Chapter 19: Trust

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Tyler gulped as everyone gathered around their stands for the fourth Household Trial. Two new pictures stood in the place of two houseguests, Mitch and Seto.
There was plenty of evidence pointed towards how Adam was killed, but was there any evidence to show who had killed him?
"Whoever poisoned the fish was the person who killed Adam," Quentin stated, "because Adam ate the fish and died of the poisoning."
"Then why was he in the hot tub?" Matt asked.
"Hm...maybe the culprit put him there to fool us, and make it seem as if Adam had been drowned?" Jason suggested.
"Clever of them," Ty said with a smile and an approving nod.
"You're probably the most suspicious person here, Ty..." Brice said accusingly. "You admitted yourself you had been to the Fourth Floor, and you were missing before Adam."
Ty looked thoughtful. "Well, there's more than one person here that knows where the fourth floor is. And could I have done anything without being spotted in such a short time?"
"He's got a point..." Bash said nervously.
"And there's the ST on Adam's glasses. What does that mean?" Tyler asked.
"Didn't Adam mention he had glasses for every day of the week?" Jerome asked.
Ryan nodded. "Then that would make ST Saturday. But...today's Sunday!"
"Then if Adam was wearing his Saturday shades when he died, he must have been killed yesterday!" Jason realized.
"I personally think Jerome's suspicious, too," Quentin proposed. "Could he really have just smelled the poison? We didn't smell anything. And if he was innocent, wouldn't he have noticed that Adam's fish smelled off?"
Jerome glared at Quentin. "I told you this before. Baccas have really good senses of smell. And yes, I did smell the poison, but I thought it was just the steak I was eating, and no one else seemed to notice anything. I'm guessing Adam tasted the poison, but just thought it was the fish."
"The culprit was obviously just trying to kill Jerome, since they knew he only ate raw fish," Tyler pointed out. "Whoever the culprit is obviously knew that."
"Could they have been targeting Jerome for a reason?" Ryan suggested.
"I don't think so. You're only allowed to kill two people at most, so maybe they were just looking for a way to kill just one person with poison," Matt pointed out.
"So, if the fish was poisoned before lunch, because lunch is when Adam ate it, then the culprit must have been to the fourth floor and had time to poison it by then," Quentin pointed out.
Tyler nodded. "Could someone have taken the paper between or before the first and second shifts?"
"How come we're not assuming it's Ty?" Jason asked.
"Well, Ty's still a suspect, but he wouldn't need the paper, right? But the paper was still gone at some point," Tyler replied.
"Hey! I just thought of something!" Bash exclaimed eagerly. "Who ever said that the culprit needed to take the paper, right? They could have just looked at it, then left."
"That's true, actually," Ryan admitted.
"Hey, and didn't the paper disappear after lunch?" Brice asked.
"Yeah, you're right!" Jerome exclaimed. "But Adam was poisoned before the paper disappeared."
"Was the culprit just trying to mess us up, then?" Quentin asked.
"Probably," Tyler sighed.
"They must have used a splash potion of invisibility or something from the fourth floor to hide the paper," Matt muttered.
"Ty, you have to know something," Tyler begged.
Ty smiled. "I'm not allowed to talk."
"Uhh...who said?" Jason asked confusedly.
Ty shrugged. "Can't say."
"You're helping the culprit, aren't you?!" Brice exclaimed.
"You are the culprit, aren't you?!" Bash exclaimed.
"Ty was on a shift before lunch..." Ryan pointed out.
"But Matt was watching him, he couldn't have done anything," Tyler said.
"We're getting nowhere!" Ryan exclaimed. "How are we supposed to find our culprit?"
"I think I know who did it," Quentin said. Everyone turned to look at him.
"Someone's been slipping a lot lately. I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed it, but I know I have."
Quentin pointed to Matt.
"You've been making too many mistakes in this trial. Don't think I haven't noticed."
Matt's eyes widened. "What do you mean?" he asked.
"Well, first of all, back before the Trial," Quentin started. "You mentioned a secret passage up to the fourth floor, but no one had ever said anything about a secret passage."
"I was just assuming!" Matt protested.
"Well, you sounded pretty confident," Quentin said. "Anyway, earlier you said that we were only allowed to kill two people at most. That's probably a true rule, but Herobrine never went over the rules with us, and I'm assuming that you had asked him yourself about the rule before you went and poisoned all the food."
Everyone stared at Quentin and Matt in shock as the mudkip went on.
"Then, you mentioned that there was probably a splash potion of invisibility used on the paper, but we've never been to the fourth floor, so is it just easy to assume that they have those on the fourth floor without having been there," Quentin stated.
"And finally, this may not count as true evidence, but you were on a shift with Ty. Knowing him, you probably went to the fourth floor and poisoned the fish and everything during your shift, and he's staying quiet about all this because you've got a lot of hope or something."
When Quentin finished, all eyes turned to Matt.
Matt looked horrified, gripping the sides of his stand and shaking.
"That makes sense..." Brice said quietly.
"Ty. Tell us the truth," Tyler demanded.
Ty stared at Tyler with his calm smile. "Well, you seem to have more hope than the culprit, anyway," he said. Then his smile became wider, and he began to laugh loudly.
Everyone stared in horror as Ty finally stopped, and looked over at everyone. His calm brown eyes were wide, and he wore a big smile. He looked insane.
"Heh...during my shift, I could tell Matt was doubting his hope! So I told him to look at the paper. Go and kill someone, I don't care! I wouldn't say a word."
"You're saying a word right now!" Matt exclaimed.
"Well, I side with whoever has more hope, and you don't have as much hope," Ty said simply.
"You little-! I knew I couldn't trust you!" Matt roared.
"Matt, does that mean...?" Jason asked.
Matt closed his eyes and sighed.
"He talked me into it..." Matt said quietly. "He made it seem like I could actually do it and get out of here. It's all HIS fault!" He suddenly exclaimed, pointing accusingly at Ty. Ty smiled.
"How did you do it?" Tyler asked Matt quietly.
Matt sighed. "The fourth floor is only accessible through the Enchanting Room. AlterSorcerer won't tell you anything, but just pull some books out of the shelves. One is a lever that slides the bookshelf back to reveal the passage up. Ty told me this, and I checked the paper, and it was true. He talked me into it, and it was sheer luck no one saw me walk from the Dining Hall to the Enchanting Room. Without waking up AlterSorcerer, I found the passage and went up. There, it's all just brewing stations and cauldrons, with a bunch of small storage closets with materials for brewing, and other stuff, like sugarcane and flowers. There's one main room with the brewing stations. There'd also books with all the recipes. I made a poison potion, one invisibility potion and two splash potions of invisibility. I drank the invisibility potion so I wouldn't be seen going back to the Dining Hall, put the poison in the fish to try and kill just Jerome, and was visible again by the time for lunch. The poison was slow-acting, so it would take time before Adam died. I knew only he had been poisoned, so after lunch but before Jerome remembered he had a shift and came back, I put a splash potion of invisibility on the paper to make it seem gone. The potion got on me, making me invisible too. Jerome came in, but didn't see me, so I snuck out while he was in there. Then, I went down to Adam's door and knocked. He opened the door, didn't see me, and I snuck in before he closed the door. Not long after I had gotten into his room, he started coughing up blood. The blood only really got on his chest, because he had been sitting up in bed, and then he died in his room a minute later. I took my last splash potion and used it on the both of us, and I carried Adam's body up to the lounge and put him in the hot tub to make it seem like he drowned. No one saw me because I was invisible. And...that's the whole story..." Matt finished with a sigh.
"You're admitting so easily?" Ryan asked.
"It's not like I want to loose so easy!" Matt exclaimed, suddenly furious. "It's all Ty's fault! He betrayed me! Never trust Ty!"
"We never trusted him, anyway," Quentin growled, looking over at Ty.
"No," Matt said, getting eerily serious. "I mean don't trust Ty."
"What do you mean...?" Brice asked nervously.
Matt glared at Ty. "While I was still invisible, I saw Ty go up to the fourth floor. I followed. He made some kind of potion, I have no idea what, and drank it. Something's off. Don't trust Ty."
"Aw, so you saw that?" Ty asked in mock sadness. "Oh well! Like Quentin said, you all don't trust me anyway. Which isn't really true, since I've manipulated so many of you already..."
Didn't he only manipulate Suiko and Matt? Tyler thought suspiciously.
"...But, it's not like I'll ever tell you anything. Just stay strong in your hope," Ty finished with a smug smile.
"Well, it's time for our execution then!" Herobrine announced.
Matt froze. "Wh...what?!"
Herobrine chuckled. "Have you forgotten, dummy? Execution. You're the culprit. You're guilty. We're gonna execute you."
"But...but it was Ty's fault!" Matt exclaimed.
Herobrine laughed as the red button rose from the floor.
"No! I'm not guilty! It was Ty!" Matt yelled in panic, but Herobrine had already hit the red button.
GAME OVER, the screen below the red button read. MATT HAS BEEN FOUND GUILTY. COMMENCING EXECUTION.
≪≫
X-RUN

