Shortly after wrapping up our discussion of the plan, Alex came out with plates of food for each one of us. We all started eating, and over the next thirty minutes or so, people started making appearances to get food. Sienna came, yelled at Atticus and Keon, then left shortly after. Maya came in, saw her sister sitting with the rest of us, started crying and then left without grabbing anything.

“Are you sure you don’t want to try and make up with your sister, Mia?” Amber asked.

“I’m always the one to make up with her,” she said. “I want her to do it this time.”

“If you say so…” Amber said. “I just can’t help but feel bad when I see such a cute girl cry.”

Then came in Miles who looked at us all seemingly full of shame. He walked with his head down, grabbed his plate, then left while Conrad barked at him about being a coward. Sabrina came in while this was going on and grabbed a plate of her own. She stayed in the cafeteria and shot many glances at me while she ate.

“You gonna go up to her, Ryder?” Emma whispered to me.

“There’s no way I can just go up to her and just start a conversation…” I responded. Emma shook her head in disapproval.

Robbie came in as well and immediately came over to me and put an arm around my shoulder.

“How’re ya doing, bud?” he said. He still smelled terrible. Emma, who was sitting next to me, scooched a good few feet away from us.

“F-fine. Uh…How are you?” I said, holding my nose.

“Oh, I’m great!” Robbie said. “Looks like Louis is back to cowering, eh? If I didn’t know any better, I’d think he was the man with the unlucky bracelet of doom!” No one said anything.

“Oooh, yikes!” Robbie said. “Guess I hit the nail on the head. Sorry to hear it buddy. I’ll give your ashes to your mum in a nice decorative urn reminiscent of the Dutch masters.”

“You’re not going to ask how we found out?” Carmen asked.

“No need,” he said. “I’m sure it’s not very interesting. I prefer to learn things through someone’s reactions. I’m quite the expert on people.”

“Sure, sure,” Carmen said. “Why don’t you go take a shower, come back, and tell us all about it, okay?”

“There’s no way to know that the water isn’t poisoned!” he responded.

“We’ve all showered, and we’re all still alive,” Amber said.

“Woah! Showering with guys you just met?! You’re all too easy!” Robbie said. “Back in my day, women were a lot more… conservative.”

“We’re the same age!” Carmen yelled.

“I’ve lived many lifetimes my dear,” Robbie said. “Or at least it feels like I have. Regardless, I hope you all enjoy your dinners. I’d love to dine with you all, but I’m a little busy with a project of mine, so ciao!”

“What kind of project?” Keon asked.

“If it bears any fruit, then I’ll bare it all to you!” he responded. “Till then!” He then took his food and left the cafeteria.

“I will never understand that guy,” Emma said.

“I understand him just fine,” Carmen said. “He’s a fucking lunatic.”

“A lunatic that smells like shit,” Conrad added.

The last person to come in was Cyrus who I had not seen since we first received these bracelets at the beginning of the day. He looked over at us when he walked in and waved. No one waved back, and Keon gave a deep sigh. Cyrus grabbed his plate and went over to our group. Keon rolled his eyes, but he obviously seemed interested in what he was going to say.

“You guys are having a party, and I wasn’t invited? I thought we were closer than that…” Cyrus said.

“You’re the one who always goes off on his own,” Carmen said. “We have no reason to invite you to anything.”

“Perhaps, but it would have been polite, yeah?” he responded.

“Enough games,” Keon said. “What do you want?”

“What do I want? Nothing at all. I just wanted to grab my food and check in with you all. Is that so wrong?” Cyrus said. “Well, I’ll leave you all to it.”

“Not so fast,” Carmen said. “What’s the deal with your section of the library? I take it you’ve been there already?”

“Oh? The library?” he responded. “I haven’t had the chance to check it out yet. Is there something of note?”

“Stop playing dumb,” Keon said. “We heard that your section of the library was scratched out, and you were the only one with the motive to do that.”

“Just because I didn’t want to share my talent with you all?” Cyrus said.

“That, and all the other times you’ve made our lives harder than they already are, dick,” Carmen said.

“You act like I’m the one keeping you all here. I’m just looking out for myself and trying to show you the dangers of working together with strangers. Am I really that bad?” he responded.

“You’re creating distrust between all of us!” Keon barked.

“The distrust was already there,” Cyrus responded. “If anything, you should all thank me for separating those with idealistic personalities from those only looking out for themselves. If you were all together, a murder would have happened on the first night, especially with how hard you were working everyone.”

“We were working hard so we could all survive!” Amber said.

