Harrison was the first to speak up. "So we just play detective for a while and pretend we know what we're doing. That's the gist of what I've heard. I mean, this isn't exactly what I had in mind of how today would go."
"Do you think this is what I wanted?" Ashley said, making an ugly sort of scoffing sound. "To be trapped here?"
"Well," Ally began, "technically we're only trapped if we don't solve the murder."
"Technically we're only trapped," Sidney mocked. "Why would we even believe a word that thing said anyway? Don't you think it'd be really dumb not to even consider that since it brought us here it's possible it killed Josie?"
"What choice do we really have?" Derek asked. "I mean, if it did it'll just kill us in the end anyway, right? You saw how it knocked us all out before."
"What a pessimistic view," Lilly said.
He shrugged, "I consider it realistic. If something like that comes to us and says we've got to jump I'm not going to bother telling it to fuck off if I've not got the slightest idea about anything about anything. If we were at a home advantage or if we had weapons...maybe."
Aoi nodded, "Even if we had weapons I don't know if they'd even work against a thing like that. And we can't bank on it making any mistakes...Our best bet is to play along for the time being, even if it was the one who killed her."
Ashley rolled her eyes, "Well, I think if it wasn't that thing then we obviously know the culprit. Let's just tell that light guy it was Tyson and get this done with." She rested a hand on her lap and tilted her head back.
"I didn't kill anybody," Tyson said with perfect clarity. "You heard what Issachar said about what happens if we get it wrong. Do you want to go through that?"
"Get it wrong?" Ally asked.
Aoi nodded his head, "He didn't mention it the second time...but the first time he mentioned earlier that justice had to be given to the correct parties...so more than just finding a person and pinning the blame we have to be sure we're actually finding the right person. He seems to know who actually killed Josie so it would go to reason that this true justice we're looking for should be based solely on evidence. That would rule out just blindly pointing the finger at anybody," Aoi began. "I do agree we should investigate if the murder really did happen here in the school."
Tyson nodded, "Especially if this supposed justice is what gets us out of here. Blame the wrong dude and we're all stuck." He stared at Ashley as he said it.
She shook her head and looked to the side.
"Well, if we're really going to be doing this we need to start off by figuring out exactly how we're going to do this." Lilly said. "I propose that from this point on nobody goes anywhere alone."
"Ugh, why would we listen to you?" Sidney asked.
"No, I agree with her," Derek said, and crossed his arms firmly, "If there's a killer on the loose, and I'm not saying it's one of us—maybe there's someone else here hiding—but if so then we need to stay in groups."
"And if the killer is one of us…?" Carlos asked. "What then, huh?"
"Then," Ally spoke up, her voice was much less authoritative than the rest of them, she noticed. It was small, quiet. She tried her best not to get distracted, "We make sure nobody covers any tracks up. If what we need to solve this murder is all here then we need to be on the lookout for anybody trying to hide anything."
Ashley sighed from her corner of the room. Adam, his head in her lap looked up, "It sounds like too much work. We just went through some serious stuff and need some time to process it all." He shrugged his shoulders.
"We'll have time to process once we're back home, Adam." Lilly said.
"Come now," Aoi said. "Let's leave the bickering out of it, please. West, east, nerd, jock, all of it can wait until we're at least back in our own dimension. Doesn't that seem logical?"
Lilly took a step back, looked at him, and then nodded. Adam's head turned to Aoi. "You sure…? Derek?"
Derek nodded, and in that instant it was as if his resolute nod was all that was needed to dispel the tension in the room. The elongated breath held was released, and Ally could even feel her own shoulders stop tensing by her side.
"Now, we don't know who is responsible," Aoi began, stretching against the back wall.
"Obviously," Harrison said.
"And we don't know if it was just one person or a group of people," he continued.
"I don't want to believe a group of people could be responsible much less one of us, but it is a possibility we cannot deny."
Everyone nodded their heads in agreement.
"So, we should always be in groups when we're outside of this room—we can consider Mrs. Fowler's room our communal room."
"I think…" Ally began, "That we shouldn't pick our groups."
"Good idea," Aoi pointed to her, "If there is more than one killer, obviously they could choose to be together and away from everybody else they could do whatever they wanted with anything they found."
