The entire game would last for five hours, in which they had time to figure out the codes and get ready in their chosen rooms to hide in. They had already spent an hour, but even with one clue solved, it still led to many possibilities.
"Where two opposite meets; if one is present, the other disappears," Bree read the clue for the nth time. "If I go to the kitchen, my hunger will be overtaken by the feeling of fullness."
"And if you go to the bedroom, sleep is present when being awake isn't," Ashlyn continued.
"Then the bathroom and laundry room takes the dirty and make it clean," Ethan added quietly.
"Is the room with the trap among the ones mentioned just now?" Ginny questioned curiously, her eyes frantically shifting from one person to another. Holding her focus on one person was nearly impossible when she feared the discovery of the truth for Shirley's death written on her gaze.
"Presumably, but the clue is too vague to draw conclusions from," Bree spoke. She seemed to have taken on the motherly role in Shirley's absence, but was much harsher and less gentle. "We need to rely on the bunch of letters or numbers to get a better picture of the answer."
The task was easier said than done. They had no idea where to start. Were the two clues solved using the same method, or was it different? Were they perhaps related to one another, or had they no correlation?
"Damon, wouldn't you know something about this?" Mark suddenly questioned. He sat on the dining chair lazily with his back slouched back he was nearly falling off, and his arms folded together. His eyes, however, was challenging the latter.
"If I do," Damon responded with an equally rivaling tone, "What makes you think I would share the information with you?"
To this, Bree was the one who answered by violently grabbing him by the collar. "Have some sense of unity! People are dying one by one if you don't help us out!" She was gritting her teeth so tight her gum might have shattered.
Damon smirked, slapping her hands away from him. "Isn't that exactly the intention?"
Bree was so close to use physical force to shut him up—to knock some sense back into his brain. But Shirley'z still small voice echoed in her mind, reminding ber not to opt toward violence. She held back.
"Can't you at least give us a clue?" Mark asked.
They would suspect Damon to lie by now. He seemed like the type who would sabotage others' plan in order to have his will be done. They weren't aware they had already fallen victim to his lies and manipulations since the very first game.
"It is a cipher," Damon spoke, staring straight into Mark's eyes with so much confidence laced in his hesitant voice. It gave the effect of knowing and not knowing what he was doing at the same time.
"You're lying!" Bree uttered condemningly.
Madison was quietly observing the situation and the way Damon responded to everything. His face muscles were too relaxed if he was trying to lie. He was trying to make them think he was lying though; he didn't meet anyone's eye and faked a hesitant tone. He showed all signals a liar would behave with under interrogation, something a criminology major was aware of.
"No," Madison suddenly said, earning a more surprised look from Damon. There was something about his eyes that invited her to trust him. "He is speaking the truth."
"Why would you say that?" Natasha asked, confused.
"I am a psychology major. I can understand the way people think and why they end up doing what they do," Madison said with a proud smile. She turned to Damon once again who did not look too amused. Perhaps he had been underestimating her.
