Final Vote:
Lossëndil: MissR
Rainshadow: MissR
MissR: Rainshadow
MissReep and Lossy were arguing again. Their loud voices reverberated in the passage. Finally Rainshadow spoke sternly, “We’ll separate. MissReep, go your way and I will follow Lossy.”
“No” snarled MissReep. “You’ll have a trap in there for me! Is that why you are so adamant?”
“Then you have decided against that path?” inquired Rainshadow deliberately.
“Yes,” MissReep snapped. “I feel better if I keep a murderer in sight! Come on Lossy, let’s go.”
“Wait!” thundered Rainshadow. “You seemed mighty set on us going in the adjacent path. Perhaps you are mafia.”
MissReep laughed harshly. “I am the main reason we are alive. I shared my food, even with you! While you,” she sneered, “You sat and supposedly mourned for your sister. Where were you really?”
Lossy stared at the two enraged girls.
“How dare you,” Rainshadow choked angrily, her eyes livid. She pulled the dagger from her bag. “My sister was dear to me, and I WILL avenger her!”
MissReep paled and turned to flee down the tunnel. Lossy blocked her. Frantically MissReep spun to face Rainshadow. “Stop,” she shrieked, “You’re making a mistake!”
“Am I?” glared Rainshadow. MissReep desperately tried to thrust past Lossy, but the Tree planted herself firmly to the ground. Rainshadow moved swiftly, and MissReep died instantly.
Rainshadow and Lossy stared at each other. “Are you going to kill me too?” asked Lossy quietly.
Rainshadow dropped the dagger. “No, are you?”
Lossy glanced at the dagger and then scrutinized Rainshadow. “No,” she replied. “The mafia are dead.”
“Are they? Who were the helicopter pilots? Who contacted them? Who was the van driver?” Rainshadow shook her head. “I wonder.”
The questions lingered as they trod wearily foreword. After a few hours walking, they came to the passage’s end. It had led them to a door. They shoved it open and staggered out into muddy ground surrounding a hill. This they climbed and realized they were on the outskirts of the city. There, somewhere in all those twinkling lights a building had witnessed a gruesome tale. Now it had ended and they were free.
Lossy breathed deeply. “The sky!” It was beautiful, the gray clouds and falling rain. They lifted their heads allowing the drops to stream down their faces.
“We’re alive!” Lossy laughed, shaking her leafy crown. Rainshadow’s rich laugh melded with the Tree’s silvery one. All night saw them upon that hill. And when night ended, morning began. In the east the sun peeked brightly at them, the storm clouds having dispersed during the night. Soaked but happy the two girls trudged down the hill to the road below, eager to find means of transportation. Soon they would leave this place. Forever, each girl vowed.
The police had been inquiring since the strange discovery of an abandoned boat found by fishermen. Slowly they located the deceased bodies of its crew. All were accounted for except two, Rainshadow and Lossy. Their families yielded no information. Either they honestly knew nothing or, as some of the police suspected, they were willfully withholding news of the girls. However, they discovered no evidence to support this theory. After months of fruitless searching, the two girls were added to a missing list. What had happened they wondered? Would they ever know?
As for the girls, were they dead? Or perhaps they feared a return to the land of the living could spell their deaths.
Game 32 is now over—THE CIVILIANS WIN.