Chapter 11: Aftermath

"The most profound things can only be expressed through simplicity."

-EDDY CHEN

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Distant sounds of the whirring air conditioner in the dimly lit room, graced only by the incandescence of sunlight fighting its way through the thin curtains behind a grilled window separating the outside world from theirs could be heard in the background. And along this scatter of white noise, a voice.

Sleepy eyes flutter open as a young lad sees a pretty girl sitting by the window sill looking back at him with the sweetest smile he's seen in a while - a smile so earnestly innocent, the boy thought it felt nauseating. "You better wipe that stupid grin off your face before I puke, sister." the boy said.

"Oh come on, Damon! Can't I just be glad you're finally awake?" she says in playful retaliation.

The two laugh as he, Damon Pear, sits up on his bed, the cozy white blanket sheets brushing against his skin as he pushes them aside, standing up and making his way towards Samantha that was still looking at him so fondly. He pats her head as her smile only widens, showing a few of her front teeth in the aftermath.

Damon looks out the window and he sees guards patrolling along a beautiful tree-lined path, tall walls of grey encasing the entire premise as if to keep them away from the cruel reality that was waiting for them outside, and huge barbwires that were probably electrically charged decorated the top of those walls like pretty garlands along the fireplace on Christmas day.

It was a beautiful day today, the sun was shining in the midst of a crystal sky blue canvas and the birds could be heard chirping along to sweet song of their own. Damon breathes and takes in this scenic view before a knock would be heard echoing throughout their quiet room.

Samantha giggles and Damon sighs, closing his eyes for a mere few seconds to collect himself and then proceeds to walk towards the door, his hand slowly encasing the cold silver door knob as he twists it carefully and reveals a man in a lab coat to greet him. "Yes?" Damon says.

"I'm glad to see you and your sister are awake Mr. Pear." the doctor at the door replies, "The two of you have been called to come in. Are you ready make your statements?"

"Yes, please!" Samantha pipes excitedly from the back. Damon puts on a small sly grin as Samantha runs towards the door and the two of them are now following an unknown doctor as he leads them down an empty corridor.

Soon they reach a room with a one-way window so the Pear twins don't see what's beyond and what seems to be an officer awaits them inside. They sit across that officer in front of a short rectangular wooden table with a nearly inefficient light bulb hanging atop in the center from the ceiling, and the officer starts, "Do you swear to say the truth, only the truth, and nothing more but the truth?"

"Yes, sir." the twins say in unison.

"Alright, remember, you two - you're both now under oath. Any false testaments may end you up in jail."

"Well, we're already going to juvy anyway, would it matter?" Damon says as he sits back laxedly on his seat. The officer scoffs at the younger's demeanor and eyes his sister as she only sits so mannerly on her seat with an eerie placid smile plastered across her face, cheeks stained in a healthy tint of pink and lips so filled with a vivid natural colour.

The officer starts off with an introduction, confirms the twins' identities, and later asks them to start with their story telling all the way from the top, only, this version had nothing to hide. They both speak as if singing a duet, unironically taking turns like they've rehearsed this scene countless times in the past and the smiles on their faces never faltered, not even in the least bit.

"How did you think of taking out Emily Von Geisler's imposter first? Or rather, how did you know that woman was an imposter in the first place?" The officer asked no doubtedly.

"Well," Samantha answers first, "for starters, we used to work under the Von Geislers before, so naturally, we'd know what the real Emily looked like." she stated all so matter-of-factly.

The officer now wore a confused look in the glimmer of his eyes under the dim fluorescent they had in the room. He looked at Damon who had only been daintily quiet so far before raising another query which should have been so obvious right from the start, "What do you mean you worked for the Von Geislers?"

"You see, sir," Damon now replies, "the previous employer who the phonograph on the first day claims we have killed were no other than the great Mr. and Mrs. Von Geisler - head owners of the Von Geisler coal producing companies and the vast premium hotel chains world wide! - the parents of the real Emily Von Geisler." he said.

"True to each word, sir!" Samantha confirms, delight in each syllable and then continuing where her brother had left off, "Emily was claimed to have killed off her parents for inheritance reasons but a girl like her would never get her dainty hands dirty on such a crime. She made us do it!" she said with much conviction, her eyes almost sparkling with tears from her melodramatic demeanor.

"Of course the abuse was no lie, sir," Damon finishes off, again like a duet made only for the two of them, "but that was only the tip of the ice burg." he said.

The officer changed his look to that of intrigue. He's heard of murder confessions in the past, but for a pair of nineteen-year-old twins to kill off 3 grown adults and fake their own deaths along the way in a span of 5 days; and to have gotten away with past murders as well, this was like something he thought he'd only ever know of through ink on paper - a novel of some sort.

