(A/N: Edited for the 4th time because the uploader is a bitch)

You hear a gentle voice echo through the white void. It's soothing to your ears and you take comfort in it.

"Devon, are you up? Devon?"

The voice is of your mother; you can barely make out her face through the blinding light. However, you're sure that she is smiling at you as she speaks, just as she always did.

"Devon, me and your dad are going now. You be good to your uncle now, ok? We promise we'll be back next week."

You don't say anything; instead, you nod in agreement.

"Good boy."

You feel her plant a kiss upon your forehead. You have almost forgotten just how comforting that action really is. By now, you can make out her silhouette. You try and reach out to her, but just as your hand extends, her form vanishes.

For a moment, you wonder if you are alone once more, but as the thought crosses you, you hear the sounds of a man sobbing right behind you.

You turn your head and see your father sitting next to a coffin; he appears to be the source of the crying. The familiar scene makes your heart skip a beat. You already know why he is crying, and you already know who is inside the coffin. Despite this, you still approach the scene just as you did all those years ago. As you pass your father, you hear him mutter something,

"Why did you have to save me Sarah? Why?!"

You've never understood what these words meant, even now you still wonder what he meant by that.

You finally reach the coffin. While it may be shut tight, you already know who is inside. You reach your hand out to feel the coffin; just as you make contact with the wood, you feel a hand rest on your shoulders. You turn around and see your uncle. His eyes are bloodshot and puffy, signs that even he had been crying.

"Devon…"

Before you know what happened, you suddenly find yourself in his embrace.

"I promise you, I'll make the people who took your mother away pay."

After God-knows-how-long, he finally lets you go. He gives you one last look before turning and walking away. You know what will happen to him if he leaves, and so you try and call to him. However, your voice becomes stuck in your throat. You find yourself unable to speak.
Infuriated, you run at him to try and stop him from leaving; but just as you reach him, the ground beneath you gives way.

It may have been only a dream, but that still didn't make the pain any less real for him. Devon sat up in bed and wiped the grogginess from his eyes. When his vision cleared, he felt his heart skip a beat. Instead of his room, what greeted him was a hospital room.

"What the fu—Aurg!"

He gripped his head as a flash of pain ripped through his head. He let himself drop back onto the bed and tried his best not to pass out.
When the pain finally subsided he sat back up.

"Where the hell am I?"
Devon tried his best to recall if he had been hospitalized for something, but he drew a blank.

"Alright, so hospitalization is out of the possible scenarios. Was there anything else?"
Again, he dove through his memories in an attempt to make sense of the current situation. It was then that a particular memory flashed his mind.
"That's right; I forgot about those two…"

It was just a bit past sundown when it happened. I cut through the park to get home quicker; there was hardly anyone around. That's when I got jumped by those assholes. The bigger of the two got me down on the ground faster than I could react to him. As I tried to free myself, I saw the small guy pull out an injector and kneel down next to me. A needle prick later, I dropped cold.

Now with an idea as to how he got there, Devon then began to wonder why he was there.

"Well, it may be a kidnapping…but if that were the case, why aren't I tied up; or even more importantly, why isn't one of them here with me to keep watch?"
He rested his head on his palm as he tried to make sense of the situation.
That was when he felt something cool press against his face.

"What the hell?"

Looking at his wrist, he saw a metallic band wrapped around it.
"A brace…?"
At first glance, it didn't appear to be anything special; just a piece of metal that was clamped tightly around his wrist. However, upon closer inspection, it appeared to be far more than that. The 'face' of the brace had a mini-holographic projector built into it. Curious, Devon tapped on the object. Immediately, a holographic screen appeared in front of him and displayed a vast amount of text that scrolled by quickly.
When the text cleared, there were a few lines of text:

Player Data—

Name: Devon Kyle Worth
Player Number: 12
Death Rule: —
Zero Condition: —

"Player Number, Death Rule, Zero Condition…what the hell does this all mean?"

All Devon wanted was answers to his questions, but it appeared that the more he tried to discover about his situation, the more questions he found himself asking.
As Devon's mind began to quiet down, a faint tune reached his ears.

"…Skip through the shining halls, there awaits the weeping god. Bow three times and touch the sky, now the path will show itself…"

The voice singing the rhyme was soft, almost childish. It appeared to be coming from outside of the room.
"Could it be one of them?" he wondered.

Quietly, Devon got off the bed and walked over to where the door was. Pressing his ear against the door, he began to hear two pairs of footsteps. The person was close, and wasn't alone.

"Oh God, I should really think this through…if it's the two of them I might be able to grab the smaller one and use him as a shield against the bigger one. But what if they're armed? Shit….what to do?"
The pair was now in front of the door; his heart was pounding furiously. With all his might, Devon swung the door open and charged at the one in front of him. Vision blurred, he put his arms out and followed his instinct.

…

… … …

…

"Huh…?"

By the time Devon came back to his senses, he found himself atop a tall and spare man who he had pinned to the ground.
"G-Get off me!"
He pushed the teen off of himself and scrambled to his feet, trying to hide his blushing face.

