Schemes of Murderers

Chapter 7 - Schemes of [Flammable Fire-Starters]

     "Why do I have to do the cooking?" Jungle furiously exclaimed.

Her forehead wrinkled like paper crumbling from a vicious grip of a hand, while her eyebrows furrowed like a stable and well-balanced seesaw swinging up then down. Continuously keeping a hand twirling a lock of her seaweed green hair, she glared at the nine other hostages with a strenuous sentiment.

Panda held her hands behind her back like policemen and women had begun forcing a pair of handcuffs onto her wrists.

"Since you don't trust us, Painter suggested that you should be the one to cook. That way, you can eat as well." Panda added, with a meek voice squirming out from her throat. "Yeah, but whose good idea was it to reunite us with a dumb feast?" Jungle snapped.

"It was me." Painter held up a hand just long enough before returning it by her side.

"Well, you shouldn't trust me. I'm not a good cook." Jungle gave a last effort. It didn't last very long. Everyone surrounded her with arching eyebrows and unamused expressions as if telling her that they couldn't keep up with her crap anymore. "Fine... I'll get right to it." She groaned, trudging past everyone else to enter the kitchen, shutting the white congealed door with a loud slam behind her.

And just like that, the sound of hot sizzling fire roared backstage.

"Are you sure we can trust her to stay away from poisoning our food?" Tiger seethed. "She is a female, so she should be able to enter the girls' washroom and take the poison bottle."

Actress had eyed Tiger suspiciously with a slender hand resting on her hip. "I told her to come over without telling what we needed her to do. Adding on, I accompanied Jungle the entire time, and she never went in the washroom. So in the end, we're safe."

"Okay. But no need to give me the death stare." Tiger scoffed angrily, with a drastic change in her voice. Actress only eyed her furthermore. "You're not trusting Jungle, so of course I wouldn't like you."

"Let's cut out the arguments!" Pops clasped his hands together, with a loud clap startling everyone who had rounded up in the cafeteria. "More importantly, did everyone lock their doors? We don't want anyone to break in, right?"

Panda gave him a sceptical eye. After the violent fight between Jungle and Painter from the theatre room, Reciffo had given keys labelled with the alphabet letters a-j to each person. Of course, the keys each belonged to the correct corresponding letter door, and can't open any other. But Panda was too exhausted that time to care or memorize her key's letter (which is j). The hostages had agreed to lock their doors after leaving since, after all, it only seemed moral enough. They wouldn't want anyone to scavenge through their room and plant a trap without them noticing.

"Right." Painter gave Pops a thumbs up to congratulate his prompt. "Thanks for the reminder. Did anyone forget to lock their door?"

"Not me." Liar shrugged.

"Me neither," Actress added.

"No way I'll forget. My memory is top-class." Singer had a smug face as if his statement only multiplied his prideful prowess.

"Looks like nobody forgot then." Painter had confirmed after the shaking of heads from everyone in the room. "What about Jungle? What if she forgot?" Actress chirped.

     "There's no way she could've forgotten. For someone as paranoid as she wouldn't have forgotten such a simple task." Liar yawned. "Right..." Tiger hesitated to agree.

The rest of the hostages had taken a cautious but laid back seat on a hard wooden chair, plopping down with a keen of hesitation and paranoia. They couldn't help but eye one another, curious as to see what the other would do. Instead, they got nothing suspicious. Nothing fretful or memorable. Panda didn't do the same, however. She just wouldn't dare to look at anyone in the eye, for all they ever do is stare back or tell her to get lost.