Darkness swallowed the room whole.
And then—
A scream.
A desperate scuffle. Wood scraped against wood as someone stumbled backward, their breath ragged with terror. The sound of hurried footsteps—then a thud. A body hitting the ground.
Sarah's voice was frantic. "Where is everyone?!"
No answer. Only the sound of ragged breathing, the creaking floorboards shifting under unseen movement. The air was thick with something suffocating—fear.
Mira reached blindly in the dark, heart hammering in her chest. "Stay together! Don't—"
A gasp. A choked, broken sound—then silence.
Hakim's hands trembled. His body was frozen in place, feet rooted to the ground. He wanted to move, to fight, to do something, but all he could hear was the sound of his own pulse hammering in his ears.
Then—
A voice. Soft, barely a whisper, yet it cut through the darkness like a blade.
"…It's pointless."
Emily.
Hakim turned sharply. "Emily—where are you?"
But her voice was distant, detached. "No matter what we do… the seeker wins. They've already won."
A metallic clink echoed through the cabin. Someone had dropped their emblem.
Hakim felt his stomach drop. "No. Don't—"
"I can't… I can't take this anymore." Emily's voice cracked. "I don't want to fight anymore. What's the point? We're all going to disappear anyway."
A sharp shuffle. A sudden movement.
Then—another emblem hit the floor.
Sarah's breath hitched. "No… No, stop! You can't—"
But she was already too late.
Emily had surrendered.
Hakim could feel the walls closing in, the weight of inevitability pressing down on them. The seeker had done it. They had broken them.
A low chuckle echoed through the room.
The seeker had never needed to take them by force.
Because in the end, they would give themselves up.
The tension inside the cabin had reached its breaking point. The fire burned low, casting erratic shadows across the faces of the last remaining players.
Emily stood in the center of the room, her expression distant, her hands trembling slightly as she held out her emblem.
"I'm done," she said, her voice eerily calm. "There's no point in fighting anymore."
Sarah's eyes widened. "Emily—don't do this."
Emily shook her head. "What's the point, Sarah? If the Seeker wants to break us apart, then they've already won."
Yao clenched his jaw. "Emily, think this through."
But she had already made her choice. With a deep breath, Emily placed her emblem onto the table. The moment her fingers left it, the air grew colder.
The Seeker moved.
A sharp gust of wind burst through the cabin, snuffing out the flames for a second. And in that moment of darkness—
Emily was gone.
Her seat was empty. Nothing remained of her except the chilling silence that followed.
Sarah staggered backward, her hands shaking. "No…"
Yao gritted his teeth. "Damn it. Damn it all."
Mira took a deep breath. "We have to keep moving. We can't just sit here waiting to be picked off."
But before anyone could react, the lantern flickered again. A slow, dragging sound filled the room.
The Seeker wasn't finished.
Sarah turned, her breath catching. "Yao—"
Too late.
Something unseen gripped him. His body jerked forward as if an invisible force was pulling him. His emblem glowed faintly—then shattered into pieces.
His expression froze in shock. "No—"
Then, in a blink—he was gone.
Before Hakim and Mira ran into the storm—Sarah was still standing in the cabin, her back pressed against the wall. Her breath came in short gasps, her mind racing.
Emily had already surrendered. Yao had just disappeared before her eyes. And now—
She was next.
The flickering lantern cast long, eerie shadows across the wooden floor. The tension in the room was suffocating.
Sarah's eyes darted to Hakim and Mira. "We can still fight this. We can still—"
The moment she stepped forward—her emblem pulsed.
A chilling sensation crawled up her spine.
Then—she couldn't move.
Something unseen, something beyond her understanding, wrapped around her like invisible chains.
"No—" she choked out. "Not like this."
Her fingers clawed at the emblem on her chest, but it was already too late.
The light of her emblem flickered.
Then, in an instant—
Sarah vanished.
Gone.
Only her emblem remained, lying on the cold floor like a discarded memory.
Mira didn't have time to process Sarah's loss. The moment Sarah disappeared, she grabbed Hakim's hand. "We need to go. Now!"
Hakim hesitated only for a second before nodding. Together, they pushed the cabin door open and ran into the blizzard.
The storm howled around them, swallowing their footprints as fast as they could make them.
They were the last two.
The snowstorm raged around them, blinding and relentless. Mira's breath came in heavy pants, her boots sinking into the thick snow with every frantic step. She clutched her emblem tightly, her fingers numb from the cold.
Hakim ran beside her, his expression unreadable. He had been with her from the start, through every disappearance, through every moment of fear and doubt. He was the only one left. The only one she could trust.
She had to trust him.
Mira turned to him as they reached the edge of a frozen lake, the ice beneath their feet cracking slightly under their weight. "We're almost there," she panted. "We just need to—"
She stopped.
Hakim was staring at her.
Not with fear. Not with desperation.
With certainty.
Mira's heart pounded. Something was wrong.
Hakim slowly lifted his hand—revealing a collection of emblems.
All of them.
Mira's breath hitched. "No…"
Hakim's lips curled into a sad smile. "I'm sorry, Mira."
Realization crashed over her like the freezing wind around them. The Seeker… had never been hunting them from the outside.
It had been right beside her all along.
"You…" Mira took a step back, her boots skidding slightly on the ice. "It was you this whole time?"
