[Calm voice]: You’re the fourth person awake.

[Yuri]: Just let me sleep a little longer… five more minutes…

[Calm voice]: Alright.

[https://i.imgur.com/x6S40Eh.png]

[Sharp voice]: We don’t have five minutes!

*snap* *snap* *snap*

[Sharp voice]: Wakey wakey! Wake up time!

*slap!*

[Yuri]: Ah!

My eyes shoot open as I rub my stinging cheek. A girl leans down in front of me.

[https://i.imgur.com/D1U6n3g.png]

She fiddles with a silver piercing in her ear, wearing a school uniform. Where the badge of the school might be there’s embroidered a [Tiger].

[Tiger]: Welcome to the world of the living. Do I need to slap the daylight into the other eight sleepyheads here or what?

[Boy with calm voice]: If they’re drugged, it won’t help. I understand your impatience, but if we just wait then everyone will wake.

[https://i.imgur.com/tBYtNFh.png]

The boy standing besides her is tall, dark-haired, and frowning. He’s wearing a stitched uniform featuring a [Dragon].

[Yuri]: Hmm?

Come to think of it, I’m wearing a school uniform too. I run my fingers over my chest and they come across an unfamiliar patch.

[Tiger]: You’re the [Snake], so sit over by the [Snake] chair.

[Yuri]: Huh? I’m the [Snake]? But I don’t want to be the [Snake]!

Snakes are scaly and gross. They’re like snails that decided to be long, hard, and suspicious. And if one of those creepy low-bellied creatures touched me, it wouldn’t be from affection - it’d be to swallow me whole.

Besides, if someone were to call me a snake in a Mafia game - that’s usually the same as calling me a traitor.

[Dragon]: We were all given a specific animal in the Zodiac. Don’t worry, we’re not reading into it; it seems to just be for assigning seats

[Dragon]: Take a look around.

We’re in a chamber with the gravitas of a courtroom, or one of those fantasy conference rooms that you see on million-dollar prestige TV.

Twelve chairs are arranged in a circle. A long continuous wooden bar creates an inner ring serving as a table/countertop, that rises from the floor in a solid block. If I were to sit down in one of those chairs, there’d be a small monitor etched into the bar right in front of it, facing directly at me. The display’s currently dim.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

On the back of each chair is carved a zodiac animal. Already, a pale-faced boy is sitting in the [Goat] chair.

[https://i.imgur.com/Wx95Li1.png]

On the room’s far side are a set of double-doors, while on this end is a pile of slumbering students. There are screens by the other two walls; so large that they run almost from floor to ceiling. They’re both on wheels though how one would transport them in and out is beyond me.

The screen on the west wall has a simple sentence.

Please be seated to begin the game.

On the east wall is a monitor that the [Tiger]’s eyes keep darting towards, every passing second.

72:01

72:00

71:59

71:58

The bright-red numbers tick down carelessly, without a thought for their pressure or weight.

[Yuri]: …I’ll sit down.

[Tiger]: Thank you.

Gradually each student rises, and the [Dragon] greets each and every one as they rub their eyes.

[Dragon]: Let’s work together…

…

[Dragon]: Where are we? I don’t know…

….

[Dragon]: I already tried the door…

…

That’s a [Rat]. A [Horse]. And now an [Ox], a [Rabbit], a [Rooster], a [Monkey] and a [Pig]. Taking into account that I was cursed with the [Snake], then this last one should be… what was it again? The last zodiac animal; it was either a [Cat] or a [Dog].

But when the last student wakes, I recognize them as neither the [Cat] nor the [Dog], but rather as someone else entirely.

[https://i.imgur.com/ohf9fGt.png]

[Lily]: Ah…

[Yuri & Lily]: You!

[Dragon]: You two are friends?

[Yuri]: Yes!

[Lily]: No!

[Tiger]: Just sit down. You’re the last to get up.

60:29

60:28

60:27

60:26

[Lily]: Don’t worry, I’m not someone who takes pride in being late.

Lily glances at me. And lowers herself into the [Dog]-marked chair.

Twelve students, teenagers, are arranged in a circle, each with a Zodiac Sign. Starting from the top is the [Dragon], then the [Snake], and then -- rather than say the order aloud, it’ll be faster for me to draw it for you below.

[https://i.imgur.com/PoIJEGU.png]

Every seat is filled. Lies, half-truths, and pleas will later echo through this room, but right now it is silent, the same kind of quiet that takes place before a hurricane.

The screen changes.

[Game Start]

And so it begins.