I felt water splashing across my face.

“Huh, w-what’s going on?”

“There we go,” I heard Amy’s voice.

Where did that water come from? What’s going on… Oh God, Blake!

I was reminded of that horrid event. Blake’s corpse resting on dirty spikes, his intestines out in the open, my vomit on the floor in front of it all. I wanted to get those pictures out of my head, but I couldn’t. Instead, I slowly stood up and took a look around me. I’m in the kitchen. Why was I brought here? Is this some attempt at a joke?

In front of me stood everyone who was still alive and in this mansion apart from Rose. The atmosphere gave me a feeling of déjà vu, a moment like this had definitely occurred before, the only difference being that someone else had been in the position that I was in.

Without getting time to rest, Lucia faded into my sight, standing behind everyone, but coming closer each second, reinforcing my feeling of déjà vu. Everyone took a step away from her, their backs clinging onto the kitchen counter and the wall. She’s alive! No, no, no, why? Why is she alive? She should be dead!

“You guys seem upset,” Lucia chuckled.

“Away, witch!” Dante shouted.

“Aw, come on, do not be mean. It could cost you your life.”

“I will not submit!”

“Ugh, fine. I’ll spare you simply for your stupidity. If you had anything in that skull of yours, you’d use your friend’s death as a means to figure out the secret. Wouldn’t that be way smarter than this?”

“Silence, monster!”

Lucia didn’t respond. Instead, she turned around and left the room without saying anything. Dante considered going after her, but something inside of him stopped him from doing it. That something was most likely common sense, but that never stopped Dante from anything before.

I didn’t even notice it until Lucia left, but my body was shaking uncontrollably. I had no clue what time it was, I couldn’t remember when I last ate something. I was a needy and traumatized toddler inside of a teenage girl’s body.

“The end is close,” Amy mumbled.

“What?” I asked.

“I read through your journal, I looked around the mansion to familiarize myself more with it, I thought about Blake’s failed plan. I think I understood the secret of the mansion.”

She was very close to me and she spoke quietly, I was the only one who heard her.

“Are you serious? Please tell me you’re serious!”

“Quiet down a bit. I don’t want to be overwhelmed by everyone. I’ll explain everything.”

She left the kitchen and gestured at me to follow her, which I did. We quickly walked to my bedroom, paying attention that nobody was following us, even though no one had any reason to do that. Amy even locked the door the second we entered.

“Why’d you need to lock the door?”

“Just in case. I’m going to be honest, I’m paranoid.”

“That’s understandable. But, can you tell me what you figured out?”

“Alright, here’s the thing. The secret is, obviously, mendivi. That’s something you already know, it’s pretty clear.”

“Yeah, I know, but do you know what mendivi actually is? Not the definition, but what it’s supposed to represent. That’s been bugging me for a while.”

“Well, that thing is the secret itself, so it’s obviously hidden. Luckily, I figured it out. It’s a detail that everyone forgot. The metallic eye.”

“The metallic eye?”

“You found those blueprints for a metallic eye. I don’t know how long ago, but I found it in your journal. I managed to find them and the blueprints are compatible with the idea I had.”

“Oh, I know. I completely forgot about that!”

“Basically, I believe that someone in the mansion has that machine, and I believe that the machine is capable of creating strong illusions, hence the name translating to ‘lying vision’. That could explain many things. Most importantly, I know that I wasn’t resurrected, but instead, more logically, I was simply unconscious and mendivi gave you and everybody else the illusion that I was dead.”

“Wouldn’t that mean that nobody died?”

“I highly doubt it. Adam and Alex definitely did not possess mendivi, but they killed. Adam seemed to have survived his punishment, but Naomi ended that. There’s a chance that she and Blake are alive, but I highly doubt that’s the case. They could’ve died from shock after feeling the pain of what they thought they were experiencing. Adam was lucky in that regard, many people would’ve died in that position.”

“I see. Wait, weren’t you supposedly killed by Alex?”

