“Oh my god…” Amber said.
“There’s no way!” Marin said. “She’d never do that!”
“I guess there is a possibility…” Emma said.
“No!” Maya yelled. “My sister would never kill someone!”
“She’s got a bra, she has access to the room, there’s no reason why she wouldn’t be able to,” Cyrus said. “Anything to say, Mia?”
“I would never do something like that,” she said. “Especially since it would cast suspicion on my sister.”
“Maybe that was your reason for doing it,” Cyrus added. “You can play that card, help prove her innocence, and none of the suspicion would be on you at all. I bet you think you outsmarted us all, huh?”
“You bitch!” Sienna yelled from her seat. “I knew it had to be one of you!”
“Everyone calm down!” Keon said. “We can’t just jump to conclusions without proving anything.”
“Can you disprove it?” Cyrus said.
“We don’t even know if she left her room last night,” Keon said. “Miles, did she ever leave last night?”
“Ummm…” Miles started. “I wouldn’t know. I spent most of the night in the library. The only thing I can say for sure is that between when you all left the cafeteria and when the guards were posted, she was gone for a bit. I’m not sure where though.”
“Why the hell were you in the library last night?” Carmen asked.
“I-I was reading…” he responded.
“Yeah, sure you were,” Carmen said. “You are not a reader. I can tell just by looking at you.”
“Okay, fine,” Miles said. “I was working out…”
“All night?” Keon asked.
“From about when you all went into your dorms at 10pm to a little after 3am. I didn’t get a wink of sleep last night.”
“And was Mia in the dorm then?” Carmen asked.
“She was.”
“According to the death report, the time of death was at 3am, so if it was Mia, then she must’ve worked pretty quickly,” Emma said.
“There’s no way she could’ve done it in that small of an amount of time!” Marin said. “Louis was also bigger than her, so there’s no way that she did it!”
“Yeah!” Maya said. “I told you she didn’t do it!”
“Louis may have been a little bit taller than her, but he’s scrawny and didn’t really seem like the type to put up a good fight,” Carmen said.
“There’s also no way that anyone else could have entered that room!” Sienna said.
“Seems we’ve reached an impasse,” Keon said. “If we cannot come up with a way to prove that someone else could have got into that room, or that Mia definitely perpetrated the crime, then our chances of survival aren’t very high.”
“What about the smell of vinegar?” Carmen asked. “It’s hard to say if it’s relevant or not, but apparently the body smells slightly of vinegar.”
“We also saw that the vinegar definitely came from an outside source due to the fact that the bottle in the dorm was un-opened,” Emma said.
“But, why does that matter?” Atticus said. “I don’t see the logic in focusing on the vinegar when there’s no way it was used as a poison or a murder weapon.”
“It might have been used for something else…” I said.
Once again, everyone’s attention was on me. This time I wasn’t scared though. I think I’m finally starting to understand what happened, but that’s only if what I’m thinking is even possible. I can still see several different ways to combat my own theory, but for some reason, I think I’m on to something.
“Conrad, Amber, can you recall what we saw on the doorknob of the dorm room?” I asked.
“Yeah, it was a blue smudge of some kind,” Conrad said.
“And it…smelled and tasted like vinegar…” Amber said. Her face lit up showing that she was starting to understand where I was going.
“So the vinegar smell is relevant after all,” Cyrus said. “I think I know what happened now, but it doesn’t really help tell us who.”
“It does tell us who didn’t do it though,” I said.
“Elaborate!” Atticus demanded.
“I believe if we are going to explore the meaning of the blue vinegar smell, then it proves that both Mia and Maya had nothing to do with this. It also proves that the crime was definitely not carried out by a man.”
“Elaborate more!” Keon demanded.
“I believe that this blue smudge was homemade hair dye that was used to enter the room by getting past the facial recognition lock,” I said.
“Wh-what?” Marin said.
“There’s no way!” Sienna said.
“Oh my god…is that possible?” Emma said.
“Is that something that can be made with what we have available to us?” Keon asked.
“And shouldn’t we see another blue brain among us?” Cyrus added.
“B-blue-brain?!” Maya objected.
“I agree that there are other things we have to figure out, but I can’t help but feel like we’re on to something here,” I said.
“Your feeling isn’t enough to keep me alive, Ryder,” Atticus said.
“Let’s entertain this for a bit,” Carmen said. “Let’s try to see if it’s even possible first.”
“Ryder, where do we start?” Keon asked.
“Does anyone know if there’s a way to make homemade hair dye?” I asked.
“D-dude, you don’t even know if it’s possible?!” Miles said.
