elocin1977: There is definitely a lot of tension.
FaberryAchele: Thank you so much. I definitely work really hard trying to describe her thoughts and feelings. You're about to feel a lot of emotions.
makemesmile98: Eventually, they'll become more stable. Eventually. They just need a good kick in the right direction.
ClarissaAdeleFray: Oh, there's a specific reason that Nikki doesn't like her. That'll come more into play later.
LoveHermione: Thank YOU for reading. I think people would be rather down with slapping Beca's dad.
LittleMissBlitz: I'm glad you liked it. Thank you.
turntechbasshead: You should be.
A/N: So...this chapter is graphic. This is where the story starts to take a new turn.
Arrhythmia
A fox it was,
He shook afraid.
I spoke no word,
No sound he made.
His bone exposed,
His hind was lame.
I raised a stone,
To end his pain.
-Hozier
After several moments of silence, Aubrey hears shuffling behind the door and Dr. Campbell emerges with a peculiar look on his face. For a fraction of a second, he looks wide awake and almost chipper – but it changes to a serious expression after the door has opened wide. "I wouldn't have pegged you as someone who is fashionably late," he tells Aubrey, "I thought you had decided not to come back. Come in, come in." He steps to the side and motions inside the room with one hand.
Fashionably late would have been thirty minutes, not half a day. "Something came up," Aubrey explains. She looks back and watches Beca stand up, making sure she isn't going to try to bail out, before slowly stepping into the room. She hadn't taken notice before, but the room smells strongly of cleaning supplies – in a way that burns her nose. Beca follows her and, after a few seconds, so does Nikki.
"I understand." Dr. Campbell shuts the door behind them. "You gave me some time to re-examine the body."
Aubrey looks at the table. Tyler is covered from head to toe in a white sheet and all she can see is the outline of him. His body in front of her suddenly bothers her more than it did before. She almost expects him to hear their voices and sit up. But he's not a person anymore. He's just a body. It's something she can't quite wrap her mind around. The nothingness of death. The lack of experiencing anything. One day that will be Beca. Be Chloe. Be her. She twists her hand back and forth around her water bottle and quickly looks away, staring at Dr. Campbell instead as he walks across the room to his desk.
Nikki walks around Beca from behind and stands beside Aubrey, her back pressed up against the wall. Aubrey can hear her sniffling.
Dr. Campbell takes a seat and wheels his chair around in their direction. "Are you sure you want to be here for this, Dear?"
"It's a small island," Nikki says, "I'd rather hear the truth than all the rumors."
"Alright." He rubs his forehead. "Where to start, where to start. Y'know, his eyes were the strangest thing, but the bruises on his neck don't add up with hanging himself. There are minor bruises that couldn't have got there with just a rope – and, in my professional opinion, I'd say he was at the very least unconscious from a lack of oxygen before he was hung up."
"So you think someone killed him?" Beca asks.
"Oh, I don't think he was murdered," Dr. Campbell says. "I know he was. Come over here, girls." He turns his chair back around to face his desk.
Beca looks at Aubrey. "We got our answer," she whispers, "I think we should go."
Their answer? The only thing Aubrey has now is more questions. She ignores Beca and walks forward, stopping a few inches away from the desk. It's cluttered with microscopes and slides and vials and things Aubrey has never even seen before. It occurs to her that this little room does the job of an entire hospital. "You're certain this was murder?" The word tastes bitter on her tongue and makes her skin crawl in a way she's never felt before.
"Oh, yes." Dr. Campbell holds up a vial with a bare amount of red liquid. "What do you think this is?"
"I'm going to assume that's blood." Beca walks behind Aubrey, standing slightly off to the side so she can see.
"You would think. But look at this." Dr. Campbell uncaps the vial. He grabs a feather from a cup of fancy looking pens and dips the end of it into the liquid. "Where's some paper?" He shuffles through a stack of written on paper until he finds a blank sheet then lowers the end of the quill to the paper. He slowly draws out Tyler's name. "It's ink. Remarkable." He lowers the quill onto the paper. "This was in his eyes. No person could have injected ink into their own eyes then disposed of the needle before asphyxiating themselves in multiple ways."
Aubrey looks at Beca then back at Nikki. She's hunched over with her back to the wall, her face buried in her hands. "Do you have any idea who did it?" She looks down at Tyler's name on the paper and wonders if he was still alive as he was being injected with ink. Her thoughts make her eyes hurt.
