A silence swallows the room. One could page through a dictionary, and find no words for what the Rabbit and the Horse must be feeling—are they shocked? Stunned? I can’t speak to their emotions, but I at least know my own—I feel sick.
“Horse, you said yesterday that we shouldn’t kill the st wolf because of what happened to the Dragon,” I continue, as the bewildered girl hems and haws.
“I don’t, I think, I, maybe—”
“You gave your word that you’d spare me. So, either vote for the Rabbit or give me your Card so I can do it for you right now?
The Horse flushes: she takes out her Card and stops and stares. She hovers her hand over the panel, fingers twitching, and keeps veering between the SNAKE and the RABBIT pane.
“No! No, no, no!” Rabbit balls up her hands, bouncing them as she speaks. “I’m the st wolf.”
“You’re the st wolf!?” Horse leans on one leg, then the other, her ponytail doing ps around the back of her head as she swings back and forth between us.
“Yes, I’m the one who murdered the Ox. Vote for that lying Snake, and then we can both be free!” Rabbit shouts, and finally all the roles are known.
Role Distribution Chart
Dragon
(Seer) | Wolf
Dog
Vilger
Snake
(Seer) (Wolf) | Vilger
Pig
(Vilger) Healer
Horse
Vilger
Rat
(Vilger) Seer
Goat
Wolf
Ox
Vilger
Monkey
Vilger
Tiger
Vilger
Rooster
Vilger
Rabbit
(Vilger) Wolf
Key
(Cimed Role) | Actual
Of course, I’m a vilger, and the Rabbit’s actually the st wolf. I’m not surprised by that fact—unlike her teammates, there’s no direct evidence implicating her, but there are little specks of circumstance that paint a complete portrait of guilt.
The walls that adjoin each suite are quite thin. I had heard the Rat speak to me from his bed, and when Lily was murdered there were sounds of a struggle. Then, why did no one hear a peep from the Rooster the night she was killed?
The answer to that question is that the Rooster’s two neighboring suites belong to the Rabbit and the Dragon. If they were both wolves, then that expins why no one had heard anything—the witnesses weren’t in their rooms, they were out committing the murder!
The Rabbit’s always tired, too. Wolves are forced to be active at te hours of the night and ward off accusations during arbitrary times in the day, likely causing them great fatigue.
The strongest stroke of all in this ignominious illustration is that the Rabbit always went along with the Dragon’s ideas in each trial. Her choices usually favored the wolves, and she seemed very close to him despite them having just met.
“I don’t, I, I, I—” After this commotion, the Horse clings to her Card, as if we’ll try to take it from her.
“You want to be a good person, right?” Someone as strong and true as you shouldn’t fall for such a bald-faced lie!” the Rabbit calls out. “Think, Horse! Does it even make sense for the Snake to be a wolf?
It doesn’t. It absolutely doesn’t make any sense.
“But I am a wolf,” I say, smiling.
It absolutely doesn’t make sense, yet mafia is all about bluffing sense from nonsense; building a house of cards and calling it a fortress.
Rabbit puffs her cheeks, fuming. She had killed the Ox because she understood how obvious a wolf she was, even as she had tried to hide it in the past five days. It made no difference whether or not she left the seer alive, since the surviving two would surely figure her out.
So instead of trying to hide, the Rabbit had banked on the Horse’s promise to let the wolves survive. She kept me alive so that she and the Horse could team up against me…
and because my erratic behavior might have made me seem that I’d be an easier target than the Ox. And yet…
“Snake, you can’t just say the same thing over and over as if that makes it real,” the Rabbit says, as I swiftly talk back.
“Don’t listen to the Rabbit! I’m the Dragon’s partner! I’m that st wolf!”
I’m a sheep in wolf’s clothing, or a snake in wolf’s clothing at the very least. Whatever one wants to call this, I’ve found my only move.
`“Like, you were totally saying you were seer just now? You’re telling me literally nooobody in the game had that role!?” the Rabbit struggles back.
“The Dragon and I both cimed we were seer to confuse the vilge,” I argue. “The Rooster, who died on the first night, must have been seer instead. You’re the one being absurd. I confessed first, and you’re mimicking what I’m saying just to try and save your own skin!”
“Stop! Stop! I don’t understand.” Horse shouts over us both. “You’re a wolf—”
“That’s right,” I say.
“And you’re a wolf too.”
“Yeah,” the Rabbit agrees.
“But you’re not both wolves,” the Horse says pinly, blinking.
“Yes.”
“Yeah.”
“Ahhhhhhhhh!!”
A sign that’s been precariously attached by a thumbtack falls off the wall. Quiet in the library, it says in bold. For the next few seconds, frozen with tension, we follow that rule. Then—
“I need some time to think,” the Horse says softly, as she crumples up her notes. “Even before I got here, I already knew what I needed to do. I don’t think that choice will change, but I still need some time.”
“Huh? Wait, we need to make sure the choice you’re making is the right one!” I get up and walk between her in the entrance. But, the Horse ignores me as she makes her way out of this cluttered room.
“Don’t worry, I— just, don’t worry Snake,” Horse mutters.
She walks slowly, dragging her sneaker on the floor, pausing as she grasps the door’s golden knob. I’m standing there, half-risen from my seat.
If she had already decided who to vote for, then it probably means she’ll vote for me. Because st night she’d have thought I was seer, and she said she’d save the st wolf…. there’s a great risk that I’ll die.
But there’s still one hour left! If I could talk to her, and find the right words to say, then maybe I can get her to believe me.
Lily, the Dragon, the Rat, they’ve all left me behind. If I’m just going to join them soon, what was the point of all this? I’ll hammer out the thoughts in my mind, pound them out like I always do, painstakingly drawing out a brain-syrup with which I can form another argument… again and again, until I can drown all objections away. The portraits on the library walls judge my frantic self with their oily eyes.
Then a cold hand wraps itself around my wrist, death-like. A shuffling, a sigh, a hot breath against my ear and softness pressed into my back like two pillows:
