"Guess again," the voice responded with an eerie playfulness. It belonged to a male, one that usually cackled, or spoke comforting words to his friend. But now, it was deep and grim, making her uncomfortable just by hearing it.

Ashlyn intuitively pulled her blanket closer against herself. "How did you get in here, Jay?"

"You didn't lock your door," he answered in a matter of fact way.

Ashlyn felt her heart drumming against the insides of her ears. Something didn't feel right. Ho Seok just stood there, still. He didn't move or say anything. He only breathed and continued watching her from the shadows of her bed's end.

"W-what do you want?" She finally gathered the courage to question him. Perhaps she had better kept the silence, for now he began moving in reply.

One knee rested against her mattress, and soon the other one followed. He was closing in on her, ignoring the panicked breathing escaping her parted lips.

"I want justice for Natasha," Jay whispered.

Ashlyn's breathing came to a halt when she realized Jay was already in front of her face. She didn't know what to expect when he suddenly pushed her down roughly against her bed, his entire weight on top of hers. Her head hit the edge of the bedframe, but he did not care. He exerted some force when he aggressively pinned her wrist down against the bed. His body towered dangerously over her to keep her locked in place.

"Get off me! I can easily scream," Ashlyn tried to utter the threat menacingly. But her voice was shaking. Her body was trembling. He was aware of it.

"But you won't," Jay said with a mocking scoff. He then picked something up from his pocket.

Were those ropes?

"You'd be far more interested in what I'll have to say." He took one of her wrists and pushed it against the cold steel of the bed frame. Despite her weak resistance, he used the rope to tie a death knot, chaining her hand to the bed.

"What are you doing? Seriously, Jay!" Ashlyn tried wriggling her entire body, but Ho Seok was still a man. He was much more powerful than she was, and was completely immune to her pathetic slaps.

He then grabbed her other free hand and tied it to the other side of the bedframe. Her arms were spread far apart from each other. Then he got off to tie her feet together against the bed's foot so she'd be rendered completely powerless.

"Seriously! Let go of me. This is not funny. What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm clearing up a misunderstanding," Jay said calmly. He then climbed over her tied up body once again, this time smirking.

"What misunderstanding?"

"The one where you can't even trust your own boyfriend," he said, his tone was so detached from any emotion. He took out something else from his pocket now, but she couldn't make out what it was.

"I saw them cheating with my very own eyes!"

"Is that the only conclusion you could draw on?"

"What do you mean?"

"What if he had asked her for some help?"

Ashlyn's eyes widened in surprise. All the arguments she had laid out in her head to defend herself as a victim were suddenly nullified. Her heart began to constrict in fear. Had she been wrong all along?

"W-what for?" She stuttered. Her mind was unable to come up with a rational explanation for his theory. It couldn't be true. They were cheating.

"As foolish as Steven was, he loved you so much to the extend he was afraid you would leave him once you graduated," Jay said grimly. He was moving the object in his hand that resembled a cloth.

She watched him in silence; her lips parted, words unspoken.

"The day the fire broke out, he wanted to surprise you for your birthday," Jay returned his focus back on her and lowered his lips towards her ears, whispering the truth she should've known all along. "He wanted to propose to you."

Ashlyn gasped out loud, uncontrollably. Her chest rose with panic. The tears threatened to escape her eyes, and her lips quivered as an attempt to hold it all in. Her entire body trembled beneath Jay's authority. "You're lying. We were too young."

"He is foolish indeed," Jay agreed with that. "He asked for Natasha's and my help to create somewhat of a dance performance, which we agreed on. The reason Nat was stuck in that tent was because he had asked her to change her outfit so we could start the proposal event."

"No... That can't be..." Ashlyn refused to believe it. She was wildly shaking her head in denial. Until Jay had enough of it and held her chin still with more brute force. He pressed her lips together to create such an unattractive view.

"This is why I do not appreciate you calling Natasha a whore, or accuse her as the reason for Jay's death. If you really want to put the blame on someone, do you know who you should blame it on?"

Jay flapped the cloth now and she could feel some water droplets disperse from it. He then neatly folded it into a square, not waiting for Ashlyn's answer that came in the form of frantic cries.

"Yourself."

With that, he draped the wet cloth over her nostrils and open mouth. It was cold and sent the shivers down her spine. The girl began to scream, but the sound was muffled through the damp cloth. She began wiggling her body, but her arms and legs were tied to put up any real protest. There was no passageway for oxygen to pass through, and Ashlyn cried silently to feel the air enter her mouth once again. But it didn't. It couldn't.

"He wanted to save Natasha because he'd feel guilty if something were to happen to her. After all, he asked us for help to surprise you. He wouldn't have run after Nat if it weren't for you."

A tear rolled down Ashlyn's cheek, and she had lost her voice to scream. Her head felt so nauseous, like she wanted to vomit. She wanted to puke over her own behavior and useless suspicions. What had she done? If Natasha was truly innocent, she had just killed an innocent girl. She had lived the past few years with the hatred that was all in vain. For what good?

None.

"You can't keep us here anymore, Ashlyn. Time to let us go back home," Jay hissed at her, pressing the wet cloth closer to block her further.

Ashlyn shut her eyes, letting the remnants of her tears trail down her cheek. Her tears were warm, the water droplets from the cloth was cold. Soon they began to feel about the same, because she had grown numb to everything. She could no longer feel her physical suffocation, her emotional torment, and mental dystopia. She felt nothing.