“I-I’m sure it is!” I said. (At least I hope so.) “But let’s look at what we’ve got available to use as ingredients and see if we can prove it.”
“I think we can agree that one of the ingredients is vinegar, and there must also be something that adds a blue color,” Emma said.
“If you just add vinegar and something blue together there’s no way that would work,” Sienna said.
“There must be a sort of bonding agent that ties the two together,” Emma said.
“In my experience, hair dye is usually a paste, so we should assume that it’s something similar to that,” Marin said.
“Marin…you dye your hair?!” Amber asked.
“If you’re asking if I’m a natural blonde, I am,” Marin responded. “I never actually dyed my hair but I almost dyed it brown several times because I didn’t want the dumb blonde look anymore…”
“Is that actually something people make fun of you for?” Emma asked.
“You’d be surprised,” Marin said.
“Ladies. We’re getting off topic,” Carmen said. “This is life or death, and I couldn’t care less if you’re a real or fake dumb blonde.”
“You didn’t have to keep ‘dumb’ in there!” Marin objected.
“If it has to be a paste, then is it possible that they just used the conditioner as the base?” Amber asked. “We all have some in our bathrooms. Maybe that could be the sweet taste that you were tasting, Conrad!”
“I did definitely taste something sweet in that blue smudge along with all that vinegar,” Conrad said.
“Would vinegar really overpower the smell of conditioner?” Atticus said.
“Our conditioner has a pretty light fragrance,” Marin said. “Way lighter than the body wash and shampoo we have at least.”
“Okay, so we’ve got vinegar, conditioner, and something that colors things blue…” Keon said.
“We need to figure out where they got something blue and also where the vinegar came from,” Carmen said.
“Ryder can help with that too,” Sabrina said smiling. “I can tell he’s got everything figured out already. He’s amazing!”
“I was there too…” Emma said. “Anyway, the vinegar could have been taken from the kitchen since the container was open and used, and I believe that we can point to the missing blue food coloring vial as our blue coloring agent.”
“I agree,” I said. “I think it’s safe to say that both the vinegar and the blue food coloring were taken from the kitchen to use to dye the culprit's hair.”
“And this is where I come in,” Sabrina said. “There were three people who went into the kitchen after everyone left for dinner last night but before the guards were posted. These people were Maya, Mia, and…Sienna.”
“M-me?!” Sienna yelled. “Are you accusing me?!”
“If this is true, then it definitely doesn’t look good for you,” Carmen said.
“She’s obviously lying!” Sienna protested. “She’s only saying I was there to blame me for this!”
“Then, let’s test that,” Keon said. “Mia, Maya, were you also in the kitchen last night as Sabrina said?”
“Yes,” Mia said.
“Y-yeah,” Maya said.
“It seems that Sabrina is most likely telling the truth then,” Keon said.
“She still could have just added me on to the rest to make it look truthful!” Sienna said. “I didn’t have anything to do with this! Also, if they were there, they could have just taken the blue food coloring and vinegar to frame me!”
“I guess you do have a point there,” Keon said. “Mia, Maya, what were your reasons for going into the kitchen so late?”
“I wanted to bring my sister some food,” Mia said. “She didn’t grab anything during dinner, so I wanted to bring her something so hopefully she’d apologize to me.”
“I-I went to get food for me as well…” Maya said. “I was really hungry, so I grabbed a couple snacks after you all left and went back to my dorm. I didn’t take any vinegar or the blue food coloring though, I swear!”
“I guess that makes sense,” Carmen said. “We did definitely witness Maya run out of the cafeteria crying without grabbing anything.”
Stolen story; please report.
“I-I wasn’t crying!” Maya said.
“Putting that aside, I have a couple questions,” Emma asked.
“Go ahead,” Keon said.
“First, even if someone dyes their hair blue, how would it be possible to change it back to normal?”
“I can answer that,” Marin said. “You can use vinegar to remove the hair dye. When I said I ‘almost’ dyed my hair brown, I undid it by using vinegar and warm water. It takes a bit of time though.”
“Okay,” Emma said. “Then I just have one more question, doesn't Sabrina’s story mean that it could have been her too?”
“Yeah!” Sienna said. “That’s why she wants to frame me! She was there too! She definitely did it!”
“I guess it would make sense for it to be her as well…” Keon said.
“I doubt that,” Atticus said.
“Why’s that?” Carmen asked.
“He’s just mad I wouldn’t let him use the bathroom! Ignore him,” Sienna said.
“That’s just it,” Atticus said. “You had ample time to create, use, and remove the hair dye because you never let me into the bathroom.”
“I let you sleep in there! You would have seen me walk out with blue hair and I would have been caught immediately! Use your head!” Sienna barked.