"So what, are we going to appoint a leader?" Tyson asked.
Ally didn't notice it before, but there was a sort of serene quality to his voice, it was so smooth. She guessed it was because he wasn't directly being attacked by the others. It was hard to think of him as a murderer...she saw the note back in her mind that Lilly scribbled. Could it really be true? It was dangerous to believe such a thing without knowing a thing about the incident.
"That'd put too much power with one person," Sidney said.
"Also correct," Derek said. "I say we pull randomly from a pile of papers. It won't eliminate the problem entirely as it is totally possible things could work out in the possible villain's favor...but again, this is only a hypothetical. It's the most fair, I believe."
"Okay, so we'll pull from a pool," Ashley said. "What if I get—I mean…what if someone say gets paired with people they're not especially fond of?"
Lilly took the chance, "You deal with it, princess."
"I can't believe this is all real," Carlos said. "Whole bunch of bullshit we gotta follow orders…"
"Well if we're in agreement then I say the first thing we should do is see if we can wake Rosie up," Aoi suggested. "We can ask her what she knows. Obviously we should be able to get most of our information right there."
"Oh yeah, of course she would have seen something," Adam said. "Almost forgot they were...you know," he brings his index fingers together.
Lilly tensed behind Ally. She looked up toward the ceiling. "Don't count on her seeing the attacker…"
Ally turned back to her, "Huh? What do you mean?"
Before she could respond Rosie made a sound in the center of the room. Her eyes opened slowly and stared up at the ceiling as the events of the last few hours relapsed through her mind.
Lilly walked closer toward her, "Hey, I know everything is super confusing but you're okay," Lilly started, walking toward the center of the room."
"Wh-What...happened?" Rosie asked.
Lilly placed a hand over her arm. "That's what we're trying to figure out. Now, can you stay calm if I explain to you what we know?"
Rosie nodded her head slow, but even Ally could see the mounting horror growing on her face as Lilly told her about the strange situation they'd all been placed in. Strange situation was the understatement of a century, but them's the breaks.
"So let me get this straight, my sister is murdered, I'm stuffed in a supply closet with half my body out of my control, we're transported to this strange dimension and you're all okay to do what this...light tells you to? You have absolutely no fight left in any of you?"
"It's...complicated," Lilly says.
"Not much we could do that wouldn't waste time," Derek began. "Fight? It was a ball of light that took over your body. I'm sure if we started punching and kicking you'd be dead too. Besides it's not like we can call anyone," he held up his cell phone, "...I'm not exactly picking up any service here."
"No one in the halls?" Rosie asked.
"Not a soul except for who's here," Aoi said, shaking his head.
Rosie looked down at her hands, only able to move the right hand that had an awful tremor. "I...I can't live without you," she then started into an ugly sound that could have been called crying.
"Yes yes, we're down half a freak, we're all very...sad," Ashley said, but even Ally could hear in her voice that she couldn't fully commit to the snap. She stood up; leaving Adam to near hit his head on the ground. He bounced up like a bobble head. "But you must've seen who killed her, no? Just tell us who it was so we can get out of here and go home…"
"Then we can get you to a hospital," Ally said.
Rosie grew quiet. She stared at the floor in front of her and only said a single thing, "I didn't see anyone."
"What? How is that possible? You're connected at the neck!" Ashley asked, stepping forward. "What are you hiding?"
"I'm not hiding anything…"
"Well okay then, it's obvious you killed her, then. None of us did it," Sidney jumped in.
"I didn't…"
Rosie looked like she was about to cry, and Lilly couldn't take it anymore.
"Sydney, fuck off." She turned to Ashley and stepped forward, "She couldn't fucking see anything because she's blind, not because she did anything you dumb-"
"Woah woah," Ally stepped in now, just in time to prevent the third world war. "She's blind?!"
Everyone around her lost their suspicious looks and adopted confused ones instead.
Lilly too reeled herself in a little bit, now feeling ashamed she'd revealed her best friend's secret.
"Yes, I'm blind," Rosie said, breaking the silence. "I could not see anything because I could not, cannot, and will not see."
"Why...didn't you tell anyone?" Aoi asked.
