I again had trouble sleeping that night, but rather than dreaming of nothing like I did last night, I actually had quite a vivid dream. I stood in a place that looked like one of my sketchbook drawings. It was a barren and desolate apocalypse land. I walked through it for a while, seeing strange shapes and random body parts along the way. Like a melted clock on a branch, a random eyeball on a tin can, etc. Finally a person came into sight as I was walking. I could not see who they were, as their back was turned to me. They had a black cloak on and mangled black hair matted on their head. The closer I got, the more it reeked of raw fish. I had to put my shirt over my nose to try and keep myself from breathing in the horrible stench. The closer I got, the more faint I felt. I also noticed that the closer I got the more the person seemed to change in appearance. The person got shorter and their clothes changed until they looked like Ned from behind. The horrible stench was still there. I called out to him, but he wouldn't respond. It wasn't until I put my hand on his shoulder when I realized something was wrong. The stench was not only unbearable, to the point I felt like I was going to empty the contents of my stomach right then and there, but everything disappeared and went silent. Everything went black and all I could see was Ned. We were floating in oblivion.
It wasn't until he turned around and revealed that who I had put my shoulder on was not Ned at all. The person who turned around had the face of a pig. I stepped back before it let out a shrill squeal. The whole scene forced me awake and I shot up out of bed seconds before the morning announcement even sounded. When it did, I paid no mind. I was just trying to grip what was reality and what was just a figment of my imagination at that point. It took me a bit, but when I felt a grasp on reality, I brought myself up out of bed so I could get ready. I actually spiked my hair this time, too, even though it seemed pointless. It looked better that way. When I was ready, I went to the dining hall for breakfast.
I was the last one there because of my spikes, or so I thought. Upon closer observation I found Ned was not at the table. I thought maybe he skipped out on breakfast too because of the shit that went down last night.
"Has anyone seen Ned?" I asked.
"Who cares?" Chester rolled his eyes at me.
"Well, I do. I know he did something reprehensible last night, but he's still one my friends." I replied, a bit of anger in my voice.
"Check on him after breakfast if your worried, then." Eddie suggested.
"I'm sure he's still hiding in his room" Honey laughed.
I sighed and poked at my breakfast. I just really wasn't feeling up to eating. Everyone's side conversations seemed to blur into one another. Nac's ramblings about her website and fanfictions, Riley telling Honey about a show he watched, Xarna discussing work outs with Bromanor that preps you on how to kick ass. It all blurred into each other. I was glad when breakfast was over and people started to disband and go their separate ways.
I immediately went to go check on Ned, but before I could go on I was stopped by Eddie.
"Did you need some help approaching Ned?" Eddie asked. "Sometimes its hard to convince people of the wrong actions they did. Ned's probably just avoiding his problems rather than facing them."
"Thanks, but no thanks." I told him before leaving.
Eddie nodded. At least he seemed to understand.
I put my glasses on and went up to Ned's room. I went to knock, but the door was ajar. I thought that was quite odd, and my stomach started to sink assuming the worst. I tried to push those thoughts away, telling myself that maybe Ned was thinking of going to breakfast but then didn't and forgot to shut the door all the way. I kept telling myself that when I went in I would see him sitting in his bed reading Hungry Games. I tried to stop the feeling of dread overcoming me as I proceeded to push open the door. Of course, the positive thoughts were rushed away as dread immediately took over the minute I walked into the room.
I covered my mouth and almost fell back. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Crimson blood splattered all over the wall and the floor and the bed. Ned's decapitated body with no head. Ned's head tossed on the floor carelessly with his face ripped off an his eyeballs popped out of their sockets. His face stuck on the wall like as if it was a holiday sticker decoration on a store's window. I closed my eyes and shook my head, hoping that when I opened them I'd see Ned was okay, just sitting on the bed and reading, looking at me like I was nuts and asking me if I was feeling alright. I desperately wanted to hear his voice just so I knew that what I was seeing was just some crazy hallucination this awful place has influenced me to see.
But when I opened my eyes, the sight still stood. Ned wasn't okay. Ned was still carelessly mangled all over the room. Ned was gone.
I let out a loud scream, something I would have never thought I'd hear come out of me in a million years. I kept screaming and shaking, completely and utterly terrified. Dread, guilt, shame, fear, and terror hit me at once and welled up in the bottom of my chest as I emitted this cry for help from my chest. Soon, people started to come to my aid, thinking that maybe I was in need of assistance but stopped dead in their tracks once they saw why I was screaming. I almost felt like my lungs gave out so I stopped screaming and just collapsed on the floor. Everyone from the RV tour was standing in Ned's room staring at the sight in front of them. That's when the TV flickered on and a familiar theme from Blue's Clues began to play.
"WE JUST FOUND A BODY~ WE JUST FOUND A BODY~ WE JUST FOUND A BODY~ I WONDER WHO KILLED IT!" Tanezumi's annoyingly cheerful sing-song voice sang with the music. Her song felt like salt in the freshly opened wound. Like she was mocking the pain of losing someone. Like she was specifically mocking me.
