Snake 8:30 A.M. Seventh Day
I knew something was wrong the instant I heard the scream. I was wandering around the lower floors looking for some things when I heard it, I immediately ran off in the direction I heard it from and when I arrived there was already a crowd around the laundry room.
"What's going on?" I ask, walking toward the edge of the crowd. Rabbit is throwing up while Ox rubs her back, and Dog is covering Boar's ears over to the right. The others are all staring in horror at something inside. Rooster turns around at my question and fixes me with an intense glare. I almost flinch back but keep my face stony as the rest become aware of my existence.
"Why don't you see for yourself." Rooster spits, moving out of the way for me to squeeze through. I push my way to the front of the crowd and the sight inside the laundry room is soon revealed to me. Rat is lying dead in the washing machine, her arm and head half hanging out and a bloody message on the ground reading…my name.
I turned toward Tiger, who was staring at the scene with rare concentration. I wondered why nobody had taken a step in, but I soon found out when I tried to walk toward the body. A hand immediately stopped me from going any further. I glanced up and found Horse blocking my way with a stern expression.
"What are you doing?" I question her.
"This is a crime scene, nobody should be going near the body, if one of you is the killer then they might tamper with the evidence." She states.
"Tamper with the-? How are we supposed to collect evidence in the first place if you're blocking the way in?" I point out.
"I will take care of collecting any evidence and will make an accusation with what I find." She answers.
"And what if you're the killer?" This doesn't come from me, but instead, from Tiger who's fixing her with a level gaze.
"Don't be ridiculous, why would the police officer kill someone?" Dragon scoffs.
"We have our killer already, don't we? His name is on the ground." Rooster points at the blood where my name is written.
"That could've been written by the killer," I reply.
"Well, we won't know for sure, until we investigate the scene," Tiger says, still staring at Horse. Her face goes through multiple different emotions before it eventually falls and she lets out a sigh.
"Fine, do what you want." She moves to the side and I'm able to step through and into the laundry room.
"Do you know what happened?" I ask Tiger as he bends down to look at the body in the washing machine.
"Not much, I just found her like this a few minutes ago, then Rabbit came around the corner and screamed like bloody murder and everyone arrived after that," Tiger answers. The laundry room floor has blood on it, it still looks wet, and looks like a series of drag marks from the doorway to the washing machine.
A different washing machine is turned on, I walk over to it and turn it off, opening it to find some clean sheets, the water they were set in is a brownish-red color, probably more blood. A few of the others have entered the room as well, Ox, Horse, and Dragon.
"Once you guys are done investigating here, we'll get alibis." Horse states. She's standing at the back of the room, keeping a watchful eye on everyone. I see Dragon rolling his eyes to my side, but he doesn't raise any complaints.
When Tiger is done with the body, I move over to take a glance at it. I know absolutely nothing about the human body or anything medical, but taking a glance at the body is still better than not doing it at all. As I bend down I notice my hands shaking and quickly clench them to try and hide it.
The body right in front of me is shocking and downright sickening. But now isn't the time to freak out, it's not like I was shocked that this happened…but I still wish it didn't. I take a small deep breath to collect myself before starting my investigation of the body.
Her eyes are open in horrified expression and her head is hanging out of the washing machine along with one of her arms. The arm has wet blood on the fingertip, this was probably what she used to write the message on the ground. I take a closer look at her arm and find a purple mark on her elbow, a small bruise.
I move in closer to get a look inside the washing machine. There's a lot of blood coming from a slash mark in her stomach, the blood pooling at the bottom of the machine. A flash of white catches my attention and I reach in to grab it.
When I pull it out I see what it is, a note, it was hanging slightly out of her pocket. I unfurl the note and read it to myself, it says, 'Meet me in my room at 6, signed S' This note is definitely going to condemn me more, but before I can even think of hiding it, it's ripped out of my hands by Dragon.
"I was still reading that," I tell him.
"Oh yeah? I bet you were trying to hide the evidence." He smirks. Hearing that, Horse quickly strides over and takes a look at the note. I roll my eyes and continue to look at the body. There was something strange about her neck so I grabbed her head, raised it up, and then let it go. The neck flopped down awkwardly, going further than a human neck would, even when dead.
