Ally woke up to the smell of copper. It took her a moment longer to realize that it was blood she'd been smelling. Lilly was by her side, but turned away. Ally was sitting in the nurse's office on one of the stretched out cots. She moved to sit up but found her head pounding.
Lilly turned as she heard her.
"Were you here the whole time?" Ally asked, rubbing her forehead. "How long was I out?"
"Only about an hour or so. Can't leave you alone with a killer on the loose, can I?"
The word rang hard in her head. Killer. "Ow, come on, sit down, you're making my legs hurt just from looking at you," she said, pointing to the cot directly next to her.
Lilly nodded and sat down. "Rosie's conscious again, and the remaining kids woke up too. Everyone's calmed down, they're all back in Mrs. Fowler's room."
Ally let out a breath that had kept her chest tightened like a vice. "That's good. Are the police on their way?"
Lilly's eyes narrowed, "Yeah about that…we can't exactly get out of here."
"What do you mean?"
"The school is just...it's hard to explain. You saw out the windows when you woke up, yeah?" Lilly asked.
"Yeah, it was all black outside. We must've been out all day. I don't know why police haven't showed up or something like that."
"That's not night out there…" Lilly began, "Whatever it is it's all around the school. We're been surrounded. Nobody can step outside."
Ally looked at her, confused, "Is it like...tangible?"
"Huh?"
"Touch. Can you touch it?"
"Dunno. They can't even open the front doors, and we don't think it's smart to break a window. If it's like space and there's no air we're all done for."
"Hey, sleepy. Ask if there's anything more on the body," Jace nudged her from the side. "Someone is responsible, don't forget about that."
"Josie's dead…" Ally said, looking up to Lilly. Her face turned down.
"Yeah, no cops means no official word, but it's pretty obvious the blow to the head killed her."
"God…." she turned and looked to her hands, she could see the stained blood on her fingertips. She was really dead. She let out a weak sound and bent over. She was shaking now.
"Are you going to be okay?"
Ally shook her head, "No…" she closed her eyes tight and balled her hands into fists, tight. "Why...why did this happen? Who could have done this?"
Lilly shook her head; her lips were pursed, but silent. She moved to the other cot and sat beside Ally, "There's one more thing…"
Ally looked to her, a tear slid down her cheek and she wiped it off and took in a deep breath. "What…?"
"I have to show you. I can't explain this one."
The other kids were all joined together in Mrs. Fowler's room. The chaos had died down to an eerie silence. They sat almost in full circle surrounding the body that lie on the center of the room. Rosie lay facing up toward the ceiling, but as Lilly and Ally entered she worked her way to a sitting up position, holding her sister's corpse up to keep balanced.
What Ally hadn't expected to see was that behind them—behind them all in the black void were streaks of white light that seemed to pulse. They stole her focus and begged her forward. She had to shake her head and look down to the floor to avoid losing focus again.
"Don't look directly at it," Aoi said from the side of the room. "It seems to be the same kind of light that got us the first time, just...staying there. Look at it too long and you get knocked out again."
"He's speaking from experience," Derek said, not particularly looking at him. He looked worried.
"T-Thank you," Ally nodded.
"Well, we're all here, now what?" Carlos asked.
"Yeah, are we going to begin?" Tyson was next.
"Begin?" Ally asked. She looked back at Lilly who nodded subtly toward the center of the room. All at once she saw the white light from the outside began to vibrate. She could see the individual waves as they shook faster and within an instant it was sucked into the room and formed a singular ball of light no larger than a tennis ball. It was as if every strand were bound together. It hung in the center of the room that had been so quiet. The ball of light floated for a second longer before vines of light stretched out to Rosie's body. The light seeped inside through her pores and illuminating her insides as if it were some sort of mobile x-ray machine.
"What…" Ally started.
To the others around it didn't seem like it was anything new.
"You'll see," Lilly whispered.
The light entered Rosie, the blank stare that had been on her face seemed...gone. There had been something else there now, something behind her eyes Ally didn't know if she liked.
"Last to wake, first to rise." Rosie said, but there was something behind her voice almost as if she were using some sort of modulator. "Welcome, you've made it. Now we can begin."
"Begin what?" Ally asked, desperate now. "What is all this?"
"You've been asleep for eighty-nine minutes and thirty two seconds. In that time the others have tried to escape the confines of this building with no success. In those eighty-nine minutes and thirty-two seconds they quickly turned on one another." She said in her not-Rosie voice. Ally could see people make the effort to avoid eye contact with one another. "It was quite unfortunate that such chaos erupted so flawlessly. I had to intervene or all of everything would have been for nothing. I revealed myself and they understood what it was they had to do...sooner or later. And now we are here, all gathered and ready to begin."
