Alea Ludo

I didn't know what to do. It was all so sudden. Elena had died. No, that wasn't right. Murdered. She was killed. That was the prevailing belief among others. It wasn't that hard to discern, considering everyone found her with numerous knives lodged in her body.

One of us, the players, murdered Elena in cold blood. That very thought made my blood boil to extreme levels.

I wasn't that close with Elena. We were far from friends. However, she didn't deserve to get killed. Elena was one of the nicest people in Serendipity, along with Iris.

To had seen her lying dead in the bathroom stall—it brought up memories that I had long since buried. Corpses were nothing new to me. A long time ago, I couldn't ever go anywhere without seeing them. I had thought that my body grew numb to the feeling of death. But for some reason, Elena's death brought up a dreadful uneasiness that swelled up inside of me. Her gruesome fate left me in a dangerous mindset.

From the beginning, I understood that people would die when the games began. There was no avoiding that fate. However, I never expected someone would get murdered outside the game room.

Why Elena of all people? That woman was innocent. I doubted that she'd even hurt a fly. Perhaps that was why she was targeted.

Her innocence.

It made her an easy target. Anyone out of the players could overpower her. The one player that repeatedly flashed through my mind was Melanie. She was the only one that picked on Elena. Of course, that wasn't enough evidence to prove that she had anything to do with her death.

Not that I had been bothered to help with the investigation anyway. I wasn't a detective. I wouldn't pretend to be. The chances of discovering the truth behind Elena's death were slim. I knew I sure as hell wouldn't have figured it out—not with my mindset.

I returned to my room and remained there for several hours. Even a drink couldn't settle my disoriented mind. My thoughts were in shambles.

Elena was murdered.

No doubt about that. How it happened didn't matter to me. What did matter was who had done it?

Someone among the players didn't want to wait for the games to kill us. So, they took matters into their own hands and murdered someone themselves. It frustrated me. I couldn't paint a clear picture as to who could've done it.

Despite the days I spent with the other players, I kept myself at a distance for the most part. I had a grasp on some of their personalities, but not their ambitions or determinations. I couldn't trust anyone of them out there. If I got careless, I could've been the one found dead.

I used Elena's death as a catalyst to strengthen my resolve to survive, no matter what. I refused to get killed off so easily. I swore I'd avoid death and reach the end of the games.

It was more than just my life at stake.

Eventually, I left my room and headed toward the cafeteria. Along the way, I noticed a group of players down the hall. They stood in front of the medical room.

"What's going on here?" I asked as I approached the group.

"Wyatt and Zoey are almost done with Elena's autopsy," Iris answered. Her eyes were red and puffy.

"We're waiting to hear what they found," Henrika added.

"I still cannot believe that someone would murder Elena." Nicholas sadly commented. He didn't take his eyes off the ground.

"We have to find the killer. No matter what. We need to do whatever it takes to avenge Elena." Iris declared.

"Vengeance will not solve anything," warned Salomon as he put out his cigar. "It won't bring her back."

"I don't care, Salomon. I don't care."

All eyes turned to the door of the medical room as Zoey and Wyatt came out. They didn't utter a single word. They only signaled for us to enter the room—which we did. We all gathered around the table where Elena's body rested. A white sheet covered her body.

"So, what's the diagnosis?" Henrika inquired.

"Well, we can confirm that Elena was indeed killed. However, it was not the knives that did the deed." Wyatt answered.

"What? How is that possible?" Iris asked.

"The knives were lodged in her body post-mortem. Likely it was used as a diversion to lead us away from the actual cause of her death." Zoey explained. She walked over to Elena's body and raised her left arm. Then, she pointed to a puncture wound on her wrist. "There's a trace of the needle piercing through her skin. The cause of death was poisoning."

"So, someone poisoned her? How?" Salomon asked.

"No one poisoned her. The bracelet did." Wyatt revealed as he picked up Elena's bracelet from the table nearby. He then directed our attention to the needle that stuck out from the accessory. "Remember, the bracelets have needles that inject poison into our bloodstream."

"But, that is only supposed to happen when one of us breaks the rules," Nicholas stated.

"So, Elena died because she broke the rules? Which one did she break?" Iris asked. She hung her head in defeat. She was so dead set on the idea that Elena had been murdered. I couldn't begin to understand what went through her mind at that moment.

