Chapter 218 - 217: Is Asher Really the Murderer?

Chapter 218: Chapter 217: Is Asher Really the Murderer?

Three bodies lay scattered on the floor. One belonged to someone from the orphanage. I didn’t recognize the other two—they weren’t from the orphanage, and I had no idea what their connection was or why the killer had brought them here.

When Felix Foster and I saw that Asher wasn’t among the bodies on the floor, we both breathed a sigh of relief.

"They’re human traffickers," Felix Foster said, looking at the two unidentified bodies.

I was surprised. "How can you tell?"

"There’s a tattoo here." Felix Foster pointed to a tattoo behind one of the men’s ears—a cross insignia.

"The two victims in the dismemberment case also had remnants of an insignia behind their ears, mangled and hard to make out," Felix Foster said, frowning as he scanned our surroundings. "He’ll be fine. Let’s get out of here, fast."

I looked around in a panic.

’Asher, you have to be okay.’

"Is this the only way to the 17th floor?" I asked Felix Foster nervously.

"This is the only way I’ve found so far, but I can’t be sure if it’s the only one," Felix Foster said, shaking his head.

’Asher might have used another passage to get to the seventeenth floor.’

’All I could do was pray. Pray that Asher was safe.’

...

「The 17th Floor.」

Julian Fletcher and Erin Whittaker were already waiting in the center of the vast, open floor.

Julian Fletcher had reverted to his previous coldness, standing beside Erin Whittaker as if he wasn’t the one who had saved me last night at all...

’To be honest, I’m even starting to wonder if it was just a hallucination from the carbon monoxide poisoning.’

"Asher, have any of you seen Asher?" I didn’t see Asher on the 17th floor. I started to panic, asking everyone about his whereabouts.

Everyone shook their heads, saying they hadn’t seen him.

"I bet he’s the mastermind! He’s probably hiding somewhere watching us make fools of ourselves!" Howard Finch started to stir up the crowd. "Do you all remember what that voice said? That the killer is among us! I say it’s that Asher! He’s a madman! He even turned himself in before, claiming to be the serial killer!"

"Yeah... I know him. He’s a psycho, the genius from the orphanage..." someone chimed in.

Claire Lawson’s husband, Chase Carter, also shouted, "I can vouch for it! That lunatic is the killer, it’s definitely him! It’s all because we accidentally started that fire back then and didn’t save them, letting that guy Charlie burn to death. He holds a grudge, and now he’s plotting to frame us!"

’My palms are starting to sweat. Where on earth is Asher? If this keeps up, they might actually believe he’s the killer. They’ll go after him.’

"No way. He saved us," someone else spoke up for Asher.

"What do you know? If everyone dies, his little game won’t be fun anymore. That madman wants to toy with us until we’re all dead," Howard Finch said through gritted teeth.

Max Mason also shouted, "He’s a maniac! A so-called genius! It’d be easy as pie for him to kill us. We can’t just sit here and wait to die! We have to find him! Killing him would be self-defense!"

The scene descended into chaos.

Erin Whittaker and Julian Fletcher remained on the sidelines, watching everyone with detached indifference.

Claire Lawson tearfully tried to defend Asher, but her voice was too small to make a difference.

"Charlie... hehe, Asher, I... we’re going to be reunited." Peach was still muttering foolishly. Due to her intellectual disability and the recent trauma, she didn’t seem entirely lucid.

"Asher... have you seen Asher? He went looking for you." I ran to Peach and knelt, gripping her shoulders anxiously.

’Asher can’t be the mastermind. He’s too smart for that. If he were in charge, he’d be lying low in the crowd, not getting himself caught in the very first stage.’

’Clearly, either something’s happened to Asher, or... the person behind all this is afraid of him and deliberately separated him from the rest of us.’

’Leaving us, the ones who aren’t as smart, to struggle through layer after layer of this predicament.’

"Asher..." Peach gave me a foolish grin. "Went down."

My breath hitched. "What do you mean, ’went down’?"

"Asher is waiting for us down below," Peach said with a giggle.

My fingers went numb. After a long silence, I finally said, "We need to get downstairs as soon as possible."

’Maybe Asher really is on the first floor...’

’That person... they won’t let Asher participate.’

’They want us to kill each other.’

"It’s definitely that Sebastian Lancaster. He’s the mastermind."

Those people were still muttering. They were already united by a common foe, using a shared enemy to boost their morale.

Now that people had died, their fear was at its absolute peak. In turn, their will to survive—and the evil lurking deep within them—was about to be fully unleashed.

"We have to find him and kill him, or we’ll all die at his hands," Howard Finch muttered under his breath as he and a few others plotted something.

"That damn voice hasn’t shown up. Let’s use this time to find a way out, find the passage to the next floor." Howard Finch, who at least had some sense, ordered the people in his group to start searching. "Who knows what kind of crap that lunatic will pull next."

I looked at Felix Foster warily. "We need to get downstairs quickly too."

"Hah..." Erin Whittaker, who had been standing there watching the show, let out a cold laugh. "You want to go down? That seems a bit difficult."

I frowned at Erin Whittaker. "What do you mean?"

"You don’t seem to have figured out that person’s real goal yet," Erin Whittaker said, walking up to me. "They want us to kill each other. Until that goal is achieved, why would they just let us get to the first floor?"

My nerves tensed up as well.

"What could be more thrilling than making us unite, trust each other, and form bonds, only to then make us kill one another?" Felix Foster sneered. "So, this floor is a buffer zone. We just need to work together and use our brains to find the exit. There won’t be any killing. It seems you... really aren’t Cecilia Caldwell."

Erin Whittaker’s brow furrowed. She shot Felix Foster a wary glance. "What’s that supposed to mean? If I’m not Cecilia, are you saying she is? The one who can only ask ’why’ and ’what should we do,’ who just breaks down and cries at the first sign of trouble?"

Erin Whittaker pointed at me.

Felix Foster glanced at me, his eyes deep. "The most successful deceptions fool everyone, including the deceiver herself..."

’I had no idea what Felix Foster meant.’

But a chill inexplicably ran down my spine.

"Cece... It’s Cece, the killer." Peach pointed at me too, calling me the killer.

Claire Lawson frantically covered Peach’s mouth, afraid her nonsensical rambling would cause trouble for me. Then she looked at me apologetically. "Miss, please don’t mind her. Peach isn’t in her right mind."

I nodded, not taking it to heart, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of unease.

"Hmph, you think you’re so right? We’ll just wait and see if that person decides to start the killing on this floor," Erin Whittaker said, clearly unconvinced. She shot me a cold glance, as if she were making a bet with Felix Foster.

Felix Foster said this was a buffer zone where no one would die; we just needed to find the exit.

But Erin Whittaker was convinced someone would still die on this floor.

’My thoughts are a mess. All I want to know is if Asher is safe.’

’I’m worried about him. I admit it, I’m very worried about him.’

"Sebastian Lancaster knows the way out. He’s not on the 17th floor, which means he’s already gone to a lower level. He didn’t care whether you lived or died," Julian Fletcher said in a low voice from behind me.

I looked up at Julian Fletcher, my voice firm. "No. Asher isn’t like you. He wouldn’t leave me to face danger alone. I believe he must have run into some kind of unavoidable danger."

’The real killer must be too afraid of Asher, which is why they used the chaos to take him away.’

’I refuse to believe Asher would abandon me.’

"Some people have to see the coffin before they’ll cry," Erin Whittaker sneered, clinging to Julian Fletcher’s arm. "Let’s ignore her. She’ll only realize the truth when she’s dying at Sebastian Lancaster’s hands, and by then, it’ll be too late."