Ally ceased watching memories of the past. She was back in the cafeteria, but now watching Aoi on the ground sobbing, Lilly was looking at her with concern, Adam and Tyson watched off to the side, Carlos was in-between Tyson and Lilly, and Harrison was sitting in the back, his eyes still spinning in circles.
"Ally, are you—"
"You have been returned to the exact moment that you left." The voice inside her head quietly faded out, and she blinked twice.
"…okay?" Lilly finished, but all at once her look changed, and in an instant she understood.
"You saw…"
Ally nodded, "Yeah, I'm good," she was staring right at Lilly now. The whole room was silent—Aoi even quieted.
"I can explain—" Lilly projected her voice into Ally's mind again, this time with an ever increasing focused look.
"Guys, I know who killed Derek," Ally began,
"Please, hear me out. I beg you…"
The others turned to her. She looked to Lilly, who looked like a wreck. She was trying her hardest to use her power—Ally knew that much, but for whatever reason it wasn't working. Ally walked over to the table in the center of the room. "Carlos…"
His head perked up instantly and began to shake his head.
"No, no, I didn't do—"
"No no! I'm sorry, I made that sound wrong. I was going to explain, but first I need you to go get those trophies from Mrs. Fowler's room, okay?"
He let loose a deep breath, "God damn, put the spotlight on me like that," he said, relieved. "Yeah, I can."
"Can you check on Rosie, too?" She asked. "I want to make sure she's still okay." Lilly shuffled uneasily.
"While he's off doing that I want to share some things I just learned."
"Ally, please."
"Tyson didn't kill Carleigh over the summer," Ally said, surprising most others there.
"Ally."
"Derek did. He raped her and slit her throat, and got away with it because he didn't remember killing her. Ashley made him do it, and…" she looked back at Lilly, "…and that day is directly linked to what happened here today."
Jace appeared by her side suddenly. "Ally, don't do it." He said.
She eyed Lilly hard.
Jace yelled out a terrible scream that echoed off of the walls—nobody else could hear it, of course.
"Ally, don't make me do it."
"Please don't make her do it Ally," Jace pleaded.
"He's…" She struggled to think back, "…he's just a character I created. He isn't real. You can't stop me from bringing the truth out to light."
"Derek was killed because his killer knew that he was responsible for Carleigh's death…"
"I can make him real."
"…because the killer loved Carleigh…maybe love was too kind a word…" Ally continued.
"I can make him hurt, but I don't want to. Ally you have to believe me. I only do it when there's a good explanation—"
"The killer was obsessed with Carleigh. Because you don't hurt someone that you love. Not for any reason, not for any justification. You can't love like that."
Jace started screaming louder.
"Because the killer was raping Carleigh first. She was interrupted and had to stop. That was when she witnessed the murder, and instead of notifying the proper authorities she took justice into her own hands. She created her own true justice…except that kind isn't true or just. It was revenge, and no matter how much you try to justify it, Lilly, all you have done is made sure the wheel of blood kept spinning."
Lilly was screaming now, Jace was vaporized from Ally's conscious, and everyone there was sent back by the shockwave of her outburst.
She cradled herself, shaking. She was breathing heavy. Ally knew that she understood that the others had believed what she'd said.
"I don't know how," Lilly said, "But you sent them what you saw, didn't you?"
Ally nodded, "I don't know either, but yes."
"How…how could you?" Aoi started, and he turned to her slowly.
Lilly didn't answer him.
"ANSWER ME!" He roared and dashed toward her. She wasn't moving away from him.
Ally could see the fire burning in his eyes—it was the same fire that burned in Lilly's before she killed Derek. He meant to kill her.
"Stop!" Ally threw out her fist and caught Aoi mid-dash. He was suspended in mid-air just above the ground, and turned around to face her. "Wh-What happened?"
Lilly looked up with a mix of concern and curiosity.
"I…I don't know. It's happening—how and why will come later. For now, you cannot do what you were going to do to her," Ally explained.
"She—"
"I know," Ally said. She thought to him how she used to think to Jace. "You know what revenge does to a person. Look at her now, does she look like she's avenged anything? That will be you if you do that."
He looked over to her, and for the first time really took her in. She cradled herself tight, her fingers digging into her arms. He didn't have to see into her mind to realize that everything was tearing her up on the inside. She deserved it…but Carleigh didn't. Derek…he…he…he did that to that girl. He did it, and he probably deserved it too.