"Begin what?!" Ally yelled. She realized it too late, but there it had been. Rosie looked at her confused, a genuine look of concern in her face, and then realization flashed in her hazel eyes.
"Oh, that is correct. You were asleep for—"
"Eighty nine minutes and thirty two seconds, yes," Ally said, making a motion with her hands to just hurry it up.
Rosie looked at her, "Hm, yes, well, you see that this girl's other half is no longer breathing. You were the one who confirmed there was no more beats to her heart, correct?"
"Yes…? Aren't you…"
"I currently inhabit this body to communicate with you," Rosie said. "You don't understand my normal speech and I don't yours—unless I'm borrowing one of your kind of course. In your language my name would most closely translate to Issachar."
"Don't ask, I'll explain later," Lilly whispered.
Ally had a painted look of confusion on her face, it must've been obvious. She nodded and moved on. Some sort of...what, alien was here using Rosie's body? This day…
"...could not get anymore strange." Jace finished. "Don't put me anywhere like this in my story, got it?" Jace sneered.
"Starting to think you're the thing that makes the most sense here."
"You noticed my presence when the body of Josephine Higgins, thirteen, was about to be discovered." Issachar said. "You all faced some minor disorientation which should now be cleared up fully. Now, I've seen you people kill each other for a very, very long time. I have always wondered...why do they do it? Why would you end the life of someone whose lifespan is already severely limited by physical handicap?"
The room was silent. Everyone gave silent, judging looks to one another.
"I've decided I'm going to do something about it this time. I've sat idly by enough. You are all currently residing inside a pocket dimension outside of the one you're familiar with. Think of it as a dark alleyway between two illustrious buildings. Nobody from the outside can interfere. Your police would surely try their hardest to muddle the case, but true justice wouldn't be served."
"True justice?" Ally asked.
"Locking people behind metal bars does not equal justice. Killing people does not equal justice. You people don't seem to understand that. So here—maybe for the first time—you shall experience true justice. You shall discover who killed this young girl."
Ally froze where she stood. "How are we supposed to do that? We're just children…"
"I do recognize that as you mature you have access to higher forms of transportation and increased sex drives, but nothing about my research suggests you are any less wise for your age. The murder has taken place within the confines of the area I've borrowed inside this pocket dimension, so you should have all available information needed to figure it out."
"If you know who it is then why don't you just take all this out on them?" Ally asked.
"What justice would there be if I were to deal it out? I am an outside force. Many of you may not believe who I would reveal. You may fire back at me instead of the one truly responsible. I also lack the motivation behind the murder. I do not know the context, so I must ask that you forgive my curiosity. That is why I grabbed all of you. I need as untainted results as I possibly can. I cannot have other unrelated parties interfering and obscuring the justice."
"You want us to do the dirty work."
"Very little of the work is actually dirty. The examination of the body maybe, yes, but it is logic and evidence based largely."
"I didn't mean…" Ally couldn't finish the thought. This was all ludicrous, ludicrous! This had to be an awful nightmare that she'd wake up from. She'd find that she'd overslept and hadn't gotten her paper written for class and was probably going to get a poor grade on it. But if only her biggest concern was an unfinished paper. Ally looked to her left and then to her right, looking at all the faces around her and then to Rosie's—Issachar's. "So...that is how it is? There's no prank? This is all real...Josie's actually dead…"
"Josephine Higgins, aged thirteen is dead. And with that you are now officially caught up. I shall leave you to your own devices, you are free to do what you like here, but know that you will only be returned to your own dimension once true justice is served."
Ashley shifted uneasily from where she sat beside Adam and Sidney, "Find the killer or we all stay here until we die."
"Hmph, I really don't understand why you people reiterate the obvious. It is quite concerning…" Issachar started, but changed pace on a dime, "...now, if there aren't any questions I'll be taking my leave. I am very excited to see your results."
"Wait!" Ally called out, halting Rosie's body as she turned back to her. "I have...one last question. Are...are you God?"
Rosie's head went back in a cackle so loud it reverberated throughout the room. "Silly girl, no, I am not God. He wouldn't be here for something as small as this; he's got a lot on his plate these days. This is purely a curiosity of mine," and with that the light spilled out of Rosie's nostrils and mouth, fading into little more than dust and then into nothing. Rosie fell back as what little energy she had vanished. Ally could see she was still breathing, but she couldn't imagine it was easy. They were alone once more.