Blinding Lights

"Ashton doesn't seem very affected by the conversation. Everyone else looks pretty scared or suspecting" James thought, 'Could Ashton be the prisoner? He does feel very suspicious'

Ashton looked at James. James looked back at him. Gustavus looked at them eye each other and thought 'These two might be the two escaped prisoners. They stare at each other every time. They might be talking to each other through signs. But James was already here before I and Ashton arrived. Also, Ashton wouldn't have a car if he were the prisoner too. Then why are they frequently eyeing one another? I need to observe more…'

'This is causing new suspicions, damn it' James thought, "Five sixes".

 Everything was quiet then, except for the rumble of the wind on a glass window of the room. The game continued with increasing intensity. Slowly, all of them were involved in it. But James was partially still out of the game. 'I keep thinking, why is this story named 'SNOW DUSK?' Does it mean the snow pours down until the dusk quits? That can't be good then. Well, we know there's a detective dusk in the story. So, does it mean he is going to be covered in snow? Or he uses snow to catch the prisoner? In anyway, the snow is going to play a major role here I need to keep an eye on that' he thought. He gazed at Ashton.

Ashton was busy in the game "Six sixes", but James knew that Ashton knew what he was thinking.

'He doesn't seem to be worried about the title. Either he knows what it means or the author's not writing what he's thinking. The second option worries me more'.

"Do you know what crime the prisoner committed?" Ashton asked James.

"I, uh… have no idea about that"

"Hmm…"                                                            

"Liar!" Gustavus called. The cups were lifted. There weren't six sixes in total. "Yes!"

"Alright. Another game"

They reshuffled the dice.

"Four fours" Nathan said.

"That's a big bid to start with" Madhav said, "And you know what? I am fine with that. Five fours"

'Ashton is damn suspicious' James thought.

"James, it's your turn".

"Six fours" James said. 'It feels Ashton might actually be the prisoner' he thought.

"LIAR!!" Ashton cried.

"Huh?"

"Liar, there aren't six fours" Ashton said.

"Oh!"

There weren't six fours. "James is very suspicious" Gustavus said out loud. Everyone looked at him with a paused breath. "He always gets to be the liar". All of them exhaled at once.

"Another match?"

Suddenly, the sound of the wind hitting the glass window of the room stopped and the lights went out and came on all at a moment

"Huh?"

"What happened?"

No one answered the question. Everyone kept rolling their eyes at all of the room's light. They were all as quite as mice. There was a loud thunder suddenly and everything went dark again. There were no loud winds outside as if the storm wasn't there at all.

"What happened?" growled Gustavus. Nothing could be seen. "Everybody, stand back!" shouted Nathan in an agonizing voice. 'The prisoner, whoever it is, might hit me, or worse, shoot me in this darkness' thought Nathan. He was very afraid and moved back as far as he could, until he hit a wall.

'It seems to be the break of the blizzard. The storm stops for a few minutes now' thought Madhav and suddenly he heard a large sound as the table fell down, 'Oh! The prisoner is here!' he cried out loud inside of him and ran back.

'These three are here and are worried' thought Ashton, 'Where is James?'

"James!" he shouted.

'I knew Ashton and James were working together as prisoners. They are gonna kill us' thought Gustavus and was terrified completely, "Nooo!" he shouted.

There was silence outside but everyone was hearing their own heart thumping and was knocking things down in fear. 'I shouldn't let James escape' Ashton thought and rushed to the last place where he saw James.

Suddenly the lights came back and they were flickering. The noises all stopped as everybody stopped moving. In that flickering, Ashton could see them— Nathan, was at the far end, backed to a wall, almost in tears; Gustavus was at the window, also afraid to the toe; Madhav was on the floor with his palms tightly pressing his ears in fear.

'James…' Ashton turned around. James was standing in the place where Ashton previously was, not at all looking scared. He looked back at him with his eyebrows twisted. They looked at each other for a moment.

"What happened?" asked James, turning to the others.

"It is probably the break of the blizzard" said Madhav slowly, trying to stand up and look normal.

'The break?' James thought. Everything was silent outside, but still freezing. There was hardly any light in the room and the one that was left was strongly flickering. Gustavus looked out the window. It almost looked like a wounded warrior fallen in war.

"Everything's calm outside" he said.

            "We better leave before the blizzard comes back then" James said.

"No" Madhav urged, "We won't make it. The storm will be back in about five minutes. There is no way we'll make it out by then. If we don't cross the storm before it resumes, we will be frozen to death"

'It's better if I go out in a storm than get blocked in a room knowing there's an assassin here' thought Gustavus. The light flickered hard.

"Are you sure we can't manage to get out?" asked James, "I can't stay here any longer".

"No way" said Madhav, "There is no shelter anywhere near, and we can't cross the blizzard before it starts again"

Everyone was standing at random points in the room.

"How about Ashton's car? We could go faster with that" asked Nathan.

"I'm sure we will have a good time finding it five miles under the snow" said Ashton.

"How long do you suppose we stay here then?" Gustavus asked.

"About half the time that has passed" Madhav said in a low voice. The room was in silence.

The flickering lights blinded Ashton.

"What's with the lights?" he asked.

"The transition of the storm might have damaged the generator" Nathan said.

'There's a generator here? A working one?' Madhav thought.

"Where's the generator?"

Nathan pointed to the hallway connected to the room.

"If it really is damaged, we need to get it back working. I know how to, but someone else must come with me"