“I’m sorry, but the chances that we all make it out of here is zero,” Cyrus said. “Before you take everything out on me, why don’t you look within yourselves, and at this situation, and tell me that everything I’ve been saying is wrong?”

“Of course it is!” Keon said. “I can’t accept that the only way to survive is to lay down and accept all this rather than try to escape with everyone!”

“So idealistic…” Cyrus said. “You think they will let that happen? This isn’t some singular psycho who has you in a wooden shack where you might actually have options to escape. This is a heavily secured building that is run by multiple armed guards. It’s obviously being carried out by some highly powerful secret organization of some sort. There’s no way they won’t get what they want. We have to play their game, or else. That’s the bottom line here.”

“I refuse to play by their rules,” Keon said, standing up.

“Then die a fucking martyr,” Cyrus said. He then walked out of the cafeteria.

After Cyrus was out of sight, Keon sighed and sat back down. For someone who is supposed to be a calm and collected negotiator, he is very easily flustered by Cyrus. After hearing Cyrus’s words again, I can’t say that he’s wrong in the way that he’s thinking about all of this. There’s almost no chance that we’re going to be able to all get out of here unscathed, and even with our plan of escape, the chances don’t get much higher. All the unknowns and potential hang ups could easily sink our plan instantly. What if Levi isn’t in the hidden room? What if he’s somehow already found out the plan and is expecting us? Even if we do capture him, are we really going to be able to figure out how to get the code? We don’t know anything about torture and going that far is going be very difficult for the average person anyway. Not to mention the fact that Levi is a psycho and probably wouldn’t crack anyway. I lose more faith in the plan the longer I think about it, but with Louis’s situation, there’s no way we can just sit around. Not when we know his life is on the line. We have to try at least.

After we were finished eating, we talked a little bit longer and then parted ways. It was getting close to the time that the cafeteria stopped serving food for the night, so it looks like I’ll have to do my part and stand guard. Marin and I are on duty today, and hopefully we won’t be as easy to crack as Emma and Conrad were. We can’t have anything interfere with our plan to escape at 4am tonight.

I decided to use my free time to look over my section of the library and see if there was anything interesting in it. Looking through it more thoroughly, it seems like it really was just full of beginner college textbooks. There wasn’t a single book that I wanted to read in the whole section. I decided to then walk up to the back wall where all the fiction books were, so I could potentially take one to keep me busy tonight. I figured it would be a good way for me to stop thinking about the plan and second guessing everything. Walking towards the back of the room, I saw Keon inspecting the section that Emma and I dubbed as Cyrus’s. He looked over at me.

“Oh. Hello, Ryder,” he said. “Didn’t take you for much of a reader.”

“It doesn’t seem like we have much of a choice in this place,” I said. Keon smiled.

“You have a point there,” he said.

“What are you looking at?” I asked.

“I’m trying to figure out what this section means in regard to Cyrus’s talent,” he said. “Just in case we aren’t able to escape, I think this information will be valuable in the long run.”

“I see.”

“So, what brings you here?”

“I was looking for something to read tonight before we go through with the plan,” I said. “I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep much tonight.”

“You shouldn’t distract yourself before something so important,” Keon said. “You need to get as much sleep as possible. A sleep deprived person has very poor judgment. Besides, isn’t it getting close to the time for you to stand guard? You shouldn’t be wasting time here.”

I looked at the clock on the wall and it showed that it was indeed getting close to being 8pm.

“Damn, I didn’t think so much time passed!” I said. I then left the library with Keon giving me a small wave.

I walked up to the cafeteria door and saw that there was still ten minutes until eight, so it made sense that Marin wasn’t here yet. Based on how yesterday and this morning went, I would have figured that Marin and I would have arrived together, but she’s still been distant since our bracelets were put on. She didn’t say much during our meeting with the others either, so it’s not just me that she’s being quiet around, I guess. Hopefully, I can get to the bottom of it while we stand guard here for the next couple hours, but I don’t want to push her too hard.

I decided to look back into the cafeteria to see if anyone was still inside before it closed and was surprised to see that Sabrina was sitting at a table by herself. We locked eyes and she got up and started heading towards the door where I was standing. I wasn’t sure whether to greet her, keep staring at her, run away, or something else, but while I was thinking, it was too late, and she appeared right in front of me. She was much taller than me and looked very strong which made sense since she was the Ultimate Softball Player. Her arms were much thicker than my own, and her thighs looked like they could pop my head easily. She was looking down at me, and I could see both of her different colored eyes, one blue and one brown, looking right into my own. I wasn’t sure what to say to her, but luckily, she broke the ice first.

