[Soundtrack: Consternation - Zero Escape - Virtue's Last Reward]

It was around 2PM when Malik finally woke up. After Breakfast had passed and he hadn't shown up, Rex and I thought he might have stayed behind to investigate some more; after all, Pegasus didn't say we had to go to breakfast. We had just chose to go anyway because free food is free food no matter who was serving it. Rex and I headed towards my room to rest for a bit after the meal and discuss the next steps in Lia's murder investigation. We were able to discuss for barely even half an hour before we heard a loud knock on Rex's door.

We found Serenity and Ryou looking quite shaken. "Sera, Rex, it's Malik! Something happened to him!" Serenity cried breathlessly, her face twisted in anxiety. You could almost hear the adrenaline rushing through her frail body.

I was at a loss for words, still trying to comprehend the frightened girl's words, but Rex was coherent enough for the both of us. "Show us where he is!" he demanded.

"That's the thing," Ryo replied somberly, "We don't know. We've been searching for a while, but haven't found him. The door to his room was unlocked and he wasn't in there."

"This area that Pegasus let us walk around in isn't that big, so it shouldn't be this hard to find one guy," Serenity said more calmly now.

It took us about a solid hour of searching before Rex spotted him. As a last resort, we had started searching through people's closets (and let me tell you, Sun was not happy to find Rex crouching in her shower). When we came to Lia's room, it was untouched; nobody had even dared to enter it. That was where he found him -not in plain sight, mind you, but curled up in the fetal position in the bottom drawer of Lia's dresser.

Neither of us were sure how the guy, who must have weighed at least like at least 170lbs, if not more, managed to get stuffed in there, and if he was unconscious, chances were that he didn't exactly do that to himself; someone else must have attacked him. That thought alone sent chills down my spine. I wanted to think that whoever did that to him was also Lia's killer, then I'd be able to believe that there was only one sadist among us, but was that really true? Could there only be one sadist here?

The idea that Lia's murderer could have an accomplice was one that had been brought up at breakfast by Rex. He noted that all of us were sitting in distinct groups -the same groups that we had been in during our meeting with Pegasus in the morning, with the exception of Leon who didn't seem to have any allegiances to anyone else in the room and sat where he felt comfortable. The same could probably be said for Lia before she died.

Going by that, we could say there were four distinct groups. We could call Sun, Zephyr, and Rafael Group A. They were obviously closely acquainted and even came with matching cloaks like evil henchmen. They were obviously suspicious, but Sun and Zephyr were on Lia's team, which meant that if someone from their group killed her, it would have to be Rafael, who was a member of my team. But would Sun and Zephyr cover for Rafael at the expense of their own team?

The next group, which we could call Group B, was comprised of Serenity, Malik, and Ryou. Those three had clearly gone through quite an ordeal together and were obviously allied together, but they came across as much less suspicious to me. Similarly to Group A, two of their members were part of Lia's team, so if it was one of them, it would have to be Malik, and after finding Malik unconscious and stuffed in a closet, it seemed much less likely that he was the killer.

The third group, Group C, would be Mako and Enzi. Those two were anchored to each other but also placed on opposing teams. Rex and I knew them pretty well, but not well enough to guarantee that neither of them was capable of murder. Plus, in a duo, it was very likely one would sacrifice his win for the other, making Enzi quite suspicious as well.

The last group was me and Rex. We were Group D (if you know what I mean -winky face- … "Dinosaur"; I meant "Dinosaur" you dirty minded freaks). Our duo was also split between two groups, making me the only one who could have killed her among us. I knew for a fact that I didn't kill Lia, but I was obviously the most suspicious person.

Casting aside the groups, however, there was still the chance that the killer was a lone wolf who would betray their own group for the victory of their team, which in this case, would make the groupings we came up with essentially meaningless.

