[Yuri]: Let’s vote for the [Horse] so we can both survive. I bet that’s what you’re going to say.

[Yuri]: If you want to make a deal where I kill another Town, I’m not interested.

[https://i.imgur.com/X9hKGIe.png]

[Rabbit]: Wasn’t going to make one.

She shrugs.

[Rabbit]: No, I wanted to ask you if you knew about this place.

She unfolds a crumpled-up piece of paper she must have torn from one of the books. It’s the blueprint of a building; a three-story complex that includes separate wings for hospice, surgeries, psychiatrics, emergency care, quarantine, and even a basement for ‘advanced research.’

[Yuri]: Phanes Memorial Hospital. I recognize it; I walk by it on the way to school.

[Rabbit]: No. I’m asking you, if you like, know this place. Like… ‘know it know it.’

[Yuri]: ‘Know it know it?’ Are you asking me if I’ve been there before?

[Yuri]: Then the answer is ‘no.’ I don’t remember going there.

[Rabbit]: You’re lying.

She’s very close to me, and moves even closer. She’s wearing something faintly strawberry-scented.

I’m sweating. I’m lying, or at least telling a half-truth.

I spent time in one of the wards. I was told afterwards that I was there two weeks in total, but those days just seem like a dream.

[Yuri]: Fine. I was there.

I touch my wrist and trace a scar.

[Yuri]: But it just brings up bad memories. Why? Do you really need to know about it?

[Rabbit]: You don’t need to say more. But this is how we’re connected, [Snake]. What we share.

[Rabbit]: Not just us. All of us.

She taps twice on the map with a painted nail.

[Yuri]: We all went to the same hospital. And now we’re all playing Werewolf.

[Rabbit]: Yeah.

Is this where my mind is supposed to explode? My brain feels more like it has a crater. Just a vapid underwhelmed emptiness where maybe there was once excitement.

The [Horse] is asthmatic, The [Rat] was put in a burn ward, and perhaps even the [Tiger] had some kind of condition when I read between her story's the lines.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

We’re all a bunch of invalids. That’s great. But-

[Yuri]: I see a pattern. But I don’t see a connection.

[Rabbit]: Mmm, you’re right. Maybe I got ahead of myself.

She leans away from me and crosses her arms. The chairs are dark, antique, and with backs straight enough that they’re painful to slouch in; she does so anyway.

[Rabbit]: Since her father worked there, the [Dog] might have had the most information on this place. Maybe I shouldn’t have murdered her so early on…

Her eyes half-close. She leans forward again. And this ticks me off.

[Yuri]: Was it hard? Being a wolf?

[Yuri]: Killing Lily, how did it make you feel?

[Rabbit]: We didn’t kill her.

She mumbles.

[Yuri]: IF YOU DIDN’T KILL HER, THEN WHY IS SHE DEAD?

[Rabbit]: Lily, whoever you’re talking about, we didn’t kill her. When everyone was asleep, we would go to the Trial Room. Our panels would light up, and we’d vote on who to murder.

[Rabbit]: Then we’d go back to our rooms and go to bed. Eight or nine hours of sleep.

[Rabbit]: I’m always tired. It has nothing to do with being a Wolf; it’s just the way I’ve always been.

It’s true that even if you gave high-schoolers lasers or a chainsaw, they wouldn’t be able to pulverize another student into that unrecognizable goop. I glance up at the library arches, ceiling supports that are carved into orante vines; and at the space where there’s iron sheets covering what should have been windows.

[Yuri]: Then answer me this. If you never killed them in person, then how did the [Dragon] know about the glass breaking on the night Lily died?

[Rabbit]: Glass-breaking ? So you mean when we murdered the [Dog]...

I stiffen.

[Rabbit]: Like I said, we’d go to the Trial Room. Press a button. Wait a little bit, and go back to bed. For us, that’s one murder. It doesn’t take long.

[Rabbit]: On that night we waited three hours.

[Rabbit]: When it was done, we checked her room to see what had happened. It was a normal murder, except for the shards scattered around.

Every time I think about Lily, I feel like she dies over and over again, inside that locked suite. Her bright smile, her sharp mind, are they really just teeth and ooze scattered on the floor?

I keep resurrecting her in my mind, despite knowing how bad it is for me. And I don’t know… if I can do this.. any of this… any more…

[Yuri]: I shouldn’t have bothered asking. I’m leaving.

I tread the carpet towards the exit, kicking up dust. I take three paces, and then the girl behind me calls out in a pleading voice.

[Rabbit]: When I win the game, [Snake]. I’ll get to the truth of this, I promise.

[Rabbit]: I’m tired, but even if I have to force myself, that’s what I’ll do. It’s the least I can do for stepping on everyone so I could live.

She slouches, then vigorously shakes her head.

[Rabbit]: Snake. Why don’t you… tell the [Horse] to hurry and vote. She doesn’t need to spend all this time…

She slumps onto the table, and the paper map swishes as her body forces it forward. I shake her shoulder but she just looks at me with her half-lidded eyes before closing them again.

[Yuri]: [Rabbit]?

[Yuri]: My position in the game, and my position as a player. Why do both of them have to be so awful?

My complaints don’t matter. Only the countdown that continues to tick.

50:49

50:48

50:47

It drives me out of the room, to search for the person that holds our fates.