As soon as their class finished, Jonah and Willa went to go find Dominic and share with him the email they received. As soon as they saw him, Jonah asked him, ‘Why aren’t you in class?’ Dominic replied, ‘My class got canceled today. What’s up?’ Willa answered, ‘We got another message from Z.’ Dominic once again replied, ‘Are you kidding me? Fuck.’ They showed him the note, and then they went about their class day before meeting up with Jennifer, Max, and Noemi that afternoon in the barn. The three classmates showed the note to the other three, who were equally stunned and horrified. ‘Why the hell are they wanting to make a crime scene?’ asked Max. He added, ‘They’re just trying to make us more vulnerable and scared.’

The group decided to take the risk and go to the cabin that night. As they were packing up supplies, Noemi asked Jonah, ‘When did you get the email?’ Jonah answered her, ‘It was while Willa and I were in our psychology class together. We were both stunned to see it in the middle of the lecture when we’re trying to listen to the professor teaching.’ ‘Understandably so,’ said Noemi. She added, ‘We’re going to stick together as a group of six tonight. No one gets left behind.’

As night fell, the group went to the cabin in the woods beyond campus. The ambience felt eerie and tense for the six friends. They entered the cabin, and suddenly felt comfort. Dominic said, ‘I haven’t been in this cabin since my first semester. It’s weird being in here after a couple years.’ He turned the lights on in the cabin. And as the lights came on, the group’s eyes began to adjust to having bright lights on in their presence.

‘This is going to be a quick visit, just so none of us get hurt or killed,’ said Jennifer, who was now worrying about what was to come. Then, all of a sudden, Anna showed up to the cabin. ‘Hey guys, whatcha doing?’ she asked. ‘We received another note this morning, and we decided to come to the cabin to investigate,’ said Dominic. ‘Mind if I tag along? I won’t do anything stupid,’ she asked further. The group reluctantly agreed, and grouped up in their respective duos, with Anna tagging along with Max and Noemi. Dominic and Jonah went to inspect the attic, to which the boyfriends found nothing of significance up there. Then they went to the boys bedroom, and once again, found nothing of note. Jennifer and Willa investigated the upstairs loft, and only found leftover chip containers from a previous group of people camping in the cabin. Anna, Max, and Noemi investigated the cellar, and were in the middle of searching when they heard a noise. Noemi and Anna both jumped out of fright, yet Max remained unfazed.

‘What was that noise?’ asked Anna. Noemi replied, ‘I don’t know.’ Max remarked, ‘It was the furnace turning on.’ The trio continued to investigate until Anna stepped on a trip-wire, filling the cellar with smoke. They managed to escape the cellar, but then the cabin began to fill with the smoke. The other four were still together in the main area of the cabin, yet could barely see a thing. In the midst of the chaos, Anna disappeared. ‘I can’t see. It smells awful in here now,’ remarked Jennifer. Willa further remarked, ‘Guys, do you recognize the smell?’ Max then said, ‘I can’t put my finger on it. It’s kinda garlicky.’ ‘Oh shit,’ said Jonah. Willa asked, ‘What’s wrong Jonah?’ Jonah replied, ‘It’s natural gas! Natural gas doesn’t have a normal gas odor. WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE!’ The group scrambled to try and find their way to the door, but the power to the cabin was now cut.

In the chaos, Jennifer managed to get to the front door of the cabin. In the doorway was Anna, who had escaped the chaos of the cabin filling with smoke and natural gas. Anna said, ‘Get out now! The whole cabin’s gonna explode!’ The group ran out the door, and as soon as they were back to the cars, the cabin exploded into flames. The group were lucky to be alive after such a night. Dominic called 911 to get the fire department to come put the fire out. As soon as the firetrucks pulled up, a spark in the furnace in the cellar ignited the natural gas, and the cabin exploded into pieces of wood and shrapnel.

The firefighters immediately began to try and put the fire out, and the group were surrounded by police, including Officer Macy Hale, who asked, ‘What happened? Are you all okay?’ The group answered her questions and let them know about the new notes from Z. She gave them sound advice to block the unknown numbers and emails that were being used by Z to torment them. The group agreed, and were then escorted in their cars back home to the Raskin-Kerby and Falton-Bankert houses. The group were all still shaken up from the night’s events. They settled down in the barn and began to decompress from the explosion at the cabin. Anna excused herself to head home, saying, ‘I need to go home. I’m gonna need to shower because I smell awful from the gas and smoke.’ The group did not think twice about letting her go home. Willa then said, ‘Z led us to the cabin and tried to kill us by setting it on fire with us in it.’