The one person who didn't fit into a group was Leon, but the boy looked like he was 12 years old and clearly hadn't hit his growth spurt. Lia may have been short, but she was still taller than Leon, so for a kid like him to not only pin Lia up against a wall, but also shove a spear through her head, he would have had to be packing some serious muscle inside those noodly arms of his, which was really unlikely. Man would it be a plot-fucking-twist if it really was him, though.

Enough of that, though, you guys want to know about Malik, right? Well, we're getting to that.

[Soundtrack: Infirmary - Zero Time Dilemma]

When we found Malik, we called Ryou over, who helped us pull the drawer out and lift Malik out of it. We then carried him over his own room a couple doors down and laid him on his bed. The quarters we were confined to didn't exactly have any kind of infirmary or first aid or anything. I suppose that kind of stuff didn't really matter because Pegasus wanted us to kill each other. Performing first aid on a murder victim would be counterproductive to his plot.

"It's awful," Serenity wept, brushing her hand under Malik's bangs to feel his forehead. "Who would do this to him?"

Ryou's jaw stiffened as he brushed through the golden hair on the other boy's head to search for the cause of Malik's loss of consciousness. He pulled his hand out with red staining his fingers and frowned. "Someone hit him over the head. I can't quite tell with what, but I believe he has a concussion. We won't know what happened to him until he wakes up, I'm afraid."

"I bet whoever did it was the same person who killed Lia. It had to have been," I said.

Ryou hesitated before voicing a reply. "That is certainly possible, but we can't rule out other motives for this attack. He was a member of Team Alpha, making him a suspect in Lia's murder. If someone believed him to be the killer, perhaps this attack was only meant to incapacitate. After all, he was found in a drawer in Lia's closet. If he had awoken there, he would not have been able to escape by himself; he would have needed our help."

"This would mean that whoever did it would be naming him as the killer during our meeting with Pegasus at 6PM…" Serenity remarked uncertainly.

With a nod, he said, "Yes, I believe so."

"Well, we can say this definitely happened after he investigated the crime scene with me and Sera. He left us when the mess hall opened for breakfast," Rex recalled. "He never showed up for breakfast, so it probably happened between 8AM and 11AM. That's a 3 hour window where we had no idea where he was."

Serenity bit her lip and shook her head. "Actually, that's not true. Ryou and I searched for him after lunch for about half an hour before calling you over, and it took all four of us another half hour to find him, which means that we can say it happened between 8AM and 12PM, making it a 4 hour window."

Rex's eyes widened briefly before he nodded. "Shit. You're right."

"Well," I spoke up. "I can say that at about 15 past 8, Rex and I were in the mess hall. When we arrived, everyone but you two and Malik were already there. You two arrived at about half past 8 if I remember correctly."

Ryou nodded in agreement. "And until 11PM when the mess hall closed, all ten of us remained in the mess hall."

I frowned, remembering those long 3 hours we spent there. We weren't forced to remain in the mess hall, but the mess hall itself had quite a lot to inspect. When we first arrived, there was absolutely no food in sight -I suppose the mess hall being open didn't mean the buffet would be open as well. We all spent a good half hour doing absolutely nothing but waiting for the food. Well, it would be inaccurate to say we were doing nothing. We were all buzzing with our theories about Lia's murder, even more so since Pegasus's announcement.

The mess hall itself actually had a couple of doors that seemed to lead to an area that we were barred from accessing. After some examination, many of us theorized that this mess hall was used for the guests as well. Perhaps that was why our breakfast started a bit late, the guests were having breakfast before us.

Regardless of how those 3 hours were spent, however, it was true that all 10 of us had alibis for Malik's attack, at least between 8AM and 11AM. "This means that he was attacked between 11 and 12, right?" I asked.

"Maybe," Rex mumbled. "But if all of us were searching between 11:30 and 12PM, it would have been hard for the attacker to get by unnoticed, especially not lugging around a fully grown teenage boy."

"True… but before that -"

"And before 11:30," he interrupted, "I find it hard to believe that it took someone half an hour to find him, knock him out, and stuff him in a drawer, all while Serenity and Ryou were searching for Malik. If those two couldn't find him, the attacker would have had a hard time finding him, too, because they would have had to avoid Malik's friends."

