A Brutal Death

A/N: The contents of this chapter may not be suitable for all audiences. Please read at your own discretion. (violence, twisted thought patterns, language) 

The rest of the second day passed without incident, or at least that's what it seemed like until everyone gathered for dinner. That's when Tristen pointed out the missing person that no one missed at all. 

"Has anyone seen Shelby?" He asked.

"Come to think of it, no," Hallie said. "I haven't seen her since before I went to find Olphen's corpse, though. How about any of you?"

"The last time I saw her was when she was bragging about having completed her second goal," Westley commented. "Didn't she go off to take a bath in the river after that or something?"

"She did," Veronica confirmed. "She asked me to keep a lookout for her, so I did. Then she decided to run off to the beach but by that time, I got bored of babysitting and decided she could take care of herself. Who takes a bath and then goes to the beach? Silly girl."

"But didn't you hate her or something?" Tristen asked, referencing when they'd argued the day before. 

"No, I never hated her! She was just being stupid, is all. That's probably what she's still doing now. Something stupid."

"Fair point," Alesha laughed. "Shelby is rather… headstrong, if we put it nicely?"

That got a couple of chuckles from the group, and the conversation died down. 

CJ, however, kept thinking about it. This was uncharacteristic of her. Shelby, that entitled prick, had very little tolerance for suffering or for things being out of place. No tolerance at all, really. From demanding the Vampire turn themselves in at the very start to insisting she got the best-cooked fish out of everyone, that girl had to have things her way, and immediately. Considering that it was almost sundown and she probably hadn't eaten in several hours, it didn't make sense for her not to be back yet.

Something was wrong. 

CJ stood, setting aside the remnants of his food. There wasn't much left. "Anyone who wants to come with me to find her, please do. She might be in danger."

Jasper was the only volunteer. "Thank you, Jasper, you have my sincere gratitude."

The two left to search for Shelby.

----

A few hours ago

Shelby walked towards the beach, still feeling euphoric from her victory over the Vampire team. She'd done it! She'd completed the second goal! Of course, she wouldn't be feeling this good about it if there was room for doubt; luckily for her, the System magic given by the ugly Demon Host of these Games was actually quite useful. Who would've thought, right? It actually showed that her goal was complete! What a handy feature. As it should be.

Once she reached the center of the sandy beach, she stopped and put her hands on her hips. Wait, she thought. I just meant to take a bath and then go back to camp, why did I come here?

Something sharp penetrated her from behind, grazing her spinal cord and causing overwhelming pain to knock her off her feet. She collapsed in a screaming heap, face buried in the sand. Again and again and again it came, leaving fragments behind in her body until whatever the assailant was using could no longer function as a weapon. But that didn't cause them to stop. Instead, they continued with a different instrument of assault, this one much less sharp but far sturdier. Dimly, she wondered if it was a rock. The bluntness of the tool only made the pain worse, as the assailant pounded the fragments of their previous weapon deeper into her body, mixing blunt and sharp pains together.

Sounds of unhinged laughter rang in her ears as her consciousness began to fade. What kind of maniac had attacked her? Why hadn't they gone straight for the kill? The people on this island were crazy…

Panting, the participant kicked the stupid woman's corpse and yelled in frustration. Was that it? Was that all the screaming the toy could muster? They ran their hands through their hair, getting blood all into it, but lacking the presence of mind to care. 

"Shit, shit shit, that's all? I was just barely starting to let loose! Gahhhhh this stupid Game! I never, I never wanted to do something like this before but, ahahaaaaaaaa, now it just isn't enough! Give me more! More toys! I want to break them! I want to rip and tear and stab and break, just please! Give me more toys! More toys so it can stop! I don't want to be stuck like this forever! Please, please! Let this end!"

The participant pulled tightly on their hair, hunching their naked self over and pacing quickly back and forth along the beach, ignoring the small shell fragments that tore at their bare feet. "I've gotta be smart, be smart. They're too strong to take on all at once. I can't just do that. Can't do it in their sleep, either, they might wake up and see! I can't hold back, after all," the participant gnawed on their fingernails. Stopping in surprise, they licked the blood left on their hand, finding that they enjoyed the taste. 

"Haha! Hahaha, so you can even change something like that, can you?!" They yelled, jabbing their dominant hand's middle finger at the sky. "CURSE YOU!! CURSE YOU FOR A MILLION TRILLION YEARS, YOU SON OF A BITCH, ZORHELLIAN! YOU MADE ME LIKE THIS, YOU F*CKER!"

After a while ranting about how many awful fates Zorhellian deserved, the participant sat butt-naked on the beach, licking the drying blood off their fingers pensively. It was still mid-afternoon. There was still time before they would come under suspicion. During the time they had left, they needed to disguise the body's method of death, thoroughly clean their own body of any traces of the violence, return to where they were supposed to be and start planning for the next victim.

"I'm sorry, guys," the participant said mournfully, before a smile started to tug at the corners of their mouth. "But you're gonna have to die so that I don't have to live like this forever."