I couldn’t get much sleep at all. I was so nervous about the plan. It seemed like Marin wasn’t getting much sleep either. She kept tossing and turning on the top bunk which was shaking me around all night. I looked over at the clock and saw that 4am was quickly approaching, so I decided to get up and wash my face in the restroom. I didn’t want to be sleepy for something as important as this. When I left the bathroom, I saw Marin standing near the bed rubbing her eyes.

“It’s too early for this shit…” she said.

“‘This shit’ is pretty important though,” I said. She smiled at me.

“I’m just joking,” Marin said. “I guess we should get ready. Looks like there’s no time for a shower. I’m still gonna brush my teeth though. You should too. Gingivitis is no joke.”

“That’s the last thing I’m worried about right now.”

“When your teeth fall out at age thirty, I’m sure you’ll wish you brushed your teeth even in the nightmare school,” she said. I laughed and she went into the restroom.

I can’t believe we’re really doing this. I can’t help but feel like we’re going to get gunned down or something horrible like that. There’s a huge pit in my stomach the more I think about this. I don’t know if I’ve ever felt more nervous in my life. I’m no saint. I’m not full of courage. I just really don’t want to die. Marin left the restroom, gave me a smile and pointed at her teeth.

“These are the money-makers,” she said. I smiled at her and went to the bathroom to brush my own teeth. I guess peer pressure still works even after high school.

Once I left the bathroom myself, it was only a couple minutes before four, so we opened the door and left the room. We saw a crowd of our teammates outside of Maya and Louis’ dorm. Maya was outside looking terrified. The others were surrounding her, and they seemed to be talking about something serious.

“What’s the matter guys?” Marin asked.

“Maya won’t let us in the room,” Keon said. “Don’t interfere! We need Louis outside, now!” he said, turning back towards Maya.

“B-but, I-I can’t,” she said. “H-he’s not feeling well right now…”

“What do you mean?!” Carmen said. “We need him out here, now! We don’t have much time.”

“Let. Us. In,” Keon said coldly. Maya recoiled.

“F-fine…” she said. “B-but, I didn’t do it…”

“Didn’t do what?!” Amber said.

“Oh God. Don’t tell me,” Carmen said.

Maya put her face up to the screen to unlock the door and everyone rushed in at once. We all looked at the beanbag chair in the middle of the room, and our worst fears were realized. Louis was sitting there…lifeless.

“Oh God, oh God…” Marin said, clutching her head.

“I-I didn’t do it!” Maya yelled nervously. “I swear, I didn’t!”

Just then an announcement came on which proved the severity of the situation.

A body has been discovered! Nice work students! Time will now be set aside for you to investigate. After a while, a class trial will commence where you must fight for your lives to find the culprit! Staff will be with you momentarily to guide you.

“What the fuck…” Carmen said. “Ch-check his pulse!”

Conrad and Atticus went over to his body and then shortly after, Conrad shook his head.

“Yeah…he’s gone,” Atticus said.

“God damnit!” Keon yelled, slamming his fist into the wall.

“How did this happen, Maya?!” Carmen yelled.

“I-I don’t know! B-but I didn’t do it!” she was cowering when she spoke. “Oh fuck, oh fuck…M-maybe he had the poisoned bracelet,” Maya continued. “Y-yeah! That must be it!”

“We still had time until it went off!” Conrad yelled. “There’s no way it went off this early!”

Just then we saw Sienna come up to the door with Cyrus, Sabrina, Robbie, and Miles close behind her.

“What the fuck was that announcement about?!” Sienna said.

“It can’t be…” Miles said.

“Oh ho!” Robbie said. “Bracelet’s captured a poor victim! That’s why I never trust jewelry!”

Sabrina had no expression on her face at all. She looked so calm and collected. Shortly after though, she locked her eyes to mine and gave me a warm smile. I looked away. Levi, Andrea, Jane, and Alex finally made their appearance and pushed through the others and entered the room.

