Chapter 216 - 215: The Killer Is Among Us

Chapter 216: Chapter 215: The Killer Is Among Us

Howard Finch finally crawled over. He scrambled onto the table, frantically eating the scraps Erin Whittaker had left behind after clearing up, trying desperately to regain his strength.

Over here, the four of us were still in a standoff.

Felix Foster glanced at me and raised an eyebrow, as if to say I’d finally done something smart for once.

But Erin Whittaker didn’t seem afraid. "You dare kill me?"

"You’re welcome to try me," I said, forcing myself to stay calm. I pressed the dagger closer to her carotid artery, and its sharp edge broke her skin.

Julian Fletcher’s expression darkened. He snarled, "Silvia Lynch!"

Just as I expected. He called me Silvia Lynch.

’He’s convinced that Erin Whittaker is the real Cecilia Caldwell.’

Heh...

I let out a cold laugh. "If you don’t want her to die, put down the food."

Julian Fletcher had no choice but to take the package from Erin Whittaker’s hands, open it, and put the food down.

Felix Foster took enough for us to eat and led me to a corner.

I kept a wary eye on Erin Whittaker and Julian Fletcher and whispered, "Felix... they’re dangerous."

’In this place, the real danger isn’t the manipulator anymore. It’s every single person who’s been captured and brought here.’

"Let’s go help Asher." After a few bites of cake, I felt some of my strength return. I took some food and the calcium milk and went to find Asher.

He was helping the abused woman look for Peach.

I hurried over and handed the cake to Asher.

Asher ate while knocking on doors, helping the people inside find the keys.

He went from room to room, his face expressionless, and let every single person out.

Compared to the cold indifference of Julian Fletcher and Erin Whittaker, this supposed madman and one-time murder suspect seemed to have more humanity.

"Asher..." I asked him in a low voice. "Most of the people locked in here are from the orphanage back then. They all hurt you, and they’re the ones responsible for Charlie’s death. Wouldn’t it be better to just let them die in there?"

Asher was silent for a moment. "They are guilty, but they should be punished by the law and by fate, not by us. And especially not by him."

Asher’s voice was low. The "him" he was referring to was the person behind the scenes, controlling and plotting everything.

I looked at Asher, handed him the calcium milk, and helped him search for Peach.

CLICK. An iron door opened, and the person who crawled out was, of all people, Chase Carter.

The abusive husband.

The first thing he did after rushing out wasn’t to look for food, but to try and beat his wife. "Claire Lawson, you rotten... b...bitch! Was this your doing?"

The woman hid behind Asher and me, trembling all over.

There were still bruises on her face and at the corners of her mouth, clear signs of long-term abuse.

"I’d save your energy if I were you," I warned him. "None of us are guaranteed to make it out of here alive."

Only then did it seem to sink in. He turned and ran quickly toward the end of the hall, looking for food and weapons.

The kids from the orphanage, even if they weren’t geniuses, were mostly smart. That’s why they were able to find their way out.

They looked quite different from their photos, and I had trouble putting names to faces.

Finally, in a room in the corner, Asher and I found Peach. She was on the verge of death.

We pounded on the door, but there was no response from inside.

"Peach! Peach!" Claire Lawson frantically beat on the door, crying out for Peach to answer her.

But there was no response at all.

I panicked. ’This is bad...’

’If she’s unconscious in there and we don’t know where the key is, how are we going to get her out?’

Just when I didn’t know what to do, Felix Foster came over with an axe and started hacking at the lock.

Sparks flew with every strike.

Finally, the iron lock broke, and the door was kicked open.

Felix Foster was the first to rush in. He held a bottle of water to the lips of the barely conscious Peach.

She was curled up in a corner, her face deathly pale. It was obvious she wasn’t going to last much longer.

A sentence was written on her wall: If you can’t change this filthy world, then change yourself. Survival of the fittest, the strong devour the weak. The weak deserve to die.

I didn’t understand what the words meant, so I looked at Asher.

Asher pointed to the corner. There, a single drop of blood stained a floor tile, in stark contrast to the otherwise clean surface.

’Obviously, the key was there.’

After some water and a piece of candy, Peach slowly came around.

Claire Lawson let out a sigh of relief. She collapsed onto the floor, sobbing as she hugged Peach. "Peach..."

Once Peach recovered a little, she burst into tears with a loud wail.

She hid in Claire Lawson’s arms, terrified and trembling all over.

"It’s okay, it’s okay now," Claire Lawson soothed her in a low voice.

Asher glanced outside impassively. "We need to be quick."

’We have to get out of here. Fast.’

Now that everyone had been let out, the madman pulling the strings would make his next move soon.

"Do you think you’re some kind of savior? Or God Himself?" Sure enough, the voice echoed through the room again, tinged with anger. "They hurt you, yet you save them. You’ll soon regret what you’re doing now."

The person was warning Asher that the people he’d saved would turn on him and kill him.

Asher stared coldly at the room’s speakers and cameras, a frigid smile playing on his lips, but he said nothing.

I don’t know why, but a chill ran down my spine.

’Asher... Does he genuinely want to save these people, or does he want to watch them kill each other?’

’Letting them starve to death would be too easy.’

’For their sins, they deserve a crueler death. They should spend the rest of their time in terror, slowly tormented until they die.’

I was startled by my own thoughts. I quickly looked down and clenched my fists. "Let’s go."

When we got to the dining area, a huge crowd of people had already devoured all the scraps.

Of course, Erin Whittaker had kept some spare food for herself. She’d also hidden most of the weapons, so only a few people managed to get one.

After eating, everyone was still relatively calm. Someone spoke up. "What’s going on? Can anyone explain?"

I recognized the person who spoke. I’d seen him in the group photo from the orphanage.

He was standing with Howard Finch and seemed to be the oldest boy from the orphanage group. His name was Max Mason, and he’d been the last one adopted, by a working-class couple who owned a small business.

He looked decent and respectable now, like a good person, but I had a feeling... a feeling that all of them were wolves in sheep’s clothing.

"It seems everyone has eaten their fill," the eerie voice echoed from the hallway.

"If you want to leave, you’ll have to go downstairs. This is the eighteenth floor of the building. Only the person who successfully reaches the first floor, and is the last one alive, will be allowed to leave."

"The countdown starts now. In thirty seconds... this entire floor will be flooded with carbon monoxide..."

’The eerie voice from the speakers was like the call of the Grim Reaper. Terrifying.’

"30... 29..."

The countdown had begun.

Everyone panicked, scrambling desperately to find an exit off the floor.

"You lunatic! Who the hell are you?! Let us out!"

People were yelling, terrified.

Others started to panic, losing their minds.

I looked at Asher nervously.

He and Felix Foster, however, weren’t panicking at all.

As for Erin Whittaker and Julian Fletcher...

In the moment I turned around, the two of them had already vanished...

’They’d already found the exit? And they didn’t tell anyone.’

’Bastards...’

"Asher... are we going to die here?" I asked, nervously gripping his hand.

Asher glanced at me, his voice heavy with meaning. "Cece, you will get out... You’ll get out alive."

’In that instant, my heart plunged into an icy abyss. If only one person can make it out alive...’

’Does Asher want me to be the one who gets out?’

"Oh... I forgot to tell you," the voice said as the countdown suddenly stopped. "I am right here among you. I could be anyone."

"20... 19... 18..."

I gripped Asher’s hand in terror. ’The killer is among us. It could be me, it could be Asher, it could be Felix Foster... it could be anyone...’