“I left for the restroom several times that night, and it’s quite the walk,” Atticus said. “You could have easily slipped out during those times to commit the crime. You were in the bathroom for a while a couple times during the night as well, so unless you want to admit to something grotesque, then I believe that you were doing something nefarious and didn’t want to risk me coming into the bathroom.”
“I don’t have to admit to anything,” Sienna said. “The only thing I will admit to is the fact that I’m a fragile woman. That means there’s no way I’d have the force to overpower Louis, let alone kill him! Look at that hulk of a woman! Sabrina could have killed him in seconds flat!”
“God, this is getting so hard to follow,” Miles said.
“There’s a simple way to solve this,” Keon said. “Cyrus, was Sabrina there all night?”
“Wow, you want my help?” Cyrus said. “Never thought I’d see the day.”
“Just answer the question,” Keon said.
“Hmmmm…I don’t know…Why should I?” Cyrus said.
“Because we could die you fucking idiot!” Carmen said.
“You all haven’t been very nice to me since we’ve been here, and if we survive, then I’d like to make my life a little easier, so how about we make a deal?” Cyrus said.
“A deal?!” Keon yelled. “You’re out of your fucking mind. Just tell us the information that will keep us all alive!”
“C’mon! We can both stand to gain from this,” Cyrus said. “So, here are the terms, I tell you the information that will break the case open and save all of your lives. Pretty valuable, right? And in return, you all forget about finding out my talent and stop looking for the answer. All I want is some privacy, and you get to keep all of your lives.”
“No,” Keon said without hesitation.
“No?” Cyrus parroted.
“Keon, my life is not worth your pride,” Carmen said. “Just promise him.”
“I refuse,” Keon said. “When we evade death, I guarantee that knowing that information will become vital to our escape.”
“I hate to break it to you, Keon, but my talent really isn’t all that amazing or helpful, so why not just make the deal?” Cyrus said.
“Just fucking lie to him, Keon!” Carmen said.
“I won’t do it,” Keon said. “Let’s just find another way to figure this out.”
“God damnit,” Carmen said, holding her head.
“Sabrina, what do you have to say about you being accused?” Emma asked.
“I don’t think I’ll be able to disprove it, so I’ll just hope you guys come to the correct answer,” Sabrina said. “I didn’t do it though, if that helps. This would have been a lot easier if you didn’t drag me into this.”
“I only want us all to survive,” Emma said. “There was a possibility that you could’ve done it, so I had to say something.”
“And we could’ve been done with this if you’d just kept your stupid mouth shut,” Sabrina said.
“Jeez…” Emma responded.
“Let’s have a fake vote just to see where we’re at,” Keon suggested. “Raise your hand if you think Sienna is the culprit.” Sabrina raised her hand, as did I, Carmen, and Atticus. “Okay, now who thinks that Sabrina is the culprit?” Miles, Mia, Maya, Sienna, Emma, Keon and Conrad raised their hands. Cyrus, Marin, and Robbie abstained from voting.
“It looks like most of us believe that Sabrina is the culprit.” Keon said.
“You’re all wrong!” Sabrina yelled. “I can’t believe you are all taking a dumb comment so seriously!”
“You definitely are a lot bigger than Louis,” Miles said. “I just don’t know if Sienna could have overpowered him.”
“Yes, and also you had the same opportunities that Sienna had,” Emma added.
“Fucking Christ! It wasn’t me!” Sabrina yelled. She was definitely starting to get frustrated.
“Well, it wasn’t me! That means it was definitely you!” Sienna yelled.
“Seems like you all have reached a stalemate,” Levi said. “If there’s nothing more to discuss, then I’ll have to ask you all to vote.”
“W-we can’t vote yet!” Marin said. Her face was pale.
“Especially since all of this is conjecture and it feels like very little of anything has actually been proven,” Emma said. She was sweating bullets.
“Just make the deal with Cyrus!” Carmen barked at Keon. Keon didn’t say anything.
“I’ll give you all ten more seconds to add something new, or it will be time to vote,” Levi said.
Levi started counting down. As the numbers ticked away, I saw that Jane was covering her face, Andrea had a huge smile, and Sabrina was looking over at me from across the circle of desks. She had a frustrated look on her face and was looking at me with tears in her eyes.
Wait.
“3…” Levi said.
Her eyes…
“2…”
That’s it!
“1.”
“Stop!” I yelled. “Eye color! You can’t change your eye color! The killer had to have the same color eyes as Maya to get through the door!”
“About time someone said something,” Cyrus said.
