Project

8.1: The Betrayer's Demise

There were stars, unnamed and undying. Far away and made from such mystical materials. A world was formed from these materials, a world with no regrets, and no pains. A world where everyone and everything was accepted.

Project and I were both on this world, not as leaders, but as helpers. We both cooperated on building this world, building a reality from reality. Though we both knew it would never last. Yet still, we always met on this world, we still both smiled at each other when we arrived, and no matter what, we were always there for when the other may fall.

Seeing all this, even with my eyes open, made me see how much I had grown with Project. They were a lifetime friend, someone who was like a sibling to me. Someone who felt so close to me that they were almost a clone.

Soon enough, the memory swirled into another, showing me and other friends in our final stay as a group. All of Project's friends were there; Spencer, Will, Willow, Ridley; I had to admit I felt as though I didn't belong here. All of these people knew each other so well, and yet I couldn't tell you their emotions without using some form of deduction.

If I remember correctly, this was our last full group chat, and it always will be now. Maybe it was that thought that made me see Will as so pale? It still seemed creepy to me nonetheless.

We were all talking, making jokes, telling stories, and the atmosphere felt so... bright. I wanted to intervene myself, tell some puns which could've been said. However, I mainly wanted to apologise to Will, to Willow, for not being able to save them, to help them. I wanted to apologise to Ridley and say how much I wanted to support him. I wanted to thank Danielle for what she had done for me.

I was so close to telling them, so close to saying what I wanted to say. I'm pretty sure my dream voice was caught in the wind and rustled the nearby trees. However, before I could see if anything had happened, I was taken back to the old world. Back from what I believed was my final moments...

Snap.

Yet it wasn't the sound of my neck that created that noise, it was instead the sound of the blocked oak door being kicked in. "Pessimist! Stop in the name of us!" Bruce yelled.

Pessimist's Last Stand; 25th March. 9:28am.

Everyone was now standing in a new designated place. Pessimist was no longer awaiting Bruce and Mark with a limp Sam, but was instead surrounded by his first tormented, and those he had grown to fear. It all seemed so poetic to Pessimist, who up until that point didn't believe something unplanned could occur. He looked at it all and, in a twisted form of enjoyment, smiled at what could be his final stand.

And he wasn't going down without a fight. He wasn't going to stop until he taught those who stopped him the one lesson with inevitability: You don't tempt to stop it.

However, Bruce didn't want to fight, "Listen, I know what you're thinking, but you need to listen to me and put the knife down, Phoe-"

"Don't you dare use my name! You were never meant to use it! It was never meant to be mentioned again, and yet you... you... You broke the entire story! You destroyed the plan of a lifetime! I may be a Pessimist, but that was the only hope I had! Yet you couldn't let me have it! You couldn't let me complete my story! Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you're up for some fun, because someone is gonna die tonight...

"And it is NOT gonna be me." Pessimist threw Sam aside, letting his shocked body slam the ground. Pessimist was used to being at a disadvantage, and so had relied on his wit to keep him steady. This time, it was different. This time he had no way of observing, no way of predicting, this was now a test of skill, what he had learnt from Project's own observations and manipulations and use it to his advantage.