That creature is still with me tonight, though rather than a classroom I’m inside what seems to be a suite of a hotel. I fall back into the bed and sink into the soft mattress’s embrace, recollecting what happened after the Trial ended:
The voice over the intercom orders us to enter our rooms for the night. The double-doors that we'd tried so hard to pry open swung outwards without even being touched.
Please make your way down the hall; curfew will begin in ten minutes.
Twelve envelopes with printed animal emblems are on the table. I take the one that has a coiled snake, tear it open, and my fingers touch cold plastic.
The room assignments are as below:
[https://i.imgur.com/XK3hj7k.png]
The elevator ride to the second floor is short and awkward.
[Synthetic Voice]: Going up… you have now arrived on the second flood.
[Horse]: Good night everyone!
Her timbre is bright yet strained.
[Lily]: Good night.
Hers is the only voice to be raised in reply. The [Rat] and the [Pig] already left for their rooms, and before I could muster my own courage to speak, the last suite door had eased shut.
And now I’m here. The suite itself is fairly generic except for the metal sheet welded over what I assume used to be a window. There’s a king-sized bed; a TV without any channels, a set of drawers and a nightstand.
Within the drawers is a bible and a full set of books; biographies, fantasies, mysteries, historical fiction. Since curfew begins so early there's little to do but read, so I pick my favorite cover and turn the pages til time flies by. I close the book.
The one benefit of having a hotel room during a Death Game is that the minibar is free. I stuff myself with two bags of chips and a chocolate bar, and drink my fill of what was labelled to be genuine Polish Spring Water and sip a lemon-lime seltzer.
In the bathroom, I free a toothbrush from its plastic wrap, coax toothpaste from a tiny tube and swish away. I take a shower, hot water rolling down my shoulders, and I at last, fall into bed. The creature around my heart is curled tight, but no longer so much as it once was that it keeps from sleep.
But rather than count sheep, I count the seconds on the clock. At midnight tonight the so-called [Gods] will decide which players to Bless and grant extra powers.
One villager will become the Healer, who can protect one person they choose from murder. Another will become the Seer, who can check a player each night and learn whether they’re Wolf.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
11:59… 12:00.
My Card flickers on and I’m bathed in blue light. Seven words cast themselves at me before I was again thrust into a pitch-black room.
You have received the blessing of Normalcy.
In other words…
I’m a villager and nothing else. And I pull the covers over my head, smiling.
A role like the Healer or the Seer would have a great responsibility to make sure that the Town wins the game; and the Wolves would target them for murder. Since I'm just a powerless villager, I can put full focus on my true objective, which is keeping Lily alive.
Weight lifted from my shoulders, I’m free to drift into sleep. Hotel beds are the best. If you’ve ever gone to one of those suspicious mattress stores by the highway and tried their wares you’ll know what a hotel bed is like - the whole reason those stores are in business after all is to supply hotels and inns. With these fluffy, comfortable (and probably slightly overpriced) king beds.
Isn’t it funny how thoughts can drift and dive in all directions right before sleep? Isn’t it funny how words go crazy and wobbly and nonsensically and how trains can go and stop and how fish swim in the royal tomato and go about and…
Tap tap tap.
[Yuri]: …huh?
Tap tap tap.
I awake to a sinister tapping, and my heart briefly freezes.
1:33
It’s still night time and someone - someone outside is trying to get in. I throw the covers over myself as if that would make me invisible from any vicious Wolf. In the Trial, when it came to killing I was mostly undisturbed. But it’s one thing to think about death in the daylight or lamplight and another to consider it with a half-awake brain in the dark.
[Yuri]: Tomorrow, tomorrow, I’m fine with dying. But tonight, just let me rest!
Then a voice comes, directly behind me - at the bed’s headboard.
[???]: So we can hear one another through the wall. Good to know.
[Yuri]: Oh.
I fling off the covers and click on the light. No one’s in my room, or even outside my door. But there is, however, a [Rat] inside my wall.
[Yuri]: Hrrk… snrrkkkkk…!
[Rat]: Don’t pretend to snore. I heard your outburst you know.
Drat.
[Rat]: We don’t need to like each other. In fact, I think you come across as absolutely insane. But we do need to talk.
I smooth the twisted blankets and re-make the bed as I speak to the head-board.
[Yuri]: Yesterday I led the vote on the [Monkey], who ended up being town. So I understand why you’d believe I’m suspicious.
[Rat]: Mhm.
[Yuri]: Since you think that I’m Wolf, rather than yell at me you should just let me go back to sleep. Otherwise I’ll murder you with my Wolf paws, powers, or whatever tools they might have.
I stack the pillows and lie down. I’m not passionate about many things, but sleep is definitely one of them.
[Rat]: That’s the thing. I did think you were suspicious. I checked you tonight - I’m the Seer and I learned that you’re Town.