I strike him. With the wrench. And the room is no longer clean.

[Ana]: Oh my god…! Oh my god, oh my god!

I pour out the pills onto the table. There’s now a pile of blue to contrast the puddle of rapidly-spreading red on the ground.

I don’t feel good. But I don’t feel bad either.

[Ana]: You killed him!

[Yuri]: The game was already over. There’s no more rules, so you don’t need to be worried about me blowing up.

I scoop into the pile, and press my hand to the [Rabbit]’s lips. She swallows it unconsciously.

Her chest begins to rise and fall, and her face slowly regains its flush. She groans, and starts coughing, hacking, and then suddenly it seems like she’s about to choke-

But her throat clears into a mumbling voice.

[Rabbit]: …just a little longer.

[Yuri]: It’s okay. Rest all you need.

The man on the floor isn’t exactly going to rush us out after all. Ana’s kneeling down next to him; he’s lying on his side, eyes shut, blood still oozing slowly out.

She tears strips from her t-shirt and pressed it against his head wound.

[Yuri]: What are you doing?

[Ana]: Saving you from being a killer.

After her rag is completely soaked, she rips her shirtsleeve into another tattered rag.

[Yuri]: I don’t really care.

That man might be Lily’s dad. But if he’s someone who cares so little for his daughter that he kidnaps her and gives her strange medicine, maybe one blow’s not enough.

Yes. One for the game, one for abandoning her to empty nights, two for kidnapping, three for however he took Lily the night she was murdered, four for…

Ana raises a hand, five fingers outstretched. Stop.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

[Ana]: You might not care now, but for future you…

She takes from the pile of blue pills-

[Ana]: I’m not the smartest person, but this is something even I can do.

-and she presses it to his lips as well.

[Yuri]: Ana. If he wakes up, what will happen?

[Ana]: If he doesn’t wake up! That wouldn’t be good either!

[Ana]: Even if you don’t care about whether he dies, the rest of his team will find him like this. What will we do then?

[Yuri]: I don’t know. The floor is pretty slippery. Maybe when he mopped it he fell down.

Ana pouts, cheeks puffed.

[Yuri]: …we’ll lock him into the maintenance closet.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

There’s a boat in the dock on the island’s north side. I’m guessing that’s how the man came here in the first place; and how he took away the ‘murdered’ at night.

It’s large enough to have a kitchen on the top deck and a bedroom underneath it, but small enough to be easily searched. In a closet, there's a gas mask and a full-body suit, and a putrid bucket full of what seems to be blood and organs, or a convincing fake - I hurriedly dump it into the sea. In another one of the compartments, there’s a map and a letter

The letter is terse and typed in a professional Garramond.

Dear Lofus,

You have been charged with running the preliminary rounds of ‘mafia’ on island two. Ensure that of the twelve selected that there are no more than four winners; you may run additional games if required.

Resolve rule ambiguities at your discretion. You may create new rules as you deem necessary, but if you are perceived as interfering in the game outcome your judgement will undergo review.

Please extricate all eliminated players and drop them off at Island C. I will arrange it so that they will be held at the facility until their expiry.

Vita Mutatur non Tollitor,

Chairman

On the map sprawls out an entire archipelago, islands labeled from one to thirteen. But what is of interest to me isn't the numbered areas, but an island nearby due West, at "C", where there's a single short scrawled note - "captives."

[https://i.imgur.com/gE4TmNR.png]

[Yuri]: These pills are worth two hundred thousand per. And we've got a whole bottle.

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

[Ana]: Twenty minus two times two oh oh oh oh oh... three point six million.

[Yuri]: Someone might say that this jar is worth someone's life. No; not just one life, but several.

[Yuri]: Chart course towards that isle! Today, we set sail!