The cafe was completely silent. His body was still there. Eva got a chair and sat behind the counter, Felix kept pacing around, Robin was sobbing and Sol… looked distressed.
Steve had got up to get some air outside. Selene and Sable were both propped up on the wall but they seemed to be in the middle of a conversation, so he listened in without the two seeing him.
“You didn’t need to pull me back, Selene. What if he really was telling the truth? You could be the reason he’s DEAD!”
“Oh please, he was willing to do it anyway!”
“It’s funny how you freaked out the first time he died and now you’re acting completely fine as if he’s still alive! There’s more of a chance that he’s actually dead now, and you’re the cause of it. I could’ve stopped him! I could’ve convinced him.”
“What’s the point, Sable? Oh my god! If he was telling the truth, what are we meant to do? Nothing. You do realize all of us are dead, right? If what he said was right, all of our lives are done. People who get killed die, whoever escapes or whatever Ezra was talking about, Apollo will kill them too, and Apollo will most likely think that whoever wins will speak up about their ‘evil’ and he’ll just kill them, too!”
“So what, Selene, we’re just supposed to just play Apollo’s stupid game until we die?”
“If it’s true, yes. We don’t get a choice. We signed that contract.”
Sable sighed.
“Ali was right to doubt Apollo when we first arrived.”
Sable walked off.
“Where are you going?”
“I just need some time to think.”
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Steve went back inside only to be greeted by Eva listening in.
“What do you think?”
“What do you mean, what do I think?” Steve walked past Eva and grabbed a chocolate bar from the fridge. “I think it’s bullshit.”
“How can you say that as if Ezra didn’t just do THAT right in front of us? Was his suicide not convincing enough?”
“I don’t know, okay?”
Felix spoke up.
“Selene is Murderer.”
“What?” Sol immediately snapped out of his trance.
“Selene doesn’t trust that man and thinks he was part of video game. She stopped Sable from saving. Hunter dead means there is no chance she will die by Hunter. Just one more threat.” Felix pointed at Sol’s gun. “She might kill you next. After that, unstoppable. She can tell you to kill a civilian and two dead each time she convinces.”
“But the Sheriff role gets re-assigned.” Eva added.
Felix hesitated before thinking about what to say. “She can convince the next sheriff, too.”
“Wow! You formed a sentence!” Steve sarcastically claimed. Everyone ignored him.
Robin raised her head, struggling to speak after sobbing. “Felix, you might be right.”
“Why is that actually a good theory?” Eva chuckled slightly.
Sol looked down at his gun.
“Y’know… if you’re right, I could end the game here by shooting-”
Selene walked in and everyone immediately turned around upon realisation.
“Am I… interrupting?”
“No!” Sol’s voice cracked, before clearing his throat. “I mean… no.”
Selene rolled her eyes, sighing.
“I heard what you guys were saying about me.”
“You… did?” Sol held his gun under the table, holding it with both of his hands.
“Yeah, and I think I know what Felix is trying to do here. Trying to decept, huh?”
“Excuse me?” Felix looked offended.
“I thought I was saving Sable, Ezra had a shotgun, damn it!”
“Even though the shotgun was pointed towards himself? Sable was saving Ezra, not you saving Sable.” Sol laughed.
“Look, you would’ve done the same thing in my shoes, he was dangerous, right?” Selene looked like she was pleading to Steve.
“Selene. I didn’t trust Ezra either but… it just seems suspicious and Sir Felix of Observation over here has a really good point.”
“Wh- what about the rest of you? Soleil? Robin? Eva?”
“He was trying to prove a point, not try and kill us.” Eva shook her head. “Sol, I think you need to do it.”
“He was willing to get rid of the Murderer though. He didn’t want anyone dead, except one. Has it occurred to you the possibility that maybe what Ezra said was right, but he just wanted all of us to fall into chaos for his and Apollo’s own twisted entertainment? You know what Ezra could’ve done? Let the time go to 0. That way, nobody dies, the game ends and the Civilians win.”
