Follow Annabelle's suggestion and go look for Jack

From Create Your Own Story

Though your instincts are telling you not to leave Annabelle alone with Holly, you push them aside and agree to Annabelle's request. "All right," you say. "I'll go get Jack. I'll be right back."

When you find Jack, you quickly explain what happened. He has a look of pure disbelief on his face. "That's impossible!"

"I can only tell you what I saw. When Holly wakes up, we'll learn the truth. Now please come with me, Jack, quickly."

The two of you hurry back to the side room. Annabelle is bandaging Holly's wound. She's still unconscious...but still breathing. You sigh in relief...and surprise. Were you wrong to be suspicious of Annabelle?

Annabelle repeats to Jack the story she told you. Jack looks skeptical.

"You know I've never tried to seduce you, Jack. But a younger woman living with an older couple...the older woman can get jealous. Paranoid. See things that aren't there. Even a woman as attractive as Holly."

Jack still looks skeptical, but conflict is clearly entering his mind. "My Holly? I never thought...But then, I can't read her mind...Well, when she wakes up, I know she'll tell me the truth. I'm not leaving her side until then. Here, I'll take her to bed." He picks his wife up and carries her out of the room.

You are left alone with Annabelle, but your guard is down because she didn't silence Holly when she had the chance to. Realizing you should still be suspicious of Annabelle, you are just about to reach for a weapon when her muscular brown arm snakes around your neck. You try to pry it loose, but your slim arm can't match the strength of her thicker one. You try to scream, but no sound comes out.

"Now!" hisses Annabelle. Suddenly, you feel a prick in your shoulder. Then you collapse to the floor. Looking up, you see that Annabelle has now been joined by Joe. He has a needle in his hand.

"It was you two all along," you moan faintly, your voice unable to rise higher than that. "Joe was faking his injury. And you were helping him hide it, Ana. You're the ones sabotaging the castle! And Holly busted you!"

Annabelle chuckles evilly. "Congratulations, Rina. You figured it out. Yes, Holly busted us when she caught Joe out of bed. She confronted me. I did the old 'deny everything, then sucker-punch her' routine. But she turned the tables and started strangling me. Luckily, I nailed her with the vase just in time."

"Why didn't you finish her when I left you alone with her?"

Ana laughs again. "Too simple. If I killed her then, I'd have had to face you and Jack at the same time. I knew I couldn't beat you both. But after I take you out, I can get Jack alone. Holly will be out for at least a few hours, I examined her. I'm a nurse, so I know. She'll be easy."

"What did you...inject me with..." you groan, feeling yourself weaken.

"Oh, this is a little 'mercy kill' poison that Annabelle keeps handy," says Joe, waving the empty syringe.

"Yes, Rina," Ana smiles. "I'm not so bad. You won't feel any pain."

"But WHY..."

"We had a nice thing going at first, just me and Jack and Holly and Joe in the castle. But then other people started begging at the doors, and Jack and Holly, the fools they are, let them all in. That conspiracy nut Ben, that wannabe commando Steve, those vapid airheads Kevin and Lissette, and the others...It was only a matter of time before one of them did something stupid and got us all eaten by zombies. So Joe and I made a plan. We started sabotaging things to get the others killed off one by one in zombie 'accidents.' With Joe's fake injury, he had the perfect alibi. Remember the window the zombies smashed through right after you arrived? That was us. We weakened the boards so the zombies could get in."

"Urgghhh...you'll never get away with this," you groan faintly, feeling your strength slipping away.

"Oh, really?" smirks Joe. "After you and Jack are taken care of, the rest will be a piece of cake, and we'll have the whole castle to ourselves."

"Yes," says Annabelle. "Except for one thing." She suddenly reaches out and snaps Joe's neck with her insanely strong wrists. "After the rest of you are gone, I'll have the whole castle to myself. If Jack or anyone else finds your corpse too soon, I'll just say that Joe was doing the sabotage by himself, he injected you with the poison after you caught him, and I killed him in self-defense. His fingerprints are conveniently on that syringe." She chuckles as she looks down at Joe's corpse. "He was useful for a while, but he outlived his usefulness. As did you, Marina."

"Noooo..." you groan, but no other sound comes out.

Your last thought before you black out forever is the faint hope that Jack and Holly can outsmart Annabelle and defeat her.

THE END