Chapter 4 - Unmasking the Events

Background color
Font
Font size
Line height

"It's pretty sad you know" Frankie's voice said, distracting Jacob who was watching Adam and Joy leave the dormitories as they head off for Lisa.

"Oh, what is?" Jacob said as he faced Frankie.

Frankie positioned his head towards the bathhouse, "Benedict, haven't you realised he's been in the bathhouse locker room for a bit too long?"

Jacob stood up, Frankie joining him, and walked towards the door leading towards the locker room so they could peek in. The doors on the left side of the locker room, big sliding maroon coloured doors, led into the main bathhouse which had two sections to it, both of them large spa's for relaxing inside. One was seen by peeking through the open doors, and the other was behind a big wall half way through the room. Along the left wall of the bathhouse was a long sitting area for people to relax on in the hot smoke.

Jacob and Frankie slowly walked up to Benedict but, as if he'd heard them, he turned around in a gasp which caused the person inside the bathhouse to overhear them. For the two seconds Jacob had freely, he noticed Rachel was the one in the bathhouse. Her whole body was in the water, revealing only her neck and her head, although Jacob thought he could still see her red shirt slightly around her shoulders. His distraction was cut off by something resembling a shoe being thrown at the three guys but it luckily missed. Jacob quickly closed the door and ran out while Benedict apologised loudly, all three of them puffing for air.

"What the hell were you doing exactly?" Frankie said to Benedict as he held onto the wall to his left while breathing heavily.

"N-Nothing, I was just seeing if the bath was free..."

"You were in there for quite a while" Frankie said.

Jacob decided to walk off from the two, hoping to get a drink from the kitchen but his, Frankie's, and Benedict's feet, as well as Simon's, Samuel's, and Abby's who were about to walk out of the dorms themselves, were frozen when the Monokuma bell ringing through the air, but instead of the normal bell that resembled that of a school bell by having a high note, then a low note, and repeating the cycle before finishing, this bell had the bell tune elevate to four different levels before finishing.

The TV in the hallway switched on and everyone's heads directed towards Monokuma's face who seemed to be happier than ever.

"It's finally time! One of you guys got desperate and now the game has started. Let's do this then!"

From Monokuma's right, a big gong raised itself from the ground and, with a metal bar in his hand, Monokuma hit the gong as hard as he could so the sound radiated through the speakers making the students cover their ears a little.

"A body has been discovered! Oh it really brings tears to my eyes to know my dreams of seeing murder among friends come to life. Now I bet you all are just waiting to get started on finding the killer, right? But I will now have you join me in the entrance hall. I'll be waiting."

The TV immediately switched itself off after Monokuma jumped off his seat, the students in the hallway frozen and their faces pale. Carlos', Joseph's, Lexi's, Marco's, and Stacey's doors opened a bit after each other as the owners of those rooms walked out with their facial expression representing despair.

"W-what was that announcement about?" Stacey said with her voice almost dying.

Jacob clenched his fist tight and turned to face the dormitory doors, "Let's just get to the entrance hall alright?"

Lexi remained in her door step with her face down, "But what happened?"

"We can't know that til we get to the entrance hall!" Jacob said, his voice booming out but he made no eye contact with anyone, "Please just, get ready and join us. Frankie, make sure Rachel is dried off and in the entrance hall alright?"

Frankie gave a quick nod after some hesitation and ran into the bathhouse while Jacob and the other students left the dormitories slowly but together.

Frankie walked into the locker room, finding Rachel using a towel to dry her head off. She was all dressed and simply staring at Frankie in anger.

"Y-you need to get to the entrance hall" he said.

Rachel turned her head to the side in a little annoyance, most likely because of what happened earlier, but her angry face turned to a frown as lowered her head, "I'll be there, just wait."

The group of 11 students that had left the dormitory building together were almost at the entrance hall. They went to step into the entrance room but their bodies froze for the second time as the flooring of the entrance hall was filled with spikes except for the far left flooring near the wall where Jacob noticed Adam and Joy cowering in fear.

