When the lights go out. Chapter 1.

Marley took his cup of coffee and yawned quietly. He knew his sister was still asleep so he didn't want to be too loud. Today was the day they would be sorted into dorms at school. He hoped he would be placed in a dorm with his friends. He wouldn't mind being placed in a dorm with a boy named Tao, but it would be a nightmare because of how loud Tao could be. However, Marley really, really wanted to be placed in a dorm with Zac, his boyfriend. It would be better to live with him for a while. He missed him when he wasn't at school. Marley's thoughts were interrupted by his sister tapping his shoulder.

"What's up, Lunar?" He asked. Lunar stared at him for a couple of seconds with an expression trying to tell him something.

"You're blocking the bread, Marley, you know how I have toast most mornings." Marley moved away from the bread bin. She gave him a satisfied smile and started to make her toast. Marley sipped his coffee whilst he waited for her to make conversation. It was only when Lunar finished the first slice of her toast that she started speaking.

"Not sure how I'll survive the dorm pairing."

"You're one to talk." Marley said. Lunar looked at him with a slight frown, but since she was used to his complaints then she didn't try to correct him.

"I think you're just hoping to be paired up with your boyfriend"

"Well it's obvious, isn't it? I love him"

"That's sweet." Lunar raised her eyebrows twice, suggestively. Marley rolled his eyes and put his empty mug in the sink.

"C'mon, we need to get ready for school. You packed your bags?" Marley asked his sister, ruffling his ginger hair.

"Of course I have, I'm more organised now." Lunar said running to her room. Marley laughed and went upstairs to his room to change and get his bags. Once he changed out of his pyjamas and put on his bag, he heard the front door close. She left him, again...

* * * *

Lunar walked out of what she called "the luggage room" (she called it that since it was where all the students put their luggage for school trips,events, etc) and went to find her and Marley's friend group. It wouldn't be that hard to find them since they were always in the same area every morning. She walked through all the corridors and areas of the school until she found the entrance to the library. There she found two more from her group of friends. Her best friend Lucy, and her good friend Tao. They seemed to be having one of their silly arguments based on Lucy's random thoughts.

"You are not what you eat," Lunar heard Tao say "Apart from female spiders, nothing is what they eat."

"What on earth are you guys talking about?" Lunar asked, walking up to them. The two arguing friends looked at her. Lucy smiled brightly, whilst Tao gave Lunar a short wave. Lucy was different and yet similar to Lunar. Lucy had hair that was a light blue and a cyan colour, whilst Lunar had brown hair. Lucy had white eyes (though she was not blind) and despite the threatening look, she was quite nice and sweet. Lunar's eyes were Blue, they made her seem caring and innocent, but her eyes would pierce through someone easily. Despite the difference in their appearances, they both had a similar sense of humour and got along like a house on fire. Tao seemed to be the third-wheeler in their friendship when it was the three of them. He had jet black hair and eyes the colour of dark chocolate. He was also the shortest, Lunar in the middle and Lucy the tallest. Tao's personality made him different too, he would say words like "yes" or "tasty" when it wasn't the appropriate answer for a question. The friend group liked it though, it made him stick out like the rest of them.

"Hey, Lunar!" Lucy said, enthusiastically "Me and Tao were talking about the phrase 'You are what you eat'"

"Which is not true," Tao interrupted Lucy before she could say anything else. "Otherwise you'd be a pack of crisps, Lunar." Lunar looked offended by the answer, but couldn't help the unavoidable truth. "Besides," Tao went on "Anything I say is correct!"

Lunar and Lucy stared at each other, understanding what the other meant. Lucy's expression said 'He thinks he's so smart' while Lunar's said 'I can't believe I let him live until now'.

"Isn't your class below mine and Lucy's?" Lunar asked. Tao looked dumbfounded;how dare she have any reason to go against his answer. He had this expression for almost a minute before saying:

"I think they mixed me and you two up." Lunar stared at him like she wanted to knock him out. She didn't like his attitude, not one bit. Lucy subtly gestured that Lunar should not result to violence, but her expression seemed to ask her to prevent him saying anything else that was stupid.

"Lucy," Lunar said after a while "Didn't you tell me you found the books? For chemistry?" Lucy looked relieved and remembered that she did tell Lunar she found some books for chemistry. She told her to follow her and they left Tao by himself. Not long after, Tao heard someone, running up to him.

"Tao! Have you seen my sister?!" Marley yelled, shaking Tao violently.

