The footage was haunting. That bastard, Wyatt Ackerman, killed a poor, defenseless girl as she lied unconscious in a medical bed. He slit her wrist with a scalpel and gouged her eyes out—like something out of a god damn horror film. What troubled my mind the most was the vacant look on the man’s face—in his eyes. He moved efficiently, with a purpose.

He seemed dead set on killing Iris at that moment.

When the screen turned to black, I looked over at Henrika and gauged her expression. Nothing. Entirely nothing crossed her face.

No anger. No grief. No sadness.

Like Wyatt’s face in the video; Henrika’s face remained blank. However, her eyes were focused—unwavering. She took the remote from the nightstand and replayed the video several times. I don’t believe she blinked even once the entire time.

“Henrika, that’s enough.” I approached the woman and took the remote from her. I turned off the television then tossed the remote on the bed.

“I hoped I was wrong…” Henrika said with a brittle voice. She backed away from the television, shaking her head. “I…I didn’t want Wyatt to be the killer. I didn’t. But…there’s no denying it anymore, is there?”

“Yeah…Wyatt killed Iris.” I reluctantly stated. Even though we both already knew that fact. One of us had to come out and say it—to make it real. Neither of us wanted it to be real—any of it. We couldn't deny it.

“Damn it! God damn it!” Henrika frantically paced back and forth around the room. “None of this is making any sense, Ambrose! None!”

“Let’s just take a moment to calm down and try to make sense of this then,” I suggested as I grabbed a nearby chair for Henrika to take a seat. The frustrated woman paced a few more times before she made herself comfortable on my bed.

Settling down frustrated women was never a strong point of mine. But, I tried.

Henrika took a moment. She folded her arms and tapped her foot on the floor. When something came to her mind, she said, “Okay, let’s try and figure out what Wyatt had to gain from killing Iris.”

“Well, Iris was completely defenseless in her state. And it’s no secret how desperate Wyatt is to get what he wants.” I pointed out.

At times, Wyatt was one of the most irrational people out of the group of players. Which was surprising when I considered Melanie in the equation. However, unlike her, Wyatt knew where the line was. But, it didn’t mean he wasn’t capable of crossing it.

“Okay, Wyatt said that he needs a new heart for his wife. That’s all he’s been about since the first day we got here,” Henrika brought her hand up to her chin. “How does killing Iris get him closer to getting a heart?”

“It’s one less player to deal with in the long run,” I answered. “Considering how Elena died on a technicality, maybe Wyatt figured he could end the game faster if he got rid of the other players like that.”

It was just a theory, but it unsettled me how plausible it seemed. The more I thought about it, the more I felt like I was inside of Wyatt’s mind at the time. I saw it, his desires clouding his better judgment, goading him into committing evil for the greater good.

We were no different.

“This all seems like something Melanie would do. Not Wyatt.” Henrika mentioned.

“We already saw the video, Henrika.”

“I know, I know…”

“Do you want to stop for now?”

“No, let’s keep going.” Henrika shook her head; her eyes continued to burn with determination. “Okay, so let’s say Wyatt decided to kill Iris for that reason. It doesn’t explain why he removed her eyes.”

“Scare tactic maybe?” I shrugged my shoulders. The removal of the eyes confused me the most about Iris’ death. “Or, maybe it’s like Wyatt suggested, and they were removed to cover the mistake of the killer.”

“You mean when he slit Iris’ wrist, right?”

“Yeah, exactly.” I nodded my head. “When Elena died, Wyatt performed an autopsy on her and detailed everything about her death. Since Iris died, Wyatt knew he’d have to do the same thing on her.”

“Even if he didn’t gouge her eyes out, none of us would’ve noticed the differences in the cuts if he hadn’t shown us.”

For a second, I almost agreed with her. But suddenly, a single person popped in my head at that moment. I looked Henrika in the eyes and shook my head.

“No, there’s one person that would’ve spotted the differences. Zoey.”

“Oh yeah, you’re right. She wouldn’t have been able to miss that detail.” Henrika agreed. “But, I still don’t understand why Wyatt had to remove her eyes simply because of that.”

“To distract us most likely.”

Henrika brought her hand up to her temples and rubbed them. She groaned and laid herself across the bed.