"We're conjoined twins. Ashley already has proven you think of us...me...as a freak. What more would it be to have one blind to roll up into the package!" Tears openly streamed from her eyes now.
Ally saw that they had not been focused on one person in particular, but instead the directions of the voices. "Imagine for one second how it feels…" her voice was shaking, the tears were red hot on her cheeks. "...and now to be accused of killing your own sister...how does that even make sense?!" She was yelling now. "I cannot move half of my body. Josie was everything to me. She was my sight. We worked together for everything so excuse me for calling you out for your...your…" and then she started crying again.
Ashley backed off, and for the smallest of seconds she looked less brazen.
"So you see, it is just like I said. We won't be going home quite so quickly," Lilly said, holding her arm and looking down sullen. She turned to Rosie and put her arm around her. "I know you didn't do it. But you can help us figure out who did, you just need to tell us everything you and Josie did today, okay?"
She nodded her head slowly, becoming more aware of the extra weight her body carried now that Josie wasn't there to carry it. She subconsciously tried to shift her body weight over, but there wasn't any luck. She looked down to the floor in glum realization, and then back up toward Lilly. "I'll tell you everything I can…the day started like any other," Rosie began. "We woke up in the morning like normal...this was about 4:00am or so."
"Why so early?" Aoi asked.
Rosie's eyes narrowed. "Our parents qualify for the free breakfast program here, what with our dad working here and all."
This was true, Ally thought. She had at least known that about this fact. Their father was the head custodian. He brought them to school each morning as he went in himself. Apparently that was how Lilly met the both of them, she came to school early for breakfasts. And now here we were, not even a month into the new year and Josie's dead. I can't even begin to imagine what she must be feeling like.
"We got to school almost half an hour later. I'm not able to look at the time myself so I'm just going off of a rough estimate."
"So 4:30," Aoi said.
"Yes. We found Lilly at our table in the corner of the cafeteria like always."
Lilly nodded, "Yes, that's right. It was four-thirty then, I was browsing on my phone when they walked in. The cafeteria wasn't any less full than it normally is during breakfast."
"How many people were there, would you say?" Ally asked.
"Fifteen in all," Tyson answered. They all looked toward him, his arms were crossed. He still stared at Ashley, "I was here this morning. Opposite corner of the room. I was waiting on Mr. Herondale to arrive to talk about my expulsion being revoked. Fifteen students were in that cafeteria, only ones of us here that included were Lilly and the twins...and I think I might have seen you in there for a minute or so," he said.
Ashley gave off a confused look back to him. "I wouldn't be caught dead here before first bell. You must be mistaken."
"Not you, blondie," Tyson said, nodding his head to Sidney. "You poked your head into the cafeteria about 4:35."
Sidney gave him a look that could rot an apple, but she said nothing.
Rosie continued, "...Yes...it sounded like there could have been that many people. Not everyone was talking so I would have guessed about ten, myself. That's not wholly important though…"
"Anything and everything could be vital," Ally reassured her.
Rosie smiled smally, "I remember almost directly after I got there Lilly got up. She had to..." she stopped for a moment, remembering, and then looking to Lilly.
Lilly nodded, and then she looked back down, "I'm on my period."
"Too much info," Carlos shook his head.
"She's the one who said every bit of info is vital," Harrison pointed a finger to Ally, who backed off nervously.
"She was in quite a rush, so I sat and talked with Josie for a bit longer. It was easiest when we were alone because I didn't have to adjust like I do when I'm speaking to anyone else."
"I'm sorry I didn't know," Ally said. "I can't even imagine how hard it must be."
Ally saw a genuine smile on Rosie's face, and in that instant she didn't see the horrified look of a victim, but she saw a future where helping normal people understand those developmentally challenged was exactly where she fit. "You didn't know because I didn't say. I was afraid of what you'd think." In that instant she realized that Rosie was full of so many experiences that none of them there would even begin to go through. When this is over and we find who did this I want to get to know you better, Rosie. I want to learn the things you have had to go through. I want to help you.
Then as she flashed back she had the horrible thought...what if she doesn't survive this? She knew that most conjoined twins didn't make it past infancy, and if one died typically the other either absorbed the remains or died alongside it. Rosie and Josie were a miracle, they had gotten past what must have been a million to one odds of living as long as they had, and yet someone here had taken that chance away from them. Someone robbed them of their million to one.
