Episode 34:

Seeing the Unseen

-Twyla-

Twyla furrowed her brow as her eyes darted back and forth, "I... I remember that night. I saw you take her to the infirmary, you said she was attacked in the caves but you didn't say by who."

Billy shrugged, "Because I didn't see anyone else there."

Twyla squinted, "Blondie was attacked from the front."

Lagoona's eyes widened as her jaw dropped, "She would have seen it coming. Which means you had to have seen who did it, unless…"

Billy raised an eyebrow, "Are you saying it was me?!"

Lagonna held her arms out wide, "Look around mate, half our class is dead. We keep assuming this and that but no one knows why people keep dying."

Twyla fidgeted with the hem of her skirt, "You have been invisible most of the year and you can literally erase your presence from someone's memory."

Farrah gasped, "So you can do magic!"

"Nothing that taxing," Billy shook his head, "It's just light hypnosis," He raised a few scales on his arm, "While I'm invisible I move my scales to reflect the lights and trick your brain for a few moments, it doesn't always work and it's not magic."

Lagoona scoffed, "How many times have you used this little light trick of yours?"

"If I used it on you, you would know. It ends once you cross a threshold. I've used it once on Freddie back in first-year when we were returning her rug, and once this year," He gazed at them, his eyes pleading, "After I pushed Cleo away from Twyla."

Lagoona stepped forward, "Likely story. I can't believe I was angry with Twyla because of you."

Twyla tilted her head, "Wait, what?"

Lagoona huffed as she rolled her jaw, "I assumed that you knew about Billy dating Darling and was purposefully rooting around with him. I thought Billy and she was a happy couple and you were a temptress." She shrugged in irritation, "But I was wrong. Billy over here up to all kinds of invisible mischief."

Billy threw his hands up, "I just told you what I've been up!"

Lagoona cocked her head to the side, "Oh really? Because if I recall correctly Billy, you had mentioned how you were present during Darling's entire fight. Yet you did nothing to save her. You were with Blondie in the caves when she got attacked from the front and you did nothing. Then you were completely invisible in the chow hall when both Evie and Faybelle were poisoned. And now you finally admit to killing Cleo and expect me to not make the connection between your absence in the other events?"

Billy bent down low with his hands raised close to her throat. His eyes changed to gold reptilian slits as he growled, "How dare you accuse me of killing my Darling."

Farrah covered her face, "Oh dear."

Billy narrowed his eyes, "You don't know anything."

He straightened and paced around the room, "Yes, I was there, and I watched as she fought Mal. I tried to help her out, give her strength when she obviously had none but she wouldn't let me. She told me she knew about Twyla. She also told me… that she was pregnant."

Twyla gasped, "What?"

Billy shook his head, "I wanted her to cancel the fight but she didn't want to appear weak. She didn't want to let anyone down by postponing a challenge due to her pregnancy. She told me the scandal would be far worse than death. I just wish she had chosen the scandal."

He clenched his fist, "I couldn't save her though, when I saw the shadows lengthen in the hall I tried to help steady her. She was boiling hot, like her skin was trying to boil her insides. I saw the smoking sword and I wondered why she wouldn't just drop it. Why did she insist on continuing the fight? She was stubborn like that and she died that way."

Twyla raised an eyebrow, "You saw the shadows lengthen?"

Billy scoffed, "Twyla, we've been around you long enough to get a sense for when you're near us in the shadow."

He ran his fingers through his hair, "As for Blondie, well, she was my confidant. I could talk with her about most things. She was super chill. The main reason I didn't see who attacked her was because... I was talking… about Darling…I just didn't see the attack coming."

Lagoona pursed her lips, "What about Faybelle? You said she demanded favors from you. What kind of favors? Were these favors targeting Cleo? How about Evie? Were you involved with Evie at all?"

Billy frowned, "You don't really think I would kill Cleo because of Faybelle do you?"

Farrah tilted her head, "She only asked you if Faybelle's favors involved targeting Cleo, not killing Cleo. Did Faybelle ask you to kill Cleo?"

Billy looked at the ground then turned his head away.

Lagoona put her hands over her heart, "Wait… when Cleo told you to get rid of Faybelle… did Faybelle order you to get rid of Cleo?"

Twyla's eyes widened, "What? Cleo asked Billy to kill Faybelle?"

Farrah shook her head, "No, Faybelle would try and figure out what we were doing but Cleo didn't want Faybelle there because, well… Faybelle is a bit much to handle. I kind of felt sorry for her, she always hated being excluded from things. Billy seemed to be the only one who could successfully keep Faybelle away. I didn't think it was because she was asking him to do something else."

