You weren’t at all prepared for the fourth game. After a fight broke out between the players the night before, and a failed rebellion to try and stop the game, many players had died. Not only that, but your team that had been your safety net throughout these horrible games was falling apart.

The ‘Thanos World’, the name given to your group of six by the self appears leader Thanos, started to fall apart after Gyeong-su’s death during the last game. Then, the fight after lights out led to Nam-gyu killing Se-mi, and Thanos, as morally questionable as he was, began to question his teammate.

Now as you walked into the arena for the next game, Min-su was nowhere to be seen, Nam-gyu hadn’t spoken to you or Thanos since the rebellion and you walked side by side with Thanos. You weren’t sure how much you could trust him, but the two of you had ended up in a sort of relationship during the games. It didn’t matter if you weren’t sure you could trust him, he was the only person you had.

The next game was revealed by the pink guards to be ‘Hide and Seek’, a game where the players on the blue team must use their keys they were given to survive the half hour and remain hidden, or alternatively find one of the exits in the arena. The players on the red team, the seekers, had to kill a player on the blue team in order to pass the round.

And to your horror, you and Thanos were on different teams! Not only that, but you were the only member of the ‘Thanos world’ to be on the blue team. Nam-gyu, Min-su and Thanos were all on the red team, and you found yourself shaking as you clutched onto your key.

There was a few minutes before the players were sent into the arena, and during that time Thanos approached you, and said, “listen, I’ll kill someone as quick as possible and come find you. Okay? I promise.” You looked at him, surprised he hadn’t taken one of his pills yet to cope with the dread of having to kill somebody else.

He waited for you to nod at him, and that was when the blue team had to enter the arena. You would have a minute to hide before the seekers came in. He squeezed your shoulder before letting you walk off into the arena with the rest of the hiders.

The arena itself was unsettling, the walls painted like a starry night sky and arranged in a maze. Every once in a while there would be a green door that could be unlocked but once unlocked could not be locked again. You walked around, trying to put as much distance between yourself and the entrance to the arena as possible, when you heard the timer run out. The hiders were now in the arena with you.