What the hell is she doing?  She knows she's only putting more people at risk by taking the fall, right? Why? She doesn't even know who I am and yet-

Oh. Oh, wait.

This isn't about me.  This is about protecting them.

She's her next closest friend, and he's the crush of another friend. No matter who the majority believes, someone she holds dear will either cry or die.  She's doing this for the sake of their safety.

Wow... what a way to make me feel even worse...

I feel so guilty... but not guilty enough to speak, I guess. 

"Wh-what?!"  Sabrina looked at Veronica like she was crazy.  The rest of us were in complete stunned silence.  Veronica?  Of all people to murder Lara like that, it was her best friend?

"I killed Lara.  I-I got assigned the role and... and I-"

"Zip it!  We don't need any more of an explanation from you!"  Sabrina growled.

"But that doesn't make sense. What about the black hair?" Jojo asked.

"Ash's prediction was half right. I planted it as fake evidence." Veronica kept her head down as she spoke, refusing to look at anyone in the face.

The speakers crackled to life once more, bringing in our newest announcement.

"Alrighty, is everyone ready to vote?" It asked.

"Yeah, I believe so," Sabrina said, continuing to glare at Veronica.

"Great! Because that was a rhetorical question. The tablets should be on the table now, remember to pick the one with your name on it and click on your suspect. The Investigator is the only one that can't vote at this time, but they will still be having a tablet so no one can just use the process of elimination to find out who it is. The player with the most votes will be forcefully removed from the house."

"But... where do they go?" Dan asked.

"That is none of your concern. Just hope that you don't end up finding out anytime soon.  Good luck!"  And with that, it shut off once more.

Looking over to the kitchen table, there were a bunch of tablets lying face down on the surface like the speaker said they would be.  The cases were all a plain grey, each with our own names engraved on the back of them.  It didn't take long for us to find our own, and we began voting.  The thing I found odd was that there was still an icon to vote for myself, so I guess I'd have to be extra careful.

It was pretty obvious who we were all gonna choose at that point.  I hesitantly tapped on Veronica's icon, and as soon as I did the screen dinged and went blank with nothing but a green checkmark appearing on it.  I set it back down on the table.  After a few minutes, everyone had set theirs back down, and as the speaker turned on again, the tablets disappeared into thin air.

"The votes have been cast.  The players believe the Murderer is Veronica."

"Welp.  We all know where this is going." Sabrina sighed.

"I'm sorry..."  Veronica muttered.

"The conclusion is..."

"Incorrect.  The Murderer remains on the loose."

My eyes widened in complete shock.  There was a collection of gasps before we all turned to look at Veronica in silence.  The girl stared at the ground, not even daring to look at the rest of us.

"B-but-" Thomas stuttered.  "but you said you were-"

"I lied..."

"Do you realize HOW FUCKING STUPID THAT IS?!" Kai screamed. "WE COULD'VE FOUND THE REAL KILLER BY NOW! WHAT WERE YOU EVEN TRYING TO ACHIEVE?!"

"Ahem." The speaker cleared their throat. "As much as I like a good bit of drama, I'm gonna have to be removing the accused now. Say goodbye to your friend!"

"Wait!" Veronica cried. "Please, let me explain, I just wanted to save-"

Before she could finish her sentence, the lights flickered out. The ground shook a bit as we could hear Veronica scream. The noise quickly faded away, and the lights came back on.

Veronica was nowhere to be seen, and the only remaining evidence of her presence was her now cracked glasses, laying on the floor. Sabrina picked up the item and just stared at it for a while before finally speaking again.

"Great..." She muttered, carefully closing the glasses and putting them in the front pocket of her jacket. "Just perfect. Now we gotta let someone else die."

"Correct you are Sabrina!" The speaker exclaimed. "Unless the Medic doesn't screw up again, you all are gonna have to deal with another fresh corpse on your hands. And another elimination too, let's not forget that!"