Billy closed his eyes and blushed, "Yeah. Faybelle kept coming around because she wanted attention from me. So I gave it to her, but I got tired of it. Especially…"

Twyla leaned forward, "Especially, after what?"

"After you got hurt."

Twyla blinked, "What?"

Billy's eyes returned to the normal grey as he rubbed the back of his neck, "When I carried you to the infirmary that morning, I was in a state of shock. How many more were going to end up in the infirmary, you know? Cleo said we should all take a break from planning to process. That was also the same day Cleo and Blondie had a falling out because of you. I went to the library to just think. A lot of good memories in there. Then, of course, Faybelle showed up."

He visibly swallowed, "I knew what she wanted but I wasn't prepared for her request. 'Do your job to protect your friends, kill Cleo.' She told me that. How was I supposed to react? And when we went to class, Read was talking about doing your job and get rid of the queens…it was all I could think about all day. Then I saw you there on the edge of those stairs. It was like, instinct. I had to protect you, I may have failed Darling but I wasn't going to fail you. So, I pushed her."

Twyla stared at the ground, "So, you didn't have any interactions with Evie?"

Billy scrunched his face and shrugged, "Well, a few times, but..."

Abbey snapped, "But what?"

"I think she was a bit beside herself," Billy shrugged, "That night, after I got done pleasing Faybelle, I came back to the dorms to shower and found Evie. Her eyes were a bit glazed and her hair and makeup were a mess. She said something, I can't quite remember but it didn't really seem that important."

Abbey huffed, "Enough of going in circles! Speak plainly!"

Everyone glanced away and stared at the floor.

Twyla walked to her trunk and pulled out Evie's note, "Evie left me a note in the infirmary, the night Blondie was injured, saying she knew who the real killer was. She just wanted to tell me face to face, since the news affected me the most."

Lagoona stuck her hand out, "So Evie was offed because she knew and Faybelle just got caught in the crossfire."

Twyla shook her head, "No, Faybelle's apple had a much more vicious poison oozing from it. Faybelle was also targeted."

Farrah covered her mouth and hummed, "Hmmm, why though?"

Twyla put her hands on her hips, "That's what I was hoping you could tell me. What were you guys doing that Faybelle got the brunt force of the hate?"

Lagoona shook her head, "We didn't even deal with Faybelle really. She wasn't included in anything. I don't know why she would be targeted."

Twyla furrowed her brow, "Was Evie involved in anything?"

Lagoona shook her head, "No. Evie and Faybelle were like you all year. The oddball out."

Twyla hummed.

Abbey folded her arms, "What is plan? Tell me."

Farrah put her hands together and looked down, "Let me see. It all started with the death of Catty, which kicked Cleo's escape plan into high gear. Ghoulia figured there had to be some type of key to break the curse. We had no idea what to look for until Frankie told Cleo that she heard LT Montoya talk to LT Walker about some previous years' undead students. That class had tried to drain blood out of the knowing face once before and failed.

Cleo, of course, wanted to figure out what that was because it sounded like something that could be used to break the blood binding. It wasn't until we found a note from a previous student stashed inside of a photo album that we gained knowledge of what the face looked like. Even then it was a vague description at best."

Billy nodded, "That's when I started helping, Robecca had been looking for books on mechanics and steam engines, to see if she could give it to LT Montoya to aide in her repair but Montoya told her she wasn't a mechanic and with Ghoulia on translation duty… I volunteered to fix her. I decided that the library would be the best place to make repairs because the tables were super sturdy. I was still avoiding you though Farrah, sorry. You just seemed so upset after we...well I didn't want to upset you."

Farrah sighed, "Billy really stop apologizing, I... I should have known better than to think you were actually interested, I was the one who took advantage of your grief. To be perfectly honest, I was feeling guilty about it myself, that's how Faybelle could use it against me. She told me, she would tell Darling I slept with her boyfriend if I didn't bless the ground with sure-footedness for her."

She covered her face, "I thought you were avoiding me because you regretted it."

Abbey slammed her fist against the bedpost, "Enough of this. Billy, you cheat, Farrah you cheap, Twyla you sneak. You all freak, now move on with this escape plan!"

Farrah, Billy and Twyla stared at Abbey.

Twyla shook her head, "Ouch. Seriously, Abbey, I think you just gave all of us a bad case of freezer burn."

Farrah laughed awkwardly, "Heh, yeah. Um, thanks for that Abbey. I feel so much better about myself now."

Billy shook his head, "That was just cold. But when Twyla got taken by Ching, we found a note in that big blue book. It was the final note from our clock-related riddles set. But we still needed the other parts."

