"I can do [Door 5]... It's been waiting longer..."

Zirconium's eyebrows lifted. "You sure?"

Utami nodded, peering at the door to the basement past Pear's body. "If it's really an elevator, we'll have to all fit in there. I'm pretty small, so..."

"I can go with her." Five shuffled past some of the others towards the first step of the last stretch of stairs. "Lucky, I know you volunteered, but I don't know if you and Zirconium can both get in."

Lucky rubbed the back of his neck, looking at the blank wall next to him. "That's fine... I don't mind."

Hex straightened up, taking a step past Pear's body to the clean floor of the final landing. "So it'll be you, me, and Cera, then?"

[3+5+6=14
1+4=5]

"Okay." Utami drifted towards the right handrail, her fingers falling away from her brother's palm. "Let's go, then."

As she began to descend, one heavy footfall at a time, the others discussed the number [3] door. There was no way for them to get through without any of the [Door 5] volunteers or one of the three broken bracelets.

"I don't think we've properly explored the fourth floor yet," Hex said. "All of you can check that out while we're busy."

"N-no way!" German backed up, his shoulders hitting the wall. "If we do that, you could come back to the body before us and mess with us! E-especially if you did it, Hex...!"

Hex put her hands on her hips. "Would you rather have all four of you sitting here staring at a dead body for an hour or so?"

"It's not like we can do any real analysis of the body, anyway," Five muttered. "Unless you guys found some sort of forensics lab?"

Lucky looked off to the side. "Not really..."

Utami clasped her hands together, looking at the ground. A bit of blood had gotten onto the bottom of her shoe, making faint tracks. "We've probably gotten all of the information out of the cadaver that we're going to. Let's just... mull it over while we go through the doors. Okay?"

"While you all go through the door," Solo responded. "Sounds fair to me." He shut his eyes. "We decided to get going, so let's get going. German?"

The boy with the [9] bracelet cast one more suspicious glance at Utami and the others before swallowing. "Y-yeah. Fine. Better than being alone."

Five frowned. "Which of us is going to jump you?"

"Hey." Hex jabbed her elbow into his stomach and turned to open the basement door. "If you're going to say something, make sure it's useful. We don't have time for playful banter."

"Harpy," Five muttered, rubbing his stomach as he yanked the door all the way open.

Utami followed Hex through, their footsteps echoing on the linoleum. Even with the door closing behind them, sealing off most of the scent of Pear's blood, the basement emanated an eerie chill. They would be leaving soon enough, though... Leaving both rooms behind...

Utami took a deep breath, lifting her hand to the RED by [Door 5]'s side. Hex verified next, then Five, who pulled the lever. It clicked, and the small door before them slid into the side of the wall with a tormented screech.

Hex covered her ears with a grimace. "I guess it's an elevator after all." She stepped inside without another word, stopping by the right side. Five and Utami followed, both hurrying to put their hands on the DEAD that covered any elevator buttons that may have been there. She didn't understand the sudden silence until she glimpsed the skull fading from her bracelet. Ah. That had been making the noise.

"Please tell me there's not supposed to be a puzzle in here." Ducking, Five shifted his shoulders, which were pressed against the far corner of the elevator. Utami was pinned against the other side, Hex pressing her arms to her sides in the middle.

The latter exhaled. "Have you never been in an elevator before, Five?"

"Excuse you?" His brow furrowed, making his scar buckle.

Before he could say anything else, a horrible screeching made Utami jump, banging the top of her head on some kind of metallic mesh.

"Shoot!" She rubbed her head as the accompanying clang faded. Thankfully, neither of the others commented as the door closed. A click and a whir, and the chamber gave a jolt that nearly took her off her feet again.

"Well, this feels safe." Five gripped the handrail on his left.

Hex straightened her hair sticks. "At least there's no gas pouring in."

Whether that statement had been too serious or the atmosphere from a few minutes ago had simply come back, the elevator fell quiet. Only the grinding of gears outside filled the air until the lift came to a stop. The same screech signaled the door reopening; being the closest, Utami leapt out before the opening had even reached its full width. Hex hurried after her, followed by Five.

"I don't suppose that elevator is going to let us back down," Hex said as the door began to close.

