Minecraft Story Mode Season 3, Episode 2: Friends and Foes

Part 7: The Mystery Takes a Surprising New Direction

 Jesse tried to think of her first interrogation question as she stared at Erica, whose previously cheerful smile was wavering and full of unease.

"Where were you around eleven o'clock PM last night?" Jesse asked. Erica's eyes widened.

"Okay. I was expecting something a lot more nerve-racking and harder to answer. At around eleven o'clock PM, I was asleep. Who wouldn't be?" Erica responded.

"People who have to work late night hours," Jesse stated.

"Insomniacs," Romeo added.

"People who drink way too much caffeine."

"Anyone who doesn't care if they go to bed around midnight."

"Yeah, there are those people. I live by myself, but I swear I was in bed," Erica sighed. She adjusted her glasses.

"Jesse, we found a clue! You have to come over here right now!" Olivia called out. Jesse's face lit up... she was clearly excited by the thought of a clue to make the identity of the suspect a bit clearer.

"Ro, I'll be right back. Take care of things while I'm gone, okay?" Jesse said. She winked at him and walked over to Olivia and Radar.

Romeo knew exactly what Jesse meant... continue the interrogations.

"Your real name isn't even Erica Stirpe, is it?" Romeo questioned.

Erica's eyes widened. She had gone completely pale and an expression of panic was on her face.

"I- I don't know what you're talking about. That... that's crazy!" Erica exclaimed. Some of the color returned to her face and her voice became calm again. "The townspeople said you were insane, but I didn't know it was this bad. You're accusing me of using a false identity and it's completely out of nowhere," Erica continued.

Romeo directed an icy glare at her.

"Don't lie to me. I did some research and found out you don't have a birth record, which could only be possible if you never even existed. And you don't. This whole identity you have here is fake," Romeo growled.

The corners of Erica's mouth turned upwards into a smirk.

"You're absolutely right," Erica told him. Romeo's eyebrows rose and then he blinked in surprise.

"You're- You're just confessing?" Romeo answered. He paused for a moment, to recover from Erica's shocking response. He smiled with glee. "I really wasn't expecting this to be that easy," Romeo admitted.

Erica's smirk became a wide malicious grin.

"Really? I was about to say the same thing to you," Erica replied.

Romeo's smile slowly faded. "What do you mean?"

"You've fallen right into my trap," Erica gloated. She chuckled to herself. "Thank you for doing exactly what I wanted you to." Erica gave Romeo one last triumphant grin... before falling to her knees and crying.

Veeva, Stampy, Stacy, Amy, Jesse, Petra, Lukas, Axel, Olivia, Binta, Radar, Stella, Ysa, Lizzie, Joel, Adara, and Lillian rushed over to Erica.

"What's wrong?" Binta asked her. Erica sniffled and wiped away her tears, but more tears quickly ran down her face like rivers.

"Romeo accused me of claiming to be someone I wasn't. He started screaming at me and calling me evil and a liar," Erica responded.

"I didn't-" Romeo began. He was appalled by Erica's underhanded, sneaky, and manipulative move. He knew exactly what she was doing: playing the victim and casting all blame onto Romeo.

"Though I guess I should've expected it from the Admin," Erica interrupted.

Oh no. She didn't.

Romeo hadn't expected her to stoop this low. Not only did Erica completely destroy his reputation in one sentence, but she also had no qualms about the result of telling everyone Romeo was the Admin... which was sending everyone at the party into a panic.

There was a variety of reactions from the partygoers: eyes widening, gasps, and jaws dropping.

And then there was Lizzie: "The what? I'm just really confused right now."

"He's a supervillain who impersonated Jesse, killed Jack's friend Vos, imprisoned hundreds of people, and killed his best friend Fred," Erica elaborated.

The mention of what he did to Fred was the last straw.

Romeo was now completely filled with rage. He really wanted to throttle her with his telekinesis, but that would make his reputation ten times worse than it already was.

He looked at Erica, who directed a smirk at him. She was relishing the fact that he stood there, seething, and there was nothing he could do to stop her.

The smirk was only present for a split second. Erica resumed her crying.

Romeo then glanced at Jesse... who was clearly shocked and disappointed.

"We talked about this. I told you to make sure you kept her calm but you didn't listen," Jesse said.

"She really isn't Erica Stirpe! She even admitted it! I assure you, she's perfectly calm and faking this whole thing!" Romeo fumed. It was highly agonizing and frustrating to know the truth but have no one believe it, not even his best friend.

"Ro... I'm sorry, but I have to side with Erica on this one," Jesse sighed.

Romeo's anger disappeared and was replaced with crushing sadness. His eyes began to well with tears.

"I need a moment alone," Romeo whispered. He sprinted to Lizzie's front yard, making sure he didn't look at any of the crowd's faces. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he ran.

"Something's really wrong with him," Lukas said. His voice was full of gentleness and concern.

"How can you tell?" Olivia asked.

"He never wants to be alone. I'm going to go check on him, the rest of you can wait here," Lukas responded.

Lukas walked to the front yard with a clear purpose in mind- to make sure Romeo was feeling all right and then find out what was really going on- as everyone at the party watched him.