As the elevator slowly creaked down, the uncomfortable silence amongst them seemed deafening. There were no other sounds besides the sounds of rapid breaths. Their fate depended on the trial. It was nerve-wracking.

Dagger was with them as well. He was the only person smiling in the elevator as he paced around from corner to corner. He, too, was silent, but in a different way. It was almost like he was challenging them to say something.

The ride down seemed excruciatingly slow as the elevator creaked down, finally coming to a slow stop. Wyatt tensed up as the door opened, revealing a large, strange room.

There were sixteen stands in a circle, with a throne at the head of it. Each of the stands had a picture of each of the guests, with one picture having a pink X through it.

Everyone was reminded that Cody would never come back as soon as they saw the picture. Wyatt felt a pang of sadness, suddenly realizing that Cody had come to the party with aspirations and not a clue that he would be the first to go.

In stark contrast to the gloomy atmosphere, Dagger whooped and laughed as he ran to his throne. He crossed his legs and rested his fist on his cheek, resting on one arm of the throne. "Well, shall we begin the First Trial? Oh, don't be shy, walk to your picture!"

Tentatively, they all slowly walked forward. Wyatt stood shakily at his stand, forcing himself to straighten up as he glanced at the other members.

Once all fifteen of them stood at their place, Dagger sat up and clapped his hands. His red eye glowed almost happily. "This is how it works! You sixteen... I mean... fifteen people will use the clues you gathered to determine the murderer of Cody Phoenix!"

"Phoenix?" Thane asked quietly.

"That's his last name! We never use their last name until the Trial starts and I state their name! It gives you a little more connection to the victim, in my opinion." Dagger said. "Now, onto the rules. If you guess the person correctly, then the murderer will die. If you don't, then everyone but the murderer will be executed."

A collective gasp of fear and shock rose around the room.

Dagger grinned at the sound. "Well then... let the Trial... BEGIN!"

Star gripped her stand, lips pursed as she started off. "OK, so first of all, we should summarize the scene of the crime first. Any objections?"

There was a silence as everyone shook their heads.

Star nodded as she held out her phone, showing the  picture of the body. "Cody was found lying in the boy's bathroom at precisely ten in the morning. The sink was still running, and the place was covered in blood."

"There was a knife in Cody's chest!" Chase interrupted before Star could go on. "Cassie's knife!"

The room quieted down and everyone's eyes turned to the grim face of Cassie. Her eyes widened as she noticed the eyes of everyone watching her. She shook her head desperately. "I swear! I swear I didn't do it!"

"Come to think of it..." Kiara remembered, suddenly glaring at Cassie, "When we went to find Cody, you came out of the girl's bathroom! You were the closest out of all of us to Cody!"

"I noticed that your knives were also cleanly washed," Thane added on. "You could've been washing the blood off of your knives. We never saw your knife belt when you went down to the dining hall."

Wyatt could only stare at Cassie, who looked like she was on the verge of tears. Could she really have murdered Cody? All of the facts pointed clearly to her.

All of them... except...

Isabell looked at Cassie accusingly. "From all of this, it's obvious that you were the murderer!"

"Not quite!" Wyatt contradicted.

The room got quiet as everyone turned their eyes onto Wyatt.

He gulped nervously once he saw the glares around the room. "There's evidence that proves that Cassie isn't the murderer."

Dagger grinned and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "Oh? Go on! This is so exciting!"

Star nodded. "Let's not get to conclusions. Harmony, would you tell us what you said about Cody's body when we examined it?"

Harmony's eyes widened in realization. "That's right! When I was examining his body, I found a few clues!"

"Do you want me to read them?"

Harmony shyly nodded.

Star cleared her throat as she took her phone out. "First of all, when we examined her body, the knife in Cody's stomach was indeed Cassie's. We can't deny that this is suspicious. However, it looked like it had been shoved in forcefully. Someone had already killed him with something else, and planted the knife as fake evidence. If he had been stabbed with a knife, then the deepness of the wound should have been uniform with the length and shape of the knife. However, the deepest part of the wound was circular and the knife only went partway in."

"Now that I think about it," Cassie quickly stated, "There was a knife missing from my collection. I thought I'd left it in my room but I wasn't sure."

Star nodded in approval as she continued. "He also had a dent in his head. There was a trail of blood running from down the wall, but it was rather up high. Cassie isn't very tall. From these facts, there's a good chance that she couldn't have been the murderer. It's very likely she was framed by one of us!"

"Then... who did it?" Damien asked fearfully.

Wyatt closed his eyes, recalling the evidence he had fathered himself. His eyes snapped wide open when the clues connected together. "I have an idea of who did it," he said quietly.

They all stared at Wyatt in curiosity. "Who?"

He thrust his hand out and pointed to the person right across from him. "The murderer... could have been you, Isabell!"

Isabell stepped back in shock. "Y-You're lying!"

"Really?" Wyatt challenged confidently . He took out his phone and showed the picture to everyone. "When I was investigating, I found a blood streak across the wall! It was too narrow to match the thickness of the blades that Cassie has on her. In addition, I went into the dining hall, and found a vase with very strange flowers in it."

Isabell narrowed her eyes slightly.

"The vase wasn't dusty, though, like maybe... the flowers weren't flowers and you dusted it off to get rid off the blood that came off of the murder weapon!"

"That's right!" Erik exclaimed, taking his lollipop out of his mouth. "I investigated in the Weapon Room. There was a missing bow and a quiver of arrows!"

"I found the bow," Wyatt said, taking it out from the plastic bag and holding it up. "It was in the very bottom of the dumpster when I went to investigate the Trash Room."

Kiara gagged. "You're telling me you went dumpster-diving? And you couldn't have washed yourself beforehand?"