''D-Devon?"

A small hand rested on his shoulders. Turning his head, he looked upon the other person. The moment he saw who it was, he felt some of his earlier anxiety fade away.

"Yuuki…" he muttered.
The familiar girl's face brightened with a smile when she heard him say your name.
"What are you doing here?" he asked. Before she answered, Yuuki held out her hand to help him up.
"I got taken." She answered, "You?"
"Same," With Yuuki's help, he got back on his feet, "They got me just as I was getting home."
Knowing that a familiar face was here made the pressure within Yuuki's chest dissipated to the point she felt she could breathe properly again.

"So, this is this is the boy you were talking about, ey?" The man that had accompanied Yuuki had finally regained his composure and butted in on their conversation.
"Oh yeah; Devon, this is Dwight Hatcher. Mr. Hatcher, Devon Worth."

"Charmed to meet you, kid."
When the two shook hands, Devon felt as if he had taken his first step into something much larger than he could have imagined.

"So, you wanna learn about the Game, right?"
The trio had taken refuge in the room Devon had been in, and it was then that Yuuki and Devon had brought up the situation at hand.
"Game?" Devon asked
"Yep. That's what they call it."
"What's it about?" Yuuki sat at attention, ready to hear what Dwight had to say.
"It's hard to describe, really. The last time I played, I—"
"Wait; hold up," Devon interrupted, "You've been through this before?"
"Not this particular Game, but yes I have been a Player before." He pointed at the scar on his hand, "That's how I got this. Anyways, as I was saying; the last time I played, they used it to test some new weapon. Of course, that test failed and got almost everyone killed because of it. Hell, even the group's leader died because of those things. Now, I'm not sure what they're using this for…probably just a killer past time for some rich snobs or something."
"Well then," Devon's curiosity was now piqued, "Could you explain the Game for us?"
"Of course, I was getting to that." Dwight sat up straight and began his explanation.

The basic goal of the Game is simple: survive. As you'll soon find out, the people in charge of the Game are gonna make your life a living hell and try to keep you from making it out alive. They have three 'weapons:'

Their first weapon is the most unpredictable one: the Players. Amongst the normal civilians were Repeaters—people like me who had already played before—and psychopaths. Repeaters could be trusted, more or less, while the psychopathic players were to be avoided. Of course, you had no idea who could do what, so you couldn't really trust anyone fully.

Their next weapon was the environment, or to be more specific, the traps they put in it. Since they were well hidden—unless you had the ability that revealed their location—you didn't know you walked into a trap until things were suddenly trying to kill you. The smarter Players who figured out what the traps could do could use them to their advantage and kill off other people with as little blood on their hands.

The last weapon at their disposal was perhaps the whole reason my Game was almost doomed: the Hunters. As the name suggests, these things hunt and you're their quarry. At the time I played, they were the machines they were testing. Whether they'll still have them in this one is something we'll just have to see…

"Is that all?" Yuuki asked.
"Pretty much. Anything else might be moot until we get some sort of confirmation from the people running this."
Dwight tapped on his brace and pulled up his screen, "At the moment, these things only have our names, numbers and those empty spots."
The girl frowned. She was hoping that the man would reveal more about the Game, but it seemed to be wasted.
The atmosphere amongst the three quickly began to thicken as Dwight's explanation sunk in.

"He said we can't trust anyone fully…does this include him as well?" Devon looked up at the man; the way he sat gave him the idea that Dwight was rather lax about the situation. His eyes, however, told a different story. Those azure blue eyes were filled with a kind of fiery determination that he had only seen in one other person.

"Now that I think about it, I wonder what Sean's doing right about now? Probably trying to keep dad from keeling over." His chest tightened when he thought of the youth; despite being far calmer than his guardian, Sean still worried about him. Thinking of his dad only made the sensation even worse.

"What I would give just to know that one of them is—"
He had barely been able to finish the thought when a loud sound interrupted his train of thought. The sound could be compared to that of an explosion; judging from its loudness, it was close.

"Oh God, no…" Dwight's eyes widened in terror, "Don't tell me they've brought that back?"
"Brought what back?" Yuuki questioned, "What's going on Mr. Hatcher?"
"I'll explain later, for now let's just go." He motioned for the two to stand up and lead them out into the hallway.
"Which way did you two hear the explosion?"
"I think I heard it this way." Devon pointed down the left hand corridor of the hallway.
"What about you, Watanabe?" Dwight looked at Yuuki, who seemed to be having a hard time trying to pinpoint the location.
"I-I think I heard it that way too."
"Alright then, let's move."

It had taken them ten minutes to find the location of the explosion, during which time Devon was able to affirm his belief that this place was indeed a hospital.
Upon entering the hospital's atrium, the first thing they noticed was the four other people who were in there. Despite their rather loud entrance, the 4 kept their gaze fixed on the ground. Looking down, Devon finally saw what had their attention

"AAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaAAaaah!"
He fell back from the shock and tried to push himself away as far as possible from the scene. Seeing Devon's reaction, Yuuki also looked down at the scene.
"No…nononono!"
She turned away from the sight and began to dry heave, the sight burned into her eyes.

