Chapter Text
11:45, fifteen minutes until the fifth person dies on them.
Carson hasn’t turned up yet, and with most of the workers asleep, it’s even harder to get into certain rooms. Harvard sighed, leaning on the stairway as he pulled out his phone, moving away from the stairs as he sent a message, hoping for an update from one of them.
: anything?
ginger: nope
robomike: ❌
Footsteps became more audible behind him as they ran down the stairs, someone frantically tapping on his shoulder. He flinched, turning around to see Carson, panic in his eyes. He pointed towards something around his neck, strangled coughs coming from his mouth.
Around his neck, a golden choker.
He moved closer to him, scanning the object for some sort of weak spot, anything on it that’ll make it easier to break off his neck. The back of it had loose wires sticking out, slightly sparking as he poked them, retracting his hand when he felt a slight shock. If there was some sort of faulty electronics inside the collar, anyone touching it could kill them immediately.
: come down here quick
: and see if anyone has rubber gloves
“So he has a shock collar on, but instead of shocking him..It shocks whoever touches it?” Mani rubbed her arm, the four of them, since Carl was trying to find rubber gloves, surrounding Carson.
“How deadly though? Couldn’t we just take it off and endure it?” Zhang eyed the back of the gold collar around him, squinting to read something on the back. “Oh.”
“Oh?”
“The shock’s 600 volts, you can’t just “endure” that much. It’s rather permanent damage or death.”
“So whoever helps him is a goner,” Harvard sighed and stepped back, watching Carl come back empty handed, but with a crowd following.
“I asked and checked around, they have none. Any other ideas on how to get it off?”
“What’s with the crowd?” He gestured to the people, both guests and workers, behind him. They didn’t need an audience, especially since someone may try to play hero and take the collar off of him.
“You think I told them to follow me? One overheard me asking and well, everyone else just came I guess.”
“Carson? CARSON!” Someone pushed past them, Mikey grabbing Hailey before she could grab the gold choker. “Let me go! He’s choking, why aren’t you helping him?”
“Miss, you’ll get electrocuted if you try. Please just step back, for your safety.” He grabbed her shoulders, slightly guilty for separating her from her husband.
“Mani, how long does he have?” Harvard turned back to her, stepping away from the worried guests to focus.
“Shit, I’d say 5 minutes. 3 till he passes out.” He pulled out his phone, checking the time.
11:55.
He’ll die at 12am.
“Fuck,” he groaned, pocketing his phone. “He rather dies now or at 12; either way the killer wins.” They had to have hidden him from them, they searched the entire place and hadn’t found him when they looked.
“It’s your call, what do you want us to do?” What does he want them to do? No matter what, there's a body on their hands, but it’s cruel to just let him choke to death for a few more minutes. He glanced towards the group of people watching this all go down, letting him die would look terrible for them, could ruin the slight trust the guests have in them. Trying to take it off though, is suicide, and they can’t let anyone else die.
Apparently he didn’t need to make the choice, as Hailey moved closer to Carson, kneeling down in front of him.
“You’re always trying to leave me, why do you hate me so much?” Her voice cracked as she spoke, tears pooling under her eyes. He couldn’t respond, though he was crying as well. Granted it was probably out of fear, but she didn’t seem to see it that way.
“I bet you’ve been waiting for your death, that way you could get rid of me.”
“Well, guess what? You aren’t getting rid of me that easily motherfucker.” Hailey wrapped her hands around his neck, kissing him on the lips. Her hands glided down his neck, reaching the collar before tugging on it, triggering the shock. Her screams were muffled, her pulling closer to him as she convulsed, her grip tightening on the collar.
Mikey ran forward, pushing her away from him, both of them laying on the floor unresponsive. The collar was still on his neck, electrical burns lining his neck and her hands. Checking her pulse, he shook his head, checking Carson’s next.
“Both are gone.” He stared at the floor, his hands twitching in some sort of emotion, rather that be disappointment, guilt, maybe even anger.