“Yes, I was. But unlike with Eden and Maya, Alex used a weird gas that you could only find in this mansion. It was bound to be different and I don’t see the effects of it being possible without mendivi.”

“You really thought this through, haven’t you? That’s good! There’s hope! And if what you’re saying is true, we might figure out-”

“You haven’t even heard everything I had to say.”

“Oh, I’m sorry!”

“Don’t get too ahead of yourself. I’m lucky that Alex didn’t get rid of me permanently for my slip up.”

I noticed that Amy was shaking a bit. It wasn’t visible in her voice, but she was panicking.

“I’m curious,” I said, “how did you get to this conclusion? It seems far-fetched at first, but it all makes sense.”

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“Well, just like you, I did not believe that what I was seeing was real. Unlike you though, I decided to actually focus on the possibility that somehow, what I was seeing was fake. It was an act of despair, but it paid off.”

“I see, but that leaves me with one question. Do you have an explanation for Rose being alive? Did I show you the letter?”

“The letter? No.”

“I found a letter on the third floor,” I pulled it out of my pocket and gave it to Amy. “It’s signed by Rose.”

Amy quickly read it.

“That seals it. Rose possesses the mendivi. She isn’t dead, because she only gave us the illusion of being killed and used it to hide from us.”

“So, what do we do now?”

“We only have one option. We have to report to Lucia.”

I really didn’t want to hear that, but Amy was right. Somehow, that realization made me feel like I didn’t know half of the secret, like mendivi was nothing more than an irrelevant cover. I was clearly jumping to conclusions, yet I couldn’t take those thoughts out of my head.

“Amy, how do we do it?”

“What do you mean? We simply call for her and inform her of what we know.”

“That’s a bad idea!”

“Why?”

I didn’t know how to answer. In fact, I couldn’t think of a single good reason not to do it. I was scared, nothing more than that.

“There are more clues that you didn’t use!” I blurted out.

“Really? Which ones?” Amy was genuinely curious.

I paused for a moment and began thinking of my days of constant searching until I could dig up a single sentence to get out of this awkward situation.

“Gabriella’s journal!”

“Oh yeah, you wrote about that. I don’t think that brings up any argument for or against mendivi, but it does seem relevant. Do you know where you left it?”

“It’s still in the library, but I’m not sure which shelf. There’s also a chance that it’s been knocked over.”

“Why would it be knocked over?”

“Well, it could’ve been knocked over when I fought Alex and I haven’t entered that place since, I don’t like reminding myself.”

“Well, we’re going there now.”

“I don’t want to!”

“I believe that you don’t want to die either. Petra, if you’re going to cling to life, at least sacrifice something else.” Amy unlocked the door and walked out.

I followed her like a helpless puppy despite my earlier protest. Amy seemed determined to polish her conclusion, to lead us to the end without taking any unnecessary risks. She was helping me in a way that Naomi had wanted to, but unlike Naomi, Amy was succeeding.

After a minute that felt like an eternity, we reached the door to the library.

“Whatever you do now, just do it calmly. Don’t panic no matter what sort of memory comes up. Understand?” Amy spoke in a tone between normal speech and whispering.

I didn’t say anything, I simply nodded and prepared myself mentally while letting Amy enter before me.

Before any disturbing thoughts about Alex could enter my mind, I saw Lucia at the other end of the room, reading a familiar looking book. She was standing near a pile of fallen books that nobody had bothered to pick back up.

“I believe you’ve come for this,” Lucia approached us and threw the book that she was holding.

Amy managed to catch it. From just looking over her shoulder, I could see that it was Gabriella’s journal.

“This is it,” Amy said.

“I’m aware,” Lucia replied before walking past us.

“Wait,” Amy moved in Lucia’s way.

“Yes?”

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Of course, I’m always here to help.”

“If we think that we figured out the secret of the mansion, what do we do?”

“Well, on the first day here, I mentioned how I would show up to inform you when you’ve done it. But I am here, aren’t I?”

“So, we did it?”

“Not quite. You’ve got some pieces, you’re on the right track, that’s all I’ll say.”