“You guys couldn’t have done this in the morning…” Levi said, yawning. “Working at 4am should be illegal.”

“Shut the fuck up!” Carmen yelled.

“This is all your fault!” Amber yelled at them.

“Hey now, we didn’t do anything to kill this poor man,” Levi said. “The fault lies with one of you.”

“Are you saying it wasn’t the bracelet?” Keon said.

“Of course not,” Levi said. “There was no poison. His bracelet was only full of water which is actually quite good for you in case you didn’t know.”

“WHAT?!” Carmen yelled. “You fucker!”

“It was only a little white lie to get the party started,” Levi said. “And it worked perfectly! You’re all too gullible.”

Carmen and Keon looked like their heads were about to explode.

“Enough of that, let’s get to the main event!” Levi continued. “I’ll explain the investigation process to you all, and then I’ll give you all some information on the circumstances of his death. You will all be given a small amount of time to investigate the crime scene and talk with one another to see if you can gain the proper clues to catch the killer behind this horrible act. Once it seems like you have all stopped making progress, I will call you all into the gym to commence the class trial which I will explain the rules of once we arrive there. For now, here’s the death information for you.”

He handed a clipboard to Keon who was looking at it intently.

“I’ll leave you all to it! I’ll be back once I deem it appropriate to commence the trial. Toodaloo!” Levi then left us with the rest of his posse following behind.

I caught a glance at Jane before she left, who looked like she was about to throw up. Then, turning back to the room, I saw Marin actually throwing up. It seems like this was too much for her to handle.

“Oh, sweetie,” Carmen said, rubbing Marin’s back. “I’m gonna take her away from here. Keon, head the investigation.”

“Of course,” he said. “Things may look grim now, but we have no choice now than to play along with this class trial. We all die if we can’t find out who did this, so everyone needs to do their part. No one moves anything. The crime scene needs to stay exactly how it is right now or else we might screw up the sequence of events. I’m going to read the information on the death report, so listen up. Cause of death: Unknown. Time of death: 3am. Place of death: Louis and Maya’s dorm. That’s all that’s written.”

I can’t believe Louis had to die. We all thought his death was pretty likely after what we learned about the bracelets in the cafeteria but hearing that it was only full of water changes everything. I’m afraid, but it’s not fair to everyone if I just lay down and cower without helping try to catch who did this. We all die if we don’t after all.

“Hey, Ryder, want to investigate together?” Emma said, walking up to me.

“Oh, yeah, sure,” I said. “Let’s do our best. For Louis.”

“Absolutely,” she responded.

“So, what do you make of the death report?” I asked her.

“Not a lot of information to go off of, especially with the omission of the cause of death, but at least we know that he died in this room which narrows down a lot.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“If it happened here then the number of people who could have committed the crime is really small. After all, who has access to this room?”

“Louis and Maya,” I said.

“Exactly.”

“I think everyone is going to blame Maya, but don’t you think it would be too obvious for it to be her?” I said. “Doesn’t seem like a very solid plan.”

“I agree. That’s why we should look around and see if something can paint the picture better.”

I started looking around the room seeing if there were any points of interest, and out of the corner of my eye I spotted a small object near the beanbag chair that Louis’ body was laying on.

“What’s this?” I said. “It looks like a small hook…”

“Let me see it,” Emma said. I gave it to her. “Hmmmm…oh! This is a hook to a bra it looks like.”

“A bra hook? I guess it’s not super strange to find something like that in a room where a girl lives.”

“I’m not sure if it’s significant or not, but it was next to the body, so let’s remember it for now.” Emma said.

Stolen story; please report.

“I guess we should check out the body…” I said squeamishly. I really didn’t want to.

“It can’t be helped sadly,” Emma said. “I can’t believe we couldn’t stop this…”

“I can’t believe Levi ended up getting what he wanted in the end,” I said.