"W-what, why are these spikes here?" Simon said with his face going a little purple, "I'm already confused enough!"

"Hey, Monokuma, let us in!" Abby said, half in anger and half in desperation.

They looked towards the stage at the far back of the room, Monokuma dropping down as he had two days ago, but his face looked angry.

"You guys disappoint me! I can understand it happening a first time, but a second time? Now that is inexcusable!"

There was a sound of a chain and everyone, even Adam and Joy, looked up to the roof where they saw Marcus, chained up still, hanging by another chain from the roof.

"Wait! Why is he there?!" Jacob said.

He went to take a step forward but the spikes were stopping him from getting up to Marcus.

"I clearly said everyone should be joining me in the entrance hall but you left your friend tied up in his room, this fault is on you!"

Marcus then started falling down from the roof as he headed towards the spikes, the students gasping and wanting so desperately to just jump out and save him, but their fear from the spikes stopped them. Fortunately the chain stopped reeling down and Marcus' face came inches from death as the spikes sunk back into the ground, Marcus' body falling to the ground.

"Upupu, but I'm not like that!" Monokuma said as he covered both sides of his mouth, "Now get in here you idiots!"

With their feets hesitating to step on the floors that once had spikes coming out of them, the students moved in front of the stage as Jacob bent down to check on Marcus, but it seemed he was fast asleep. Jacob then stood up and peeked over at Adam who wiped his forehead and moved forward to join the group.

"What happened, Monokuma? What did that announcement mean?"

Monokuma let out a laugh again and raised its right hand, "It means one of you took the bat and swung it right at one of your friends til they were no longer a person! Basically, someone killed another someone."

Everyone had expected that to be the case, but the fact it was true scared them to the bone alot more than it had earlier.

"Now! I know you guys can be so annoying about what you believe to be true, but I promise you can all see it for yourself right when I finish explaining what I am about to explain."

Everyone raised their heads bit by bit as they listened. The one thing they had learnt these past five days was that they needed to do their best and try to trust each other. Cowering in guilt and sadness was the path towards losing, and so they tried their past to avoid that happening.

"Explain it already then" Marco said with a growl coming from his voice.

Everyone turned at the sound of footsteps which were from Frankie and Rachel walking in, Frankie's hands in his pockets and Rachel's on her waist, and so Monokuma stretched out both his arms.

"Now for the long awaited explanation of how this game goes! Listen closely please!"

Monokuma lowered his arms and stared deeply into the eyes of every student one by one as he explained, "The rules of this game have been made clear already. If you wish to continue your pitiful, dead life, then you must become the criminal and get away with murder of the highest degree! A murder among friends themselves! But it doesn't stop there, once a murder happens and the body is found by three or more innocent people that are partaking in this game, a body discovery announcement will be made which sets the time limits until our long awaited Class Trial where you all will fight over who the killer is and decide everyone's fates! Also to be exact, it's a time limit of an hour and a half exactly after a body is found til the class trial begins."

It may have been how serious his face looked, even though he was an it, and a robot, but the students looking at Monokuma while listening were unable to find the proper words, and yet with force someone was able to ask the right question.

"What exactly do you mean 'decide everyone's fate?'" Joy said.

Monokuma smiled again and raised his arms, "In the class trial, if you fail to work out who the killer is in the voting results then everyone except the killer will be put into punishment mode, resulting in their long awaited death! Of course, if you do discover the killer then you will all survive except for the killer themselves. Either way, I have a very special punishment planned already!"

Silence. That's all that filled the room as Monokuma finished explaining, and soon that silence was filled in by screams from most of the students.

Abby, Rachel, Joy, Benedict, and Samuel were grabbing their heads tightly, their mouths open and the sound of fear erupting outwards. Frankie, Simon, Carlos, Adam, and Joseph had faces of purple, the fists of Frankie, and Simon clenched tightly.

Lexi had passed out, as well as Stacey, on the floor from the knowledge given to them, both of their bodies laying on the ground and not responding to Jacob's and Marco's desperate tries to wake them up.