"Whoever it was, they did a marvelous job of covering their tracks." Dr. Campbell shakes his head. "But I think they wanted someone to know this wasn't an accident. The thing about killers is most of them want to be seen but not caught."
"So when is the Seattle PD getting here?" Aubrey asks. She finds it hard to believe they haven't arrived already. But then again, she tries to reason with herself, it's only one dead body.
"Sheriff Mills doesn't want them involved." Dr. Campbell shrugs. "Can't say I agree, but I get where he's coming from. We have our own community here. The moment you ask those big guys to step in, they take over, act like they know everything, want media coverage. Who wants to vacation on an island known for murder?"
Not Aubrey, that's for sure. "What if someone else turns up dead?" Aubrey asks.
"Then, I guess we've got a serial killer on our hands. But I doubt that in a place like this," Dr. Campbell says, "Anything else you wanna know, you're gonna have to go to Mills. I've done all I can do here."
"But, you could call the Seattle PD if you had to, right?" Beca asks.
"I mean, I guess I could." Dr. Campbell stands up. "But we try to take care of our own problems here. I really don't think you have anything to worry about. The sheriff has a few suspects. No evidence yet, but we know where our trouble lies. If you're worried, we have a ferry that heads into the mainland everyday at two."
Aubrey rubs her neck. Trying to get Chloe on that ferry is going to be impossible. She's going to have to tell her the truth, but even then, Chloe might think she's overreacting. She considers telling her about the blood and the calls, but she's not sure where she would even start, at this point. She let it get too far.
"You girls should go and get some sleep." Dr. Campbell gathers up the papers from his desk and stacks them in a neat pile – the one with Tyler's name written in red ink on top. "If I happen to find out anything else, I'll let you know." He walks across the room to Nikki and places his hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry for your loss, Dear. You take care."
Aubrey isn't sure what else to say, but she doesn't have to think about it for long. Before she knows it, Beca is already heading out the door. "Beca, wait." She growls under her breath and walks after her, following her out onto the porch. "You have to convince Jesse to cancel the wedding." It's the only way she's going to be able to convince Chloe to leave.
"How?" Beca stops once her feet hit the driveway. "He's not going to cancel the wedding. This is all one happily ever after movie to him."
"Tell him the truth." Aubrey uncaps her water again and tries to hydrate away the feeling that Earth is rolling over onto its side. "Tell him somebody was killed."
"This island could be a volcano ready to erupt and he would not cancel this wedding." Beca is suddenly talking with her hands and too loud for Aubrey's ears. "I want to be here as much as you do. Don't you think I've tried?"
"You're the one who said yes to begin with," Aubrey snaps. She leans against the porch bannister for support. "So, no, I don't think you're trying as hard as you can to get us out of this." Hadn't Beca just said the previous night that she could try to talk to Jesse?
Beca closes her eyes and pinches the bridge of her nose. "You know what? You are the one who dragged me into this right here." She shakes her head with a disbelieving laugh. "I would not be involved in this if it wasn't for you."
"For serious?" Aubrey tosses her empty bottle into a trashcan and steps off the porch. "You're acting like you haven't gotten the same phone calls I have. What about your ring?"
"Jesus!" Beca yells, taking a step back. "You're here trying to connect a few Trebles picking on you with a murder! Do you even hear how paranoid you are right now, Aubrey? This is too much. Dude, you are too much."
Aubrey stops, her hand remaining on the banister for support. Beca's words make her head feel like it's spinning.
"There is a reason that no one other than Chloe wants to talk to you," Beca says, "You need to chill out. Do you ever stop and look at reality? The only reason the girl in there is even talking to you is because you're feeding her false hope that you know what happened to her brother, when you don't."
The clinic door opens and Nikki steps out onto the porch, closing it behind her. "Hey," she says quietly, approaching Aubrey, "I left my car at the Cannery. I was thinking we could walk back together." She places her hand on Aubrey's arm.
Aubrey yanks her arm away. "I don't want to be your friend," she snaps. She doesn't want to be around either of them. She shoves herself away from the bannister and takes a few angry steps before she breaks out into a run toward the main road. Beca doesn't know what she's talking about. And she and Chloe are going home, no matter how much Chloe fights her about it.
"Just stop!" Beca yells.