“Then what do we do?”

Lucia stood silent for a bit until she thought of an idea.

“Oh, I have a brilliant plan! How about I let you finish what you’re currently investigating, and after that, one of you can write an essay describing everything in detail. If the paper I’m handed contains the correct information and reveals the secret to a satisfying extent, everything ends and you’re free to go, but if the information isn’t correct or it isn’t related to the secret, I execute the writer. How does that sound? I’m not asking for anything formal, I just want correct information in any shape or form.”

“Absolutely not,” Amy immediately declined.

“I’ll write it!” I jumped into the conversation.

I was staring daggers at Lucia and that gave her a hellish smile when she realized it.

“Are you retarded?” Amy asked me.

“Amy, this bitch wants to demoralize us, and her plan is certainly working, but I can’t let this continue. I’m not doubting that this decision might kill me, I’m fully aware of my chances, but I am not going to let everyone besides me die for nothing! Either I’m going to hell, or I’m sending Lucia to it!”

I was breathing heavily, I couldn’t control my emotions yet again. There was a chance that the worst decision in my entire life had been made, but there was nothing else to do. My last attempt at life itself had begun. I promised Evie, haven’t I? I’m firing the final shot.

Amy moved out of the way and Lucia walked out of the room.

“What was that?” Amy asked me.

“I know, I made a bad decision! But tell me, is there anything else that I could’ve done?”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right, but do you have any clue where to start?”

“Not really. I’ll probably just go back to my room after looking through Gabriella’s journal and think a bit, reminding myself of all the clues we’ve found so far. Then I’ll write and I’ll hope for the best.”

“Sounds like a plan. Do you need my help writing it?”

“If I fail with your help, you might die too. I will risk my life, not yours. Just help me discuss the clues beforehand.”

We spent about two hours going through and discussing what Gabriella had written, analyzing everything. It seemed like there was more written in it than the previous time that I read it, though with the concept of mendivi, that gave me less worry than confidence. I struggled to keep up with Amy, she acted like a machine while I had the thought of impending doom invading my brain.

Near the end of the journal, there were loads of blank pages. The first time I read it, I thought that it ended there and that Gabriella simply stopped writing, but unlike me, Amy continued flipping through the pages and discovered an extra bit of text on the page right before the last. When I noticed that, I jumped a bit and quickly began reading.

I’ve left the cursed village of Vorfall. Not by choice, I was forced to flee. I’m heading to the town down the hill, Nidengate. I will find a husband, I will have children, I will become normal, even if I must use this “eye” that I’ve obtained. All that torture, all that suffering, I went through it all and I became a hero in the eyes of my friends whose lives I saved. But the world didn’t see it that way, they only saw the horrors, they saw a murderer, even though Alfred was the one that murdered first.

I’m running out of pages in this notebook, but I don’t plan on obtaining another one. My life ended in a way, I now have the memories of that cruel man following me along my path. I won’t throw this diary away either, I will most likely show it to someone who I will learn to trust. I just hope that I won’t go insane by then.

I was confused by Gabriella’s words, though satisfied that she mentioned the eye that Amy and I considered to be mendivi. Alfred? That’s my great grandfather. Did she kill him? This has to be useful!

After we finished reading, I took the journal and began walking to my room with a sense of dread following me. Amy only followed me down to the second floor and we went separate ways from there, though she gave me a warm and comforting hug before that. The silence between that hug and my room terrified me.

When I opened the door to my bedroom, I noticed a bunch of things scattered around. Upon closer inspection, they were clues we had already discovered. The blueprints, the pictures of Lucia and the ancestors of everyone in the mansion, my journal that I had given to Amy. The things that couldn’t be moved had their picture taken, such as the information above the coffins or the writing of mendivi in the small hidden room beneath the backyard. I also noticed a notebook and a pen laying on the nightstand. Lucia had everything prepared.

I cautiously picked up the notebook and pen and I sat on my bed. I lost myself in thought and began writing, constantly crossing things off until I could string a coherent sentence.