Twenty seconds after leaving the rest of the group, Katie found herself facing a serious question. A question of life and death. One of victory and defeat.

Elevators or stairs? Katie thought as she tapped her lips. Should she take the elevators or the stairs to get down to the first floor where the front desk was? Hmmm...what would Caitlin do if she was here?

Now, in most cases, it was better in horror movies to take the stairs. If someone was in the staircase and she ran into a ghost or a monster, she still had places to run. Get into an elevator and be trapped...and you would have no choice but to fight the said monster.

That was why the class took the staircase on the way up. They wisely recognized it was the smartest and safest path.

With the pros and cons in mind, Katie pressed a button and stepped into the elevator on the left.

The elevators of the hotel were placed in an interesting fashion. They were on the side of the building, designed and equipped with transparent glass so that it was possible for the riders of the elevator to see the view outside while the elevator itself ascended or descended. At the same time, it was impossible to see the inside of the elevator from the outside. It was a fancy feature that many customers enjoyed.

Katie pressed the 1st-floor button before turning to the view outside. As she observed the cars cruising by, she wondered how she should approach the employees. Kill them? Nah...torture them? Same issue. She knew she wouldn’t feel a thing if she massacred a ton of innocent people, but she also knew she couldn’t allow herself to do that.

No one forced her to only hurt the wicked. In fact, no one could force her to do anything. This rule was imposed on her by herself. She didn't know what was going on inside her very own body, but as long as she had control, she wouldn’t let herself descend into a beast who was dominated by pain and death. She was Katie Lockwood! She had a girlfriend to fight for! Pain was good, but it wasn’t enough to make her abandon everything else!

At least...at least not yet.

Not hurting the innocent unless she had to, and definitely not enjoying it, was a stance she made. Break that stance, and she suspected it would only be a matter of time before she lost everything.

So...maybe she could do what she did to Howard? Use herself as bait? The wraith, as much as she was unimpressed by its efficiency, had to kill the students. It couldn’t kill all the students at the same time for some reason, so supposedly it had no choice but to pick them off.

If Katie could make herself look like one of those idiotic hot support character girls in those horror movies...maybe she could draw the wraith out into the open? Once that happened, oh the fun she would have!

That was when Katie realized something was off. She has been thinking for at least a few minutes. The elevator...it should’ve arrived on the 1st floor already. Instead, the doors still haven’t opened. Either she was stuck in a poorly maintained elevator, or...

As she turned to the elevator button panel, she realized all the buttons were flickering on and off.

A look at the transparent glass windows of the elevator told Katie she was on the first floor, but why wouldn’t the door open? Pressing the open door button did nothing, not that Katie had any expectations for that. Slightly concerned, the girl kicked the metal elevator door, accomplishing little more than hurting her foot.

A pleasant surprise...but not what she wanted to accomplish.

“Ok…” The brunette growled lowly. She had a thousand words to speak, and most of them were words of disappointment. Really? You’re a wraith capable of infinite power and slaughter, and you decided to trap me in an elevator? What are you hoping to accomplish? Starve me to death? Bore me to death? All of that came out in a single sentence.

“You are a disgrace and a damn shame to every wraith on the planet!”

As if outraged by Katie’s words and tone, the elevator suddenly shook again, but not because it was moving again. On the contrary, the elevator itself remained in its place. As Katie was looking around trying to spot what changed, the ceiling and the floor of the elevator suddenly went into motion.

The ceiling was moving down and the floor was moving up. Together, they would converge in the middle and crush Katie alive, turning her into a tightly packed jar of flesh jam.

Tempting...Katie found her lips curling up even as she thought of what that picture might look like, but...focus, Katie! She told herself. You don’t have time for this! You have work to do! You have a wraith to kill! This is no time for these pleasure sessions!

So...what would Caitlin do?

As her head touched the descending ceiling, Katie locked around the elevator to look for a clue to escape. There wasn’t really much fear in her heart. What was the worst that could happen? In the place of fear were feelings like excitement and arousal...nonetheless, her eyes quickly landed on the glass doors on the side.

If the floor and the ceiling were moving, then why weren’t the side glass converging? Why make a rectangular box of flesh jam when you could make a cubical one? In other words, this must be the way out!

A look outside the window was enough to tell Katie that the elevator was already on the 1st floor. In other words, she could easily break the glass and jump out to safety. The area outside the elevator was still a part of the hotel, so she wouldn’t be breaking any rules.

Katie drew her handgun. Before she broke the windows, however, there was another thing she had to do. She quickly turned to the elevator.