He looked down at his hands which were still balled into fists. I was just about to do that to her.
"Can I set you down?" Ally asked, still in the same position as before.
He took a deep breath and shook his head. "Yeah…"
She did, and he slumped to the ground—the adrenaline had left his body.
"I don't understand…pretty much anything that's going on," Adam said.
Ally let go of a breath herself, "I'm sorry Adam, but we can't keep playing catch-up. If you don't now you will when it's all over, okay?" Then she turned to Lilly.
She looked up at Ally, broken, understanding. "What…happens to me now? I don't have the strength to do anything to you—I used most of it up hiding Derek and…"
"I want you to explain. Everything about what happened today, and why you brought Issachar here and us to this void."
"I'll…I'll…" she started. "I didn't…bring him here."
"Fine, I'll chalk it up to divine intervention, talk."
Lilly looked to the floor, "Everything she said was correct…although in what she showed you there were some…there were some lies mixed in with the truth."
Ally sensed she was telling the truth, but she stopped her there, "Tell us everything concerning Carleigh and Josie. Anything else I don't care about."
"Everything you saw regarding Carleigh was correct," she sighed. "I had feelings for her, and when she broke up with Tyson back in the summer…I think for the fights you two got in…? Anyway, I befriended her because I liked her, and I liked helping her. I could tell that she at the very least was bi, she looked at me in those times and I remember loving it, it told me I wasn't crazy…that I hadn't been feeling what I felt for nothing."
Ally could feel Tyson tightening behind her. "Stay calm," she thought to him.
"She didn't look at me, at first, I mean." Lilly said. "I made her look, and she just got used to it. I guess I planted the seed there, and she let it grow. Then she found out…" She couldn't bring herself to say it. "She found out, and she got scared. She wasn't ready, and she ran. I couldn't stop thinking about it, about her. So when I came to the party that day I planned to try again—to plant a bigger seed—more seeds. I wanted her to like me for me."
"You wanted to make her like you," Ally said.
"…Yeah." Lilly nodded. "I panicked when Derek came up, he slid the roofie into her drink and immediately I knew what he was trying to do. I tried not to believe it because…well, I thought he was such a good guy." She turned to Aoi. "I really did. I know how much you loved him, but he didn't feel that way about you." She turned back to Ally, "That was when I got selfish. I couldn't believe that anyone else wanted her—and they'd probably stand a chance. I led her upstairs and I raped her. I couldn't finish—I would have, and probably would have been found out much sooner, but that wasn't in the cards."
"Derek must have seen you bring her upstairs, and Ashley must have been close behind."
"I don't know if she made him get the knife, or if he brought it as insurance in case anything went wrong. My mind says the latter, it wouldn't make much sense to control him, then let go, then control again."
"He raped her too, and then slit her throat."
"That was when I found out Ashley could do what I…" she stumbled a second, "What we…can do."
"Read how other people are feeling, light telekinesis, other mental distraction," Ally said.
"Yeah. I don't know where it comes from; I don't think Ashley did either. When she dug into my mind I was able to see inside hers. She seemed more confused and scared than I was—I think some other mental illness she had compounded in her."
"What about her?" Sidney asked, speaking up for the first time. "Who killed her if Derek was already dead before we even began?"
"I did…" she said. "The Derek you all saw after his death was the other half of why I'm weak, now. Since I had to hide his body here obviously people would question if he was missing. So in addition to that I had to project him here that you could see."
"So it was a fake," Ally said.
"Of course, it had to be. Derek's been dead for hours. All of my strength went into hiding and projecting him. Folie à plusieurs, you might know the name of a Fall Out Boy album of a similar name, Folie à deux. The meaning of the first word is psychosis of many. It's a psychiatric syndrome where the people affected share hallucinations or different delusions. What we can do is induce people with that condition for however long we can keep a hold on them."
"You force hallucinations," Sidney said.
"Derek was one, yes. You could see him, hear him, even touch him, but he was not really there. You all shared the same delusion, and that is why it was so tiring. It is enough work to have control over a single person's senses, but to influence the many…the plusieurs, well, that pretty much used me up. It held strong for all but one circumstance."
"Being?" Ally asked.