Aubrey runs faster, trying to escape the two sets of footsteps behind her. It's a straight path, but she can barely keep track of where she's going. Her head is swimming and her chest burns and nausea hits her so hard that she almost collapses. She should have just stayed in bed. She runs until she sees the glowing Cannery sign then stumbles into a slower pace, swaying as she tries to keep going. Her lungs are about to burst. She forces herself to at least walk, blinking back tears that are starting to blur her vision. Water and vodka burn the back of her throat, but she refuses to throw up; she's done with that, and if it does happen, it won't be where Beca can watch from the sidelines.
"Listen, Bellas practice ended years ago," Beca pants somewhere behind her, gasping for air, "I can't do this much cardio."
Aubrey whips around. "This is all just a joke to you, isn't it?" She storms past Nikki, who managed to keep up with her the best, and doesn't stop when she gets to Beca. Beca stands up straight and quickly walks backwards, curving to the side in a futile effort to get away. "You acted like you believed what I was saying, but it was all just a fucking joke." She impulsively reaches out with both hands and shoves Beca's shoulders.
"I believed what you were saying until it became this big!" Beca pushes her back. "Last night, it made sense why you were freaking out, but now you're just trying to connect a bunch of dots that aren't even there! You're bringing this on yourself."
"Hey!" Nikki yells at them.
It feels like Aubrey is going to explode - not necessarily in anger, but into a hundred pieces. She sniffles and glares at Beca then shoves her again without thinking. It doesn't relieve the pressure, only increases it. "Go to Hell, Beca."
"I think I'll pass on eternity with you." Beca straightens up and closes some of the distance between them.
"You should have never joined The Bellas," Aubrey says, acutely aware that she's lashing out. "You should have just taken your lazy, emotionally-crippled ass straight to LA."
"I'm the one that's emotionally-crippled?" Beca raises her eyebrows.
"You never care about anyone but yourself, Beca." Aubrey shakes her head. "You don't care about Jesse. You don't care about me. You don't care about Chloe." She hears the slap before she feels it. It knocks the wind out of her and her hand flies up to cover her cheek before she even realizes what happened. Then the stinging is the only sensation she can feel. She takes a step back, stunned.
Beca steps back, shaking out her hand. She lets out a shaky breath and crosses her arms, looking up when Nikki starts walking her way. "Don't bother. I'm out." She walks in a giant half circle around Nikki to avoid her and starts back on the road to The Candlewick.
Aubrey doesn't move. She stares at the ground in humiliation, waiting for Beca to leave so she can walk back alone. She can feel Nikki staring at her, and she hopes that maybe if she stands there long enough, she will walk away as well. The tears clouding her vision threaten to spill over, but she somehow manages to keep her control, continuously swallowing back the urge to cry.
"Do you want some more water?" Nikki asks after a few moments.
Aubrey realizes that Nikki probably isn't going to leave. She slowly lowers her hand from her cheek and pulls her shirt sleeve down over it, so she can wipe her eyes, then puts on her best unphased face. Maybe she is trying to connect dots that aren't there. Maybe everything has been some sort of ploy created by the Trebles (or possibly even The Bellas) to convince her to leave, and Tyler dying was just some sort of coincidence. She glances at Nikki out of the corner of her eye, but she can't bring herself to apologize. The moment she leaves this island, she's going to forget any of these people ever existed.
"I can drive you back," Nikki offers when she doesn't answer.
It's tempting, but Aubrey has already made up her mind. She abruptly shakes her head. If Beca is right, what's the worst that can happen if she walks back alone? Some creepy music? Running into Bumper and his impudent behavior? The worst that can happen if Nikki drives her back is that Aubrey throws up in her car. She'd rather run into Bumper. She takes a deep breath and straightens herself up, but before she can turn to walk back toward the inn, she realizes one of the streetlights is reflecting off something in the road. She quickly pats her pocket to make sure she didn't drop her phone while she was running, but it's still there. Her key is there too.
"It's not a big deal," Nikki insists, "I mean, it's not even far."
Aubrey walks toward the object, her legs feeling like they're made of jello. She can feel her heart in her stomach the moment she recognizes it. She slowly kneels down and stares at the piano music box, every part of her feeling heavy. The air is suddenly too thick to breathe and she rubs her throat before reaching down and picking up the music box. She looks up, a feeling of being watched settling over her like a smothering blanket. She looks around into the woods then back down at the music box, turning it over in her hand. YOU'RE NEXT. The words scratched into the wood spring out at her and she nearly drops it.
"What is that?" Nikki asks, walking closer to her.
