Exit stage left

This has to work.

That was the only thing going through my head when I busted the fuze box. Over two hundred employees are usually in the office, but today there were 4. The scary thing is that one of them is a murderer.

It was a Saturday and our boss assigned the four of us to clean up the office and finish any neglected work in the office. 

I played murder mystery with my cousins when I was a kid but I had no idea it would be so surreal one day.

Lukas Conehatta was our twenty-four-year-old intern. It was his first day on the job today, he had no idea that today someone would pump him full of lead. It's kind of ironic that someone who works in a gun manufacturing company dies of a gunshot wound.

My main question is how.    

How was someone able to shoot him five times in the chest without someone hearing? Or even smelling gunpowder. 

When I found him, Lukas was there draped against a shelf. Of course, my first instinct was to run to his rescue. Even though he was deceased. After that, I decided to flush out the killer. Which leads me to the present. 

Shutting off the power manually causes a building-wide lockdown. Bulletproof shutters cover every possible exit, excluding windows. With everyone locked in, that means I have at least thirty minutes until the cops arrive. Better yet, thirty minutes to catch a killer.

I run from the security closet into the main corridor, where the eight suspects have already gathered. One was missing. Nathan wasn't among our co-workers. The first to question the situation was Sandy.

"Margo? What's going on. The shutters came down on the exits, and the power in my office went out. Did you shut off the power?" she flipped her long black hair behind her shoulder. She may seem like a prissy girl at first sight, but she's actually one of our best workers. She was always kind to everyone unless they did something wrong. Then she turned into a total hothead, but everyone got used to it.

"I need all of you to sit down. There is something very important to discuss."

Everyone looked at me strangely, especially nick. "What are you talking about? Stop acting like this and let us get back to work." Nick pushed. I laughed at his statement in my head. Nick never did any work around here. His father owns the company so he just stays here and pretends to care. He took after his dad, with dark eyes and red hair. Despite his mature look, he was insanely childish. Nick was constantly so infuriating, hence he was never a fan favorite of the office. Which made him my prime suspect.

Prim, the youngest of us all, let out a loud laugh. "Yeah, sure. Like "daddy's boy" over there is actually gon' work. I ain't gonna stand here and do nothin' like nick. I'm gettin' back to work." Prim went and sat at her little desk nearby, neatly tying up her pretty blonde hair. She was our other intern, she came from a small town nearby. Prim lives out in the country area, but she wants to be the first of her family to go to college. So, she's always a hard worker, second to sandy. Mikey followed behind prim.

None of us had heard Mikey talk much, other than prim. The second she came here, he became attached to her and she was alright with it. Apparently, their parents grew up together and they hadn't seen each other since they were kids. If you didn't know their past, you would think they were siblings with their matching hair. Both had an abundant amount of freckles, which made the sibling idea more prominent.

"Listen, I know you're all confused but what I'm about to tell you will come to a shock to all of you but one. I just found Lukas dead in the storage room. Someone had shot him five times in the chest."

Everything went silent. All eyes went wide. Nick fell to his knees, sobbing. Whether it was out of fear, or maybe he knew Lukas. Either or, it was sad to watch. 

Sandy sat in shock. She didn't move a muscle. She just looked down at the floor. Next to her, Nick stood and slowly started backing up. 

"Get back! All of you!" Nick snatched up a chair off the floor and swung it around.

Maybe I could have eased them into it.

Prim still sat in her chair, seeming to be in shock just like nick. Mikey had knelt in front of her. I could faintly hear him whispering to her, "It's alright. You'll be alright"

Nick spoke up on the matter, "It's him! He never speaks! He's a total weirdo! I bet he got jealous of Lukas being near Prim all the time!"

"Everyone calm down! Let's not blame anyone just yet. We have no evidence. All of you, come with me and we'll all look through the storage room for evidence. Unless you don't want to see the body, then you can sit outside. We all need to stick together so that no one else gets hurt."

Only me and Sandy went inside the storage closet, the others sat outside the door and kept each other company. Sandy was always brave but even she seemed disturbed by Lukas. I've already had about 2 hours to process it so it doesn't bother me and much. It's still upsetting to look at though.

"God, it smells rancid. How long has he been dead?"

"About an hour or two. It took me a bit to even leave the room. I was terrified to talk to any of you at first. With the whole, one of you being a murderer and all."

"I'd laugh if Lukas wasn't rotting on the floor. Hey... what's this.." sandy lifted up a pistol with a silencer on it off the ground with her office pen, "It's the gun. Did you check to see if any of the bullets went straight through?" She pulls out the magazine and examines the bullets, "These are hollow points. With normal bullets, one is bound to cross all the way through. Flip him over." I flip over Lukas's body, there are no exit wounds on his back. Which means that the gun is the one that killed him.

