We Are All Killers

The shadows whispered dark secrets in these silent hallways, the candles all dripping with wax from being left to burn for far too long. And the windows, as marvelous and beautiful as the stained glass was- each one was covered in black shades. The color of death haunted this castle, haunted its bones and everyone inside its massive, seemingly endless hallways. For miles in its vast architecture there was not a soul breathing in sight. Only faint voices carried from the deepest corner of the southern tower. Tucked beneath its stone spiraling walls, was a room built with only one thing inside. A large round oak table. Fifteen chairs sat around it.

Around this table sat a killer. One with blood cold as ice, a heart black as coal- but a smile that warmed any guarding walls around their peers’s minds. Someone with the ability to lie through the pearly white teeth, shine truth in their eyes only while lies rotted their soul.

"Where do we start?" The man with grey hair spoke, his face was etched with shallow wrinkles. Aged, but not much older than his peers around him. The only one with white in his bushy beard. His quiet, shaken voice carried across the silent room like a soft brush of wind. No one around the table moved or even let out a huff. The massive piece of round oak between them held nothing but full glasses of water and utter silence. It wasn't awkward or uncomfortable. It was thick, hard to breathe in a way that almost left them gasping. And in the six people remaining around this table, it was fear that sat like an anchor on their chest. The nine empty chairs sitting around the table seemed to put a pit in their hearts.

All of their eyes shifted. The young women- youngest of them all- sat in her chair with back arched straight as a board. Her gray eyes concentrated on her hands resting on the table. Her fingers lapped together tightly. Squeezing every so slightly, her nails digging into her skin- the pain of it seemed to keep her mind still, as still as it could be. But it wasn’t enough, her eyes- as gray as they were- evidently held the look of a deer in the headlights.

The young blue eyed man across from her, far enough away she couldn't hear his panicked panting- which he attempted to mask. Sweat gleamed across his forehead as he forced his breaths to slow, forced his mind to try and calm, to gather what sense he had left and use it with what little time he had. His eyes were almost bloodshot from anxiety- a gut wrenching pain of panic ate at him as he looked around the table. At the strangers who sat around him. A few days together didnt make them friends.

"What would you have us do?" The woman with the bright pink hair scoffed, her voice held such little care- as if she was just at yet another meeting- that calm tone made every eye in the room turn to her. Something she was used to- or maybe even enjoyed. "We followed your lead last night and look where that got us- Nicklaus was innocent and we sentenced him to death." She spoke with not only passion but hurt. Maybe she knew this so-called stranger more than she led on. Or maybe she just liked to cause a scene. Liked to be the center of attention.

"We all agreed on that." The gray bearded man spoke calmly. His hands folding under his chin as he stared down at the oak table. Its surface holding the many depths of color of the oak tree it once was. "He was the last one to be seen with Ace, the last one to argue and call him a liar- a killer. And that morning Ace is murdered in his bed where he slept-" The voice of the older man fell in his chest, like he was using every ounce of himself to push the words out, to make them sound logical. To convince himself that they were true. "We all agreed. Unanimous." His eyes twitched for only a second, that hint of guilt he felt surfaced- but he was quick to shove it down. To regain his composure, his confidence in his actions.

"We can't turn on each other now- we all know what our votes mean." The youngest girl spoke. It wasn't soft spoken or sweet, but it wasn't bitter or harsh. Just monotone, drained- at a distance. Her golden hair fell over her shoulders as she sat up straighter. Finding the courage in her bones to raise her gaze from her twiddling fingers and face the strangers around this table. All of whom had turned their attention to her. And she felt that pit in her stomach grow.