"So are you saying that between 11PM and 12AM it was impossible for Malik to have been attacked?" Serenity questioned.

With a nod, he said, "That's exactly what I'm saying. I mean it would technically be possible… if Malik just rolled over and let the attacker get him."

I shrugged and muttered, "Well, that's also possible actually…"

"Don't be an idiot, Sera," he scolded without missing a beat. Jeez. Fuck you, too, buddy.

There was a solemn silence before Serenity spoke, stroking her chin as she did. "You make a valid point, but at the same time, we can say that between 8:00 and 8:15, nobody had any alibis."

"That's wrong, actually," Rex replied with a matter-of-fact tone. "They might have alibis. If we believe that the six people other than us are all conspiring with each other, then yeah, nobody has an alibi, but that's pretty unlikely. We don't know what anyone was doing from the moment Malik left Sera and me up until the moment we saw all of them in the mess hall."

"So I guess it's like Schrödinger's alibi. They both do and don't have alibis… That doesn't really help us," I grumbled.

"It doesn't have to," Rex said. "Because 15 minutes isn't even enough time to track him down and attack Malik, especially not when all of us were going to the mess hall from all directions. It would have been too risky."

"You know what you're saying, right?" Ryou told him, his face twisted in discomfort. "You're saying that nobody had the opportunity to attack him. But that's impossible, because we're the only people here, unless Pegasus has brought in a 13th person here."

Rex shrugged nonchalantly, looking much cooler than he was allowed to and reminding me why we were friends in the first place (aside from my mortal soul being bound to his). "It might be possible that there's a 13th person, sure, but what I was getting at was actually the fact that there are exactly two people who would have been able to pull this off: Ryou and Serenity."

I gasped and narrowed my eyes at the two. They both looked shocked at the accusation, neither of them managing to say a thing without stammering. Could they really have done that to Malik? Their own friend?

"Of course we didn't!" Serenity protested after finding her voice. "Ryou and I were together the whole time and we never separated until we got to the mess hall."

Rex waved her statement off dismissively. "Yeah? So? I'm guessing you two are dating or something, but that just means you're not really good alibis for each other. In all honesty, it's more likely you're accomplices. You're both from team Beta, while Malik is from Alpha. Plus, judging from what we saw during the live broadcast of Battle City tournament a couple months back, you guys weren't always so chummy with Malik, right? Plus, he told us he was going to find you two before he went to the mess hall, but then when you two showed up, you showed up without him, and 30 minutes late too... Pretty suspicious if you ask me…"

"That's wrong!" Serenity snapped. "We'd never do this! Besides, you said half an hour wasn't enough time for -"

"Not enough time for a stranger, no," he interjected. "But you didn't have to go looking for him because he was going right towards you, and nobody would bat an eye if they saw him go into your room. Besides, your rooms aren't that far from Lia's room. Serenity could have been standing watch while Ryou carried his unconscious body the room. There would be no witnesses."

Ryou, whose mouth had hardened into a firm line, simply nodded. "It's a thorough theory, I'll admit, but it's just that- a theory. If we had done this, why draw attention to the fact that he'd gone missing? Wouldn't it be more convenient if nobody took note? Or perhaps we could have just botched the timeline so that nobody has an alibi for his disappearance."

Rex shrugged. "That's possible, too, I guess. Like I said. Just a theory. I mean, you also competed in Duelist Kingdom, right, Ryou?" Ryou nodded slowly. "Then you know that Pegasus may be a sadistic bastard, but he's no liar. I doubt there's a 13th person here."

I just took in the discussion in silence, trying to piece together a theory of my own. While Rex made a compelling argument against Serenity and Ryou, I wasn't ready to believe that they had done it. After all, we were also having quite a hard time coming up with the identity of Lia's killer. If there were a 13th person in play, that would make our Lia problem disappear completely.

