They were in Lili's room, but Lili was not. Strange. She should have been back from work by now. A moment of silence hung in the air. Neither of them knew what to do next.

"Search the place." Victoria spoke. "Maybe we'll find something. Evidence, or whatever."

They searched the room, every inch of it, rummaging through the pile of boxes Lili had. She had a lot of stuff—too much stuff. It took them an hour or two to get through it all. The place was a mess. But then, in one of the bottom boxes, they found it.

A knife. A bloody knife.

The blood on it was dry, a few day old. And next to it, a piece of paper. A list of words. Ruined. Damaged. Crippled. The same words that kept appearing on the victims' chests. Some of them were checked off, others remained. And the paper... it had drops of blood on it.

Alice stared at it, shaking her head. "No. No, no, no... This can't be happening. This is wrong. Someone must've planted it. It can't be Lili."

Victoria didn't hesitate. "For how long are you gonna keep denying it? For how long will you look away from the truth?"

Alice's voice cracked. "No. There must be an explanation. There has to be."

"Nothing explains this." Victoria snapped. "Not this far."

"But we can't just accuse her," Alice whispered, her voice faltering. "We can't."

Victoria stepped closer, a final warning. "If you don't do something now, your mother will be the next victim."

Alice froze. That one sentence, simple as it was, cut through the fog of disbelief. She knew, in that moment, that Victoria was right. There was no denying it anymore. She accepted it. Lili was the killer.

***

Hours later after they had found the knife, Lili walked in. She found them on her bed, the bloody knife and the note with the list of words placed between them. An accusation. Her clothes, her things, were all scattered across the floor.

"What is this?" she asked, shaking slightly. "What have you done?"

Alice spoke quietly, barely above a whisper. She was ashamed, ashamed of the truth she now had to speak. "We know. You don't have to hide it any longer."

"Hide?" Lili asked. "Hide what?"

Then she saw it—the knife, the list. Her expression turned from confusion to disbelief. "You cannot seriously be saying this... You cannot seriously be accusing me... Not you too."

Victoria remained calm. "Accusing you of what? We haven't accused you yet."

Lili's eye grew wide with panic, her voice rose. "I am not the killer!" She yelled at them, almost breaking into tears. "I am not the killer. Please. Not you too..."

She choked back a sob. "Other people... other people accusing me, I can handle. But you two... It's different. It hurts. It... it destroys me. Please, don't do this."

Alice swallowed hard. her heart pounded as she spoke. "There's no other choice. We can't let you do this anymore."

And that was it. Lili's facade crumbled, tears welling up in her eyes. She staggered back, barely able to speak through the sobs. "I thought you were my friends... I thought I could trust you." she cried out. "But no. No, you're just like everyone else."

In a flash, she turned, running towards the door. "I don't want to see you again. We're done. You mean nothing to me now."

Outside the door stood Erdmann warner, waiting for her. Not quite a police officer, not quite a soldier. Whatever passed for authority in this place wa him. He'd been called the second they found the knife.

Lili barely had time to turn before he moved. She resisted, of course she did, but against a grown man with no weapon in her hand, it took him less than ten seconds to have her on the ground, wrists locked in an infinity cuff. She kicked, screamed, cried—said all the things people say when they're scared and furious.

Then she looked up.

She saw Alice and Victoria watching her from the doorway. Silent. Still.

That's when she stopped.

"Don't look at me like that," she snapped, breath hitching. "Haven't you hurt me enough?"

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