Those who were up front and seen the body up close were silent, staring at the lifeless form and letting it all soak in. This didn't make sense, they couldn't piece together how this could have happened. They stared in shock and confusion, the gears in their heads starting to turn and trying to make sense of things.
"How could this be?" one of them finally asked, his eyes locked onto Dave, his hands rubbing up and down his arms. "He's locked up, isn't he? How could he have done this? D-Did we get the wrong guy?" he asked, looking to Ardyn for answers. But, he had none.
Another woman spoke up, her tone heightened from her horror, "Do you think someone could have broken in? Maybe it was someone from the outside that did this," she offered.
"You fool, we're all from the outside," someone reminded. "For all we know, it could have been you, I don't remember seeing you down in the main hall when all this happened." He was in her face, staring her down as she shrunk away. "So, where were you then? Huh?" he basically spat in her face as he shot off questions.
"What?" she uttered, in complete disbelief. "I-I haven't done anything! I've been with the group this whole time. Maybe you're just trying to get the blame off yourself! I don't remember seeing you either."
Then others started to see the gravity as well, the topic changing from the fate of Dave to the possibility of the killer being among them. Before they could fall into alarm again, the mauve man help up his hands and beckoned them all to fall silent. There were a few more accusations exchanged before they slowly started to give him their shaken attention. "It appears as though we may have been wrong about the culprit," he admitted. "And, yes, that does mean that the murderer may still be among us. However, panicking and pointing fingers will not get the job done."
Ardyn folded his hands behind his back and strolled forward, stepping over the body on his way out and disturbing a few streams of blood. "But, first, we must release the boy from his confinement." He looked through the crowd, locking eyes with Noctis, then Ignis and Gladio last before looking away once again.
He pushed his way through the crowd until he was standing in the middle of them and he awaited to have their full attention. "We should get moving now, no need to stay here longer than we already have. We've found out what we needed to know, and crowding his body further would be rather disrespectful, I would think." With that, he spun around and headed down the hall, beckoning for the others to follow. Next, it was time to check on their 'prisoner'.
The four of them, though, stayed put. Staying when something didn't feel right about this whole thing. They couldn't quite figure out what it was, but Ignis had an idea as he stared at the body, jades narrowing as he began to study it and then the room. Something about the way that man wanted everyone ushered out so quickly didn't sit well with him either. Unable to dwell on things for the time being, they take off after the others, not wanting to be left behind.
However, the rest of the group was already back in the main hall, passing through to get to the other side where the bedrooms were. They were moving quickly, eager to get to the blond, but there were some that still had their doubts about his innocence, despite the evidence they were faced with. Still leading them, Ardyn stopped before the door, looking behind him and making sure everyone was still together, and if anyone got left behind, it was unnoticed by the vast majority.
Holding out his hand, he didn't need to speak for someone to hand him a key, the man whose room this was supposed to be handed it over. Inhaling deeply and gripping it tightly, he slipped the key into place and slowly turned it. Hearing the 'click', he pocketed it and carefully pushed the door open, the creak it produced contrasting with the sudden and eerie silence. There was a single light turned on, but that's not what they immediately saw. It was dim and uninviting as it served as the perfect highlight for the focal point.
"He got another," Ardyn whispered. The wardrobe was wide open as more red shaded the edges and trailed from it. Rushing in, he stepped in front of it, blocking it from the other. Pushing the door the rest of the way open and gliding in, making sure the others could get a clear view of the area. Another body. More blood. Another murder. While everyone's attention was drawn to the body, he subtly eased the doors shut, hiding the contents from any curious eyes.
A few of the others filtered in, only the ones that weren't as bothered by the fact that there was a dead body, covered up, but still clearly a body. Blood was still seeping into the fabric, gradually spreading through the blue hue. "Did he do this?" a man asked, nudging the body with his foot to find it was still limp, meaning not a lot of time had passed.
Curious, Ardyn stepped forward a bit more, a clear 'crunch' sounding out with another step. Looking down, he lifted his shoe as shards of glass jostled beneath it. Following the pieces, he smiled at the broken window. "Well, looks like it must have been him after all," he said loud enough for plenty to hear. "He must have escaped and re-entered through another point in the house."
