THIRTEEN. We had thirteen hours to figure out eleven secrets. Great.

"It's not possible," I said, scratching my nails on the floor. "We've been here for how long? Weeks it feels like and haven't figured out many secrets, and now we have thirteen hours? Nope."

Khan settled in on the floor next to me, hands on his knees. "Honestly, we haven't really been focusing on figuring out secrets. We've been dealing with other things."

I have been dealing with so much shit since I've been here — the masked figure, Tini, Jookie, Gmie's hatred, Layla's kidnapping, trying not to die...

"I really don't think we're going to figure out everyone's secret," he said with a shrug. "The odds are not in our favor. But we don't have to figure out everyone's secret. We just need to be able to cross people off or figure out one juicy secret that might lead us in the right direction."

I let out a rumbling sigh, wiping my forehead. "What do we have to lose? We got nothing else at the moment."

His hands ruffled through the clues, scattering them apart like scrabble pieces. "We'll go through them one by one and bounce ideas off each other."

"And if this doesn't work?" I asked. "What if we come up empty and have nothing."

"Then we go back to square one and just keep following her route," he said, picking up a clue, "and hope for the best."

Please let this theory pan out. We needed something. "That's Fee's clue," I said, looking at the miniature bloody pigpen.

"What are your first thoughts when you see this?"

"Umm, I instantly thought of a bunch of sweaty muddy redneck serial killers capturing and raping women and then feeding them to their farm animals."

Khan held back a laugh, lips curling into a smile. "You thought of all that in five seconds."

I grinned. "I have an active imagination." I shrugged. "But's it probably wrong. A bloody pigpen could represent so many other things. What if his secret is that he has sex with pigs before killing people? Or what if he's demented and obsessed with pigs and kidnapped humans and forced them to act out his twisted, sexual animal fantasies before slicing their throats? Or—"

"You're right," he said, interrupting me with a chuckle. "It could mean many things. All of these clues could, but we don't have to just go by the clues."

"What do you mean?"

"Remember that night a few weeks ago where everyone had a late-night guest knock on their door?"

I shivered. "Yeah." The masked figure knocked on mine and really fucked with my head.

"I think everyone's visitor coincided with their secret," he said, rolling the pigpen in his palm. "The game was trying to mess with our heads, while giving us hints to each other's secrets in the process."

"Jookie did say we would get more clues as the game went on," I said, nodding. "I don't remember people's visitors though. I was kind of distracted."

He tapped his temple. "I remember. I wrote down everyone's visitor with details and committed it to memory. I thought it might be important later."

"Okay, so who was Fee's visitor?"

"A muddy plump lady," Khan said, tapping his knee. "I'm thinking his mother because she kept screaming at him about, "doing what mama says" and "make mama happy."

"Make mama happy," I repeated, rolling it over my tongue. "Did she sound controlling?"

"Very. She kept saying it over and over," he said, "screaming it at first like she was trying to make him do something that he didn't want to do, like she was trying to scare him into it. And then it turned sweet and nice. Very eerie."

"Basically, she was trying to manipulate him?"

"Right," he said. "And I think he was afraid of her. I remember him opening the door and yelling at her to go away before slamming it. His voice sounded kind of shaky."

"I can't picture someone of Fee's size being afraid of something."

"There's just something about parents," Khan said, looking like he was getting lost in a daydream. "They have the power to lift you up, bring you down and hurt and damage you in ways that no one or anything else can."

"Yeah," I agreed, thinking of my own mother. She did a real number on me.

He snapped out of his daze a few moments later, getting back on topic. "I get the feeling that whatever he did — whoever he killed and how was all because of his mother controlling him. Forcing him."

"If that's true, that's not really a bad secret?" I swiped a curl out of my face. "We don't know the specifics, but his secret doesn't seem like it's worth killing over — he murdered some people for his mother. Tiran raped a dead woman."

"Which is why I think we can cross him off."

One down, ten to go.

Demo's clue caught my eye next. "Hers was just a list of third world countries, what do you get from that?"

