Tiger 8:00 A.M. Thirteenth Day
I was walking around the hotel hallways with a bit of pep in my step, I couldn't help it; I was in a good mood today. The conversations from last night still bounce around in my head as I skip around a corner.
"Hey, could you help me?" A timid voice asks, I turn to see Rabbit holding onto the edge of my shirt.
"What is it?" I question, tilting my head. She doesn't say anything and simply leads me to the gym door.
"I wanted to go in this morning, but I think the door is jammed. Could you try it?" She asks, pointing toward the door. I walk up to it and inspect it. Nothing is wrong from this side, so I shrug and grab onto the handle.
The door is a pull door, so I give it a light pull to start with, but just like Rabbit said, the door is stuck. I put more force into it, and the door gradually starts to open. As I open it further and further, I can feel a weird tension on the door, then, suddenly, there's a snap. The door flings open, and I'm pushed back.
I watch with mild fascination as what looks like a rope passes by in front of me, whizzing through before something drops down from the ceiling. My eyes follow it; it's a kettlebell, and it drops onto a figure lying on a workout bench.
When the kettlebell lands, a wet, squishy noise is made as blood, flesh, and brain matter splurt onto the ground in front of us. The person who was lying on the workout bench is, without a doubt, dead. And that person is Horse.
"Huh? Ah…AAAAAAAAAH!" Rabbit immediately screams, turning her body away from the mess. I consider scooting closer to get a better look, but decide it would be better to wait for the others to arrive…it doesn't take long.
"What happened?" The first to arrive is Snake. I move slightly out of the way, and he glances into the room, his expression morphing into one of slight disgust and terror before shifting back as he glances at me.
The rest come trickling in, with Monkey, Rooster, and Sheep arriving next. Dog arrives with Boar, but quickly has the poor kid face away as tears well up in his eyes. The last to arrive is Ox, and when he spots everyone standing around the gym, his face goes pale.
"What is it?" He questions as he quickly pushes past everyone to look into the room. He almost instantly falls to his knees.
"No…Horse…no!" He cries out, tears pooling at the edges of his eyes. Monkey puts a sympathetic hand on his shoulder.
"Ahem, I hate to interrupt anything, but we should probably start investigating soon," I say, coughing a little to grab everyone's attention.
"Though I hate to say it, I agree. You two were here first. What happened?" Snake turns to me and Rabbit.
"Uhm, well, the door was kind of jammed, so I went to find someone to help me open it. I ran into Tiger and asked him for help. He managed to get the door open and then…" She pales, trailing off.
"Something fell from the ceiling and smashed her head in." I finish. The others all show various faces of horror and outrage.
"Can't you take this a bit more seriously? Someone died again, even after everything we did. You don't have to be so casual about it." Ox states, gritting his teeth as he glares at me.
"I am taking this seriously, we're in a death game, which means we shouldn't get too close to people, and we should investigate before someone impulsively decides to nominate someone as a suspect." The last bit is directed toward Rooster, who flinches. But Ox continues to glare at me as I shove past him and into the room.
The first thing I glance at is the door; there's a bit of rope tied on it, and it ends where the rope apparently snapped, which is probably why the door opened so fast. I move my eyes toward the ceiling. There's a cross-beam ceiling, and half of the rope is hanging over it, with the other half tied around a kettlebell that says 24kg on it.
I avoid the blood on the ground as I glance at the body, it's slightly pale, her skin looking more sallow than it had the night before. Her head is completely obliterated, and pieces of her skull and brain litter the floor.
She's wearing her usual outfit, minus the jacket, giving me a good look at her arms, which have subtle scrape marks, as well as her knees. The most interesting thing is her nails, which have a bit of dried blood underneath them.
"...Interesting." Snake hums as he lightly picks up her hands.
"I know! Something like that really makes you think." I grin, but he gives me a small glare. That just makes me grin harder, wanting to annoy him.
"Was there anything you noticed when you opened the door? Anything unusual?" Snake asks me. The others have entered the room as well, with the exception of Rabbit, Boar, and Ox.
"Hm, the only thing I could think of was that she wasn't moving," I answer with a shrug. It doesn't tell us much besides what is already pretty obvious.
"We should ask around, find out what happened after we left last night." Snake sighs, rubbing the bridge of his nose as if to ward off a headache.
"Well, if it was someone who stayed behind, that definitely lowers our potential suspects." I muse.
"There's no guarantee…someone could've just pretended they were going to bed." Snake huffs in frustration.
"At least we have a place to start. We should also check the other rooms to find out if something happened there." I add, placing a thoughtful finger to my chin.
"Mhm." Snake mumbles, looking a bit distracted. Well, it's not my place to ask, it is annoying though, sometimes I wish he would trust me enough to tell me what's on his mind. Though…I guess it's my own fault that it isn't like that.