A few days later, the day of the dance was upon the group. As they were getting ready, Dominic and Willa each received a letter with an address on it, and a note that read Let’s finish the game tonight. Both were equally puzzled and Dominic opened his letter, and the full note was one they couldn’t immediately think of the answer to the riddle. They read the note aloud together, and it said,

When the clock strikes midnight, the one who falls silent does it at the point of no return. Tick-tock, until the ball drops...

            The two were still puzzled, but they immediately tried to figure out the riddle. ‘What does this mean?’ asked Willa. Dominic replied, ‘It means that the game finishes tonight, whether we like it or not. Z is finally ready to finish this, dead or alive.’ The two immediately went to the barn where Jonah and Jennifer were lying on the sofas, waking up. Dominic and Willa showed the latter two the letter that they had received that morning. Jonah and Jennifer were also puzzled by the riddle.

            Immediately after seeing the full note, Jonah immediately recognized the handwriting. ‘Doesn’t this handwriting look like what’s been on the other handwritten notes from Z?’ Noemi walked into the barn, and asked, ‘What’s all the fuss about?’, to which Jonah showed her the note. Noemi also recognized the handwriting, and said, ‘This looks like the writing on the note from my car trunk!’ ‘Holy shit, they’re connected by the handwriting!’ exclaimed Dominic.

            The group immediately went over to Max’s place and showed him the note, and then sent Carston a picture of the note. Carston immediately arrived at Max’s house, and said ‘What’s the hullabaloo about this note?’ Max answered saying, ‘They’re looking at the handwriting and comparing it to the other handwritten notes.’ Carston then said, ‘Show it to me.’ Noemi then handed Carston the notes, and was stunned at how perfect the handwriting was between the note from that morning, and the one from Noemi’s car from weeks earlier. ‘I can assure you that whoever wrote these knows what they’re doing. And I can attest that I only sent texts to you guys, not writing these. Z’s gonna get got tonight.’

            After a few hours, the group got ready for the dance at the university ballroom. The girls were all glowing, and the guys were all suited up and ready to get out on the dance floor. The group split up into duos, with Carston being the odd one out, bouncing from each of the other duos of Dominic and Jonah, Max and Noemi, and Jennifer and Willa. The group were still out on the dance floor when Carston received a text message from Z, reading, ‘The jig is up. Time to dance or die.’ Carston was immediately terrified and ran over to Willa and Jennifer, who were over at the punch bowl. Jennifer said, ‘Carston, what’s up? You look worried.’ Carston replied, ‘Z just sent me a text saying this...’, and he showed the girls the message. Willa pulled her phone out and texted Anna and asked her, ‘Have you gotten any more weird texts?’ After a minute, a bubble with three dots showed up, and then a reply. ‘No’, replied Anna.

            Willa then started having a reaction to the punch saying, ‘I think I’m going to be sick.’ She then ran off to the bathroom, and in the process of opening a stall door, was ambushed by a hoodied figure. Willa never made any screams as this occurred. Jennifer and Carston were waiting outside the bathroom waiting for Willa to come out, but after 10 minutes, Jennifer became visibly worried for her girlfriend.

            ‘Do you mind if I check on her?’ asked Jennifer. Carston answered, ‘She’s your girlfriend. Go check.’ Jennifer then walked into the bathroom, and started saying Willa’s name over and over, to no response. Jennifer walked out, and said ‘She’s not there! Something must’ve happened to her.’ Carston then said, ‘Fuck. We need to tell the others about what happened.’

            The two then went and found the other four and told them about what had happened just minutes earlier. They then decided to stay at the dance until Z strikes again through text message. Meanwhile, now on the other side of town, Willa was groggy from being knocked out for 10 minutes. She finally awoke and was greeted by the quarry lake. It was cold and she was alone by the shore. For over 10 more minutes, no one arrived to retrieve her, until she was startled by headlights coming in her direction. The car stopped, and Anna got out of the car, and said ‘Get in the car. It’s not safe here.’ Willa exclaimed, ‘How’d you find me? I got ambushed while at the dance.’ Anna replied, ‘Let’s just get you back to the dance and we’ll figure out soon why you were here for like 20 minutes.’

            The two were silent in the car, and as Anna was driving, she passed the university, to which Willa replied, ‘Aren’t you supposed to drop me back off?’ Anna then said, ‘Sorry, we’re making a bit of a pit stop.’ Willa immediately got worried and tried to pull her phone out of her pocket. She unlocked her phone after retrieving it, and immediately video called Jennifer, who immediately answered. ‘Babe, what happpened!?!?’ exclaimed Jennifer. Willa then answered, ‘I got amushed in the bathroom, and then was knocked out for like 10 minutes. I was stuck at the quarry lake for God knows how long, until Anna came and found me. We’re on our way back, but we’re making a pit-stop first.’ The girlfriends stayed on call as Anna was driving away to an unknown place.