"Nothing." Aubrey presses her free hand flat on the ground and uses it to slowly push herself to her feet. "Someone must have just dropped it." She holds it against her stomach, covering it with her hand so Nikki can't see it. The breeze rustles the foliage and Aubrey looks into the trees again. It's too dark to see anything.
Nikki follows her gaze then turns in a slow half-circle, coming to a stop as she faces the way to the inn. "Hey." Her voice is low and stern, and Aubrey turns to look at her. She follows Nikki's alarmed stare down the road to where Beca is standing stiffly with her back to them, not more than a few yards away from where she had decided to leave. Beca doesn't move. Her shoulders are rigid, and Aubrey can see from behind that she has one up wrapped around her chest and her other hand covering the lower half of her face. She exchanges a look with Nikki then walks forward, time moving in slow motion as she hopes Beca doesn't turn around and hit her again.
"Beca?" Aubrey stops inches behind her. Her stomach sinks when Beca doesn't acknowledge her. She looks at Nikki, but she's suddenly still as well, her face twisting in an emotion Aubrey can't quite recognize. The urge to run goes through Aubrey's body like a power surge. She turns and looks forward. At first, she doesn't see anything. But sudden movement catches her eye and she realizes that whatever they're looking at, it's on the ground. And it's moving. From where she's standing, it looks like a large brown oval laying in dirt that's caked with red. It makes a movement almost like it's bouncing. Then stills. Then jerks itself again, like it's stuck on something.
Aubrey's blood runs cold, possibly even stops coursing through her body altogether, as she takes a few steps forward to get a better look. Her grips on the music box tightens and she realizes her teeth are chattering, but she can't stop them. The creature lifts its head just barely off the ground – enough that Aubrey can see its antlers and recognize that she's staring at a deer. Her free hand flies up to cover her mouth, and she takes a clumsy step back. The deer looks at her, but it doesn't run. Instead, it flops again. She swallows thickly to keep herself from vomiting and looks down at the blood surrounding it. It's not running, because it doesn't have legs. Suddenly, her entire body is shivering beyond her control, and she takes a few more steps back until she bumps into Beca.
"Aubrey, let's go," Beca whispers. Her voice is thick like she's crying, but Aubrey can't take her eyes off what's in front of her to check. Beca's hands grab loosely onto Aubrey's upper arm, but her feet don't move.
Aubrey watches it struggle, her face contorting in pity. She pulls her arm away from Beca's hands. "We can't just leave it like that." She tries to sound unbothered, but her voice shakes as much as her body. "We have to help it." She can't just leave it there. Not like that. It's inhumane. It's barbaric
"Help it?!" Beca's voice cracks and Aubrey knows she's crying now. "And do what for it, Aubrey? It doesn't have legs! Let's just go!" She pushes Aubrey's arm with not nearly as much strength as she pushed her with earlier.
"We can call the doctor!" Aubrey sounds frantic; she knows she does. She finally manages to turn her back to the deer and look at Beca. "He's just right up the road."
"Call the doctor? Jesus! Are you even listening to yourself right now?" Beca glances at the deer for a fraction of a second before looking at Aubrey again with wide eyes. "We need to leave."
"Aubrey's right," Nikki chimes in, not moving from her spot, "We can't just leave it like that."
"Well, then you two can figure it out," Beca says, stepping away from them. "Because I'm not."
"I have a handgun," Nikki says, "It's in The Cannery."
"If you want to shoot it, then we can just go and call the sheriff to take care of it." Beca places her hand on her chest and looks at the deer again. "Police do this kind of thing all the time, right?"
"He's working on a murder case right now," Aubrey reminds her, trying not to think about what Nikki is suggesting. "It will suffer until he gets here."
"And you don't think this has to do with that?!" Beca doesn't look away from the deer, tears slowly rolling down her cheeks. "You think that Bumper planting a picture of me and Chloe in your room and some prank calls has to do with someone being killed, but you don't think this does?! Aubrey, listen to yourself and let's go!"
"That's not what I said," Aubrey growls. It would be tampering with evidence – shooting it themselves. But who knows how long the sheriff could take to arrive. It could take until morning. They're already prolonging it's suffering by fighting about it. She turns to Nikki, mustering up as much confidence as she can find. "Where's your gun? We can shoot it and then call the sheriff."
"You are not thinking straight right now," Beca tells her. "I'm calling Jesse. And then," she points at Aubrey, "I'm calling Chloe. Because someone needs to come and help you right now, Aubrey." She pulls out her phone and looks down at it, walking in a circle in an attempt to get service.