“I know how you feel,” Keon said, coming into the conversation. “Put that aside for now though and let’s find the cause so we can save the rest of us.”

“You’re right…” Emma said. “It’s just hard to believe that this is real.”

“I know, but it is,” Keon said. “You don’t have to get near the body if you don’t want to. Ryder, why don’t you help me examine it?”

“O-oh, sure,” I said. I really really didn’t want to though.

Going up to the body, a strange smell was the first thing that I noticed. It was familiar and didn’t seem to be the smell of death or anything like that.

“Vinegar…” Keon whispered.

“Is that what that is?” I asked.

“I believe so. I’m not sure why that would be coming off of his body, but I find it hard to believe that it’s not significant. Now, let’s see if we can find any external wounds.”

After looking at the body and examining it thoroughly, with Keon doing most of the work, we didn’t find any external wounds that looked like they could have been the cause of death.

“Hold on, look at this,” Keon said. He was examining Louis’s neck. “It looks like he was strangled by something. Look at these marks on his neck.”

Keon was right, there were indents on his neck that showed that he was choked by something rather thin.

“There’s no way this was done by someone’s bare hands,” Keon said. “But what could have done it?”

“I’m not sure,” I responded.

“We’ll have to give it some thought. I’m sure the clues are all here somewhere,” Keon said. “Looks like that’s all we’ll learn from the body.” He walked away from Louis’s body and went to look elsewhere. I backed away as well and went back towards Emma.

“Did you learn anything new?” she asked.

“It looks like he was choked by something,” I said. “There are also no external wounds other than the marks on his neck.”

“Jeez,” Emma said. “That’s a horrible way to go.” I nodded.

“We should ask Maya about what happened last night,” Emma continued.

“Sounds good.”

I walked over to where Maya was sitting in the corner of the room, she was hugging her sister while Sienna was yelling at her.

“You did it, didn't you?!” Sienna yelled. “Just admit it! Who else could have done it?! I’m not dying because of you!”

“Mia…help me…” Maya said, burying her face into her sister's shirt. “I-I didn’t do it…”

“I know, I know,” Mia said while petting her light blue hair. “I believe you.”

“Sienna, stop interfering with the investigation,” Emma said.

“How am I interfering?!” Sienna yelled. “Who else could have done it? I’m helping if anything. If she admits it, then we can end the trial early and I can go back to bed.”

“We can’t just immediately blame her,” Emma said. “That would be the worst murder plot in history if she did it. Of course she’d be the number one suspect, so she doesn’t have anything to gain.”

“Maybe, but I still don’t see how someone else could have done it,” Sienna said. “Not unless they let someone in the room themselves, but even if they did, why wouldn’t Maya just say who it was? It doesn’t make any sense for it to be someone else!”

“We still can’t just assume things,” Emma said. “Now, can you step back so we can talk to Maya?”

“Hmph,” Sienna gruffed. “Whatever. Be my guest.” She then walked away.

“Maya, can we talk about what you saw last night?” Emma said, kneeling down next to her.

“I didn’t do anything…” Maya said, still nuzzled into her sister's shirt.

“I’m not saying you did, but we can’t clear your name without knowing what happened in here. Please help us.”

“I was in the bathroom the whole night,” Maya said. “I didn’t know anything had happened until I heard everyone knocking on the door…”

“Why were you in there?” Emma asked. “Sorry if it’s for a personal reason, but we need to know to give you a possible alibi.”

“Louis came in the room and was much more of a spaz than usual,” Maya said, wiping the tears from her eyes while looking up at us. “I was yelling at him, and he told me that he had the poisoned bracelet, so I was scared that he had nothing left to lose, and he’d try to kill me…”

“So, you were afraid that he’d try to kill you so he could escape?” Emma asked. Maya nodded her head.