Hakim exhaled, his warm breath misting in the cold air. "It had to be me."
Mira's grip on her emblem tightened. "Then why? Why let it go this far?"
Hakim glanced down at the last emblem in her hands. "Because I needed you to trust me."
Mira clenched her teeth. The weight of the entire trial pressed down on her. All of them… Rizman, Eliza, Rik, Rebecca, Emily, Yao, Sarah… they had all fallen, one by one. And Hakim had watched it happen.
No—he had made it happen.
Hakim took a slow step toward her. "I didn't want you to suffer. I thought maybe if I did it gently, it wouldn't hurt as much."
Mira let out a bitter laugh. "You think this doesn't hurt?"
Hakim sighed. "I know it does."
Mira looked down at her emblem, her hands trembling.
She could run.
She could fight.
But there was no point.
She swallowed hard, her voice barely above a whisper. "You made me believe in you."
Hakim lowered his gaze. "That's the only way I could win."
Mira's fingers tightened around the emblem, then slowly, she extended it to him. "If this is what you wanted all along… then take it."
Hakim hesitated for a moment, then reached out, his hand closing over hers. Their fingers brushed—just for a second.
Then, as the emblem left her grip—her vision blurred.
Darkness crept in from the edges of her sight. Her body felt light, weightless.
She looked up at Hakim one last time, her voice soft. "I trusted you…"
Hakim's fingers curled around the final emblem. "I know."
Then—Mira was gone.
The snowstorm howled around him, but it no longer mattered.
The trial was over.
The Seeker had won.
The storm had passed.
Hakim stood at the center of the empty, frozen landscape, his grip tightening around the final emblem—Mira's emblem. His breath was steady, yet his pulse thundered beneath his skin. He had done it.
But this was not a victory. Not yet.
Because this game had never been about survival.
It had been about setting a trap.
For Mira.
He closed his eyes, letting the memories surface.
+++
Hakim had been chosen as the Seeker. The rules were clear: collect all the emblems, and he would be the last one standing. But instead of playing the game alone, he had decided to play it his way.
From the start, he had approached them—one by one. He whispered the truth in hushed voices, bargaining with the desperate.
Firstly, he convinced with Rizman and Eliza.
"Help me." His voice had been soft, urgent. "This isn't just a game. There's something bigger going on, and I need your help to expose it."
Rizman had been skeptical, but the fear in his eyes betrayed him. "And what happens if I refuse?"
"You'll be picked off either way," Hakim had said. "At least this way, you get to control how it happens."
Rizman hesitated. Then, with a heavy breath, he had agreed.
Eliza, already weary of the game, had given in even faster. She wanted out. She wanted an easy way through this, and Hakim had provided it.
"You let me take your emblem," he had explained. "You disappear, but I promise—it's part of something bigger."
And so, the first two fell.
But the game had only begun.
Then, he proceeds with Rik and Rebecca.
They had been harder to convince. Too sharp. Too careful.
"This isn't right," Rik had murmured to Rebecca. "Something's off."
Hakim had watched them closely, waiting for the right moment. When they had begun suspecting the emblems, he knew it was time to act.
He had cornered Rik alone in the cabin. "You see it too, don't you? This game—it's designed to make us destroy each other."
Rik had crossed his arms. "And what, you have a plan?"
Hakim had nodded. "You let me take your emblem, but you don't resist. If we let this play out, we'll learn who's really behind this. I'll be the one left standing—and that means I can expose them."
Rebecca had been harder to convince, but in the end, fear had swayed her.
"Fine," she had muttered, shoving her emblem into his hands. "Just… don't make this for nothing."
After he got the four of them, the next target is Emily.
She had been the easiest.
She was already breaking. Already unraveling.
When Hakim had whispered, "You don't have to fight anymore," she had looked at him like he was offering her salvation.
"Then take it," she had whispered, pressing her emblem into his palm.
And just like that, she was gone.
He convinced Yao and Sarah as they are the one who really trust him.
They had fought until the very end.
Sarah had stared him down. "You're hiding something, Hakim."
For the first time, he had felt a flicker of guilt.
"It's for the right reason," he had told her. "I swear."
She had clenched her fists. "Then tell me. Tell me what you're planning!"
But it was too late. He had already won.
With a final breath, she had let her emblem slip from her grasp.
And then she was gone.
Yao had followed soon after, though he had struggled. "You lied to us."
"I never lied," Hakim had murmured. "I just never told the whole truth."
Then, silence.
He was alone.
Except for one last person.
Finally, the true target, Mira.
Mira had never suspected him. Not once.
She had fought beside him, trusted him. Even as the others vanished, she had never doubted.
That was why she had been his true target from the very beginning.
As they ran through the snow, as she turned to him with a determined glint in her eyes, she had handed him the last piece of the puzzle.
Her emblem.
"I trust you more than anyone," she had said. "We'll win this together."
The moment the emblem left her fingers, the truth hit her.
Hakim saw it in her eyes—the realization. The betrayal.
She stepped back, her breath hitching. "Hakim…?"
He exhaled, holding up his hand.
One by one, the emblems he had collected gleamed in his palm.
He had them all.
Mira's lips parted, but no words came.
The game was over.
And he had won.
+++
The wind had died down. The storm had passed.
Ahead of him, at the edge of the frozen landscape, a shadow waited. The Mastermind of the game.