Chapter Five:
Morior v. To die; to move on, fall dead, cease to exist. Latin.

The doctor pounded on the door.
"Elli! Elli please open the door! Open the door! Elli-!" He chocked, sinking to his knees, still rapping on the door weakly. "Please... goddammit..."
"Elli please open the door! Open the door! Elli-!"
Though Elli heard this, she was hardly in the position to move. She stared back into the dark eyes, the raven hair falling evenly around her face. Mary. Bookworm Mary. Happy-go-lucky Mary.
A murderer.
A dark smirk gleamed from the dead girl's face and Elli cringed back in horror.
"It's- but- you're dead!"
"Dead? Oh I'm not dead." She laughed. "You thought I was dead? Oh no." She took a step forward and Elli screamed, turning and running up the stairs. But the dark figure grabbed her hair, pulling her down onto the floor. "Elli, Elli, Elli..." She said with a tsk. "I'm surprised at you. You're around death often, being a nurse. So why so frightened, lamb?" She cooed into Elli's ear.
"You're not yourself! Demonic!" Elli cried.
"No. Not demonic. I'm seeing things clearly, even without my glasses." She laughed and Elli kneeled, head bowed.
"Why. Why did you do it? WHY!" She screamed, fists tightening.
"I read it in a book, naturally. Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. A brilliant piece. First I started with Cliff. I figured if I was going to murder someone, it was going to be someone who deserved it."
"Deserved it?" Elli said, voice unsteady. Tears were streaming down her face, disbelief and terror in her eyes.
"He killed his family."
"What?" Mary simply nodded.
"You know that photograph? He accidentally lit the house on fire, burning his family alive. Why do you think he moved so far away? He was going to leave by the end of winter. I never expected Ann's death to come so easily though! I met her after the funeral. We both looked down at the grave and I whispered lies into her ear. She leapt on her own free will. Doug, that was easy too. His gun wasn't loaded."
"Wasn't?" Mary simply laughed.
"And May! That might've been the easiest! I was out picking herbs and it was Basil and May's day at the spa. She wandered off, I pushed her in. Piece of cake. I told her there was a man in the lake! She looked over and- push!" Elli shook in blind rage and horror, staring down at the tiles. "Oh she was guilty though. Her mom was a whore. She deserved it. And Basil? I was going to let him live. But slow poison's so much fun. I put the wrong herbs at the bottom of the hot springs, he soaks it up... and twenty four hours later and he's face down in the snow!"
"You're disgusting!"
"Maybe." She said with a smirk. "Moving on... as I'm so skilled with herbs, in was nothing to simply add an herb to Rick and Karen's wine, making them sleepy. Once they were out, it was a simple matter of using a knife to end it all. And for Gotz... that was tricky. I never knew he was a softie for sweets! But I saw him taking the honey so gently from the hive and naturally, put some slow acting poison in the hive. He pulled out a honey comb and a small taste was enough. It was a lot of work making it seem like he hung himself though! Oh but the most fun-! Popuri, Jeff, and Carter. I shouted I was Mary, come to kill them. Told them it was the apocalypse and they were going to hell!" She cackled delightedly. "I guess they thought I was the Mary from the bible, not the Mary from their town. Idiots. They freaked out. But I had already poisoned their church wine and the wafers, so they died quickly. But as I'm walking out, the fool mayor walked in-"
"But why? Why did you kill them?"
"I'm Jewish."
"What? But- you've gone to church. Even sung in the festival! And... and... that's no reason to kill someone!"
"It is when that damn pink haired girl finds out!"
"What?"
"She found out I was Jewish. She called me an infidel!" Mary sneered. "That bitch deserved to go."
"You're horrible!"
"I wouldn't point any fingers just yet, miss guilty one."
"Me?"
"You."
"But- I... what did I do?"
"We'll get to that... now let's see... where was I? Ah! The mayor! I just killed him with a knife. He caught me off-guard, I must admit. And as for my family, I just killed them. My dad found out. He was going to turn me in, his own daughter. So I killed him. Then I faked my own death, hearing voices outside. But mom almost gave me away. 'My- my" She mocked. "Thank god she died. Anyway, Gray was in on it too, for a while. Up until he thought I had lost it. He was hiding in the library. After they left, I silently killed him. I wanted them to check upstairs, catch him. But they acted too slowly. So I killed him. Little did I know they'd come back and look. I didn't want to kill him..." Her voice wavered and she turned, looking at the ceiling to compose herself. When she turned back, her eyes were like ice. "Duke died easy. Too much wine. I waited until my mom's friends were in the square. Duke's always alone in the day, drinking his life away. So that was easy. I killed him because he cheats. Every other night he goes and meets Sasha. Filth. And as for Lillia, she's trash too. Just a flirt! Always chatting with another man while her husband's away. Poison in her tea. She went fast. I went in looking for Zack to kill too, but only found Won. So I killed him and left quickly." She sneered. Twirling a knife in her hand, she grew closer to Elli. "And now, Elli, is where you come in. You like the doctor, don't you? When he took an oath to celibacy for his work, you tempted him, did you not? You and him are in love, aren't you? How sweet!" She laughed at the look of absolute horror in Elli's eyes.

"Listen," She went in close to Elli, the knife inches between them. "you little slut, I killed your family. Your grandmother, your brother. It was so easy! So easy! Your mother needed to be massaged with lotion every night. And who helps her? Stu. So I put poison in the lotion and skipped away while you were out grocery shopping and they were napping. And now you. You, I'll kill with this." She held up a knife, eyes dancing. "Prayers won't save you, darling."

The doctor burst through the door, Harris following quickly.

Elli lay on the ground, throat cut open. The doctor sunk to his knees, body racked with grief. He drew her up into his arms, her blue dress stained red, like a cardinal across the sky. He bowed his head and sobbed into her hair, holding her tightly against him.

They checked every where. But the murderer was never found. All the clues, the leads... gone forever. A broken town filled with secrets lay in shambles. Mineral Town became a ghost town; it's remaining residents fleeing the haunted place.

Mary zipped up her body bag, snuggling against her father and mother. She bit into a red herb, eyes slipping happily closed.
"Goodnight."