“That also doesn't seem like a very good plan,” Emma said. “I find it hard to believe that he would think that he’d get away with it, but I also find it hard to believe that you would think the same if you killed him…”

“It’s a very bad idea to kill your roommate in your own dorm no matter how you look at it,” Atticus said walking up to us. “There’s no way people would be able to picture someone else being responsible.”

“So, Mia. Why do you believe your sister?” Emma asked.

“Because she’s my sister,” Mia said. “I know she wouldn’t have it in her to kill someone. She’s a scaredy cat.”

“A-am not!” Maya objected.

“That’s hardly a good enough reason,” Atticus said. “We need some hard, unbiased evidence.”

“We’ll just have to take her word for it for now,” Emma said. “I can’t shake the feeling that someone else is responsible for this.”

“That’s still not a good enough reason,” Atticus said.

“Regardless, let’s keep looking around, Ryder,” Emma said. I nodded.

“Let’s take a look in the bathroom,” Emma said. “Maybe there’s something in there that can help us.”

Entering the bathroom, we saw Carmen and Marin sitting on the floor near the toilet. Carmen was rubbing Marin’s back. It looks like she was still queasy from the situation.

“How are you feeling, Marin?” Emma asked.

“B-better,” Marin choked out. “Sorry…”

“It’s totally fine!” Emma said. “It’s totally understandable given what’s been going on. You reacted most normally if anything.” Marin gave a weak smile.

“If you guys are here to look for evidence of Maya camping out here, don’t bother,” Carmen said. “There’s nothing of note in here that proves that Maya was or wasn’t here last night.”

“Damn,” Emma said. “It’s becoming increasingly difficult to find evidence that proves Maya’s story. I’m not sure where else we could check.”

“Wait,” I said. “What about the smell of vinegar?”

“What about it?” Emma said. Then her eyes lit up.

It seemed she understood what I was getting at. Emma opened the vanity in the bathroom and checked the vinegar bottle that we all had in our respective dorm bathrooms and it made one thing very clear to us.

“The bottle hasn’t even been opened…” Emma said.

“What’s that have to do with anything?” Carmen said.

“Louis’s body smelled like vinegar, and if the bottle here is unopened, then that means the vinegar had to come from somewhere else!” Emma said.

“I see,” Carmen said. “So, we could probably assume that it’s either from another dorm’s bottle of vinegar, or from a bottle in the kitchen.”

“We should check the kitchen,” Emma said. “It’d be easier than checking all the dorms one by one. Especially since we don’t know how much time we have.”

We went to walk out the door and head near the cafeteria but were stopped by Amber and Conrad inspecting the doorknob of the dorm room.

“What are you guys doing?” Emma asked.

“Oh! Emma, Ryder, come look at this,” Amber said while she pointed at the doorknob.

“It’s a small blue smear…” Emma said, looking closely at the mark.

“We’re not sure what it could be,” Conrad said. “None of the other doorknobs have something like this on them.”

“Does it taste or smell of anything?” Emma said.

“I’m not gonna taste it!” Conrad said. “I don’t even know what it is!”

“C’mon, Conrad, do it!” Amber said.

“No!” Conrad said.

“Do it! Do it! Do it!” Amber and Emma both said in unison.

“Ugh…” Conrad groaned with his hand on his face. “You all owe me one.”

Conrad rubbed the blue mark for a few seconds and after lifting his finger, we saw a little bit of the blue rubbed off on him. He looked at it closely, hesitated, then gave a quick sniff, and then lightly pressed his tongue on it.

“So?” Amber said.

“It’s a little strange,” Conrad said. “I definitely smell and taste a little bit of vinegar, but there’s also something slightly sweet mixed in there…”

“Hmm…” Emma said. “Seems like vinegar is going to be the key to this case after all.”

“So, if we assume that someone important to this case rubbed this on there accidentally, then that would assume there was a third party after all, right?” Amber said.

