A/N: Thank you to ambrsia_ for the banner! love it you beaut!
a lot of people are saying i'm dragging this story out and i should have revealed who the killer is by now, but there is a lot i want to build up before the big reveal so yeah i'm going to reveal who it is in my own time. If you are unhappy with that fact, theres a cross in the corner of the screen you can click. For everyone else, hope you enjoy it and let me know what you think!
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“Maybe it’s got nothing to do with the laptop?” Frankie wondered out loud.
We had been waiting for something to happen for what felt like hours. In reality it was probably about fifteen minutes, but as I’ve said time doesn’t feel real in here anymore.
No one had moved. We had been waiting for what that sick creep referred to as ‘Show Time’ and either Frankie was right and it had nothing to do with the laptop, or this guy was just really bad at time keeping.
“He said that last time when he showed us what he did to Aubree, I don’t know what else it could be.” I answered.
“What are the chances that by ‘Show Time’ he means ‘I’m going to open the doors and let you all go?” Jaden suggested almost desperately, because let’s face it we all knew the answer to that.
“About as slim as that truck you hooked up with on your birthday after you inhaled that entire bottle of Absinthe.” Gavin replied sarcastically, and Archie actually let out a laugh at the memory.
“I still think you guys are lying about that.” Jaden said.
“There’s a video.” Gavin informed him, and Jaden’s head snapped to him so fast I'm surprised he didn’t get whiplash.
“Was she at least a hot fat girl? Like that blonde one off Pitch Perfect?” Jaden pleaded for his friend to tell him something good.
Gavin didn’t even look at him and just kept his eyes on the screen as he shook his head “Nope.”
Jaden groaned and threw his head back on the arm of the sofa, closing his eyes.
“Fucking Absinthe…” Jaden grumbled under his breath, the shame clear in his voice.
I shook my head. How this conversation could be happening while we were waiting for a serial killer to appear on a laptop screen to show us some new sick game he had conjured up is beyond me. It says a lot about the people I hang out with and their priorities. They were almost as bad as Aubree and her white jeans. May she rest in peace.
I almost jumped out of my skin as I felt a hand touch my lower back.
“Whoa, chill out princess I’m not going to kill you.” Archie almost laughed as he saw my reaction.
“Oh sorry for being so over dramatic, I mean no one has tried to kill me tonight have they?” I spat at him sarcastically, glaring directly into his eyes. This made him smile more.
“Okay my bad.” It was almost an apology. Almost “You okay?”
“Peachy.” I snapped, turning my head and looking back at the laptop. I did notice his hand had not removed itself from my lower back. He didn’t say anything for a while before I felt his hand slide to my hip and pull me closer to him.
I turned to look at him, puzzled by his movement. I didn’t miss the fact he was trying to do it slyly so no one would notice. He leaned his head in close to my ear.
“You were right.” He whispered, and I involuntarily shivered. Whether it was from the fact Archie Henderson had just uttered the three words I longed to hear from him, or because of just how close he was I don’t know “I snapped and I shouldn't have.”
My eyes snapped to him, not expecting that. He stared back hard, telling me he meant every word and I didn’t doubt it for a second. He knew he was wrong at snapping at his brother. Alex couldn’t help it, he wasn’t well and normally Archie would be the first to sympathise with him. Saying that though, I understood full well where Archie was coming from as well. He gave everything into looking after and protecting his brother, I guess he just wanted Alex to be able to trust him enough to tell him what happened.
I sighed “You weren't in the wrong entirely either.” He raised his brows curiously as he waited for me to carry on “I get why you’re mad, but you need to know he does trust you.”
His face stiffened a second, telling me he wanted to believe what I was saying but not being quite there yet.
“Wish he’d show it.” Archie whispered, and my heart went out to the guy.
I didn’t know what to say back to that. Instead the only way I could think of comforting him was by moving my body closer until I was basically tucked up against his side. He looked down at me curiously, before the corner of his mouth quirked up. In a way, I think the reason I did that was to show him that someone did trust him. It may not be the person he wanted, but someone did. I’m not even going to hide the fact that since all of this started happening, there was no one I trusted more than Archie.
The hint of a smile was still at the corner of his mouth, and without even thinking about the fact we were in the middle of the group he did either the sweetest or most stupid thing ever.
