I was brushing my teeth, my mind still trying to process all the nonsense around me. I was more relaxed than before, but I was more confused than ever. Gabriella? Mendivi? Are there more hidden rooms in this mansion?

My thoughts were interrupted by loud knocking. Who could it be? I quickly finished brushing my teeth and went to the door.

“Hey!” I opened the door.

“P-Please hurry!” The person knocking on my door turned out to be Maya.

“What’s going on?” I hastily went into the hallway.

“Evelyn a-and Leon. They’re arguing and it’s starting to get real bad! Please just come and stop whatever is happening!”

“Where are they?” What the fuck did Leon do this time?

“That one room on this floor, w-with the books or something. I don’t know, I never go there! The door closer to the stairs on the left wing! Ugh, why am I such a retard?”

“Calm down, it’s fine, I know what room you’re talking about.”

I swiftly took off, running into the main hall and from the main hall into the reading room, as I called it. I entered the room and saw Leon and Evie. Leon looked like his usual self, happy with a massive grin that would let any stranger know that he’s not normal. On the other hand, Evie had a devastated look on her face. She was crying uncontrollably and looked to be moments away from falling down into a fetal position.

“Eh, why are you here?” Leon looked at me. “I’m just trying to have a one on one conversation here, please don’t interrupt us.”

“Conversation? She’s crying! I’d call that bullying, not a conversation! Back off.” I tried to intimidate Leon.

“Ooh, someone’s scary… Well, I don’t fucking care! Either be here and join the convo, or go back to where you came from. I don’t know, go watch Alex and Maya fuck or something!”

“What the hell is wrong with you?” With some hesitation, I punched Leon. I didn’t use all of my strength, but I hit him hard enough to make him fall to the floor.

“Ouchie… that actually hurt. You want me to apologize? Maybe beg? Lick your boots? I don’t know what you’re into. Haha, just kidding! I’m not that desperate.”

I walked away from Leon who was only now standing up and I went to comfort Evie who was still crying.

“What’s wrong? What did that idiot tell you?” I hugged her.

“I-I…I still don’t get it!” Her voice was all over the place, I could barely understand her.

“What did you tell her?” I said in an angry tone after turning back to Leon.

“Oh, blame it on Leon. Of fucking course! I just tried to have a nice little reunion and you had to bust in and attack me for no goddamn reason!”

“Reunion?”

“Indeed,” He suddenly stopped yelling, “Evelyn and I have known each other for a while, she just didn’t expect to see me ever again. Somebody told her that I died. Oh, how tragic that would’ve been if it was true… I don’t wish to think about it.”

“No, you’re not him!” Evie screamed at him, acting completely different from usual.

What the hell is going on?

“I’m sorry Evelyn, but you must be mentally ill. I quite literally recited the conversation we had back then, what other proof do you possibly need? God, you’re so annoying!”

“I said you’re not the boy from the hospital! D-Don’t try to trick me!”

Boy from the hospital? Wait, Evie told me about that. Is Leon trying to say that he’s that guy? I don’t understand.

“That guy Evie had one conversation in the hospital?” I interrupted their argument again.

“Yup, that’s me,” Leon smiled at me.

“Do you really expect me to believe you?”

“You weren’t even there! How fucking dense are you?”

He started walking around the room, imitating two voices. Him and Evelyn. He practically repeated their whole conversation. I didn’t know what topics came up back in the hospital, but Evelyn’s reaction clearly showed that Leon knew what he was saying.

“H-How do you know all of that? I k-know you’re not him!” Evelyn didn’t stop crying. I can’t stand seeing her like this.

“That hospital room, you remember it, dear?” He began laughing. “Yeah, it stank like shit, I swear I could barely take it! It was a good night though, you cheered me up, I can’t lie. I mean, I can, but I like the current vibe that this conversation is giving me.”

Leon stopped going in circles and started walking towards Evie while still being shirtless, so I quickly stood between them and stopped him from coming any closer.

“Back off, now.”

“Ooh, scary, spooky, whatever. Hahaha, you’re actually kinda funny Petra, I’ll give it to ya! You should actually look into being a comedian, you shouldn’t have much of an issue as long as you just compete with women.” It’s obvious that I can’t intimidate this bastard, but I’m not letting him hurt Evie.

“All bark no bite, huh? Hit me with another snarky comment, c’mon!” Maybe if I act like an ego filled idiot like him, I’ll make him back away.

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“Who said I don’t bite?” Just as he said that, he leaped towards me with his mouth open, akin to a wild animal.

He reached his hand towards me, but I used my wrist to push his hand up and took that opportunity to come closer to him. I wrapped my hands around his legs and pulled him towards me, making him fall, hitting the hardwood floor headfirst.

“Hey, that was actually fun! Finally, you’re not a disappointment. Congrats Petra!” He gave me a thumbs up before standing up and walking out of the room before I could respond. Well, at least he’s gone.

I immediately turned to Evie to comfort her.

“It’s ok, he’s gone. Do you want to go to my room and sit or lie down?”

“Y-Yeah, sure. Thank you.”

Evelyn went towards my room while I rushed upstairs to the storage room to grab some tissues for her, but when I entered it, a random thought came into my head.

Where is Amy’s body? While we were investigating her murder the body was there, yet it mysteriously disappeared after the discussion. Same goes for everyone else who died. I don’t doubt that Lucia moved the bodies after she deemed them “useless”. Yeah, that’s the word she would use. Where are they though? Does she dump them outside the mansion? Are there more secret rooms? Does she just destroy them in whatever way she sees fit? It’s too much to think about, I should just grab the tissues and hurry over to Evie.