"Can't turn on each other?" The lady with the fiery pink hair spouted again, her fire growing in her brown eyes as they widened with anger- fear masked as frustration. "One of us around this table walks these halls at night murdering whichever one of us they choose to- and then lying straight to our faces every morning!” She felt that pain in her chest as she said the words, everyone around the table let their eyes fall. They didn’t have it in them to face her gaze. Maybe because it forced them to face the truth. They were failing. “They sit around this table and know that the blood is on their hands and they watch and they wait for us to sit here in misery whilst we all vote one our own to die, and every night we have failed. And someone innocent ends up dead." She spoke with anger in her throat, and passion in her eyes. But the heartache shone through in her hands, in her body as it shook as she rose from her seat. Her hands slapping down on that solid oak table in front of them. "There used to be more of us around this table-" She shook her head, her eyes piercing through everybody one at a time as she pointed to the empty seats that sat around them. "There is a killer among us, but they aren't the only ones. We are all killers. We all have sent our friends to death out of fear, out of superstition- from being so manipulated and twisted that we can't even tell our friends from foes." She let her eyes fall down as she took a breath. Her heart playing drums in her ears as she lowered herself into her chair. Her chest hollow of air. "None of us deserve to get out of here. We are all killers." She shook her head, her brown eyes lost in a daze, stuck staring ahead of her. She didn't bother pull herself out of it. She only sunk into her chair, sunk into her overwhelmed mind. And shut down.

"There is only one way out of this." The young boy with blonde hair spoke up for the first time in two nights. His freckles across his cheeks went dark as blood rushed to his face. The eyes around the room shifted to him, and that put a knot in his stomach. Shaking the thoughts in his brain, but with a deep breath, he carried on with his words. "We have to find the one among us that is the liar." He swallowed heavily, feeling his throat going instantly dry. “All we have to do is vote them and they die and we are all free- we can all go home-” His lips twitched, the welling in his eyes burned but he refused to let the tears grow further. He swallowed them down and looked around the table. Desperation in his big blue eyes. The fear of losing all the years of his life he had left ahead of him. He was desperate to get a chance to live them. To have one more day beyond this night.

"What do you think we have been trying to do-" The older woman threw her hands in the air, all of her patience fading with tears that filled her eyes. The deep wrinkles around her eyes and mouth deepened as she frowned. Her mind spun with grief, knowing the little years she had left might have just got ripped from her. “We are losing this game.” Grief filled her eyes as she looked up, passed everyone sitting around the table.

To a man- nothing but a dark silhouette of a hooded shadow- he wasn’t sitting amongst them, he was circling in the darkness. Like a predator watching its prey. Waiting for its moment to finally strike. But for now, he only listened to them, waiting patiently. The knife in his hands was clean, ready to be soaked with the blood of an innocent. If there were any left around this table.

"If I was going to play a smart game as the killer- I would want to pin the murders on someone obvious. Ace's murder was obvious, what better way to have us suspect Nicklaus- the only one who had a problem with him." The green eyed boy blinked, not thinking twice about his words anymore. At this point, going to sleep not knowing if he was going to survive the night, he didn't have much left to care. If he died at this table, then so be it. "And the one who pushed that narrative was him." His green eyes held a gut wrenching terror as he lifted them across the table. At the man with the white beard. As eyes shifted towards him, the skin under his facial hair turned pink.

"I was stating facts- not pushing anything- you all agreed with me!" Suddenly his calm persona vanished, and he seemed to panic. The pink in his cheeks turned pale as everyone shared glances. In the matter of a second, the table that once trusted him was turning on him. Just like they turned on everyone before this night too. "You are wrong- I understand how it seems but you are wrong. I want to go home just as much as the rest of you- do not waste the final night to find this son of bitch-" He shook in his chair, shaking his head, running his fingers through his silver hair. The stress was shaking not only his body and breath but his voice too.

"We need to think about this-" The young girl took a breath, feeling a twist in her tummy at his panic. Something didn’t sit right with her, that look in his eyes- that was real emotion, real fear, only something an innocent would feel in this moment.

"That would be a pretty good story- and it does a pretty good job at turning the attention off of you for another night." The blonde haired boy turned to his peer in the seat next to him, the boy with green eyes. Two young men, barely months separating them in age, and here they sat. Both on the line of life and death. Both not believing a word the other said.

“I am not killing the people I eat breakfast with every morning, and sit near the fire at night- sharing parts of my life with them.” The green eyed boy looked at his peer, looked at those stone cold blue eyes, and shook his head with a calm, collected voice. “I have a family- we all do- I know that because I've spoken to everyone here- I’ve spoken with those who used to sit in these chairs around us.” He nodded his head to the empty ghost chairs, that tone in his voice was deep in his chest. He meant every word he was saying. “I want to find this murderer and send the rest of us home to the families you’ve told me about.” His youth filled eyes shifted around the table. Looking at each of the people left sitting around him.