“Yes but the murderer still loses! They’ll still die!” Robin exclaimed.
“You think all of that was fake? Even now?” Sol stood up and pointed the gun at Selene. He walked toward and tucked his chair in, inching toward Selene.
Selene’s voice started to tremble. “Sol. Put the gun down-”
“I think you need to do it, Sol.” Steve interrupted.
“Maybe we should test it out.”
“Soleil. Stop.” Selene slowly approached Sol.
“If I shoot you and Felix was right, the game ends, right here. And if I’m wrong, I die too. But you… you already killed Vera, didn’t you?”
“That wasn’t my kill!”
Silence.
“That wasn’t your… so you are-”
Selene punched Soleil straight into his nose, dropping his gun.
“Hey!” Steve grabbed onto Selene as she attempted to make a run for it.
“So you are the Murderer.”
“I don’t even have it in me to kill-”
Sol pulled the trigger.
Bang!
He shot at the roof, making Selene flinch.
“W-what if Vera isn’t dead and Ezra lied?” Selene tried once more.
“Are you suggesting a Hunter did it? Either way, it doesn’t matter, you’ve basically admitted to being the murderer.” Steve grabbed her tighter as she tried to squirm.
“If you kill me and the game ends, you’re stuck with Apollo. So are you going to speak up about the real evil behind the scenes, if Ezra was really telling the truth? I think now that you’re all aware of what they’re up to, they’ll probably just kill you anyway. If you kill me either way, whether I’m the murderer or not, you’ll die with me, Soleil.”
“Hold on, Sol. She might be right.” Eva stroked her face. “Me and Steve heard her talk to Sable earlier.”
“If Ezra is right, all we can do now is play the game until we’re dead.” Robin held Sol’s arm.
“We already are.” Eva’s voice sounded like it was on the verge of crying.
“So what am I meant to do? Just let you live so we can live longer?”
“Yes.” Selene sighed.
“Sol. Put it down.”
“So all we can do now is just live until the time limit is done?”
“I can always extend it.” Selene struggled with her arm as she reached for her pocket, dragging out her deep red disc. It was emitting a hologram representing a knife.
“Where did you get that?” Robin questioned.
“Luckily for me, I spawned in a houseware store. I believed it was best to store a weapon that could kill easily. I can always kill one person to add more time-”
“Sacrifice more people just so we can live longer?” Steve laughed. “Fat chance.” He pushed Selene to the floor. She quickly squirmed and put the disc back in her pocket. “Feels like I’m the only one here with common sense. Ezra’s little plan was just so we can devolve into chaos. Like you said Selene, probably for their entertainment. Soleil, shoot her!”
Bzzt.
“Hello, Steve Pierce.”
A voice appeared in Steve’s head.
“Y’all hear that?”
“Hear what?” Eva raised her eyebrow.
“That voice… that woman! Don’t play with me, asshole.”
Everyone shrugged.
“I’ll be back. Don’t do anything until I return, got it?”
Steve walked outside.
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“Can you hear me, Steve?”
“Yes. Who are you? You sound… young.”
“My name is Demi.”
“Who are you?”
“I just said.”
“I mean…”
“I’m sure you have a lot of questions, Steve. I work in Lunar Tower, and I help Apollo carry out his simulations. I’m basically his assistant.”
“Wasn’t Ezra the assistant?”
“Publicly, yes.”
“What does that mean?”
“Apollo has numerous assistants to help carry out his work. Ezra is just an assistant allowed to be seen, an assistant able to sit alongside him… one that can be-”
“Just tell me why you’re here in my mind.”
“It’s time to dramatically change the game. You see the cafe before you?”
“Yes.”
“Everyone in there is dumb and stupid. They all don’t see what you see. You’re the only one that’s certain, aren’t you?”
“About killing Selene? Yes.”
“I have the authority to give you this power if you are willing. You can do what Soleil can’t.”
