Hello! Sorry about the long wait for the next chapter- this one was the longest handwritten chapter (twelve whole pages!), mainly because it was full of dialogue, and dialogue takes up a lot of space. Anyways, welcome back to Smashed Minds! We're roughly halfway through the fic at this point, and I'm beginning to think about how I want this to end eventually. Mucho thanks to all my loyal readers and reviewers- I love reading every review I get, especially the ones where you speculate the roles of certain characters. For you speculators out there, this chapter will definitely give you something to talk about, although I'm afraid it won't provide the answers you want. Like Gann said last chapter though, "Good things come to those who wait."

So, without further ado, enjoy chapter six! And don't forget to leave a review, if you would be so kind. :)

Chapter Six: A Game of Truth

The next few days seemed to blur together for David, as the realization that he was stuck at the Mansion for less than a month finally began to settle in. Things had quieted down after the sudden murder (possibly at the hands of the Raven), and while no events had occurred since then, taunt tension still hung in every nook and cranny of the old house. No messages came from either Dr. Main or the Raven, which was a dual gift of both relief and suspicion for David. If both parties were so intent to fight each other (and want David on their side for whatever reason), why were they both suddenly silent? Maybe each had backed down for a time in order to lick their wounds and assess the state of their plans, or perhaps by deposing of Peach, Main had ultimately killed the Raven. David found that theory hard to believe however: Peach had never seen to exhibit any characteristics that could identify her as the Raven...but maybe that made her the perfect candidate to bring down the system set up carefully by Main. Whatever the reason, there had been nothing of interest, and it didn't look like there would be for quite a while.

One good thing had come from the lull in activity: David had made progress on his article. It had become almost routine for him to come into the sunroom, sit, and write pages of notes and journal entries from a spot on the ragged old couch. From there he had a view of nearly all the patients (which were usually too drugged to pay him any notice), allowing him to see all the going ons that went on. Surprisingly, Sam and Gannon had taken an interest in the reporter, and regularly sat beside him to chatter along as they faced off against each other (and occasionally David) in a game of checkers. David had learned to easily beat Sam at the game (most of the time), but neither of them had yet to beat the red-haired giant. Yet for all their fun, these games also was where David was told the stories of some of the Mansion's patients, and the reason they had been out here. These stories ranged from the absurd (such as a talented singer who had killed her sleeping manager after a show) to the horrific (a brother and sister who beat and killed their parents while on a mountain hike), to the just plain unbelievable (a boy and his friend who set their house on fire and ultimately led to the death of the one boy's mother). Each one shocked and appalled David (although Sam loudly claimed them all to be lies), and only fueled his curiosity further than ever before. If he was determined to learn more about the place that his story and investigation focused on, then every minute detail was needed in order to capture the mystery of the place as a whole.

On the fifth or sixth day of his stay, David was asked by Rosalina to assist her with the burial of Lyn. He had helped her lift and carry the simple wooden box that doubled as a coffin outside, where the cold wind ripped at his face and numbed the tips of his ears. Winter hung like a warning in the air, with its chill an ominous promise of colder times to come. Even the low-floating gray clouds seemed ready to break open with snow. Adjusting his grip on the bottom of the coffin, he asked the nurse, "Is it always this cold around here?"

"Oh, this is warm compared to the temperatures we usually get this time of year. We have mild winters here due to the warmth that comes off the ocean," she replied as she maneuvered the other end of the coffin. "It will get colder in the coming days, and the ground will be too hard to dig then. That's why Dr. Soloro and I had to work quickly, so we could bury Lyn before the frost came."

"I'm surprised Isaac hasn't come to help us."

"Isaac doesn't enjoy being around the dead, as you saw the other night. It's the one thing he just cannot get over as a doctor- he was getting better at dealing with it, but this entire event has shaken him up."

"Well, I can't blame him for being shaken up- any person would be in a situation like that. Did you figure out how she died?"

"Yes. Lyn was tortured and had her eyes removed before she died. Ultimately she was killed by someone slitting her throat...but she suffered before that."

There was an edge to the nurse's voice that David had not heard before, an edge that was angry, bitter, and grief-stricken at the same time. It was even more chilling than the surrounding air, and David couldn't help but shiver at the gruesome revelation. "That's awful. Do you or Dr. Soloro know who did that to her?"

Rosalina came to a stop upon a hilltop overlooking the rough dark ocean, where the roar of crashing waves drowned out all thoughts. She and David gently placed the coffin beside a freshly dug hole, while the nurse turned to watch the waters with her pale hair blown back by the breeze. "The laws and morals that make up life on the mainland do not exist here," she spoke quietly, her words almost lost to the pull of the gusting winds. "Here, things work differently, because the people here are a little different. Something like this though...it shows the struggle going on, the struggle each and every one of us faces every day."

