DEMARCATION

Nine

AVA

Sharon nudged me on seeing that I was not eating the food rather was playing with it. I looked up to realize that everyone was watching me and Joe who was also playing with his food. He too was thinking about the note and I saw that he was getting uncomfortable with each passing second. But I had lost my appetite and wanted to leave to my room as seeing Liam here was making me insecure. Without any warning Joe suddenly stood up causing the glass to fall down in the process. The shattering sound broke my line of thoughts and made me flinch. He left saying he had no appetite and I wanted to follow him but suddenly I noticed that George was missing in the group. I asked Sharon about it to which she replied that there was no response from his room. It brought my attention to the dream I had yesterday.

I was in a room and there were two people talking and smiling but they were a blur to me. From the sound it felt to be of a women and a girl. I saw a photo, even though it was not clear the man in it looked familiar. Suddenly it hit me that it was George and I just ran up to his room and knocked. I thought it to be locked and when I got no response I tried turning the knob. I was surprised to find the door unlocked and entered the room. The first thing that I noticed was the strong smell of iron and another foul smell which almost made me puke. The bed looked as he slept in it but when I touched the sheets it was cold indicating that he have woken up earlier. I almost left the room thinking he might be in the garden but the flies grabbed my attention. I decided to check the washroom and walked towards it. But I stopped in my tracks when I saw George lying in a puddle of blood on the floor on the other side of the bed.

Hearing my screams Joe came running followed by others. Joe went over him and checked his pulse confirming his death. He asked others to inform Jane and tried to get my attention but failed. So he forcefully led me to my room advising me to stay there and left. I didn't hear what he told me as I was seeing the events of Sid's death again which is now getting mixed with what I experienced now. I was brought out of the trance by the ruckus outside. I went to George's room to find a furious Joe.

"This is a murder and it have to be reported. Why are you trying to hide this?"

"I can see that this is a murder but the terms that you accepted also has a condition that you can leave the place only within the first two days and after that you have to see this to the end until you can contact the outside world. Also he have no family to inform and so we have to bury him ourself."

"What the... You have to call the police. Even though I'm one of them since I'm on leave I can't interfere in such cases so you have to call the police. It's a murder that also proves that we have a murderer among us and we have to find them before anyone else is also murdered."

I tried to calm them but since Joe was angry he was not listening to me. I approached Joe and grabbed his hand to pull him away from there so I can have a short talk with him but he in a sudden rage pushed me away causing me to tumble down. I felt a sharp pain as my forehead came in contact with the bedside table and everything went black.