It's been twenty-four hours by this point. Twenty-four hours since a single rule was put into play- no food until a murder is committed. Monokumace even went so far as to specify that it must be a homicide. I have a feeling they knew that several people would've been willing to sacrifice themselves. Myself included, I guess.

Only a few hours ago, I started to feel the effects of no food. I mean, sometimes I've just gotten so engaged in my work that I forgot to eat, drink, or sleep. Maybe it's just been preparation for this. Honestly, I don't see why we can't just figure out what plants are edible. With Evangeline on our side, I'm sure it's possible.  Nobody knows their way around plants like the Ultimate Herbologist herself.

Will suggested slaughtering some of the livestock. However, apparently when he and Dana went to the corral, all the animals were gone.  Except for Mononity, who is still apparently trapped in the barn.  So things aren't looking great.  Zeben, as far as I know, is trying to do some fishing right now, but a part of me knows that he probably won't have much luck.  If Monokumace could make all the food and livestock disappear so quickly, who's to say they haven't taken care of the nearby fish as well? 

This is how it's going to end, I guess.  We're all gonna starve, or worse, we'll resort to cannibalism.  Or as Will would probably say, we'll go down Lord of the Flies style.

"How is everyone?" Iris asks as I shut the door behind me.

Since the attempt on his life yesterday, he's been staying in the hospital while he's recovering.  He's insistent that he's well enough to go back to his cottage, so he may end up back there tonight.  The good news is that nobody seems to want him tied up anymore, in case someone tries to kill him again.  For his sake, I hope that he doesn't end up doing anything worth tying him back up for.  I won't lie, I'm really worried about him.  He's seemed more stressed since waking up after the incident.  The idea of there being someone among us who isn't afraid to kill hasn't left his mind.  

"Everyone's doing okay," I finally answer. "How about you?"

"We need to find out who tried to kill me." And there it is.  Not even two seconds into the conversation.

"Iris, for all we know, we may never find out," I say honestly.

He narrows his lavender eyes as he says bitterly, "Then let's let everything go to hell."

His words make me shiver involuntarily.  Still, I don't want to be afraid of him.  He isn't someone to be feared. "You know that we all want to figure out who did it.  I'm just saying that it may be out of our control now.  We might just never get enough evidence to accuse someone."

"We will find them one day," he hisses. "And if they don't receive punishment for their actions, then I'll do it myself."

"You're overreacting.  I'm sure we could restrain them or something," I insist.

"For attempted murder?" Iris snarls, taking a dangerous step towards me. "No, no, no.  If they get the punishment I get for doing less AND confessing to my crimes, then that's not balanced."

"Then how would you handle it?  It's your attacker, after all." I really want to stay on his good side right now.  I mean, I'm almost certain I already am, but I don't want to risk it.

His fists tighten at his sides, and I can see his nails digging into his palms as he says in a low voice, "A threat to the balance needs to be removed.  Restraints aren't enough.  If you need to get rid of the one causing imbalance, you kill them if you need to."

My heart sinks.  I'm still broken over the fact that this is really who he is. "You don't mean that, Iris."

Iris's body tenses up as he grits his teeth. "Why is that so unfair to you?  Is it because you tried to kill me?"

"No!" I almost shout. "No, I would never.  I'm your friend!  I just don't think murder is the right thing to do in this scenario.  Murder doesn't balance anything out, it just worsens it."

"And yet do you see what happened after Rori was executed?" he reminds me. "There was balance.  Until Monokumace brought in the motives, we had restored the balance.  Pawns need to be sacrificed to win the game; that was the point of the chess boards.  Remember?"

"I..." I stop myself.  There's no point in trying to talk him out of it.  I just need to get it in my stupid head that this is how he is and I can't magically fix that.

Iris frowns as he sees my expression. "I'm sorry if I scared you.  I don't mean to do that... people get like that when I tell them what needs to be done.  They just don't want to accept that it's true.  When people don't like what they hear, they just call it crazy and move on.  A complete disregard for the reality of the situation."

I know that if I tell him it's different in this case, and that he really isn't right in the head, he's going to deny it.  There's no point in trying to convince someone believing themself to be sane that they're not.  Maybe I'll learn to live with it.  Like I learned to live with the fact that half my classmates are dead.  Well, maybe I haven't fully learned to live with that yet, but burying myself in my projects has been working pretty well so far.

...it's been working slightly save for the fact that I'm ridiculously sleep-deprived.

I decide to leave Iris be and go do something else.  Find something else to distract myself from my slowly growing hunger.  Like... the library.  Right, there's a library on the second island near the pharmacy.  There's bound to be some good books over there.  And so I set off towards the center island, the bright sun beating down on me.  As if I needed anything else adding to my need for food.  Thankfully, it's nice and cool in the library as I enter.  I take a deep breath in.  There's nothing like the smell of books.