“You’re the wraith!”

As soon as that accusation left her mouth, she suddenly coughed. A bloody line appeared on her throat, stretching across the entire neck. In one move, she was beheaded alive.

Oops. Wrong answer...Katie thought quietly as she reached up and held her head in place so it wouldn’t fall over. Five seconds later, the wound was gone and her head was once again a proud part of her body. Ok...so the elevator itself isn’t the wraith, but how about…

Elevator door. “You’re the wraith!”

Slice…

Control panels. “You’re the wraith!”

Slice…

Glass ceiling. “You’re the wraith!”

Slice…

Glass floor...Slice!

After multiple trials, Katie finally came to the conclusion that the elevator wasn’t the wraith. It was probably just under the wraith’s influence or something. Either way...enough fooling around. The girl thought so before shooting the glass, breaking it, and leaping out.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

The next thing she knew was falling down the height of five floors and crashing into a concrete ground head first. In other words...splat!

What Katie didn't know was that there was never any safe way out of that elevator. That elevator was meant to kill whoever went inside alone. The elevator itself never went down to the first floor, but the closing of the floor and the ceiling was real. If she stayed, her classmates would find her in the form of a jar of compacted meat in the elevator. If she jumped...she would be jumping down from five stories tall.

The results were pretty much the same. Even if Caitlin or Vivian was here, they couldn’t deduct their way out of the fatal trap. The wraith wanted to start the week with a brutal kill of whoever stepped into the elevator first and announce its presence to all.

And then, on the concrete floor, Katie sat back up. Half of her head was caved in and her brain was all over the place, but it didn't take long before she completely recovered and all that was left of the collision was the blood, dirt, and fluids on her clothing. Along with those, Katie was left with a huge question.

“What the hell just happened…”

----------------------------------------

At the same time, Caitlin was sitting inside the Presidential Suite. Katie told her she was going downstairs to investigate, alone, but she wasn’t quite worried. Something told her Earth could blow up right now and Katie would still live to ruin another alien's day.

Katie was the last person she had to worry about.

As the first meeting concluded, Caitlin returned to the Suite. In this game, the more people she was around, the safer she was. The wraith couldn’t just expose itself and kill her in person, right?

In her opinion, Caitlin was hoping to have a moment to herself to think about this game further. There were just so many possibilities out there. If she wanted to live, she had to take all of them into account.

But even though Katie was gone, she wouldn’t be left alone. That became clear as, a few minutes after Katie left, a few girls casually sat down beside her and started chatting with her. She knew them more or less, but they never had much real contact after the games started.

Until now.

These girls weren’t blind. They could tell some students had a greater chance of surviving than others. Students like Vivian. Students like Eric. And students like Caitlin. They were just a little smarter and a tad more experienced than the others, but when the time came, they could be the only path the rest of the class had to survive.

It wouldn’t hurt for them to befriend these students now. Even if this friendship wouldn’t help, it at least distracted the girls from the deadly environment they were in.

“So, Caitlin, how was the weekend?”

The girl talking now was Abigail. She was one of the shorter girls in the class. Her voice was soft, and if anyone saw her, they would think she was a naive and innocent individual. Of course, whether or not that was truly the case remained to be seen. As of now, in front of Caitlin, she looked nice and sweet.

“Hmmm…” Caitlin thought about her weekend. What did she do? Sleep with Katie. Sleep with Katie. Sleep with Katie...and what else? Carve a way out of the Meat Lovers and learn about the Sect of Ascension. Go through the piles of rifles and grenades in Arnold’s armory. So… ”nothing much. I went to a restaurant with Katie.”

“Wow!” Another girl on the side exclaimed. She was Beatrice, a friend of Abigail. In a sense, she was to Abigail what Katie was to Caitlin. Loyal. Defensive. Minus all the supernatural and psychopathic traits, of course. “That sounds so romantic! Was it a date?”

“Well…” Caitlin found a small smile climbing onto her cheeks. Katie and her ran into a cult of cannibals, maimed and massacred over a dozen men, and then burned the place to the ground. A date indeed. “Yeah, we had a fun time.”

“Congrats.” Abigail tried to return a smile, but anyone could see the sorrow in her eyes. “I went out to a restaurant too. It was for lunch with my parents on Sunday. We went to my favorite steakhouse. I...I told my parents I love them. I told them to take care of themselves. I told them if I’m gone, they should adopt another child.”

She bit her lips. “Guess what they said to me?”