“Why didn’t y’all stop her?” He tried to hide the slight irritation in his voice.
“She..she said she wanted to do it. We tried convincing her, but she wouldn’t listen!” Carl rang his hands together, looking away from the bodies. He opened his mouth to say something back, Zhang cutting him off.
“Guys, we can argue about this later. Right now we have bigger things to worry about.” He wasn’t even about to argue with Carl, he wasn’t even mad..frustrated maybe, but not mad. They made a hard decision and sure it sucks now but there wasn’t much they could do.
“You’re right, we still don’t know who’s behind all of this.” He took a deep breath, staring at the bodies again.
“Uh guys, if we all saw them die…then who’s the next target?”
Oh.
Oh shit.
“Carl, Mikey, Zhang, make sure everyone gets back to their rooms, alright? We don’t need an audience and knowing where everyone is will make this easier. Mani, try to check the cameras and see when Carson disappeared.” They nodded, splitting up. The crowd dispersed, most of them leaving on their own accord, leaving Harvard in the room alone with two dead bodies.
Technically, he was the first person to find Carson, but he wasn’t the first to find him dead. If he helped him the moment he found him, he would’ve been dead, continuing the killer’s pattern. Their culprit shouldn’t know who actually found him first, since all of them but Carl were there by the time they followed, assuming they were part of the crowd. Maybe their plan was to ruin their pattern, to throw them off and start with someone different.
Anyone of them could be a target.
His phone buzzed from his pocket, a jingle playing from it as he pulled it out again. The alarm he set for 12am went off, not like it mattered now.
There had to be another pattern, something that they were missing that would clearly point towards the culprit. What were they missing?
ginger: everyone’s in their rooms
ginger: what now?
bunnimani: sleep, we can keep working in the morning
bunnimani: harvard ik ur reading this u too
bunnimani: ill get the recordings tmr
:get them now
:js in case our culprit has access to them
bunnimani: no i mean i cant get them now
bunnimani: like they gotta process and shit
:sigh
robomike: canyall stop texting and GO TO SLEEP ):
Grabbing a tablecloth, he covered Carson’s body, ripping one off of another table in order to do the same for Hailey.
He’d solve their murder, even if it’s the last thing he does.
He woke up alone, Harvard nowhere to be seen. Checking the clock, Carl quickly left the bed. It was already past 12, no wonder he left.
Memories of the night before flooded his mind, Hailey and Carson’s deaths still fresh in his head. They were supposed to prevent that, yet they now have 6 dead people on their hands. Now that their pattern was ruined, they had no clue who could be their next victim.
It all made his head hurt.
Grabbing his phone, he unlocked it, checking his missed messages.
hackermoment: good news (wait to respond please)
hackermoment: i got in contact w/ emergency services, so police and etc should be here sometime today (now u can)
bunnimani: WOOO
bunnimani: thank GOD cs we need help atp
bunnimani: not saying we cant do it
bunnimani: but we have like, 0 resources and 0 leads
catvard: speaking of leads mani whats w/ the cameras
bunnimani: yeah no someone stole them
bunnimani: :p
catvard: Be so fr.
bunnimani: bro brought the uppercase out 😭
bunnimani: theres a clear cut between 9 and 12 so like
bunnimani: NONE of it is on camera, it was obv deleted
robomike: so our suspect can rather hack or works here
robomike: zhang u can hack can u try to retrive it
hackermoment: i mean i can try
hackermoment: but no promises obv
robomike: (:
bunnimani: now is not the time to be smiling mikey we are in a crisis
robomike: ):
robomike: cant even be a lil hopeful smh
That was all from hours ago, are the police already here? Stepping out of their room and into the lobby, he found his question answered, it being mostly empty except for the few guests just walking through.
“Hey,” someone bumped into him, a tuft of blue hair telling him it was Mani, “took you long enough to get down here.”
