Cat & Mouse

i

. Although you remained composed on the outside, your ears were ringing and your vision became slightly blurred. Were you hallucinating or did you really just witness a walking, talking teddy bear proclaim that you were all about to remain imprisoned in this school until you became either a blackened or a victim?

. You stayed silent as the others discussed this bizarre experience. Still in a daze, you tried your best to listen and observe, trying to make mental notes of everyone's character and temperament. It was incomprehensible that they were already establishing strategies. How could they even accept that what was happening was real? That was a fucking teddy bear, for God's sake.

. You needed time to think, and so you followed as the group moved towards the dorms. Once you were in your room, you flopped into your bed. It felt like hours upon hours of taking deep breaths and staring at the ceiling. Your thoughts were racing and it seemed like no matter how much you tried to look at the situation logically, you weren't making any progress. You ended up falling asleep without even noticing.

. The next morning, you woke up to the chime of your monitor. Just seeing that stupid teddy bear's face and hearing his grating voice made your blood boil. You headed straight to the dining hall, since you felt too out of it to eat the day before. Everyone was sitting at the biggest table, except for Togami and Fukawa, whom you recognized from when Taka made everybody introduce themselves in the dining hall. So far, their thoughts were the ones yours aligned with the most. Unfortunately, it seemed like they were the only realist ones in this school.

. You hadn't said a word since you introduced yourself the day before. Your strategy was to stay under the radar as much as possible. You didn't want to get close to anybody because you didn't know who you could trust anyway. Honestly, you thought the others were deluded for even thinking about cooperating and being friends. Sooner or later, someone would snap and betray the group. That wasn't a theory, it was a fact. Inevitable.

. In the dining hall, as the conversation was getting heated again and you were hoping to blend into the background, Togami looked directly at you and spoke over everybody else: "Hey, you! Don't you ever talk? Where do you stand on all of this?" Everyone fell silent and everyone was staring at you. Great. Exactly where I didn't want to be: under the spotlight. "Umm... I agree with you", you said, maintaining eye contact with him so you wouldn't have to look at the rest of the group. You wanted to say as little as possible, because any stance you took could potentially make everyone turn against you. He leaned back, smirking and crossing his arms. "Finally, someone with one functioning braincell. Honestly, I pity the lot of you when I think about how blindly you're willing to trust strangers in a place like this". Nobody said a word as he got up and left.