Chapter 23

Chapter 23, "Shatter", is the sixth chapter of Arc 2 of Exit/Corners.

Synopsis
Ink arrives at the Blue Door's hallway only to find Beth's lifeless corpse lying inside one of the rooms to the right. Following a hastened moment of mourning, he gathers the others to account for their movements in the spacetime he spent locked in with Liza and Sent in the boiler room hallway.

Aether is the first to retrace her steps: she began searching for the next puzzle in the rooms to the left while Beth went for those on the right. At some given moment, a minor quake occurred (courtesy of Ink's "cheating", unbeknowst to all else but Liza at the time). After rummaging through her entire side, Aether called out to Beth, receiving no reply. Entering one of the senior woman's rooms, she found her cadaver and started panicking. Rae, resting in a nearby chamber, heard the girl's cries and proceeded to console her. They then retrieved Sean and Tiana from the adjacent Black wing, where the newcomers claim to have been the entire time.

At a loss for words and ideas, Ink decides to revisit the crime scene, which also happens to contain the next puzzle; ignoring it for now, he and Tiana inspect Beth's body and the surroundings, discovering little evidence to pinpoint her cause of death: only shards of glass on the floor and a purplish patch at the back of her neck provide an incomplete retelling of Beth's fateful demise. Tiana concludes that a blunt projectile of sorts killed her, although no weapon is found.

Lacking answers, the contestants agree on proceeding through the Black Door so as to keep progressing in the game. A frustrated Ink attempts to inquire Sent via Gemini but that also proves to be fruitless. He eventually enters a smoke-filled room and solves its puzzle. The chapter ends with a brooding Ink, reflecting on Beth's death, accompanied by an alien, vestigial presence in the back of his head...