He leaned his head down and placed a kiss on the top of my hair. When he pulled his head back a smile was still on his mouth before he turned to the laptop like what he had just done was completely normal.
My mouth was hanging open in shock at his action and I wasn’t the only one. Gavin and Frankie were staring over looking like they were trying to catch a baby tiger in their gawking mouths.
I don’t know if this was a blessing or a curse, but the laptop suddenly burst to life stopping any comments from our very confused friends. I was kind of relieved I’m not going to lie.
Everyone’s attention was off of the baffling burst of adorable that came out of the young Henderson and on the laptop screen. I briefly noticed Archie’s grip on me get a little tighter.
“Guess its Show Time…” Kevin muttered under his breath.
Images started to appear on the screen, and suddenly we were live.
My heart dropped as I saw a figure walk into screen shot, leaning over and adjusting the camera so it was pointed at his face. After checking the camera was in good shot, he took a few steps back and held his arms out.
“Welcome to the arena ladies and gents…” The voice was muffled behind that mask. That creepy ass melted looking mask with the big white eyes. The mask that I had accepted would haunt me for years to come if I made it out of here alive. It was looking more doubtful by the hour.
“Kept us waiting long enough.” Jaden muttered bitterly.
“I am sorry about that, some of our contestants today weren't being the most co-operative.” I think each and every one of us jumped out of our skin as the melted mask replied back to Jaden’s comment. Jaden’s eyes were almost out of his skull and he was looking around as if to make sure we all heard that as well.
“Since when can he hear us?!” Jaden whispered, not wanting melt face to hear him.
Laughter came from the laptop “You’d be surprised if I answered that question honestly.”
I felt a shiver run through my body as I glanced at Archie. He was looking straight back at me and I knew what he was thinking. We had said earlier in the medical room that there was a chance he had bugged the place. He always seemed to know when we were leaving the hall. What I don’t get however was why he didn’t storm into the medical room last night and kill us all if he had bugged the place.
“So…” Melt face clapped his hands together before rubbing them almost out of excitement. The hatred I felt towards him reached a new high with just that tiny move “Now that we have our contestants, we may as well power on with the games.”
I tried to listen really hard to his voice, but there was no way of recognising it. Not only was it muffled behind the mask, but I think he was using one of those voice changer things. Earlier through the speakers he sounded like Darth Vader, and now he sounded like someone else that I just couldn’t quite place.
Fortunately, someone else was able to place it.
“Is it me or does he sound like Bane?” Gavin whispered, looking between us. I almost screamed thank you as he filled in the gap for me. That was really going to piss me off if I didn’t find out. Sort of like when you’re watching a film and an actor comes up that’s from another movie, but you just don’t know what one. You can’t eat, sleep or concentrate on anything until you find out.
Again a burst of laughter came out of the laptop.
“Do you like it? I think the Bane one is my favourite. Hold on, Hold on…” He cleared his throat and held his index finger up “You merely adopted the darkness, I was born in it.”
He laughed hard after his little impression. He was the only one laughing though. The rest of us looked at him on the screen; I think I wasn’t the only one to be feeling the mixture of hatred and sickness as we watched him take this whole thing as a joke.
“I think I’ve got Morgan Freeman on here somewhere as well…” He wondered off, pulling a little black device out of the pocket of his hoodie as if he was browsing for the voice.
“I kind of want to hear it I’m not going to lie.” Gavin confessed, sounding a little ashamed of himself.
Melt face shook his head as he hit the little device in frustration “Ahh stupid thing, oh well I guess Bane will have to do for now.”
I shook my head in disgust “You sick f*ck.”
His head shot up to look at the camera. The big white eyes of the mask looked directly at me, and I realised that he could not only hear us but he could see us. The camera of the laptop must be on or something because there was no way I would be feeling this creeped out unless I knew he could see me.
“You think I’m sick?” he laughed “Why am I sick? Because I killed a few people? That’s nothing. I am not the one who is sick; I am the picture of sanity compared to some people out there. The liars.”
I couldn’t wipe the look of revulsion off my face “You need help.”
He laughed so hard at that and considering it was in the Bane voice it was even creepier.
“Oh sweetheart you have no idea about help. You think what I’ve done so far is sick?” He asked me, and when I didn’t reply he moved towards the camera until the entire screen was filled with the melted face “You haven’t seen anything yet beautiful.”
