"HELLO?" Malincha shouted.

"Hm?"

"HELLO??"

"Hi!"

"YOUR MUSIC! I CAN HEAR YOUR HEADPHONES, CAN YOU TUNE IT DOWN?"

"Thanks, I like my hair too! I've been growing it for years know, you know." The man lifted a finger and coiled his hair around it, grinning at her underneath his long black hair with shiny yellow teeth, standing out like the bright moon in the dark night sky.

"NO! DON'T GET ME WRONG! I SAID TURN DOWN YOUR MUSIC! NOT TO SAY YOUR HAIR LOOKS BAD BECAUSE- well, I mean-" Malincha paused, looking the man up and down. She had dark skin, and long, black hair, yet much glossier and shinier compared to the man's dull, dandruff coated, dead strands of hair.

"YEAH, NEVERMIND, YOUR HAIR LOOKS LIKE IT NEEDS THERAPY."

"Don't be so hard on yourself, your hair looks.... alright." The man replied, nodding his head and tapping his fingers to the beat.

"I didn't say my hair looks bad! Wait, what the hell do you mean it looks 'alright'?"

"Lady, I'm trying to enjoy my music, stop talking to me, thank you!" The man waved her off before continuing to bop his head to the beat.

The lady stared at him, no longer being able to stand the loud music, and got up, walking down the long, cramped, beat down bus. A few days ago, she had seen an advertisement online, for skilled archeologists to accompany some odd man to Moloc's Labryinth. She had applied, and then had been told by a man by the name of Banjo to take this bus to some weird backwater town.

As she made her way to the front of the bus, she could see that it was finally pulling into the city that the man had mentioned, and she looked out the window. The city was rather small, only having a few run-down, badly built buildings. It was as if the construction workers who made them got bored during the job and called it a day.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

"How...grotesque." She squinted out the window, before turning to the bus driver, who wore a strangely long black tie (as in it was touching his toes), who had gotten up and was now standing in the middle of the bus.

"Alright everyone, looks like we're here!" The bus driver slid his hands into his pockets after adjusting his tie. "The game we're going to play here will be called Truth Bullet! My name is Eyt, and I'll be one of the examiners for this test! The man in the back listening to music is my fellow examiner, Nolamento! Everyone, give us a round of applause!"

No one clapped.

"Tough crowd. Well, screw you all too. For this game, everyone will have to choose between a gun, or a lie. If you choose the gun, you won't be able to lie, and if you choose the lie, you won't be able to have the gun!"

"Man, this Banjo guy is a dumbass! It's not like you could stop us if we decided to lie, unless you have a lie detector built into your head." One of the applicants said, rolling his eyes as he did so.

"Oh, we certainly can stop you! Everyone will wear one of these during the tests." The man with the long black hair replied, suddenly behind the man who had spoken up with a strange device in his hand which looked like a button. "It will be able to detect if you lie, and if you do, will send an electric shock through your entire body to kill you. So don't break the rules."

The passengers started to shift uncomfortably as the man passed the devices around to them, Malincha took one of the devices, raising a brow as she carefully placed it onto her chest. "The hell? Is this squid game or a test to find archeologists."

Tye cleared his throat, adjusting his tie again so that it covered his chest almost completely. "Anyways. Your job is to find the Fibbing Statue, a statue of two crossed fingers in this city. We're going to give every single passenger their own unique clue, for where it might be. You are allowed to steal the clues of others once the test starts if that's what you must do. Any questions?"

Nolamento stroked his long hair, laying it over his chest subtly, and Malincha stared at him as he did so before redirecting her gaze to the window, crossing her arms as Tye began to hand out the slips. As she received her slip, she unfolded it, and read the contents, before smirking and crumbling it up, tossing it to the floor.

"And now for the good part! The only thing left to do now that we've explained the rules is give you your guns and your lies! Line up in front of us and tell us which one you'll choose." Ty grinned, adjusting his tie once again as a line formed in front of him, with Malincha at the very back.