My breath hitched. "What do you mean, go downstairs?"
"Steve's waiting for us down there," Carol said cheerfully.
My fingers tingled, and I hesitated before speaking, "We need to go downstairs fast."
Perhaps Steven was really on the first floor.
That lunatic didn't want Steven involved. He wanted us to turn against each other.
"Steven's definitely the mastermind," some muttered. They were all banding together against him.
Now that someone had died, their fear was maxed out, stirring up their survival instincts and deepest malice.
"We gotta find him and deal with him, or we're done for," Howard muttered quietly. While a few others whispered among themselves, scheming away.
"That annoying voice hasn't shown up. Let's use the time we've got to find a way out, to the next floor," Howard, being clever, instructed a couple of his group to look for a way out. "Who knows what crazy stuff that lunatic might pull next."
I glanced at Joel cautiously. "We gotta head downstairs too."
"Heh..." Yasmin, just standing there watching, smirked coldly. "Thinking about going downstairs? Seems tough."
I frowned, looking at Yasmin. "What do you mean?"
"It seems you haven't figured out what that person really wants," Yasmin walked up to me. "He wants us to turn against each other. If that hasn't happened yet, he won't let us go downstairs so easily."
My nerves tensed up.
"What's more thrilling than uniting us, building trust, forming bonds, and then turning us against each other?" Joel sneered. "So, this level acts as a buffer zone. All we need is for everyone to work together to find an exit. No bloodshed. You're definitely not Stephanie."
Yasmin furrowed her brow, looking warily at Joel. "So, are you saying that just because she asks why, what to do, and cries whenever things go wrong, that makes her Stephanie?"
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