They found the source of the screams inside Mr. Herondale's office. Sidney was backed against the wall with her eyes bugging out of her head. Harrison was chuckling from the chair behind the desk.
"What happened, are you okay?" Aoi asked. He was the first to step in the room. Ally could see the beads of sweat on his face.
Sidney burst out in a cackle that surprised them more than the scream.
She looked to Harrison and offered another laugh, "I…I…I told you they'd find us," she then turned to the others, "W-w-w-we lost you trying to leave here so I said that we'd find you guys if we screamed like we were in danger."
"Lost?" Ally asked.
Harrison couldn't contain his own cackles as he slammed his fist down repeatedly on the desk as they bellowed out. "The door locked on us and said we couldn't go out."
Lilly turned to face the door, and then looked back at them. "Are you mental? The door is unlocked…it's open right now."
Sidney looked at Harrison then back to them, noticing the door. "It was unlocked the whole time!" She burst into tears laughing.
"What's…wrong with them?" Ally asked.
"Couple-a whackos if you ask me." Jace said.
Aoi stepped in and grabbed the small bag sitting on the desk. Harrison noticed too late and made a delayed motion to grab for it.
"Hey…wait a second…"
Aoi looked at them both, "LSD? Seriously?"
"Jesus Christ," Lilly said, bringing a hand to her forehead.
"It's just to c-calm down," Harrison said.
"Yeah, nice try." Aoi said, and sighed.
Sidney shot up, remembering something. "That's right! I have to talk to Ashley!" She looked at each of them, intensely focusing on every single one. "She's…"
"Not here," Aoi said. "We were going to go looking for her, but now we got to get you somewhere that you won't hurt yourself or anyone else."
She shook her head, the smile on her face vanished. "No, I need to speak with Ashley. She's a danger to us all."
"What?" Ally asked.
"I have never heard a more ridiculous lie," Adam said.
"Aren't you like, friends?" Carlos asked.
"Ashley isn't anything but just like us. In fact, she's the one in danger since we haven't met back up yet!"
Sidney pulled what little of herself together as she could. The little of her inside herself felt the information in her brain slowly start to fade so she reached out for it and grabbed it as tight as possible. She almost lost everything and probably would have sat there forever in the drugged haze if it hadn't flashed back. "There's something you need to know about…about Ashley," she said, taking a deep breath and trying her hardest to stay level. "She's at high risk for psychosis. I've got information here that…" she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, "that proves she's the most suspicious. Delusions, dissociations, it's only natural someone like that would be unstable."
"Okay, well we can all figure that out when we're all here," Aoi said. He knew Adam was going to throw an objection to what she was saying, and they simply didn't have time to bark back and forth right now. "Let's split up and find them both, if what you're saying is true then that's the best course of action anyway."
Sidney nodded, and then turned to Harrison, "I…don't know how…well he'll be able to go."
"He'll come with me," Aoi said, turning back to Ally. "You mind if Sidney goes with you?"
"Say yes," Jace said.
"No. That should be fine."
"Ugh," Jace rolled his eyes.
"Okay, good," he nodded. "Rest of you can split up among yourselves. I've got classrooms. You take the library Ally," he said, then doubled round, "Mind uh…the bookshelves. That's where…"
Ally understood, and nodded slowly.
"All right, come on, let's go," Aoi said, beginning to funnel the rest of them out of the office. She could feel them all pushing to leave the office as if they were water spilling through a hole.
Aoi and Harrison turned to the left and immediately headed toward the classroom on the farthest edge of the hall. Ally was looking at them until she found herself being pulled by her sleeve. Sidney was at her side and didn't look well at all. "I don't like…you," she blinked feverishly, "…and I know you don't like me, but I don't like Ashley way more than I don't like you. I'm serious about that."
"It's…kind of hard…" Ally began, "…to think you're serious about anything at the moment…sorry."
Sidney looked like she was just about to argue with her, but then stopped, resigned, and nodded. "Let's just go. I want to find her already."
"Sounds good to me," Ally said. "Truce?"
"Looks to be that way."
Ally looked over toward Lilly who was turning to move toward the gym with Carlos. She caught her look before she did, and there was concern plastered over her face. Ally shook it off and split with Sidney. They made it to the door to the library and suddenly Ally felt a chill run down her spine as she touched the handle. It was frozen to the touch, but not because of any crazy September winter chill…but instead of the fear that had been mounting in her mind. Behind these doors was where Josie died…
She pushed the door open and saw the library as it always was…always for the past month as far as she knew, anyway. She wasn't in here as much as she wanted to—there wasn't much of a chance yet to see what kind of books they had available. Now she didn't know if she'd ever come in here…especially what she saw between the second and third bookshelf. On the carpet was the dark stain where Josie's blood had pooled. The floor level shelf had blood splattered across the edges of various books. In that instant Ally felt that her head was lighter, and as she took another two steps toward the bookshelf her legs shook with a noticeable tremor. She felt them turn to jelly and she hobbled forward, letting out a small sound that caught in her throat. She would have fallen over completely had Sidney not catch her by the arm.