Farrah nodded, "Yes we were hunting for tiles and notes all year. Cleo believed these to be part of the key but we still aren't sure how. I was charged with trying to find all the tile, but as for the four pieces we had no idea. We just kept finding notes."

Lagoona nodded, "One of the notes mentioned a map in the shark tank. Since the class that made the notes had a lot of ghosts, they could hide things in places solid ghouls could not travel. So, we never really did get a good look at it."

Billy sighed, "Finding the notes was a wild goose chase. Led to more questions than answers."

Farrah nodded, "Luckily Blondie explored the school at night. She discovered the cargo shipments that come to the island and that if you manage to sneak on a ship, you are automatically teleported back inside the school."

Twyla gasped, "How did she get on the ship? I thought the door was warded?"

Farrah giggled, "The door is warded, but the windows are not! I know, something so simple, I guess no one ever thought to jump out the window. But the blood binding does keep us tied to the island, so we knew we needed to find that face. Eventually, we found a note that said that the face is the same size and shape of a coin and that it was stored in the treasury."

Billy held his hand up, "Blondie argued that searching for a gold coin in a cavern full of gold coins was just insanity but then you got injured and in an attempt to make it up to Cleo, Blondie searched the treasury and she got attacked."

Twyla let out a loud growl, "Ugh, this explains so much and yet so little. Why was Cleo so secretive about an escape plan? We normally all work on those. What did Blondie give Cleo in the dorms that night and why did the LT think I had taken the hands if everyone was looking for the face?"

Farrah placed a hand on her shoulder, "Now now now, you know you had been super antagonistic to Cleo at the beginning of the year. Cleo kept making her rousing speeches and you just kept shooting her down. Cleo was sure that if you knew about the plan you would just shut her down and Cleo practically lives for the positive feedback. She just didn't want you popping in uninvited. Hence the light traps."

Billy chimed in, "Honestly the hands thing was because of you. Blondie broke into Captain Jones's office that night and tripped an alarm. She gave it to Cleo, who gave it to me to hold onto when Ching came and gave the inspection."

Twyla threw her hands up, "Wait, so you all knew Blondie had been there!"

Billy held up his hands, "Woah, calm down, and no I did not. When Farrah walked around waking everyone, Cleo saw the note and told me to hide it. When we woke up and you were bleeding, we all knew something had to be up and Cleo confronted Blondie about it. She said she had no idea how you got so badly injured after the raid, as you were all right before. But of course, Cleo had to make a very public example of her by denouncing her as a servant or some nonsense."

Farrah smacked Billy's arm, "Billy! Blondie was devastated! I personally think that is why she went back to the caverns that night, she wanted to get back on Cleo's good side. It's a shame that both of them didn't get to reconcile in the end."

Abbey leaned forward, "So, the face is a coin, and the hands are...?"

Farrah answered, "The hands are clock hands. A minute hand and a second hand. We're not one hundred percent sure how it all fits together and actually finding the pieces has been quite the daunting task, and with so many of us dead..."

She stared at her feet, "Ghoulia was truly the brains of our operation and Cleo was our driving force. I was surveillance while Frankie investigated things. Robecca was our research and Blondie our acquistionist. Crecha, I think right now she is more focused on protecting Frankie. But even then Crecha was… uh how do I put it?"

Lagoona snorted, "A bit overprotective?"

Billy added, "A girl with a major big sister complex?"

Lagoona smirked, "An overzealous older sibling?"

Billy laughed, "Let's just say Crecha has been on edge all year. Shocking people that get too close to her sister."

Lagoona folded her arms, "Not to mention just being downright hostile towards anyone who isn't Cleo, Ghoulia, Robecca or Frankie. I swear the moment Darling died Crecha became the most aggravating person to be around. I ignored it because she has always been a bit standoffish, but there's standoffish and there's stomp the back of your head on a curb."

Abbey nodded, "Crecha not warmest ghoul, tis true. But no need for slander. She take care of Frankie because Frankie born last."

Billy shrugged, "Be that as it may, Crecha has a clear dark side. The only question is what did Evie and Faybelle do to Frankie. Because that is the only way I see Crecha attempting to kill anyone."

Twyla gasped, "Why did no one think of this as our classmates were dying?"

Farrah's eyes crinkled up into a smile, "We were pretty determined to escape this place and Crecha seemed mostly harmless. A shock here or there didn't really seem like enough to condemn a girl."

She frowned, "But now, without everyone working together, there is no way we can escape the same way."

Abbey huffed, "Why you say this? We still have notes, yes?"

"But we don't have our friends."

Everyone looked at the ground and a hush fell over the room.