Wyatt sighed. "I did go to wash up. However, I didn't want to to into the room where Cody was, so I went into the girl's bathroom. I found something in there."

The girls all collectively frowned at him as he mentioned going into the girl's bathroom. Kiara glowered at him, adjusting her headband. "Go on, Wyatt."

Wyatt showed them the other picture on his phone. "There was a blood smear on the edge of the sink, and it looked like someone had tried to wipe it off!"

"So?" Isabell snapped, "That could've been Cassie!"

Thane shook his head. He held up the pile of rags. "I found these in the corner like yesterday. One of them was bloodstained, like maybe the killer had wiped off the blood off their wounds. They figured that no one would look under there because the rags were so dirty."

"There was a rag in Cody's hand," Star said. "From what I see, it was the bloodiest one. The murderer must have planted it there so the rags would seem more normal."

Harmony interjected, "One other thing. Cody had bruises all over his body and his fists were bloody! He was in a fight!"

Damien cleared his throat. "Isabell... she came into the dining hall first! I was there second. She was hiding her arms, and she had a bloody nose, so she said she was going to the bathroom to wash up. In the morning when I saw her, she was wearing a short-sleeved shirt but she had a jacket draped around herself. The jacket didn't look like hers. It looked more like Griffin's."

"I left my jacket in the dining room to save that spot for myself," Griffin argued.

Thane nodded. "I came in a short while later, and Isabell walked in after me wearing long sleeves."

"Isabell," Wyatt said quietly, "Would you kindly show us your arms?"

Isabell had tears in her eyes. In a flurry of anger, she lifted up her sleeves, revealing a variety of bruises. "I DID IT! I KILLED CODY PHOENIX! I KILLED HIM WITH MY POWER, AND THEN I BLAMED IT ON CASSIE!"

"Why?" Harmony asked, fearfully.

"Because I would rather die from killing someone than to stay another minute in this horrible place!" Isabell screamed. Her eyes were streaked with tears.

There was stony silence as everyone refused to look at her.

Wyatt bit his lip slightly. "How did you manage to frame Cassie like that? It seemed like you knew she would be perfect for it! How did you get Cody's voice to go through the bathroom when we checked on them?

Isabell glanced over at him in anger, wiping her tears. "He knows who he is."

"It... it was me..." Chase said, his fists clenched on the table, tears leaking out and splashing on the tabletop. "I did it. I helped her! She came to me in the morning. She...she said she needed desperate help so I gave it to her and I helped create the diversion...I swear, it was dark when we talked. I didn't notice that she had killed another person!"

Dagger burst out laughing. "How sappy! Thank God you didn't do the murdering, am I right?"

Isabell's legs shook as she watched them tearfully. "Are you happy now?"

"Shall we review what happened?" Star asked coldly, turning away from Isabell. "We can't let ourselves get distracted. In the world of law, you find the liar. Simple as that."

They all nodded in silent agreement.

"Cody was murdered before we all woke up. The murderer had gotten props very early, like Cassie's knife and the rags in the gym. I'm assuming they did this during the middle of the night just as a prep for anything. They went back into their room, but noticed Cody who had gotten up. Fearful of getting caught, they confronted him. The two got into a fight. The culprit punched him multiple times, and then finally slammed him into the wall, denting his head. By then, he was nearly dead, so they used their bow and arrow they'd also smuggled out and shot him in the chest."

"The culprit then attempted to make it seem like someone who would be the best murderer was the murderer, by planting the knife in the hole they'd shot into the culprit's chest, and taking out the arrow. They went to Chase, knowing that he wouldn't be able to see their current state and begged for help. After he agreed, they cleaned themselves up by showering but were unable to hide the bruises on their arms. They went quickly into the dining hall to hide the evidence of the bow and the arrow, but left an unkown streak of blood from the arrow. Since the hallway was dark, they didn't realize. Knowing that the feathers of the arrow looked close enough to be the petals of the flower, they hid it in the vase, but accidentally made a blood streak on the edge, so they proceeded to wipe it off with their hands. Then, they broke the bow they had and threw it in the trash. Since no one was there, it was easy to toss it to the bottom of the trash, knowing no one would check the bottom first thing in the morning."

"When they were getting out of the trash room, someone came in. That was Damien. Since he wasn't completely awake, they quickly covered their arms with a nearby jacket, greeted him quickly, and then rushed off to the gym, where they hid the bloody rag at the bottom of the pile. Finally, they went to go change by putting on a long-sleeved shirt. After this, they then went back to the dining hall, unsuspected. Since it's cold in the morning, no one at the time took notice of her changing her clothes as abnormal."

"When we went to the bathroom where Cody was dead, the culprit had told the accomplice to mimick Cody's voice, so we all assumed he was still alive. In reality, he was dead."

"...that culprit is you, Isabell," Star said quietly.

Isabell broke down, wiping her eyes. She took a deep breath. "You're right. I killed Cody Phoenix. I didn't plan to, really. I knew I would murder someone, but I didn't think it would be so fast. I'm sorry, guys. I hope... I hope I helped you all out by getting caught," she smiled through her tears. "See you all on the other side."

Harmony burst into tears. "Why? Why are you so calm?"

Isabell shook her head. "I'm going to die, so I might as well make sure no one else follows into my footsteps. Don't make the mistake I did. I hope you all live, and I'm sorry again for murdering Cody."

There was an eerie silence.

Dagger cleared his throat and laughed. "What a trial, I must say!"

His silver eye turned into a red eye that flashed with excitement.

"You all did splendid for your first time! However, say your goodbyes to the culprit. It's time for the verdict to arrive and for the Execution to start!"