Leo immediately felt something was amiss the moment he woke up. He looked around confusedly, wondering what it was that caused him to feel this way, but wasn't able to pinpoint anything. The sunlight was streaming in through the gap in his windows, duskily illuminating his room. He examined the room more closely, looking for an intruder.

Nothing.

Confused still, Leo slowly got up from his bed, and went to the door. He opened it and peeked into the corridor. The corridor was deserted. Margaret's door in front of him was still closed, and so was Elizabeth's next to her. Both of them were evidently still asleep. Leo walked out of the room and looked at the remaining room - his mother's.

His mother's room was also closed, but it was locked from the outside. Leo frowned.

This is weird. If Mom already woke up, why didn't she awaken me or Margaret or Elizabeth?

A sense of foreboding crept up on Leo. Without knowing why, he shivered slightly, despite the apparent warmth in the air around him.

He bounded down the stairs. The hallway was empty. So was the kitchen. Leo almost broke through into the dining hall, which was again empty. Feeling himself get more agitated by the second, Leo ran out of the mansion. He went around to the back and stopped in shock.

The places where his mother had buried the corpses yesterday.

They had been dug up! The corpses were nowhere to be seen, there were just empty holes where they should have been.

Leo didn't have time to investigate this further. He turned and went back to the front. Nothing. Nothing anywhere, except for the same forest surrounding the mansion on all sides.

His mother had disappeared.

"Are we sure she isn't in her room?" Elizabeth asked.

"How would she lock her door from the outside?" Leo snapped back.

Elizabeth gently put a hand on his shoulder. "Have you tried knocking? Maybe someone locked her from the outside as a prank?"

Leo grunted. They were sitting in Elizabeth's room. He had called both Elizabeth and Margaret up and quickly explained the situation to them. Margaret still seemed quite shell-shocked from yesterday's events but Elizabeth had calmed down much more.

"Maybe we can check once?" She repeated.

Leo got up half-heartedly and then made his way out of the room towards his mother's room. The locked door seemed somehow oppressive and foreboding. Leo loudly rapped his knuckled on the door. As expected there was no sound from inside, no sign that there was even inside who had heard the sound.

Elizabeth had come out with him. Now she stood to the sign frowning.

"This doesn't look good," she said grimly.

She tried pushing the door, but the lock was quite heavy. It seemed impossible to be able to break it. She tried a couple more times, but eventually gave up, standing back with her hands on her hips.

"Well it's unlikely that anyone alive is inside." she said carefully.

Leo turned towards her hostilely. "What do you mean?" he asked slowly.

"Just that it's unlikely Aunt Sophie is still alive." Elizabeth said gravely.

A rush of blood went up to Leo's head. Anger. Despair. Resentment. The emotions whirled around his brain in a storm. He instinctively clenched his fist. Elizabeth looked at him in sympathy and put a hand on his shoulder.

"I understand. Believe me Leo, I understand how you fell," she said softly. "But you can't let your emotions control you. Not now. If you want to find your mother's killer, you have to survive yourself. I made that decision yesterday night. It's your turn now." Her eyes went hard as she finished her sentence.

Leo couldn't comprehend the situation yet. Yes the situation was dangerous. Yes, William had been murdered yesterday. But he had never expected his mother to be next. It wasn't until now that the full gravity of the situation hit him.

"We should wake the twins." Leo said gravely.

"What did we miss?" Charles voice floated up from the stairs. Leo and Elizabeth turned around at almost the same time to see the twins walking up the stairs. There was a quizzical expression on their faces.

"Where were you two?" Elizabeth didn't bother to hide the suspicion in her voice.

"Henry wasn't feeling well since yesterday." Charles said with a shrug. "I took him to the coast we went to yesterday to calm him down."

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"Did you see my mother?" Leo asked quietly.

Charles looked at him in surprise. He looked at both of them once and then at the locked door. Then he nodded, as if he understood why Leo was asking that question.

"Unfortunately we didn't. Or at least I didn't. Henry?"

Henry shook his head. He seemed in a much better mood than yesterday, and there was even a slight smile in his face.

"Is she missing?"

Leo nodded, pointing towards the locked door.

"Maybe she just went out to get some fresh air. Like us." Charles suggested, coming closer to inspect the lock on the door.

"Maybe." Even as Leo said it, he knew that he didn't believe it.

"You can appreciate certainly Charles," Elizabeth cut in, looking at the twin with venom in her eyes, "why you two would be our prime suspects? In both the incidents the two of you were not with us. Your movements, your alibi per say is unreliable. In fact neither of you have any."

Charles looked back at her. Unlike last evening, he stayed calm this time, almost detached. "You can say what you want Beth. But aren't you the most suspicious one here?"

"What?!"

"The door is locked from the outside," Charles continued ignoring Elizabeth, "this can only mean either that Auntie herself locked the door or whoever killed or kidnapped her locked the door. In both cases, the question has to arise how did the culprit get the key? Or rather how did the culprit get inside Auntie's room? I'm sure you would agree that Auntie didn't trust either of us enough, especially after yesterday, to open the door for us. Then that leaves you three. You can appreciate certainly Elizabeth, how you become the prime suspect in that case?"

