The Pumpkin Head Murder

The lights in the municipal interrogation room were blinding, more suffocating than the dim lanterns in the escape room.Across from me sat Daniel Shaw, head of the city’s Criminal Investigation Unit.Beside him, taking notes, was a young female officer named Emily.“Miss Sullivan, go over what happened last night again. In detail.”Daniel’s voice was calm but carried an unmistakable pressure.“Don’t leave anything out, no matter how insignificant it seems.”I nodded, trying to steady my voice.“Last night was Halloween. Our boss, William Zoo, booked out a rural horror-themed escape room. He said anyone who made it through without screaming would get ten thousand.“There were nine of us. After we went in…”I went through everything—the layout, mechanisms, and performance of the scarecrow character with the oversized pumpkin head.He didn’t move, just listened in silence.“You said the pumpkin-headed character chased you with a chainsaw?”“Yes. It was incredibly loud, just this constant

I was formally detained.From the only survivor, I became the prime suspect.All the evidence formed a perfect loop.Motive, weapon, fingerprints, the scene… everything pointed to me.I had nothing to say in my defense.All I could do was replay every detail of that night, over and over again.That pumpkin-headed figure…He was tall, much taller than anyone I’d seen at work, at least six-foot-three.The way he walked was strange, dragging slightly, like a real scarecrow.He never said a word. There was only the roar of the chainsaw and the sound of heavy breathing.All of it really happened.But no one believed me.I went from screaming and defending myself to numb silence.The door to the holding cell opened.A man walked in.He was in his early thirties, tall, dressed in plain clothes.I remembered him.I’d seen him once in the interrogation room.“Hello. My name is Marcus Cole.”He pulled out a chair and sat across from me, without any small talk.“I have a few questions.”His voic

“That escape room installed a lot of hidden pinhole cameras to heighten the horror and keep the mechanisms from being figured out.“But when I was taken away, I overheard the police mention that all the surveillance footage from that night had been destroyed by a high-intensity electrical pulse. “The hard drives were completely wiped. I have been there so many times and never knew exactly where the cameras were but he managed to take all of them out in one go!”That wasn’t something an ordinary player could do.“And my coworkers!” My eyes lit up. “He knows every one of us. After our boss canceled the booking, he was still able to lure us back. He knew I loved escape rooms, knew I needed money, knew about the conflicts between me, Ethan, and our boss! He set it all up to pin everything on me!”I grabbed a pen and quickly wrote down a list of names.They were all colleagues from the project team—people who acted friendly to my face but spoke badly about me behind my back.Victoria stu

When I saw Marcus again, I was nothing like before.“I think I know who the killer is,” I said without preamble.Marcus didn’t look surprised. He simply pulled out a chair and sat down. “Let’s hear it.”“Lily Green. My best friend.”Saying her name still felt like a blade twisting in my chest.“Three years ago, there was an explosion tied to NewDream Tech’s chemical project. Seven people died. Lily’s father, a senior engineer at the plant, was the only one held responsible“He spiraled into depression and died within six months. Until the end, he kept saying he’d been framed. But the ones who should have paid were William, Ethan, and everyone who buried the truth for money.”I told Marcus everything—the chat logs from Kevin’s hard drive, and my theory about Lily’s motive.“Kevin thought he was just collecting dirt for revenge. He didn’t realize Lily never planned to let anyone walk away, not even him.“She used Kevin as a tool and turned me into the scapegoat.”Marcus listened without