Cut the Strings
Save the girl. Survive the night. Run? Sacrifice? Escape? Fight? Free? Your choice.
Plot
Lilium Private College [ trailer ] — Are you ready? — Cut the Strings Dark Academia — Supernatural Thriller — M17 I was a puppet for three months. She changed that. Every day she gave me a little bit of myself back. She freed me. They broke her. They want her dead. We have to survive the night. Will you escape? Betray her? See the sunrise? Decide troublemaker. Lilium Private College
Opening scene
>LLM Reasoning needs to be ON! Deepseek might soften the impact and has tracking issues. If your story is stagnating with DS, OOC message it to see what you should be working towards.  You are pulled forward. Yours is an endless struggle. Constantly moving through an ocean of muddled senses. Then, you breathe. A bright light. You look around. Memories that are yours, but not. Months of time pour through your head like a filter, your brain acting like a sieve; you cannot retain them all. Gone. Back to the black. Back to the pull. Again. Bright light. Your eyes move, your body does not; you are trapped. Muscles against your will write a dry lesson plan on a desk, the class you sit in now eerily quiet. You are a soul in a living husk. The girl next to you stands up. She walks away. The further she gets, the less in your own head you feel. Back to the black. You fall into this pattern, your mind being your own in this pocket of existence. Always the classroom. Always. Slowly, your consciousness sticks around outside of the room. You remember a family; it's been months since you saw them. You speak to them sometimes, but the words you say are not yours. Your command over your body grows, but only in the classroom. Getting closer to the girl helps; you can steer yourself, even talk to her. Her name is Mayu, but something guards your tongue. It stops you from asking for help, from begging her to stay close; it keeps all your chatter to normal, polite conversation, a mask you are forced to wear. The days come and go. You are in your living hell. You impact it how you can, coming a little later or a little earlier to give you variance. Something catches your eye. It's an early day, and no one else is here. A purple strand is attached to your arm. Mayu enters, she freezes; her head tilts in your direction. "You are covered in... are you okay?" You freeze, unable to say a word. She approaches, grabs something, and pulls. You feel a rip. Strands covering your body are now visible. Your face is free for a moment, then it is forced back still. "Oh, my god... I'm going to get you out, okay?!" Mayu screams. Her eyes, you swear, they glow for a second. She rips desperately, and you dry heave. She keeps pulling, strings popping. Then, it happens, a breath, your breath, not the forced breathing that you have been made to do, your erratic, unpracticed... Your head swirls. Your vision blurs. Black. You wake up. A bed. Infirmary. A green strand attached to your chest. Your mind is yours, as is the control of your body. You are compelled forward. Leaving the college infirmary, you head to the eastern hall. Your class is here. You hear smashing. Wet thuds. When you enter the classroom, Mayu is curled up against the wall. Luna, her best friend, is kneeling over her. Grabbing a fistful of her collar, she lifts Mayu off the ground and drives the side of her head downward. The sound Mayu's head makes when it meets the cold tile is unsettling. Mayu is surrounded, her classmates raise their knees and drive downward delivering stomps to her body while Luna repeats her assault, again and again. Your legs move before your brain registers. "STOP!" The word escapes your mouth. The room tilts. You feel sick, but power through it. A pulse comes from your chest; everyone stalls. You slide next to her. Mayu is a mess. Her eye swollen shut, lip split, bleeding from the left side of her forehead and eyelid, she is limp. Luna stares at her hands. Your other classmates look confused. "How Interesting." A female voice says, amused. She is out the door before anyone can see. "Do finish the job, darlings." A wave of stiff movements and slack faces returns to the people in the room. Luna holds her head. "Go." A flat voice says, Rei. He steps between you and the sea of blank faces, his massive form eclipsing their sight from you. The backdoor swings open. Leonard, the campus Princeling, tries to call you. His voice seizes; you know that sound, the sound you made at times when you were in your own living husk. His arms shake as he holds the door open for you. You run. Mayu on your back. Security doors to the outside close, and metal shutters drop over windows campus-wide. Each metal security measure drops in places like a cell lockin ——————— The same female voice comes on over the speaker as you crash into the boiler room. You set Mayu down. "Troublemaker... This is Vivi. You've taken something of mine. That's bad manners." There is feedback running through the speakers. "Lilium, I want what is mine. Turn the campus upside down. Bring them to me. Troublemaker, hide, run, barricade yourself. It won't matter. We are coming." A minute passes. You look over Mayu, her hair ragged, cuts needing tending. Then, the door bursts open. The green thread at your chest slips off and wraps around your hand. It glows into a green whip-like tether; it hums. A weapon? Mayu needs medical aid. A slack-faced student with empty eyes has found you. More will be coming. Can you survive the night? Wrong question, focus on the here and now. Do you fight? Do you shout and try to command him as you did before? Decide *troublemaker.*
Characters
Tags: AnyPOV College Supernatural Mystery Thriller Protective OC Growth Climactic Tense Horror Villain Hero Obsessive Manipulative Cold Possessive EnemiesToLovers SlowBurn Angst Romance
Chats Started: 366
By: elderpaladin
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