"The struggle between Main and the Raven?"

"No: the struggle between madness and sanity. It's a delicate division, and thin enough that it's sometimes hard to decide which side you fall on. Are we sane because we can think and feel clearly, and care for those who cannot? Or are we the mad ones here, locked away for our own good?"

The thought had crossed David's mind before, but he had never given it much thought until now. "What do you believe? Are we truly sane or not?"

"No one is truly sane, Mr. Kojima: we all have the capability to do things that break the perception of sanity, or shatter the image we have of ourselves." The woman brushed her hand over the coffin lid in thought, as she continued, "To answer your question as to who could have done something like this, I think any one of us could have. We all have the capability to do it, after all...the question is, if given the chance, which of us would take it?"

The two fell silent as David and Rosalina moved the coffin into the hole, and David picked up a metallic shovel that had been already laid out and began to deposit dirt atop the coffin lid. It didn't take too long before there was no sign that the hill had been disturbed, until Rosalina placed a small gravestone over the spot and said a quiet prayer. David moved to stand solemnly as she prayed, but his attention was focused after a while on something he had failed to notice before: three gravestones, all identical, lined up neatly in a row just a few feet away.

Noticing his glance as she finished her soft prayer, Rosalina seemed to read his thoughts. "Those are the graves of old residents of ours. All three of them passed before you came here."

The three initials-DM, YL, and PC- were unfamiliar, but David did note that Peach's name was absent from any of the gravestones, a fact he kept to himself. There was no point in bringing up the conflict going on- especially when they had just buried one of the casualties. Instead, he muttered, "I never realized this place could be so dangerous."

"It's only dangerous," the nurse replied as she began to drift back to the asylum, "if you let yourself be caught in the crossfire."

Sam moved another checker over David's, and let out a laugh as she removed it from the board. "Ha! I win again!"

Removing his glasses for a split second, David rubbed at his eyes with a faint smile. "You sure did- although I'm pretty positive that move's not allowed in checkers."

"It is when I play!" The blonde woman crossed her arms and gave the reporter a look as she stuck out her tongue. "You just need more practice."

"Isn't a week plenty of practice?"

"Yeah, if you're playing someone like DK," Sam grinned as she pointed out a large, gorilla-like man with an enormous amount of brown facial hair. "If you want to beat someone like, say, Ness or Cario or Gann, then you'll need to work on your game."

The absence of the giant checkers-playing man was unusual since he had been present every time David had been in the sunroom. "Speaking of Gann, where exactly is he?"

"Medical room," came the reply. "Soloro finally figured out the dosage was too low, so now they're upping it for him."

"Won't that make him...you know, drooly and all zoned out?"

" Nah, Gann's too clever. He'll act as though the lowest dosage they can give him will be just enough to keep him drooly, so he'll be right as rain when they aren't looking. Well, maybe he'll be more serious, but otherwise he's going to be fine!"

David had kept in mind Main's warnings about the patients, but so far, they hadn't matched up with what he had seen. Sam in particular was a puzzle: she has appeared completely insane when he had first met her, but soon he had grown to know her as a clever and independent individual who had threads of madness woven through her otherwise-normal character. It was the opposite of everything he had expected...but it felt completely normal the longer he stayed.

"Greetings, Mr. Kojima, and Miss Aran."

A familiar velvety voice spoke, causing David and Sam to look up and see Zelda standing before them, looking regal in her blue pajamas. Her eyes, although clear, seemed to be veiled in order to hide her emotions, giving her a cold and calculating look. It made David nervous to be caught in her gaze, as if he were a mouse quivering before the path of a hungry owl.

Sam didn't seem to mind and stared back at Zelda with a level gaze. "Hey Zelda. I haven't spoken with you in a while."

"You certainly haven't, Samus." Seeing the look of surprise in the blonde's eyes, Zelda twitched her mouth into the shape of a smile. "I wish to play against you in a game of checkers. Are you up for the challenge?"

"You know, you're one of the few people here that calls me Samus...yes, I'll play. If you don't mind, I'll play as red."

"The blood of angered men," Zelda murmured as Sam moved to sit next to David (who obligingly scooted over), and Zelda took the now-empty spot on the ottoman. "I'm surprised you didn't pick black though-you've willingly given me the advantage of going first. Coal comes before fire, after all."

"Gann always picks black when he plays, so I've gotten used to playing as red."

The delicate grin slipped from the brunette's face as her fingers hovered over a solitary checker. "I see," she remarked in a voice dead and sour. "How fitting that is."

"I guess it is. You guys don't talk anymore, but you should play each other- it would be a good match to watch."

"I don't associate with him anymore."