Luckily, the tissues were right in front of me when I walked in, so I didn’t have to look through the massive shelves with any item I could and couldn’t think of. I took them and ran back to my room.. By the time I came back, she had already stopped crying, but she was still noticeably upset. She was sitting on my bed, so I sat next to her, which made her immediately rest her head on my lap without saying a word to me.

“Are you feeling better?”

“Somewhat… All the positive energy is gone, Leon completely destroyed it. I need to rest once I manage to calm down.”

“You do think he’s lying though? I don’t know, something like that seems too insane to be true.”

“No. I knew from the start, I merely wanted to deny it. I don’t care what evidence he showed, I knew that something was off the moment I met him, the aura around him was too familiar. Why would he fall so low? What has happened to him since then? I don’t believe that he only acted in front of me. Something made him go insane after he met me. Petra, you’re smart, please figure it out… Thinking about it gives me too much negative energy, it makes me want to cry again.”

“It’ll be alright, it’ll all be alright. We’re all going through things that many can’t even comprehend, but we’ll get through it. I promise to keep you safe.”

“Thank you Petra. I’ll try to keep you safe too. I’m glad that we managed to clear some people here. I felt too lonely when I had to be suspicious of everyone, although I’m still scared.”

“I mean, it’s good to have some fear. If you were fearless, you’d be dead in here because you wouldn’t be careful enough. Fear is a tool that helps you prepare for what awaits, you just have to prevent it from overwhelming you. I told Adam this too, he was a part of my group here before he and Rose died, but Leon or Naomi probably told you that by now. I always sound out of character when I talk about things like that, because people assume that I’m either some knucklehead or really bubbly. I don’t blame them, I like being more positive and focused on the here and now, it helps relax everyone.” Evie kept listening to me ramble, it made her forget about what had happened.

“Petra?”

“Yeah?”

“Would you like some tea? I sometimes drink tea before meditation to put my body in the right state, I think it’ll help us here.”

“Sure, I like the idea!”

“What’s your favorite tea? I saw a bunch of options in one of the cabinets in the kitchen.”

“Peppermint tea, I guess. I rarely drink tea, so I don’t really have a favorite.”

“No worries, I’ll make peppermint tea for you. Just wait here for a couple of minutes and then come to the dining room.” Evie stood up and walked out of my room, now significantly happier. I’m glad that I managed to cheer her up.

I stayed in my room for around five minutes, not really doing anything, merely letting time pass. Maybe I should get going, my sense of time isn’t that great.

I went towards the dining room in hopes of removing the tension that the mansion had been giving us. In fact, I was a bit excited as I rarely got the chance to sit down and chat with someone in the mansion. When I walked into the dining room, I noticed that Dante was inside, reading a book.

“Hi!”

“Greetings Miss Petra, how do you do? I heard that a quarrel had occurred between Evelyn and Leon earlier this morning, has that been sorted out?”

“Yeah, I got Leon to leave her alone. I just hope he doesn’t start shit again.”

“I’m pleased to hear. May I know what brought about that unfortunate event?”

“You won’t believe me, but I’ll tell you. Leon and Evelyn have actually met before, and back then he was a normal person.”

“What?” Dante looked at me with surprise in his face. “That… That is unexpected. A persona such as him simply does not come into existence in a short amount of time.”

“I don’t know, I’m still a bit skeptical. Maybe he was nearby or close to that person that Evelyn had known. Not to mention that Evelyn told me how that guy she knew had apparently died during surgery. I don’t want to theorize about things I don’t know a lot about. I think we should just try to escape this mansion and go our own ways, but for now, I’ll just take Leon’s confession as something that could be true, but is yet to be fully proven.”

“Why take it as anything? He is no more than a stranger to any of us. And I should note, that occurrence should not prompt too big of an outrage. It is really not the time for tears and interference at this moment. From what I have seen, Evelyn does appear to be quite a sensitive person. She most probably sees more of a connection between the image of Leon before and the thing he is now. Leave the rest of the thinking to her, even though I believe that she is afraid of you doing just that.”

Suddenly, the door opened and Evie came inside the dining room with three cups of tea.

“Hey, Petra, the tea is ready. Dante, I made some for you too, please drink with us to calm the negativity that looms over us.”

“Alright, I shall stay here then.”

Evie sat down with us and we talked about anything that came to mind. To my surprise, I actually felt better despite the day’s events.

Afterwards, Evie went to her room to sleep, Dante went to clean around the mansion and I went to the library to look through the books again.

I didn’t find a single clue, the shelves that I checked mostly had fiction, be it novels, comics or fairy tales.

A brave warrior fighting dragons, adventures of ancient Greek heroes, five friends and a dog traveling to Egypt to kill a vampire… Seemingly decent stories, but useless right now.

The rest of the day was mostly forgettable, I didn’t find anything and neither did I spend time with anyone else. I was satisfied though, I needed to rest so that I could take the opportunity that I had to prepare for whatever was next. Slowly, but surely, midnight came and I was ready to go to bed.

Everyone besides me was already in bed, so I walked quietly towards my room, hoping not to disturb anyone. I got to my door, but before I could open it, I heard a weird sound. It’s coming from Maya’s room! I moved closer to her door to see what the sound was.

“Why? Why, why, why, why? It had to be me! Of course it did. He’s right. I need to do it. Yes, yes, he’s right. He’ll make it all better. She’s just using me!” She was mumbling to herself and making an effort not to cry.

Should I go inside and try to calm her down? No, that would be stupid, I doubt she’d listen to me. What does she want to do though? I need to look out for that. I’ll talk to her tomorrow when I get the chance. I don’t think she’ll handle it well if I just enter her room without any warning. Poor girl, I hope things will get better for her.