"Oh shit," Tristan said as he watched En go still on the Pharmacy floor, blood dripping from the massive gash in their head where Ryn had just savagely bashed it repeatedly against a shelf.

And then she'd left, but not before quickly repositioning the fallen bottles and pocketing another one on the way out.  That wasn't the weirdest thing, though.  Someone else entered the Pharmacy just seconds after she'd left.  Someone who Tristan... wasn't expecting.

"The hell's Pineborough doin' here?" Tristan asked as he watched the flautist approach the dying dealer.

"Oh... my god." Rori elbowed Tristan and pointed to what Iris was holding.

A chess board.  It didn't register in Tristan's head until he watched Iris begin to set the board up after En's breathing finally came to an end.  The flautist removed his flute bag and unzipped it to reveal a whole set's worth of chess pieces stuffed inside, which he quickly began to position methodically on the board.  All the while, his expression revealed nothing about his intentions.

"The chess boards at the barn and at the dinner party," Rori mumbled, saying it aloud before Tristan could. "It was... him?"

"Well no shit, Sherlock," Tristan grunted, gesturing sarcastically towards Iris.

They watched as he bent down, running his hands through the pools of blood before picking up a chess pawn he'd just stomped on and coating it in the sticky substance.  Finally, he set it down next to the chess board, which was noticeably missing two pieces, and then took a step back to admire his work.  He looked down at the blood on his hands for a long moment, his face completely blank, before turning and leaving.  At the same time, a transparent figure was slowly getting to their feet and staring at the flautist as he exited the Pharmacy.  The ghost then dusted themself off before noticing Rori and Tristan.

"I suppose this means I'm dead," En said flatly.

"Yup," Tristan agreed.

"Welcome to the club," Rori chimed in.

The dealer's poker face never wavered as they looked back at their body. "I suppose I became slightly too confident in my plan once I forgot about Ryn's strength.  I should've recalled the way she carried that calf away from the crime scene in the barn."

"It was brutal to watch," Rori offered. "You didn't see her coming."

En shot him a look. "No.  I did not.  She was too quiet."

"So we're not gonna talk about whatever the hell this is?" Tristan gestured once again to the chess board and the pawn streaked with En's blood.

En's yellow eyes narrowed. "To think that I'd died believing help had come.  What a waste of hope."

"I don't really blame you," Rori commented. "It looked like it at first."

"So that kid killed the cow, wrote that fucked-up blood message, and then set up all the chess boards," Tristan mumbled. "He's batshit insane."

"This is crazy," Rori said.

En made a tsk-ing noise in their throat. "It really isn't.  Had I been thinking more clearly, I would've realized why Iris was there sooner."

"You knew?" Tristan raised an eyebrow.

The dealer chuckled. "Of course I knew.  I always knew there was something wrong with Iris.  It was fairly obvious what that was once we found the dead cow scene in the barn.  Any normal person wouldn't have been able to tell what he was hiding, but no poker face can get by me."

Before Rori could respond, they continued, "And yes, I was more than aware of the fact that you killed Tristan.  It was obvious.  You were a wreck for hours leading up to the murder, and continued to be so until you confessed."

"Then why didn't you say anything?" Rori asked.

"Because that isn't fun, now is it?" En responded coolly. "There's no mystery to it.  And besides, all logic pointed towards you anyways.  You are the only one with enough knowledge of wild berries- save Evangeline, who helped us identify the berries- to be sure that they would kill someone.  It was the only explanation."

"H-have you been reading into anyone else?" Rori stammered, clearly a bit embarrassed that he'd been picked apart so easily.

"Oh, of course.  Nobody else is nearly as intriguing, though.  Except for Stolas, that is..." they trailed off, a frown playing at the corners of their mouth.

"What's so intriguing about him?" the survivalist prodded.

"...I find it a bit more difficult to read him.  I can't quite tell what's going on inside of his head."

And so Lady Gaga would remain the true master of the poker face for another day.  Tristan mentally applauded himself for his clever thought, and also for not saying it out loud.  Not that he couldn't take the dealer in a fight, of course, but he didn't want to be stuck in an eternal conflict with them.  Even if they were a prick.

