💡 Murder in the Moonlight

chapter three - a flickering flame

The four don't say a word. For about 2 seconds.

"Get back you killers!" the shortest of the four, with long pink hair and white overalls, leaps up from the table she is sat at and races towards us. She brandishes a plastic knife – the same one I used this morning.

"Calm down Lara! Nobody would be out to kill us at this time of day," the second girl, with gorgeous brunette hair like mine, quickly catches up and puts Lara's arm down.

"Sorry for that. I'm Odette, this is Lara, Colleen and Elizabeth," she points to the girl beside her and two behind. She then offers her hand to me and Alab. He takes it but I don't. While Alab slips into conversation with Odette, I try to recall the names on those journals back at the fire.

Colleen... Lara... Odette... Elizabeth.

It clicks! These are the four girls we couldn't find last night.

"Alab! Sorry to cut in but these are the four girls we couldn't find last night!" I don't let myself listen to the topic at hand because this is a crucial finding. He looks at me without responding for a second. Then, a wide smile appears on his face.

"Indah! You genius, you've worked your magic again!" he cheers ecstatically. I look back at Odette and Lara, who are now accompanied by Colleen and Elizabeth. Colleen is wearing a matching maroon set and her pin straight brown hair rests on her shoulder. Elizabeth, who looks significantly younger than the other 3, is playing with her curly dark-brown hair in half-up half-down space buns. She's wearing a pastel rainbow top that reminds me of something I would've worn in middle school. They all share a similar expression of confusion.

"Care to explain?" Lara breaks our silence.

"No time, grab your things and come with us. We need to make it back before the sun sets or bad things could happen," sometimes, I really am grateful for word vomit. Within minutes, the six of us are following the path back to our campsite. To add to the high levels of tension and fear, Alab explains our current situation and what will likely be happening tonight.

By the time we reach the fire, night is almost upon us. Omar and Marley are in a heated argument, likely about Omar's cooking capabilities. Or lack thereof. The rest of the group is gathered around the fire. Some are eating what looks to be hotdogs and others are discussing something, likely their findings of the day.

"Great news everybody! We've found more friends to join us in this game!" Alab yells out. Nobody really reacts apart from Marley, whose face lights up in joy.

"Thank goodness you found them! I'm Marley, nice to meet you all," she drags the four to the tents to likely repeat the information Alab shared. I look up at him; he's gone unusually quiet now. But as much as I'd like to confide in him, I need time to myself. Leaving Alab with his thoughts, I move to the nearest barbeque verandah I can see. It's quite some distance from the fire but a few moments alone won't harm me. The sun is still up, the lights aren't out yet.

I take out my journal, rereading the same orders I had obeyed earlier. My stomach churns knowing I'm following the demands of a psychopath that's watching us scramble to find a killer before we all get killed. Yet for some reason, being in a game where I'm destined to die brings me more assurance than I've felt before. I've found more friends here, in a gamble of life, than I have ever before. So being here means I have someone to lose.

I flip to the next empty page and start writing. If I'm going to die, my knowledge could help everyone else survive.

I'm the Medic (Good)

Alab is a Survivor (Good) and I've been healing him each night

I pause. Having known my role for nearly a day now, my investigation has been going terribly. I mean, at least I can confirm Alab isn't evil? After tonight, more leads will hopefully come out. I turn to the very last page and notice even more instructions written in a familiar handwriting.

Once the lights turn on, vote for a player to be eliminated by writing their name on this page. You must vote before 12PM or you will be killed the following night.

It doesn't feel right. Voting others off purely based on accusation will lead us to a dead end. The murderer is already killing one person each night, having to vote out another each morning doesn't help our chances. But what can I do? It's either death by the murderer or death by the organiser. I have no choice but to listen to them.

"Hey, detective brain!" someone familiar calls out in front of me. I look up, seeing Alab with a lantern similar to the one Quinn had last night. It's practically night now – the sun has set and the moon is rising. How long was I writing for?

He jogs over to me as I put away my pen and journal. Before he speaks again, he places his lantern in the middle of us. His eyes glimmer with the golden light of the lantern, almost like the stars in the night sky.

"You missed out on a great game of Truth or Dare back at the fire. Say, what were you even doing here? You've been out for nearly an hour!" he puts both hands on the table and leans forward, giving me a sinister yet cheeky look.

"I've been writing information in my journal, silly. I needed alone time to think." About you.

"Well, now that you've done that, will you pretty please come back? Everyone keeps bringing up inside jokes and I feel very lonely," he pleads. To be fair, I've written as much as I know already and Truth or Dare never hurts.

"Fine," I groan. He takes my hand and eagerly brings me back to the fire. We're about 5 steps away from the rest of the group when it happens.

The flame flickers, then burns out.