"She had multiple visitors come to her room," he said, staring at a wall. "All had accents and weapons. I'm thinking she either worked for a drug or criminal organization or maybe a con artist?"

I held up a finger. "Or maybe she was involved in human trafficking? I had to do an essay on it in school, and I remember that human trafficking is big in some third world countries. People are easier to grab there."

"She could've been in charge of it?" He looked at me. "She could've been a recruiter. Getting women involved in the trade makes it easier to kidnap people because most people are more likely to trust and drop their guard around a pretty woman."

"So she might've helped lead thousands of women, men, and children to a life of rape, torture, and death." That was kind of bad. "It's bad but would she kill over it?"

"It makes her look like a fucked up individual," he said, tapping his chin.

A quick laugh escaped from my throat. "Aren't we all fucked up individuals?" I bit my lip, thinking. "Since Demo's been here, she's latched onto Gmie. Almost like some co-dependent type shit. I feel like she would only kill if it would cause Gmie to look at her differently."

"I don't see Gmie stopping her relationship with Demo over this," he said, scratching his chin. "Her secret is messed up, but I don't think it would've made us all turn on her. I don't think she would've killed to hide it. I wouldn't."

Two crossed off, nine left.

"Rucker's was already revealed," Khan said, tossing the booties to the side. "He kind of told us in Layla's room."

"That he killed his brother because the brother got their sister killed?" I nodded. "It fits the clue, and I believe Rucker would've told us if he killed her. He's very upfront about his feelings."

Three crossed off, eight left.

"Chi's was revealed as well," he said. "She poisoned her family."

"No one treated her any differently either." Except for Rucker. He stopped having sex with her. I didn't blame him either.

Four crossed off, seven left.

"Layla's secret is unknown and probably not needed to solve her murder," he said. "No reason to waste time on it."

Five crossed off, six left.

That was fast. We were making fast progress but coming up with nothing.

Khan picked up Gmie's clue, her waitlist letter. The paper rustled in his fingertips, the letter seal glittering in the light. "She bragged that this was her acceptance letter."

"But she got waitlisted," I said, feeling a smugness enter my chest. "When I first saw that, I got that, "she'll do anything to get her parents' love and approval" vibe. So what if she killed to get into Harvard?"

"Her visitors that night looked like her peers — rich, posh, all wearing Harvard gear," he said, pursing his lips. "She could've killed her way up the wait list."

My hand shook for a second. "I could see Gmie killing over that secret. She can't let others be smarter than her. Or better than her. She probably spent her whole life trying to be perfect and be better than everyone to get her parents love and attention."

"And since she's been doing it for so long, it's second nature to her now. It's a part of her," he said, touching his cheek. "It's warped her vision of herself and she has to be the best and the smartest or she'll feel vulnerable and unloved, which is why she craves attention."

"And if we knew the truth — that she got waitlisted first," I said, "she might think that we think that she's unintelligent or stupid."

"Which might make her feel vulnerable and weak."

"And might make her kill," I finished, wiping my face. "This all sounds good in theory."

"Gmie definitely wouldn't want Demo to know her secret because she might think that Demo would look at her differently," he said.

"Which might make her think that she might loose her control over Demo," I said, getting it. "And that's her only true ally. Wow, I can definitely see her axing Layla over this."

"She's our top suspect for now, but we still have some people left."

Five crossed off, five remaining and one suspect.

Our odds were looking slightly better.

My eyes went to the next clue. Khan's clue — a simple word charm with the word, "Parricide."

I searched my brain for the definition, and it popped in seconds later, making my heart like a slab of ice. It meant the act of killing one's parents.

His gaze left mine, slowly grabbing the charm off the floor. An intense tension basked the air like a blaring alarm, sweat forming on my back. His fingertips caressed the metal before pursing his lips.

In slow motion, his eyes left the charm, going back to my face. The blankness on his face made the tension in the air scream at me, making me want to cover my ears as my breath hitched up a notch.

"I don't have to tell you what this word means, right?" His voice came out even, cool and normal, almost like we were friends discussing the weather.

"N-no," I whispered, heart pounding.

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