🎭 Character Sketch:
Sora Lys – The Dreamer
Withdrawn and distant, with eyes like stormglass. Sleeps too easily, dreams too vividly. She sees memories that aren’t hers—yet remembers nothing about herself.
Arian Vale – The Strategist
Razor-sharp intellect veiled beneath casual arrogance. Speaks little, but every word is weighted. You never know if he’s helping you… or building your trap.
Rin Hale – The Doubter
Always five seconds from running. Paranoid but precise. Keeps her wrists bandaged, claims it’s from “a fall.” But no one’s ever seen her fall.
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🕯️ “In rooms where silence drinks the air, the truth doesn’t scream—it poisons slowly.” 🐍
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🌌 Scene One: The Drink That Watched Them
The hallway stretched forward, dim and soundless. Faint gold symbols pulsed along the walls like veins on skin—alive, electric.
Twelve students. Twelve echo subjects.
And one old wooden box waiting under a flickering light.
Lira stepped out of the confession booth, her face pale, her breath shallow. The red glow over her door faded.
No one asked what she said.
They had all heard the whisper:
“Lie detected.”
She wasn’t alone.
Three booths glowed red.
Three lies had been spoken.
But one person would still vanish… if the final lie remained unspoken.
> “Still missing a voice,” Rin muttered, scanning the corridor.
A panel slid open on the side wall, revealing a small chamber with a round table and 12 identical ceramic cups. A slip of folded black parchment lay in the center like a curse.
Sora walked forward and picked it up.
She read aloud, voice like dust brushing marble:
> “Memory slips best through the mouth.
But one sip will unchain the lie.
Drink not for thirst, but for silence.
One will forget.
And one will never speak again.”
A shiver ran down Lira’s spine.
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🕯️ Scene Two: A Game with No Taste
Each cup was filled with a clear, odorless liquid. No warmth. No scent. Arian leaned over them and gave a sarcastic chuckle.
> “Of course it’s tasteless. That’s how you know it’s dangerous.”
> “Or that we’ve already been poisoned,” Nyra whispered.
They drank, one by one.
Some closed their eyes.
Some didn’t hesitate.
Lira sipped last.
And that’s when she saw it—barely—a faint shimmer in Sora’s eyes. Like she was watching herself drink. Like it had already happened, and she was reliving it.
> “Did anyone feel anything?” Alec asked.
> “Not pain,” Sora murmured, “just... static. Like swallowing a secret.”
The overhead light buzzed.
Then a message in red:
> 🔔 VOTE: Who drank the lie?
You have 5 minutes. Choose wrong... and someone else pays the price.
Tension thickened like wet cotton.
> “This isn’t fair,” Rin snapped. “It’s all guesswork.”
> “Not guesswork,” Arian corrected. “Psychology.”
He looked around the circle.
> “Who showed guilt?”
> “Who looked too calm?”
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🧠 Scene Three: A Mind Unveiled
Jun stood silent, staring at nothing.
Nyra fidgeted—again.
Lira’s heart pounded.
She stared at her own hands.
Faint tremors. Not from fear. From memory.
She remembered someone making her drink tea once. Her mother? No. Not her mother. A man with a silk glove. And the words he said…
> “Taste reveals what words conceal.”
The others were starting to point fingers.
> “Jun. He’s barely moved.”
“No, Rin didn’t even swallow!”
“What about Lira? She’s always quiet.”
“Too quiet.”
“Maybe it’s Arian.”
“He knows too much.”
The vote began.
Each student placed a token on a name.
The system tallied.
🟥 Majority Vote: Rin Hale
She stepped forward. Unflinching.
Then smiled.
> “You all chose wrong.”
The lights exploded into red.
An alarm rang.
The hallway twisted.
Floor cracked.
And a scream—digital, inhuman—ripped through the air.
A booth swallowed someone.
Sora.
Gone.
No scream. No protest.
Just... silence.
---
🎭 “Not all who vanish are taken. Some were already missing—long before the game began.” 🌑
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