“Harvard didn’t wake me up, blame him.”
“So he’s your alarm clock now?”
“He turned off my alarm, so yeah, he is.” He sighed, perking up as he remembered something. “Speaking of which, where is he?”
She shrugged, making a noise as she rolled her eyes. “No clue, we all kinda just split up to investigate and I haven’t seen him since.”
“Damn, did y’all at least find anything?”
“ I haven’t, but Zhang’s been tryna find the deleted camera footage and god knows what Mikey’s up to.” Their phones vibrated, Carl pulling his out faster and showing it to Mani as he read the text.
hackermoment: guess who found absolutely NOTHING
hackermoment: there’s actually no way the person is that good at hacking they have to be working here
hackermoment: everything from those hours are gone
hackermoment: police eta 1 hour
hackermoment: so like expect 1 hour 30 cs yk snow and wtv
robomike: damn
robomike: i also found nth so like
robomike: what do we do??
ginger: idk
ginger: no evidence, no leads, nothing that rlly helps
ginger: we’re rlly at a loss
robomike: there’s gotta be smt that we missed cause there’s no way there’s js
robomike: nothing
robomike: it’s suspicious
A gunshot rang through the lobby, the few people in there shrieking from it. The intercoms buzzed, Carl finding himself looking up at the ceiling to hear it.
“Testing, testing, can you guys hear me? Oh wait you guys can’t respond, whoops.” They chuckled to themselves, clearing their throat.
“Lemme introduce myself, my name is Charlotte, last name unimportant. For the past few years I’ve been working at this resort, serving guests and helping you enjoy your vacations. It was okay, until I realized that I absolutely hated it.”
“Everyone just stuck to themselves, there was no community, no chatting with their fellow residents. The worst part was that it was Christmas. CHRISTMAS! The holiday where you’re supposed to help strangers and share cheer. If I killed everyone back then, no one would’ve noticed like you guys did, even if I killed them one by one.” She was basically screaming by then, pausing to recollect herself and step away from the microphone.
“So I tested my theory, killing one person at a time in a pattern, so that their loved ones would find them. But what happens when I kill someone with no loved ones? A stranger finds them of course, and I continue the pattern. I really do love patterns, y’know? My uniform had a bunch of patterns on it, and coming up with this one for my murders was really fun.”
“Anyways, everything was going great! You showed compassion and actually looked out for your fellow guests. Until one of you broke my pattern. He saw a guest choking out and didn’t try to save him.”
Harvard.
He swore under his breath, tuning into the killer’s words as more people came from their rooms to hear what was happening.
“Since he ruined it, I thought to myself, ‘Hey, it’s almost Christmas! Might as well give these guys a gift,’ So here’s my gift.”
“Behind you, or in front of you wherever you’re listening from, is a room with the unlucky guest. Carl-I think that’s your name, I stole it from the guest list-there’s a gun in that room with your name on it. If you shoot him, I’ll turn myself in and stop killing. If you don’t, you’ll all die.” Gasps and cries from the growing crowd snapped him back to reality.
Ignoring the rest of her rant, he pushed past Mani and the guests, opening the room where Harvard sat, head bowed and tied with a big red bow behind him. A blindfold covered his eyes, headphones over his ears, though he seemed to be unconscious, so it was pointless.
On a small table laid a gun, Carl checking it to see only one bullet in it.
“Make your choice, him, you, or everyone.”
He can’t kill him, that’s obvious, and killing himself won’t do them any good. Could he fake it? She can’t see anything in that room, maybe he can just shoot aimlessly and hope she hears the gunshot.
“There’s a camera and microphone in there, so don’t try anything.”
“Shouldn’t the choice be obvious? You can save alll of these lives AND send a criminal to jail. You let 5 people die already, why not let a sixth? At least this one would actually have a purpose.”
If there’s a camera in the room, that means she’s gonna check for blood, right? If he shoots him in a spot that’s not fatal but bleeds, that should look good enough.