"Why not?" David asked out of curiosity. Sure, the giant man was imposing, but he had seemed friendly enough whenever David had spoken to him.

With a look that could break a man in two, Zelda icily replied, "There were...incidents in our pasts that I have not forgotten."

As Zelda moved her chosen checker and started the game, Sam gave her opponent a look of unbelieving amusement. "You mean you still haven't gotten over that one time?"

"That one time destroyed my life, Samus!" The brunette suddenly hissed angrily. "It's all his fault! He's the one who kidnapped me from my home and held me hostage! He's the one who tried to...to do terrible things, things that nearly drove me to madness. If it wasn't for my best friend Link, I would have lost my mind or worse." She took a second to compose herself and turn to look at a blond-haired young man sitting nearby in a daze, then quietly finished, "Don't act as though I don't have scars from that experience, or that you don't understand tragedy and horror. We both know that our pasts are equally dark Link, Gann and I all ultimately were labeled mad for our actions anyway."

David was silent and wide-eyed as he watched the two women stare each other down, until Sam let out a clipped laugh and moved her checker. "You were labeled mad here, you mean."

With a ragged chuckle that seemed to wipe away the previous conversation, Zelda replied, "Very true. I'm surprised you still hang on to that belief Samus-it's a hard line to walk, and even harder on the mind. We've all been broken by it, after all, but still you trudge on."

Suddenly, it occurred to David that whatever was about to be discussed was not about checkers, as Sam leaned forward and fixed Zelda with another cold look. "If that's the case, what do you believe?"

"Simple: I believe in the truth."

"You and I both know it's not as simple as that, especially when the truth is hidden in lies."

Sensing an opportunity, Zelda skipped over one of Sam's checkers and removed it primly from the board. "Ah, but it is simple. None of us should be here in my opinion: it's not right that we are."

"So...you support the Raven then?"

"I do."

"Huh. Okay then, answer me this: say the Raven brought down Main. What would happen then? The staff would still be on Main's side after all."

"The Raven speaks the truth, as you obviously know. No one can resist the truth."

"So then why hasn't the Raven acted before?"

"There's a new variable to consider."

David realized Zelda and Sam were now staring at him in contemplation, as Sam muttered, "Damn, I forgot about Steve. No wonder he looks familiar..."

"Hang on a second," David held up a hand in surprise. "I can't be familiar to you- I've never been here before in my life!"

"Just because you haven't been here before doesn't mean we haven't recognized you from somewhere, Mr. Kojima," answered the brunette, who returned her attention to Sam. "However, regardless of the reporter's presence, I do think both sides make compelling arguments. Main certainly has the evidence to back up his claims, after all."

"Yeah, but the evidence makes sense only if you take the drugs," Sam muttered. "Zelda, if you think Main could be right, then why do you decide not to take his drugs?"

"The same reason you and the others choose not to: because I don't want to forget. I find it ironic actually that you choose not to take them. Like I said before, anyone with your...history would probably jump at the chance to wash away thoughts that hurt the mind and deem one insane."

The blonde woman was silent, and David noted that she had clenched her hands into fist that were so tight, that it caused the knuckles to turn white. Whatever Zelda was referring to had obviously struck a nerve.

"Let me ask you something, Zelda." A red checker was slammed down into an open space on the board, as the black one it had passed over was snatched away. "If you had thought in your head that you believed were real- thoughts and memories of something terrible, that you had thought you had shoved to the back of your mind- and one day someone told you that they were all lies, and that your real life was even worse than what you thought...which would you believe? Would you believe the memories in your head were really lies, and replace them with something equally dark? On the other hand, would you cling to your memories and fight off those who tried to take them away from you? Two lives, two very different experiences, and no way to tell which is real and which is false..." Sam slapped down her fist on the board, sending checkers flying in every direction as she kept the tears from spilling down her face. "I choose not to take the damn drugs because I want to believe I am nothing like what they say I am here. I want to hold on to the hope that I am sane, and that we are all surrounded by a madness we created to explain what has happened to us. Man tells us we have been terrible people in order to get ourselves sent here, but when I look at us, I don't see mental patients- I see heroes, fighters, lovers, and friends. I see real people with lives and stories that some consider legendary, and I want to believe that my memories of these patients are true, because that would make me a hero too. That's why I palm my drugs. That's why I take every beating and punishment Main gives me. That's why I rebel and refuse to believe him, not because I want to believe one thing over another, but because I want to cling to the belief that I am something greater than what I've been reduced to."

Neither Zelda nor David spoke, earning themselves a grunt from Sam as she rose and stormed away without another word. A long silence hung in the air around the reporter, with only the echoes of the words spoken moments before filling the void. It didn't take long before David found the voice to ask, "Is she okay?"

