Murder Riddles

Should Have Stayed In Bed

"Choose one," the man said, his face masked in darkness. 

"You know, you're not very creative in killing your victims," Helen said, her voice failing to convey confidence. 

"And why is that?" her kidnapper mused. 

"Well, you got the idea from a Sherlock Holmes book, so not very original. If you're going to kill people you might as well get creative." Helen muttered. 

She was too scared and frightful to focus on what was happening. All that rushed through her head were her careless mistakes she had made that fateful morning. If she had just stayed in bed, this whole thing would not have happened. 

The morning's events looped in her head like a film; She still felt the hands around her mouth, the chloroform infused cloth closing her airways. How the world faded around her as if it was disintegrating. Then, later when her eyes fluttered open only to reveal a dark room and rope burns around her wrists. 

She still found herself in the room, refusing to believe that any of this was true. The man in front of her was just a figment of her imagination, and the choice she had to make was not real. It couldn't be. 

"Take your time, " he smiled, his teeth glinting in the dim red light. 

"Well, I can't move my hands, now can I?" Helen bargained. 

"Well, we can't have that, can we." He walked around the room, quickly unfastened her hands then retreated to his seat across from her. 

Helen brought her shaking hands to the table surface and saw the red marks the ropes had left around her pale wrists. 

"I take my pills with water," Helen ordered.

"So did everyone else," he grabbed a flask from underneath his seat and placed it on the table. 

"Now choose one. One is poisoned, and the other is perfectly normal. Take the poisoned one; you die, take the normal one, you live. Whichever pill you don't choose, I will swallow. I have played seven times. I have flirted with death seven times. And won-" 

"Obviously, " Helen said. Her mother had always warned that her sarcasm would end up killing her. She was probably right -they would find out soon enough. 

The two pills in the middle of the table would determine her future. She reached forward and picked the one on the right, sealing her fate. She held the tiny white pill between her thumb and index finger and turned it, inspecting it. 

She glanced up at her kidnapper. He raised his eyebrows and reached forward to take the other one. He brought the pill to his lips and asked her to do the same. She placed the capsule in her mouth. She grabbed the bottle and took a sip, and felt the pill go down her throat along with the water. 

As soon as it was down her throat, she knew she had made a big mistake. She glanced at her kidnapper who swallowed the pill, then looked down at her, smiling that evil smile. He then laughed. He laughed and laughed as her vision faded and her breaths became her last. 

Why did the killer manage always to take the harmless pill?