"That's nonsense." Elizabeth said angrily. "I have no motive. You are saying I killed my brother and my aunt? For what?"

"You are saying the same about us, no?"

Elizabeth didn't respond, but Leo could feel the anger smoldering in her.

"Stop this." Margaret's tired voice came floating out from her room. She stepped forward gingerly. When she looked up however, her eyes were solid and focused.

"The last thing Aunt Sophie would want is for us to fall apart by arguing. When the real killer can still be out there somewhere."

"You really still believe that there is someone else out in the island?" Elizabeth asked, almost mockingly.

"Yes I do. You saw the cave yesterday Beth. What if there are more such spots in the other crosses? Maybe ones which have food hidden, food stockpiled for a decade. I can't answer the why yet," Margaret held up her hand stopping the incoming interruption from Elizabeth, "but I believe it would be foolish of us to disregard that possibility. Hell maybe Aunt Sophie is not dead yet, maybe the killer has just kidnapped her."

"Why?"

"To sow the seeds of discord between us. To make us argue. To break us apart while they kill us one by one."

"Why?" Leo asked again, in an almost tired voice. He wanted to believe that his mother was still alive, but the circumstances were certainly not promising.

Margaret stopped. She could see the hurt in Leo's eyes. "Like I said, I don't have the answer for the why yet. Why did the killer invite us here? Why is the killer killing us? I don't know. But I believe if we find out what is there in the three remaining crosses, if we can find what Grandfather was hiding on this island, we will be a few steps closer to being able to answer why."

Leo drooped his head. He felt tired. So tired.

"Regardless," Elizabeth said finally, returning her gaze to the two twins, "I won't be convinced until we find out actual evidence of another person on this island. Till then..... stay away from us you twins."

"With pleasure. I don't want to associate with a crazed killer like you. I'd advise you two to be careful as well." With a nod at each of them, Charles headed upstairs, Henry following upstairs. Leo noticed from a tired corner of his brain that Henry hadn't spoken a single word that morning.

"Well Marge, as they are now gone, will you tell us what you are actually thinking? You can't be serious about there being another killer hidden on this island right?"

Margaret however nodded gravely. "I'm afraid Beth, I am fully serious. There is no other explanation."

"You just don't want to admit to yourself that those twins are capable of murder."

"It's partly that. I don't want to think that a cousin of mine could be so bad. But it's more than that. Think about it, Charles is right. Aunt Sophie would have never opened the door for the twins. And there's no sign of there being any breaking or entering done here. How would they have killed or kidnapped her?"

Elizabeth felt silent. She turned to Leo, as if she expected him to provide an answer.

"I don't know. But Margaret is right. Mom warned me herself yesterday night not to open the door for anyone else." Leo said gloomily. Even speaking seemed to cause an unpleasant feeling to bubble up from his stomach. Every moment, he felt like he could vomit.

"Then that settles it. There must be a killer hidden somewhere in this island. And maybe they have kidnapped Aunt Sophie, not killed her yet! After all until you find a body you can't be sure of a death can you?"

"Why Marge? Why would they not kill her? That's just optimistic thinking, you can't be giving Leo here false hope." Elizabeth said in a chiding tone and Margaret fell silent, looking down.

"I-I am going to my room to rest for a while. Let's meet up in the afternoon, we'll make our way to at least one of the other crosses." Leo said finally. He wanted to be alone. He felt that if he stood there for a moment longer, he would collapse.

Elizabeth nodded understandingly.

"We'll meet up back here in the afternoon then."

Leo started walking back towards his room, when he suddenly remembered the dug up corpses. He was too tired to go and investigate that, but maybe Elizabeth and Margaret could.

Elizabeth frowned when she heard the story.

"What would be the purpose of doing that?" She muttered softly to herself.

"This proves the existence of a third party, Elizabeth. Why would the twins bother digging up the corpses? And where would they hide them?"

"How does this prove the third party though Marge? Why would the killer bother doing that?"

"Maybe there was some clue hidden in the bodies? Something we overlooked?" Leo offered weakly.

Elizabeth didn't seem convinced but she nodded her head thoughtfully.

"Maybe, maybe. It still doesn't make that much sense to me. It seems like an awful lot of effort to go to when we have already buried the body. We already missed any clue if it were hidden right? Why would the killer go to the effort of digging them us? The only thing this does is seemingly turn our attention back to the corpses."

Leo nodded thoughtfully. Even through his distress, he could appreciate Elizabeth's point. He, and surely the rest of them as well, had completely forgotten about their reception and the five rotting corpses until today morning.

What the hell was going on?

He shook his head. He was too tired, he wasn't in any kind of mental state to think about this.

"You'll have to excuse me." Leo said, his voice hollow, as he slowly shambled towards his room.

Elizabeth and Margaret both looked at him sympathetically. They were the only ones there who could feel his pain. They let him go, watching his form slowly disappear into the room, and the door close shut slowly behind him.