“I mean, I get you guys were friends or whatever, but c'mon. Multiple lives, including your own, are on the line here. It’s just one guy, and I know you have other friends.” He blocks out her voice, his own thoughts and plans sounding much louder in his head.
What’s his plan?
Oh right.
He needs to shoot him in a place that’s not fatal, but he needs to bleed in order for it to work.
There’s a reason he uses a baton usually in Decasim, he doesn’t like shooting, not just cause he’s not the best at aiming. He especially doesn’t want to shoot his boyfriend, but it’s rather him, or all of them.
Is it weird that he thinks Harvard would prefer to get shot? No, probably not, if anything it’s weird for him to want that.
He’s getting off track, think Carl, what’s the best place to get shot.
The hands.
It’s risky though, shooting the wrong spot means he could make it so he could never use a gun again.
Okay, so he’ll aim for his non-dominant hand.
…Which hand is that? Isn’t he ambidextrous or something? He always just assumed he was right handed, but right now wasn’t the time for assumptions. Is that something he’s supposed to know?
Maybe he can go for the arm, if the paramedics come fast enough they could easily fix that.
“Tick tock Carl.” Her voice came from the walls, mocking his indecisiveness. Think, what would Harvard do in this situation?
That’s probably not the best person to mirror, what would any well-adjusted person do in this type of situation? Probably shoot themselves, but that isn’t an option for him.
Fuck it. He loaded the gun, pointing it at Harvard’s unconscious body. He would barely feel it, he told himself. He’ll be glad he chose this.
The gun went off, someone in the crowd screaming from the noise. Dropping the gun, he ran over to him, covering the bleeding wound on his left arm as Charlotte cackled through the intercom.
“...He’s dead,” his voice wavered as he spoke, not even bothering to check his pulse. Another door opened behind them, Charlotte stepping out only to be grabbed by Mikey. She didn’t seem to care about her defeat, too giddy to fight back against him putting handcuffs on him.
Now that that was taken care of…
“Cmon, wake up,” he lightly slapped Harvard, hand still over his gunshot wound. Zhang said the police would be here in half an hour about 30 minutes ago, he just wanted to make sure he was awake and fine before that.
“Luv, I know you’re awake, cmon.” He shook him again, no response.
“Harvy, please.”
“This isn’t funny.”
“Harvard, get up!” He didn’t even realize he was crying as he shook his unconscious boyfriend. Carl’s hand flew towards his neck, checking for a pulse that wasn’t there. Did he hit an artery? There was no way he died that soon, he couldn’t have killed him.
Right?
A shadow loomed over him, the disappointed and disgusted faces of his friends behind him.
“Is he seriously dead?”
“How did you fuck up your aim that bad?”
“We shouldn’t have let you on the team, look what you’ve done.”
“How could you…” A voice came from behind him, barely above a whisper. He turned, Harvard staring at him, eyes haunted and glassy.
“How could you KILL ME CARL?!”
He was in the hospital, eyes clouded with tears. Was that all just a nightmare? Carl glanced next to him, Harvard staring at him from the hospital bed.
“Nightmare?” He barely finished his sentence before Carl’s arms wrapped around him, cutting him off.
“I thought you died.”
“...Why? I was awake in the resort, and the doctors said you hit nothing vital. There was nothing to worry ‘bout.” Right, they did. His head was still reeling from the dream, trying to sort out reality from the terrible ending his mind came up with.
“Yeah, just a nightmare. Sorry.”
“There’s nothing to apologize for. Cmere,” he patted the spot next to him in the bed, scooching over so there’s room. Carl did as he was told, resting his head on Harvard’s shoulder. “Hey, good news. I’ll be able to leave before Christmas.” He nudged the ginger, sleepy mumbles coming from him.
“Yay,” he muttered, already feeling tired. Harvard softly laughed, planting a kiss on his face.
“Sweet dreams Carl.”
“Mhm.”