Eliza squints her eyes as she tries to discern whether the painting above the four-posted bed is of Hollywood or Las Vegas. Whichever it is, it seems out-of-place in this Victorian mansion, the same quality as a picture taken from a modern cell phone.
After deciding that they would search for a way out of the mansion, everyone had split up, some of them in small groups, and others on their own.
Elizabeth has held true to her promise and stuck with Zach. You don't know who you can trust, but Eliza knows that she can trust Zach with anything.
Except with her heart.
She isn't ready to trust Zach with her deepest thoughts and emotions. Especially with the secret that she holds close to her heart. It weighs her down, a reminder that everything choice, every decision she makes, has consequences. Both good and bad.
And some of them she can't come back from.
"Did you find anything?" Zach walks into the room from the bedroom he was searching across the hall.
"No, just this strange painting." She sighs and Zach rests his chin on her shoulder from behind. Eliza can't help but smile. This was something that he would do all the time back when they were still together. "I don't know whether it's Hollywood or Vegas."
She suddenly feels him tense up. Zachary lets go of her and she instantly misses his body heat. Eliza watches as he moves closer to the painting, intensely staring at it.
"It's neither," he says softly.
Elizabeth creeps closer to him and snakes her arm around his waist, supposed to be a comforting gesture. But she feels Zach tense up again at her touch and she turns so that she is right in front of him.
Looking into his eyes, she sees a sadness that he had hidden from her for many years, a deep yearning for love that abandonment caused him to have.
"Zachary," Eliza whispers, cupping his cheek with her left hand. "What's wrong?"
He just stands there, not moving, not taking his eyes off the painting.
"Zach?" she pleads. "What is it?"
The man she used to love just shakes his head in disbelief, "Enfer."
Oh, this isn't good, Elizabeth thinks. He's speaking French. Her French is a bit rusty, so it takes a moment for her to recall what he said.
He said hell. "Why?"
Elizabeth never gets an answer because in the distance, she hears a bloodcurdling scream.
This is enough to snap Zachary out of whatever trance he was just in and he looks down at her, putting his mask back on to hide his emotions.
"Jen," they say in unison.
They find themselves running down the grand staircase and rushing through the halls to nearly collide with a near hysterical Jennifer. The poor girl is panting and her face is flushed. Her eyes wildly move back and forth as if she saw a ghost and is expecting it to pop out at her any second.
"What is it? Why did you scream?" Eliza asks, taking Jen's arm.
She points down the hall with a shaky finger, "In the living room." Jen trembles slightly as she leads the two new adults to the scene of the crime.
Eliza doesn't know what she was expecting, but it certainly wasn't finding a dead body and a moving sack that looks like one of the curtains hanging from the rafts in the closet.
What had happened here?
Eliza figured that whoever did this panicked and rushed to get everything sorted out. But unlucky for them, Jennifer soon made this discovery. Does she know who did this?
"Did you see who did it?" Zach asks, of course reading Eliza's mind.
Jennifer starts to shake her head, but then hesitantly nods. Eliza tilts her head in questions, prompting Jen to speak up.
"I came in here after bumping into Chase in the hallway after I saw that he left. I should've noticed it, but he was trying to get me to leave. When I noticed that there was only one curtain, he got really nervous and then continued to try and coax me out of here.
"Then I opened the closet and he bolted," she throws her hands in the air, "No doubt because he is guilty."
"Dang," Zach whistles. "If what you say is true, then he could still be running through the halls looking for a way out of here."
He looks at Elizabeth and knowing exactly what he's thinking, she gives him an affirmative nod, dismissing him to go and hunt down the perpetrator. Eliza knows Zachary. He'll have Chase pinned against a wall in no time.
She grabs a chair from the spacious living room and uses it as a step stool to reach the rafters with which the curtain is knotted on. It's triple knotted, and so Eliza pulls out her 3-in-1 laser/gun/lipstick and uses the laser to burn the edge of the thick velvet.
The thing drops to the ground with a grunt of pain.
Elizabeth carefully lifts the sides of the curtain and gasps upon seeing who is inside. Vivica is on her back with her hands and feets tied up together with pieces of the other missing curtain and a gag is in her mouth.
She undos the bonds with her laser before taking the gag out of the woman's big mouth. Sure enough, Vivica starts to screech about how much she hates Chase.
