"..."

"Howdy!"

"Gah! Where the fuck did you come from?!"

"Language! And I'm just here to help is all. You're... Asher Neit, right?"

"I'd prefer if you just called me Ash."

"Ok then Ash, follow me!"

"...Still haven't caught your name."

"Oh, I'm Vanilla, but you could just call me Villy.  Some of your friends were here earlier, y'know."

"Yeah, I can tell."

"...oh wait."

"What?"

"It's that thing again isn't it?"

"That thing?"

"I'd rather not name it, but you know what I'm talking about."

"I guess so.  That how you died too?"

"It's a long story."

"I have time."

"Well, if you really wanna hear it, I love storytelling! Lemme see where to start..."

I'm still trying to process what I've been told as Ally helps me walk out of the bedroom.  On second thought, I really should've stayed in bed, but I didn't want anyone to worry.  It's already kinda too late for that anyway as the first thing I feel when I walk out is what could only be described as just under enough force to not crush my ribs into dust.

"I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD, MAN!" Thomas shouted, wrapping his arms around my waist tightly. I could feel him shaking harshly as I pat his back a bit to try and comfort him.

"Don't worry, I'm fine," I said with a small smile.  I was still light-headed and doing my best not to just collapse on the floor.  I think Kees noticed me as he gently held Thomas's shoulder and pulled him away from me. 

"Ok, that's enough Tommy." He said calmly, appearing completely unfazed by my condition until he spoke again. "Seriously though, I think everybody here thought you had... y'know, passed on."

Well, that does make sense. If I heard someone screaming their lungs out in the middle of the night I'd think they'd be dead too, especially with our current situation. But I don't have the patience or the headspace to say much, so I just nod my head at him.

Everyone was talking and discussing things with each other. I couldn't hear much, but I could tell most of them had their suspicions on Alex because of what happened yesterday.  I wish I could remember what the Murderer looked like, but I was too panicked to even attempt getting a good view of their face.  All I could remember was seeing a pair of piercing red eyes, and even then my memory was too fuzzy to even recall if they were eyes.  I don't think I trust my memory enough to even believe something was glowing at all, especially since the best look I got was when they were bashing my head into the bed frame.  Yeah, I'm never recovering from this.

I turned around to look for Jo just to see what she was up to.  The photos should've been perfectly fine and they weren't on the bedroom floor when I woke up, so I assumed she had them.  But as soon as I turned my head, I caught something out of the corner of my eye.  It didn't stay long enough for me to get a good look, but I knew damn well something was there.  I groan and rub my eyes, reminding myself that my brain could very well be fucking with me 24/7 now.  I don't even care anymore, I'm going straight to a hospital after I get out of here.  If I get out of here.

I notice the door to the backroom, which was apparently called "solitary", is slightly open, so I walk over to peek inside. Jo was sitting on a chair in the middle of the room, holding what appeared to be the photos. I open the door all the way, forcing to let out a loud creak, which was more than enough to get Jo's attention.  She picked up her head and turned to me.

"Oh, hey Charlie. I heard about what happened to you last night, you feeling ok?" Jo asked. I sighed.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Nothing to worry about, really." I replied, rubbing my eyes for the 50th time since I've woken up.

"Thanks for your help with the photos, by the way." She spoke, holding up the now developed pictures. They were all of each and every death scene snapped at multiple angles, some of them with much better lighting than others. This must've been Vinny's way of keeping track of everything, keeping every little detail permanently captured. If only the camera he carried around wasn't so old, then maybe the films wouldn't need the time to develop, but he just really liked it, plus nobody else had a phone so this was the best we could get. "Vinny and I looked over them a lot while you were out since we had the extra time, and we think these things could point us in the right direction of who the Murderer is, but I'd need more time and less than 20 minutes isn't enough. Small details are so hard for me to find, especially when we're under this little of a time limit. I'd need another day at least, but..."

"...but you'd be risking another death." I finished for her since she couldn't seem to bring herself to continue. She just nodded.

"I found something else next to the couch when we first got here. I've only shown it to Ally so far because she told me her role, and since you got attacked I guess I can trust you too. Here." Jo pulled out what looked to be a journal of sorts with a band attached to be used as a placeholder. The cover looked old and dusty and the pages were slightly yellowed with age, but it was still held together nonetheless. In permanent marker, the words "Flicker Guidebook" were written, and underneath it at the very bottom, the letters "J.C.A." were crossed out and replaced with a single name, "Jordan". The last name looked scratched out too, but unlike the initials, it was completely unintelligible.