“Two Sheriffs?”
“Precisely. All you have to say are the magic words?”
“Uh… Please?”
“Granted.”
“So…”
“Would you like me to leave? Just say the words ‘get out of my head’, and I’ll leave.”
“Two questions.”
“Go on.”
“Ezra. Was he telling the truth?”
“No. He tried to cause trouble and is now fired. I have no idea why he chose to do this.” Her voice sounded adamant.
“Alright.”
“Finish this game, Steve.”
“If I die, will there be another sheriff assigned? Or am I a special case?”
“Special case. Only Soleil’s sheriff role will be reassigned.”
“Got it.”
“Good.”
“Can you get out of my head now?”
The voice disappeared, and suddenly a disc appeared in Steve’s pocket. He pressed it without hesitation and spawned the gun in front of him before rushing into the cafe and grabbing Selene. He dragged her to a wall and as she tried to resist, he put the gun to her head.
“Steve? What are you doing!” Soleil raised his gun to Steve. He didn’t realize as he was trying to keep Selene still.
“Just trust me!”
Eva, Felix and Robin all rushed to the door as they watched from afar.
“Steve! Gun!” Felix shouted.
“Huh?” He turned around to see Soleil ready to pull the trigger.
“I won’t let you end us early.”
“You really are gullible, aren’t you? Demi told me everything Ezra said was false.”
“Who’s Demi?”
“It doesn’t matter, Sol. Let me do this!”
“NO!”
BANG!
BANG!
…
Apollo stared at the screen.
“Did it work?” Demi asked.
“Heh. You maniac. Call in the cleaners. Unfortunately for us, we have a lot of missing cases to handle this year.”
9 PLAYERS LEFT.
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DEATH: SELENE ESTER
ROLE: MURDERER
REASON: SHERIFF’S (D) KILL
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DEATH: STEVE PIERCE
ROLE: SHERIFF (D)
REASON: SHERIFF’S KILL
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DEATH: SOLEIL BERNARD
ROLE: SHERIFF
REASON: KILLED SOMEONE ALIGNED ON THE GOOD TEAM
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“Do you think the winner will actually speak up?”
“Ha! No. Not when they’ll get offered that much cash.” Apollo sat down and grabbed his pen from a gigantic square pile of money. “And besides, you’ll make sure that doesn’t happen, right?”
“Of course.”
Apollo smiled.
“I’m going to see what I can do with Ciara.” Demi stared at the microphone.
“Do as you wish, it’s your game after all.”
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…
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Ciara was still walking on water.
“How long will this take..?”
Her disc vibrated in her pocket.
“Huh?”
She dragged it out to be greeted with a hologrammed message.
“Selene’s dead? Wait, no no no no no no no no no! Crap! What the hell am I meant to do now…”
“You can still decept. There’s still one murderer left, remember?”
“Yes but… wait. Who are you?”
“My name is Demi. Nice to meet you, Ciara.”
“So I still can’t know the identity of the second murderer?”
“No.”
“Hey, question.”
“Go on.”
“Is there another Deceptor that knows the other Murderer?”
“Yes.”
“Is there more than one Psychic then? I guess I’m only decepting one of the two Psychics so surely the other Deceptor is sabotaging a different Psychic.”
“Yes.”
“I see.”
“Ciara?”
“What?”
“Stop walking.”
“Why?”
“Because you won’t get the money. Remember what you’re doing this for.”
“I know… but-”
“But someone else is gonna earn it for you, right? Kieran.”
“You…”
“Don’t worry, we know. We aren’t gonna eliminate you for this. We’re going to make it so that Kieran or you cannot earn any funds.”
“What?”
“You heard me.. Stop walking and turn back now otherwise you’re going to regret it later.”
“Is it really that big of a deal? You’re making me think Ezra wasn’t lying. Just tell me what’s up please because if I return they might kill me and I don’t want that. I want to live. I want to get these funds.”