"We don't know all the details for sure. However, we can't toss out the idea that she was murdered." Zoey affirmed. "After all, why lodge knives into her body to conceal the fact that the poison killed her?"

"We also need to figure out who put the knives in her body," added Wyatt. He set the bracelet back on the table then looked at Elena's body. He raised her left arm and showed everyone her hand. "Something else to mention, all the nails on her left hand are broken."

"What does that mean?" Henrika asked.

"Not sure yet. I will still have to investigate some more." Zoey answered.

"This is just sickening. Why would someone do something so heinous?" Iris lamented.

"Gee, you don't think money would have something to do with it?" All heads turned to the entrance of the room. The sarcastic remark came from none other than Melanie.

"No one invited you here." Iris' eyes burned with hatred as the punk rock girl casually entered the room.

"Didn't think I needed an invitation to check out the dead body." Melanie stopped nearby the autopsy table. She glanced over Elena's body with mild interest. "Poor, poor, Funbags. She will be missed."

"If you only came here to mess around and cause a scene, we want you out of here," Wyatt demanded.

"What? And let you all win the game? No thanks, Doc," Melanie refused as she shrugged her shoulders. "I wanna know all there is about Funbags' death. To think, she died by the poison. I wish I could've seen that."

Not a shred of empathy came from the punk rock girl.

"If you're not going to offer any assistance, then we don't need you here," Henrika said. "We're not here to play games."

"Quite the hypocrite, ain'tcha?" Melanie tilted her head to the side, then displayed her Cheshire smile. "Aren't we all here to play games? We're playing one right now. Suggested by Cyclops herself."

"You know what I meant." Henrika shook her head.

"Listen, I don't like any of you, and none of you like me. We mutually dislike each other," Melanie began.

"Try hate." Wyatt corrected.

"Whatever. Despite our feelings towards each other, let's put them aside and work together on this investigation."

Silence met her suggestion. Surely, no one in that room wanted to ever work with Melanie. Even the thought of it made my skin crawl. She was a loose cannon—unpredictable. No one would want to run the risk of teaming with her. Besides, the most obvious reason she'd suggested the idea was to earn herself more points. There was no way she'd be able to win the game all on her own. She knew something that we didn't. But, that meant nothing without all the information that everyone else knew.

"No. I refuse to work with you." Iris sternly rejected the suggestion.

"Same here. You are on your own." Wyatt added.

Melanie smacked her lips then placed her hands on her waist. "So, that's how it's gonna be, huh? Don't come crying to me if you guys need something. I tried to help." She turned her back to us, then left the room.

"Moving on, is there anything else we need to know?" I asked.

"Yes, judging from the condition of the rigor mortis, Elena died around 2 to 3 a.m. today," Wyatt revealed.

"2 to 3?" Henrika brought her hand up to her chin. "That's early. What was she doing up that early in the morning?"

"Since she died in the restroom, it's safe to assume she had to use the toilet," Salomon surmised.

"So, along the way to the restroom, Elena broke a rule which in turn activated the bracelet to inject her with poison?" Iris asked.

"This is getting more confusing. There are still many details that we are missing here." Nicholas stated.

Many things didn't make sense concerning Elena's death. The time of her death didn't matter. But why she died did. The poison killed her.

That was an undeniable fact.

But, why had the poison been injected in the first place?

For that to happen, a rule had to be broken. No matter what scenario I played in my head, I couldn't imagine Elena breaking a rule. She was frightened by the thought of death. So, I'd imagine she'd do everything in her power to follow the rules.

The only thing that made sense to me was foul play. Someone had coerced Elena into unknowingly breaking a rule. But, which rule was the one that bothered me. I racked my brain, trying to figure out what it was. But, no immediate answer came to mind.

"Well, now we have a bit of a better understanding of what happened. However, we are no closer to solving this mystery." Wyatt claimed.

"Perhaps we would find more clues if we searched through Elena's room," Iris suggested. She then looked at the bracelet on the table. "The bracelets act as key cards to our respective rooms. So, getting inside of Elena's shouldn't be a problem."

"It's worth a shot." Henrika agreed.

"What are we expecting to find in her room?" Nicholas asked.

"Something. Anything that would give us a clue as to what happened to her." Iris answered.

"Then, let's go." Zoey walked over to the table then picked up the bracelet. Everyone followed the detective as she led the way to Elena's room. She used the bracelet on the electronic scanner then pushed the door open.

To our immediate surprise, the entire room was in tatters.