“None of this is making any sense.”
That shocking video was still fresh on my mind. What in the hell happened to this isolated mansion?
I scrolled through the files in the video camera and went back through the dates before picking out one video. In this video, a group of men were arguing at the lounge.
I didn’t know why they were arguing, but I went ahead and fast-forwarded until something of interest happened.
“This is obviously a murder!” A man yelled. “As soon as the body was found, the landline stopped working, and all our phones were suddenly out of range. Someone clearly doesn’t want us talking to the cops. Didn’t you say it yourself? That GPS Jammer can interfere with the reception service?”
I fast-forwarded the video again.
“Maybe the culprit hasn’t left yet,” the bearded man said offscreen. “What are the odds he’s still here on the island?”
“Impossible,” another man said. “It’s too risky for him to stay on the island after exacting his revenge on Hinako. It would be over for him if we found him.”
“What if he had a reason to stay on this island?”
I started fast-forwarding again. Just what is going on with these people?
“Alright, everyone,” an unknown man said. “Let’s just leave the rest to him and rest already.”
As several footsteps scattered away, two men appeared on the screen. They were in the middle of standing up from the sofa.
“Wait, you two,” the bearded man said. “There’s still something I want to ask. What if the culprit was one of us?”
“Enough with the jokes!” A man angrily said to the camera. “And will you stop recording! It’s annoying!”
A few seconds later, the video ended.
“Just what in the world happened here?”
The recordings in the video camera did little to answer my questions and only added to my confusion.
Picking videos randomly like this won’t get me anywhere.
“I’ll have to go through them chronologically to make sense of what’s happening here.”
So I looked for the oldest video and played it. The lobby of some airport appeared on the screen. As people flitted to and fro, the screen showed what looked to be the passage of the entrance gate. The announcement and the people were all speaking in Japanese, so it must be an airport in Japan.
“She’s late.” That was the voice of the bearded man. “She should have arrived already.”
Looks like the bearded man is the camera man for today. He seems to be waiting for someone at the airport.
After a while, a woman wearing black sunglasses appeared with her luggage in tow. The camera zoomed in on the woman. When she realized her video was being taken, she smiled and approached the camera.
“What are you doing at a place like this?” The woman took off her sunglasses, revealing a young woman with short, black hair and good-looking features. She was dressed simply, merely wearing a pair of shorts and a tank top, accentuating the tattoo on her right arm. It was a tattoo of a flower and extended from the back of her hand to her elbow.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” the bearded man said. “I figured the late-comers should come together.”
“Where’s Matoko and Natsuki?”
“They’re at the island already. Didn’t they contact you?”
“I was on a plane, so my phone was off,” the tattoo woman pointed at the camera. “By the way, are you recording right now?”
“Everyone’s gathering after all. I figured I might as well record something for remembrance’s sake.”
“A suspicious bearded man going around taking videos… Be careful not to be mistaken for a voyeur now.”
The bearded man wryly smiled. “Ouch. Do I really look like that kind of guy?”
“That’s why I’m telling you,” the tattoo girl impishly smiled. “Anyway, we’re going to be late at this rate, so let’s get going already.”
“Yeah.”
After the bearded man said that, the video ended.
Leave a Reply