Chapter 2

It was shocking, terrifying, and tragic. Nosey was dead. As if it weren't sad enough, he died the way he lived, in a pile of stink. "We found him here, about an hour after I had asked him to clean the stables, I wondered what was taking him. Apparently he slipped and fell, breaking his neck. It was a terrible accident." Delilah refused to look at the body, it was so sad. She buried her face into Julius, hoping that it would all go away, nobody was dead, this was all a terrible dream. Agents sometimes died on missions, but never has someone died at the Academy. It was unfathomable. Julius comforted her with a kiss on the forehead "We will have the funeral in the main hall tomorrow at 9am." Al continued. "That is all." And with that everyone dispersed.

"Are you going to be okay?" Julius asked Delilah.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." She answered. "I just can't believe it, he's dead."

"We should head inside."

"You're right, lets go." As they walked away, she saw the body out of the corner of her eye. His neck was broken alright, but there was something peculiar about it. She just couldn't figure it out. Then she saw something on his neck. She stopped cold in her tracks.

"Is something wrong?" Julius asked her.

"I don't know." She replied as she walked towards the body. There was definitely something wrong. Was that an imprint of a hand?

"Julius, come look at this."

"What is it?"

"It seems to be…"

"It couldn't be. Delilah, you heard Al, this was an accident."

"What if Al's wrong."

"Al's never wrong."

"Then how do you explain this?"

"It's simple really..."

"Well?"

"Okay, it's not simple. But I'm sure that there is a reasonable explanation for this."

"There is a reasonable explanation for this! Nosey was-"

"He was not murdered."

"Julius, the evidence is here, the markings on his neck, nothing showing that he slipped, and look, where people haven't stepped it's obvious that someone covered their tracks."

"Fine, lets say he was murdered, what do we do next?"

"We can't tell anyone this."

"Not even Al?"

"No, we don't want to scare everyone."

"But why Nosey?"

"He was all alone, must have been an easy target."

"What makes you think this guy won't strike again?"

"I don't think that."

"So what, are we just going to wait until someone else turns up dead?"

"I don't know."

They walked back inside, the Academy was completely empty. Everyone must have went to sleep early, who could blame them. They were all shook up by the 'accidental' death of Nosey. "I don't feel like going back to my room yet." Delilah told Julius.

"Well we can just sit for a while." He replied. So they had a seat on the nearest sofa, he put his arm around her, she rested her head on his shoulder, and they both fell asleep, completely unaware of the evil surrounding them.