Process of Elimination

Chapter 4: Part 2

[2 Players Eliminated, 11 remain]

Player #14: Carmen Coolatta

Player #22: Khuld Mansouri

Immediately after her collar exploded, Carmen's body plummeted to the ground. As the stage curtain fell, Khuld's lifeless body sprawled on the floor with a spear impaling her. It was impossible for us to articulate what had occurred. Morgan's piercing screams were the sole sound we heard upon witnessing Carmen's lifeless body. All of us had guilty and sad expressions on our faces, except Xavion. He merely glanced and watched as the chaos unfolded. The host arrived and explained the situation to us. "A rule has been broken. There is no reason to be afraid or scared. This was meant to happen" he says. Morgan yelled at everyone. "NO. THIS ISN'T REAL. CARMEN ISN'T A KILLER. THIS WAS A SET-UP. WHY ARE YOU ALL JUST STANDING THERE? ONE OF YOU KILLED HER AND YOU'RE BLAMING IT ON CARMEN. ALL OF YOU DESERVE TO DIE." she screamed at the top of her lungs.

We all just stared at her like a maniac. Xavion walked up to Carmen's body and took something from it. "You guys remember the cards we chose at the ends of our videos?" he asked. "Yeah. What about them?" Renfrew asked. "Well, we don't know which cards we chose. But, we do know the options. I pulled this card from Carmen's collar." Xavion displayed a red card that said "Sacrifice". We all looked at the card. He took more cards out of his pocket. Some said "Die" and others said "Sacrifice". "The only card I couldn't manage to get was Hasana's of course." Xavion told us. "What does this have to do with anything?" Kichirou asked. "I think in those videos, we chose our own fates in the game." Xavion said.

"What the hell are you saying?" Micheal scoffed at him. "There were 3 cards to choose from. They were flipped over so we couldn't see them. My guess is that the cards said 'Sacrifice', 'Die', and 'Live/Survive'. Everyone that died within a game had a 'Die' card. Everyone who got voted off or died outside of a game has a 'Sacrifice' card. I'm guessing that at least one of us here has the 'Live/Survive' card." Xavion explained. We all looked at him in horror. "So, you've been collecting cards from all the d-dead bodies?!" Mariella gasped. "Pretty much." Xavion chuckled.

"The voting session will commence shortly." the host announced. We all looked at each other. "But, Carmen is the killer. Why do we need to vote?" Jale said. "NO, SHE ISN'T!! STOP SAYING THAT." Morgan screamed. "It's obvious this was a set-up." Xavion said. "You need to shut the hell up." Cale snapped at him. "No thanks. As I was saying, this is a set-up. You think Carmen would set up this trap and activate it in front of everyone, knowing the consequences? No. And the host can't do anything to us unless it's part of a game. And this was no game. So, the only possibility is that one of us is the real culprit. Carmen may have finished the crime, but someone was the mastermind behind the trap and that's one of us."

His words ran through our heads and brought a chill down our throats.