Previously on Facing the Broken,

Agent 4, Viantastic and GG Gabriel Gaming are quarantined to the Picture Room to protect themselves. Behind her picture, Agent 4 finds a hidden tunnel and the trio of inklings venture through it to find a large series of passageways around the whole house. However, they soon encounter a strange inkling that looks scarily similar to Fyrus, the experience mentally scarring Agent 4 who could have been captured by the stranger. After making an emotionally-traumatizing choice of who to 'eliminate' from this 'game', Agent 4 purposefully separates herself from Viantastic and GG Gabriel Gaming, walking ahead on her own to discover a room full of incriminating evidence that people are indeed after everyone on team chaos. Despite this discovery, Agent 4 and the two other splatubers encounter inklings that resemble Viantastic and GG Gabriel Gaming, and Agent 4 gets thrown into a pit by her attacker, leaving the last two chaos members alone...

CHAPTER 4: Party's Over, Lights Out

"Will they be okay?" Despite the reasonings we had set earlier, I couldn't help but worry for Agent 4, Viantastic and Gabriel, left behind in that Picture Room. After we had shut the door, the rest of us had gathered in the living room.

"I'm worried too, 8," Agent 3 replied, a rare frown on her face. "But we really need to find some way to control how our killers get to us. If we can't even do that, I doubt we can keep them safe from harm,"

"Splitting up though..." VicVillon pondered, sinking in the cushions of the sofa "Isn't that a super bad idea in place like this...?"

"It isn't ideal, but what if they were following us and they got taken out one by one?" Though what she said was true, Agent 3 looked quite afraid of what she was saying. "If we already know that they're after people from team Chaos and that no one was killed in the Picture Room yet, I'd say that's our safest option right now,"

"Not entirely safe, though," Etcesona pointed out, crossing his arms. "I can't even imagine how they must be feeling right now,"

Beside him, Sagaci tilted her head, confused. "Honestly, I think they'll be fine. Vian and Gab are pretty good friends and 4 seems nice enough-"

"You didn't see Vian after... you know, when Fyrus died," Etcesona cut in, his tone serious and anxious at the same time. "There was this... look in his eyes, like he was really... mad,"

"Mad? Oh, wait," As I tracked my memory back to those events, I recalled the words exchanged between Viantastic and Gabriel...

'Gab, you know me, right? You know I would never do something like this! Please, tell them that I have done nothing wrong!'

' ... '

' ... Oh... I see.'

"Yeah, now that I think about it, I wouldn't be surprised if Vian is still mad at GG," CallieMacN agreed. "As far as I can remember, those two never fought or misunderstood each other. Not to that extent, anyway,"

Etcesona nodded. "Exactly my point. And now knowing that someone is after them? That's not going to make them feel better about each other,"

Now I was really concerned. "You don't think... that they'll-"

"Let's pray to whatever squid gods are up there that they won't, Agent 8," CallieMacN interrupted me, her fuchsia eyes hopeful yet terrified. "I don't want to even think of what could possibly happen,"

"Then let's stop thinking about that for a second and reevaluate what we already know," Agent 3 spoke, taking charge of the situation once again. The atmosphere of the living turned heavy and urgent as we all turned to each other, determined.

"So, as of now, we know two important things; one, our killer, or killers, are after those cephalopods who were on team Chaos during the FinalFest and two, those on team Order are not affected," She began simply. "So far, Fyrus, Queen, Daniel and Jay have been killed while the lights were out, but Skul, who had played on both sides, was drowned to his death in the pantry,"

I grimaced at the memory, almost hearing the sound of Skul's screams echoing in my ears. My discomfort must have been obvious, since VicVillon had placed an arm around my shoulder soon enough, her face kind and understanding.

Right, nothing I can do about it now. Time to focus. I turned back to Agent 3, who continued explaining.

"Moreover, our killer has left behind three notes for us. Unfortunately, they give us no clue of who our host is, but they had helped us figure out their pattern. This source has been halted after Jay's death, though, leaving us with no way to determine who's next,"

Everyone remained silent at this. Agent 3 took this as a sign to continue.

"As of now, we have Fyrus' beanie, Queen's crown, Daniel's sailor hat and Jay's glasses, all headgears of the... deceased," Agent 3 had to clear her throat at this. "But we still don't have Skul's headphones, the ones that look like mine," She added, pointing at the headphones on her head.

"Actually, now that I think about it, we haven't really checked on the other room, have we?" CallieMacN pointed out. "After you saved me, we all headed to the Picture Room without another word,"

I sighed. "I was too out of it to go back there and check, it's true," I admitted, scratching my head. "Sorry about that,"

"Again, you're not at fault here, 8. You couldn't have known how the killer would manipulate you like that," Sagaci reasoned, reassuring me once again. "That said, though, if we go back and see where Skul died, maybe we could find some clues. You know, just like how you agents found those notes and things like that,"

Sagaci was right. Whatever we did from here on out, investigating Skul's crime scene was crucial for us. We could find a clue that may help us.

Meanwhile, Etcesona proposed another idea. "That might be important and all, but I think the better question is, how we can keep our friends in that Picture Room safe,"

"Etce's got a point," VicVillon chimed in, turning to me. "Like what we said earlier, I think we need to find some way to control how our killers murder us. If we can be one step in front of them, we'd have an advantage,"

Agent 3 considered this carefully. "I assumed you mean that we need to find a way to control the lights, right?"

"Yeah, given that almost every time someone died, the lights went out," VicVillon confirmed. "Both issues are important, though where we should start, I'm not too sure,"

At this, CallieMacN turned to me. "Hey 8, what should we do? Whatever you choose, we'll follow you,"

Somehow, I feel a sense of foreboding with this choice...

~~~~

~ A DECISION TO MAKE ~

🦋

(Underlined and bold indicates the final answer determined by my Twitter poll)

Split up

Find light switches first

Check crime scene first