"So do we have cards in the afterlife now?" Rori questioned after a minute.

En, without missing a beat, drew a crisp deck of cards from the pocket of their dress pants. "I always carry a spare deck.  You never know when you'll need to... make a split-second switch..."

At the silence they received in response, they added, "Of course, it never happened often.  Most of the time, my skills with a single deck were enough on their own.  In case of a risky situation, however, it never took me more than the blink of an eye to... suddenly have an ace rather than a three."

If Tristan didn't like En before- which he didn't- he really didn't like them now.  He'd been around crafty, slippery people before, and none of them ever had good intentions.  En was clearly no different, if not worse.  Tristan hadn't mentioned the way he'd seen En fishing around the Pharmacy as if plotting something, because he knew he wouldn't get an honest answer in response.  He also knew that En was the kind of person to lay down the lives of others for their own benefit, so he was able to answer his own questions as to why En would be scheming.  

Still, having a deck of cards was a game-changer.  The next day, after En's body had been discovered and the investigation had begun, the three ghosts sat in the library playing various card games.  All of which En won, obviously.  Thankfully, Tristan did get an opportunity to beat Rori in a game of war when En claimed to be "exhausted from winning", so that was a nice change of pace.  Not for Rori, obviously, but he'd still killed Tristan so Tristan didn't care.  

They'd been so engrossed in their games that they nearly missed the elevator to the trial.  They'd had to sprint to get ahead of the last few people making their way towards the center island to ensure they wouldn't miss what was about to happen.

"Do you think they'll catch Ryn?" Rori asked as the three slowed down to catch their breath.

"Oh, most definitely," En answered. "Look at Stolas- he knows."

Tristan looked at the combat specialist as he stepped into the elevator.  Stolas's hand lingered near his pocket, signaling there was something in there that was probably important.  Next to him, Sophie bounced nervously in place.  He had no idea why the hell Stolas had taken on the artist chick as his junior detective, or why he'd taken on a junior detective at all, but the guy seemed to know what he was doing.  

"Um, hey, En?" Rori spoke after a minute.  Tristan noticed the survivalist's digital handbook was on in his hands.

"Yes?" The dealer tilted their head slightly, a tiny gesture to signal their curiosity.

"Is your full name Enton?"

En's face flickered with an emotion that Tristan couldn't place immediately because he was too surprised that their poker face had faltered for a moment.  He then realized that it was... embarrassment?  Holy shit, the bitchy Ultimate Dealer was embarrassed.

"Yes, my full name is, in fact, Enton," they admitted. "Why do you bring that up?"

"Oh, well, it was on the update for your case," Rori explained, showing them his digital handbook.

"...I see.  Do they do that for everyone, then?" they asked as the elevator opened, and everyone spilled out into the court room.

"Hopefully we won't find out," Rori grimaced.

"We will be finding out," En said plainly. "I can guarantee it.  Someone will crack."

Tristan took his position at his podium as he finally tuned into the trial.  Across from him, he could see En phase through their portrait, on which their face was crossed out by the image a diamond and spade cards.  Now that he looked back at his own, it did look like the 'X' over his portrait was spray-painted... 

"Ryn is nervous," En commented, snapping Tristan out of his thoughts.

"Well no shit, she's the murderer," Tristan shot back.

"Yes, but if you look carefully, her hands are shaking slightly.  And her breathing patterns are slightly shorter and faster-paced than they were yesterday.  In addition to that, whenever someone makes eye contact with her, she looks away rather quickly," they listed. "Really, Ryn is a horrible killer.  She dug her own grave the second she came up with her plan."

"Looks like she took something from the crime scene too," Rori chimed in, motioning to where Stolas had just handed Sophie a bottle with a label describing some sort of medicine for bovine.

"Oh, how unfortunate," En drawled. "She took medicine for the calf from the crime scene.  What a terribly embarrassing mistake."

Based on their attitude, Tristan could tell that they did not, in fact, find it unfortunate.

And as he watched a sobbing Ryn get dragged away to her demise, he swore he could see the flicker of a triumphant smile on the Ultimate Dealer's lips.

***

(1605 words)

there's a reason en got their own trigger warning yall