Ashlyn was not moving anymore. Her body laid completely idle in her tied up position. So Jay withdrew the cloth from her and got off from her lifeless body. She looked like she was in a deep sleep, one she would never wake up from.

She could finally rest in peace with her boyfriend.

***

The others were unaware of the chilling incident last night and continued making deductions why Ashlyn was the Game Master and how they should confront her.

"A direct method should be fine," Bree concluded after the others had discussed things. "But where is she? I haven't seen her since last night."

They heard the sound of footsteps approaching the dining room and thought it was Ashlyn. Instead, it was Jay who appeared as nonchalant as possible. "Morning. Why are you all so pale?"

"We thought you were Ashlyn. We haven't seen her for a while," Bree explained, and the others nodded.

"Huh... Maybe she got scared. She should turn up sooner or later. Can't hide forever," Jay said calmly, before picking up a bagel for himself.

"Do you think she knows we're suspecting her?" Maddie suddenly suggested.

The others stared at one another, suddenly seeing a new possibility in this theory. Without saying anything, Bree and Maddie simultaneously got up from their seat and ran upstairs.

"Ashlyn!" The two hollered through the silent corridors.

The three guys had no choice but to follow. Jay being extremely nervous when he did so. He tried to act as casual as possible, but Damon was already stealing glances at him. Perhaps the trained criminologist saw through his normal act facade.

The girls were still screaming for Ashlyn's name, and Jay wondered whether his set up would be believable enough. He continued strolling as the girls knocked on Ashlyn's door rather impatiently.

"If you're not gonna answer, we'll have to open it by force," Bree warned. "We'll count to three."

They had hoped the threat would work, but nothing changed. Bree aimlessly counted to three anyway, and then tried to pry the door open. "It's locked."

Damon took over without saying a word and used his entire body force to slam himself against the door. It opened mightily, slamming hard against the wall behind it. A horrific sight greeted them.

Ashlyn laid in her bed in an upright sleeping position. Her eyes were closed, like she was in a tranquil sleep. But her chest did not rise along to her breathings.

"Is she..." Maddie gasped, clasping both hands in front of her mouth. She watched the criminologist approach their friend, examining the pulse on her wrist.

"She has dead for several hours now," Damon muttered. Her body was already cold and contracted. Her face was pale and peculiarly hydrated.

"What happened? Did she kill herself?" Maddie asked. She was too surprised to feel any remorse at the moment. She desired sensible answers and logical explanations.

"Maybe the Game Master did it," Jay suggested.

"But I thought she was the Game Master." Bree sighed as she circled around the room in a fuss. "Great, we lost the only lead we had. So are we gonna be stuck here forever? How will we get out if the Game Master can no longer give us any clue?"

"And we only had one game left to play," Ethan added.

Jay did not think of that. He was blinded by his greed for revenge, which he did achieve. But did it make him feel victorious? Not at all. It only paralyzed him with more fear instead.

"Maybe I was wrong. Maybe Ashlyn wasn't the Game Master. There is no way she would've killed herself. There is no suicide note at all," Maddie argued. "Someone with Ashlyn's personality is one who would leave a final message."

"So you think she was killed by the Game Master? We didn't play a game though," Ethan argued.

The air was cold among the final few survivors. No one had to say anything in order to come up to a similar conclusion. If it wasn't suicide, and it wasn't the Game Master's twisted game, it had to be one of them.

"Let's see if we have received the next mission card," Ethan suggested and exited the room.

Damon gave one last look at Ashlyn's body, which they did not suggest to bury anymore. They couldn't bear burying another friend. There was something odd, however, about the way her sleeping position seemed so perfect and static. Like someone had posed her that way. His eyes then wandered to her wrist and noticed something.

"You coming?" Jay's voice interrupted the other's train of thoughts, and Damon nodded. He closed the door behind him as they descended the stairs.

There were red marks all around Ashlyn's wrist, which could have been the work of a guy. Perhaps it was Ethan or Jay. Maybe even Bree who possessed incredible strength.

The trip downstairs was silent. They passed the large painting of the Last Judgement, and seeing the evil sinners being punished in gruesome ways suddenly induced more fear. It wasn't all too different for the torture they had endured in the house of trap. Maybe they were punished for their sins in the past.

The mission card would usually be located on the steps of the stair, or on the kitchen table. This time, they were neither at those places.

"Let's look through the entire dining room or kitchen," Bree suggested. Because of their desperation to escape, they unconsciously decided to work together again. There was barely any choice left when only several people remained.

Barely two minutes had gone by and Ethan noticed the black card with the golden embellishment framing the paper when he opened a hidden drawer of the dining table. Along with it was also an iPad they had previously used in previous games. Strange, he was sure he had checked the drawer before and it had been completely empty.

"I found it!" He announced to them and flipped the card over to read their last and final mission before getting out of the house.

Seven games you have played, take turns to answer the questions I have made.
Remember the games of the past, revisit them without feelings of aghast.
You possess the answer since the beginning, but a closer reading could lead to your winning.

Then they clicked on the iPad and saw the simplicity of the final game that required more brainwork than they expected. It was a crossword puzzle, and the questions were things they would've known if they had paid close attention to things.

1. Aside from the blue tiles in the swimming pool, what other color was there?
2. How many cards were there in total for the fifth game?
3. What zodiac was the odd one out?
4. Which of the clues to obtain the deadly number represents a shape?
5. What type of cipher is used to solve 'Paeoahplctwsu'?