For those of you who started on ominous thoughts when you saw the title, I apologise. But I've no choice, really, seeing that it's the name of the game! And don't worry, it doesn't nurse horrible intent. No one's going to be stabbing each other or something. No violence, be rest assured. Be rest assured... Anyway, I'm sure most of you have played it before, no? There will no or minimal romance here, and this is just a filler, but things are just about to get seriously exciting... Okay, so sit tight and read (and review!)

Murderer

Blank looks again. They were starting to get on her nerves. These guys seriously had no childhood. Missing out on all these games...

Atlanta sighed, then said, "Anyone heard of Murderer?"

Odie blinked, then pulled out his laptop and began searching the net. "Murderer, murderer..." he murmured, fingers flying across the keyboard until Atlanta nearly slammed the top of it on his fingers. "Hey!" he exclaimed in indignance, but Atlanta didn't pay any heed.

"Murderer is a game. It has many variations. For now, we're going to play the squeeze hands version." Realising that no one was going to show any form of acknowledgement since they were all pathetically clueless, except for Theresa, she went on. "Everyone sits in a circle and each gets a piece of paper. If you get one which says 'Murderer', that means that you'll be the murderer. If someone gets the 'Commoner' one, he'd have to play the commoner. There'll be a 'Detective' one, too, and the detective must try to guess who the murderer is. Finally, there'll be the 'Healer' one, of which the person gets to heal people who have been killed. There'll only be one murderer, healer and detective, and the rest are commoners.

"This is how you play it. First, everyone has to link hands and not show their hands. The murderer has to squeeze the hand of the person the number of times you need to go to kill the person. Uhm, okay, to be clearer, let me give you an example. If Archie is the murderer and he wants to kill, say, Neil for example, he'll pump my hand three times, and then I'll pump Theresa's hand two times, and then Theresa will pump Neil's hand one time, and if he feels that he's gotten one pump only, he knows he's dead and he has to shout it out.

"Then, the healer can heal people in the same way the murderer kills people, only they have to scratch your palm. The detective must observe and guess who is the killer, but he's only got three tries and if the healer and everyone is dead, no one else can be healed and the murderer wins. The detective can die of course, but can be healed as well."

"And the commoners?" questioned Odie, scratching his head and looking a little confused.

"The commoners are the people who just sit there and wait to be killed. Got it?" Atlanta said, grinning.

Odie winced at Atlanta's bluntness. "Ooh, that's nice," he commented sarcastically. "Yeah, I've got it anyway, more or less." The rest nodded in agreement.

"Okay," Theresa responded, taking the hat from behind her. She took one slip of paper for herself, just randomly, and then passed it on to Jay. "Take a slip of paper each."

Each of them took a paper for themselves, and then each read it - silently, of course.

Theresa blinked at the piece of paper, a little bit disappointed to play one of the lower roles - the commoner. Sighing, she looked around, curious to see how the others were reacting. All of them kept their faces nonchalant so as to not give the game away. She didn't feel like invading on their privacy with her powers right now, so she just leaned back and linked hands with Archie and Jay, who were both on either side of her.

She felt Archie pump her hand and her eyes widened as she counted the squeezes. One, two. Someone wanted to "kill" Jay.

Pouting, she pumped one into Jay's hand. Jay frowned, then called out, "I'm dead!"

Three seconds later, however, he called out again, "Uhm, I'm healed!"

Theresa observed Archie, whose face was taking on an annoyed look. He pumped into Theresa's hand again; she had a feeling he was the murderer. Well, usually the people beside the murderer could tell easily. One, two...

Theresa scowled a little in irration and pumped Jay's hand once again. Jay frowned again, then said, "Okay, I'm dead again."

About five seconds later, he said again, "Okaay... I'm healed again."

Archie scowled noticeably, and angrily pumped into Theresa's hand. Wincing, she "relayed" the message to Jay, who glared at the people on the other side.

"What's your problem? Do you have to keep killing me?"

