Academy Murder Party

~:Chapter 36:~

Claire sat up against the imitation of a brick wall, which she knew was a painted wall made to look like that. She stared down at her hands, which held a slight amount of hay that she fiddled with in her hands. Claire was unsure how long she'd been sitting there since she woke up. Minutes? Hours? She wasn't exactly sure. Yet, one thing was for certain, Adam's constant banging against the wall kept up, even after they were threatened and yelled at by a girl in black.

"Give it up. They reinforced the wood. School policy." Claire muttered to herself.

"W-Why?!" Adam grunted from the cell next to hers. She glanced over at him, looking at him through the metal grate as he lay on his back, kicking the wood with his feet.

"Do you remember Tod... I don't remember his last name, not like it matters..." 

"Yeah? Theatre kid... one that got hurt, right?"

"Yeah. He fell through a wooden plank of a prop... so, ever since then, all wooden props, much like this cell, have to be a certain thickness... School policy, I guess."

"Why didn't you tell me this before?!"

"I don't know! Partly because I hoped you could break through it if you kept up." She grunted in frustration, resting her head against the wall.

"Fair enough," Adam muttered. "So... how exactly do you know all this?"

"I helped build the sets after school," Claire called out to him. "I even took part in building these cells." She sighed.

"Who would've thought." Adam scoffed.

"Yeah. Ironic, I know." She grunted. 

"You guys could've made them a little more... escapable..." Adam commented.

"Hey! Don't blame me... I only painted these."

"Whatever," Adam responded, returning to kick the back wall again. Claire didn't stop him. Instead, she fell silent. The only sound breaking the silence was the rhythmic banging of Adam's shoe against the wall.

"No offense, but could you at least do something?" Adam called out to her.

"I've checked everything... we're pretty much stuck." She said with a defeated sigh. It wasn't that she didn't want to leave; hell, it was the complete opposite. Yet, she knew there was no escaping, not this time. Here she was, locked in prison; she helped design herself. The entire situation was ironic. 

"Check again." He muttered.

"Maybe this is just karma for what I've done," Claire muttered.

"What? Are you serious?" Adam asked. Claire didn't respond. Instead, she simply shrugged at the fact. "You think this is karma? We're locked in here by crazy people who are accusing us of things we didn't do!"

"Karma's a bitch, huh?" She said with a defeated shrug.

"Christ," Adam muttered, kicking the wall harder in frustration. "So that's it, you're giving up that easily?" He called out to her. 

"I d-didn't say that!" She retorted, surprised by what he had said to her.

"You did." Adam dryly shot back. "What the hell was the point of our entire conversation then? Tell me?" He asked her. She paused, falling silent for a moment, thinking of how to respond to that question. Adam had directly hit on the mark, and she was left speechless. "If you truly want to live, you've got to show it." He grunted. Claire took his words to heart, immediately sucking in air as she hesitated before delivering what she wanted to admit this entire time.