Assassins - Part 1

"Everyone draws a name from the hat," I said solidly, factually, holding the rules in my right hand. "The name on that slip of paper is the name of the player you're to kill." Raising an eyebrow, I let silence steal the room. My eyes moved slowly, meeting each face, waiting for agreements. "Okay, let's begin." 

The rules were simple, it was kill or be killed. We were to go after our victim, hunt them, stalk them, anything in order to get rid of them. Once they were out of the way, we were to take their slip of paper and go after their victim. The routine continued until there were two left. Only one left.

Everyone reached purposefully into the hat, pausing only to read the name on the slip they chose. Joel had a small grin on his face and eyes that slanted downwards, clearly excited by his pick. I was last, I had no choice. I opened the small sheet of white paper folded twice over. "Keith." 

"Okay. Good luck." We all stood there facing one another. No one wanted to make the first move or be the first to leave. We were safe in my room, it was sanctuary, but not outside. In the halls anything could happen. So we waited with crumpled up pieces of paper in each of our fists and plastic brightly colored water guns at our sides. We simply waited.