"So, he's out there, and we have no idea where?" a woman asked from outside the room, standing just outside the entrance. "He's still the one doing all this?" There were more murmurs as the rest started to agree, falling back into the mindset of cornered animals. And, for some, as long as it got the blame and suspicion off them, they were willing to believe it was anyone else.
Ardyn looked to her and sadly nodded. "I'm afraid so, ma'am. But, as I have said, we should be safe so long as we stick together. I say we head back to the main hall and wait it out. We can't let this get to us." He glanced out the window, looking left and right to try and spot the kid, but no such luck. "He's long gone as far as we know, but if we see him again, we'll make sure he won't get away this time," he promised, getting quite a few agreements from the crowd.
This time, he didn't look back to make sure the others were following, he assumed they would though, with the fear they now held close and dear and the desperation they felt, there was no way in hell they'd allow themselves to be caught by themselves. And, with no one else to follow, they didn't have much choice if they wanted to get out of this alive. And, he was right, not a moment too soon, there were the cacophony of footsteps that fell into place after him, never letting him get too far away.
"It couldn't be him," Noctis mumbled, the four of them remaining behind to stare into what was once Prompto's cell. "I know it wasn't him; I've known him forever, he would never do this!" he declared, getting a few looks from a few more stragglers, but they kept their comments to themselves.
Ignis hummed his agreement, but he also stayed quiet. In fact, they noticed he'd been oddly quiet since they saw the body of Dave in the bathroom. He barely seemed there, constantly lost in thought, and they wondered if he even noticed that their friend was now missing. "We need to go back," he finally uttered after a moment. "We need to go back and check out that body."
"Are you insane?" Gladio asked. "He's dead, what more do you want to know?" He raised his eyebrow and gave the brunet a questionable look, figuring he must have some good reason for this. If it were just him, he would have been alright with it, but he had Iris with him, and anything that put her in danger, he was going to be skeptical about.
Placing his hand on his chin in thought, Ignis shook his head. "Something didn't seem right, I need to get a better look though." He didn't care of the others agreed or not, if it's what he thought, then this is what they needed. With or without them, he was going back up. Though, he assumed they'd tag along.
They waited until everyone was gone and out of the hallway, and looking to make sure there were no witnesses, Ignis waved them along, leading them in the opposite direction than the others had gone. "There has to be another way up, I don't want to be seen going there." He wasn't exactly sure where he was going, but these types of houses always had other ways of getting to places. And, it took some wandering and some searching, but eventually they came across another flight of stairs.
"I guess this would be it then," Noctis sighed, following the man up. His steps were carefully placed, afraid that the slightest noise produced would alert the others that they were no longer with them. They should have been far enough away that it wouldn't matter, but he just wanted to be sure.
As they reached the top, they took a second to stand and listen, waiting for any signs that they were being followed or that anyone was headed in their direction. Lucky for them, they managed to break away without notice, and they all let out a sigh of relief. "Let's find Dave," Ignis whispered, mostly to himself before carrying on their search.
It took far longer than they would have cared for, mostly due to them scuffling for most of the way. Walking normally, it could have taken half the time, but eventually, they came across a hallway that looked familiar. Sure enough, there was the pool of blood that had seeped out from under the door. No matter how many times they saw it, they'd never get used to it. While the two of them approached, Gladio and Iris stayed back, him not wanting his younger sibling to see something like that.
The brunet stepped in first, careful not to disturb much of the blood, but there was no avoiding all of it. Tiptoeing to the other side of the corpse, he crouched down, tightening his mouth and squinting his eyes as he drew closer. This wasn't how he was expecting to spend his evening, but here he was.
"There, you got to see it, now can we please go now?" Noctis asked in a hushed tone, continuously flicking his attention towards the hall. He didn't want to say it out loud, but his paranoia was flaring up and he expected to see someone strolling up at any moment now. But, the other didn't budge from his spot. "Ignis?" he called, guessing that he just wasn't heard.
The older man just held up a hand to tell him to have patience while he scanned the form over. Then it hit him, and he wondered how he didn't think about this earlier, why no one thought about this earlier. "Look at his neck," he instructed, pointing towards the slit.
"We already know what happened," the raven reminded, shuddering and avoiding looking directly at the gaping wound. "That Ardyn guy made that pretty clear the first time we were here." He felt chills run up and down his arms.
Ignis gave him a pointed look and shook his head. "That's not what I mean. Yes, that's how he died. But, tell me, have you ever heard a man who had his neck sliced scream?" His question was rhetorical, but the other felt the need to answer it anyway.
