You're making a batch of cookies when Meulin bounds up to you. You jump, because you're a little freaked out since seeing Roxy's mother getting killed this past morning, but you don't think that someone as cute as Meulin could ever kill someone.
Still, you be sure that you stand between her and the knives.
"Purrloz wants to see you!" Meulin says brightly. You hesitate – you don't really want to be in the same room as Kurloz, but maybe it's about this morning. Maybe he's found something, and maybe, since you were with him in the principal's office, since you knew about his brother… maybe he trusts you. And maybe he wants to work with you.
And even if this is a creepy thought, you really want to know what's going on here. So you follow Meulin, who hums and chats and bounces all the way up to the dojo on the top floor. You send a nervous glance at the garden. You still can't forget Horuss's death. Horuss's brutal murder – you don't think you'll ever be able to forget that.
"After mew!" Meulin says, and you enter the dojo after another nervous look toward her. She bounds in after you. You don't see Kurloz anywhere. You take another few steps forward, and then the door clicks shut and you whirl around.
Kurloz stands there. He's got his usual easy smile on his face, but it seems too easy this time. It seems fake, it seems unnatural, and it seems creepy as heck. You take another shaky step back, and faster than you can say hello, Kurloz wraps one end of the rope around Meulin's neck and makes a noose faster than you can tie your shoes. He pulls it tight and flings the other end of the rope around a rafter and advances on you. He's pulling the rope as he does it, and Meulin wriggles and kicks and gasps for breath. You don't know when she dies.
You can't move.
The spell breaks when he wraps the rope around your neck and that's when you start fighting. You punch and you kick and you try to scream, but he's fast. And he's a lot stronger than you.
You really don't have much choice in the matter.
Your name is Jane Crocker, and you have just been murdered.
…
Your name is Aranea Serket, and you have just found three bodies.
Let's backtrack a bit – you were combing the school for any sign of the kidnapped relatives. You're not totally sure who they would pick for you, but you have a feeling that it's your younger sister, and annoying as she might be sometimes, you don't want to see her die. So you've been looking.
And it looks like someone else has taken things into their own hands, because there are three dead people in this room.
Two are hanging from the ceiling, on the same rope. Meulin Leijon and Jane Crocker, both of them with the purpley faces and clawing hands that speak of strangulation. The third is Kurloz Makara, on the ground with a shovel stabbed straight through his middle. He's staring up at the two of them, and you would say he looks peaceful if that wasn't such utter bullshit.
You take a few steps back and run into someone. You turn and it's Meenah, her hair wet like she just came out of the pool. "I had a bad feeling, gill," she says. "And looks like I was right, huh? Oh, oh, shit."
"Three," you say. "Three of them. Someone… someone…"
"We've gotta tell them all," Meenah says. She's so shocked that she's even stopped with the fish puns. It's a miracle. You thought she'd never stop with that, even if it is a little cute. "I'll go."
You wait. She brings back Jake, and you're glad for this, because Jake is probably the cutest boy here. He throws up when he sees the bodies, though, which, while understandable, is going to be unbearable when Kankri gets here and starts spouting off about emetophobia. While you know that this is a perfectly reasonable phobia, it's not something that you need to hear about every time someone is sick because of the death that surrounds you all.
But with Jake comes the death file, and with that comes the announcement, and then everyone's standing in a circle around the dead bodies glumly. Roxy is the last to arrive, for once without Cronus's laptop. She looks a bit disheveled; her eyes are red like she's been crying and her skin his pale and clammy-looking. You guess this is because she saw her mother die. But the laptop… you wonder where it went. You wonder if you can maybe get your hands on it while Roxy's investigating, or if she's going to go straight back to it. You don't know if she'll be able to, though, because as soon as she sees Jane's body she starts sobbing. She collapses on the floor and sobs, and you think she's being a little overdramatic, frankly.
Although you guess you would be sad if Meenah died. You try to keep this in mind as Roxy's sobs fill the air.
Eventually, Porrim clears her throat.
"Well," she says. She glances at the bodies, and then at the investigation file in Meenah's hands. "I guess we should get started, then."
INVESTIGATION START
So this was a really short chapter with a lot packed into it – not even a thousand words, I know, I know, but I was nearly done and didn't really have that much time and I just decided to end it there.