He started to move the camera and pointed it towards another angle of the room. Frankie cried out and covered her mouth as the next image filled the screen, and Gavin swore.
He was in the theatre room. It was a little smaller than the hall we were currently in and it was where the drama classes put on their shows and plays, where the school had the yearly talent show and where family and friends would come and watch performances that the school held. The hall had a stage on one side of it, and there were seats facing it. It wasn’t very big, but it was big enough.
It was also on the same floor as we were on.
“We can go there now; we can get there before he does anything.” Archie was on my train of thought. He was a five minute walk from us.
Before we even had a chance to discuss it Bane’s voice filled the room again. Weird sentence.
“If you even move an inch I won’t play the game I had in mind and I’ll set them both on fire right now.” I swallowed hard at the brutal threat because I knew he wasn’t bluffing. He appeared back into shot holding a lighter. He flicked it until the flame appeared, telling us he was deadly serious.
The other thing that made me sure that he was not lying was the fact that on the edge of the stage tied to two chairs were our teachers. Miss Vines and Mr Cook, both with blood around their face with their hands and legs tied to the chairs they were sitting on. This wasn’t what made me know he wasn’t bluffing; it was the fact that they looked soaked. Like someone had poured a bucket of water over them. As soon as he got the lighter out, I realised it wasn’t water they were covered in.
“I’m halfway there. As you can see they have recently showered in the finest petrol Riverbank has to offer.” Melt face confirmed what I already knew. He flicked the lighter again so the flame burst out “One little lick of this and they’ll both light up like bonfire night.”
No one said anything. No one moved, all we could do was stare at the screen helplessly just like we had when it was Aubree on it.
“So, now we’ve cleared that up I think we should start the games don’t you?” He asked jumping away from the camera and placing the lighter back into the pocket of his jeans. He skipped over the stage and bounced up the stairs. He was moving like he was enjoying every moment of this. He looked like a little kid at Disneyland.
Once he was on the stage he went to the corner of it and grabbed a chair. He walked towards Mr Cook who was on the left and placed the chair on the ground before stepping up onto it. In the shot we could see the metal bar over the stage that held the lights. It was like a metal pole that went from one end of the stage to the other. It not only held the lights that reflected on the stage when we had a performance, but I remember when they did one play last year they actually tied and held this big bird thing there for the performance.
Why there was a giant bird hanging in front of the stage while they did Of Mice and Men I will never know.
Melt face was fiddling with something that was attached the pole, and it took a grand total of thirty seconds to realise what that thing was.
“So, the game I have in mind is an easy one. We’ve all played it.”
Once he had tightened it enough, he dropped it so it hung down and stopped just in front of Mr Cook’s face.
He jumped off of the chair and went to stand between Mr Cook and Miss Vines before he held his arms out as he made the big announcement.
“Hangman.”
My stomach fell out of my asshole as he said the one word that made me more scared than I had been all night. The noose hung down in front of Mr Cook, and I could see the fear in his eyes as he realised what it was. His eyes went directly to the edge of the stage, not helping the fear subside. You see the stage was a good 7 or 8ft high. If Melt face went through with what I’m assuming is the penalty for losing his little game, there was no way that Mr Cook would hit the ground.
There was just enough height from the edge of the stage to the ground to make a noose do its only job properly.
Mr Cook began to struggle out of his ties but to no avail. Miss Vines let out a cry. Melt face glanced at him for a while, his shoulders shaking as he was clearly laughing at his attempts to escape. He looked back the camera.
“Basically, I have the rope here.” He explained, his voice chirpy as he flicked the noose “I have my first contestant here.” He slapped Mr Cook’s shoulder “And I have you guys to play for the big prize. His life.”
I didn’t even realise I was gripping Archie’s hoodie until he pried my hand off of it and held it in his.
“The way it works is every time you guys get something wrong, I will begin to hang the man. Step by step, so you have a few chances to lose a life. Metaphorically speaking of course.” He laughed at his own attempt at humour before he thought hard “Or not actually.”
“Anyone have a dictionary on them?” Gavin muttered, but his voice was deflated. He was staring at the screen looking lost.