Herry spoke up. "Uh... Does that mean you're dead?"

Jay gave him a look. "What do you think?"

"Uhh, no?"

"Yes! Yes, I'm dead already!" Jay almost wanted to fling his hands up. Did they have to target him?

A minute later, and Atlanta cried out dramatically, "Oh no, I've just died!"

Theresa felt Jay scratch her palm. "Oh, that tickles!" She giggled lowly, then scratched Archie's palm. One, two, three.

Atlanta said a while later, "Okay, I'm alive again."

Theresa felt a pump. Oh. "I'm dead," she declared.

"I'm dead," Jay proclaimed a minute later. Theresa raised her eyebrows. The pumping must have come from the other side, then.

"I'm dead," Neil cried out a few seconds later.

Jay delivered two scratches to Theresa's hand, of which she immediately reacted, scratching Archie's palm and trying not to giggle due to the tickly feeling.

"I'm healed," Archie announced. "And I'm not even dead."

"Whoops. I've got the wrong perso-" Herry stopped halfway. "Uh, I meant the murderer must have gotten the wrong person."

"Where is the stupid detective, anyway?" Odie complained. "I think everyone already knows - or can guess - who the murderer and healer are for a long time already."

"Hmm?" Neil looked up from his mirror, of which he had lain on the floor to look at himself, since he didn't have the ready "assistance" from his hands.

"Neil!" Theresa said, giving him a narrowed-eye look. "Please don't say you're the detective!"

Before he could reply, Archie scowled again, looking mad and angry. "What the - someone just killed me!"

"And why isn't that possible?" Atlanta said sweetly. "You could have killed yourself, if you did two rounds and missed Neil." For Archie was sitting next to Neil.

"Uhm, no way, that's not possible!" Archie yelled, forgetting that he was supposed to keep his "alter-ego" a secret. "I pumped 14!"

He pulled away from Neil's and Theresa's hands and began to count using his fingers. "14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8... Oh shoot! I pumped wrongly!"

Seeing the look everyone was giving him, he suddenly realised that he'd revealed his not-so-secret secret. Struggling to cover up his blown-big mistake, he stammered, "Oops. I mean, uhhh. The murderer... Must have wanted to kill me instead of Neil! Uhh... Uhh!"

Theresa rolled her eyes. "Who is the detective?"

"Detective? What detective?" Neil asked, looking like he couldn't care less.

Theresa let go of Jay's hand and crossed her arms. Then, placing her hands firmly on the ground and bending forward to pick up Neil's paper, she reached out to grab it. "Okay, let me see that!"

"No!" Neil let out a cry. "You're not supposed to see it, Atlanta said so herself!" Snatching the paper off the ground and, placing it behind him, he sat on it.

Theresa groaned, then went back to her original seat. "What in the world is happening? Where's the detective?"

Atlanta sighed, detaching her hands from Neil's and Odie's. "Alright, game over. Everyone, say who you are for the benefit of everyone else. I'll begin. Commoner."

Odie went, "Commoner."

Herry answered, "Healer."

"Commoner," started Jay.

"Commoner!" quipped Theresa.

Archie grinned and said sheepishly, "Murderer."

Neil looked up. "Hmm, me? Detective."

"Neil!" went everyone almost instantly.

"What?!" Neil answered with the same amount of indignance. "I was trying to lie low first! But you guys kept threatening to bust my secret!"

Atlanta winced inwardly, beckoning them to give back the slips of paper. "You know what, I think we'd better change the game."

"Yeah, good idea," Odie replied, handing his in.

--

Okay, a short, light-hearted chapter for no good reason! Hope you understood how the game was played, I know I was pretty unclear there. Couldn't have done it any more unclear than I have. Ugh. My apologies. Anyway, here's where things get exciting! Stay tuned and review, because it more or less magically quickens everything up!(: And the next shall be the hopefully long-awaited one, with more action, definitely.(: Hope this one was humorous enough for your liking, though.