“H-hi, Ryder,” she said. Her voice was very cute which was very much the opposite of her intimidating appearance.

“O-oh, hi,” I responded. “We haven’t had much of a chance to speak so far, have we? Ha ha…” I gave a nervous laugh.

While Sabrina was very intimidating (probably just because I was very short) this wasn’t to say she was ugly by any means. Her light brown hair was put into a ponytail which made her give off a much different vibe than when we first met as her bangs covered about half of her face back then. She was very pretty.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“I’ve been meaning to talk to you alone for a while…” she said, twiddling her fingers.

“Oh, really? What’s on your mind?”

“I-I just want you to know that I won’t let you die, so you can feel safe, okay?” she said.

“Oh. Uh…” I wasn’t sure how to respond.

“I’ll protect you, okay?” she said. “You can leave everything to me!”

“Uh…thanks?” I said. “Why me though?”

“Because I love you!” Sabrina yelled.

“What?!” I yelled back. I had no idea what was going on anymore.

“Exactly what I just said!” Sabrina said. She took my hands in her own. “You don’t have to mess around with the others anymore. I’ll take care of anything that gets in the way of us getting out of here.”

“B-but, what about the others?” I said. Taking my hands out of her grip.

“They don’t matter to me,” she said. “They’re insignificant. We don’t need to worry about them.”

“I’m not just going to leave everyone behind!” I said. “There are a lot of good people here.”

“I beg to differ,” Sabrina said. “They are all potential killers. They’d betray you the second an opportunity came. I would never do that though! I’m the only one you can trust here, okay?” She took my hands again.

“H-how can I trust you?” I said, pulling my hands out of her grip once again. “I don’t even know you…”

“Then get to know me!” she said. “See for yourself how serious I am!”

“This is too much…” I said while holding my head. “The way you kept looking at me, I thought you were out to kill me or something…”

“Not you, I swear!” Sabrina said. “Mostly just the girl you were talking to. Marin, I think her name is? I don’t much care for Emma either. She was too close to you at dinner.”

“They’re my friends though!” I said. “They’re good people.”

“I promise you that I am all you’ll ever need,” she said. “You can forget about them.”

“Why do you even like me? This is not something that happens like ever,” I said. “This isn’t some dating simulator set on auto. You can’t just say you love me the second time we talk to each other…”

“Love is a feeling,” she said, clutching her chest. “And I felt it towards you the second I saw you.”

“There’s no way,” I said. “I’m sorry, but I can’t accept that. Nothing in my life has felt more like a trap than this.”

“I assure you that I only have female parts!” she said.

“Not that kind of trap!”

Just then, I saw Marin approaching from the direction of the dorms. (Thank God! Please save me!) She gave Sabrina and I a small wave as she approached.

“I will prove it to you. I swear,” Sabrina whispered to me before running off past Marin.

“I was starting to think she lost her vocal cords after the first day,” Marin said. “What did you two talk about?”

I wrestled between whether I should tell Marin about it or not. On one hand, there’s no way she’d believe me if I told her, it was a love confession, but, on the other hand, Sabrina basically threatened her during our conversation. I feel like she deserves to know that she’s dangerous at least.

“Nothing good,” I finally said. “She’s dangerous. You should probably steer clear of her.”

“You think so?” Marin said. “Just because she’s strong doesn’t mean she’s violent, Ryder. Don’t judge a book by its cover.”

“I’m not judging it by the cover. I’m judging based on everything except the cover! You just have to trust me.”

“So, are you not going to tell me what you were talking about?”

“You’d never believe me…”

“Alright, keep your secrets,” she said. “I’ll trust you and steer clear, but I’m not going to be mean to her.”

“Thank you,” I said. “So, are you feeling any better?”

“In what way?”

“You seemed really down in the dumps since we got these bracelets put on. I just wanted to make sure you’re doing okay. You don’t have to suffer alone. We're all here for you,” I said.

“Yeah…I just…I don’t know…” she said. “I was convinced that those bracelets meant that someone was going to die no matter what we did. It hurt to know that we were going to lose someone after all the hard work we did.”

“I know what you mean,” I said. “These bracelets made it feel like we were finally in some real danger, like we could really die here.”

“I feel so bad too, because part of me was so relieved to find out that mine wasn’t poisoned, but I can’t feel good about that! Poor Louis is fighting this battle all by himself. I can’t even imagine how he must feel,” Marin said.

“I think we all felt a little relieved. It’s natural to feel that way. We just have to do our part when we break out of here so he’s not fighting this battle by himself anymore.”.

