💡 Murder in the Moonlight

chapter seven - my lantern's warmth

I've seen a lot of gruesome things in my life.

Lara's motionless corpse resting beside a tree with her own head in her lap tops the list. Her previously white overalls are stained a horrid shade of maroon and her neck is still leaking blood. I nearly throw up at the sight of her but I can't run away. You can't leave this unanswered, Indah. Their deaths have to be resolved.

It must be the late afternoon by now since the sun is close to setting. A warm, golden glimmer of light is cast over Lara's corpse. Even the universe is siding with the killer and mocking her death. What a joke. I force myself to take a step closer and I can finally see large, block letters scrawled on her right arm. There are only two this time – GO. Nothing else. It's not written like the previous words have been. If they even have any correlation.

For the amount of time I've been out, I'm slightly surprised I haven't bumped into anybody else yet. No Marley drawing out pathetically fake accusations, no Omar arguing against claims of food poisoning and no Alab checking up on me. Which slightly sucks. Part of me is glad I have a moment to myself. But part of me can't be alone with my thoughts for more than a few minutes. That part would kill to see Alab's stupid smile one more time.

Unfortunately, I don't bump into him as I take a right turn. Instead, I'm greeted by Colleen's lifeless body. At least I think it's her. Her head is still forced under the murky, blood-stained water of the rusty well I've come across. Her brunette hair is drenched and parts of it look as if it'd been ripped out. Apart from that, her body appears to be untouched. It's practically pitch-black now so my eyes barely make out another foggy word inscribed on her dark red tank top. GHTLSI... LIGHTS.

Suddenly, two cold hands push against my back.

"BOO!" Alab screams before bursting into laughter.

"AAH! Geez, you scared me!" I reactively stumble backwards.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to," he messes with his lantern before it flickers on again.

"So... what are you up to now, detective brain? You disappeared after the votes?" he sits down and motions for me to join him.

"I know I've been acting up... I just don't really know why. But I had a sudden realisation and needed to get out of there. I found Lara's body a while ago and I just found Colleen's," I can feel the word vomit crawling up again. Except this time, I let myself continue.

"All these words written on everybody and Lara and Elizabeth's journals... I think I'm just missing one piece of the puzzle. The words must form a phrase. But the journals? The information is inconsistent and points us to a dead end," I pause to breathe.

"Well, I know you would've wanted to see a few other journals but I didn't bring them with me. Colleen didn't have much in hers, just that she was a Survivor. Odette on the other hand?" Alab pauses.

"Go on?"

"She was the Clown."

I don't respond.

Of course, the one person nobody would've suspected is the one we needed to fear the most.

"We should probably head back to the fire. We're all staying together tonight," Alab pushes himself up and offers his hand to me. I take it, it's warm like usual, and we slowly make our way back to the fire.

When we get back, the fire hasn't gone out yet. Strange. Melodie and Marley are whispering together and writing something in their journals. Omar is far away from the two, watching the stars overhead.

"Took you long enough," Omar mumbles.

"Sorry, I was-"

"We were inspecting Lara and Colleen's bodies again. Got a problem?" Alab cuts me off with a noticeable shift in his voice. I don't know what happened between the two but there's evident tension in the air.

"Really now? This late at night too? Pay me a million bucks and even I wouldn't believe that crap," Omar's tone has shifted too. There must have been an argument of sorts while I was in zombie mode.

"I'm not sure if you were aware, Omar, but Indah's been completely out of things for a few nights. If you're really going to blame her because of me, you deserve to be killed next."

The two pause after Alab spits out that insult.

"Ooo, fight!" Melodie calls out from a distance.

"I may have sided with you earlier, Alab, but I'm done believing your shows. And especially with Indah's display these recent nights, I have all the more reason to point my finger at you two. Besides, sparks always come from partners in crime," Omar snickers.

"Leave her out of this-"

"Alab, I can fight my own fight. Thanks, though," I turn to my left and look up at him. It's almost like there are flames in his deep brown eyes, ready to lash out and burn Omar. Out of everybody, though, him? I don't have any recollection of an argument breaking out between the two. Omar's been nice to us since the start!

"Cut the crap, lovebirds. You've been caught red-handed, don't even bother hiding the truth anymore," his voice is low and stern. Slightly frightening, even.

But what's more frightening is the campfire flickering out mere seconds later.

"Oh no, who are you killing tonight? Wouldn't it be smart to kill me?" Omar pouts sarcastically. God, what happened?

My thoughts are interrupted as Alab drags me away from Omar. He's got me by the waist and he pulls me to another barbeque area some distance from the other 3.

"Alab, what on Earth happened with you two?" I spit out as I push myself away from his grasp. Had this happened even 10 minutes ago, I wouldn't be stopping him from doing anything to me.

"I don't know Indah. I seriously don't know! After Lara was killed Omar just... stopped siding with me. He switched up entirely and started pointing the blame at me. I nearly got voted out, Indah!" his voice is shaky now. Fuck. He nearly got voted out and I was too busy being passed out to defend him.

"I..." I can't even bring myself to respond.

"It's not your fault Indah. You're reacting to a traumatic event, nobody's blaming you for the way you've acted," it's almost like Alab's reading my mind. If he was about to cry moments ago, there's no sign of it anymore.

"Alab... I'm really sorry." That's all I can muster out before I wrap my arms around him and break into tears. It's a flood of emotions and I can't stop it. Mateo's death, Mila, Thiago, Quinn, Lara, Elizabeth, Colleen, Odette... they're all gone. And I've been too shaken to even try and help find this damn murderer. Isn't that pathetic, Indah?

"Don't apologise," is all Alab whispers as he wraps his arms around me too. He rests his head on mine and I rest mine against his chest. He's done so much for me and I won't ever be able to repay it. Because we're both going to die here at this rate. I don't tell him that because it's finally caught up to me that I am, in fact, hugging Alab.

Time feels slower now. Almost like an illusion, a myth, a concept. Nothing even feels real. Being thrown into a gamble of life and watching everybody I know be slaughtered? Surreal. Am I even here? Yes. Yes, I am, because I'm hugging the only friend I have left. He's radiating warmth and I feel safer in his arms then I did on my own.

And then it all rushes back to me.

Somebody's screaming for her life and I can finally put a name to a voice.

I've never truly felt worried for Marley. She's been a selfish, ignorant, snobby bitch who doesn't even care that people are dying. But now, it sounds like she's the one being held by gunpoint.

I look at Alab and he looks at me.

Then we start to run.