6 Chapter Six: So, There Were Six

After the memories ended, the people started to wake up, gripping their heads because they received memories that weren't theirs. The little boy was the first to recover because his mind was the easiest to soak up information. The teens followed after, while it took some time for the adults to catch their bearings.

"Hey, the door is open." Catherine noticed when she looked around, stopping at the door. She was hoping that people would not mention the dead body of Liam nor his memories. Even if the man was not the killer, she still did not want to think anything about him.

Even if she barely knew him, she hated him since their first interaction.

Elrick looked over, squinting his eyes as his headache was still persistent, "You are correct; it is."

The remaining people also looked over at the door, seeing that it was cracked open, waiting for them to exit. Everyone started to stand up, using the podium to help them; their legs felt like jelly.

Once they were up, Kevin was the first to notice that Ana's body was missing, but Liam's body was still there. "Where is the woman?" He asked, catching everyone's attention; their eyes fell to the middle of the room.

When they saw the body was missing, it was silent because no one knew what to say. It is not like the body woke up and started moving; it is a corpse! Maybe the person watching them moved the body?

Catherine looked away first, making her way to the door, "We should not worry about that. We should focus more on leaving this room, and possibly this place."

Elrick and Kevin nodded at that, agreeing with Catherine as they followed her to the door. Taylor said nothing but quietly made her way over. And Lilian went to the little boy, grabbing his hand before going to the others. The little boy struggled in the hold, but Lilian kept a tight grip, causing the boy to go lax after a few seconds.

Catherine pushed the door wide open, walking out, only to see that someone blocked both sides of the hallway. There were also no doors, except one, while showing blank white walls. "What the hell?" She questioned out loud as she furrowed her brows.

Elrick gently moved Catherine out of the way to see what her outburst was about, and when he saw the surroundings, he sighed while shaking his head. He should have known that the person was not going to let them out anytime soon.

The others started to file out of the door as they also took in the surrounding site. Kevin groaned, while Taylor did not say anything; Lilian was down due to what she saw as she started to whisper comforting words to the little boy, who did not give a reaction at all. It was almost like the child shut down.

Walking up to the only door in the hall, Elrick turned the doorknob. The door made a sound as it cracked open. He pushed the door some more, so it could open up wide, "Let us go in." He told the group.

All of them walked into the room, and as soon as everybody was inside, the door slammed closed, causing them to jump. A clicking sound of the door locking resonated in the room. It was also dark, making it hard to see.

But after a second, the room light turned on, and everything looked the same; well, not everything. Instead of a blank wall like the other room, this one had art all over it. Ana's body was in the middle, once again, but she was in casual clothes that had bloody hand prints on them.

The room had podiums already set up, but this time they had their names written on them like they were young kids in school (where the teachers would tell the students to make name tags for their desk). And another thing that the room had that the other didn't was another door inside it.

"Welcome to round two," the Watcher greeted, "art is in every day life, no matter what, whether it is our creativity, our work, or even in other cases, our kills. Life would be boring without art filling our eyes with color and emotion. Tell me, what is your favorite color?"

The others did not know if they asked a rhetorical question or wanted them to answer the question. Plus, they were a bit lost on what the person was talking about because they seemed to speak in a riddle.

"You have five seconds to answer, or there will be consequences." The Watcher answered the first part of their doubts.

"Green." Catherine quickly answered.

"Turquoise." Elrick followed.

"Pink," Taylor said, surprising the people with her answer. They thought she would have said, 'black.'

"Violet," Lilian spoke right after.

"Cream." Kevin followed after Lilian. Most of the people raised their eyebrows at that color.

"B-Black." The little boy softly stuttered.

"Kevin, Taylor, Elrick, Catherine, Lilian, and Alan." The Watcher replied.

They looked up, confused. Why did the person say their names in that order? "Is there a reason you said our names in that way?" Elrick asked.

"No reason, for now," the Watcher ominously answered, "but the door in the room leads to a restroom. I know you must have to use it, so used that order for the bathroom. Kevin is first, while Alan is last."

They looked at the door, then the ceiling, and back to the bathroom again. Catherine moved first, wanting to see if the person was telling the truth because she had to use the restroom; she held it since she woke up here.

But once she grabbed the door to open it, the doorknob started to heat up. "Ouch!" She shouted as she let go; her hand had a small burn mark. "What the hell!"

"Ah, I forgot to mention, you must follow the order I gave you or suffer the consequences. My apologies, indeed." The person did not sound sorry one bit.

Elrick turned towards Kevin, "Since you are first, could you open the door and confirm that it is a restroom on the other side?"

Kevin nodded, walking to the door as he grabbed the doorknob. He twisted it open with no problem. When Kevin fully opened the door, everyone saw that it was, in fact, a bathroom.

There was a toilet, a sink (with soap), and a small trash can in the middle of the two. But there was no mirror; the person most likely took it out, so no one could use the mirror's glass as a weapon. Lilian frowned at that because she wanted to see how she looked right now.

"I guess we should all go." Kevin said as he walked into the bathroom, "I will not take long." He closed the door behind him. Kevin and the others noticed that the door did not have a lock, so they needed to respect the others' privacy by not opening the door while another was inside.

After Kevin walked into the bathroom, everyone formed their line in the order that the person gave them and waited.

One by one, everyone got to use the restroom, and when the last person used it, the Watcher came back on. "Now that everyone is finished. Let us begin round two. Please proceed to the podiums that has your name on it."

Everyone followed as they looked for the podium with their name on it. Once they found it, getting situated at their stand, a chain quickly shot out from the bottom of it. The chain effectively caught everyone's leg, cuffing them in place.

The people jumped at that but did not react loudly. They knew the person would chain them to the podium as they did in the other room. At least the lights stayed on this time.

"This time, everyone will plead their case in this round, at the end, because it involves all of you. We cannot avoid art; it is in our everyday living. Art can bring people together or tear them apart. All of you have crossed Ana before in the world of art. And all of you disagreed with her in the name of art." The Watcher was quiet after that.

Then, a message appeared above the dead body:

[What did you disagree about Ana's view of art? And where did that disagreement lead you? To anger, hatred, violence, or even murder? Remember, do not lie.]

The Watcher hit the button that said, 'Memory Two,' causing the people to grab their heads as some of their old memories started to return. At this rate, they are going to get used to having a splitting headache.

Once they finished receiving their memories, they started to look at each other, wondering who would speak first. Like before, the room was quiet, with the people not wanting to talk about their interaction with Ana.

But after a few minutes, Elrick sighed before saying, "I'll go first." Everyone turned towards him, waiting for him to tell his story.