I pick her head up again and glance down, on the back of her neck is a deep cut that goes almost entirely through her neck. Despite that, there was no blood. That's probably everything I can get from the body, so I move away and see the note in Ox's hands now. Rooster is glancing into the room, but she doesn't bother going further in, and the rest who were outside are nowhere to be seen.
"Hey, do you want to come with me, I want to check something." Tiger taps on my shoulder while I'm lost in thought.
"Sure, have you read the note yet?" I ask him. He glances over to the note in Ox's hand before shaking his head.
"I already did, I don't need to read it again." He replies. With that, he takes the lead, leaving the room. I follow behind him as he takes me through the hotel and into the kitchen, stopping before some knives.
"I knew it." He mutters, a grin enveloping his face.
"What?" I question. I feel awkward being here alone with him, the last time we were alone I did something embarrassing and almost cried in front of him.
"Last night, there were five knives here, but now, there's a sixth one." He says. Then, he turns around and starts skipping off.
"Where are you going?" I ask him.
"Just to do some stuff." He replies mysteriously.
"Ugh." I groan. I take a moment to do some breathing exercises as I try to push the image of Rat's dead body out of my head. I'm considering staying here for the time being, when someone else enters the room.
"There you are, we're going to talk about alibis now, meet at the laundry room." Horse delivers the message and then leaves just as quickly.
"...She's taking this pretty seriously," I mumble. It was easy to see how differently people were dealing with this. Rabbit had shut down, throwing up in the hallway and then retreating to her room. Horse was determined to figure out who did it. Dragon was trying to act like everything was normal, and Ox had a silent determination to him.
After a short break, I leave the kitchen and slowly make my way back to the laundry room area. When I get there, Horse had gathered everyone but Tiger, who went off somewhere. Sheep was glancing toward the laundry room in confusion, he wasn't there when I arrived earlier, so he probably wasn't aware someone had died until Horse found him.
"Alright, we have a rough time of when this murder occurred so I'm going to ask each and every one of you where you were at six this morning." She states.
"I was working out in the gym with Horse and Ox," Dragon replies.
"Indeed," Ox confirms.
"I was with Rabbit getting breakfast," Rooster says. Rabbit nodding her head meekly as confirmation.
"I was also grabbing breakfast at that time, and this little one was sleeping." Dog reveals, patting a teary Boar on the head.
"Can anyone confirm this?" Horse asks, glancing around.
"I-I think I saw him." Rabbit stutters.
"I was in the rec room with Sheep, he brought me over there because he was confused about the pool table," Monkey states, rubbing the back of his head in annoyance. Sheep nods enthusiastically.
"I don't know where Tiger was, but we can ask him later." Horse says, talking about our missing member. Then, all the eyes turn to me. I'm the last person to answer and I suddenly get a chill. At six, nobody was around me. I don't have an alibi.
"Uhm, I was…asleep." The pause is just a bit too long.
"Bullshit! I saw you walking around suspiciously around then, maybe you had just murdered Rat!" Rooster shouts.
"Now now, let's not be hasty." Horse tries to interfere.
"No, this guy has been suspicious from the start, I mean, his name was written in blood for fucks sake! He doesn't have an alibi and he just fucking lied! I've had it! I accuse Snake of murdering Rat!" Rooster's words echo throughout the hallway.
"Someone has made an accusation! With that, the investigation is over. Would you all kindly move to the ballroom to get started with the trial."
The voice over the loudspeakers makes me flinch. It rings through the hallway like a gunshot. Everyone is staring at Rooster in shock, like they didn't expect she'd do it. I dig my fingernails into my hands, feeling warmth as blood starts dripping down.
Of course someone would do something like this. Why didn't I think they would? I guess my mind was too busy trying to keep track of everything I found and trying to hold back the eventual crash of my adrenaline rush…but still. I dig my nails in even harder as people start moving away, toward the ballroom.
I watched them all go and reluctantly unclench my hands. The feelings of fear and sadness that had been welling up in me before all this was easily displaced by feelings of anger and frustration. If they want me to be the murderer then fine! Let's see if they're still happy when they find out they're stuck here forever after voting.
I take some more deep breaths to calm down before I head toward the ballroom myself. Whatever happens next…I don't even want to try. Everything is fucked up…should I even try to find out who did it? These questions plague me during my slow walk to the ballroom. After all, do I really want to help people who have done nothing but doubt me?