“Oh don’t worry; this isn’t your standard hangman. It’s sort of like a mixture of hangman and truth or dare. Only more truth.” Melt face informed all of us, before clasping his hands together again as he rubbed them like he was bursting with excitement “We’re about to get real honest up in here.”
I shook my head, swallowing hard as the reality of what we were about to do sank in.
“Why are you doing this?” I knew the answer wouldn’t stop the events that were about to happen, but I couldn’t help it. I had to know what would drive a person to do this.
“Why? Why am I doing this?” He repeated through the screen, before he took a couple of giant steps forward until he was at the edge of the stage and that little bit closer to the camera “Because I have had enough of liars. You think I have no motive for doing this and that I’m crazy, well ironically pet I have a justified reason to act this crazy. Some people snap, some people lose their minds for no reason at all. They know they don’t have a reason, they know they don’t have a leg to stand on so what do they do? They lie. They do horrible things based on lies. I have a reason. I have every right to do this because other people’s actions and their bullshit f*cked my life. So I’m going to f*ck theirs.”
I had no words. That entire speech was said with so much anger and passion I almost believe him. I almost believed that this guy wasn’t such a nut job. It still made no sense. I had no idea how his life was f*cked, I had no idea why we were involved in this or who he was talking about. It still made no sense.
“Who are you?” Archie asked, looking a little stunned by that monologue melt face just gave.
Melt face stood up straight and didn’t reply straight away. The creepiest thing about him was you had no idea what facial expression he was doing. Was he smiling? Frowning? We had no idea what he was thinking. Not many of us had practice into getting into the mind of a nut job.
Well, apart from one.
“Well, right now?” He finally answered, before letting out a breath of a laugh “I’m Bane.”
I wasn’t surprised at his answer. I knew it would have been too easy for him to reveal who he was and an actual answer as to why he was doing this. Sure he did explain why he was doing this, but that was the one flight over the cuckoo’s nest answer, not a valid one.
“Question one.” And with that, the game started.
He walked back a few steps until he was directly between the two teachers. He held his index finger up.
“We’ll start off easy, and then as we go on we pick it up a notch. Like losing your virginity.” He laughs at his own joke again “Beautiful, we’ll start with you.”
All eyes were on me, and I felt the nerves kick in straight away. If it was any other circumstance I would have been quite flattered from the compliment. Unfortunately in this case it was coming from a mass murderer so it wasn’t that flattering.
“Why did you decide to come here this weekend?” he asked.
I felt Archie stiffen a little next to me as he brought the topic back up.
“Everyone knows why.” I replied through gritted teeth.
“Told you we were going to start off easy.” Even with the mask, I knew he was smiling.
It took me a few minutes to reply and my stomach knotted. I knew that everyone was aware of our parent’s infidelity, but it was the fact that melt face also knew that made this so nerve wrecking. Why he wanted me to say it again I have no idea.
“Because I caught my dad cheating.” I finally spat out, trying to keep it as short as possible.
“Ah bummer. Archie, who was he cheating with?” Question number two came out without a hesitation.
Archie’s body was so tense it was sending out waves informing everyone he was close to breaking point. Not the burst into tears breaking point, the breaking someone’s nose breaking point. His jaw muscles flexed, and the hand that was still gripping mine got a little tighter.
“My mother.” Archie answered, his voice angry as well as bitter.
“See, this is easy right?” Melt face humoured “Kick it up a bit, Gavin why did you turn down Sophie Green at the beginning of last night?”
My brows, along with pretty much everyone else’s in the hall, furrowed as we turned to look at Gavin.
He looked like a deer caught in the headlights “Wha- I didn’t turn her down.”
Melt face shook his head “Wrong answer buddy.”
He moved towards the hanging rope in front of Mr Cook and proceeded to put the looped bit around Mr Cook’s neck. My heart rate sped up, and a few people around the room started screaming for him to stop.
“Don’t worry, you’ve got a couple more chances. Come on guys you know how this game works, we all played it as kids.” Melt face chuckled before stepping away from Mr Cook. “Gavin, want to try again?”
Gavin’s face was the perfect picture of guilt because I don’t think it sunk in that if he didn’t tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth Mr Cook would be the one paying for his lies.
“Because I didn’t want to make her feel like shit.” Gavin finally confessed, pointing his thumb at Frankie. She looked stunned, but I didn’t miss the shadow of a smile at her mouth.