The discussion went a bit quiet after that, and we all decided we'd try to question Malik himself when he woke up as he'd surely have a better idea of who had done this and our debating would have been pretty useless. As Serenity and Ryou wanted to do their own investigation of the crime scene, Rex and I agreed to stay with Malik "in case the attacker came back to finish the job" or something like that. Neither of us really believed the attacker would be coming back, though, so we passed the time chatting about everything, our situation, Pegasus's plan, even random things. At least until Malik woke up. When he woke up, he could barely speak and communicated through grunts of pain. The only coherent words he spoke were complaints about the pain in his head, which were what you'd expect from someone who had a concussion.

Rex was back within 5 minutes with both Ryou and Serenity in tow. They both had worried expressions on their faces as they moved to the sides of Malik's bed. "He looks like he's got a bit of a migraine from being hit so hard, so just keep that in mind when you start to interrogate -"

[Soundtrack: Nostalgic Scenery - Zero Time Dilemma]

Before I could finish my sentence, Malik shot up from his bed, nearly slamming into Ryou and Serenity, who had been leaning over him slightly. "Lorna!" he gasped and then winced, bringing a hand to his head. "Argh…" he moaned.

"Lorna?" I repeated quietly, looking over at Rex, who shrugged silently, opting to wait for Ryou and Serenity's reactions.

"Malik, are you okay?" Serenity asked gently, placing her hand on top of Malik's. "Who did this to you?"

Malik winced and looked over at Serenity. "Y-You did, Lorna… or at least… someone that looks like you… I know it couldn't possibly be you. I know you Lor'... You'd never do something like this…"

Serenity's hand moved away from Malik's and she glanced down at her lap with a disturbed expression. "I'm… I'm not Lorna. Lorna's dead."

He seemed undeterred by Serenity's words and simply rambled on. "God, I love you, Lor'... I should have told you that before it was too late, but you didn't remember who I was. You just said my name… Do you remember me now?"

Ryou sighed and walked over to the other side of the small room, turning his back to the bedridden boy. "He's delusional. We won't be able to get the name of his attacker from him now."

Rex nodded in agreement. "He did say it was 'Lorna' that killed him, though. That's still a lead… Or maybe part of one. Maybe whoever attacked him had convinced him they were Lorna -"

I looked over at Serenity who looked deeply uncomfortable with the situation. She rose from the edge of the bed and crossed her arms stiffly, staring at the door with a furrowed brow. "He thinks I'm Lorna, and I'm not the one who attacked him…"

Ryou turned to look at Serenity. "Well, you were once connected to her, so maybe some parts of her are still inside you, even after her death."

"That still leaves the question of how the attacker convinced Malik that they were Lorna…" Rex mumbled.

"That is… quite the mystery. Yes…" Ryou sighed.

I cleared my throat and then said, "Well, there's 4 hours left until Pegasus's deadline and we don't have leads to the identity of the killer." I gave Serenity and Ryou a desperate look. "Please tell me you guys found something new at the scene -something that will blow this whole thing wide open…"

Ryou shook his head. "Not really." Serenity remained silent. I didn't really believe them, but I'm not sure what I expected from them. Thanks to Pegasus's new incentive, nobody was going to readily give others hints to help along the investigation. Everyone wanted that immunity for themselves.

"The body was gone…" Serenity said in a quiet voice.

"The body was what?" I hissed in shock.

"Sera, I know who the killer is," Malik managed to say. "It was Lorna," he grunted.

"Y-You mean Serenity?" I sputtered in disbelief.

All eyes were on Malik as he spoke slowly. "No… Not Serenity. Lorna. I saw her, blood all over the front of her clothes -"

I groaned. "Ugh! This again? Let's just go back to the subject at hand like… I don't know, the body being missing!"

"Was anything else weird about the scene?" Rex questioned, "Y'know, aside from there being no body?"

Ryou rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, there was the bloody hole in the wall where the spear penetrated it and some leftover blonde hairs we noticed stuck in the cracks in the wall."