"When Ally and 'Derek' split up to investigate the classrooms they went missing, remember? Well, Ashley tried to rape Derek inside one of the rooms—locked the door and everything. She enforced her will on him and tried her very best. It was the first time since waking up here she exerted herself like that, and she broke the illusion. Quite literally he broke before her very eyes."
"He just disappeared, and that's why we couldn't find him at least…" Tyson said.
"I put in a failsafe to the hallucination. If something like that happened then the psychosis of the one would increase. It'd drive them to suicide, and that was exactly what happened. Ashley made her way to the band room as quickly as she could—I couldn't tell you why on that. She chose what she chose and ended her life—it was by coincidence she happened to use a flagpole as well. The piano was me…I couldn't let it stand that I don't get a little kick in…"
"Any one of us could have been driven to suicide because of your insanity," Sidney said, and for once Ally agreed with her.
"No…not anyone. Only Ashley, only she was able to—" And then she stopped.
"No, she's not the only one. Not anymore," Ally said. "I could have equally stumbled on that situation—god knows why I'm now able to do this, but I am. You could have killed me."
"I…I swear I didn't know."
"Your swears mean nothing to me right now," Ally said. "Josie. What happened with Josie? That's the last I care about, and then I'm done with you."
Lilly nodded, slowly and sullen. "I didn't call the police on Derek because I knew that Ashley would have some way to defend him. She got away with everything with her power. I didn't doubt murder would be one of them. So I planned to get revenge…something that would stick. Josie agreed to help out. I told her everything I knew through her mind—Rosie is much too sweet…she wouldn't have been able to handle it.
She took in a deep breath and was shaking again. "I came up with an idea to fix all of my problems."
"Wait a second…" Harrison called out from behind them all, surprising everyone in the room. "That isn't why you…you came to me that morning."
"Yes," Lilly said. "I bought some LSD off of you and mixed it with…well, I don't know fully what with. The intent was to make something that would kill when injested. The plan…" she sighed and rubbed her temples, "…the plan was to poison Ashley and then get Derek to confess once she was down. It…spiraled."
Ally didn't say anything, she only looked at Lilly with a putrid look.
"Tyson was there that morning, and seeing him flared up something inside of me. I was thinking of Derek killing Carleigh all over again and it burnt through my mind like a fireball. The plan changed, I made the note that you found in the library, Aoi."
"The one that said the killer knew who killed Carleigh," Aoi said.
"I gave it to Josie, who had already had the poison pill at this point. I gave that to her because she had the earliest opportunity to slip the pill into something she'd eat. She'd have suspected something from me if I got even ten feet within her."
"That's when Josie approached me," Tyson said. He was aware of the eyes on him now, "Yeah yeah, look all you want. I didn't say anything about it because where it ends up makes me look real suspicious," Tyson said, unblinking. "I followed her to the library to try and figure out what she knew."
"That was the plan." Lilly said. "I was gone from the cafeteria at this point."
"You…" Ally began to think, "You were out to the bathroom for your period."
"In truth I was using the keys I convinced Josie to steal from her father to—"
The doors opened behind them, Carlos came back in with both trophies in his hands, and he set them down on the table. "All righty, Rosie sends her best wishes—she's conscious again, but definitely in pain." He turned to Ally, "She told me to tell you that she wanted to thank you for taking care of her." He looked back to the group. "So, what'd I miss?"
~…~
After Carlos re-entered the room Ally helped catch him back up by sending him the same memories that she had seen herself. It was like a party-favor of the worst kind. A moment later he nodded his head—she was sure that he spent as much time as she had watching through them, but arriving back to when he 'left'. He nodded his head and licked his now-dry lips.
"You used the keys from Josie's father to open the case in the main lobby," Ally said. "You took not one trophy, but two of them from the case—the Soccer and the Volleyball trophies."
"Yes," Lilly nodded. "The volleyball trophy I took with me to the library. It was locked that early in the morning, so I opened it myself. I set up the volleyball trophy on top of the second bookshelf. I directed Josie to run to the library after showing the note to Tyson. I was running on a tight time frame."
"Rosie's testimony," Ally pondered, "…she said she remembered walking up to Tyson, immediately felt frightened, do you remember that?"
"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. 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? Then 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...and I woke up in the closet and everything was wrong. She...she wasn't moving and..."
"Rosie and Josie ran to the library—Josie was nervous because…well, who wouldn't be at a plan like this"
Lilly flinched beside her.
