(Subliminal messaging)

Shoot me. Shoot me. Shoot me. Shoot me. Shoot me. Shoot me. Shoot me. Shoot me.

(/Subliminal messaging)

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

They walked quietly to the funeral house.

'Wivelands Gates.'

Kori shivered. It was not going to be a good day.

They had already missed the beginning, the actual funeral. This was more or less the after party.

"It's too cold to be autumn." Raven stated, as pulled the hood on from her black yarn poncho.

"I agree. Where I come from, it is always so nice and warm, but here it is just too chilly." Kori shivered under her own peach colored jacket.

"Sorry, we don't all come from Mars."

"Tamaran, actually." Kori had always been immune to Raven's attitude.

"Where?"

"It's a small island in the Caribbean."

"You never told me that before."

"It never came up."

They entered a small building in the middle of an empty park.

'Wiveslands Gates' the sign outside of it said.

"Charming." Raven said bitterly.

"Actually, I find it repulsive, myself."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"May I take your coats?" the man at the door asked as solemnly as he could.

"Kori. Raven." Tim gave a nod in there direction. "I'm glad you guys could make it."

"Tim!" Kori squealed, as she gave him a death grip hug. "You are looking quite solemn."

"It's a wake, Kori."

Kori's eyes grew wide. "What, exactly, is awake?"

"How did she die?" Raven asked. She could be doing a million other things than feeling sorry with a bunch of old friends.

"We're not that sure." Tim, said uncomfortably. He could tell that something just didn't make sense. "A heart attack, supposedly. It's what the autopsy said."

"At her age?"

"That's my question."

"Was she scared to death?"

After a long string of awkward silence, Kori spoke up. "How is Victor taking this?"

"He's pretty torn up about it. I mean, after all, he-" Tim hesitated; He couldn't find the right words. "He hasn't spoken too much. He just sits there…" Tim felt his eyes swell with pain.

Both Raven and Kori strained their necks to look into the living room. Sure enough, there sat Vic on the couch watching the television vaguely.

He looked dead.

"Is, well, you know who here yet?" Kori asked Tim, slightly smiling.

"No, he was asked to come a little later." He said returning a smile.

Raven rolled her eyes and walked over towards the living room.

"Victor?"

He didn't answer.

"Are you going to be ok?"

He stayed quiet.

"Don't grieve. She wouldn't have wanted..."

"Don't ever tell me what she would have wanted." His voice retorted quietly.

"I'm sorry." Raven answered after an un-earthly pause.

"I just don't understand."

"Understand what?"

"They let me see her."

Raven remained quiet.

"Do you know what she looked like?"

After a slow shake of her head, Vic answered his own question.

"Scared."

"Oh."

"Raven, you're a reporter. You look for information, and report it."

"That's sort of the point. Hence the name."

"Raven, it's your job to find out what happened to her. I mean, an eighteen year old girl died for unknown causes. Isn't that suspicious? Does no one care?"

"I care."

"Than find out for me. Will ya'?"

Raven let his expressions soak into her. "I'm really only an intern.

"It doesn't matter, Rae. You have to do this. For Jinx's sake. It's what she would have wanted."

Although a retort to his hypocritical statement stained her lips, she stayed quiet. Not even a correction towards her name.

"Rae?"

"Don't call me that." She said, but there was a sense of uneasy determination in her eyes.

She left for the patio.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Hive kids.

During high school, the hive kids were the creme'de la crème. They were elite. The few and the proud.

The opressors, and Jinx had been one of them.

Kori and Raven had left her alone, until she started dating Vic.

"Hey." Raven said, to a small, three person circle of hive kids. They all had gone to her school, but she didn't know their names.

"Mmm." One of the girls said smugly.

"Eph." The other girl said shyly.

The guy said nothing.

"Shame what happened, huh?" Raven said, trying to make small talk, but failing.

"About Jinx?" the shyer girl asked.

"No, about Bush. What did you think I meant?" Raven asked sarcastically.

They all eyed each other, as if speaking in a language Raven couldn't understand.

The boy lit a cigarette.

"So…" she began to regret this.

"She wasn't the only one to die, you know." The smug girl stated dryly.

"Others? Who?"

"Her boyfriend, to start with."

"Victor?"

"Mammoth."

Raven's eyes sunk into her head with unsubtly. "She was cheating?"

"No, she was cheating on Mammoth. But it was supposed to be a secret." The girl stared coldly at Raven, studding her.

Raven stuttered over what to say next. Jinx had cheated on Vic? Or the other way around. "What happened?" she finally pulled together.

The boy put on a lustful grin.

Raven's rumpled her brow. This didn't look like a good topic suddenly.

"Ever heard of the death video?" He asked.

"No." she said

"You should have."

"Well I haven't."

"You watch this video, you get a phone call, you're told you're going die in a week. The next week you drop dead. Fun, huh?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

(More subliminal messaging)

Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Drink sprite. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review.

(/More subliminal messaging)