Rosie had taken back center stage and the rest of her explanation went uninterrupted, as for some it was surprising, others it had led to the end that they'd expected, and for one...it seemed like something—many things, in fact, didn't feel right.
"I want to say about fifteen minutes later we were standing up. It felt like that long, but I'm just guessing. Maybe we were headed to homeroom, I thought. Lilly didn't come back so I guess Josie was bored. We were just talking about the volleyball game that was going to be after school anyway, but all of a sudden I could feel that she was nervous. She was scared of something."
Her hand gripped the table underneath and she felt it tighten as she continued.
"I was confused then when we stopped, far from Mr. Thatcher's homeroom, mind you. If I had to guess I would have said we approached the opposite corner of the lunchroom...yes, where Tyson had said he had been sitting. You didn't speak, but you scared Josie, didn't you?"
Tyson didn't answer. He didn't even look at her.
"We were running, I remember now we were running and I didn't know why. The next thing I knew I heard screaming and then something heavy slammed into Josie's head and...and..." she started tearing up again. "...and I woke up in the closet and everything was wrong. She...she wasn't moving and..."
"Well," Ashley broke her off, "It's obvious then what happened. Tyson did it and we've even got witness testimony." Voices started to murmur but there was something growing deep in Ally's insides so big it couldn't wait and—
"I don't think he did." They all looked straight to her. Even Lilly was giving her a confused look. Ally hated having the attention all on her, she could even feel that Jace was somewhere now in the crowd looking at her. "If it were that simple I don't think we would have been brought here, don't you think?"
"What're you talking about?" Sidney asked, but then she understood, "Oh, wait a second. You're new. You haven't heard about him?"
"I. Didn't. Do. Anything." Tyson repeated.
"Hey shut the fuck up," Lilly said, "You just shut the fuck up right now," she stared him down.
And moments later the chaos erupted again, insults were hurled like rocks and accusations flew like birds into hysteria.
It was too much. Ally screamed. She did it once, but she did it loud. Everyone was looking at her again, concerned for the screaming orphan-child who was probably just too busy missing her parents again-somebody go change her diaper. She shook her head, kept shaking her head.
"No no no this is exactly why we were brought here, but none of you can see that!"
"Ally, wh-what's wrong?" Lilly asked, almost smacked out of her stupor.
"This is why we're here. This fighting and arguing is why Issachar brought us to this strange place. It's not because we have such an obvious murder on our hands, it's because this fighting is doing exactly what the murderer wants to happen, to get away with a murder by pinning it on the obvious suspect." She was breathing heavier now, everyone's look had changed. They were listening now, she'd said something plausible.
"Listen, I don't know what happened over the summer. I wasn't here for that, but for now we cannot think of that event unless we find some evidence showing that they are linked. Right now we're biased because of what we think we believe is relevant, but think about this for a second...why."
"Why?" Aoi asked.
"If you were in Tyson's shoes, why? If you were just coming back to school from an expulsion that related to some big murder charge, a charge where you were cleared of, might I remind you, not counting how you feel on that ruling, but let's say this is all true. Why then would he immediately bring attention to himself like that? Why immediately kill, especially in a place such as a school, filled with people almost at all times?"
"I..." Harrison raised a finger to argue, but then let it fall.
"Exactly," Tyson said, relieved someone else shared his viewpoint.
"He could have done it because people would think that way," Ashley argued.
"You know that's not an argument at all, right?" Derek offered. "It does make sense, you know."
"Motivation or not he was still the last thing she saw," Sidney said.
"She didn't see anything," Lilly reminded.
"And...it was only guesswork that we ended up at his table, I didn't hear anybody speak the whole time. Only a scream and I think that was Josie's."
"Okay, so we're back to square one," Lilly said.
"That's a good thing," Ally said. "This isn't something we're going to figure out here and now. It shouldn't be...I think. We were brought here because supposedly we can figure out who really did this, and that means we're going to have to do some legwork." Ally clasped her hands together, "And please let's just stop the fighting."