A parkour course had been built, with dull stone blocks, going up in a spiral in the metal execution room. The platforms were all connected to metal poles planted in the ground to hold them up, and the platforms were long and the jumps far. The course was obviously based on running fast, not taking time and jumping.
Matt stood at the beginning of the course, trembling.
Four slots opened on each of the walls of the room, the same slots that had opened for the zombies in Ant's execution. But instead of zombies, glowing lava began to slowly pour out. Matt's eyes widened, and the Super Minecraft Level Speedrunner hurriedly began to run the parkour course.
He aced every jump, running for his life, and the faster he ran the faster the lava began to rise.
Jump by jump, going faster and faster. The lava was steadily rising, bubbling and hissing menacingly. If Matt messed up one jump, he would plunge into the lava. He was parkouring for his life.
Finally, and miraculously, Matt made it to the last jump. Lava was beginning to cover the platform he had just jumped off of behind him already. Taking a step back, he began running as fast as he could to make the last, long jump.
There was a thud as his feet landed satisfyingly on the final platform.
Matt whipped around to see the lava had stopped rising. Panting, he shakily got to his knees and looked around. Had he actually survived his execution? What would happen now? Would he be able to live?
BANG.
The pole of the platform Matt had been on shot up, smashing the platform and Matt into the ceiling.
No one could survive an execution.

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