Chishiya

I opened the door of Hatter's suite and bumped into a militant. 'Where are you going?' he asked. Oh...

'Didn't you get the orders from Aguni? I was going to guard the suite until now. He said a militant would switch places with me, but guard the suite from the outside of the door first,' I made up on the spot. 'So I suppose it's you that has to be on watch now!' I concluded while raising an eyebrow.

And I left him behind. I ran through the hallways, all the way to my room to fetch the string backpack I packed earlier. I stuffed some more things in it, put on the hood of my jacket and left again, trying to avoid contact with anyone.

When I arrived at the ground floor, I heard voices from behind the corridor so I pressed myself against the wall to listen without being seen.

'If there is even one more fucking incident that happens, I swear I will personally slaughter everyone in this twisted utopia of his with my bare hands. First Hatter's death, now that stupid kid trying to steal these cards that belong to mé...' Aguni. He sounded crazy, deluted...

An anonymous voice reacted: 'b... but, boss. Hatter's death wasn't an incident, right? You all planned it beforeh...'

BLAM. Blood splattered against the wall of the corridor and I heard a light plop on the ground. Did he... shoot one of his militants? He's driving nuts. I made myself as small as possible to not get caught, but I heard footsteps towards my direction. So I decided to open the window, throw my backpack and jump after it, inside of the bushes underneath the window.

I grabbed my backpack and pressed myself against the wall again. I tilted my head to look at the window above me, and saw it open wider. Aguni's hands bended over the window frame as he bended over to look up at the sky. 'Hatter!! What did you leave behind for me to solve!?' he screamed into the night sky.

I looked down and narrowed my eyes to make him not look at me. As I opened them again, I saw something glimmer at my feet. I squinted my eyes to see it better, but I couldn't so I crouched down to take it. It was the key of the makeshift lock on room 003. And I immediately knew why it was here. Arisu was locked up there. I carefully put the key in my pocket, with the cards, and stood up to run towards the back entrance of the Beach.

Niragi

I was sitting and waiting for Chishiya on the outside of the back entrance. Occasionally, I glared around the corner of the gate to see if he was already there. It took so fucking loooong. I stared at the landscape in front of me as I thought about how it would be to be out there, alone together with Chishiya.

Suddenly I heard my name and turned around to see him, Chishiya, run towards me. He came to a stop and walked slower while I stood up to greet him. But then, I saw another figure coming out of the dark. It was Kuina.

'Chishiya, stop!' she screamed and Chishiya jumped up out of surprise. He turned around to face her.

'Kuina...' he mumbled. Her eyes were burning from madness as she continued: 'so thís is your so-called back-up pawn that will make sure everything works out!?' She furiously  gestured at me with her hand. 'Don't you know the things he has done? He is a fucking dangerous psychopath!' she yelled while stepping forward and pushing Chishiya back.

I opened my mouth to say something, but closed it again. It was kinda funny to see this weird woman so helplessly mad. 'What were you planning to do? Run away with that... madman and leave us behind? Speaking of, where are Arisu and Usagi even? Is leaving them behind also part of this plan? How stupid was I, thinking we were friends!' she kept going on. She was fucking unstoppable.

Finally, Chishiya opened his mouth and spoke in a calculated, controlled voice: 'take it easy, Kuina. First of all, thinking that I would also help yóúr friends escape is stupid, I thought you knew me better than that. Secondly, I am doing what's best for us. You are too kind to be around me even longer and you can easily take care of yourself. Your 'friends' would only be a dangerous burden for you here in the Borderland.' He made quotation marks in the air with his fingers. 'So do yourself a favor and just go the other direction,' he said and he turned around towards me and the exit.

When he made his first move, I saw Kuina's eyes widen. She gasped, took a big step forward and grabbed Chishiya by his shoulder. 'Wait, Shuntaro, look out!' she yelled.

I jumped back from surprise and screamed: 'what's fucking wrong with you, woman!?'

Her eyes looked at me mad and hogere back towards Chishiya. 'Shit...' she whispered and she pointed towards the space between us.

Chishiya

My eyes followed the pointing of her finger and saw a glimpse of a shiny laser. 'Wha... What is this?' I whispered.

'What the hell are you talking about!?' Niragi yelled and he stepped closer.