"I say..." Aoi stood up with a bit of spring in his step, "I agree with Ally. I admit I was caught up in the frenzy of what you saw Rosie, and I thought this might have been the end of the whole thing, but something this important doesn't end so easily. If there really is one of us here who is trying to pin the blame on Tyson, well, I say we investigate that possibility just as equally."
Derek stood up beside Aoi, grabbing his hand. "We're all Wombats here and one of our own is behind it. We need to stand together now more than ever."
Carlos jumped to his feet, "West end, East end, I can't even begin to say what I'll do to the punk who thinks they can pin shit on Tyson, but for those who help figure the whole mess out I'll Wom with the best of you."
Tyson stood up next to him, slowly, methodically. "I'd much love to know who's got a target on my back. Who knows, maybe it's a repeat offender."
Harrison wobbled up to his feet, "It doesn't look like we're going to be getting out of this crazy place unless we do something to fix it. I'm in."
Lilly was already standing beside her, "I swear the weak little bitch that did this is going to pay in spades. Mark my words."
Rosie sat where she was, she tried to stand, but the weight of her dead sister was still too much...in all senses of the term. She nodded her head and wiped stray tears from her face.
The only three left sitting sat on the western side of the room, coincidentally: Ashley, Sidney right next to her, and Adam back in Ashley's lap. Ally could see Adam was actually asleep, face first between her legs.
"Um, hello?" Lilly asked. "Stand the hell up."
"Stand? And then what? Play detective? Play lawyer? I'm a volleyball player, and I'm damn good at it, but what of you? Any of you? Are you trained in any sort of investigative science? Any kind of legal experience whatsoever? No, I doubt it," Ashley said.
"Doesn't mean we can't try to find the truth," Ally said.
"Truth? What truth? Are you expecting to find it in some envelope hidden behind some bookshelves? Ooh maybe in a cookie jar behind the counter in the kitchen."
"What do you suggest we do, sit here and die?" Tyson asked. Irritation flooded his voice.
"I say we give Issachar the only easy answer we have. That's why we're here, so we can right the wrong the justice system made by clearing you of Carleigh's murder. We'll go home and everything will be just fine without you."
"And what if he isn't the killer?" Ally asked. It was a question not many others in this room had considered.
Ashley shrugged her shoulders. "Then I guess we tried our best with the knowledge we were given. What do you want from me? We're not some cop to solve everything."
"Just ignore them, then." Lilly said. "If they want to sit here and do nothing let them. Just means we need to keep a watch on them in case it's one of them that killed her."
"You think I killed the retard?!" Ashley cried out.
The room was silent. Ashley regained her composure, she felt Adam stirring beside her.
"Of all the people who has shown visible hatred towards Tyson...you'd be suspect number one," Ally said.
She groaned loudly, "Fine. We'll investigate. We'll see I didn't have anything to do with all of this and we'll get your damn truth."
Adam sat up and wiped his eyes groggily, "Huh...what's happened?"
"Get up Adam, we're going to investigate," Derek said, scratching the back of his neck.
"Uh, okay," he said, wiping some drool off of his lips and shaking himself off. The three of them stood finally.
Aoi clasped his hands together. "Okay, good, we're all in agreement...probably the weakest agreement I've ever seen, but it'll have to do!"
"Better than nothing," Ally said.
"So, what's the game plan?" Derek asked, turning to Ally, who looked at him and then over to Lilly.
"Oh no, sister. You're the one who got the burst of courage. Consider yourself the de facto plan maker," she said.
"De facto?"
"Come on, you're supposed to be the smart one," Lilly elbowed her.
Truth be told, she didn't think she'd make it this far. Adrenaline poured through her body like a waterfall into a basin. The last of her reserves seem to have emptied and she crept behind the wall she normally stole peeks from. She was acutely aware of every single eye on her and every second that passed where she didn't say anything. She swallowed hard and dry until it finally came.
"I...think it should be time that we organize groups. So far we know that the cafeteria might hold some clues, but we shouldn't count on it as a top priority since it's most likely not where the...the crime happened."
Derek nodded, "Establishing the murder scene should be the first thing we do."
"Splitting up is a good idea," Aoi nodded.
"As long as we're all keeping an eye on one another," Tyson said.
"I agree." Ally said. "Now, does anyone have a notebook we can use?"