PROLOGUE · 5 · A bear?

*THOMP*
“AAAAAAaaargg!”
The three of us turn around and witness…
A big black and white teddy bear fall directly on Keith.
“Oh my god, are you okay?”
“NooOOooo!”
“…Fair enough.”
It did made a huge noise. We all stare at Keith and the bear in surprise, unsure of what to say or do. He tries to get up – the bear weighs him down, motionless, and apparently too heavy.
I hesitantly walk towards him.
“W-wait, I’ll try to help you!”
My saying that leads other people to get closer and motion towards the bear to get it off him.
“Nah… I’ll move myself…”
I look at the young man, and he looks at me back in pure horror.
“Uuh, did you say that?”
“N-”
“Nah… I did…”
“Did the voice come from… The bear?!”
“I want to go home.”
As we probably all think both of these things, we stare at what at least looks to be a plushed bear, none of us able to do anything.
And it moves. It effing moves.
“Just give me a sec…”
It slowly gets up and walks a few steps away from Keith.
“Phew,” this one sighs in relief, but he does not look the least bit reassured. It almost felt forced.
“Tell my wife I love her! Oh wait! She’s right here!”
“This… This is not the right time, Emily.”
“How is she so calm?!”
“Oh…” the bear starts.
“The youth… Always so eager to find love… Aaah, how I would love to go back to these innocent times…”
“You’re a bear! You…”
Metallic claws suddenly come out of the bear’s paws.
“And you’re a..!”
I hold my breath.
“Wait, no. I can’t say that.”
Its claws retract and it goes back to looking down, all gloomy and tired.
I look at Ciel and he definitely looks upset, but he does not say a thing. I can feel his teeth clenched so hard I am almost scared they will break.
“What the fuck? Does this thing have claws?!”
“Thing… Oh… Yes… I am but a thing…”
“Most importantly, it’s the voice from before.”
I look at Jan, surprised, then look at the bear for a few seconds. “Oh my god, he’s right.”
“Yes. Good. One point for the… What was it? Saxophonist?”
“Pianist.”
Jan looks unbothered.
“Cut it out and tell us why we’re here.”
Lois looks extremely bothered. She angrily looks at the bear, but in some way I could not describe, her aura remains peaceful – like she has the situation in order, or maybe she is purposedly keeping her cool for now because she knows she is going to need to unleash her full anger later.
“Aaw… Okay…”
The thing sadly shakes its head before it lets itself pathetically collapse, groaning.
“Sure, I’ll… Tell you.”
It still takes a break and remains silent for a few seconds, if not a minute.
“Ugh…”
“Come on guys, give it a break… It looks sad.”
We all stare at her silently. Even the strange bear turns its head to look at Mina.
“… It totally does! You’re pitiless.”
“I would be more worried about there being a talking plushed bear or about this other guy’s organs, but I guess you’re too good a soul… Or maybe you’re just weird.”
“She’s a bit weird, but don’t tell her.”
“… I’m-”
“Now come on, kids… I thought you wanted to hear it...”
“Please… just go on.”
The bear sighs.
“You know, it’s not easy being me...”
I am pretty sure we all grimaced at the sound of this idiocy.
“Forcing kids to kill each other and all that… It takes so much time, you know…”
Silence. Complete and utter silence.
“Fuckin’ what?”
The bear sighs.
“I said…”

The bear sighs.
“I said…”
It suddenly jumps up and heavily lands on the stage-like platform next to the closest wall. A lot of us gasp in surprise, or walk back a few steps – but quickly, it starts to stay still again, and laughs strangely.
“Upupu… Upupupupupu…”
“You’re all stuck in here! And you’re going to kill each other!”
Once again, complete and utter silence for a few long seconds.
“I repeat; what the fuck?”
The bear keeps on laughing weirdly.
“Oh, dear little Chris, why are you the only one to try and contradict me?”
Her teeth clearly clenched, she answers:
“I don’t fucking know and I don’t fucking care. Now you’re going to stop joking before I fucking destroy you.”
It looks upset for a second.
“Too many f bombs! This is not kid friendly!”
“Don’t listen, M- Oh you know what, fuck it.”
“Who cares? If you don’t give information on how to get out of here, I won’t feel any remorse annihilating you.”
Oscar’s strong voice does not seem to bother the plushed bear, because it starts to laugh again.
“Upupu… But that’s against school regulations…”
“School regulations?”
“Yeah, the school reg- oh. Ooooooh.”
It looks down and starts to look sad again.
“What a liar!”
“Mina, oh Mina, why is that the only thing that bothers you?” I wonder.
I am too confused to really thoughts on my own. I am letting things happen, and all I know is that I am starting to get a little scared of that ridiculous and moody talking plushie bear.
“Ooh… And I’d gotten so excited… What a fool I am…”
“What now?”
Oscar is starting to sound very angry and I do my very best to not walk away from him and hide that I am now scared of both the weird bear and him.
“I forgot something very important…”
“What?”
It does not answer immediately. We all start to look at each other, unsure of what to do, some looking angry and some others looking scared, and it looks like Chris was about to say something when it finally looks up and finishes:
“You’re not in the school yet!”
“The wha-”
“For that reason… See you soon, my love!”
I would like to say something, but a terrible smell starts to surround us, and I realize that it is getting difficult to breathe.
I start to panic, I look at everyone around and it seems that except the plushed monster, they are all experiencing the same thing-
And I try to gasp for air but it is getting worse and worse, and soon enough, I lose sight and sense myself falling down.