'Don't come any closer,' I immediately said. 'The Beach... just turned into a game area...' I told him while taking off my numbered bracelet and throwing it towards Niragi, where it hit the laser and fell down, smoldering.

Niragi's eyes widened and his mouth fell open. 'Shit,' he mumbled.

I thought quickly and made a decision. I pushed the backpack between the lasers and told Niragi to run away as far to the West as he could. 'We will find each other soon, after I finish this game,' I reassured him. 'Go now!'

He blinked. 'Are you sure I don't have to wait?' he asked.

'Yes. Aguni will find out about the cards soon and tie the wires together. He will find out it was us and try to look for us. Run!' I said.

'Okay, take care,' he said and he ran away, holding onto the backpack as it was his life.

'You too,' I mumbled as I turned around to face Kuina again. 'Come with me, I know where we are safe,' I said and grabbed her elbow to guide her towards the roof of the Beach.

We came past the lobby and stood still for a moment to see what the game taking place here was about. On the ground, we saw Momoka, laying down with a knife between her ribs. We hid behind a pillar while the voice started speaking:

'Welcome, players.

This game is called 'witch hunt'.

Level: ten of hearts.

Momoka is murdered. The witch who took her life is hiding among the members of the Beach. The murderer is just a witch in title, it can be a man or a woman. Should the players find the witch, exact divine judgment, and burn their body along with their wretched soul in the Fire of Judgement, it's Game Clear.

Time limit: 2 hours.

The game starts now.'

Kuina started crying a bit, but there was no time for sentiment so I pulled her away and we pursued our way to the roof. When we arrived there, she pulled herself free with an agressive gesture and made a grumbling sound. 'I can't believe you did this, Chishiya. I mean, I knew there was something going on but I could never think of it being hím,' she started her next tirade.

I shrugged, but that made her even more angry. I closed the door that led to this place and barricaded it with a chair. As I turned around towards her, I received a slap from her, full in my face.

I touched the red skin, but my look didn't move a bit. 'I probably deserved that?' I said. She seemed to calm down a bit.

I walked towards the border of the roof and sat down, my feet dangling above the chaos that was unfolding underneat us: the fire fueled by corpses of innocent people. The fire that started spreading rapidly.

'Great,' I remarked, 'now that I was finally able to flee from this place, it's going down in flames what makes us all free from it tonight.'

Kuina sat next to me, albeit with a small distance between us. 'All you think about is yourself. I can't believe I saw u as a friend,' she mentioned.

'Kuina, though it's impossible for me to have friends since I don't care about anyone, I think you are the one that comes as close as can be,' I replied. That gave her a tiny smile on her face.

Underneath us, we saw Aguni commanding militants to shoot and burn everyone they crossed paths with. He was definately just out for blood.

'I'm going to wait until this game is over and leave in silence,' I said, 'but you can do something else meanwhile.' I took the key from my pocket and gave it to her.

She looked at me and took the key from me. 'What's that for?' she asked.

'Room 003. Arisu is there. Find Usagi and free him, run away together. Maybe our paths will cross again sometime later,' I told her.

She stood up, the key pressed to her chest like it was the most important thing ever, and nodded at me. 'I can't forgive you for what you did. But I still want to tell you that I'm glad I know you. Take care,' she whispered.

I stood up as well and she hugged me. Although I didn't respond with a hug, I let her do it.

'You too,' I said.

Left alone, I sat down again to look at this firy spectacle under me. 'How stupid that they didn't even see that it was her who killed herself. I saw it from the moment I laid eyes on her,' I thought by myself. For a moment, I thought that they wouldn't find the solution in time and that we would all be killed by the lasers. But just right on time, I heard the noise that indicated that the game was cleared and stood up to leave the burning building.

When I stepped outside of the back entrance, I saw some unknown people stumbling some meters away from me. I wondered whether Kuina and her friends made it out alive. I put on the hood of my jacket again to be as anonymous as possible, plugged in my earbuds, pressed 'play' on my IPod and started my walk westwards. I really wished finding Niragi wouldn't be that difficult.

[End of chapter twenty four]

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I hope you enjoyed this chapter and are looking forward to reading more! Let me know what you think.

Photo from the Alice in Borderland series on Netflix