I Want To Play A Game

Rounding a corner, the trio arrived at a dilapidated police station guarded by a rabbit-masked woman. 

"Here!" Old Lü announced. "Looks like it's over..." 

Jack Li eyed the disheveled "Human-Rabbit" - her stained suit and cracked mask indicating Officer Liu's participation hadn't been lethal. 

"Care to play?" The rabbit's voice dripped false sweetness. 

"No." Jack Li cut through the simpering. "Where's the man and woman who came earlier?" 

"Oh, the muscular bore?" The rabbit twirled a gloved finger through matted fur. "Such a waste - I offered free passage for companionship..." 

"Location. Now." 

The rabbit's paw caressed Jack Li's cheek. "For you, handsome, I'll trade directions for a day's..." 

Jack Li recoiled. "We'll search ourselves." 

"Better hurry." The rabbit's giggle chased them. "That oaf's bleeding out somewhere." 

Fresh blood droplets glittered on cracked pavement. Jack Li's jaw tightened as they followed the crimson trail to a ransacked pharmacy. Inside, metallic stench choked the air. 

"Officer Liu?" 

Lawyer Liu emerged, drenched and trembling. "Jack! He's... he's..." 

The scene inside froze time. 

Officer Smith sat propped against shelves, his right arm ending in a mangled stump tourniqueted with barbed wire. Skin leached of color, lips blue-tinged, he managed a ghost of his trademark grin. 

"Quit... the face..." he rasped. "Looks worse... than it..." 

Taylor clamped a hand over her mouth. Old Lü turned green. 

"What happened?!" Jack Li knelt, fingers brushing the grotesque injury. 

"That rabbit..." Lawyer Liu spat. "Her 'escape room' was a slaughterhouse. He... he shoved me clear when the press came down..." 

"Alone." Smith's fading voice cut through. "Need... words..." 

As others retreated, the dying man produced a crumpled cigarette pack with his remaining hand. "Last... confession..." 

Jack Li lit the moldy cigarette with trembling hands. Smoke curled between them like a fading lifeline. 

"They're dead... Candy... Barrett..." Jack Li's voice broke. "Murdered by..." 

"I know." Smith exhaled gray. "Heard the bells... saw the screen... 'Frame-Up'..." 

Jack Li's spine straightened. "Frame-Up? After 'Calamity'?" 

Smith nodded weakly. "Second bell... message vanished... pattern..." A racking cough interrupted. "Listen... my sin..." 

The confession unfolded - falsified evidence, corrupt deals, a career built on lies. Jack Li's disgust warred with pity as truth unraveled. 

"Black cop..." Smith chuckled bitterly. "This... my judgment..." 

A distant bell tolled. 

Smith's remaining hand emerged clutching a tarnished Zippo. Flame kissed a fresh cigarette - impossibly pristine. 

"Tell them..." Smoke leaked through his smile. "Redemption..." 

The Zippo clattered as life left his eyes. 

Outside, the massive screen flickered crimson: 

ATONEMENT

Pain. 

Agonizing, bone-deep pain. 

Jack Li crouched, teeth gritted against the migraine splitting his skull. Every death nearby triggered this - not always, but unpredictably. Barrett's demise had left him nauseous. Officer Liu's severed arm now carved fresh fissures in his psyche. 

*Not psychological.* His nails dug into palms. *Something's wrong with this damned place.* 

When the throbbing subsided, he rose to find Lawyer Liu unraveling at the edges. Her polished Mandarin crumbled into raw Sichuan dialect as she rocked in the corner. "what is going on..." 

Taylor knelt beside her, a steady hand on her trembling shoulder. "What happened with the rabbit?" 

The story spilled out - the flooded tank, the handcuffs, the brutal calculus of survival. Officer Liu smashing his own arm with a pipe. Lawyer Liu's voice broke at the memory: "He...he used the last of his strength to turn off the water valve *left-handed*..." 

Jack Li's gaze drifted to the corpse. The cigarette between Liu's lips - *Dong Chong Xia Cao* brand, creamy medicinal aroma - felt wrong. He'd never given Liu these. The Zippo lighter in the dead man's grip gleamed suspiciously new amidst the grime. 

*Third bell. Third message.* 

While Taylor comforted Lawyer Liu, Jack Li pocketed the incongruous items. The lighter's engraving caught his eye - a stylized *X* overlapping a serpent. 

"Hungry?" Old Lü thrust the aluminum pot forward. Bear fat congealed into greasy lumps. 

Lawyer Liu devoured it like a feral creature. Between ravenous bites, she studied Jack Li. "Take my Dao. Team up." 

"Those hunting me kill allies." 

"Then they're idiots." She wiped grease across her ruined blazer. "You're the only one collecting puzzle pieces instead of fleeing." 

The offer hung heavy when distant gears groaned. 

Through shattered pharmacy windows, the massive screen flickered: 

ATONEMENT ACCEPTED

Beneath it, tiny figures moved. A woman in a sequined dress dragged something metallic through dust. A familiar green lighter flashed in her hand. 

Jack Li's throat tightened.