"Don't fall here now," she said. "God…" she pulled Ally up and stepped in ahead of her. Ally could hear her breathing slow as she tried to focus. Ally was breathing that slow now, but it was to keep from vomiting over the scene.
"You in here?!" Sidney called out. "You bitch are you in here?!" She walked in further and began scoping down the aisles. Ally shook her head and followed after.
"What…happened that made you hate her so much? Because you could have fooled me that you did."
Sidney looked back, but still walked on, checking between each bookcase. "She bullied the fuck out of me. Worse than that…even. Tried to kill me more than once and I don't think she was even aware of it." She patted her pocket, "What I have here…is more of a reassurance of something I have known for a long time."
"To…not even be aware of it?"
"One time I was getting drowned in the school bathroom. I'm sure I was seconds away from losing consciousness until she just…stopped. It was like she just stumbled onto the scene of me there in the toilet, then she'd pick on me for that. It was like she had some…desire that was so strong to inflict pain that the parts of her that don't tried to hide it. Like there's…"
"An imp…" Ally said.
Sidney stopped, looked at her, and then remembered. "Yeah…kind of like that dumb ass story. Like a little piece of her coaxes her to do the worst possible thing then leaves the rest of her—still awful but not evil by comparison—to clean up the mess."
"So that's why you think that she killed Josie."
"Of course."
That meant that Ashley was the one with that slip of paper. She knew who killed Tyson's girlfriend. If what Aoi said was true, then she was responsible for what happened over the summer. It wasn't much of a secret that she hated Tyson. She was beginning to believe it now. They had to find her and Derek, fast.
~…~
Carlos and Lilly opened the doors to the gym and sprinted inside.
"C'mon, let's split up and check each of the locker rooms."
"You're speaking my language."
"Okay," he nodded, "Should be obvious which is who. Yell if you find them." He jogged to the boys locker room.
Lilly raised her arm, "Wait—" then dropped it as he was out of sight a moment later. She sighed and walked into the ladies's locker room.
Carlos sprinted down the aisle checking between each row of lockers. There wasn't anybody inside just like when Ally and Lilly had checked it out the first time. He turned on a dime to head back out but ended up slamming into the trash bin beside the coach's office. The bin tumbled over and spilled its contents onto the floor. Carlos stood up and rubbed his aching side. He was surprised to see among the garbage there seemed to be something that shined in the light. He tossed aside a damp roll of paper towels and found the volleyball trophy that was supposed to be in the main lobby. He picked it up and held it in his hands, noticing there was a chip in the marble base.
"No way…"
Lilly was in and out of the other locker room in less than a minute. There weren't many places one could hide if they chose to do so—she found herself lost in thought. Carlos came out holding the trophy and stared at her, "I think I found the real murder weapon."
~…~
Adam and Tyson were combing through the art rooms before moving down toward the music hallway. They didn't say anything to one another as they scanned each passing room in hopes of finding them.
Adam pulled Tyson just as he was about to enter the choir room and pointed toward the fork that led to the band room. On the ground just past the fork was a small trail of fresh blood. Tyson looked back at him with wide eyes and he nodded slowly, nervous.
They followed the trail.
~…~
Aoi and Harrison slowly made their way through each of the classrooms lining the wall outside of Mr. Herondale's office. Mrs. Fowler's was the farthest on the east side of the hall. They moved from there to Mr. Attenback's 6th grade English then to Ms. Daley's 7th grade English class.
Harrison didn't move very fast normally, but he especially didn't move very fast when he was tripping out of his mind. Aoi had to lead him by the arm—he suspected Harrison might have come close to overdosing because of the events of the day. Aoi found a somber feeling crawl itself into his heart as he saw each empty classroom. These were once places he loved to go. He made so many friends here…and now he wasn't going to be able to look at them in the same way again.
Next opening Mr. Kryker's 6th grade History classroom Aoi stopped short as he opened the door. There was an explosion of blood sprayed all across the room. He'd never seen this much in his life. He looked up to the white board at the front of the room and saw a bloodied hand-print plastered on the wall. Underneath was a word finger-painted on as if by an infant—FUCKED.
"Oh…"
~…~
"…shit…" Tyson said as he stepped into the band room. Adam was right behind him and his eyes filled with horror as soon as he saw.
The body's head was slammed shut into the rear of the piano—supported only by the flagpole that impaled it. Blood flowered from the wound and pooled at the body's feet. Blonde hair peeked out from the piano. Ashley's body lay dead in the band room.