By this point the rest of us where so confused I felt like I was channelling Joey Essex trying to read a watch.
“And why’s that?” Melt face hinted for him to explain further.
Gavin was glaring at the screen, hatred clear in his eyes for making him say this in front of an audience “Because we hooked up a few weeks back.”
My mouth fell open, and I heard a gasp. At first I thought it was coming out of my mouth before I realised it was Jaden. He slapped a hand over his mouth in shock.
“No fucking way!” Archie exclaimed staring between Frankie and Gavin. Gavin was running his tongue over his top teeth in annoyance whilst Frankie was pressing her lips together and staring at the floor with a blush at her cheeks.
“You two? Dumb and Dumber? You two did the…” I didn’t know how to finish that sentence so I just acted it out by doing a circle with my thumb and index finger and ramming my other index finger through it.
“So you were going to hook up with Sophie last night?” Jaden apparently had more pressing things in mind which were damaging his ego. Let’s not forget he ended up hooking up with her last night. I guess knowing you were second choice does nothing for you self-esteem.
“She tried it and I said no and sent her your way.” Gavin explained, and Jaden looked stunned for a second before shrugging. Clearly guys get over self-esteem blows a lot easier than girls.
“Cheers dude.” And he actually thanked him.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I was more offended than Jaden was, and not because I got given Gavin’s hand me downs. My best friend didn’t tell me something quite crucial. I mean it was Gavin. She always said they boy probably wouldn’t know where to put it if they ever hooked up.
“I don’t know, I couldn’t believe I did it. Then I wanted to forget it, then he started being nice and…I don’t know I panicked.” Frankie explained.
“So what, are you together?” I couldn’t stop firing questions at them. I just needed to know how this happened. Everything made so much sense now. Throughout this entire experience I kept noticing how close these two were. I had no idea it was because of how close their genitals have been.
They glanced at each other, their faces scrunching and looking as lost as we were now this question was put on them.
“I don’t know, haven’t really had a chance to discuss it with all the dead bodies that keep popping up.” Gavin answered for her. Apparently he was now answering for her. I wonder if they were going to do joint Christmas cards now.
“See, isn’t everybody enjoying this bit of honesty? We’re all learning so much about each other. Even the people that you thought you knew.” Melt face cut into our conversation, and I suddenly remembered that he was actually here instigating this whole thing. Wow it’s amazing what a good bit of gossip can do when it comes to taking your mind off things.
“How the hell did you know that?” Frankie asked him.
“I know a lot. You think all of this was last minute? I’ve done my research. If you look and listen at the right times it’s amazing what you will learn about people.” He told her, and again I shivered. I started to wonder just how much he knew and just how had he been looking and listening.
“The guy gets creepier by the minute.” Jaden muttered, and I scoffed in agreement.
“Kevin, how are you kid?” Melt face looked took his attention off the Frankie and Gavin situation and it was now on Kevin. I swear the kid actually jumped a little when he said his name.
“F-fine.” He stuttered.
“Good. Now, it’s no secret that you’re not really the most sociable of teenagers. So tell me, why did you decide to come to the riot this year?”
Everyone’s eyes were on Kevin. He was still sitting on the floor with his back to the sofa and I couldn’t help but notice his hands were shaking. Apparently he did too because he quickly pulled them to his stomach to try and hide them.
“I…I wanted to see what it was like.” Kevin’s voice was matching the shaking of his hands. Even I knew that was a lie.
Again, melt face shook his head “Wrong answer buddy.”
He skipped over the back of Mr Cook’s chair, and quickly began to push it forward. The front chair legs were about to reach the edge of the stage and the chorus of protests from around the hall were so loud I wouldn’t be surprised if he could hear it even without the webcam microphone on.
I felt my body cry in relief when he stopped pushing the chair so it was on the very edge of the stage. It was so close that even Mr Cook was trying not to struggle out of his ties anymore because the tiniest of movements would have sent him over. That is not something he wanted to happen, especially since the noose was still around his neck.
“Kevin, answer honestly. You don’t want him to lose another life do you?” Melt face asked not moving from the spot he was now standing which was behind Mr Cook’s chair.
I heard Kevin swallow hard, his expression was mirroring Gavin’s earlier and I knew he felt guilty. He had pushed Mr Cook closer to the penalty of this horrifying game.
