All Of Us Are Dead

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-Boo!I jumped so hard I almost dropped the stack of papers in my hand. My heart practically shot out of my chest before I realized who it was.“Jesus, Tori,” I muttered, pressing a hand to my chest, my pulse still hammering. “You scared the hell out of me.”She burst into laughter, clutching her stomach like it was the funniest thing in the world. “Oh my God, your face! You looked like you just saw a ghost.”I rolled my eyes, trying to play it off, even though I could still feel the adrenaline fizzing through my veins. “Yeah, hilarious. You almost gave me a heart attack. I swear, one day I’m going to drop dead and it’ll be on you.”“Oh, come on,” she scoffed out, still chuckling. “You’re such a scaredy-cat.”I gave her a look over my shoulder as I started gathering my things from the desk — my tote bag, my half-empty coffee cup, the files I was supposed to look over tonight but knew damn well I wasn’t going to. “Scaredy-cat? Please. You try working in this creepy office af

❁✿❀ When I opened my eyes, everything was… quiet. Too quiet. For a moment, I just lay there, blinking up at a cracked ceiling I didn’t recognize. Where the hell was I? I pushed myself up slowly, wincing as my muscles protested. The floor under me was hard and rough, littered with dust and old paper cups. I glanced around, and that’s when I realized — I was in a bus station. Or what used to be one. Rows of empty metal benches stretched out ahead of me, half-bent and rusted. The ticket counter was shattered, its glass cracked in spiderweb patterns. Faded posters clung to the walls, their corners peeling. One of them still read “Travel the Country!” in cheerful red letters, but the colors were so washed out it looked like a ghost of its former self. And there was no one else here. Not a single fucking soul. Just the faint whisper of wind sneaking through broken windows. I swallowed hard, my heart thudding faster. “What the…” My voice came out hoarse as I spoke, almost foreig

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ I don’t know how long I sat there staring at that damn screen after it went dark. Maybe a minute, maybe ten. My brain just… couldn’t process it.Dead.The word looped through my head over and over, echoing like a broken record.Dead? How could I be dead? I could feel my heartbeat. I could breathe, my chest rising and falling, air filling my lungs. My palms were sweaty, my muscles ached from being thrown — dead people didn’t feel all that, right?I couldn’t possibly be dead!I ran a shaky hand through my hair, breathing hard, staring at the floor of the bus. The metallic smell of oil mixed with something faintly burnt. The hum of the engine felt too real, vibrating through the soles of my shoes. My fingers wouldn’t stop trembling.I was so lost in that thought that I didn’t even notice when someone moved beside me.“Hey.”I flinched so hard my shoulder slammed into the seat beside me. My heart nearly jumped out of my chest.It was the guy in the hoodie.He’d moved — close.

“What?” someone choked out. “You can’t be serious—”The masked figure standing at the edge tilted its head. “Simon said,” it murmured.And one person screamed as a loud crack echoed through the fog. Then another. The sound of bone snapping filled the air.I couldn’t breathe. My entire body went cold.The hoodie guy grabbed his own hand — and I watched, horrified, as he bent his pinky until it snapped backward. His smile twitched, but he didn’t make a sound.My stomach lurched.No one... No one here was sane. Every last one of them had lost their mind. I couldn’t— I couldn’t possibly do that.But then the man beside me — the old one — hesitated.He shook his head violently as he spoke. “No. No, I won’t—”He didn’t finish.His body convulsed violently as blood erupted from his eyes. His mouth opened in a silent scream before he collapsed forward, lifeless.I screamed and scrambled backward, covering my mouth.The voice sighed dramatically. “Tsk, tsk. Some people just can’t follow instr

The voice crackled again, its static-laced laughter bouncing off the metal walls until it felt like it was right behind me. “Aww,” it cooed mockingly. “Why so serious, little pets? You all look so tense.” I tensed even more. My nails dug into my palms, my shoulders locked up. “Oh, don’t tell me you’re scared,” it went on, fake sympathy dripping from every word. “You just survived your first little round! You should be proud!” No one said a word. The room was silent except for the low hum of electricity and that sickly-sweet voice filling it like smoke. Then it laughed again, louder this time, more grating. The kind of laugh that didn’t even sound human. “Relax,” it said, still chuckling. “You’re safe for now. I mean, what kind of terrible host would I be if I didn’t give my precious contestants a reward?” A reward? My gut twisted. The only “reward” I’d seen so far was seeing someone else bleed out on the floor instead of me. The voice must have picked up on the silence, bec