"Have you?" he shot back. "I've never heard a man scream like that at all, so how the hell should I know. It coul-" he paused mid-rant. "Oh," he dropped his argument, realizing what he was getting at now. "So, you're saying he didn't actually scream," he breathed out. "...I guess he couldn't have."
He nodded, glad they were on the same page now. "Precisely. And look at the amount of blood. Yes, you will bleed out rather quickly with a wound like that...but not that quickly. There's too much for the amount of time that passed before we got up here. So, even if he were to scream before the incident, it still wouldn't explain there being that much blood." He glanced up to see the paling in the other's face. "He's been here for a while, probably an hour at the very least. Remember, when we came across him, the blood wasn't flowing quickly anymore."
There was still one thing to check, and this was something he really didn't want to do, and that's why he saved it for last. Taking a deep breath and holding it, he reached out his hand and placed the back of it against the man's face. Ignoring his younger companion's disgusted protest, he kept his hand there for a moment more. "He's cold," he announced.
"I wonder why," Noctis hissed, "he probably has no blood left in his body." He gestured to the floor all around him to emphasize his point. "Of course he's not going to be warm." He wasn't usually this sarcastic or snippy, but something about being in the presence of a corpse was putting him a little on edge, and he wondered how the other could keep such a level head like this.
"True, but he's too cold for a man that just died," he clarified. He would have been cold, but he was practically freezing to the touch. He pulled his hand away and inwardly cringed at the small smear of blood that was on it. Swiping it on his jacket, he looked back to the other to wage his reaction.
This was starting to make sense, and Noctis' veins were starting to feel frozen over. "Then what about the scream?" he uttered, none of this explaining where that had come from. His eyes looked to Dave, a slight sheen obscuring his vision slightly, then they trailed back up to meet jade. "Where did that noise come from then?" he didn't mean to raise his voice, but this was just getting to be too much.
The brunet thought about it, and it was still something he wasn't sure about himself. For all he knew, it could have been someone else, they didn't know what the man sounded like. Sure, that woman said it was his voice, but in the state she was in, it could have just been her mind warping it to match what she wanted to hear. As he stared down, eyes unfocused as he dwelled on this problem, the raven strolled passed him, no longer seeming to be bothered by this scene. He didn't say a word to him as he went by, but his curiosity did spike as the sounds of rummaging sounded out behind him.
"Noct, what are you doing?" he asked, eyebrow raised suspiciously as the man disregarded the overall tidiness of the room.
He hummed to acknowledge the question, but he didn't answer right away, too busy looking around for anything else that could be useful. Through cabinets, in nooks and crannies. And, as his hand ran along the top of the cupboards on the wall, his hand bumped something, knocking it off and causing it to clatter on the floor and land in a small pool of crimson.
Ignis was eyeing it instantly, greens growing in size as he recognized the object. Before Noctis could say anything, he was reaching for it and held in between his hands, turning it and inspecting it. "Are you sure you should be touching that?!" the raven asked, worried about the fingerprints.
"It doesn't matter, our DNA is already all over the place. As long as we don't touch any weapons, I think we'll be fine." Or, he hoped anyway. Taking the tape recorder, he stood up and fiddled with it for a moment before rewinding the tape back and his play. For a while nothing happened, minutes passed, and from what he could tell, almost the entire thing was filled with silence.
Then, out of nowhere, the beginning of a scream, a horrified and panicked one stared to sound out. The moment that noise blared, Ignis stopped it, his heart pounding painfully against his ribs. He expected that's what was on it, but to be right next to it this time and have it cry out in you ear made it so much worse. Switching it off, he prayed to himself that the others didn't hear it; it's already been proven that things can be heard from this room.
"Are you serious?" Noctis asked, eyeing the device. He glanced from the recorder to the corpse. "And they all think this was done just a little while ago?" His voice was just above a whisper.
Ignis nodded, taking a deep breath and stepping back over the body; they were done here now, they found what they needed. From what he could tell, he was dead before they had even gotten there. "We have to get this to the others," he breathed out, stating the obvious. "This is the proof we need. They still believe it was Prompto, and I bet you anything they are all on there on the verge of starting a mob to hunt him down." The sad part is, he wasn't even sure if that was an exaggeration anymore.