horror game.

UGH! Not funny.

"Im gonna... pick up," Chris intervened taking the phone out of her hands. Dee's deep brown eyes followed his movement. "Please be careful," she prayed inwardly, not willing the guy to get himself hurt. Who knows what kind of secrets that phone had in it... 

"And put it on speaker," he added as he hit the bring green "answer call" button. And oh, boy. Whatever they heard coming from the speaker - wasn't remotely sounding like a normal human voice-call. More like again a distorted recording from an indie-horror game.

Pathetic.

"What the fuck?! Somebody actuallu thinks it's funny to scare us even more this way? How could the-" Dawn thought as she saw that now Tara took action and typed a number 5.

Huh. Weird.

Then after the call was shortly abrupted both Tara and Esmeralda have left the room. "I'll follow her," the raven-haired girl said. "Maybe check for others behind the walls, too."

"Take care," Dawn wished her good luck with a small shy smile and let out a deep sigh. "Do you..." she addressed Chris, looking down on her dirty nasty pink socks. "Do you think she's gonna be okay?" she asked about Tara, who left the room looking quite in distress. Maybe she got scared by the phone call... Who knows.

"Are we ever going to be okay again?" was the other question she wanted to ask, but didn't dare to. She didn't want to jinx their low chances of surviving this mess.