While Ryou made his remarks, Serenity turned around to face Malik, then, interrupting Ryou,she spoke again. "I believe Malik."

I scoffed. "Uh, sweetie? 'Believe Malik?' Did you forget about the part where he's concussed and delusional, calling his dead girlfriend the killer? Even though she's, y'know, dead?" I snapped at her.

Standing her ground, Serenity shot back, "I'm not stupid, Sera. I was there. I watched her die, but maybe it's like Ryou said. Her connection to me allowed her to live… You guys were talking about a 13th person, well, here she is. My brother also thought she was alive, but I never believed him, but maybe he's onto something! I could feel her emotions running through me, everything Lorna felt… and I still feel it when I see my big brother. She really cared about him; she still does. And I know he cares about her, too, so maybe that's why… That's why he knows she's alive, because she's connected to him, too. So I'm gonna trust him."

I could see Ryou resisting the urge to groan loudly. "She's dead. Serenity. You have nightmares about it every night! Watching her die over and over again, and you still think she's alive? Even now?" he scolded. "Are you even listening to yourself?"

Serenity didn't seem at all phased by his loss of temper, her voice as cool and firm as ever. "I know it sounds crazy, but isn't this whole thing crazy? Dead people coming back to life? Going to the realm between the living and the dead… shadow magic and games. Lorna was dead when she connected with my soul, and she was still dead when she connected with Joey's soul, and she's touched so many souls since she first got here. It might sound crazy, but if there's a chance her spirit is -"

"You're saying that you also think she's a murderer, Serenity!" he interrupted. "Would your brother really be friends with a killer? Lorna wouldn't do something like this. There could very well be a 13th person here, but it's not her!"

"Ryou, I know you think I'm making this up," Malik spoke up, "But I know what I saw. She chased me down with a knife and knocked me out. I think something is using her body and pretending to be her, but I have no idea what it could be. But it's happened before I think…"

"What do you mean it's happened before?" I asked, feeling all too aware of the fact that I was also dead.

"I'm not sure… I caught a glimpse of it when we were in the Solitude… When the Warden took over Lorna's soul in the Solitude, Lorna's body in the living realm was acting weird… Or at least that's what I gathered from talking to Ishizu."

With another long exhale, Ryou shook his head, "But back then, Lorna still had a soul; now whatever was left after the Warden attacked her has been crushed to dust -completely obliterated. The Warden can't take over something that doesn't exist anymore. And say the Warden has taken over Lorna's body -are you saying that Pegasus knew about this and allowed her to board the submarine?"

"Well, he's making us play this game," Rex pointed out. "So I would put 'teaming up with a psychopathic evil spirit' within the realm of possibility."

"N-No…" Ryou stuttered. "You're wrong. I don't know what Pegasus's plans are, but he's an intelligent man and everything he does, no matter how sadistic, always has a purpose. There must be something about this game we're missing. And all of you are forgetting something important: We buried Lorna. We held a funeral for her. Her body is 6 feet underground right now."

Serenity didn't protest this time, instead clutching her hand to her chest and looking down. It looked like this was something she couldn't argue against, so she retreated into her shell moved towards the door. "I think… we need to investigate a bit more." she said reluctantly, "Sera's right. We need to find out who the killer is and we're running out of time."

"Serenity…" Ryou called out softly; his eyes were pleading but she had her back turned to him.

"I'll go with her," I volunteered. "Whoever attacked Malik might not just be after him…" I may have been a bit dense, but I knew Serenity wanted company -anyone's company but Ryou's. And with a couple of meaningful glances exchanged between me and Rex, I took off with Serenity, while Rex and Ryou stayed by Malik's side.

SOUND THE ALARM, BOYS. ITS AN EARLY UPDATE WOOO.

I think you all wanna know who killed Lia, and I want to write about who killed Lia.

But all will be revealed soon. Not next chapter bc that's a Somnium chapter... but the chapter after it perhaps... will have quite a few revelations. Some good... some bad.