EYES. His eyes were usually so warm and toasty like they could melt marshmallows in ice water. Not now though. They resembled chips of glass as they stared down at that charm before looking up at me.

My words came out slow and crisp. "It means you killed your parents, right?"

"Yes." It came out casual and light. "I did."

A tiny part of me jerked back, trying to process what I just heard. Did he just confess? So easily? He didn't even deny it. Just said it.

It's always the level-headed ones that are the real killers. So calm and elegant.

I almost shivered until I thought of myself. I wore a level-headed, calm mask even though my mind danced with odd and sinister thoughts.

I didn't have the right to judge.

"I had the most self-explanatory clue." His eyes flickered away for a long moment before darting back, those glass chips slowly melting. "Everyone saw my clue on the first day and probably already put the pieces together by day two."

I didn't. I sort of glazed over his clue, not thinking too much of it.

"My secret was sort of public knowledge by now, so I had nothing to hide or kill for if Layla told everyone my secret."

Public knowledge? His secret wasn't public knowledge. The clue was very telling, but it gave no real details. No, how, what or why?

Because they made the clue so easy to understand, it made me think that his secret had to be bad.

Really bad, which caused me to become intrigued, a little too much.

We both stayed quiet for a minute or two before I said, "I think we can just cross each other off the suspect list."

He threw down the charm, picking up mine and Sebastian's clue, the king and the pawn. "We can't because both your secrets might be linked. Did you two know each other before coming here?"

"No, that's why I don't even know what my secret is."

He paused, eyes returning back to normal, head cocked. "You don't know your secret?"

My head quivered for a second. "I don't. If my secret involves him, someone I've never seen or met before, I have no idea what it could be."

"Unless your secrets aren't linked and this is just another way to confuse and mess with you?"

"Even by itself, I still don't know what my secret could be. A pawn? I was never a pawn to anyone." Unless it meant something, pertaining to my mother, but how was I her pawn? Because she still affected me? That wasn't much of a secret.

He stared at me. "It could mean that you are Sebastian's pawn."

"But I haven't done anything for him, and he hasn't tried to use me or anything. He's done more things for me, than I him." He saved my butt earlier without even blinking. "Everyone's secret seems to be about something in their past. Sebastian and I have no past."

"Okay, let's say your clues aren't connected," he said, grabbing his knees. "The King represents power and control."

"What did his visitors look like?"

"He had one guy in a clean suit with a watch."

"Maybe he owns his own business," Khan said, thinking. "And killed the competition? Or he was working his way up the corporate ladder and killed the people who got in his way?"

"Ehh all those are kind of boring," I said with a shrug. "Nothing new there. Nothing to kill someone over."

Eight crossed off, two left, one suspect

The next clue slide between his index and middle finger — a twenty-dollar bill. Yaz's clue. He opened the folded material, revealing a ripped and corner smudged dollar.

"What's that smudge?" I asked, pointing to the corner.

Bringing the dollar to his face, he analyzed it. "It was a drawing. I think a judge gavel?" He wiped at the black foggy image. "It's charcoal, so it must've smudged when she squeezed it."

The crisp currency brushed my fingertips when I took it from him. "It's ripped in certain places." I held it above my face. "They look like half-moon rips. Fingernails, maybe?"

"It looks like she opened it, saw the image and crumbled it tight."

"So tight her nails went through," I said, fingering the holes. "Must be a real personal secret."

"Gavel could mean jail?" he said, looking up at the ceiling.

"Maybe she killed someone over twenty bucks and went to jail?" I shrugged. "This clue is so broad."

Khan tossed her clue back to the floor. "Before Yaz joined our team, she kept to herself. A loner and she seemed comfortable that way." He touched his ear. "I feel like she wouldn't care if people knew her secret. She doesn't seem to really care if people like her or not."

"Which gives her no reason to kill Layla," I said, letting out a breath. "That clears our team. I feel a lot better now."

Ten crossed off, one remaining, and one suspect.

Khan picked up the last clue, the pride flag. Aries' clue. "He's gay."

"Wait, we can't assume that—"

"I caught him staring at me in the gym, clearly checking me out. Multiple times."

"I walk pass the gym and peek in sometimes. I get curious."

"I watched him stare at my ass for ten minutes," Khan said. "He didn't know I was watching him in the mirror, and when I turned to look at him, he ran away."

"What if he was just admiring your form? Maybe he wants to bulk up."

"He licked his lips and touched his dick while he looked at me."

"Okay, he might be gay or bi," I said. "Or he could've just wanted to show appreciation to a nice ass."

"The same way I catch you appreciating?" He cocked his head to the side, giving me a wide smirk.

My cheeks heated, vibrating for a few moments. "Uh, I'm just checking for lint. Just trying to be a good neighbor."

A loose, happy laugh came out of his mouth as his shoulders shuddered.