“No kidding! I was starting to get worried,” Robbie said. “I’m glad putting my faith in you all worked out. I knew it would! You’re smart kids.”
“Then, that means,” Keon then looked over at the same gray-eyed person everyone else was staring at.
“Sienna, it was you…” Marin said. “How could you?!”
“I-I…d-didn’t…” Sienna was choking on her words.
“I guess that closes the case,” Keon said. “I think we’re ready to vote.”
“N-no!” Sienna yelled. “It wasn’t me!”
“Everything points to it being you,” Atticus said. “If you can’t disprove it, then the case is settled.”
“Thank goodness,” Cyrus said. “Now, I can go back to bed. Life is good.”
“Cyrus, shut the fuck up!” Carmen said. “Sienna, why did you do it? Please at least tell us that much.”
“B-but…I…didn’t,” Sienna was much quieter than I’d ever seen her. She then took a deep breath. “Fine. I did it. But it was because he was already about to die! You all would have done the same!”
“What do you mean?!” Keon said.
“I overheard what you were all saying about Louis having the poisoned bracelet,” Sienna said. “You are all pretty loud, and news spreads pretty quick around here. I figured that if I can kill him in a way that looks like he died from natural causes, then you’d all suspect the poison, and if that didn’t work, then it would have been either Maya or Mia to take the fall since they could both enter each other’s rooms easily. I had no idea that Sabrina was watching me enter the kitchen…”
“That doesn’t answer my question,” Carmen said. “I asked, ‘Why?’”
“I’m not a fucking saint! None of us are! I’m a human being and I’m scared of death! I’m scared of being trapped with a bunch of armed psychos! I hate not knowing if today is going to be my last! There’s no fucking way you all can say you’re better than me! You’re all the same!” Sienna said.
“But you killed Louis!” Amber yelled.
“He was only hours from death!” Sienna said. “He wasn’t going to make it out of here anyway, so why the hell would I waste an opportunity like that?! I guarantee a few of you thought the same thing!”
“Of course, we didn’t!” Marin said. “We were going to save him, and everyone else! You ruined that!”
“There’s no fucking way out of this place! Are you all stupid?!” Sienna yelled. Spit was flying out of her mouth as she yelled. She looked on the verge of insanity.
“Sienna is right,” Levi interrupted. “That plan to get the elevator code from me was never going to work.”
“W-wait…What?” Keon said.
“Oh ho! You all thought you were sneaky, didn’t you?” Levi continued. “I have to say though, it was well orchestrated given the circumstances.”
“B-but…How?” Emma asked.
“I know everything that goes on here,” he said. “You will find it very difficult to slip things past me. I am always a proponent for letting you all explore to your heart's content, but damaging property and leaving school grounds is not allowed. Also, I know you didn’t find the information on the layout of this place organically, so, Andrea, will you do the honors?”
“Gladly,” Andrea said.
Andrea took out her pistol from her holster and pointed it straight at Jane’s head.
“N-no! Please-” Jane said.
Andrea pulled the trigger before Jane could finish her sentence, a huge explosion of red painted the back of Jane’s seat. She then slumped over…dead.
“Oh god…” Marin said. She threw up under her desk.
“Jesus Christ…” Conrad said in a shaky voice.
“I-I can’t take this!” Maya said, holding her head in her hands. She looked like she was having a panic attack. Mia left her seat and went to Maya’s side and held her close.
“You’re fucking monsters!” Carmen yelled.
“We don’t take traitors lightly,” Andrea said.
“That is the last time I hire someone off of Indeed,” Levi said, shaking his head. “Now, it’s finally time for you all to vote! I don’t know about you guys, but I’m ready to slip back into bed. Let’s all sleep in a bit today. You’ve earned it!”
None of us moved a muscle. We all sat petrified in our seats, except Mia who was still consoling her sister. Suddenly, I looked up and a piece of paper was placed in front of me with the names of everyone here with a small box next to each of them.
“Go ahead and use the pencils provided to check the box next to the person who you believe is the killer,” Levi said. “Make sure you all vote! Anyone who doesn’t vote will be punished. After you are all done, hand your answers to Andrea and she will count them all up and announce the results.”
I marked the box next to Sienna’s name with a shaky hand. I couldn’t stop looking up at Jane whose head was slowly dripping onto the floor. It was the most horrific thing I’ve ever seen. I feel like some people still might have thought this was all some kind of joke, but after seeing Louis’s lifeless body and now the cavity in Jane’s skull, there can be no doubt to how serious the situation is. Everyone gave their papers individually to Andrea, except Mia and Maya who went up together holding hands. Maya was sobbing while Mia was putting on a brave face. She was most likely trying to stay strong for her sister. When we first entered this school, it seemed like Maya was the strong one of the two especially with how shy and quiet Mia seemed, but now that these horrible things have happened, the roles are completely reversed.