"There's no button to push." Utami watched the door slide, the inner half pulling out as the whole sheet of metal moved towards the other side. It shut with a clang after none of them interfered.

Hex swiped her hands past each other. "All right, the door's closed. Let's find the next one."

Utami nodded and turned away to look over the new room. Rows of lights overhead kept it all bright, reflecting off a wall full of windows that only showed a very shadowy area, a brick wall not far past the glass. Doors were on either side of the windows, but one was covered in metal that didn't look ready to unlock. The other walls were a white, painted like clouds, that gave way to the brick beneath them in the corners. It seemed like an intentional design. A small pane of glass separated a side room with a wooden door that mirrored the way out. The bulk of the room was taken up by three columns of two-person white desks. Each was equipped with two plastic chairs and two thick-monitored computers.

"It'll go faster if we split up," Five said. "Cera, you want to check out the doors?"

"Sure..."

Five was saying something else to Hex, but Utami was no longer listening as she drifted to the exit.

Pear... Pear... Had she really been killed? She couldn't have fallen down the stairs, but she could have fallen elsewhere and been moved... But why?

Why was any of this happening? Another [Nonary Game]... Dead body after dead body... What had any of them done to deserve this? What was the point of it? Who was The Malefactor? Who was responsible for these deaths? Why were they dead... Why, why, why...

The sudden crunching crash of breaking glass jerked her attention back outward. With an involuntary gasp, she turned on her foot, the thudding of her heart loud in her ears. There was a terrible choking sound just as she located Five and Hex. They stood together, Five in the back, gripping the sides of a computer monitor. Just in front of him, Hex lay back, slack against one of the tables, her thighs pressed against a keyboard and her torso only held up by the broken monitor around her head.

Five shifted his shoulders, twisting the monitor so that a jagged edge of glass widened the gushing gash across Hex's neck. With that, he pulled the computer back, allowing Hex to slouch away and slide to the floor. Some other remnants of glass clinked as she hit the ground, wires and bits of circuit board falling from her hair.

"Aah...aah...?"

External carotid artery. Just deep to the digastric muscle. Arising from the common carotid artery, straight from the aorta.

"He...x...?"

Delivers blood to the head and face at high pressures. Laceration could cause unconsciousness in as little as twenty seconds, followed by desanguination and death.

Utami's mind and senses continued to throw information at her, but she couldn't make any sense of it. She was at least able to tell when she collapsed to her knees, her hands stinging as they braced against the carpet. From somewhere far away, she heard her name, only just able to penetrate the thick fog of blood stench.

"Cera. If only you hadn't turned around..."

Near her, silhouetted against the lights of the ceiling, stood someone with curly hair. His jaw seemed to be moving.

"Oh, well. [3, 6, 9] was all I was worried about now that [2] has conveniently fallen out of the picture. Just look at it this way: no one can get out without me or your brother. So you can rest easy as far as he's concerned."

Utami stared up at him, nothing but random syllables beating against her eardrums. Her... brother...

"What...?" Her throat was too raw to get out more than a hoarse murmur.

Five took a few steps back to where Hex lay, her blood staining her lovely blonde hair. He grabbed a handful of the cleaner locks by her forehead and dragged.

"It's a shame you figured out she killed Pear. Or, a shame you called her out on it."

Hex's body made a sick sliding sound as it drew nearer.

"I was too far away to stop her from attacking you."

He took Hex's hand gently and puppeted her fingers around one of the larger glass shards on the floor, the edge cutting into her palm and drawing what little blood remained there.

"You fought back, of course, but that only ended up doubling the casualties. Oh, what a tragedy. I'm lucky I didn't get caught in the crossfire."

The dragging came to a stop as he stepped onto the patch of carpet just in front of Utami.

"Goodbye."

She only managed to turn her head as Hex's hand came around, the thin glass biting across her neck. Utami gasped but found she couldn't draw in enough air as blood bubbled into her throat. Sharp lines of pain radiated from further to her left as the glass continued its course, and a warm cascade began down over her collarbone and soaking into her hood. The scent of blood—had she ever truly escaped it?—grew stronger and stronger until it blocked out every sense, leaving her to fall backwards into nothingness.

Congratulations! You have reached the [Broken Glass Ending].