It could be best described as what would happen if a bomb were to go off inside a human body. Limbs had been flung across the room and were contorted into various inhumane shapes caused by the sheer force of the explosion. Even the head of the body was unsafe; the entire upper part of the cranium was crushed against the wall behind the 4 people. The floor beneath the pair of torn legs was stained red with blood; bits of gore, flesh, and bone decorated the ground as well and only added to the macabre scene.

"What happened?" Dwight was the first to speak to the group, trying his best not to look down as well.
"The man's Gamepiece exploded." The person to answer was the only woman of the group. She looked at the two trembling teens and let out a sigh.
"Let's continue this outside, for their sake."

For a while, the group sat out in the courtyard without uttering a word or even looking at one another. Some were lost in their thoughts, while others were still thinking about the body they saw. Finally, the woman from earlier spoke up.

"Alright, if we're done contemplating our assholes, let's try and introduce ourselves, at least so we can put names to faces. I'm Arianne Aiken," She then tapped the shoulder of the young man next to her, who tried to shrug her off, "And who are you, kid?"
"It's Forrester. Felix Forrester," The curmudgeon answered, "And I'm not a kid, you biddy."
"You're a young and disrespectful little shit. You're clearly a kid." Arianne retorted
"Hey, hey, that's enough." The man next to Devon called out, "No need to get him on your case."
"Oh, and you are?"
"Name's Erwin Kaiser," When the man introduced himself. He then looked to the person next to him, "What about you, lad?"
"Sean Kennedy."

When Devon heard that name, he felt his heart skip a beat. Leaning back, he tried to see who the person was. Sure enough, when he saw that familiar face, he smiled. At the same time, he had a sinking feeling in his stomach; if what Dwight said about the Game was true, then Sean's life was in danger as well.

"Hey, girl." Felix called. Yuuki raised her head and looked at him, "You're up."
For a moment, she appeared to struggle to find her words. Just before she was dismissed, Yuuki finally spoke.
"Watanabe. Yuuki Watanabe is my name…"
"Oh, so you really can talk? And here I was thinking you were a mu—Aug!" Before Felix could finish his insult, he jumped in the air and began to rub his rear. He looked at Dwight —who sat next to him—with fire in his eyes. "What the hell, man?! Why'd you pinch my ass?"
"Because you need to learn to be a bit more respectful."
"And who are you to tell me what I should and shouldn't do?"
"Someone who's been through this before and knows that people like you don't live long in here." Dwight answered. This seemed to fire Felix up more,
"Just who the fuck are you?"
"Dwight Hatcher."
"Well listen Hatcher," Felix raised a finger threateningly, "Just like you, I know what's up, and so God help you that I don't get to hunt you down."

The air around the two men was thick and filled with energy, almost like a firecracker ready to burst. Fortunately, Erwin was quick to disengage them.
"We still have one person left." He rested a hand on Devon's shoulder, "What's your name, lad?"
"Devon Worth, sir."

If there was one thing that surprised Erwin, it would be the sheer force that Sean had pushed him with when Devon said his name. Even more surprising to him was seeing him embracing the smaller youth.
"Thank God, you're alright Dev…"
"Yeah, glad to know you're alright too," Devon's face burned bright red, "But, um…could you let go of me, please?"
He pointed to the others, who were now staring at them.
"Oh!" He immediately let go, "S-Sorry…"
"Are you two—" Arianne's question was interrupted when a loud screeching noise echoed through the courtyard.
"Good morning everyone." A feminine voice called out. It appeared to be coming from a loudspeaker system, "I'd like to welcome you all to Saint Mary's Memorial Hospital. Now, I'm sure some of you already know what this is about, for those that don't; I'd like to welcome you to the Occidere Scaena, a special Game hosted by the Committee. The goal of the Game is simple: survive for 74 hours and 55 minutes, all while obeying the Death Rule we have given each and every one of you. In order to ensure that you will follow them, we've implanted a bomb inside each of you, which is known as the Gamepiece. I'm sure a few of you out there have already bore witness to what it can do."
Devon briefly thought of the dead body from earlier and tried not to gag
"Now, for our Repeaters; this Game brings in a new addition: Player 0. Out of the 15 that are here, we've picked one lucky person to, basically, slaughter you all like cattle." The cheerfulness in the woman's voice was unnerving to the group, to say the least. "For fairness sake's we've given that person two ways to do so: either by killing you all, or surviving until the end. Should Player 0 survive until the end, everyone's Gamepiece will activate. So I'm sure you know what that means?"

At that moment, everyone's braces flashed once and gave a small chirping noise.
"Your braces have been updated with a page containing the rules. In 30 minutes, the Game will officially begin. May the best survive."

And with that, the courtyard fell into silence once more.