Another investigation, another hellish path to cross. I knew it, I knew that this was far from over! Though, the fact that I knew meant nothing since I didn’t prevent it, so maybe this is my punishment. My opinions are unimportant now, only my future actions will be…

“Alright, I’ll check the body since I doubt that you two want to,” Amy said, breaking my train of thought.

“Wait,” I quickly stopped her, “Leave that to either Naomi or me.”

“Why?”

My brain paused for a moment. I stopped Amy reflexively, so I had to remember why I didn’t want to let her come near the body.

“Your phone!” I blurted out while still thinking.

“What about my phone? Lucia probably took our phones away.”

“I mean, we found our phones, so we found yours too. Everyone thought that you were dead, so I checked whose phone it was and I saw the pictures in your gallery.”

“Oh,” Amy stared at me without saying anything else, not even showing a hint of embarrassment.

“Correct,” Naomi said, “I’ll search the body. Amy, give Petra any and all info you know.”

“Amy?” I turned to her. “Can I ask you a couple of questions? Some aren’t related to the case, but they might help out.”

“Yes?”

“I tried to stay quiet for a bit, but I need to know how you’re here. I wasn’t just told that you died, I literally found your body! You still might be some trap set up by Lucia, who knows?”

“Calm down, don’t make up stupid theories. Here’s how things went from my perspective,” Amy began explaining. “I remember being trapped inside the storage room for a while, mostly because you guys couldn’t even hear me yell even though the room isn’t even far from the bedrooms. Nothing happened for who knows how long, I was confused as to why the traitor would lock me in a room without attempting to do anything. Then after some time, a dark greenish gas started spreading around the room. It smelled like shit. You and Blake came shortly after, so I just waited for you two to let me out.”

“Yeah, I remember that too. Well, apart from the gas, I didn’t notice any when I entered the room. What happened to you after that though?”

“Well, I remember just blinking and waking up on the floor in the room above, right next to my ‘coffin’, like I had just fallen asleep.”

“But it’s been days! I don’t know how many, but you’ve been gone for a while!”

“A day or two maybe, calm down.”

“A day or two?”

“Yes.”

“Amy, I haven’t seen you in at least two weeks! How did you not die of dehydration or starvation?”

Amy looked me dead in the eyes, I practically saw her nonexistent will to live fade in front of me.

“Two weeks… We’ve been stuck in here for that much since then. Don’t tell me that you’ve all given up.”

“No, of course not! We just haven’t found the secret yet.”

“I see. Then just tell me what progress you did make.”

“No.” Naomi interrupted us. “Stop with the small talk and get to work. I will check the body, you two search around this room and the rooms above. Understood?”

“Amy, I have a journal. I’ll show you everything later!”

I didn’t want to argue with Naomi, so I did as she asked. I turned around and read the signs above the coffins from left to right.

Adam Eller, born on January 7th, 2005, died on October 8th, 2023, born in the town of Nidengate, last residence was in the town of Nidengate.

Alex Steed, born on September 12th, 2004, died on October 4th, 2023, born in the town of Nidengate, last residence was in the town of Nidengate.

Adam died after Alex. If the sign isn’t lying, that would mean that the killer has to be one of the people currently alive. Shit, shit, shit!

Petra Wolf, born on August 5th, 2005, born in the town of Nidengate, last residence was in the town of Nidengate.

Rose Martel, born on November 30th, 1974, born in the town of Nidengate, last residence was in the village of Vorfall.

I read Rose’s sign a couple of times due to disbelief. There’s no date of death and it says that she was born in nineteen seventy-four. That last name too, Martel. I’ve heard it before, I think in this mansion even. But how? There’s no way Rose managed to fake being a teen while in her forties, I’m not that blind!

“Amy!” I called Amy over because I didn’t want to lose myself in my thoughts.

“Yeah?”

“Come over here, I have something to show you.”

“What did you find?” Amy came closer to me.

“Look at this!” I pointed to the sign and she quickly read it.

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“That’s certainly a clue.” She said, unphased.

“But don’t you think it could be fake?”

“Of course, it’s probably a mind game. However, this information is useful even if it is false.”

“What are you talking about? If this is just fake information, it’s only going to be a setback.”

“Not really, you have to think about this thoroughly. To Lucia, this isn’t a way to murder us, she could’ve done that long ago if she wanted to. She’s playing a game, so that’s how you need to look at this. No matter who Rose was, we need to at least pretend that she’s still alive and that she’s forty something years old.”

I didn’t say anything back to her. Instead, I thought more about the text on the wall. If Amy’s right, then I need to focus on parts of the text that lead me to something new. The most noticeable part is her age, but I don’t think that’ll give me any clues. I stared at the text like an idiot until I came to some sort of conclusion. Martel! That’s what I’m supposed to be looking at!

That last name sounded too familiar, I knew it would lead me somewhere, yet I just couldn’t remember where and when I saw it.

“Amy!” I called for her help again. It made me feel useless, but it was better than not making any progress at all.

“Yeah?”

“Does the last name Martel sound familiar to you?”

“Damn, you forget things easily. We saw it in that tunnel, remember?”

