"I know every story has to end, but that doesn't mean I won't hesitate before the last word."

[VoltTurtle]

Silence hung in the air as Jewel finished her question.

Had Seo-yun really meant it, when she said that?

She was more famous now than she had ever been before in her life. Before she came here, she had been convinced that she would have become famous at some point anyway. Except, if this show had taught her anything, it was that she was never as good and capable as she had thought she was. Her YouTube channel hadn't exactly gotten much traction, despite all the positivity in the comments on her videos. Her social media accounts, likewise, never had more than a trickle of followers. It wasn't like she had talent agents scouting her out because she was an exceptional singer.

No, it was likely that, had she not been on this show, she would have never attained the heights that she so desperately wanted.

Except fame wasn't all that she had wanted it to be. When she had been younger, she couldn't comprehend the idea that someone wouldn't want to be famous. Being adored by the masses had seemed to her like the greatest thing that one could aspire to. Only what those people had understood, something she had taken far too long to learn, was that fame came at a cost.

It might be easy to get the entire student body of your high school to universally adore you if you acted fake enough, but having your name and image everywhere? Being exposed to everyone all of the time? Even if most people liked you, there would always be some who saw through the ruse, who hated your guts, and the negative voices were always so much louder than the positive ones. Maybe there were more people than ever that loved her, but that also meant that there were more people than ever who hated her just as much.

And love was never as powerful a motivator as hate. Love never felt as good as hate felt bad.

Fame was a curse. It was a cage that society placed around you. It was a dance that only they knew the steps to, one that you had to follow to the letter or be discarded like yesterday's news. Yet she had paid such a heavy toll for the opportunity of being put in that cage, of dancing that dance.

Her missing eye cried out in agony from within its dead socket. Her torn up ear burned and fumed in its coffin of bandages. Incessant ringing accompanied every sound she heard. Images of blood and bodies greeted her whenever she slept. Constant self-doubt and guilt overtook her mind at every opportunity. The only person left that she could still call a friend was missing and possibly dead.

Yet here she was, a murderer chatting with another murderer through the still-warm corpse of a recent victim about the merits of this game.

"Yeah," she finally replied, "I think so."

Then she let go of Leah's body, and watched as it tumbled over the railing.

[MurderWeasel]

The sharp laughter that begins the moment Seo-yun finishes speaking bounces and echoes and ripples, growing fainter as Leah's body plummets until it too is swallowed by the splash at the bottom.

[VoltTurtle]

Seo-yun watched as Leah's body hit the ocean water with a distinctive, deep plunk. A deep red cloud bloomed from where the corpse hit the water.

She wasted no time leaning down to pick up her shotgun, trying her best not to think about that deranged laughter that would likely haunt her future nightmares.

Her eye turned towards the horizon, gazing out into the far sea and the setting sun.

Mandy was still out there, somewhere. She had to be, but just where was she actually?

Perhaps Seo-yun would search the captain's quarters next.

((That was where they had formed their partnership, after all.))