Costa Crew: Our Turn To Die

Chapter 16: Child's play

"Charlotte?" Becky asked. Sure, she was desperate for any name but Hannah's to be read out, but this wasn't exactly what she had bargained for either. "There must be some kind of mistake."

"Not unless my counting is atrocious," Sou shrugged. "Charlotte has 0 clear chips."

"But we both did an attraction together," Becky argued. "We got two each from that. Not to mention the clear chip from Hannah, and the two from Hero."

"Plus," Ted added. "Me and Charlotte paired up twice for the attractions, so that's another four."

"So, all in all, that's a total of nine!"

"Plus, I haven't had any clear chips all game," Hannah added.

"Okay my bad on that one guys," Sou apologised. "I forgot to remind Hannah what clear chips look like. Why, those nine metal tokens in your hand are clear chips... hey wait a minute! Hannah should have zero but has nine, and Charlotte should have nine but has zero? Wow, I wonder what happened..."

Charlotte got up and hugged Hannah.

"Sorry," she said. "There was no other way to save you, as far as I could see. I couldn't let you go through everything you just did only for it to end in your death. I had to do anything in my power to prevent that, even if it meant losing my own life. Also, I guess I still kind of owe you for earlier. I shouldn't have doubted you. If I had believed you were real, maybe you wouldn't have been stabbed and-"

"Charlotte," Hannah interrupted, softly. "You already apologised for that, and I hold no grudge for that. To be honest, I would have struggled to believe me as well. But why did you do this? I don't want to live in a world without you!"

"Unfortunately for you," Charlotte laughed. "The same applies either way. I couldn't bear a world without you. I realised I could still trade you clear chips if I told Sou to give them to you and well... here we are."

"Well," Hannah snapped. "You're not dying. Not today. We're not letting that happen. We will do everything in our power to save you, even with no idea of what we're being faced with. That's what friends are for, right?"

"Yeah!" Ted chimed in. "There's no way we're letting you die. You guys saved me, time I return the favour, right?"

Charlotte smiled and nodded.

"Just don't do anything stupid, okay?" she laughed. "You better promise me."

"I promise," Hannah replied.

"Yawn, boring!" Sou complained. "Can I continue speaking? I still have to announce the winner."

Of course. Becky had almost forgotten. She was going to win. She had no idea what it meant, and she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to find out. Still, Lisa was right about one thing. Amelia could not be trusted with whatever it could be.

"The winner of Phase 1," Sou declared. "Is everyone's favourite participant. The wonderful, fabulous, oh-so-lovely-"

"Can you hurry it up?" Kleinman groaned.

"Fine," Sou yielded. "The winner is Amelia Murphy!"

"What!?" Lisa screamed. Becky didn't understand it either.

"This has to be some kind of mistake," Becky argued. "I have thirteen clear chips right here. She only has twelve!"

"Wait, you tried to beat me Hidgens!?" Amelia asked, disgusted. "Why the hell would you do that!?"

"Actually," Kleinman answered. "It was me who wanted to beat you. I gave Becky my remaining clear chips to try to beat you. It should have worked too."

"You idiot!" Amelia snorted. "Anthony gave me his clear chips to hold onto before he died! I have twenty-four of them! You just threw your life away for no reason!"