“I’ll make sure they can’t kill you.”
“How?”
“Don’t worry about that.”
“Right. Get out of my head.”
Ciara looked at the water. It seemed to be losing its colour.
And so did she.
She looked backwards.
There seemed to be colour there.
“Hmm.”
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Ali, Kieran, Leya and Cres finally arrived at the cafe, but nobody was there.
Just the bodies.
“What the hell happened?” Ali gasped.
Leya was muttering to herself.
“You alright?” Cres took out her disc, ready to see a clue as to what happened.
“I…”
She reached in her pocket.
“I think the role of Sheriff has been reassigned to me.”
She took out her disc.
The same as Sol’s.
“Wait. Why is Steve holding a gun? And Selene…”
Ali reached down and grabbed a disc from Selene’s body.
“Wait… how? The game… it should’ve ended by now.”
“She’s the murderer, so yes.” Leya looked down.
“Unless there are two of them.”
“Hold on, I’m trying to see what happened!” Cres closed her eyes. Her disc was floating in front of her, throbbing purple and orange colours.
“It should flash green or something when I’m getting the vision.”
“Kieran.” Ali tapped his shoulder.
“What?”
“You seem a bit dissociated. You alright?”
“It’s just… it looks so real. And we never got to truly hear what Ezra had to say. I know I disagreed with him at first but…”
“Hey, don’t worry about that for now. Let’s just try and meet up with who’s left and see what we can find out from them, alright? Come on.” Ali rubbed his back.
“Who even is left?” Leya shook her head.
“Well… us, Felix, Robin, Sable and Eva.”
“And our little deceptor, Ciara. Wherever she is.” Kieran rolled his eyes.
“How are we even going to find them? They could be anywhere.” Leya questioned.
The disc flashed green.
“Oh god.” Cres gasped.
Kieran waited for Cres to elaborate before saying “Go on.”
She explained to them that Steve shot Selene but Soleil shot Steve, resulting in all three of them dying.
“That makes sense.” Kieran stared at Steve’s body.
“So Steve was a sheriff aswell?” Leya looked at her disc. “Maybe there’s another sheriff.”
“I guess so. But there was also something else. It showed Soleil and Steve, the two sheriffs, but there was a recycle icon on Soleil’s disc and an X on Steve’s disc. Maybe only one sheriff role gets reassigned. Then purple and orange. I think maybe the purple and orange flashes just appear to signify the end of a vision.”
“Doesn’t seem like Ciara interrupted that.” Kieran sighed with relief. “Do you think you can look for a clue as to where the rest of the candidates are?”
“I can’t just keep asking for clues constantly. There’s a cooldown to it, y’know.”
“Well, how long? We need to get back to everyone else.” Ali sounded slightly frustrated.
“I don’t know. Sometimes it’ll just… work.” Cres looked at her disc. It was flashing red as she put it back in her pocket.
Leya looked lost. “So what do we do now?”
“Move these bodies somewhere for starters. It’s a bit of an eyesore, and there’s a chance that they might come back.” Cres offered.
“And then..?”
“And then my disc should be working.”
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…
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Demi looked at the screen, contentedly.
“Crescent Blackrose. It’s got a nice ring to it, don’t you think, Apollo? Imagine that on a missing poster.” She twirled around before staring at Ali in his chair.
“And people call me psychotic.”
“Hey. What about this guy?”
“Alistair?”
“Yeah. Hunter, right?”
“Yes, but from what I’ve gathered, he doesn’t want to kill anybody.”
“I think it’s time we change that, don’t you think?”
“And how do you plan on doing that? I doubt he will change."
“You said the same thing not too long ago, and I still managed to manipulate Steve, did I not?”
“Fair enough.”
“Let me do my thing, and you can do yours.”
“My thing?”
“You know what I’m talking about, Apollo.”
“Alright.”
Apollo walked out of the room.
Demi looked at the microphone in front of her.
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and then Add to home screen.