Friends With Benefits | Chishiya x Reader

Chapter Twenty-Seven

"Momoka," the girl chokes again, falling to her knees before the lifeless figure on the ground. The crowd of Beach residents had collectively held their breath since her arrival, allowing her shaking words to reverberate through the lobby. Her eyes search frantically over what you gather to be Momoka's body, looking for clues or anything else that would explain why her friend's body lies crumpled at her feet. "Why..." Her hands hover over Momoka, at a loss for words. 

You see Usagi watching, and from where you stand you can also see the visible horror in her otherwise unmoving expression. Her eyes are trained on the girl kneeling mere centimetres away from her, and you trail the path her gaze has carved.

Short-haired and young, you recognise her as one of the two inseparable girls you had often seen roaming various areas of the Beach. You had never learnt their names, only the fact that they seemed to come in a pair. One girl was never to be seen without the other, and you feel the faint brush of sympathy as you realise you understood, to some extent, the feeling of losing someone close to you  - although this girl must have it much, much worse. It's one thing to know you won't see someone again, but to see their lifeless body strewn before you is a whole new level of distressing. 

Hearts games really are spot on, you think, with a sort of grudging acknowledgment.

You survey Momoka's body. The first death of the night, meaning the game has already technically begun. She looks almost peaceful, if not for the handle of the knife sticking out of the left side of her chest. The stain of red across her swimsuit trickling just barely onto her stomach is the only part of the scene that mars her serenity. There is a lingering kind of expectancy in the air: come and solve the mystery, and you'll win. 

It is usually never as easy as that.

Games, especially those of the Hearts nature, are never simple and always stage-managed to a fault. You have no reason to believe that the Ten of Hearts would be any different. The longer you look at Momoka, the more you can't help feeling that she looks as if someone has arranged her into this exact position, almost like a playhouse doll -  Momoka's perfect death signals the many more to come, the opening act to foreshadow the grand finale. Around your phone, you weave your fingers together. No one dies that peacefully, not here. Not in the Borderlands. 

Just as you think this, the white flash of over a hundred phones blinking as they light up catches your attention.

You raise the phone you have clutched (rather tightly, you notice with surprise, and disentangle your fingers) towards you. There is a flurry of motion as the others in the lobby do the same. Out of the corner of your eye you see Usagi glance down warily at her phone as well. 

You realise, too late, that Arisu is not with her.

"Game: Witch Hunt. Ten of Hearts. Time limit, two hours.

"The evil witch who took the girl's life is hiding among you. The role of the witch is not limited to women. 

"The game will clear if you find the witch and burn them in the Fire of Judgement."

There is another sudden ripple of movement as heads turn back. Your eyes widen slightly as you catch a glimpse of the roaring flame that spits and flickers through the lobby's glass-paneled windows. You stare at the fire as it sparks wildly - the thing looks almost the same height as the Beach itself - and in a brief flash of hilarity, you find it ludicrous how no-one had noticed this game being set up. Surely, at least one person in this room would have noticed the construction of a mammoth campfire, even if you had not. 

When you turn back, maintaining your moment of disbelief, you see the Unsettling Executive has her mouth pressed into a thin line. 

You are not given enough time to ponder the thinness of her expression before the screen on your phone changes once more, the final and official send-off into the Ten of Hearts game.