“Why did you come here?” he repeated the question.
“B-because of…because of a girl.” Kevin finally spat it out, and I was quite surprised. I was not expecting that answer. I was kind of hoping melt face’s next question would be about who the girl was.
“You little Romeo.” Melt face laughed, pointing his index finger at the camera as a gesture towards Kevin.
“Who?” Jaden's head turned and he was half hanging off the sofa to look at Kevin.
“Excuse me, I ask the questions hop a long.” Melt face said, and Jaden’s brows shot up in surprise at the insult.
“Did he just burn me?” Jaden asked aloud in disbelief.
“Like a bitch.” Gavin confirmed.
“Who the hell are you calling hop a long? If you hadn't of done this to me I wouldn’t be hopping anywhere, the only thing I would be hopping would be my foot down your throat you fu-“
“Jaden.” Frankie cut him off, realising it probably wasn’t best to anger the crazed psycho killer any more.
Melt face laughed, clearly more amused than angered by Jaden’s threat.
“Your turn target practice…” Melt face had another dig, and Jaden went to open his mouth for the next line of profanities to come out but Gavin clasped his hand over it before the first ‘f*ck’ could escape “Why did Harry ask you not to say anything about deflowering that lovely young lady behind you?”
Gavin gave Jaden a warning look before he slowly removed his hand from his mouth.
“Because Summer told him not to say anything. We’ve been through this Kruger.” Jaden’s voice was filled with venom, and Frankie actually let out a snort of laughter at the name.
“The other reason.” Melt face told him, and my forehead wrinkled at that as I looked at Jaden. To my surprise, he didn’t look confused he just stared at the camera. Glaring at whoever was behind that mask “Remember, the English teacher can’t afford anymore lies.”
Jaden’s teeth were gritting together as he finally replied “Because he didn’t want Archie to be pissed at him.”
“What? Why would I be pissed at him?” Archie was now looking at his friend as if he had grown a vagina at the spot where his Adams apple used to be.
Jaden sighed and rested his head on the arm of the sofa.
“Because you get really weird about her. I remember when we were at mine once and you said that if you had a chance you would bang her so hard that you would have to get an ice pack ready for your penis. As soon as I said that I would love to do the same thing, you glared at me and said we needed to change the subject.” Jaden explained, and I raised my brows as I looked up at Archie's face and tilted my head to the right.
“Is that right?” I asked, not being able to help the humour that was coming out in my tone.
He went to open his mouth to disagree but no words came out. He struggled for a few more seconds to find anything to say before he finally settled on something.
“It’s different. I grew up with her, if anyone’s allowed to make disgusting sex references about her its me.” Apparently, that was his logic.
“That’s so sweet.” I replied back, my tone coated in honey. Also coated in sarcasm. He looked at me with a deadpan expression, telling me my sarcasm was not appreciated.
“Rifling a few feathers. Now, onto the next one…” Melt face cut in, his head turned slightly to the left and his eyes we onto his next target “Alex.”
I immediately forgot about the Archie thing because I suddenly realised there wasn’t much he could ask Alex about. There was only one thing that came to mind, and we all knew how he felt sharing on that subject. I gradually grew more and more nervous.
Alex had stayed quiet throughout all of this, not one word came out of his mouth. now however, he had centre stage.
“Why did you try and kill yourself?” I knew the question was coming, and yet I was still stunned when he came out with it. Archie tensed again, even more than when he asked about the affair.
Alex had no expression on his face, he just looked frozen. Like stone.
“What does that have to do with anything?” Alex replied, his tone angry. Like I said, this was not a subject he liked to talk about.
Melt face shook his head slowly, tutting as he did “Wrong answer.”
What he did next happened so fast my body didn’t even have time to cry out in protest.
In one swift movement, the guy with the mask lifted his right leg up and with force kicked the back of Mr Cook’s chair so hard it went flying off of the end of the stage.
Mr Cook hung there, the noose tight around his neck as he tried to desperately kick his legs out. I could hear him gurgling and gasping, the sounds would ring in my ears for years to come. His face was growing redder by the second, and I have never felt the sense of helplessness so strong in my entire life. I could do nothing but watch as a good man had the life drained out of him in this live execution.
The definition of the game hangman had never been so literal.
.