Oh, that place. I only had faint memories of it even though I went there not long ago. It makes sense, there were pictures and names of twelve people there, so one of Rose’s ancestors had to have been there. The clue has to be there!

I had no intention of going down that dirty tunnel again, so I stayed in the room that I was in and tried to remember the first name of whoever had the last name Martel.

“Lucia Martel!” I yelled out. I didn’t plan on saying it out loud, but my mouth acted faster than my brain.

I could see Lucia’s foot on the top of the staircase peeking into the room, although she didn’t come down, like she had known that I was going to yell her name out. Rose and Lucia are related! I…I can’t. I really. Oh God!

“What is going on?” Naomi looked at me like I was a freak.

“Rose and Lucia have the same last name!”

“A clue. Good.”

“That’s all you have to say?”

“Yes. Now, I must go back to investigating. Leave me alone and refrain from screaming.”

“No, we need to talk like a team if we want anything done.”

“That’s for discussions. We can’t afford to waste time and you know what to do. Everyone knows what to do, so leave me to give out the commands and stay silent.”

“You’re pathetic.” Amy added.

“Silence.”

“No, If I want to talk, I’ll talk.” Amy was angry. “I don’t know who you think you are, but you are no better than anyone here. Get off your high horse and cooperate. Yes, some people here that I won’t name are definitely idiots, but that doesn’t give me the right to act like a higher being and pretend that I’m the boss. Make some small talk and work with others instead of acting like a broken record.”

What triggered her so much? She usually responds with like one or two short sentences. Did Naomi upset her about something before?

Naomi raised her hand in the air and I immediately realized that she wanted to slap Amy. After a short second, Naomi’s hand quickly started moving towards Amy and I ran in to grab it before anything could happen.

“What do you think you’re doing?” I turned to Naomi while holding her wrist.

“Let go.”

“Why should I?” I tightened my grip.

“Because Amy needs to be slapped.”

“And why do you think that?” I was also annoyed by Naomi’s lack of attempt at starting any kind of conversation. I always was, but I tried to tolerate it because I wanted to be a nice person and because I had bigger problems.

“She is a liar and an annoyance.”

I let go of Naomi’s wrist, but I pushed her right after out of anger.

“I’m sorry,” I said halfheartedly.

“No, don’t be sorry.” Amy interrupted my apology, “Naomi’s the one at fault here.”

“What do you want from me?” Naomi asked.

“Not much!” I replied, “Just be less secretive and talk more with us. I have to agree with Amy, you’re acting like you’re way better than us and I don’t remember ever having a casual conversation with you.”

“I am a leader. I organize everything, I make plans, I do work that is needed for anything to happen. I don’t understand how you can even suggest small talk, the priority is surviving. Make friends after you leave.”

“You’d be right if we were stuck for like two days at most. Weeks have passed, it’s obvious that this is a long task. I’m always on edge, everyone is! We need some form of resting and talking about meaningless stuff.”

“It’s unnecessary.”

“Don’t bullshit me.” Amy was still frustrated, “I know you need to relax, you probably know that too, but something in that thick head of yours is telling you to act like this. You might’ve been raised in some super strict household, I have no idea, but maybe we’d know if you’d decide to talk. Point is, try to relax for a moment, it won’t kill you.”

“If you decide to stop now and get back to work, I will make small talk after the discussion. Deal?”

“Yeah, that sounds good.” I replied.

While I wanted to get to know everyone better, Naomi was right, there was so much to do. Maybe I liked small talk because I subconsciously assumed I was going to die with these people, or maybe my brain was trying to avoid the seriousness of the situation to spare me the stress.

We tried getting back to work, but before we could find anything new, we heard someone running down the stairs.

“I require assistance!” Dante yelled just before coming down to the floor we were on.

“What happened?” I came up to him, noticing the anxiety in his voice.

“Lady Evelyn has succumbed to darkness.”

“She’s dead?” My body and voice began uncontrollably shaking.

“No, she is still present in our world of mortals.”

“Then don’t talk like she’s dead, dumbass,” Amy said.

“We were inspecting Adam’s bedchamber, just as we had been ordered, when the lady had a feeling of weakness. I made an attempt to provide assistance, but it was futile, she lost consciousness. For now, she’s breathing, yet I’m unaware what will occur after this.”

“She passed out?” I asked.

“I’m afraid she did.”

“Petra, let’s go check up on her,” Amy turned to me. “I mean, I checked up on you when you lost consciousness.”

I remembered the moment that Amy was referencing. It was like a dream, yet it revealed a lot of information. Could that be happening to Evie right now? It’s too big of a possibility to ignore!

I followed Amy up to the room where Adam used to sleep, which became Evelyn’s bedroom after Naomi divided us by gender.

She was lying in bed. Luckily, Evelyn was still breathing normally, she was most likely going to be fine. Knowing that, a lot of stress fell off my back. I gestured at Amy to come closer, but none of us were capable of helping her. We tried waking her up, but couldn’t. Dante had already covered her with a blanket as well, so there was nothing for us to do. We had come up for no good reason, but I was glad that we didn’t lose anyone again.