Anna had left behind a series of sneaker-shaped imprints on the hotel’s fuzzy carpet, having stomped and sprinted her way back to a pce of safety. I track these indents up the steps, swivel down the hallway of suites, and follow them right past the Horse’s room… and right into Lily’s.

  I pause outside the door, as if crossing its threshold would be breaking some kind of taboo. But, while I’ve done my best to forget about it, I’ve already been in Lily’s room once before, and I push through my hesitation to enter the space again.

  “Why here?” I wonder aloud.

  On this second visit, Lily’s room seems just like the others. There’s the bathroom, the king bed, a desk, all the suite furniture in their proper pcements and a gun on a pole that dominates the room. The red blot on the carpet’s faded so much that I can trick my eyes into thinking that rusty red stain isn’t there.

  But then, there’s the gss pieces that someone’s swept against the wall, cracks in the monitor that someone’s propped up on a a pair of broken stands, an empty table frame, the desk with neatly-piled bloodstained notebooks, and a fridge stocked with an unnaturally lime-green colored drink.

  I take the bottle and chug it down.

  “That was mine, Snake. B-but you’re still welcome to it!”

  Anna, the Horse, kneels on the mattress, feet tucked under her body. Her Card’s lying face-up on the bnket, words still glowing on the voting panel: SNAKE… RABBIT… HORSE…. despite everything’s that happened, she still hasn’t picked a name or icon, and she nervously taps at the edge of the screen’s voting pane.

  “This was basically the Dog’s resting pce, you know? And when I get nervous, I like cleaning things up… although this one was a little harder to finish than the others.”

  I try to imagine her tidying the room, scouring away dirt and blood even through tear-streaked eyes. The Horse is a far stronger and more serious person than I thought, though she might act childish at times.

  “So, was it you who cleaned up everything in the trial chamber too?” I ask.

  “No, I’m not that good of a person.” Horse sighs. “It’s just kind of a way for me to calm down.”

  Cleaning up Lily’s room was nice of her though. It was something that I should have brought myself to do, a ritual to help to soothe the living and the dead.

  “Anna,” I say, hesitatingly. I leave a long enough silence that the girl perks up and interrupts. Her voice is bright and cheerful, even if it’s somewhat forced.

  “You called me by name!” She smiles. “What’s up, Ir— ah, I don’t think you liked it when I called you Iris, did you? I thought you’d get used to it, but whenever I say it you keep making that sour face.”

  “Anna” distorts her lips and eyebrows, and I can’t suppress a giggle as I sit down on the mattress next to her. I pinch myself on arm—I’m not in this suite for some ordinary vacation, but to navigate the game’s final day. Even the air conditioner that’s rattling in the background carries a hint of menace in its grating tones.

  “It’s okay to call me whatever you like. That’s a sign that we have a special retionship, right?” I say, looking at her. “Have you decided whether you’re going to vote this ‘Iris’ out of the game?”

  “I’m still thinking,” Anna says heavily, and she’s now lying helplessly down.

  But she doesn’t try to move away from me, which is a good sign. Now that I’ve eased into this conversation, I’ll follow up with intense eye contact and strike at her with a carefully concocted half-truth.

  “I’m not the seer, so please don’t break your word. I”d like you to vote for the Rabbit, no matter how obnoxious her lies.”

  “But, isn’t the Rabbit a wolf? She showed us that gas tank, and used her Card to make it work,” Anna puts a finger to her chin.

  “That means she’s probably the mastermind instead,” I lie through my teeth. “When I pick someone to murder during the night as a wolf, I do it through an app on my Card instead, like our voting screens right now. That box is a red herring devised by the gamemaster to confuse us both.”

  “So the mastermind wants the vilge to win? I’m a little confused, but I guess I can kinda see what you’re saying…” Anna says, flummoxed. She crinkles her forehead into a few thin lines.

  “No, you still don’t see it Anna. Come on, just take a moment and look at me,” I command, preparing myself. She shifts forward, and the mattress sinks under the weight of her arms.