“You’re right. We just have to do our best to make sure everything goes exactly how it’s supposed to.”

“Absolutely,” I said. “So, do you think we’re going to see anyone try to pull a fast one on us while we’re out here?”

“You mean like we did with Emma and Conrad?”

“Yeah. Our little brownie escapade.”

“I think everyone’s on edge, so probably not,” she said. “They definitely aren’t going to have a good enough reason to make us let them in the cafeteria anyway. If it’s not about a master baker getting their reps in, then I’m gonna lay down the law!”

“I sure hope we don’t have someone who is both suspicious and a baker then. Other than you of course,” I said.

“I may be a baker, but I am not suspicious in the slightest!” Marin said. “I’m almost always upfront with everyone.”

“‘Almost?’”

“I wouldn’t want to be a liar,” she said.

“Uh huh,” I said. We both laughed. “So, do you think the plan is going to work?”

“I really want to believe that it will,” Marin said. “It does seem like we’re fighting an uphill battle, but rather than dwell on that, I’d prefer just to think about how it’s the best plan we could have possibly come up with.”

“Yeah, I just need to stop overthinking it,” I said. “We really don’t have a choice in the matter if we want to save Louis.”

“Exactly.”

It was nice to talk to Marin normally again. She’s always good at calming me down in this stressful place. It’s still hard to get all of these negative thoughts out of my head though. Sabrina seems to have gone off the deep end, Louis might die within the next day, our plan is not foolproof by any means… There’re just too many negative things for my brain to handle. Marin and I kept talking, and, before we knew it, our shift was almost over.

“Looks like we only have to be here for another ten minutes,” I said.

“Looks that way,” Marin responded. “Time really flies when you’re having fun!”

“I’m glad we didn’t have to turn anyone away. Seems like a stressful thing to do with everyone on edge.”

“Yeah, the only people who were still roaming around were Atticus, Keon, and Carmen,” Marin said. “And none of them went towards the cafeteria.”

“We can assume that Keon and Carmen were most likely grabbing the tweezers for our plan, and Atticus just went into the public restroom. That’s probably because Sienna is not letting him into their dorm.”

“Poor guy,” Marin said. “We should really have a talk with Sienna later about this.”

“Someone definitely needs to put their foot down. At least she lets him sleep there still.”

Just then, we heard the intercom go off.

Attention students: It is now 10pm and the cafeteria is now closed. Sleepwear will be delivered to each of your dorms individually by Jane, our wonderful housekeeper, starting at 10:15pm in a counterclockwise path. Sleep well, so you can train those brains during your stay!

“Well, looks like it’s time to meet up with the others,” Marin said. “Wouldn’t want to keep them waiting too long.”

“So, does this door lock by itself or something? It’s supposed to be closed now after all.”

After saying this, I saw Alex walking towards us. He gave us a wave and then took a padlock out of his pocket, which he then put on the door.

“I guess that answers that,” Marin said. “Alex, why can’t you lock the door when food is not served anymore? What’s the phony excuse for having this place open for another two hours?”

“Just in case you all want somewhere to study before bed,” he said. “There’s a lot of open space here and a lot of places to sit and get some work done.”

“That’s a half-assed reason…” Marin said. “This isn’t a real college!”

“Then why were you baking here the other night?” Alex said. “Seems like studying to me.”

“Shut up!” Marin said. “How did you even know about that?!”

“You left a brownie tray in the fridge,” Alex said. Marin turned red. “I had some. They were pretty well done. You might catch up to my level one day.”

“I’m way better than you!”

“I’ll admit you’re not bad, but you’ve still got a lot to learn,” he said. “Maybe I’ll show you the ropes sometime.”

“Never gonna happen! Let’s go Ryder!” Marin took my arm and dragged me away.

“You really are passionate about baking, huh?” I said once we were out of earshot of Alex.

“Of course! Baking is life!” Marin said, still flustered. “His food isn’t even that good!”

“Don’t let him get to you,” I said. “You’re the best baker I know.”

“And how many bakers do you know?” Marin said, folding her arms.

“Uh…not a lot admittedly, but I could know a million and I guarantee you’d still be the best!” I said nervously.

“Hmph!” Marin said. “You’re damn right I’d be the best.”

Marin is like a completely different person when it comes to the subject of baking. She’s definitely got a lot of confidence in her own skills and it seems that when someone tries to insinuate that she’s not amazing at it, she gets a little defensive. I can’t help but think it’s a little funny though to see her get flustered. I better not poke the bear though. We made our way to the dorms for the nightly headcount and were the last ones to arrive. We saw Atticus and Sienna arguing once again and as we got closer, we were able to hear the subject of it.

