I walked into the dining room, intending on heading into the kitchen for some snacks. 

The sight I saw made me so grateful that I left Wim in the arcade room. Durcdenwald was standing  beside the police officer called Greg. But the problem was… Greg appeared to be dead, and, even better, on the other side of the table, her head lolling on her chest, was an equally dead Rickila.

Durchdenwald’s eyes widened and he froze and I felt myself take a step back. He was the murderer, wasn’t he?“What the heck?” I managed to gasp out. He jolted back to life, standing up straight, dropping Greg’s head on the table with a sickly thud, and taking a step towards me. “It’s not what it looks like,”

“Yeah, it is what it looks like,” I said, and ran out of the room. 

Everyone was gathered in the living room and Durchdenwald was explaining himself, all eyes on him. Even though I was itching to jump on his case and accuse him, I had to give it to him; he was probably telling the truth about just finding the bodies. I mean, I did find the first body, and some people (well, only Basil) didn’t blame me. So I stayed silent and just listened. 

All eyes turned to me as his voice pattered out. Strawb raised a haughty eyebrow “So?”   Her expression made me want to break her straight, grecian nose. 

“I just saw him examining one of the officers’  head. I don’t know if he killed them or not. I barely saw anything,”

“So, what are you going to do, officer?” Durchdenwald asked, looking towards Jim, who was standing as close to the entryway as he could.

“Well, you see,” Jim stuttered, “I have no experience in this type of sitaution… I don’t know a lot about CSI work or whatever you want to call this experiment, I’m a forensic scientist… a… and,” he gulped, nervously, “I’m personally just here for a study I need to write, so…” his voice gave out..

“So…” Durchdenawald cocked his head, as though he was egging the guy on. I suddenly got a strange feeling about him. It was almost as if he was trying to give Jim confidence, only to manipulate him. It would be a good way for Durchdenwald to have a leadership role among us. I gulped, unconsciously holding Wim closer.

“So… we’re going to get out now, right? We have to leave now, right?” Ava opened her big mouth, “Right?” She repeated the word again and again and again.

All that woman knew how to do, was give people a headache. 

“Well,” Jim wrung his hands together, “I tried to contact my colleagues but…” 

I felt my heart drop. 

“But, I can’t get to them, the signal has been destroyed, somehow. And the front door… the keypad has been smashed to the point it’s unfixable… We can’t get out,”

Silence.

Disbelieving silence.

Horrible silence.

Then the shouting. The horrified shouting that wrenched away the just as horrified silence with sheer force.

“WHAT!” someone screamed.

Cado… screamed. 

“ARE YOU KIDDING ME?”

 Then murmurs.

Whispers.

Low voices that made the room shake with tension.

Terrified thoughts seeping into people’s mouths…

…I’m locked in with a murderer…

…We’re locked in with the murderer…

…I can’t escape…

…We’re trapped…

…What to do?

What do we do?

“WHAT DO WE DO?” Ava screamed, her whole body shaking. 

I watched Durchdenwald. If he got up and made any sign to direct people into a sense of safety., then there was something up with him. 

He got to his feet, his hands up in the air, “Please, calm down, everyone. We’ll be okay,”

A cold finger glided down my spine. He glanced at me; our eyes met. There was something there, and I thought I knew  what it was.

I did know what it was.

I got up from the couch, pulling Wim up with me. He wasn’t crying, which was good, he looked kind of bored actually. As I walked to the door, I felt a hard stare on my back. It was Strawb.