"Hold on...If they used hollow-point bullets, that means they were shooting to kill. They didn't just shoot him in self-defense. You'd only shoot someone you really didn't like five times. Especially if you use hollow points." I pointed it out to her. Sandys's eyes go wide, "We can figure this out right now. "

"What? How is that?"

"Whoever shot this gun probably got it from here, so we can look up who the gun is registered to!" sandy stood up quickly and led me out the door. Where the others were waiting for us.

"This is the murder weapon. We figured out that the person who shot it used hollow-point bullets. For those of you who don't know, hollow points expand once they enter your body. Which makes it impossible for it to travel all the way through. So whoever shot Lukas really wanted him dead. The gun is most likely registered to our company, so margo is going to run it through the system and see who owns it."

Prim pushed herself off the floor, "What are ya' waitin' for? I wanna go home. Get it over with."

"Now hold on prim, what are we going to do after we find the killer? They aren't just going to sit there while we expose them. We need a way to restrain them after we find their identity." I tell them all. If we're going to do this, I want every single possibility of them attacking reduced. There is no way another person is dying today. I won't let it happen.

Nick stands up also, "I think there are rope and zip ties in the janitor's office."

"Nice job being useful for once." sandy smirks.

It was the moment everyone was waiting for. Everyone was sitting next to each other on the floor. Each of them had their hands zip-tied behind their backs. I slowly typed in the serial code on the side of the gun. I was honestly terrified to finish it and see who the killer was. I had known most of these people for a while and it hurt to know one of them would do something so terrible.

I pressed enter and the name that popped up was...., "Prim..."

"No.. No! There's no way. It was his gun! I shot him with his own gun! Not mine!" Prim yells from behind me. I turn and face her, "I know that. You seemed the most on edge out of all of us while I was putting the code in, and when I told everyone about Lukas, you overreacted. I have the feeling Mikey knew the whole time."

Mikey's eyes went wide and he stared at me in disbelief. Sandy turned her body and kicked prim in her side as hard as she could.

"How could you! Lukas just started here! He just wanted to help his family!" sandy sobbed.

Prim just sat there on the ground, silent. Mikey jerked his hand from the zip ties, picked up Prim of the ground, and ran out the door.

"Margo! Stop them!" Sandy yelled. I pulled out my pocket knife and cut both nick and sandy free.

"They can't leave the building. It's better if we stay together. No one leaves this room until we figure out why she did it."

It was about thirty minutes later that the police arrived. They were very late. At the time, we were on the third floor, so when the police started to cut open one of the hatches, we had no idea until the hatch thudded onto the ground.

"Maybe she wanted to- what was that?" Sandy stopped mid-sentence. "It's the police! They've come to save us!" Nick rejoiced. We all stood and started running down the steps. We all were traumatized from having to look over our shoulders every time we heard the smallest noise.

When we reached the bottom of the steps, we saw that that door was one of the doors that had been shuttered over.

"No... are we stuck in here..?" Sandy asked me.

"No, definitely not. There's another staircase on the 3rd floor. Let's make our way back up and check.

While we eagerly ran back up the steps, I tried thinking of why prim would do it.

Why...did she want to be the only intern? So that she would get all of the attention? Or maybe Lukas threatened her way into college somehow? That has to be it. I'm pretty sure they only handed out one scholarship, and prim didn't want to risk losing it to him. Since prim is Mikey's only friend, that is why he didn't tell us that it happened. That's also why the scene was so cleaned up, Mikey is very smart. But he obviously was not smart enough to have someone else dispose of the gun other than Prim.

We stopped running once we reached the top of the steps. Mikey and prim were standing in front of the entrance to the left staircase. Prim had the gun she used to kill Lukas in her hand. I heard Sandy curse under her breath. Nick quickly jumped behind me and held my shoulders. He was using me as a shield.

What a coward.

"None of you are leavin' here. I have worked too hard to go to jail now. Get on the ground." Prim commanded us.

We all reluctantly lined up and got down on our knees. Prim aimed her gun and shot sandy. Nick screamed and fell over into a ball. He started crying non-stop.

I was terrified. I knew that I was about to die. I just can't believe that it is by her. I join Nick in crying, but not as loud. Prim aimed her gun for Nick's head on the ground, and then she shot him.

I can't give up. I can survive this. I need something to throw...

I look around me for something to throw. That's when I spot Nick's phone in his pocket. Just as she's about to shoot, I throw Nick's phone right at the barrel of her gun. I quickly get up and start running for the left staircase.

I'm going to make it! Yes! I'm going to li-

Then I'm tackled. Mikey had run at me as fast as he could, and I didn't even notice it. We both crash out the windows on the left-hand side of the building. I faintly hear Prims screams for Mikey.

Time has completely slowed down and I know now that this is where I die. I have lived my life up to this very second. Now, it's time for me to exit stage left.