Three bodies lay scattered on the ground-one from the orphanage, the other two unfamiliar faces. It seemed the killer had brought them in for reasons unknown.

Not replaceing Steven among the bodies, Joel and I both breathed a sigh of relief.

"They're human traffickers," Joel stated, glancing at the two unidentified bodies.

I was surprised as I asked, "How did you figure that out?"

"Take a look at this tattoo." Joel pointed to a cross behind one of the human traffickers' ears.

"In the dismemberment case, we found fragments of the same tattoo missing behind the victims' ears too." Joel frowned, surveying the surroundings. "Steve will be okay. Let's hurry up and leave this place." I glanced around frantically.

Steven, please stay safe.

"Is this the only way to the 17th floor?" I nervously asked Joel.

"For now, it's the only route I've found. But, I'm not sure if it's the only one," Joel replied, shaking his head.

Steven might have taken a different path to the 17th floor.

All I could do was hope and pray that Steven was safe.

17th floor.

Michael and Yasmin had been waiting in the center of the open floor.

Michael had returned to his previous cold demeanor, standing beside Yasmin, as if he hadn't been the one to save me last night.

To be honest, I started to wonder if it was all just a hallucination from carbon monoxide poisoning.

"Hey, have any of you seen Steve?" I didn't see Steven on the 17th floor. I started to panic, asking around for his whereabouts. Everyone shook their heads, saying they hadn't seen him.

"I think he's the mastermind, probably lurking behind us, enjoying the show!" Howard started to rile everyone up. "Remember what that voice said? The killer is one of us! I bet it's him. He's just a lunatic. He even confessed to being the serial killer!"

"Yeah... I know him. He's a lunatic, a genius from the orphanage..." someone chimed in.

Quinn's husband, Callum, joined in

loudly, "I

murderer, no doubt about it! It's all because back then we accidentally started a fire, failed to save them,

2ar. Steven is the

and let that guy named Simmy burn alive. He's been holding a grudge and plotting against us!" Content

My palms got sweaty. Where was Steven? If this kept up, they might really think he's the killer and turn against him.

"No way? He saved us," some argued in Steven's defense.

"What do you know? Everyone's dead, his little game won't be fun anymore. This lunatic just wants to play us to death," Howard clenched his teeth as he spoke.

Mark chimed in loudly, "He's a

lunatic, this supposed genius. Killing us would be just a piece of cake. We can't just sit around and wait for the worst. We need to replace and kill him to defend ourselves!"

The scene erupted into chaos.

Yasmin and Michael stayed on the sidelines, observing everyone coldly.

Quinn cried out, defending Steven. But, her voice was feeble, barely heard.

"Simmy... Hehe, Steve, we're gonna be together again," Carol babbled innocently, her mind clouded by her low intelligence and the recent excitement.

"Have you seen Steve? He came to replace you?" I rushed to Carol, squatting down and anxiously grabbing her shoulders.

Steven couldn't be the mastermind. With his intelligence, if he was behind this, he would definitely lurk among the crowd, not be discovered in the first round.

Clearly, either Steven was in trouble, or someone was afraid of him and intentionally separated him from us.

Leaving us, who weren't particularly bright, to deal with this mess.

"Steve... went downstairs." Carol grinned at me.

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