All the emotions I was feeling at that moment were too much. I had lost my other best friend. I had specifically came here to find a lost friend, only to lose another. I felt alone. I felt a complete sense of hopelessness. I felt angry that I had to be stuck here like this. I began to weep. I didn't even care how it made me look anymore. I lost someone important to me and I couldn't handle it. Tears blinded me, snots blocked my nose, and I choked on sobs. I felt like a disgusting pile of mush lying there on the floor. I knew he did something awful, but did he really deserve this? Maybe he was going to apologize? But we'll never know because someone thought that he deserved to die.
I felt someone kneel beside me and put their arm around me, like as if they were trying to comfort me. I didn't really bother to see who it was. I was too disgusted to even move. I heard Tanezumi come into the room.
"DAMN! One of yous really went all out! Now we gotta find out who did it!" Tanezumi told us. "If you guess correctly, you all get to live! If you guess wrong, everyone except the murderer dies and the murderer gets to go home free!"
I heard Uncle Grandpa also enter the room and erupt into tears. "NO!" he screamed. "WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?!"
"You will be given an hour or so to investigate the crime and ask around about it, all that fun CSI shit." Tanezumi began. "Then you will report to the dining room and start the trial, where you will make like Ace Attourney and discuss your findings and come to a conclusion of who done it. Probably the most boring part about murders around here." Tanezumi yawned.
I finally looked up at Tanezumi, who was standing there with a smug look on her face. "You mean your just gonna make this into a BIG fucking game?" I hissed.
Tanezumi laughed. "It is a big fucking game, Kevin! Why the hell are you crying? Punks don't cry. You're a poser and a pussy!"
Rage overtook me at that point. I got up to my feet, knocking over whoever was comforting me and lunging at the rat. "YOU FUCKING BITCH!"
Tanezumi simply stepped over and I almost stumbled into the bloody mess. She made a tut tut noise and shook her finger at me.
"Mr. Peepants! It's not very punk rock of you to try and hit a lady! I am very sorry you can no longer make out with your boyfriend, but you just gotta face the music. He's dead, now grow up!" she giggled mockingly.
I balled my fists and turned to her, but then I heard Celeste's voice.
"Kev, please! It's not worth it!" she pleaded with me. "Trying to hurt Tanezumi isn't going to bring Ned back!"
I sighed and looked down in defeat. She was right. It didn't matter what mocking and defaming things Tanezumi said about me or Ned, the fact of the matter was that he's gone and the only thing I can do at this point is continue to play this stupid game.
"Because I'm such a nice gal, I made an autopsy report to help get you started!" she chuckled before handing Villefoe a manila folder. "Good luck! You're gonna need it!"
Villefoe cleared his throat before opening the folder. He looked over at me. "Kevin? May I ask your permission to read this out loud in your presence? Or do you need to leave the premises for mental health purposes?" he asked.
I nodded. "It's fine, just read the damn thing." I appreciated that he asked me, though.
"Very well," Villefoe nodded and began to read the file. "Mr. Edward Brick died a tragic death at 11:03 pm. A simple decapitation did him in, but there are other marks on his body. He has bruises on his wrists that indicate a struggle, and he was hit over the head with a blunt object."
Villefoe held up the diagram that showed an outline of Ned's body that had arrows and marking to where he was injured.
"Well, let's get to work then..." Chester sighed.
"Wait a minute! We need to make sure no one tampers with any evidence!" Nac suggested. "If we leave Ned's body alone, the murderer could come in and change stuff on us!"
"I'll stay" Xarna said. "I'm a better body guard than I am a detective."
"I will too!" Bromanor offered.
"But what if one of you did it" Akira scratched his head. "Wouldn't that just give you the opportunity to mess with stuff while we're not looking?"
"If one of us did it, the other would be watching to make sure the other doesn't tamper with anything" Xarna reassured. "Hence the point of having two people on guard duty."
"True" Akira said. "Great idea!"
Everyone went their separate ways to investigate. Some stayed in the room to view the surroundings, others went to find other clues around the RV, and others just didn't really care all that much. I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do. Looking at my dead friend was awful enough, but having to examine him and treat him like some kind of murder mystery crime scene seemed dehumanizing. I wasn't sure if I could bring myself to do it.
Celeste approached me and took my hand.
"Hey Kev, I'm really sorry for your loss." Celeste rubbed my hand in her hands. "I was the one who was hugging you while you were lying on the floor."
"Are you alright?" I asked her. "I got up suddenly, I didn't mean to hurt you."
"I'm fine! I understood you were upset about the mean things Tanezumi was telling you" she reassured. "I just want you to know that I am here for you and I wanna help you find out who did this to your friend."
I nodded before kneeling down to her height and putting my hands on her shoulder. "Thank you. That means a lot to me. If you have my back, I have your back. Together we will bring justice for Ned and put an end to this chaotic RV madness!"
Celeste smiled and nodded. "Yeah!"
I put my fist up for her, and she returned the favor and we did an epic fist bump explosion motion.
"Let's do this!" Celeste jumped up, showing she was energetic and pumped, ready to take on this horrific game. It made me feel less alone.