"Before you say anything, no it's not mine. That's not even how you spell my first name."  She shook her head as she opened the book.  "It's like a whole collection of tips and tricks on this exact 'game' or whatever that announcer guy wants to call it.  It's what I've been trying to use to figure this all out.  The slightest hint of anything going on could be useful right now, but all the evidence we've gotten so far is either too broad or too good to be true.  Like with Alex." 

"So as of right now, we're going off of nothing?"  I asked rhetorically, knowing full well what the answer to that question was. 

"Not quite.  I know the evidence we have right now could be faked, but for a moment we just need to assume it's real.  A short black hair strand we found in the bathroom, a 4 numbered code written on the table, and now, the murder weapon."

"Wait, the murder weapon?"  This time I was genuinely confused.

"The killer dropped a knife after almost getting to you.  Ally picked it up just this morning."  Oh, so that's why I didn't see it.

"Is there anything about the knife we can use as evidence?"

"We don't have any way to get fingerprints and even if we did there's no way we can match it to anyone without the proper technology.  But there is something engraved on the handle I think you'd wanna see.  We left it in the kitchen, so-"  Before Jo could finish, she was cut off by the announcer.

"10 minutes till voting time!  Make sure you have an idea of who to vote for beforehand!" 

Jo sighed.  "Come on." 

She quickly led me outside of the room and over to the kitchen table.  In the middle of the table was the knife, kept inside of a plastic bag.  It was a regular old kitchen knife aside from the dried bloodstains on it, and the handle was a dark shade of brown.  Jo carefully picked the bag up and pointed me to the side of the handle that was originally face down on the table, which had something engraved in bright red paint.

XI
V
V
XIX

"I knew my parents taught me Roman numerals when I was still homeschooled but the one time I need it I can't remember anything."  Jo huffed, clearly annoyed.

"Well, I know V is supposed to be 5, but that's all I can remember,"  I said.  I only knew a couple because I used to have a clock in my room with the numbers only as Roman numerals, but I got rid of the clock ages ago and never bothered to learn again.  I could barely memorize I's and V's, much less X's, or anything combining the letters together.

"Someone here has to know, but I don't wanna risk the Murderer telling me something wrong."  She sighed.  "I just wanna go home..."

"I-" I was about to speak until the speaker turned on. 

"Times up!  Everyone grab your tablets and vote for the player you find most suspicious!" 

"Oi, just a thought but what would happen if we just didn't vote?"  Dan asked, looking up at the speaker. 

"Then I'll remove a random player of my choosing, and if you all purposely miss voting I'll make sure it's one of the special roles.  Now chop chop!" 

I shivered at the mention of killing the special roles.  Ally's role was special and so was Vinny's, and they were both two of the most well-liked kinds in our town.  It'd just be Lara's death all over again if either of them died.  Plus, they're important in general for obvious reasons.  I walk over to the table and picked up my tablet, everyone else doing the same.  I didn't really think it was Alex, but some of the evidence pointed to him and he did attack Kees yesterday, so voting him was currently our safest bet at the moment.  After we all set our tablets back down, the speaker piped up again. 

"Alright, let's see here."

"The players believe the Murderer is Alex."

"Welp, guess this is it.  Thank you all for being a bunch of ignorant fucking cucks."  Alex growled.

"The conclusion is..."

"Incorrect!  The Murderer remains on the loose!"

"WHAT?!"  Kai shouted.

"Told you all it wasn't me,"  Alex spoke calmly, but still in a terrifying tone.

"Then if ya ain't the Murderer what the hell did ya attack Kees for?!"  Annie asked, taking a step closer to Alex.

"I told you, it was for personal reasons, and maybe if you just listened to me instead of being as stubborn as your cousin maybe you'd know that,"  Alex said in the same terrifying manner.  I could see Annie's eyes widen in shock at the mention of her family member, but I didn't even know she had a cousin.  Before anyone could say anything else, the lights flickered off and Alex was pulled away into the ceiling like everyone else, except all he let out was a small yelp of surprise before being dragged out.  No horrible screams of anger or fear this time.  When the lights came back on, the only thing that was left behind was Alex's eyepatch, laying on the cold wooden floor. 

"What was all that about Ann?"  Alicia walked up to ask, placing a hand on Annie's shoulder.  Annie just stood there for a solid second before answering.

"Nothin'.  Boy knows 'bout as much as a donkey in the wild I tell ya."  She walked away to the living room and the rest of the group dispersed as well.  It was a little bit more calming to only have one death on our hands today, especially since we didn't have to move any dead bodies around.  The rest of the day felt nice compared to the others.

Still, I just wanna go home too.