"As soon as I saw the body, he grabbed me around the neck and then used his knife to cut up some fabric to cruelly bind my ankles and wrists! That bi–"
"Vivica, calm down," Eliza scolds. In a gentler tone she says, "Zach is out looking for him right now. We'll get him and figure out what really happened."
She unravels the other curtain to find Zuri's dead body.
Well, this is quite a twist, Eliza thinks. First one dead is none other than one of their greatest aggravators. Anyone could've killed her.
So many thoughts are rushing through her mind. Why did Chase do this? Was he the one who killed Zuri? If he wasn't, then why did he tie up Vivica? Perhaps he didn't want to look guilty, and made a big mistake?
One thought is louder than the others: who ties up someone if they have nothing to hide?
Ignoring Vivica's rather vivid description of what Chase did to her, Eliza examines the body. There is no blood in the living room, nor in the closet. She can't find any gashes or cuts that would suggest what had happened. There is nothing.
Whoever did this was good...they used poison.
Eliza stands up and grabs Vivica's wrist, making her growl. "Come on," she says. "Let's go find Chase."
As they walk through the wooden doors, the lights seem to flicker.
On, off.
On, off.
They hadn't flickered at all since they had gotten stuck in this mansion. Why are they flickering now? Was the electricity going out?
Soon, the lights went completely out.
"What's going on—"
"Hey! That's my foot you little—!"
"Everyone just shut up!" Eliza silenced them. "If we argue we aren't going to find Chase."
"What's the use of only us trying to find Chase? Shouldn't the others know?" Jenna calls out from the darkness. She has a point. They'd find Chase much quicker if everyone was looking for him.
"I don't care who finds him, as long as I get first dibs." Vivica's voice is full of rage. Eliza absentmindedly nods, forgetting that nobody could see her. That is, until a small light illuminated the room.
"What are you guys doing?" Samantha stands in a doorway, holding a lit candle.
"Looking for Chase. He murdered Zuri and tied me up!"
Eliza is surprised Vivica would ever admit to being overpowered by Chase, though Vivica will do anything to make Chase look bad.
"Murdered?! Are you sure it was him? I mean, so many people thought she was annoying." Samantha looks at Vivica, "What about James? He and Zuri were practically enemies."
"I know because I saw him! He was hiding the body when I found him! Why would an innocent person hide a body and tie me up?!"
Samantha seems to consider this for a moment before she starts down the hall. With a look to each other, the three of them follow after the fleeting light.
"So, where are you leading us?" Jenna asks, moving to walk next to Samantha.
"I heard Katarina down this way earlier. The more people looking for Chase the better."
"I believe I heard my name." A voice calls from the shadows.
The figure steps into the light of the candle, revealing the voice as Katarina.
"Katarina." Samantha steps up to her, "We were just wondering if you saw Chase. He murdered Zuri."
"Whether I've seen him or not is none of your business. If that dumbass did actually kill her, he did us all a favor by shutting her up."
Eliza looks at her. Maybe Chase did do them a favor, but not by shutting Zuri up—he took a Player out of the game.
"While that may be true," Jenna says. "I feel that something is missing."
"Missing how?" Eliza folds her arms over her chest.
"Like something is wrong. There was no blood in the room. And Chase doesn't have any motives!"
"He tied me up! That's what guilty looks like to me!"
"And he ran from Jen." Eliza reasons.
"Fine! Maybe he—"
Jenna is interrupted by loud arguing. With a look at each other, they rush down the hallway, following the light of Samantha's candle.
They round the corner to find two people arguing just outside the library.
"—wasn't doing anything!" Chase says, trying to get past London's arm which rests against the door frame.
"Sure you weren't. And you were just running for absolutely no reason." London has a tint of sarcasm in his voice as he moves to lean against the frame.
"Ahem," Jennifer says.
When Chase sees the five girls, his face pales.
Seeing the look on Chase's face, London turns to see a few very angry people.
"Oh, hello ladies!" London flashes a smile at them. Seeing this as a chance to escape, Chase rushes past London.
"Hey! Get back here you little—" Vivica's smirk turns into a vicious snarl. Before she gets a chance to run after him, Chase is slammed into the wall.
"Going somewhere?" Zach pushes Chase into the wall, causing him to grunt in pain.
Eliza sees that Vivica is wearing a smug grin, failing to hide the anger that flashes in her eyes.
"It's over, Chase." Jennifer steps forward. "You aren't going anywhere until you answer some questions..."