“I think I’m getting a migraine from this discussion.”

“I don’t blame you. This isn’t something we should be dealing with.”

“You know what’s been bothering me about the video?”

“What?” I reluctantly asked. Unlike Henrika, I stopped watching the video the second time. Seeing Iris’ death over and over wouldn’t do my head any favors. I had enough nightmares to deal with.

“Wyatt’s behavior. It suddenly changed.” Henrika pointed out. She grabbed the remote from the bed and sat up, turning the television on again. She rewound the video and pointed, “He seems normal for the first few hours when he was watching Iris. However, after Nicholas leaves the room, Wyatt changes.”

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“What are you getting at?”

“There’s more to this than what this video is letting on,” Henrika turned off the television and turned to face me. Her blank face altered to an expression of determination. “We need to talk to Nicholas. That’s how we’ll get to the bottom of this.”

“He’s still resting, isn’t he?”

Henrika crossed her arms under her chest. The corners of her lips curved down as she shook her head. “Doesn’t matter. I’m sure he can spare some time to answer a few of our questions. Let’s go.”

Henrika brushed past me and headed for the door. Whenever that woman had her mind set on something, nothing would get in her way. I followed close behind her as we walked through the facility. We entered the infirmary and found ourselves next to Nicholas’ medical bed.

He rested peacefully on the bed, his torso covered in bloodstained bandages. No medical personnel or security team members in sight. The man was utterly defenseless.

“He’s sleeping,” I pointed out. “Maybe we should come back another time.”

“No. It’s now or never,” Henrika announced. Nothing I said could’ve changed her mind. The woman set her hands on Nicholas’ body and shook him. “Hey, hey! Nicholas! Wake up!”

Nicholas woke up immediately from the vigorous shaking. Pain crossed his face as he sat up and clutched his wounded torso.

“Henrika? Ambrose? What are you two doing here?” He asked.

“We have some questions we would like to ask you,” Henrika answered. Her tone was assertive and firm. Her usual calm and soothing voice had long disappeared.

“Sure,” Nicholas reached across to the bed and picked up his shades. He put them on his face then looked at us. “What can I do for you?”

“It’s about Wyatt,” I said.

“What about him?”

“When you came to visit Iris in the infirmary, did you notice anything odd about Wyatt’s behavior?” Henrika asked.

Nicholas shook his head. “No, nothing that I can think of. I did not stay in the infirmary for very long. Why? Is there something I should know?”

“We have reason to believe that Wyatt was the one that killed Iris and removed her eyes,” Henrika revealed.

Nicholas’ expression stiffened, but not to the extremes I expected.

Wyatt and Nicholas spent a lot of time together in Serendipity. I’d go as far to claim they were friends. So, when we revealed Wyatt’s part in Iris’ death; I figured Nicholas would turn hysterical.

The man sat there—silent.

“Nicholas?” I waved my hand in front of his face, “You alive?”

Nicholas raised his head. “Sorry, I got lost in thought for a second there.”

“You don’t seem surprised by my announcement,” Henrika noted.

“Unfortunately, I had my suspicions about him for a while. I spent a lot of time with Wyatt throughout our stay here. I noticed subtle changes about him recently.”

“Any of those subtle changes tip you off about his potential to murder?”

Nicholas shook his head again. “Everyone has the potential to murder, that is a known fact. If Wyatt truly intended to kill Iris, I doubt I would notice the signs.”

“No one did,” I said.

“Wyatt was a very complex person. He was a man with good intentions, but, his actions were not always the noblest. I never imagined that he would ever go this far.” Nicholas rested his hands on his legs. The sorrow in his voice resonated in my head. The atmosphere in the room stagnated, weighing down on my body.

“Nicholas…” Henrika softly called him.

Nicholas ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “Our time here is weighing on us. We are changing. Not in a good way.”

“Two of us have already been driven to murder,” I stated, thinking back to the murders in Serendipity. I clenched my fists and dismissed the images, knowing no good would come of trying to wish that I could’ve done something for them.

Elena and Iris were dead.

That was that. Nothing I could do to bring them back.

“And I fear that number may increase if we do not get out of here soon,” Nicholas added. The man stood from the bed and put his shirt on. “Whatever you two are up to, please let me in on it. If you know something about what is happening, I deserve the right to know.”