  People think it’s impossible to look someone in the eye and stuff them with lies. But that’s only because eye contact makes it easy for a liar to humanize their mark, and feel tinges of guilt that travel out to the rest of their body as fidgets and tells. On the other hand, one can get away with anything if they simply suppress the shame.

  “I know that you think the Rabbit’s the other wolf. But I’ll prove here and now I’m the one you need to save. I’ll say it as many times as you need,” I nod.

  Never hesitate. Never halt. Don’t even waste time on this very thought. Just speak—

  “I’m wolf. Absolutely, one hundred percent wolf. I swear it on my brother’s life. I swear it on Li… the lives of my family. I’ll do anything to prove it to you, please!”

  Anna tilts her head. She frowns, moves closer, her nose nearly brushing against my own; he had looked at me with curiosity before, but now a fierce anger burns inside her pupils. I feel my stomach drop as she murmurs back an irritated answer.

  “Iris, I’m not that smart. But I’m not that dumb, either—come here!”

  After all these pns, all my fwless logic, I’ve somehow made a mistake. Think, Yuri, think! Is she armed, could that be the reason she wants me to come so close? No, I still believe that she wouldn’t commit a murder; she’s simply not that kind of girl. But she keeps approaching me on her hands and knees, her frown turning monstrously rge.

  I back away. “Listen, Lily was someone I was close to, right? So I killed her to throw everyone off track. Then, the Dragon and I agreed to oppose one another to guarantee that one of us would win the game, but after you said you’d spare that other wolf I thought it would be better to say who I am. Clearly, the Rabbit’s the mastermind and wants the vilge to win, and stop you from fulfilling your promise to inflict psychological damage. Besides that, Lily is waiting for me, everyone’s waiting for me, I don’t want to let everyone down and risk my own death at this time… I just don’t want to die…”

  I no longer know what I’m saying, or what I’m whimpering. And then all the air’s knocked from my lungs.

  Anna wraps her arms around my neck. My heart beats fast and quick, and my oxygen-starved brain races to come up with methods to break the headlock—she’s pinned both my arms to my sides, but my legs are somehow free. If I struggle back to kick her, then maybe I can catch her on the chin?

  I writhe, and she loosens her grip, but when I stiffen she simply tightens it again. She clearly has me bested, and I’m tearing up at my ensconced plight: I feel a hard lump around my throat that threatens to strangle me. Through a salty, watery film, I see Anna smiling at me brightly, her frown long gone.

  I suddenly realize that this is not an attack.

  “It’s simply a hug.

  “Didn’t you notice? You’ve been shaking this entire time,” Anna says.

  “I haven’t been… that is, this is all because I’m worried you don’t believe that I’m really wolf…”

  “It’s okay, it’s okay. It’s alright to calm down and stop thinking, even just for a moment,” Anna gently reprimands.

  “Only a fool would be content with having an empty head.”

  “But even a genius, Ri, knows when its best to take a break. Just focus on this feeling.”

  Her grip is soft, but not oppressive. It’s warm, not burning, soothing embers from a homely firepce rather than a fiery embrace. I let myself float away, into a sun bright and radiant with pure, innocent love.

  “I know you’re not a wolf,” Anna says softly. “But, I’ve decided I can’t run from tough choices anymore. Even if what I do might hurt someone else… what makes sense for me is to ‘win’ with someone I think of as a friend.”

  “And who would that be?” I say, though I can’t really see. Everything’s just a little bit blurred—her gentle expression, the ceiling fan lights, her ruffled jacket, her long brown hair, they’re marred with damp streaks as I rub at my eyes.

  Anna says nothing at all, wordlessly tapping at her Card. With her selection made, it’s truly pointless to persuade her anymore, and I squirm out of her hold and pull out my own device from my skirt. My dark hair hangs like curtains over my useless eyes, and it’s as though I navigate my voting screen through a veil.

  I take a deep breath, and tap on one of the names. I can’t deny that I’m shaking now, since there’s nothing else left to do or say, and the other girl pulls herself away as though to process some great shame.

  I just can’t stop thinking. Without her sweet touch, my mind continues to race, and I consider 100 ways for her to betray me until the voice of a sarcastic cat finally bsts from the intercom.