"They made it to the library and something caused the trophy to fall on her head—that's why the volleyball trophy is dented here." Ally walked to the table and grabbed the trophy up, showing the rest of them the chip in the marble base. She looked to Lilly, "Sound accurate?"
"It is," Tyson said, he now gripped his arm tight. "I saw it."
And who would have believed that I didn't kill them if I brought it up? Ally heard him think.
"Yes…" She started. "I…I didn't intend for her to get hit by it…"
"No, you only intended that she swallow the poison so that you'd have nothing tracing you back to the crime. It was your insurance policy." Lilly was about to argue, but Ally cut her off. "Why'd you take the Soccer trophy?"
"I…I swapped the trophies out. I know that's a thing that…"
"That killers do, take the murder weapon, right?" She hurt Lilly again, saw it visibly on her face. "Then what? You dumped the volleyball trophy in the garbage can in the gym—Maybe even got yourself a period alibi by wiping off the blood with your underwear?"
"Yes…"
Ally knew it before she even said it; she felt that same hold that Ashley held over her at the party. In an instant she knew everything there was about Lillian Jones. And she had to try her hardest not to crush it. No, listen to your advice. Revenge isn't worth it. Revenge isn't worth—
"Why did you make me fall for you?"
Lilly was confused by the question, and then a sorrowful look faded onto her face. "N-No…I couldn't have…you resist my…" and then realization. "You really…"
"I really…" she didn't finish. "And you threw that away long before I even knew you. You were too busy planning your revenge you threw away yourself. You can't love, only obsess what is right in front of you."
She looked up to the ceiling. "Issachar! Where are you?! I have your guilty party right here. We're done with this trial."
"A-Ally, p-please, I'm—" Lilly crawled forward two steps and bent down, crying now. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
Ally looked at her on her knees before her. Nobody else in the room mattered at the moment more than the two of them there. "You ruined me, Lilly. You turned someone I had hope in into a killer. You turned my last pillar into nothingness, and you turned me into a psycho-freak. You don't deserve to hear this except for in your own mind. Fuck you."
As she did, she stopped shaking. Despair had finally set in the place where her killing had previously been; where her 'goals' had previously been. Up above a small ball of light began to seep into their vision. It shot out five tendrils that latched into Lilly's spine and dragged itself into her body, sending her upright.
Ally saw that her eyes glowed the reddish-gold light that had filled her vision before.
"There you are," Ally said. "So Lilly didn't summon you here, and Ashley's dead. So what happens now?"
"You have cured my curiosity, Allison Fae, thirteen. You are an interesting human…very interesting." Issachar said through her body. "What happens next is I return you to your dimension and you return to your normal lives…"
"Awesome," Adam said, smiling large. "Awesome…"
He had a whole lot of mental trauma he was going to have to recover from…they all did. It was a good thing they were going to get out of this crazy darkness…but something didn't seem right.
"What's going to happen with Lilly?" Ally asked.
Lilly's head cocked to the side, "Hm…what indeed. I didn't think you really would have minded anything less than execution."
"You mentioned that wasn't your idea of true justice." Ally said.
"This is correct."
"So what is, then?"
Issachar looked at Lilly's hands and closed them into tight-white fists. "I'm going to inhabit this body from now on. Thank you very much for helping me out. I am so glad I did not have to take someone who didn't deserve it." He flashed a smile with her face and for the slightest of seconds a look of pure terror crossed over her face, and a voice louder than any other pierced Ally's mind. "HELP ME PLEASE!"
Issachar turned and drew a finger down in front of him as if peeling a part a layer of existence. A black and purple glowing rip appeared where he dragged, and it went all the way to the floor.
"It was nice meeting you all. I shall never forget you. This is where I take my leave. As soon as my portal disappears the school shall be returned to the way it was. I suggest getting some medical attention for Rosemary Higgins, thirteen."
He stepped through and it seemed to close up behind him. The others around were hugging each other and crying in celebration that the nightmare was finally over. They were going to go home!
Ally stood still and looked out where Lilly's body was and then one second later wasn't. The voice that called out for help hung onto her like a vice, she was interrupted by Aoi hugging her from behind. Snot ran down his nose and he nearly knocked her over.
"Oh god It's over! It's over! Thank you so much! Thank you!"
"Yeah," Ally said, smiling, but not fully, "It's over…"