“Looks that way,” Emma said. “Especially since Louis and Maya had no traces of blue on their hands at all. It’s possible it was washed off though, but I don’t see what motive they would have to mess around with vinegar and something blue…”

“It’s a real head-scratcher,” Conrad said. “I’m not good at this critical thinking stuff, and I did my part, so I trust you guys to take it from here.”

“Thanks for the help, Conrad,” Emma said. “This makes our trip to the kitchen even more important, so let’s go there pronto. Who knows how much time we have left to look around.”

We walked through the doors of the cafeteria and made our way back to the kitchen. Alex wasn’t around, so it looked like we had free reign to look around. We started looking around the kitchen and found the bottle of vinegar in question, and it was only partly full.

“Okay, so we know now that it was in fact used at some point, but that doesn’t mean that Alex didn’t use it while cooking,” Emma said. “If only he were here, we could ask him.”

“At least we learned that it wasn’t unopened, that’s better than having learned nothing from this,” I said.

“Yeah, but it doesn't teach us much other than the fact that it could have been used in this case,” Emma said. “If only there was some other piece of evidence that could help us-”

Emma’s words were interrupted by a single set of footsteps entering the cafeteria which startled both of us. It was Sabrina.

“Hey, Ryder!” she said enthusiastically. She then looked over at Emma. “Hi, Emma…” she said with much less enthusiasm.

“Hello, Sabrina,” Emma said. “What brings you here?”

“I heard that you both went this way to check out the cafeteria and thought I should let you know what I saw last night,” Sabrina said.

“What you saw?” Emma asked.

“Since you both seem to think this is vital to the case, I figured you’d like to know who was here last night while everyone was gone,” Sabrina said.

“Everyone was here at some point last night…” Emma said.

“Obviously, but what I mean is between when everyone left after dinner and when the guards took their places to guard the cafeteria,” Sabrina said. “I was still here sitting in the corner, and I saw a few people come into the cafeteria and I figured it might help you figure out the culprit.”

“Oh!” Emma perked up. “Yes! Tell us please!”

Ever since our talk, Sabrina has been a completely different person. She’s talkative, helpful, and while she still seems cold to a lot of the others, she seems to want to work with us. I can’t tell if this is a good thing or not but based on her strange “love confession” and the hostility towards Marin and Emma, I can’t help but think that she has a strange motive for all of this.

“The people I saw last night in the order they came in were Mia, Maya, and Sienna,” Sabrina said. “I’m not sure if any of them took anything, but they all went back to the kitchen, so it’s possible they took something small that I couldn’t see. None of them seemed to notice me in the corner, so they probably thought they were alone.”

“Mia, Maya, and Sienna…” Emma said to herself. “Thank you, Sabrina. That is very helpful, but we still don’t know if one of them took the vinegar, what it was used for, or if anything else of note was taken.”

“Let’s keep looking around,” I said. “Maybe there’s something we missed.”

Sabrina joined our search as we continued to look through the cupboards, drawers, fridge, and every other place we could think of. Suddenly, Sabrina motioned for us to come over to the drawer she was looking through and we saw something strange.

“Food coloring?” Emma said.

“The blue one is missing,” Sabrina said. “Who knows if it was there to begin with, but the fact is that it is missing now.”

“We’ve been looking for something blue, and this is the closest thing that we’ve found that fits that criteria. Also, when we searched the cafeteria yesterday, the blue vial was definitely there,” Emma said. “But the question is: What was it used for?”

“I’m not sure,” Sabrina said. “Definitely seems to be worth remembering though.”

We then heard the intercom come on.

Alright, students! It is time for the thrilling class trial! Please cease your investigation and come to the gymnasium, where you all will be reasoning for your very lives! You have two minutes to attend, or a fitting punishment will ensue. Thank you for your cooperation.

“N-not now,” Emma said. “I feel like there’s so much we don’t know…”

“Let’s just hope we have enough evidence, and the rest will come out during the class trial,” I said.

We then made our way to the gym where everyone else was waiting.