After Zoey completed her examination of Iris’ corpse—she rounded up the remaining players into the cafeteria. Well, all except for Klara, who had refused to leave the sanctuary of her room. Smart move, but also suspicious. Everyone found their seats at one of the tables. We sat there in heavy silence, unsure of what to make of the situation. Another murder had occurred right under our noses. One of us were the culprits.

Tensions were high.

We didn’t know who we could completely trust.

“So, is anyone gonna do something or what?” The first complaint had come from Melanie. The girl irritably tapped her fingernails against the table. “I got shit to do and I don’t wanna be here all fucking day!”

“What could you possibly have to do that is more important than this?” Henrika questioned her.

“Anything. Absolutely anything.” The punk girl responded dryly.

“You seem to be in quite a hurry to leave, Melanie.” Nicholas pointed out. “Perhaps there is something you are trying to hide from the group?”

“I don’t wanna hear that from you of all people, Shades.” She pointed accusingly at the man.

Nicholas raised his shades to his forehead and sent the girl a quizzical glance. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“Enough,” Zoey demanded. She stood up from her seat and took charge of the meeting. “I requested that we all meet here because of Iris’ death. As you all know, she was murdered by one of us.”

“But the question lies as to which one of us, right?” Salomon asked.

“So, what? You wanna have us give out our alibi’s like before?” Melanie assumed.

“That would be a nice start,” Zoey affirmed with a nod of her head. “I want to try and point out the killer as soon as possible.”

“So, hypothetically speaking, even if you do find out who the killer is—where does that get us? It’s not like any of you retards are gonna do anything to them.” Her gaze of judgment rested on Darius. “Dumbass over there killed Funbags, and yet he’s gone unpunished.”

“Since when did you care about punishing people?” I asked.

“Have you awakened a sense of justice?” Salomon sarcastically asked.

That was far from the truth. Not a single shred of justice resided in that thing she called a body. All I could sense from her was malice. A need— a desire for chaos and destruction.

“I’m just stating the facts,” Melanie nonchalantly shrugged her shoulders. Her tone, her body language, she appeared so unconcerned with the entire situation. She acted no different during Elena’s murder investigation. Nothing seemed to faze the girl.

“Regardless if they are punished or not, I would still like to know who they are,” Nicholas said. “I do not feel safe being in the same room with a murderer.”

“Smug bastard,” Melanie commented.

“Anyway, before we begin with the alibis. We should start with a summary of Iris’ autopsy report.” Zoey said. Her gaze shifted over to Wyatt, who had strangely been quiet the entire time. “Wyatt, would you care to fill us in?”

Silence.

All eyes moved to the doctor, who seemed to be off in his own world. He merely sat there in silence, as if he were left in a daze. It wasn’t until he was called again did the man respond.

“Huh? What? I am sorry. What is going on?” Wyatt asked.

“Pay attention, Doc!” Melanie commanded, snapping her fingers together with an irritable expression. “We wanna hear your autopsy report!”

“Right…” Wyatt collected himself and went over his autopsy report with the others. Mixed expressions crossed the faces of the other players as Wyatt went into extreme detail about everything that he found.

“So, because one cut was different from the rest, the killer decided to fuck up Rainbows by gouging her eyes out?” Melanie summed up the report in her own, sick and demented way. “Sounds like overkill to me. I like it.”

“This is coming from the girl that lodged knives into a dead body,” Henrika angrily commented.

“You got a problem with that?” Melanie taunted.

“Now is not the time to argue amongst ourselves,” Nicholas stated. “Another murder has occurred, and we must find out who the killer is. If not, I fear these heinous acts will continue.”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Yeah, I bet.” Melanie agreed with a firm nod of her head. “So, we go in a circle and tell everyone where we were at the time of the murder, right?”

“I will start,” Wyatt volunteered. “Iris’ estimated time of death was around 4 A.M…around that time; I was alone in my room—asleep. So, I guess that makes me a suspect.”

“I was asleep in my room too.” Melanie rested her head against the table, possibly bored of the situation.

“Same here,” Darius nodded his head.

The pattern continued for the others. Around that time, everyone revealed that they were in their rooms.

Likely stories all around.

One of them had to be lying. But, without evidence to back up my suspicions, I would only cause more harm than good.

“Well, this has gotten us nowhere.” Melanie complained.

“One of us has to be lying,” Henrika stated, looking between each of the players as she continued, “Someone killed Iris. I refuse to believe that we were all conveniently sleeping around the time of her death.”

“I believe that is completely possible,” interjected Nicholas. “Wyatt estimated Iris’ death around 4 A.M., and the cause of death was blood loss. It can take some time for someone to bleed out. So, perhaps the killer cut Iris earlier in the day, then left her to her fate.”

That was the only possible situation that stuck in my mind. It had to be the only explanation.

“How smart, Shades.” Melanie agreed with the assumption.