Sabrina muttered something incoherent as the speaker shut off.  Pretty much the entire atmosphere was tense after that.  We all tried to keep our minds off of the situation but considering two of us were already dead now, that task was pretty much impossible. With the silence that hung in the air, for the most part, I started to notice a couple of things. For one, Jackson was nibbling on a muffin I assume Vinny gave to him. And speaking of Jackson, Sabrina had been going off to talk with him a lot. It was really weird, since they've never really had this much interaction before, so I assumed they were the Twins. Another thing I realized was that the sheet of paper on the wall before, the ones with our names on them, had Lara's name crossed out in red and Veronica's in blue, next to both was a word written in bright green. "Survivor". That's kinda neat since it's easy to keep track of things, but it'd honestly be a bit better if it weren't specifically for the purpose of keeping up with who's dead or not.  Seriously, this whole thing is fucked up in general.

The TV worked just as fine as it had before the power went out, but instead of playing video games, we figured out it also had regular old channels on it. While everyone else started watching the news, I walked to the kitchen to grab a snack.  I was surprised no one else was hungry, considering we hadn't eaten since yesterday, but I guess the drama made most of us lose our appetites.  I found Jo sitting behind the table with Sabrina's lighter, a couple of burnt french fries at her side on the floor.  She had another in hand, seemingly trying to light it on fire.  Before I could say anything, she looked up at me and jumped, throwing down the fry and trying to hide the lighter in her lap.

"Umm... what are you doing?" I asked.

"Nothing who's asking?" Jo spoke quickly.

"Me."

"...then don't ask."

"Ooook..." I stared at her suspiciously for a moment before going to look in the fridge for something to eat.  I realized the snacks and drinks we brought to the bonfire were still here.  Whoever kidnapped us kept the food, at least that was a good thing. I took out a bar of chocolate and walked back to the living room, sitting on the floor beside the couch since almost everyone else was taking up the rest of the seats. 

"Got enough for two?" I looked up to Kees staring down at me from the couch, his head peering over the armrest.

"Sure," I say as I break off a chunk and hand it to him.  He takes it and starts to nibble on it.

"You nervous?"  He asked.

"What?"  I tilted my head in confusion.

"About our whole situation.  Don't play dumb with me, I know a worried face when I see one."

"Speaking from..?"

"Experience," Kees took another bite out of the chocolate.  "lots and lots of experience."

"You?  Stressed?"

"I wouldn't say hide, but I like to keep it on the down-low.  Kinda like you, but with less... how do I put it, extroverted-ness?"

"Well, I wouldn't say that." I nervously smiled

"How could you not?  You're so out there that your best friend is Thomas. Of all people."

"It's not that much of an accomplishment."

"To you."

I sighed and leaned my head against the side of the couch.  "So what do you do about it?"

"Stress relief?" 

"Yeah."

"Food." Kees finished the piece I gave him and reached out for another, but I stopped him.

"There's more in the fridge."

Kees groaned. "Fine, but save my spot for me. I'll be back." He complied, hopping over the back of the couch and heading towards the kitchen.

After slumping my body over the armrest, I turned my focus back to the TV. Like I said before, there were channels on it that we didn't notice the previous day. Most of it was just old cartoons and such, but it also had the news channel that we'd watch back home. I guess everyone figured we could try to catch up on what was going on outside of this place since it'd probably be a while before we get back. 

Things don't seem to be so much different then we expected.  No one else was kidnapped, but of course, they were trying to look for us since 20 kids disappearing definitely wasn't something considered normal.  As optimistic as I wanna be, I don't think they're gonna find us anytime soon.  Even we had no idea where we were.

Right in the middle of listening to one of the reports, the lights suddenly flickered out again.  Already?  I looked around frantically for a place to hide, eventually just opting to hide behind the couch and pray the Murderer wouldn't be able to find me, or, as terrible as I sound saying it, would be targeting someone else tonight.  At first, after a few minutes of silence, I started to think that they maybe didn't target anyone. 

Then there was a loud bang coming from the coffee table, and multiple blood-curdling screams erupted soon after.