A smear of red slowly seeped into the yellow, spreading across the white marble floor, as the sound of gunfire echoed through the corridor.
So direct, so clean, so sudden.
Leaving not a trace of hope.
Perhaps, Eric was the only exception.
With a turn, Eric once again pointed his gun at Russ.
"In any case, Mr. Russ, no matter what, you know there are plenty of people like us outside. If you treat them the way you treated me and Alex, they will kill you."
"Before I change my mind, get lost."
After speaking, Eric kicked Russ.
Finally snapping out of his shock, Russ scrambled away, crawling in a panic.
But Eric remained in place. Once Russ had gotten a little farther, he pulled the trigger—
Bang.
One shot after another.
Russ fell to the ground.
Eric looked at Russ' lifeless body. "Bch."
Then he walked away, leaving without hesitation.
Meanwhile, Alex continued hunting, leaving nothing but scorched earth in his wake, with no life left behind. The entire world descended into endless silence.
He was searching, he was tracking—
The world, utterly still, seemed devoid of any living beings.
This annoyed Alex a bit. "Damn."
At the end of the corridor, Nathan and his girlfriend were frantically fleeing, desperately trying to find a place to hide. In their panic, the young couple ran into the campus cafeteria.
However, Alex entered the cafeteria as well.
The cafeteria was a wasteland, filled with corpses. Half-eaten lunches still sat on tables, but there were no living beings in sight.
Alex found a seat, picked up an untouched glass of orange juice, and slowly sipped, as if savoring a moment of peace.
"Hey, man, if I were you, I wouldn't drink that. You'll catch herpes."
Looking up, it was none other than Eric.
Alex slowly stood up. "How'd it go?"
The camera followed Alex's gaze and focused on Eric.
Eric shrugged lightly. "Not bad. How about you?"
Before Alex could respond, Eric continued, "I killed the principal, and a few others..."
Bang.
A sound, and a bloom of blood erupted from behind Alex.
He collapsed to the floor.
No more breath left.
The camera remained still, focused on the hallway, not moving even after Eric collapsed. It held an empty shot, lingering there.
The Lumière Hall audience went wild—
Completely and utterly.
True madness. Not cheers or screams, but a tidal wave of confusion, with no way to express it.
Stunned, shocked, overwhelmed.
Each person was glued to their seat, utterly incapable of thinking.
Dead silence.
Until Alex stormed into view, causing the audience to push back in their seats instinctively, trying to escape, but trapped in place.
Clap.
A sound pierced the silence, and Alex immediately took notice, following it through the kitchen, through the storeroom, until he found the freezer room.
He pulled open the freezer door, where a shaft of sunlight streamed through the window. Between the hanging slabs of pork, the couple huddled together, trembling.
Alex saw Nathan, the one who used to throw wet paper balls at him for fun in class.
"Oh, oh, oh."
A smile crept onto Alex's face.
Nathan and his girlfriend retreated, disappearing into the freezer.
Alex followed them inside, turned around, and looked at them, his smile fully blooming.
"Hey, look who we have here."
Then, Alex raised his gun.
"Man, don't do this."
"Son of a bh, you dare!"
"Please, don't do this."
"What are you doing?"
"Please, you don't want to do this, really, this isn't what you want."
Their desperate pleading, mixed with anger and fear, became fuel for Alex's excitement.
He aimed his gun at the two, singing a nursery rhyme.
A rhyme like "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe."
"Catch a tiger by the toe."
"If he hollers, let him go."
Slow and deliberate, like a cat playing with a mouse, his gun followed the rhythm, savoring the moment, feeding off their fear and anger.
The young couple had lost all sense, babbling incoherently.
"Are you crazy? Stop it."
"Please, I beg you."
Amid their desperate pleas, Alex's smile reached its peak.
"Eeny."
"Meeny."
"Miny."
"Moe."
The countdown ended, and Alex tilted his head slightly upward.
However.
The screen cut away.
The camera zoomed in on the sky, where streaks of blue and hints of green blended, clouds slowly drifting, with the pale, blinding sun shining down.
The movie, ended.
Everything was frozen in time.
Strain your ears, but there were no clues. No one knew if Alex pulled the trigger. No one knew what happened next. No one knew how the story ended—
The couple. Alex. Anson.
The abrupt end, right at the peak of fear and anger, marked by a full stop.
Then, the melody began, and it was... Für Elise.
The gentle, flowing melody trickled through, while the credits slowly rolled—
Anson, Anson-Wood.
Alex, Alex-Frost.
Eric, Eric-Dren.
And so on, and so on.
Every actor appeared under their real name in the movie.
So.
What was reality? What was fiction?
What was part of the movie? What was real?
The fourth wall had been completely shattered, making it impossible to distinguish.
The entire Lumière Hall seemed to have just survived a catastrophe, an ordinary day in a high school, dull to the point of boredom, where hidden prejudices, violence, and discrimination lurked in the mundane but went unnoticed, not even causing a ripple.
Until one day, on a sunny afternoon, everything was overturned.
Without warning, with no clear beginning or end, irrationally destroying the entire narrative.
In the next second, the world spun and collapsed.
Rationality, thought, and reaction—all were torn apart in a hurricane.
Crying out loud, screaming out—none of it was possible, even the ability to respond was gone.
Für Elise continued to flow, as the credits slowly climbed, leaving everyone drained, soaked in sweat, as if just pulled out of the water, yet parched and dehydrated.
One by one, they stared dumbfounded at the screen—
Utter silence, complete stillness.
It was impossible to tell whether the sudden outbreak of violence was more terrifying, or whether the quiet, everyday violence was more terrifying, or whether the final scene, teasing before pulling the trigger, was the most terrifying.
Countless thoughts exploded in the mind.
Leaving only a roaring emptiness.
Shivers ran down their spines, and they trembled, as though they had just narrowly escaped death themselves, as though their friends had just been shot, one by one.
Terrified, but unable to make a sound. Not a single one.
Their souls dimmed before the screen, crumbling to the ground.
Trembling.