“I can see that.” Salomon nodded his head.

“But, where does that get us? Everyone is still a suspect then.” Wyatt stated. “Since we cannot determine when Iris was cut, everyone that entered the infirmary is under suspicion.”

“So, that would leave me out of the guilty box.” Melanie confidently declared. “I never went into the infirmary room the other day. So, I guess I’m in the clear!”

“Can anyone vouch that you weren’t in the infirmary room yesterday?” Henrika sent a suspicious glance towards Melanie. “You could have snuck in at any time when no one was around.”

“No. The girl may be right.” Wyatt had come to Melanie’s defense surprisingly. “I was in the infirmary room for nearly the entire day. I never saw her come in.”

“Didn’t you ever leave the room to go to the bathroom or something? She could have snuck into the room during those times and cut her then.” Henrika remained adamant with her theory.

“It is a possibility,” Wyatt brought his hand up to his chin, deep in thought. “I may have only been away for about a minute or so. That is enough time to cut someone and leave undetected.”

“You both seem determined in setting me as the killer again, huh?” Melanie complained. However, I couldn’t sense a single amount of concern in her voice. She gave off mixed signals that she was involved, and yet not involved. “It’s not a bad theory. But, that’s all it is. Unless someone saw me go into the Infirmary room, I’m clear from blame. Perhaps you should suggest those that went into that room.”

“If we go off that, then everyone besides Melanie would be a suspect,” Salomon stated.

“No, we can go a step further than that,” interjected Wyatt. “Other than the time we all gathered to check on Iris. Only a few other people entered the Infirmary while I was there.”

“Who were they?” Nicholas inquired.

“Darius, Henrika, and Nicholas. They were the only three that I saw come into the Infirmary room while I was there.” He sternly revealed. Gazes of judgment moved to those three individuals.

The first one that cracked under the pressure was Darius.

“What? No! I didn’t kill her!” He exclaimed. “I only went to the Infirmary because I needed to apply cream to my burns and change my bandages! You can tell them, Wyatt! I never went anywhere near Iris!”

“I did go to check on Iris,” Henrika revealed. “However, I didn’t touch her. Wyatt made it clear for me not to do that.”

“I went to check on Iris and Wyatt. But, I never got close to Iris.” Nicholas said.

All three of them pleaded their cases. Wyatt confirmed each of their statements. So, we hadn’t come any closer to finding Iris’ killer. There wasn’t much to go on in the first place.

We spent about an hour arguing back and forth, throwing speculations and accusations at one another. However, all we managed to do was waste time. Before we even knew it, the time for the seventh game drew near. We were at a crossroads. Exhausted from all the arguing, we called it a day and went our separate ways. I headed to my room. Just before I entered, a horrifying shout carried through the halls.

With great haste, I charged down the hallway and headed in the direction of the noise. When I arrived, I found Wyatt on the floor with the other players gathered around him. The doctor ignored our presence. His eyes horridly gazed at the door to his room.

His face was beyond the point of mere paleness—but a ghostly white.

“Wyatt? What’s wrong? What happened?” Henrika exclaimed.

He didn’t respond.

“Wyatt! Say something!” Nicholas pleaded.

Still no response.

“What the fuck’s wrong with him?” Melanie nonchalantly poked Wyatt in the face.

As if the lights in Wyatt’s brain had turned on, the doctor returned to reality. He looked around in a daze, the color in his face slowly returned.

“Wyatt?” Zoey called out to him.

“Y-Yes?” He nervously answered.

“Are you okay? We heard you scream and came running.” Salomon told him.

“A scream? Oh, right, yes…forgive me,” Wyatt slowly returned to his feet and took a few deep breaths to regain what was left of his composure. “When I entered my room, I saw a spider hanging down in front of my face. I am deathly afraid of spiders.”

A nervously forced laugh leaked from his mouth. Everyone stood bewildered—unsure of how to respond to the information. For such a scream of horror to leave Wyatt’s mouth, all for a spider, it left me with conflicted feelings.

“That’s it?! You screamed like a bitch because of a fucking spider?!” Melanie berated him. “Damn it! I thought someone had died again! Fuck! What a complete waste of my time!”

The girl stormed off in a rage. But, no one paid her any mind.

“I am truly sorry for causing such unnecessary problems for everyone. Please do not worry about me anymore. I will head back to my room and get some rest.”

“Do you want one of us to deal with the spider?” Darius suggested.

“No!” Wyatt hastily refused the offer. “No, that will not be necessary. I am a grown man. I will take care of it myself.”

The doctor quickly scanned the bracelet across the scanner and entered his room—immediately closing it without another word to anyone. Although highly suspicious, no one could figure out the cause behind the man’s odd behavior. One by one, everyone separated once again.

When I tried to head back to my room, I was confronted by Henrika. The woman grabbed my arm and declared, “I need to speak with you in private, Ambrose. It’s important.”