Monokuma began his soft but nightmarish laugh again, "Oh boy, some of you just can't deal with the fact of reality! You will never be able to learn unless you progress through it first hand, now before you waste anymore time just get to work! You have one hour until the class trial!" Monokuma said with a roar in his voice.

He went to step off the stage but then stopped as put his right hand behind him and a PAL like the students came out which he began tapping upon. A sound came from everyone's PAL's and for those that actually picked them up they noticed a file in the 'pictures' tab named 'Monokuma File #1.'

"That there is the Monokuma file! It has the reports of this lovely crime for you to read and look at, now have fun, I'll see you at the class trial!" Monokuma said and his body blurred out into the hallway with everyone's voices having gone quiet.

Abby, and Rachel had fallen down against the wall together with a blank expression to their faces but Benedict, Joy and Samuel had managed to get their grips together on the situation, taking a proper look around at everything. Adam, Frankie, Simon, Carlos and Joseph too had gotten a grip back on reality but Lexi and Stacey were still unconscious.

"Benedict, Frankie, can you take these two to their rooms and try looking after them?"

It took Jacob a second time to request their help before the two noticed and accepted with little hesitation. Benedict picked up Stacey and Frankie picked Lexi up as carefully as possible, the two heading for the dormitories with Joseph following since they wouldn't be able to open the doors.

"Alright, I think it's clear we don't have time for arguing. Who is going to help 'out?" Jacob said.

Everyone that was capable of concentrating looked at each other, and the first to raise their hands was Marco.

"I will do what I must" he said.

Jacob gave as much of a smile as he could before Samuel then raised his hand, and then Simon, followed by Joy and lastly Adam.

"We need to figure out what happened here" Adam said in a slight whisper, but everyone had heard him and agreed.

"I never thought I would ask this, but we're going to need to check the body first" Jacob said, "But we should all split up and check our individual spots as well, can you girls take care of yourself?"

Jacob peeked over to Rachel, Abby and Rachel over by the walls but they didn't respond.

"I'll check up on them regularly if needed" Joy said, "I just want to get this over with."

"Alright then" Jacob said and began to walk out towards the hallway before a new scream announced itself, the scream of the now awake Marcus.

"Are you seriously going to keep me tied up when you need to examine shit! I'm serious, I am better than all of you at this piece of work."

Jacob hit his forehead with his palm as Samuel spoke up, "You caused the problems first. You wouldn't be tied up if you hadn't tried killing Adam."

Marcus shook around but Jacob, almost surprisingly, walked up to the restless man and unlooped his chains.

"I've taken all your weapons off you anyway, but I need your word you will at least try and behave. This is not the time for your stupid jokes!"

Marcus stood to his feet as he met with Jacob's eyes, they were filled with a strange fire Marcus only knew as seriousness. He hesitantly nodded, letting his hands clench up but then released them.

"Whatever, just let me join you, my life is on the line too."

They hesitantly allowed him to join them, even though their fear was telling them not to, but without waiting any longer they walked onto their path.

There it was, the same body with the same cut on its stomach, and the same innocent looking face as if they had been just sleeping. The blood was dry almost, but everyone in the classroom could tell it was real and not an illusion.

"Seeing a dead body in person sure is something different" Jacob said as he tried flexing his finger.

Adam looked over to the slightly pale Jacob, "Aren't you used to seeing dead bodies, you helped the police a few times right?"

"I've helped solve cases with pictures and details, and the crime scenes themselves, but an actual dead body is new to me."

With everyone frozen in their feet, Simon tried to take big steps towards the body so he could try and not be helpful. He got his face near the peaceful, but pale face of Lisa before trying to look over her with as much courage as he had.

"The blood in the hallway seems to be from the infirmary, can someone go check in there too?" Jacob said while getting his PAL out, and as if waiting for an excuse to get away from the boy, Samuel agreed as he left immediately. Marcus, also, seemed to leave the room himself for his own reasons, no one seemed to notice at the time though.

While Simon peered over the body, trying not to get too close but also trying to spot any irregularities, Jacob scrolled through the Monokuma File.

