Alice in Borderland ~ Chishiya

37 - ♥10

'Momoka!' a girl exclaims. She comes running and kneels down beside her, crying.

'The game is witch hunt,' the computer voice says. 'The wicked witch who took her life is among you. The witch role isn't just for woman.' A number of players look around suspiciously. 'Find the witch and burn her in the Fire of Judgment,' the voice continues. 'The time limit is two hours.'

'Fire!' someone shouts as he looks outside in shock. Several Beachers take a few steps towards the window, but from here the fire burning outside is easy to see. I take the moment to take a few steps back and stay in the background.

'The game starts now.'

On the screen of the phone of the boy standing diagonally in front of me, I can see that a digital clock starts counting down from two hours. It isn't even silent for half a second. 'Come on!' Niragi shouts, moving himself in the spotlights. He has a gun in his hands and is looking around the group. 'We're going to look for the witch.' I feel that it's going to escalate. I shouldn't be here.

'Where were you?!' a Beacher shouts to the girl kneeling beside Momoka. 'You're always with her and now you weren't there all of a sudden?!' A girl who is an executive member walks up and stands up for her. She shouts that Hatter was killed by someone from the Beach, as the pattern of the bullet from his body matches the weapons being used here. Another shouts that he walked past the lobby an hour ago, but that he saw nothing. I hadn't seen anything when we passed by, either.

I'm startled by a hand I suddenly feel on my arm. I turn halfway and see Chishiya standing next to me. His face is still rock solid, but from the strength of his grip I can feel that he wants to leave the lobby and that he wants me to come along. Kuina walks away on her own accord and I nudge Raiden for a moment, who tears himself away from the scene and quietly joins us. The others don't seem to notice that we're distancing ourselves.

'Well, who is the witch?!' Niragi shouts. I hear bewildered screams and cries, but I don't turn to see where it comes from or what happened. 'If the witch doesn't come forward,' I hear Aguni say just before I turn the corner, 'I'll throw everyone into the fire.'

We're at the end of the hall when I hear a gunshot in the lobby, followed by screaming and chaos. We rush through the halls. Raiden and I have absolutely no idea where we're going, but Kuina and Chishiya seem to know the way very well. We follow them and arrive at a distant part of the building. Chishiya opens the door and checks that there's no one in this hallway. Kuina quickly goes in, but Raiden seems to have doubts. Since he's in front of me, he blocks the way and I can't enter.

'Go inside,' Chishiya says, 'now.' Raiden still doesn't seem to agree, as he clearly doesn't trust him, but I don't think twice. I turned in three hearts cards. That's well known. What if someone makes that link and goes looking for me, because they think I should be the witch? I don't want to wait in the hallway here to find out. I almost press myself against Raiden to get in, but then he does as he is told. Chishiya's the last to close the door and lock it from the inside.

Raiden looks at him suspiciously and immediately takes a few steps away from him. 'What's this?' he asks in the same tone. 'The control room,' Chishiya replies, nodding at the monitors. I follow his gaze and arrive at various screens that are on and show images of some public spaces. I see people running through each other and pushing each other to the side, to which some are hit by a bullet and fall to the ground.

I hold on to the back of a chair and keep looking at the screens. People that I don't know fall to the ground, but also people whose names I do know. I'm not sure whether it hurts me to see them grabbed and killed, to which they're dragged into the courtyard and thrown into the fire. This is really just another game in which people are killed, whether by other players or by the game leader. I can't do anything about that. I have to make sure it's not me.