“The results are as follows:” Andrea started. “Thirteen votes for Sienna, one vote for Sabrina, and one vote for Keon.”
“Sorry, Keon,” Cyrus said. “I just don’t like your attitude.”
“Please…just shut up…” Keon said weakly.
“It looks like you guessed correctly!” Levi said. “Sienna did in fact murder Louis in his own dorm room! With the blue hair on her head, it was even difficult for me to tell if it was actually her through our security cameras. It must have really helped too that Louis didn’t fight back even a little bit. He just stood there and let Sienna do it. You had everything going for you in this plan, Sienna, but it looks like your luck has run out.”
“I-I can’t do this…” Sienna said quietly. “I don’t want to die…”
“Then, you shouldn’t have killed first,” Levi said. “Now, it’s time for the execution of the Ultimate Cosmetologist, Sienna Brooks! Everyone pay attention now!”
Suddenly, while we were all still seated, a wall in the side of the gym opened up and a rope came out of nowhere and wrapped itself around Sienna’s neck pulling her into a seat in the middle of the empty room. Iron clasps then closed over her hands and legs. She was stuck in the chair. Out of the wall, a giant brush covered in white powder that was larger than Sienna’s head smacked her several times turning her head a snowy white. A robotic arm then came out with a large container of red lipstick and smushed itself across her face. Another robotic arm came out with what looked like blue paint and ran its way across Sienna’s eyes. She reeled back and it seemed like a good amount of the paint got in her eyes during this. I started to see a resemblance to clown’s makeup, but that observation was driven home when a large multicolored clown wig was brought out. The wig wasn’t placed on her head though. First, another large robotic arm came out, gathered all of her hair into its vice, then pulled extremely hard. All of the hair and part of Sienna’s scalp were ripped off of her head and the clown wig was then gently placed onto her white exposed skull. She was sobbing and screaming now.
I looked at Marin who was once again gagging, but it seemed like she ran out of matter to expel and could only convulse with occasional puddles of spit and stomach acid leaving her mouth. Keon had his hand on his face but seemed to be watching through his fingers. Cyrus was looking straight at Sienna, but he had an uncharacteristically terrified look on his face. Robbie was watching as well, but he seemed much less disturbed than the rest of us. The same could be said for Sabrina who didn’t look terrified at all. We locked eyes again and she gave me another warm smile like someone wasn’t getting murdered before our eyes. I looked away from her gaze. The rest of us were either turned away from the sight of Sienna’s execution or were watching through our fingers like Keon was.
Another robotic arm came out and this time it was holding an eyeliner pencil that was big enough to be a makeshift sword with how thick and long it was. The point looked very sharp. It was held at a distance in front of Sienna’s head before being thrust right through her forehead at full speed. The jerking before it made contact with the front of her skull was the last time that I saw her move. She slumped over in the chair much like Jane did, with the large pencil sticking out of her skull. I thought it couldn’t get worse than what happened to Jane, but this was so horrible and cruel that I joined many of the others who were throwing up on the ground of the gym. It was more horrific than anything I could have imagined.
“Wow, you guys really can’t hold it together!” Levi said. “It’s just death! It happens all the time. We also don’t have a housekeeper at the moment, so who’s going to clean all of this up?”
“F-fuck you…” Carmen said, wiping spit from her lips.
“H-how could you do something so h-horrible?” Amber said before gagging again.
“Hey, now! She was a murderer!” Levi said. “We’re protecting you all by executing her. You should be thanking us. Now, you are all free to go back to your dorms. I’ll turn off the morning announcement, so you can all sleep in if you wish. Breakfast will still be made though if you decide to get up at the normal time. Looks like I have to hire someone new…I’m not cleaning this up.” Levi then left with Andrea and Alex following behind him.
“What the hell are we supposed to do now?!” Atticus said. “I knew the plan wasn’t going to fucking work.”
“We’re the reason Jane, Louis, and Sienna died…” Amber said, holding her head in terror.
“No, we’re not,” Emma said, putting her hands on Amber’s shoulders. “It’s their fault that this situation was possible in the first place.”
“We will get them back for this…” Keon said, standing up. “I’ll have their fucking heads on a stake.”
“Let’s go back to the dorms for now,” Carmen said. “We all need to rest. We can meet up in the cafeteria and talk about this all later. Let’s plan for noon. We can meet up, get some lunch, and talk through all of this as a group.”
Everyone agreed and we split up heading to our respective dorms in absolute despair.