"Lisa Howard, the Ultimate Net Idol" Jacob started to say as he took a deep breath, "She was stabbed once with a sharp and long object made from metal directly in her stomach. The blow did not kill her instantly but the blood flowing out of her ended her life shortly after. There are no traces of any other harm done to her body other than the stab wound."

"I was expecting more" Marco said, "Like a time of death and such."

Jacob let out a sigh as he slipped his PAL deep into his pocket, "Don't expect too much from Monokuma, we're going to have to do everything ourselves alright?"

Adam, Joy and Marco nodded as Simon started to call for their attention.

"Um, I noticed something I think is important" he said, and pointed to Lisa's mouth where, between her teeth, were bits of tissue.

Jacob pulled his PAL back out, opening the picture tab which had access to a camera, and took a picture of the tissues inside as fast as he could.

"Was her mouth covered by a tissue or something?" Adam said.

"It would make sense, cover the mouth of the victim before killing them so their voice is muffled" Jacob said.

"There is one other thing" Simon said, and with a little shiver he lifted Lisa's left hand to show her nails, bits of red material stuck under some of her nails. It was stuck deep inside but the red was so bright it could be noticed easier than the skin itself.

"Is that some kind of red fabric?" Jacob said as he took another picture before looking closely for himself.

Almost immediately after he started looking there was a cry out from the infirmary, it was Samuel asking for someone to get over there.

"I'll go help him" Marco said and quickly made his way for the infirmary where he stopped at the doorway in a little disbelief.

Samuel was before him and in his right hand was a long knife pointing at Marco.

"Um, Samuel?" Marco said as he tried getting the boys attention, but the boy simply put the knife down on the middle bed.

"I found it behind the bookcase, it had been slid behind as if to hide it."

Marco walked up to the knife as Adam walked into the infirmary afterwards, his expression surprised at the sight of the knife on the bed.

"Wait, where did you get that?" he said.

Samuel turned to face Adam in surprise, "B-behind the bookshelf."

Adam picked up the knife in his hand and felt its handle and the metal end thoroughly.

"It's wet, or at least has been wet sometime recently."

"Yeah I noticed that too," Samuel said, "I also noticed something on the bottom edge of the handle just when the metal part starts."

Adam took a close look at the middle of the knife where the metal end and the handle met, his eyes noticing a drop of blood across it, almost invisible to the eye but clearly there.

"Is it the same weapon the Monokuma File spoke of?" Marcus said.

"It has to be," Adam said, "If we can find another weapon that can fit the details of the Monokuma file and the injury on... Lisa."

Adam's voice trailed off as he mentioned the name of the body, but he forced himself to continue, "Then we'll decide which one was used, but until then we can't really deny the fact that this weapon has blood and fits the details."

Adam placed the knife down on the bed and took a picture with his PAL so it showed the blood clearly.

"Should we take it with us to the class trial?" Simon said.

Adam picked the knife up and handed it to Marco, "Can you take care of this, I'm sure no one can get it off you."

Marco hesitantly took the knife, fitting it behind his belt gently, "I am not usually a weapon yielder, but I will keep it from anyone else if that helps."

The footsteps they heard next were Jacob, Joy and Simon walking in, all three sighting the three in the infirmary.

"Did you find anything?" Jacob said, and his eyes widened upon seeing the knife at Marco's waist.

"It was behind the bookcase" Samuel said.

Jacob walked up to Marco and went to request the knife but was instead shown the picture on Adam's PAL.

"It's better we resort to the pictures than touching the object directly" Adam said.

"So it is the murder weapon then?"

Adam, Marco and Samuel gave a nod of their heads, all three positive as Marco started to sniff the air around him.

"Is something wrong?" Simon said.

Marco didn't answer, but he instead started looking around the left bed, his face lowering and his nose sniffing the air more and more. His hand took the blankets and pulled all three of them back to reveal blood stains on the bottom of the lowest blanket.

"Wait, blood here?" Samuel said as his face went pale again.

"Why here though?" Simon said, "The body is clearly in the classroom."

Jacob took a look out the door and on the trail of blood in the hallway, his eyes viewing

You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net