Samantha sees his reaction and her smile grows as well. She steals a glance towards her brother then she says, "And now to answer your initial question, officer. Why did we choose to get rid of the imposter first? Well, that part's a no-brainer, right brother?"

"Obviously." Damon replies, "we've looked into every guest we invited, but the appearance of an imposter was quite unforeseen. We know nothing about her, just that she was an imposter. What was she capable of? Was she capable of murder? Was she analytical enough to see through our tactics? What if she had caught on to our plan before the other guests? We would've been in danger by then.

"For short, she was getting in the way of our master-plan, and so naturally, you'd want to get rid of any unnecessary hindrances, right?" Damon finished with a resounding query,

And, "So we did!" Samantha exclaimed excitedly.

The officer made sure to jot down this piece of information as he continued on with his interrogation. He asked about the next events: the death of the second victim - Adam Roscoe.

"To be honest sir, we didn't actually plan the order of who to dispatch first fore hand." Samantha says so matter-of-factly, "We sort just went with who we felt like disposing of next. Either way, everyone was going to doe there anyway. We'd make sure of it." she said.

Damon nodded in agreement and just as he opened his mouth to speak of Adam Roscoe, he stopped. Mouth left gaping, Damon slowly turned red in the face at the thought of the doctor. His expression turned to that of anger and his eyes dilated in an offensive way.

Damon's eyebrows furrowed as he decidedly turned the officer's way and said, "Adam Roscoe was - in no exceptions whatsoever - a douche. He was mean and he believed in whatever he thought was right - or at least that's the attitude I received." Damon said. "So we killed him next." he concluded.

Samantha chuckled at Damon's expression earning a glare from her twin. "Sure he was mean, but you sure were acting pretty dramatic that day!" "Well I had to avoid suspicions! What did you expect?" The twins ended up bickering like it was a normal day's conversation. Casual giggles, informal rising of tone, and fun little teasing towards each other. It was like for once, you could actually see them act like the children they actually were.

The officer cleared his throat so to grab the teenagers' attention and he said, "So how exactly did you pull off this trick, you two?"

The twins stopped their little game, Samantha teasing Damon no longer and Damon mannerly taking his proper seat again. "Well it seemed like the doctor had some sort of dislike for my brother, sir, so to eliminate the dawning suspicion towards him, we decided to pretend like my brother died." Samantha answered.

"I kept a tennis ball with me, sir." Damon now started, "For precautionary measures, of course." he added. "If you play with a tennis ball long enough, it can mask your pulse for a short while, and by lowering the room temperature - and subsequently my skin as well - via the air conditioner, all my sister had to do was act all crazed and depressed and it would've done the trick!"

"Which it did!" Samantha pointed out.

Damon snickered at her response before he continued, "After faking my death, sir, Samantha and I simply just had to sneak into the doctor's bedroom and somehow get rid of him. Firing a gun would've been too loud so the easiest way was to stab him with a blade."

"But how did you get into the doctor's room assuming it was supposedly locked?" the officer asked.

"Yes, it was locked, sir." Damon replied. "But as housekeepers, it shouldn't be unusual for us not to have the master key now, should it?"

The officer nodded in agreement, slowly piecing the murder puzzle in head. So that explains the varying depths in the stab wounds. It was done by two different people. - the officer thought.

The twins continued telling their story, figuring out which person to kill next. After Roscoe's demise the only individuals left "alive" were Samantha Pear and Victoria Hughes; and Victoria, being a person who knew very well that she had not committed a single crime since stepping foot on the island, knew that the most probable thing left was to assume it was Samantha. Or perhaps another person.

But ridden too deep in anxiety and doubt, Victoria who had slowly been losing her sanity, had convinced herself that the only way to stay safe was to get rid of everyone, and of everything. So, appointingly, she had decided to "get rid" of Samantha, shot her with a blank pistol that had oh so magically appeared in her hand bag - credits to Damon masterfully sneaking it in at night - and had convinced herself that she was the only one left alive on the island.

They explained: even a blank pistol could still make a bang when fired, and all Samantha had to do was act like she was hurt; of course with the help of a few stocks of blood capsules, starch, and some red food colouring all wrapped in a tiny plastic bag - creating the illusion of "realistic" blood to an insane woman like Victoria should've been a piece of cake.

Victoria, with her judgment heavily clouded with fear and hopes of true peace in her heart, her guilt had gotten all over her head and as Damon hurriedly left her room - noose and chair all prepped up just for Victoria - her guilty conscience had told her to jump, no longer feeling the darkness crawling with her sins and fear. She was scared, angry, relieved, but most of all numb.

With just a little psychological push towards a weak-willed lady like Victoria, she had managed to let go of her own life and to turn her world into complete darkness, while all fully aware that there'd be no more turning back.