The group was now stunned at the sudden remark from Willa, who was now shaking and crying from the thought of a near-death experience such as what had taken place. Jennifer comforted her girlfriend, and then the group agreed to go to bed. As they were preparing to leave the barn and head inside, Dominic saw a picture slid underneath the door, and he showed it to the others. In the picture was the group staring at the fiery remains of the cabin. Dominic turned the picture to find handwriting that read another ominous note.

There is no escape from my games.

The group was now shaken up further. Dominic asked, ‘Who’s doing this to us?!?’ The others had no response to his question, as they were pondering the same thing in their heads. Willa then posed the following question, ‘Max, Noemi, didn’t Anna disappear on you two when you were in the cellar?’ The two realized that Anna had indeed escaped to the front door before they could reach the rest of the group when the cabin initially filled with smoke. Noemi asked, ‘Could she be Z? Now I’m starting to think that she might be.’ Max remarked, ‘It’s possible, but right now, it’s too hard to tell.’

The six friends then agreed to go to bed for the night, and went inside. The group was confronted by Felicity and Veronica, who were now concerned out of fear for the group. Felicity asked, ‘Willa, are you okay? We heard about the cabin exploding.’ Veronica added, ‘It’s all over the news.’ Willa said, ‘We’re okay. Just shaken up about what happened.’

As Willa then went over to her mother, she hugged her and began to cry out, ‘I’m not okay. I just want to have a normal life again!’ Jennifer walked over, once again comforting her girlfriend. Veronica, out of concern, walked over to Dominic and the others and asked them, ‘Are you all doing okay? I know that it must’ve been frightening being in there before it exploded.’ ‘Outside of shaken up, we’re okay. Just trying to decompress,’ said Dominic. Jonah, who was exhausted, went up to the bathroom to shower and then to Dominic’s room to go to sleep. Dominic soon followed, and then Noemi and Max went next door to reassure Troy that they were okay. Willa and Jennifer consoled each other, reassuring each other that it was going to be okay. They agreed to go to therapy to help their mental health following the night’s events. By the time the clock hit 1:00AM, the girlfriends agreed to go to bed.

Outside the houses, a hoodied figure with blue eyes giggled underneath a streetlight, and then walked back into darkness. It was Z getting ready to plot their next move against the group of six friends, along with their closest friends and family. 

As the friends regained their footing following the night’s events, Dominic began wondering fully, Is Anna ‘Z’? His assumptions in his mind would fold and unfold like a piece of origami. He woke up in the middle of the night, and called Noemi to come over to the barn to talk. As he walked outside in his pajamas, he heard a rustling against the bushes, like someone ran off. Noemi met him outside, and they began to walk to the barn. ‘Noemi, I’m thinking of something that the others might call me out on,’ said Dominic. She replied, ‘Which is?’ ‘After everything at the barn tonight, I feel like Anna is Z,’ he said. Noemi then said, ‘I think so too. After what happened in the cellar of the cabin when she was in there with Max and myself, I’m beginning to think the same thing. A lot of her interactions with us over the past month and a half have been very suspicious.’ The two friends continued to talk for the next hour and a half about their assumptions about Anna potentially being their suspect of interest in the game of texts, emails, death, and now explosions.

As the clock reached 4:00AM, the duo were still up talking. ‘I hate to admit this, but I really want things to go back to normal. These messages have been keeping me up all night now,’ said Noemi. Dominic then said, ‘Me too. I keep waking up in the middle of the night wondering if I’ve ever received a weird text, but only end up seeing chat notifications from other apps.’ Noemi replied, ‘Could we try to trace the sender of the texts through the ‘Find My’ app off your iPhone?’ Dominic agreed, but only to do so when the time was right to trace the messages. As for all of the handwritten messages that had been found so far, Dominic had been hoarding them in his desk drawer in his bedroom since the day his parents were murdered. 

The two friends finally agreed to go to bed, however, Noemi secretly decided to stay up, and have coffee. As they walked back inside, a rustling of bushes was heard again. ‘Hello?’ she said. She received no response. ‘It was probably a bunny or something small,’ said Dominic. ‘You’re right. Good night Dominic,’ she replied. ‘Good night Noemi,’ Dominic then replied before heading back inside to go to bed. Noemi, now alone in her pajamas downstairs in her kitchen began to make herself some coffee to pass the hours before Troy and Carston awoke later that morning.