Caitlin raised her eyebrows. What Abigail said would’ve surprised and even terrified a normal pair of parents, but now…what Abigail said next confirmed her thoughts.

“Nothing! I was practically leaving them a will and they said nothing!” Abigail's voice was shaking in anger and fear alike. Slowly, almost in desperation, she clutched onto her head. “I am not leaving this game alive! I know it! I knew it back in that steakhouse! I am a dead woman! We all are!”

Beatrice held onto her hand, reassuring her friend as much as possible. Caitlin sighed. Her mouth opened, but no word came out. What could she tell Abigail? That she would survive this game? That she would see her parents again? She could, but she would be lying. As far as she knew, the only one who could surely stay standing after this game was Katie.

Abigail was sniffing. A few girls in the Suite heard her commotion, but none of them said anything. No one mocked her breakdown, but no one said to her words of comfort either.

The silence continued for a long time. All Caitlin could do was sit back and do her best to go over the clues she had once again. She had little hope, but if there was a single chance she could help her fellow classmates live a few more days, then that was what she was going to do.

Not because she was a saint or a hero, but just to give Mr. Isaac another ‘fuck you’. Just to show that if Mr. Isaac wanted to beat her, he had to break his own rules and get his hands dirty.

The Suite door was pushed open, and a few girls jumped up in alarm. They were slightly relieved to see it was just Katie. She was still in the black jacket, but there were so much mud, blood, and mysterious fluid on that jacket that made many girls wonder where she went.

The brunette didn't explain to these bystanders. She was going to explain, just not to them. Instead, she walked over to the sofa Caitlin was at. Abigail, who was right beside Katie, stood up just in time to give way for the brunette. She was going to the bathroom in the Suite, likely to have a good cry.

“So?” Caitlin asked, glancing at Katie’s stained jacket. “What happened to you?”

“It’s a long story.” Katie sighed, her voice filled with disappointment as she explained to Caitlin what happened.

After going all splat outside the hotel building, Katie casually got back up. She spent the next three full minutes screaming into the air. Yes. Screaming into the air. Outside of a haunted hotel. The game is rigged! Mr. Isaac, come out here and explain your stupid rules! Wraith! Get your ass out here!

Eventually, mainly because no one was there to answer her, she quieted down and proceeded with her plan. At first, she started chatting with the front desk employees, acting all vulnerable and weak. But no one bit the bait, so she went one step deeper. She practically laid down on a sofa in the main hall and fell asleep. If there was a wraith among the employees, this would be the perfect chance to strike!

But from Katie pretending to fall asleep to actually falling asleep to waking back up, there was nothing. She was untouched the entire time.

That was when Katie found a loophole that she could abuse, or so she thought. Accusing falsely led to her own death, but she couldn't die...so she could technically accuse everyone and everything in the hotel until she got it right! Unfortunately, Mr. Isaac must've foreseen that, because after the first four or five accusations, she seemed to have lost the ability to accuse. She could still kill the wraith with brute force if she could identify it, but...

If she knew this would happen beforehand, she would've been a little more conservative with her accusations.

In the end, she admitted defeat and got back up. Since the elevator was rigged, clearly she took the elevator again. This time nothing happened and she got back safely.

“So the elevator is a trap, but only on the way down? Or is it depending on when the wraith is controlling it?” Caitlin frowned as she tried to deduct some useful information out of Katie’s experience. “And by the looks of it, that trap is designed to be a certain kill. I guess the wraith wanted to start his killing spree at the elevator.”

She glanced at Katie, and for a moment she felt bad for the wraith. All those planning and scheming and it ran into Katie, and its bloody example to the class was turned into a failed attempt most of the students had no idea happened at all. It has gotta be disappointing.

“Katie, did you notice any employees around the elevator?”

“Nope. Why? Do you think that shame of a wraith has to be close to the elevator to control it?”

“Not necessarily. We know nothing about what it’s capable of.” Caitlin replied quietly, deep in thoughts. “But there have to be clues out of this. The wraith can kill us with ease, but it also needs to give us hints to figure out who or what it is. That’s the whole purpose of this game. Mr. Isaac wants us to search for that single strand of hope in the sea of despair.”

“I didn't see anyone.” Katie shrugged.

“Hmmm...well, at least you saved someone from getting crushed to death.” The blonde managed to find perhaps the only silver lining in this. “You foiled the wraith’s plan and saved a life.”

That was when a cry came out from outside.

“Oh no! It’s Ryan! He...he’s dead! It's the elevator!”

Well...Caitlin sighed. Nevermind...