Zelda responded with a sigh. "Samus- or Sam, as you probably know her- is one of the few people I know who will never take the easy way out of anything. She is too proud and stubborn to give in, even when the odds are stacked against her. Her downfall, however, is that she believes so strongly in one idea that it consumes her, tainting her memories and erasing things she should recall. I'm afraid in time she'll forget things that one day might be important."

"But..." David wanted to say, "She's crazy, like the rest of you," but couldn't bring himself to say the words. Rosalina's earlier remark came to mind as he sat there and stared out the window. Were her words about everyone being sane true, or were they all secretly insane?

"I told you once before that if you want to know the answers, then you must be prepared for what they contain," said the brunette as she gathered up the checkers and set them back up gently on the board. "Yet, like us, you have to decide what is truth and what is a lie. Tell me something, David: have you always lived on the mainland?"

"Yes?"

"How long can you remember living there?"

"I'm...not sure. My memory's always been pretty rough, but I know I've lived on the mainland for a long time. I feel like it's been forever."

"Interesting-have you been sleeping well? You seem tired."

Flashes of his recent disturbing dreams flew through his head. "No, I haven't been sleeping that great."

"...Do you believe the Raven speaks the truth?"

By the way this question was thrown out, it was obvious that the answer was the most important one so far. Such a simple question, but one with an answer that David knew would send him down one of two paths. Did he really believe in the Raven? Its existence was hard to argue against, but to say that the Raven was truthful and Main was therefore a liar...well, it seemed a little crazy.

Then again, isn't everyone a little crazy?

So David looked Zelda in the eye and simply answered, "Yes."

Letting out a breath Zelda seemed to be pleased with his response. "Then be prepared, David Kojima: there isn't much time left. You're already caught in the crossfire."

You're already caught in the crossfire...

David found it impossible to banish the ominous words from his thoughts as he slowly made his way up the rickety staircase that evening. It was all he needed to confirm a fact he had dreaded: he was in over his head. Any attempt at crafting together a simple story was now out of the question. Main, the Raven, the patients, even Miles had led him to believe that something more was going on here, much more than anything he would expect for a simple news story.

Then again, he had never set out to write a simple news story in the first place.

As a reporter, David had followed his curiosity and his drive for knowledge to wherever it pointed in the past. While it had led him to many interesting tales, it always seemed like there was one thing that was out on the horizon...and now it seemed as though the Mansion and its tale was that thing. What exactly had he stumbled upon? The answer always seemed clear, but then it would move just out of reach and into the shadows of uncertainty. David's curiosity told him to find the answer though, using whatever means he could. There was no way to ignore that call- he was already in over his head, and the only option at this point was to dig deeper.

Making his way to his door, David pulled out a simple iron key- the same one Isaac had used to open his door on the day of his arrival, a day that felt like it had been so long ago. Rosalina had given it to him when they had returned to the Mansion after Lyn's burial, with the explanation that "The doors are all being locked after the patients go to sleep, so we don't have any more...problems." The key would be the only way someone could get in or out of his room, and David had realized that without the key, Main would be able to lock him in every night and prevent him from leaving. The reporter hadn't questioned if Rosalina had procured the key with Main and Soloro's permission or knowledge, but was grateful she was at least looking out for him.

While withdrawing the key from his pocket, his fingers brushed up against the strange object he had found by the stairs the night of Lyn's murder. Crap, I forgot about that weird thing, he thought to himself as he unlocked his door. Maybe I'll be able to get a better look at it tomorrow- it could be more important than I thought.

With a tired sigh, David opened his door and stepped into the room, turning around to shut it and cast everything back into shadows as he locked it from the inside as a safety precaution. Suddenly, he froze as he heard the slightest shift of movement. His mind had been too occupied with thought to make the connection before, but now in the quiet nighttime he realized that when he had opened the door, something inside the room had moved.

Which meant only one thing: someone else was in the room.

David sucked in a breath and moved to turn around, but he was too slow. Whoever was there in the room struck with a heavy blow to the back of David's head, and the reporter felt himself crumple to the ground as a curtain of unconsciousness smashed down upon him and his mind.

Cliffhangers are the best...

Since I mentioned music last chapter influencing writing, the first half of this chapter was written while listening to "The Rifle's Spiral" by The Shins, and "Letters From the Sky" by Civil Twilight. The second half was written with "Mama" by Genesis (note: don't listen to this song unless you want Phil Collins' creepy laugh stuck in your head for hours) and "The Anarchist" by Rush. Strange mix this time around, but I think it fits nicely.

Anyways, I'll try to get the next chapter out by next month, although there's the possibility that it may not be out until early June, since I have schoolwork and another project or two I've begun to think about. It will be out though- I promise not to leave you hanging for too long!

Thank you for reading, and leave a review and/or share with a friend if you can!