"She's just gone with Lucy for some books! No need to be so worried.." Tao said while pushing Marley away to stop himself from having a headache. Marley went a bit red from embarrassment, then rubbed the back of his neck.

"You've never had an emotional bond before, have you?" Marley asked. Since Tao didn't really have many bonds, he didn't know what it was like to worry for others, but he did know to worry for himself. Tao looked at him, rolled his eyes and tapped his foot one or two times.

The next thing Marley and Tao knew was that the lights cut out and the only light source was from outside. Tao would have asked what was going on if he wasn't interrupted by the voice of the principal, her ordinarily soothing voice amplified by the announcement speaker.

"Attention students, there is a murderer within the building, please stay calm and collected. School campus shall be on lock down until the murderer and their companion leave the building. Go to the nearest classroom you can find and stay there until further notice. Thank you." After she stopped speaking Marley and Tao gave each other a look of panic and almost a request for help, but they heard some muffled speaking.

"Alright, will you leave me alone now?" The principal forgot to turn off the announcement, but Marley and Tao listened carefully. "I did what you wanted me to, I have a family at home to take care of. Leave this area now and never return." Silence. Maybe they left, Marley thought, maybe they took her word and decided to leave.

"No... No! I did what you wanted! Please leave me alone!" The announcement ended, abruptly. Marley and Tao stared at the ground in horror. They didn't expect this to happen. The school did have strange incidents occur from time to time, yes. This, however, was something nobody could recover from, whatever their mental state was.

"Oh god," Marley said after a minute or two, "Is this really happening? I'm not dreaming, am I? No, no... I know when I'm awake. Tao, Lunar is still with Lucy, finding the books. What if she's in danger? What if she's already dead? I just wanted a normal day!"

"Marley!" A voice said before the source hugged Marley from behind.

"Zac, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in a classroom?" Marley asked. He turned around and looked at the shorter man. Zac gave him a comforting smile.

"I thought I ought to come find you first, I know how you can be in these situations..." Zac said. Marley smiled his usual gentle smile and embraced his lover. He mumbled a thank you, burying his face into Zac's hair.

"I'm sure Lunar is okay, she kind of protects Lucy, so she'd be able to protect herself." Zac said. Tao watched the two, smiling. He wished he could have the feeling of being in someone's arms and feeling safe almost right away. Then, a female's voice echoed through the hallway. Marley knew that voice straight away. Lunar.

"Hey guys! We found a classroom, there's other people there too!" The three sighed with relief and started to head down the hallway to find the two girls and the people they mentioned.

* * * *

When Lunar and Lucy entered the classroom, they only saw two other people, but there would be more coming, whether they were people they knew or not. The two they could see were a boy and a girl. The girl was called Sayori. She had dark skin and her hair was tied into two, short pigtails. Her eyes were almost black and she had a button nose. She was the sugar, spice and everything nice girl in their class. Sayori was never mad, or at least she never yelled at someone or ignored someone on purpose.

The boy talking to Sayori was called Harvey. He had black curly hair and light brown eyes. He wore glasses, which made him look intelligent. He wasn't. If anything, he had the easy-going personality of a popular kid. He would look for girls and sometimes boys to date, most of them rejected him, but those who accepted would be taken on one of the worst dates of their life. Harvey's confidence made him keep going though.

Harvey was trying to take Sayori out on a date when this was all over, but Sayori was clearly uncomfortable with the situation. Lunar and Lucy knew she was already in love with someone else, but Harvey kept trying. Lunar, slightly frustrated with the situation, decided to interrupt the conversation between the two.

"Hello Sayori! Harvey..." Lunar said, giving Harvey a look. Sayori looked relieved and happy to see Lunar. Harvey waved at Lunar.

"Hello, Lunar. How are you doing?" Lunar stared at him and raised an eyebrow.

"Harvey, in case you didn't hear the announcement, there is a murderer accompanied by somebody who presumably helps them murder people. How do you think I feel?" Lunar said. Harvey looked at her with fear in his eyes. There were two reasons why he didn't try to date Lunar. One being she could knock him out before you could say "hello", and the second being they were best friends and had been since the first week of secondary school.

"Right, uh... Sorry about that." Harvey tried not to stutter while speaking, but he couldn't help it. Lunar started paying attention to Sayori.

"Anyway, how are you feeling, Sayori?" Lunar asked. Sayori smiled her usual smile that spread a positive feeling around the room.