Henrika and I traded glances. Mentioning our alliance was the first thing that crossed my mind. But, I kept my mouth shut and decided to let Henrika control the reins. It wasn’t my place to reveal the alliance when I had barely joined.

“Ambrose and I discovered that Wyatt killed Iris from the video footage,” Henrika began as she crossed her arms.

“Video footage?” asked Nicholas.

“Yeah. Caius let us see the video of Iris’ murder.” I answered. “We wanted to ask you questions about Wyatt because his behavior suddenly changed after you visited him.”

Nicholas’ expression turned grim. He took a step back and returned to his seated position on the bed. His entire body shook as he struggled to form a complete sentence with his murmurings.

“Nicholas? What’s wrong?” Henrika asked. The woman approached him but stopped at the sight of the tears that ran down his face.

A rare sight.

Never had I ever seen a single tear shed from Nicholas. I never expected one of the calmest people in Serendipity to get overwhelmed with despair. It just went to show that even the mightiest could fall there.

“It…it is my fault. All of it…” Nicholas revealed, his voice filled to the brim with anguish and sorrow. The tears streamed down his face continued, dropping down to his clothes.

“What are you talking about?!” Henrika demanded.

“When I spoke with Wyatt that day, I mentioned a strange letter I received from a mysterious sender,” Nicholas began. From that point, my entire body tensed up at the mention of that damn letter. “It said that Iris and Melanie were some of the traitors.”

Those damned letters. One way or another, they’ve caused more trouble in Serendipity than I thought.

“You didn’t believe it, did you?” Henrika asked.

Nicholas immediately shook his head. Afterward, he removed his shades and wiped his tears away with the sleeve of his shirt.

“Of course not. I am not foolish enough to easily believe such nonsense wholeheartedly,” The man placed his shades back on his face. “However, I could not entirely dismiss it either. After all, Melanie did reveal herself as one of the traitors.”

“Do you still have the letter?”

“No,” Nicholas answered. “I discarded my letter along with Darius’ after we compared ours.”

“Compared? There were more?” Henrika’s eyebrows furrowed. Her voice tinged with frustration and irritation.

“As far as I was concerned, there were only two. Darius and I were the only ones to get a letter.”

I opened my mouth to speak but quickly closed it. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t tell them about my letter. Things were already chaotic enough without me adding more fuel to the fire.

“So, someone sent out two mysterious letters and only you and Darius got them, right?” Henrika brought her hand up to her chin and paced around the room. “How come none of you decided to come forth with this information?”

“After Darius and I compared our letters, we concluded that they were fakes, poor attempts to cause doubt and opposition in the group. We did not want to cause a scene with something that was probably nothing.”

I nodded my head in understanding. That was the exact thought that went through my mind when I got my letter from the mysterious sender.

“If it was probably nothing, why did you tell Wyatt about the letters?” Henrika continued to grill Nicholas for information. For once, Nicholas made a troubled expression and kept silent, as if the words got caught in his throat.

“Honestly, there was always a sliver of doubt that lingered in my mind,” Nicholas tapped his finger against the side of his head. “Wyatt was the only person I could confide in with this matter. After everything that happened with Darius, I began to believe the contents of the letters were true.”

Henrika got in Nicholas' face and shouted, “Because of you, Wyatt killed Iris!”

“I know that!” Nicholas uncharacteristically raised his voice. “I did not want any of this to happen! I wanted Wyatt to help me think of ways to wake Iris up and question her!”

“And what a good job he did of that!”

“Calm down, both of you.” I wedged myself between the two of them.

“No! I’m not going to calm down!” Henrika pointed at Nicholas. “That son of a bitch drove Wyatt into killing Iris!”

Without another word, Henrika stormed out of the room. I took one last look at Nicholas. The man’s voice shook. He settled down on his medical bed and covered his face with his hands.

It was one of the most pathetic states I’d ever seen the man. Wordlessly, I left and chased after Henrika. She continued down the hallway with a fierce look of determination in her eyes.

“Where are we going now?” I asked.

“We’re going to find Caius and get Wyatt’s game bracelet. Maybe we’ll find something in his room that will help us.” Henrika said.