Power Outage [REWRITTEN]

Dealer

Prasiddhi's morning was spent in cold sweat the moment she woke. She gasped for breath as she stared straight ahead, grasping at the thin blankets covering her.

"Nightmare?" Concerned, Jean-Claude asked.

In a quiet tone, she replied, "Yeah..."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Deep in thought, she furrowed her brows, "No, I can't seem to remember it."

"Alright, you wanna head downstairs together?" Jean-Claude offered.

"In a moment." Prasiddhi attentively looked at him in the eyes, "There's something I've been meaning to ask you."

She continued without waiting for a response, "That gun. Where I found it was in one of those boxes in the attic, specifically the one that says 'do not open'. I hope I'm not prying when I ask this, but... why seal those away?"

Jean-Claude's gestures were stiff but skittish. He stood still but he continuously adjusted one of his jacket's collars and avoided eye contact.

He sighed and mumbled in a grim voice, "I... lost my parents. It was a few years ago when it happened. We were in a car and then... and then... Some driver rammed into us on a highway. I was the only one who lived. My mother, my father, my grandmother. Dead."

"I couldn't face the photos or those toy cars from my childhood, but I couldn't throw them away either," he added.

Prasiddhi averted her eyes in an awkward manner. "I'm... sorry. I'm not certain on what to say, but losing someone you love is difficult to bear."

"That's fine, you don't need to. It's nice to have someone who listens," Jean-Claude smiled, "and thanks for listening to some of my concerns earlier."

Both of them exited the room and greeted the other people in the household. It had only been a few days, but it was growing into some twisted, gruesome routine. Prasiddhi positioned herself on the couch next to her lover and inched forward, attentive to the conservation.

Rosalie lay a few notebooks on the table, "Unfortunately, I couldn't obtain any of the journals of those who were voted because it seems like they had their notebooks with them as they were taken to some unknown location."

"Melodie never had the chance to write anything and Alex's notes didn't hold any new evidence, but there was some significant information in Austin's journal. Quinn also seemed to hold some crucial observations," Rosalie flipped the cover to the backside and commenced reading some excerpts from the written passages.

I've noticed that Amethyst has recognized some of the herbs I was holding. I have no clue where these came from. All I know is that they just suddenly appeared in my bag that morning along with some other empty bottles. I don't even know what the heck I was supposed to do with them. I guess Prasiddhi could know something too since she's with Amethyst or something.

After Rosalie read a part of Quinn's journal, she set it into Kiryomi's hands.

"From this entry, it seems Quinn received this from someone, but there was no notes on how to use it. So, we could at least say Quinn isn't on the evil team, or they were not aware that they were on the evil team. Perhaps someone swapped a role. If they were originally on the evil team, their role card would tell them what to do," Rosalie speculated.

"Does a role like that exist?" Elizabeth questioned.

She simply shrugs, "It's only a theory. It's not like I've been in some death game numerous times. Who knows what other people's roles are."

"What does Austin's journal say?" Nikolai queried.

Rosalie picked up the other journal she placed on the table prior and continued.