My eyes flick from book title to book title as I walk past the towering shelves.  The collections are actually really impressive- a whole shelf of dictionaries, an extensive line of Shakespeare, what looks like the entire Warrior cats series... This place has it all.  I gently run a hand along the shelves as I walk.  There's too many books for me to make a decision.  I close my eyes and grab the first book I feel.  Gently pulling it out of its spot, I look and see what I pulled.  And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie.  

Now, I've read my fair share of Agatha Christie, but even I have yet to read this one.  Luckily, I've got the rest of my life to do so, no matter how little time I've got left.  I curl up in a seat near the back of the library and start reading.  Unfortunately, once the topic of food is brought up, my stomach becomes jealous of those fictional characters getting to eat and begins to grumble.  I frown, snapping the book shut and deciding to leave it and go elsewhere for the time being.

I wander back over to the central island, where I run into Caim.

"Hey, do you have a minute?" he asks me.

"Yeah, sure," I respond.

"Awesome." He motions for me to follow him back to the first island, and he leads me all the way to his cottage.  

He's taken the rope from Iris's cottage and swung it over the wooden beam below his ceiling.  He points to it as he asks, "Can you go to one end and grab it?"

I nod and do as I'm asked, picking up my end of the rope.  Caim grabs the other side and adds, "Now pull me up."

"What?" I yelp.

He laughs. "Trust me, it's fine."

I sigh and do as he says.  Of course, since he's pretty small, I manage to get him a few feet off the ground before he asks me to lower him back down.

"Sorry, but what was the point of that?" I inquire.

Caim thinks for a moment. "Well, for starters, that's the only way that the culprit could've gotten Iris up there using the pulley technique.  I tried finding ways to somehow replicate what we found at the crime scene, but nothing I did matched.  So the culprit basically couldn't have used the pulley technique to get Iris onto the beam."

"Then how'd they do it?"

The engineer shrugs. "I'm still trying to figure that part out.  They would've needed to carry Iris up there somehow."

"Iris had a desk and a chair in his cottage.  You think the culprit could've moved them to get up there?" I offer.

Caim shakes his head. "Well, in theory yes, but carrying Iris onto a desk and a chair doesn't seem too realistic.  I mean, it's possible and all, but I don't see it happening."

"Is there any other way it could've happened?"

"Not really.  I guess your theory is as close as we can get for the time being.  Unless someone can somehow levitate, it looks like that's the most likely scenario." He pulls the rope down from his ceiling beams and begins to wrap it into a neat coil. "On another note, if Iris claimed that his attacker went in through the window, then there's a chance a ladder was involved.  At least, there would be, but I've searched this island and found no ladders.  I'll check the others, but I'm sure that if a ladder was involved, it would've been nearby.  Otherwise it's too suspicious, carrying a ladder across several islands."

"Man, you really are all brains in that tiny body of yours," I tease.

Caim giggles. "I guess so.  But hopefully I can figure out how to put them to better use soon."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I've been thinking about trying to fix one of the airplanes so we have a way to get out of here- I'm sure I can get it working," he explains.

"I don't think anyone here knows how to pilot," I say honestly.

He nods. "I know.  I just want us to be able to have that option."

He then perks up and says, "Well, I'm going to go check out the airport right now and see if there are any supplies there to help me start!"

I bid Caim farewell before deciding to wander around some more.  How else can I distract myself?  I think for a moment before it hits me- the best way to distract from hunger is to lose it entirely.  In other words, I need to go to the haunted house.  There's no way I won't lose my appetite from it.  I hurry across the islands, trying to avoid being in the sun for too long but also trying not to spend all my energy, and then skid to a stop in front of the haunted house.  I take a deep breath, apologize to my anxiety in advance, and go inside.  

I can't see an inch in front of my face at first, but when my eyes adjust, I manage to piece together that I'm in an area resembling a dark forest.  A thin layer of fog covers the floor, and the lighting makes the sky a dark red.  How ominous.  But not terrifying.  I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm a bit of a coward, but I have standards.  So I keep going.  I step into a wooden cabin setting of sorts, the candles flickering and the cracks in between the floor planks uncomfortably big.  There's a thousand references I'm sure could be made, but there's still nothing creepy.  Where's all the scary stuff?  The sound effects are okay, but what about jumpscares?  Loud noises?  

...I'm starting to sound like Will.

Finally, the beeping of a distant heart monitor fills my ears as I cross into a hospital hallway setting.  The dim lights flicker red, and there's blood smeared on the walls.  In the back of the hallway is a bloodied tarp covering a very human-shaped object.  Now I'm starting to feel uneasy.  In fact, seeing a disgusting-looking animatronic or something ought to strip me of my appetite for days.  Maybe the dummy under the tarp will look disgusting.  With determination in my stride, I walk over to the tarp, grab the ends, and pull it off.

...

...it's not a dummy.

https://youtu.be/oOqxm58JPow

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