Chapter 28

“Bella, I need to show you something… both of you” Willow gestures at Tony “that’s the only way you guys will trust what I am saying”

“he has a point, since we don’t believe him, he might as well prove himself right” I say

The villagers have settled in the reception, so we went back upstairs this time to my room so we can have a private time to discuss if we should trust Willow or not

“you said you saw him kill that woman Bella” Tony says – shit.. I did say that indirectly since I was too panicked to explain better when we met again and that has led to this misunderstanding

Truth is, I did felt he killed her earlier but after meeting him in the hut and thinking about it, he wasn’t with anything that he could have given her. She just convulsed out of the blue and that is why I wanted him on my side. But I hadn’t updated Tony yet

“yes I did, but I didn’t really see him give her something that day. I was just confused because she looked healthy right before” I say almost stammering

“so, you want to give him a benefit of the doubt” I can see Tony trying to be patient with me

“he knows a lot, we need what he knows to get out of here” I counter, letting my desperation slip through my words

“how about, we need to figure out why exactly he had not been in his hut until now” Tony's voice is louder now and his eyes darken with blood

“okay.. guys” Willow steps forward raising his hand so Tony wouldn’t punch him - he did flex his hand for one

“I used to stay in some other huts, I was gathering something that they had been buried in different places in this village and it wasn’t convenient to keep running to my hut when the sun hits the hills” he narrates

“see, I saw him dig one out that day” I know I may be too forward when it comes to trusting Willow but the thing here is that I don’t like having no single knowledge of the shadows

It keeps me at loss a lot and if for anything, I would rather tie him up here and sap out every single information from him than let him leave just like that

“So are you done taking all of them?”

“I don't know, I took a few before you guys took all the papers including the one with the codes” he says

“So in essence –” Thelma adds impatiently

“we just need to get them all out as it is in the paper. I think it is related to our inability to leave this town” he says

“Wait… for real? We cannot leave this town?” I half-yell without thinking.

Rose would swallow me with her glare at this question but I really thought it was related to the game story and might not really be true

Maybe someone scared the villagers and they do not want to try – it will probably be the woman that was helping us… the very one that Willow claims is working for whoever put us in this situation

They all ignore my question but instead glare at me and I could see Tony hold back a cackle

Willow adjust his stance “yes we can’t”

“let us start with you explaining all these inscription” Tony rips out the papers we had found in Willow's hut from the dresser in my room and motions it to him

Willow snatches it from him and scan through a few of the papers “most of these don’t make sense to me, after I ended up here and everyone started going missing, I got scared and I started studying the kidnaps. That was how I came across a hut that had a bunch of papers in it. I looked through the information I gathered and some did make sense while others did not”

“what about these codes?” I ask. Almost disappointed – I expected him to know all these. That is the essence of supporting him

“I don’t know what they mean but they were carved in the locations where the strange toy stuff were buried, I found most of these in some hut including that drawing” he pulls out the drawing with the circle on it “someone was already looking for a way out. I just continued from where the person stopped. I don't know what happened to the person”

“have you been to the mansion?” I ask and exchange glances with Tony

“yes, I stumbled on it through a tunnel” he must be the one to have used the rope before us

“how did you survive?” I ask

“I came in the day time and I had a fluorescent light then, but it is dead now. I just had to light up the house and check it out, it was visually empty”

“what else do you know?”

“I do know that we shouldn’t trust all these villagers, there are people behind all these and some of them are working for those people, keeping an eye on us and ratting us out”

“what?” Thelma asks

“you know all these rooms are bugged right?” we all nod negatively and he sighs “that is the exact reason I left”

“wait… we have been discussion this knowing that whoever is behind this is watching us”

“not a chance in hell – I ripped it out the moment I stepped in. it was in the night stand and another was in the window. I hope they are not more” he tosses two tiny camera at us and crashes on my bed with his butt.

Tony doesn’t say anything else again, he just mopes at the cameras

“this explains why they keep taking people that supply us with information and the exact reason that man was attacked on the night we decided to stand by. They are playing along with us and leading us on” what the hell? This is some sick game after all and for some reason I am all the more scared of my life than I would have been if it was just ghosts haunting us

“we need to outplay them if we want to catch them” willow adds

“but if they are playing along with us, maybe we are taking this more serious than we should” I say

“that’s the problem, they are stalling us until they eventually take us all for God know what it is they need us for” Willow says

“I am just saying. If you read through their site well, They did say something about cameras” I say

“she is joking right?” Willow gestures at me and Tony doesn’t say anything

“we will connect those cameras back and so they can see us, let us not destroy this game experience” I wink at Tony and he catches the hint “she is right” he squeezes willow’s arm

“guys…” Willow looks at us confused

“you either join us finish this game or you just leave”

“what did I just get myself into?” he looks from Tony to me and then to Thelma and Rose and they shrug “I just want to get out of here” he finally says

“that’s it, we will go to the beaded hut and ransack the remaining info you have. welcome to the team” Tony pats his shoulder and he looks up at him

“I told you, I don’t have anything there” he utters

“well, only one way to find out” I smile at Tony as he fixed the camera back in place.

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