"I'll be right back." Nikki takes a few steps backward then turns and jogs toward the bar.
Aubrey watches her go and then turns to glare at Beca. "You are a shit person, Beca." She rubs the tears away from her eyes with her sleeve. "You don't even care that something is dying!"
"Yes, I do!" Beca shoves her phone back in her pocket. She rests both hands on her chest, breathing hard. "But someone came here and did that, and because of you, we might still be here when they come back!"
Beca finally has a point. Someone might come back. They might even still be around, watching them from behind the trees. Aubrey turns away from her, twisting her hands around the music box. Her fingers hit the crank and a few creaky notes come out. She glares down at it and closes the panel above the keys.
"I just want to go." Beca is practically begging, something Aubrey never thought she'd hear. She understands that Beca doesn't want to walk back by herself, but if someone does come, they're basically screwed either way. If someone can remove the legs from a deer, they probably won't have much trouble killing them both together. They had to have the head spade from the Maritime Museum. What else could have done that?
Nikki jogs back to them then stops beside Aubrey. She holds the gun with both hands and points it at the ground, looking at the deer. The color drains from her face. "I can't do this." She shakes her head and looks at Aubrey. "You're going to have to shoot it."
Aubrey's heart stops beating. Her pulse points seem to shut down. Her lungs refuse to expand. Every part of her momentarily comes to a halt. She's been here before and she knows how it turned out. Her father always said, 'A second chance doesn't mean anything if you never learned from your first mistake.' She wipes her eyes one last time then carefully trades Nikki the music box for the gun. It's heavier than she expects it to be, reminding her that she's only ever used a shotgun and a rifle.
"You're giving a gun to someone who isn't even sober," Beca tells Nikki. "I'm leaving. Even if I have to walk back alone." She walks around the deer, staying as far from it as possible.
"Leave then." Aubrey walks in a wide half circle around the deer, toward it's head. "Just like you always do."
Beca stops and turns to look across the deer at Aubrey.
"You heard me." Aubrey stops when she knows she has a good shot. "That's what you do. The moment something is hard for you, you run out the nearest door."
"Okay, the Bellas, my relationship with Chloe – none of that is like any of this." Beca takes a few more steps.
"Yes, it is. You're so afraid that people are going to abandon you, Beca, that that's exactly what you do to them." Aubrey raises the gun, looking past the deer. "I've never shot a handgun before. I don't know how to do it."
"You have to take it off safety." Nikki explains the instructions and Aubrey follows them, looking only at the gun as she does so.
"I'm telling you, you don't have to do this." Beca chokes back a sob, pressing her hands harder to her chest. "I'm telling you to go back with me. That's not abandoning you."
"Turn around." Aubrey looks from the gun to Beca.
"What?" Beca looks at her, startled.
"You shouldn't see this." Aubrey tightens her grip on the gun. The metal is cold, even colder than the air around them. She can almost feel the icy chills creeping up her arms and then straight down into her stomach. She doesn't want Beca to watch – doesn't want it to be ingrained in Beca's memory like it will be hers. Not even Beca deserves that. "Turn around."
"Aubrey…"
"I said turn around, Beca!" Aubrey commands, and Beca nearly trips over her feet as she follows the order. "Cover your ears."
Beca hesitates then clamps her hands over her ears.
Aubrey looks at Nikki. Her hands are over her ears, but she's still facing the deer. Aubrey lets her make her own decision. Her phone vibrates in her pocket, but she ignores it, telling herself to concentrate.
It's impossible to make a clean shot without looking at one's target. Aubrey can feel the weight of her father's hands on her shoulders as she aims the gun and looks down the barrel. She can't tell if what she's doing is wrong or right. It's one of those gray areas that people always tell her about, but she never can see. The world is suddenly so much simpler when it's only in black and white. The deer makes eye contact with her and Aubrey grips the gun tighter to control her trembling hands. "I'm sorry," she whispers. She closes her eyes then opens them again as her finger tightens and then loosens around the trigger. She can't do it. She can't pull it. But she has to. Her chin trembles and tears turn the deer into a blur of brown and red. She straightens her arms and tightens her finger on the trigger again, her father's voice echoing through her head.
'Shoot the god damn deer, Aubrey.'
What caused the wound?
How large the teeth?
I saw new eyes were watching me.
-Hozier