"There has to be more to his secret than that," I said, hiding my cheeks in my hands for a second while trying to change the subject.

"Well, Aries' secret was probably another well-known one," Khan said, leaning back on his hands. "He was the number one suspect in his ex's brutal murder."

"Someone mentioned that on our first night here, and he got really defensive," I said, slowly remembering. "And he went into a rage when they called him a murderer."

Khan leaned onto the wall, back straight. "That case always interested me. Even before we got there."

"It was one of the biggest scandals of last year," I said, tucking my knees to my chest. "Aries, top-tier Youtuber a suspect in supermodel ex's brutal slaying. The headlines were brutal." I scratched my chin, thinking back. "I think the reason he got dropped as a suspect was because he had an eyewitness alibi—"

"His new girlfriend vouched for him," Khan said, shrugging. "She said he got back to his house at five pm and they ate dinner and then he started streaming at seven thirty."

"And he streamed for about three hours," I said, remembering the newspaper details. "And since the M.E. said his ex died around eight that evening and he was streaming at that time, he couldn't have done it." I bit my lip. "He had an alibi and no motive. I remember him saying he dumped her to get with some new girl, and that she was bitter, but he was fine. So police concluded he had no motive to kill her."

"The police had a motive, but they said it wasn't strong enough and that it was hearsay," Khan said, sitting straight up. "His ex's best friend said that Aries' ex planned on making a video, exposing him for something."

"But with her looking like a bitter ex in the news for so long, the police probably just thought she was going to make up something fake or petty."

"And with a perfect alibi like he had, why look into such a tedious motive?" Khan shrugged. "It makes sense on why he never got charged, no evidence. But what if she really did have something on him? And he didn't want it released?"

My eyes widened. "She probably was going to tell the world that he liked men, but would he kill over that?"

Khan furrowed his brows. "Aries' career would've been over. He's part of Lunacy — a hardcore Christian pro-gamer team. They probably wouldn't have approved of him, and his Youtuber demographic matches those values. If her video came out, he'd be done."

I rocked back and forth, absorbing that info. "It makes sense."

I felt bad for Aries. It sucked to have to hide your true self from the world. Everyone should be able to be who or what they want. He probably grew up in a strict religious home where he couldn't be himself and then when he made it big, he had to hide it from his employer and his millions of fans.

"Let's assume his ex knew, and they broke up because of it and that's when he reacted first by making up rumors about her and getting a new girlfriend to throw off suspicion." Khan nodded. "I remember that the news of their breakup hit the media at like noon and he already uploaded a new video with his new girlfriend at like twelve fifteen. All he did was talk about how crazy his ex was and that she cheated him and that he finally found his soulmate."

"I remember all that. His ex got butchered on social media," I said. "She probably got sick of all and wanted people to know the truth. She probably got evidence of some sort and was going to show it in her response video."

"And he couldn't let that happen. He built this perfect life for himself — top YouTuber, one of the highest-paid pro-gamers. He had brand deals with all these major companies," Khan said, wiping his shirt. "And he probably saw all of this slipping through his fingers, and he got scared and wanted her gone."

I snapped my fingers. "And Layla was a die-hard Christian. That's why she probably said what she said to him at the cleansing."

"That's what I was thinking."

"Let's say he killed his ex because she knew his secret, how did he do it while streaming? How could he stream and murder her at the same time? They both lived in LA at the time, but an hour apart." I scratched my knee. "He could've hired a hit man."

"Possibly, but would he be here if he didn't do it himself?"

"Maybe but arranging someone's murder still technically makes someone a killer."

"Yes, but her death looked personal, and it was messy. A hitman would've done a clean kill, probably make it look like a robbery," he said. "This looked like a crime of passion and the scene was messy like the killer freaked out afterward. This wasn't a professional hit. I don't know how he did it while streaming, but he killed her. I know it."

"So Aries killed Layla because she was going to tell everyone that he did kill his ex and that he was gay?"

"I read that Aries grew up in a strict religious home, that his father spoke out against the LGBT community many times, so Aries has probably been hiding this secret for a very long time," Khan said. "He might feel self-hatred for himself, thinking that what he wants is wrong because that's what was instilled in him as a child or he could feel ashamed or repressed. These are heavy emotions and if you feel these emotions regularly and so intensely for so long they can make you do crazy things."

It sounded like he could relate to Aries.

"What I'm trying to say is that his worst fear was probably people finding out his secret. It's similar to what we said about Gmie. It's been apart of them for so long that it's second nature now. He never wanted his secret to come out, and he'll do whatever he needs to keep it hidden." He paused. "Think of it this way, if he killed his ex over it, why not kill a stranger?"

"Yeah," I said, wiping my face. "So Aries and Gmie have the worst secrets, the ones someone might kill for."

"I'm thinking Aries," he said, tapping his knees. "He's killed for his secret before he would probably do it again."

I sighed, not knowing what to think. Gmie or Aries?

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