“Its not him.” The young girl spoke again, her voice stronger than last time. The green eyed boy turned to her, an almost sense of relief fell in his eyes. He looked like a weight had been physically lifted off of him. And he gave her a soft, genuine smile. “It’s not you either-” She looked at the boy next to him, the one with fierce, scared blue eyes. And something in them softened as soon as she said the words.

“How can you think you know that for sure?” The woman with pink hair scoffed softly, like she had given up on trying. Like she was exhausted. The young girl looked at her for a long moment, the silence fell over the room.

“I’ve felt the fear in their hearts, like I've it in yours. You have passion, you have anger and hurt.” She looked up at the woman with pink hair, watching the woman's eyes blink with shock at her words. “I see the lives in your eyes- feel that need to get out of here and get back to it.” The young girl paused as she prepared for what she was going to say next. The short pause had everyone in the room holding their breaths, sitting at the edges of the chairs, desperate to see if she had the answers they didn't. “There is one person who hasn’t shared anything about their life outside of here-” She felt the muscles in her throat run dry, she knew what was going to happen, she knew it would be her fault, but she went on anyway. “You are here to play a game, to win, you don’t care about getting to know us or our lives outside of this, because you know you don’t care-” Her gray eyes lifted, staring into the soul that she believed to be lying to her face this whole time. “It's you.”

“Me?” The old woman blinked, shock on her wrinkled face. Almost dumbfounded with what to say as everyone turned to her. Looks of realization setting in.

“You.” The young girl swallowed, and the green eyed boy gave her a soft nod. Showing his back with her words.

“She is right.” The green eyed boy spoke up, looking between his friends with a nod. The old woman scoffed, pushing herself away from the table. Looking in disbelief and anger. “You never spoke to any of us about our lives. You pushed the old man to vote off Nicklaus when Ace was murdered- you knew it would look bad on his part tonight.” His words made the lady with pink hair look up. And anger filled her eyes as she watched the puzzle pieces fall together.

“You are wrong- I am innocent, I am telling you- you are wrong!” She shook her head, her white hair starting to frizz as she pulled at it anxiously. Knowing what was about to happen. One by one, everyone around the table picked up their boards and chalk. “What are you doing- stop! You are wrong- you are all going to die tomorrow because it is not me! You are going to let the killer win because of your ignorance!” She almost came out of her chair, wanting to run around the table and slap the boards out of their hands. But her words didn’t stop their motions. Each one of them wrote a name on their board, and without a word, or glance up to her proclamations , they set them in the slots in front of them. Locking her fate in. Sentencing her to the mercy of the man in the shadows.

“If I am wrong, I am so sorry.” The youngest girl looked around the table at her peers. Once strangers sitting around her, and now, she felt as if she knew these people. As if everything was all so clear now.

“You aren’t wrong.” The green eyed boy smiled at her warmly, sending relief in her chest. She could feel the overwhelming guilt crawling over her like water seeping through a dam.

“Please- you are wrong- you have to stop this- I am not the killer!” The old woman pleaded, tears filling her brown eyes as she shook in chair, trying to control her cries. “You are wrong- you are killing yourself right now-” She shook her head over and over again.

Her pleas went quiet as the man stopped his circling. His steps ended directly behind her chair. Within a single breath, he stepped forward, that knife in his hands came into the light and met the wrinkles of her throat. Everyone's gasps and gutted breaths filled the air as the blood hit the table. Pouring like a spouting hose. The man let her head fall forward, her face falling in her own blood as she choked until her last breath left her lips. After she stopped twitching, and she was dead, the man looked up, his hood masking his face as he looked at the remaining people around the table.

“You’ve killed an innocent.” Those words fell like boulders on the young girl. Her heart left her chest, her soul slipped from her body, and she felt the air in her lungs turn to ashes burning inside of her. When she looked up from the woman she’d just gotten murdered, she found him staring at her. Those pale pink lips in a sinister smile, and those green eyes glowing with adrenaline. The satisfaction in those eyes made her sick in a matter of seconds.

The boy with green eyes smiled sickly. He looked at her with a taunting gaze, enjoying the devastation that filled her gray eyes as she realized the trapped she had fallen into. She had lost. The green eyed boy sat in front of her, and finally let his mask drop. “I win- but don’t worry, I won’t kill you first.”