"I'm feeling better now you're here, if I have to be honest. I was scared that it would just be me, Harvey and..." She paused and swallowed, trying to say the name, but before she could say anything, a low voice spoke. It sounded like it was coming from behind Lucy.

"And me. Why do people stutter and balk when they say my name?" Lunar's heart dropped. The voice was too familiar, a voice Lunar despised. She never wanted to hear it again, but it would always be there.

"Leon... What are you doing here?" Lunar said through gritted teeth. She turned to look at him. There he was, with his hair dyed purple covering one of his eyes to hide what seemed like a burn mark. His virtually black and visible eye void of emotion. He may seem like a moody teenager, but to everyone he was a demon sent to spoil their lives. There was a time where he and Lunar got along, but she realised that he was just a rude person in general. He mocked her talent, appearance, personality and her love interests. When Lunar realised how horrible he was, she grew to despise him and tried to avoid him. However, he was always there, somewhere, in the background.

"I'm just doing what you, Lucy and whoever you called out to are trying to do. Survive and find an escape before they kill us all." Leon answered. Lucy looked at Sayori after his statement. She looked like she had just seen the murderer kill someone right then and there. Being the nice person she was, Lucy went over there and comforted her. Lunar stared at Leon with more rage than before.

"You ought to watch your mouth around people like Sayori. Some people are just as breakable as I was. And I'm not saying it's a bad thing, Sayori." Lunar said. Leon rolled his eyes and said there were other supplies under a table. Lunar went to look, while Lucy kept comforting Sayori. Once fear hit Sayori, it could take a long time for her to recover. After a few minutes, Tao entered the room.

"You guys can go find supplies or other people, I'll converse with the people here." He said before looking at the people there. His eyes widened slightly and his cheeks had a red tint to them when he saw that Sayori was in the room. Sayori's fear went away within a second.

"Tao!" She yelled in delight, and she ran up to him and hugged him before he could react. Unlike what some would do, he froze up and his face went from having a small red tint in his cheeks to being as red as a tomato. Lucy looked at him with an encouraging expression. She knew about his "little" crush on Sayori and knew how Sayori felt about him. She waited until they both came to the realisation though.

"I was so worried about you! I was thinking about going to find you, but Harvey was making me stay behind and... Oh, it doesn't matter... How are you?" Once she finished speaking she let go of him. Tao was still frozen and red in the face. He stuttered an "I" and then fainted. Sayori panicked and started yelling at Harvey to help him. Harvey didn't know anything about people fainting, only that it wasn't good. Lucy rolled her eyes and slapped Tao to see if that would wake him up. It didn't, but Lunar pushed her away and supported his ankles on a stool that was close to the ground. He woke up soon after she did that. Sayori knelt next to him and apologised, even though she had no reason to and Tao said it was okay and that he was feeling fine.

"You people are so dramatic..." Leon said. He was leaning against a desk and seemed irritated by the chaos the people were making. "You should be more quiet, the murderer and master mind could find us by sound if you don't stay quiet."

"What were we supposed to do? Tao could have been poisoned! Yet you don't seem to care if someone died here. You're a jerk, Leon!" Sayori yelled while stuttering.

"Wait a second," Lunar said "Master mind? What are you talking about?" Leon gave everyone a serious look.

"It's what I'm calling the murderer's companion. The murderer is accompanied by someone, but why? A murderer does dirty work like killing and hiding the bodies. However, why would they need someone else?" He said.

"To frame them for their murders?" Tao asked. Leon looked at him with disgust.

"No," Leon said, then carried on. "The master mind plans the murders. They plan how they'll get rid of evidence, how they present it, and when it'll happen" He looked as if he were asking for praise, but everyone looked horrified.

"You're one of them!" Harvey yelled. Leon did not want to be there. He was surrounded by stupid people who were fully alive.

"No, I'm not. If I was, I would've killed you all by now out of annoyance." He said with a neutral expression. Everyone calmed down, but they were all still suspicious that he had something to do with the murderer and someone called a master mind.

After a moment or two of silence a group of screams, snapping and something that sounded like mechanisms came through the hallway. Sayori held onto Tao's arm, Tao trembled after hearing the sound, but calmed down once Sayori held onto him. Lunar and Lucy looked at each other and exchanged glances and Harvey and Leon just stared at the door. Instinct told some of them to find the people who screamed, the others instincts told them to follow those who went to investigate. It wouldn't be long until they got to the sources...