Desperate Debate

“M-maybe it’s just a coincidence? An accident?”

“That and all the lights and doors too? Fat chance.”

“You’re awfully calm about all this…”

The four remaining tourists gathered in the relative safety of the lobby. Frankie daren’t check her phone for the time. She didn’t even want to know how long they’d been stuck in there. She scoffed at the driver who brought her to this infernal place- Frankie was anything but calm. After all, it couldn’t be long till the mansion took its next victim.

“Sara?” Mary uncharacteristically addressed. “Are you the murderer?”

“No.” Frankie still responded like it was a question worth asking.

“So what’s with the two names?” Conrad stung.

The only corpse they brought with them was Jack’s. Having any corpses in the room while you argued was pretty morbid, but it was the only evidence they had and they needed evidence. They couldn’t pry the Frank’s out from under the projector once it fell, so Jack’s body was the only one they had the displeasure of being able to analyze in detail.

They all had a look at him for a while, but didn’t find anything. No pulse, no breathing… and yet, no wounds. Just how did he die? Some gas or something? It really was just like he dropped dead out of nowhere, unlike Frank’s gruesome end. Of course, without the cop breathing down everyone’s necks, Frankie was technically free to be at least a little more open with the group… or she would’ve, if it wasn’t for her paranoia. She lied as fast as her lips could open in response to Conrad’s previous allegation.

“I… had a feeling something was wrong as soon as I came in here. Don’t like cops, either. It was… a split-second decision, really… doesn’t matter now.”

“Sorry, but… it did matter.”

“What are you taking about?”

“Katie… when she got trapped in that closet thing, she was calling out for you. Frankie, she said. Frank thought she was talking to him.”

Katie’s hands covered her open mouth. She wanted to comfort her sister before she broke down again, but Frankie didn’t look the least bit perturbed.

“That dumbass would’ve come to her rescue either way. How can you say I’m to blame?”

Conrad clasped his fingers between his bent knees. Sitting on the ground, he wasn’t really as angry at Frankie as she’d thought he’d be. Something in him made him understand her coldness, though he didn’t agree.

“I don’t like cops either, but don’t insult a dead man.”

“Fine then.”

By the looks of it, confrontations had come to be the one social situation Frankie understood in her travels.

“Guys!” Katie found herself mediating again. “We can’t let ourselves get angry. I mean… think about it now. Haven’t we all proven our innocence? I didn’t do anything, Frankie was far away for Frank’s… accident, and she only showed up after the fact, just like Conrad.”

“Not everyone.” Frankie uttered. “Mary, I know you planned all of this.”

“I’m sorry?”

“You split us up. Ran away ‘cause you knew Katie’d follow you. And then you let the group fall to chaos, only coming back once you’d picked off the biggest threat- the police officer, the very one who’d suspected you this whole time- as he said so himself.”

Silence. Everyone was looking at Mary.

Mary was looking at the ceiling.

“Why would I do that?”

“What, run? I dunno, you tell me. If you weren’t pulling a fast one on us, then just why did you bolt off in the first place? Another quirk of yours?”

“I saw something.”

“What did you see that was so interesting you’d put yourself at risk? …Assuming you aren’t the predator here.”

“The lights down the hall came on…”

Frankie’s investigative process was stolen by the bizarre tech manipulation again. Whoever was doing this had to know where everyone was at all times and how to manipulate them. They understood them.

That is, if anything this girl was saying was true.

“We’ve established the killer… if there is one… can manipulate the building’s electronics.” Conrad stated. “But… how do they know when and where to do that?”

“That’s exactly what I’m chewing on…” Frankie adjusted her cap.

“I know you still think this is crazy… but… but what if it really is the ghost?”

“If that’s true, do we have Jack and Frank to worry about now too? Shut up and focus. There’s gotta be a logical explanation.”

The whole gang took a good few minutes of thinking, each one underscored by the knowledge that at any moment another one of them could theoretically die. They were all grateful when somebody spoke up.

“The cameras!” Katie suddenly exclaimed. “Indoor rides have cameras, don’t they…? Not that I could see anything in the dark, but surely they must have some places around the track. If the culprit can control everything in the ride… maybe they have access to the feed?”

“Don’t tell me it’s the freaking park owners…”

“That would explain the lack of staff…” Conrad noted.

Almost everyone was becoming even more afraid than if it had been a ghost.

“No.”

Mary’s strangely powerful argumentative tone drew the tense group’s attention like a bolt of lightning. She looked straight ahead at the opposite antique wall of the room, eyes blank as truth.

“That’s wrong.”

“Oh, finally speaking up? How the hell do you know?” Frankie spat. “Sorry to break it to you, but the richer they come, the sicker they are. I’d say the very owner of this park is the most likely candidate. Where’s your counter evidence?”

“More deaths on this ride…” Conrad shivered, realizing an ugly truth. “…Mean more publicity for the owners. It’s a perfect fit.”

“If there were that many murders, wouldn’t it… cancel out? That’s a lot of deaths for one ride… it’s just dangerous at that point.” Katie debated.

“You’d still go on it…” Frankie joked.

Mary’s gaze had not faltered.

“We’re ignoring strange things.” 

“The only strange thing we’ve been ignoring is you. We’re this close to solving this and you throw us off? Don’t tell me you’re a spy after all. Did the bigwigs plant you here?”

Mary looked a little afraid all of a sudden. Not because of Frankie’s words, rather… she was afraid of the image her brain had just shown her. A plan.

“…I know how.”

“What? Alright, time’s up.” Frankie got out of her seat to restrain the woman, hand placed shaking my on the gun in her waistband. She hated this. She hated every bit of it.

Mary stood as well.

Out of nowhere, she yelled at the top of her lungs.

“Ghosts… ghosts! Spirits of this ride! O, give me a sign! Show thyselves!”

Taken aback as they were, everyone was frankly just saddened by the girl’s desperate display. 

Until all the lights went out again.