“Just stay out! I’m not asking a lot!” Sienna barked.

“I’m not going to walk all the way to the public restrooms every time,” Atticus said calmly. “That’s too far to do every night when there’s a perfectly good bathroom in our dorm.”

“If you don’t want to walk so far, then knock on your neighbor's door to use there’s! Problem solved,” Sienna said.

“I’m not going to wake someone up every time I need to piss,” Atticus said. “Be reasonable.”

“Then just hold it until morning!” Sienna said. “There are so many ways for you to solve this problem! I’m already compromising so much by letting you sleep on the floor.”

“That’s hardly a compromise,” Atticus said. “I’m the only one compromising anything here.”

Atticus sure seemed to have endless patience.

“Sienna,” Keon started. “You can’t push Atticus away. That dorm is just as much his as it is yours.”

“Stay out of this, jackass!” Sienna yelled. “Put yourself in my shoes for once!”

“We are all in your shoes, Sienna!” Amber said. “We’re all sharing with each other even when we don’t want to! We’re all compromising!”

“You have no idea!” Sienna said. “Look. At. My. Roommate! He’s a slob!”

“I’ve done nothing to warrant that description!” Atticus yelled. His patience seemed to be wearing thin.

“Sienna, shut up,” Carmen said. “You need to calm your fucking tits and leave Atticus alone. All this negative energy is going to be hell on your skin that you care about so much.”

“Shut up, bitch!” Sienna yelled. “Do you need your nose broken again?!”

“Try me, bitch,” Carmen said, advancing towards Sienna.

“No!” Keon said while grabbing Carmen. “No more fighting!”

“You two need to stop!” Conrad said, putting himself in front of Sienna.

“Whatever,” Carmen said, pushing Keon off. “Someone needs to put her in her place eventually.”

“Sienna…” Sabrina started. “Can’t you just think about it a little more? What if Atticus promises to leave it spotless every time? What reason would you have to keep him out of the restroom then?”

Sabrina never talked much since the first day, so it was very strange to see her attempt to defuse a situation like this.

“I’ll think about it…” Sienna said. “Maybe tomorrow I’ll change my mind, but for now, stay out of the bathroom!”

Sabrina looked over at me and gave a thumbs up. I have no idea what to expect from her anymore.

“Nice job, Sabrina!” Amber said.

“We could definitely use a strong person like you participating with the group!” Conrad said. “We can never have enough muscle!” He kissed his biceps.

“I’m just happy to help,” Sabrina smiled.

“Whatever,” Sienna said. “I didn’t promise anything! Now, let’s just get this headcount over with.”

“Okay, it looks like everyone is here and accounted for,” Keon said. “Now let’s do our first body search.”

“I’m not letting you feel me up!” Sienna yelled.

“I-I don’t know if I’m comfortable with that either,” Mia said softly. Maya, who was sitting in the corner by herself, looked at her sister with a pained expression.

“Relax. Carmen will be conducting the searches on the women,” Keon said.

“I’m not letting her touch me either!” Sienna said.

“Well, maybe I don’t wanna touch you, puta!” Carmen said.

“Ugh…” Keon sighed. “Fine, for tonight, Sabrina, can you help search the girls?”

“Not a problem,” Sabrina said. “I can search Ryder too since he’s short.”

“What does that have to do with anything? This isn’t based on height,” Keon said. “I’ll search the boys and you search the girls. Then, after that, Carmen will search you, and we’ll be done for the night.”

“Fine,” Sabrina pouted. I’m very glad Keon shot that down so quickly.

“Damn, I was hoping that meant I’d get searched by the muscle mommy,” Cyrus chortled.

“Shut up, pervert,” Carmen said. “Keep your fetishes to yourself.”

“It was just a joke,” Cyrus said. “Keon’s not bad looking either.” He pursed his lips and made kissing noises at Keon.

“Shut up,” Keon said. “Enough of your stupid jokes.”

Keon and Sabrina searched everyone, and no contraband was found on anyone. Sabrina was then searched by Carmen, and it looked like everyone was in the clear.

“I’m happy to see we don’t have rulebreakers tonight,” Keon said. “Anything to report on your end, Ryder, Marin?”

“No, sir!” Marin said while saluting. “No one made an appearance at the cafeteria tonight.”

“Good to hear,” Keon said. “Okay, let’s split up for the night. Good night, everyone.”

Everyone went their separate ways, and Marin and I went back to our dorm where we received our pajamas from Jane and then went to bed early so we could be ready for the plan at 4am tonight.