Adam's screams pierced the air.
~...~
They found Derek in the cafeteria. His face was frozen on the last look he ever took—crippling fear. He was stuck to the wall by a leg of a chair that had been broken off and stabbed through him and the wall. His body slumped over and dripped blood onto the floor below.
Below there was a single word painted in his blood—JUSTICE.
Aoi couldn't believe what he was seeing. He fell to his knees and started to choke up. He didn't know how long it took for the others to arrive. They eventually did and saw him…
"She…she really did it," Aoi said, slowly.
"Oh…oh my god…not him too," Ally said, covering her mouth.
"What…? We thought…" Tyson began.
"Too?" Aoi asked, still shaking. "What do you mean too?"
Just then before them familiar trails of light seeped in from the wall. It took shape as a wolf made entirely of light. It took four steps forward and looked up to Ally and then flowed inside her. She felt a gust of wind inside her body and a fire in her eyes. To the others her eyes glowed a reddish-gold light. Instantly she felt warmth rising to her head and her vision cleared completely.
~…~
A thirteen year old girl sat alone in her bedroom. Her bed was a mess and papers were sprawled out all around her. Her long black hair was brushed over to one side. The bedroom was very nice looking—it definitely was much larger than Ally's back at the Fae residence.
There was a knock at the girl's door. She looked up toward the sound; her blue eyes glowed in the lamplight. "Come on in,"
~…~
"There has been an internal interruption in the investigation." Issachar spoke through Ally's body. "It seems that I may have overestimated the power of humans. I have made the assumption that you all were the same...all powerful, but it had come to my attention that not all of you are of the same strength. Thankfully, I have corrected the oversight. You are now able to see things as they are. It is quite a shame, though."
"What…" Lilly began.
"The guilty party is very clever. Now, I mentioned I wasn't going to intervene in the investigation…but this changes everything. The game has been stacked against you from the very start, and I cannot have that. All must be fair if true justice is going to come out. The guilty party is much stronger than many of you and has been able to hide this body just like they've been able to hide the truth. If left uninterrupted, then they would get away without being caught." It raised Ally's arm and suddenly Derek's body began to fade away. The blood vanished too…the wall was spotless. "This was how this wall looked to you ever since you've arrived here, yes?"
"Y-Yes…but what…" Aoi couldn't finish.
Derek's body faded back like the static on an old television set.
"I apologize for my assumption. I thought all of you would be able to remove this mental block."
"Since the…" Adam started.
"…beginning?!" Lilly finished.
"I wonder…is it maybe that only the killer is able to do this?" The light left Ally's eyes and she returned to her mind. Everyone around her was all staring with the same confused look.
"W…what'd I miss?" She asked, increasingly concerned.
Aoi scratched his head, tears streamed down his cheeks. He stopped shaking at the least. "Issachar came back. Said…"
"He said," Lilly began, taking a breath, "that somehow Derek's been dead since we got here."
"Excuse me?" Ally asked.
"The killer apparently did some…weird shit that made it look like the wall was normal the whole time."
"That's…not possible," Ally said. "Derek was with us. She turned, "I mean…Ashley's…gone too. But everyone here saw him. Everyone." She turned to Aoi, "Do any of you believe that he could be both dead and alive at the same time? Issachar either didn't know what he was talking about or was lying."
"Well," Lilly posed, "If he's lying about this then we can't trust anything he says. Is that how we're going to play this?"
Ally scratched her head and sighed, "I don't know…I don't know…" she felt herself losing energy. "I just want to end this and go home. We don't have any leads. Ashley's dead, and if we were wrong about her and somehow someway…Derek's dead too…so either one of us here killed them both, Rosie, and even Carleigh. Or maybe they only killed Rosie, or maybe Carleigh, or maybe even none of them!" She was screaming now.
"Hey, calm down Ally," Lilly said, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"No, fuck this! We don't know jack shit!" She rarely cursed, and instantly it left a poisonous taste in her mouth. "It could be anyone. There's too much…too much…" Ally felt a different sort of warmth rise to her head, but this time it wasn't Issachar using her to speak, she was getting light-headed. She began to hyperventilate and lost consciousness immediately after. She didn't hear the others jump up to catch her. She didn't hear anything as the darkness enveloped. Even though Issachar wasn't entering her body, she did hear the slightest whisper.
"You seem to be paralyzed by over analysis. You've lost your intuition…that won't do. Let me help. Forgive my second intervention…but I really do wish to see true justice achieved. Let me show you the other side. Let me show you memories that will help you, but be warned, Allison Fae, thirteen. You'll find truth and lies mingling together like a flame and gasoline. It is up to you to determine one from the other."