𝘍𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘢𝘯𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘱𝘢: 𝘞𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘛𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘋𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘳

/ 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 3.1 / 𝘋𝘦𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘋𝘪𝘴𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳

"Nathaniel?"

He turned around with a look of surprise on his face as he recognized the two figures standing before him.

"Eli? Lin?," he mouthed as the two stood before him, their expressions non threatening but looking more surprised to see him.

To his own surprise, Elijah began to run towards him and pulled him in a hug.

He began to freeze up due to his normal reaction at the physical contact he felt.

However he felt part of the reason of why he froze up was due to his shock at the non-threatening reactions the two had upon seeing him.

"Oh, um sorry. I hugged you because it looked like you needed it but I don't think that was helping at all," Elijah explained apologetically.

"No you don't need to apologize I'm just surprised that you guys are talking to me," Nathaniel chuckled, realizing the famuliarity of interacting with someone after a week of isolation.

"Why wouldn't we be?," Lin asked, Nathaniel relieved the curious innocence in Lin's tone familiar once again.

"Because I'm the...mastermind," he stated awkwardly, the words hard to spit out on his tongue.

"You think that we believe you're the mastermind?," Lin asked, her cold attitude from the aftermath of the last trial returning.

"There's no way we can believe it, it doesn't make sense...," Elijah agreed.

"Besides, we owe you one. Unlike them, you believed in us until the very end and you were the one who seeked the truth behind Tyler's death. He didn't die for nothing...," Lin added, a hint of softness in her tone upon saying Tyler,'s name.

"I'm sorry about Tyler...," Nathaniel said as he recalled how it's only been a week since she and Elijah had both lost Tyler.

"It's alright, the damage has been done. He would want us to move on," Lin dismissed his condolences with a sigh.

He couldn't help but flinch of how much of a stranger this cold side of Lin was to him.

Maybe the killing game was changing them all faster than he had realized.

"Why did you disappear, if it's ok to ask?," Elijah asked him, his eyebrows furrowed in concern.

"It's just....I decided that if I stayed there with the others any longer, I would just be seen as a threat to everyone else. So I decided to just investigate on my own...," he admitted though upon saying it out loud, he felt a pang of guilt wash over for he realized how selfish he had sounded; not considering what Liam and Jackson had felt the moment he started to ghost everyone.

"You don't have to try to prove yourself to the others, it's their own problem if they truly believe Amanda's story," Lin offered.

"Besides, Amanda's stories that she keeps telling everyone is constantly changing by the minute the more we hear about it."

Elijah began to nod in agreement, "She seems really persistent on the idea of you being the mastermind."

Nathaniel's heart began to pound on his chest, this news worrying whatAmanda and the others knew about him that he didn't.

"Well, um, since you're here do you want to come with us to check some of the new labs?," Elijah began to offer, switching the topic of conversation as he noticed the look of worry on Nathaniel's face.

It had slipped Nathaniel's mind that there were still a lot of the ultimate labs that were yet to be open to its respective students for use.

His only worry upon joining Elijah and Lin was the possibility of the others catching him.