“What happened in here?” Iris stammered as she wandered into the ransacked room. Anything not bolted down was on the floor. There were numerous holes and tears in the walls.

“It looks like a hurricane came through here,” Wyatt commented. When he stepped into the room, he reached his hand out to grab the nearest thing to him. But, Zoey stopped him.

“Don’t touch anything,” Zoey ordered. “In fact, I want all of you out of this room immediately.”

“Wait, what? Are you serious?” Henrika exasperated.

“Zoey, we came all this way to help. You cannot just drive us away now,” said Wyatt.

“Help me by leaving the room. I need to investigate this place alone.” Zoey firmly announced.

“But, why?” Nicholas asked.

Zoey folded her arms then looked away from us. She heaved a sigh before she responded, “Look, I’m just going to come out and say it. At this point, I don’t trust any of you. One of you could potentially be the killer, and I don’t want you to contaminate possible evidence. And even if you’re not, I don’t want any of you to ruin evidence accidentally.”

That woman never minced words. It took guts to tell everyone that she didn’t trust us. No one blamed her. After all, no matter how many days passed in Serendipity, the fact of the matter was that we were all still strangers. Five days certainly wasn’t enough time to get to know someone.

So, regardless if any of us were the murderer or not, we had no clue how to conduct a proper investigation. One way or another, we’d find some way to mess things up for Zoey. She made the right call to order us out of the room.

“But, we can’t just leave everything to you. I don’t want to stand around and do nothing.” Iris argued.

“I assure you that I will give frequent updates regarding my progress. No one will be left out of the loop.” Zoey affirmed.

“Quite hypocritical to say when you are kicking us out of the room,” Nicholas complained.

“Deal with it. Now leave.” Zoey pointed to the door. I was the first one to move towards it. The others seemed more hesitant. But, they eventually followed her orders and left. Before she closed the door on us, she left us with one piece of advice. “Stay on your toes. There may be more to this than we realize. Don’t let your guard down around anyone.”

No one voiced any objections to her words. How could they? It wouldn’t have been wise to let our guards down around anyone at that point. One of us caused the death of Elena. No one was safe from suspicion.

I didn’t know about the others. But I took her words to heart. I said nothing else to the other players as I headed back to my room.

Along the way, I came across Darius. He came out from the medical room—fiddling with the bandage on his cheek. When he spotted me, he jumped and yelled as if he had seen a ghost.

“Oh, Ambrose! You scared me!” The kid placed his hand on his chest then settled his breathing.

“How’s that?” I crossed my arms over my chest.

“You can’t just sneak up on a person like that! It’s not good for my heart! Especially since a murderer is roaming around!”

“Relax. You’re not going to get killed out in the hallways like this.”

“You do not deny that I won’t get killed, however…” Darius dejectedly hung his head.

“Well, that isn’t entirely up to me, now is it?”

“Anyway, how’s the investigation going? Find any leads?”

“A few. Elena died around 2 to 3 a.m. this morning. The cause of death was through poisoning, not the knives.” I reluctantly revealed. Speaking of Elena’s death left a bad taste in my mouth.

“Poison? Wait, you mean the poison from the bracelets?” Darius exclaimed. “Doesn’t that only activate when a player runs out of points or breaks the rules?”

“Yeah.” I nodded.

“Elena couldn’t have lost all her points. She only played in one game. So, she must have broken a rule.” He deduced.

“That’s the assumption.”

“But, which rule did she break? And why?”

“That’s the million-dollar question.”

“Hopefully, we can find the one responsible.” Darius crossed his arms over his chest then gripped his shoulders. “I don’t know about you. But, I don’t feel safe being under the same roof as a murderer, Ambrose. What if Elena was only the beginning? What if the killer decides to target another one of us?”

I had considered that possibility. That was why I decided to keep my distance from everyone. I would only show my face when necessary. Everyone had forty-eight hours to find out what happened to Elena.

Throughout that time, I planned to stay in my room. Two days in solitude was nothing compared to wandering around Serendipity—looking over my shoulder every five seconds. The accumulated stress would wear me out in no time.

I didn’t want that.

“Just stay on your toes and keep an eye out. If you’re careful, you’ll come out of this alive.” I consoled him. However, my words didn’t seem to reach him. He looked away from me dejectedly.

“Maybe. I don’t know. I’m just…really regretting my decision to play these games.” Darius revealed. “I mean, compared to Wyatt, my problems aren’t that severe. Nothing that a little hard work couldn’t fix.”

“You only wanted the money to help your aunt, right?” I recalled.

“That’s right,” He nodded. “I knew this organization was shady. But, I didn’t think that people would actually die.”

His naivety was as surprising as ever.

“Well, that’s just the hand we’ve been dealt,” I stated.

“But, two people have died in less than a week. That’s not good. And we still haven’t found the traitors yet. Just how much longer are we going to stay trapped in here?”

“I don’t know. I don’t have all the answers.” I found it difficult to maintain eye contact with him.

“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to bother you with my problems again. We’re all under a lot of stress.”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s not a big deal.”

“How can you stay so calm? Elena was murdered and don’t seem upset in the slightest.” Darius pointed out.

“Believe me; I am upset. It’s just taxing to express it right now.” I revealed.

“If you ever need to talk to someone, don’t be afraid to come to Nicholas or me.”

“Nicholas?” My eyebrows arched as I sent the kid a suspicious glance.

“Yeah. I’ve been talking with him in private recently. He’s been helping me out with keeping my emotions under control. He’s really good at what he does.” Darius answered.

“I’ll think about it. Anyway, I’m heading back to my room. I’d suggest that you do the same.” I advised him. “Since the murderer is still around and about, try not to make yourself a target.”

“Right. I’ll do my best.” Darius nodded his head. His eyes beamed with confidence. Satisfied with his determination, I left in good conscience. I remained in my room for several hours—alone with my thoughts. Around the time the games would typically start, no announcement came from Caius.

He kept his word and didn’t make anyone go into the game room. It was a relief despite the circumstances. No one had to worry about risking their lives while looking for Elena’s killer. I hoped that Zoey would find the bastard.

Suddenly, the doorbell to my room went off. I approached the door then gazed through the peephole. Surprisingly, the person that stood on the other side of the door was Zoey.

I opened the door for the former detective.

“Yes?” I answered.

“Ambrose, forgive me for troubling you. But, if you wouldn’t mind, may I ask you a couple of questions?” Zoey inquired.

“Sure. Come on in.” I stepped aside and allowed Zoey into my room. She situated herself on a chair while I stood near the bed.

That woman’s piercing gaze was as unnerving as ever. With every second that she stared at me, I felt as if she saw through me. Out of everyone in the facility, Zoey was the hardest one to get an accurate read on.

“Now then, shall we begin?” The corners of her lips slowly slid upwards.