Standing in the hallway, the six actors looked at each other confused about what just happened.

“Do you really think he’s just an intern?” One of them said.

“I don’t know, but what reason would he have to lie about it? Besides, he seems to not know a lot of things about the company that’s common knowledge, like about shapeshifters and the HR departments’ healers. That can only be explained by him being an intern.” another responded.

“You’re right, I think he was telling the truth. There’s something off about him, but I just can’t quite put my finger on it.” Said Avery.

They all stood there trying to think about it.

“If I remember correctly, the internship for his department would have started over a week ago, meaning he’s already designed at least a few traps, but the way he talked to us makes me feel like he couldn’t have possibly designed anything.” One of them said hesitantly.

“Yeah, and most of the time the designers don’t talk to us at all, let alone twice.” Said the dealer.

“He was far too nice to us, the designers usually don’t care about us at all, just using us as part of the trap, and they're always very strict with what we have to do. This entire thing feels weird." said the other female.

“It feels like he doesn’t belong here in the company. He’s more like a normal civilian we see when on vacation, not like an employee.” Said Avery.

“Are you saying that HR made a mistake when selecting him?” A voice appeared out of nowhere, startling the actors and making them realise that the healer was still there.

Shivering Avery hurriedly denied that.

“Good. The company doesn’t make mistakes, and everyone we hire is selected for a reason. Now that we have done our jobs, it is time for us to leave. He may have seemed harmless, but I can assure you that he is the one who designed those traps, and we should not get on his bad side.” Finishing their sentence, a door appeared in the middle of the hallway. Opening it up, they disappear, leaving the hallway empty once more.

~

“Good morning, Ed.”

Waking up well rested, Ed calmly greeted Buddie before thinking about what happened yesterday. The other employees are quite strange. They seem completely normal most of the time and can even have completely normal conversations. However, they all seem to be mentally ill. The way they acted during the trap shows that there is something seriously wrong with them.

The most obvious case I can find is with Avery. The way Avery manipulated Claudio to his death without batting an eye shows that she is a skilled manipulator, and when she ate the heart, it showed that she was willing to use any means available to her to achieve her goals.

While I can’t quite figure out what is wrong with the others, just seeing how desensitised they are to everything tells me that there’s something wrong with them as well. Of course, it would be weirder if they were completely normal after everything they’ve gone through. If their work experience has been anything like mine, then I can completely understand how their illnesses came to be.

But then why would the company do this? Assuming that the company’s goal is to punish sinners and make them face justice, then wouldn’t the company be the biggest sinner for destroying the minds of its employees, breaking them and reshaping them into these twisted shadows of their former selves? Or were Avery and the others already ill before they were hired, and they were chosen because of it? Is this true for all employees, even the ones not directly involved in the traps? What is it that the company sees in people that makes it hire them?

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

There are so many questions I need answers to, but I don’t think that Buddie will tell me while I’m an intern. I should get to work.

After spending some time sifting through his thoughts, and being bogged down in the many questions, the file was sent to his computer.

Name: Samuel Gavin

Age: 83

Occupation: Police officer (retired)

Biography: Born to parents George and Catrina Gavin, Samuel lived a very disturbing childhood. His father abused both him and his mother, regularly beating them, and even starving young Samuel. His father was eventually arrested and sentenced to several years in prison. After graduating from high school, he joined the military before entering the police force at the age of 22. He stayed in this job until he retired at the age of 55... Throughout his time as a police officer, Samuel murdered 12 men and women. All of his victims were in relationships with each other, and they were all people involved in cases of domestic abuse. These serial murders spanned across his entire working life... Samuel has yet to have been convicted for his crimes, with the police force unable to find any clues leading to the killer.

-End of document-

A serial killer, well there’s no need for me to question Buddie about this as he’s clearly a sinner. Now why did he murder these people? He didn’t have a good childhood, his father was abusive, so his parents’ relationship is the catalyst for his behaviour. The treatment he received from his father, as well as his time in the military and police force, are most likely what cultivated his murderous tendencies. What I can’t understand is why he murdered the women too? His mother was also a victim in this case, so assuming that he targeted his victims because of the similarities they have with his parents relationship, the women should have been safe. Or did he consider her as an abuser as well because she didn’t take him away from his father, and instead let him get abused for years.

Opening the app, he paused for a moment, considering what he wanted to do. I might as well make use of the new feature, see what I can do with multiple people. He opens up the Create a room feature. “Are my creations limited to one room?”

“Not at all, the building can be as big as you want it, with as many rooms as you would like.”

Okay, I can work with that. “I want a recreation of his childhood home” On the screen, a model of a decently sized two-storey house appeared on screen, nice and quaint, if a bit worn down and old. “Put his model in his childhood bedroom, and somewhere else in the house place a model of his father.” The two models appeared, Samuel in his bedroom, and the father in the garage. “Samuel’s goal is to escape from his father and leave the house. I want the father to be constantly searching for him, and if he catches him, he will kill him. However, I want him to be able to escape as long as he is careful and smart.”

“That will be done. However, this doesn’t seem too difficult, as all he has to do is break the window and escape from there.”

“While that is true, I meant that he needs to escape the house in a more metaphorical sense, as he needs to free himself from that abuse. In order to do that, he will encounter each of his victims in the house whenever he is not being actively chased by his father. When this happens, replicate the scene of the murder, with him in the place and mindset he was in just before murdering them. If he kills them, his victims will follow him around, making it harder for him to escape, but if he leaves them alive, they will make it easier for him to survive while being chased. The only way he can escape is when he repents, and his victims forgive him. If he kills one of them, the only way to get their forgiveness is to allow them to turn the weapon on him. This will weaken, but not kill him, unless he kills more than half of them.” Telling Buddie what he wants for this trap, he thinks if there’s anything else he needs to add.

“If that is all, I will begin construction of the house now.”

“Let me know when the actors are there, I want to talk to them like last time.” Nodding, Ed got his meal from Buddie, and ate while waiting.

~

Walking through the door, Ed found himself in the living room of the house and saw that it was quite crowded. “Hello everyone, you can call me Ed. I appreciate you all for helping me with this. I know that Buddie would have already told you everything when you got it, but there’s just a few things I would like to re-emphasize. First off, the only one allowed to kill him is the person playing his father, the rest of you are only allowed to make it more difficult for him, and at most lightly injure him, if the situation calls for it. And the other thing that I want you to focus on is that the man is already quite old, so take things a bit slow.” Finishing off what he had to say, he went around to all the actors to have a quick chat, learning a bit about each of them and checking to see if they were ready.

After saying goodbye, he walked back into his room and sat down.