May 4

Ashbrook Academy

1:20 PM

Lily Shield

When we finally found Ms. Venia again, she was talking on the phone in a corner of the school far from the prying eyes of other investigators. She barely even seemed to notice that we had arrived for a while, and when she did finally glance up, she froze for a split second before abruptly hanging up the call without so much as a closing word to the person on the other end. I winced at the sight, though I could already tell that she wasn't going to be answering any of our questions if we asked what she was talking about or who had called her to begin with.

"I should have known I was going to run into all of you again," Ms. Venia murmured when she saw us. She shoved her phone into her pocket before approaching us, pressing her shoulders back along the way. "What are you doing here? I hope you're not causing any problems for the students around here."

"Of course not," I assured her with a small smile. "You don't need to worry about that. We were just here to talk to you about everything you know about the crime, if you don't mind. Could you answer a few of our questions?"

"It depends on what it is you want to know," Ms. Venia began hesitantly. She frowned before crossing her arms. "What exactly do you have to ask me? Just be warned that I might not answer if I feel like the question is too invasive."

"What exactly do you know about the school and its students?" Yuri questioned. "We've heard that you have a bit of experience with the people around here, but we wanted to ask you on your own, if that's alright."

Ms. Venia thought about it before shaking her head. "I helped out the headmaster a few years ago when there was a massive incident that sent the school's reputation spiraling into the mud. There were a lot of people asking questions about what happened, but it didn't feel right to answer any of their inquiries. If we did, then it was just going to mean that we had to admit to being guilty, and I refused to do that. It would only put the students in jeopardy."

"I suppose it would..." I murmured, though I couldn't help feeling as if there was a little bit more to the situation than she was willing to admit openly. "What about the students? How well do you know them from what happened five years ago?"

"I didn't speak to them at all," Ms. Venia told me simply. "I didn't have a reason to. I didn't want to intrude on their lives, and I wasn't going to give them any other reasons to panic about everything they had gone through. I stayed only with the headmaster, and that was all I had to do in the first place. Why would I go out of my way to speak with the students?"

"You understand everything that happened a few years ago then?" Yuri asked with a small tilt of her head. "I mean, if you were there to control the response to it publicly, then you must know a lot about it."

"I know enough, and even if I did know all of the smaller details, I wasn't going to tell you to begin with. I need to defend the privacy of the students, and that means not telling any of you a thing about what it is they've gone through. If you want to ask them, do it on your own time, though I would prefer it if you stayed away from that idea entirely," Ms. Venia frowned. "I don't want you to stress them out when they've got enough on their minds as it is."

I looked over to Yuri and Mr. Morix at that, not entirely sure how we were meant to tell her that we had already heard what had happened six years ago. Mr. Morix was the one who opted to break the silence, taking a small step towards Ms. Venia before continuing. "The students seem to be a bit suspicious of your presence. Do you have any idea why it is that they would be worried about that?" he asked carefully.

"They could be trying to cover for their friend. Since none of them knew me six years ago, they didn't realize that I was someone to be trusted," Ms. Venia answered simply. "I don't know why it is that they would choose to defend their friend so firmly after hearing that she was responsible for a murder, but there's nothing else I can do about it. If that's what they want to do, then I'll simply have to eliminate the accusations on my own. You can consider that much a promise."

"Do you have any ideas as to who could have committed the crime?" I inquired. "We don't think the defendant was responsible for the murder, so any ideas that could point us in the direction of another suspect would be much appreciated."

"She needs to be the one responsible for it though," Ms. Venia frowned. "She was the one who was found with the body, and even if she doesn't have a motive, it doesn't matter. If we can say that she was the culprit, then we can lock her away with minimal damage to the school's reputation. The sooner we can solve all of this, the better off we'll all be, and if that means getting rid of her, so be it."

"That's not right though," Yuri insisted. "The school is just going to suffer more later on if it turns out that you locked away the wrong person. You don't know for sure that she was behind all of this, and it would be safer to just wait until we were able to find a bit more information that could show us who really did it. If you really care about this school and the people in it, then you should slow down for a moment."

"You don't know of any other potential suspects, and I don't think you're going to find any by just walking around and asking if people think others are strange," Ms. Venia countered. "As long as you don't know what you're doing, then your options are limited. I think you should opt for a plea deal and let the school maintain its reputation. We've barely just managed to crawl out of the pits from last time, and you can't just expect us to sink right back there."

"Having a former student arrested for a crime you have no proof she committed isn't going to help you in the slightest though," I pressed. "There must be something else here, and while I understand your desperation to do your job, it's not going to be worth it if we can't do it right. The students believe somebody else was responsible for this, and we're missing a motive as far as the current suspect is concerned. There has to be something else going on here, and if you could just tell us what your thoughts are-"

"I have nothing to say to you," Ms. Venia cut in sharply, raising one hand to cut me off. "I don't know what it is you're thinking of me or what those children told you, but I'm not going to just stand around here and let you slander my reputation. You're not saying anything about it, but I can see it in your eyes. This conversation is over. I'm sure the defendant is guilty, and you're only wasting your time by defending her. You've made things worse already by dragging out the trial one more day, and you'll see that soon enough. If you knew what was good for you, then you would have already abandoned this case. It's just a shame you're the only ones who can't see the good in that option."

None of us had the chance to say anything in response before Ms. Venia turned on her heel and walked away. I looked over to Mr. Morix and Yuri before letting out a hefty sigh. "Well... That wasn't what I expected to come of that conversation," I confessed. "I had been hoping that we would be able to hear at least a little bit more from her, but I guess she's still too upset from the trial to even think of talking to us."

"I still don't know what we're supposed to do with all of this," Yuri muttered. "We don't have any leads as to who a potential culprit could be, and I'm starting to worry that we're not going to be able to figure out who really did it. The students are suspicious of Ms. Venia, but that's not enough to really find her guilty, especially since she's been working with the school for years."

"She worked with them once a few years ago and then came back to handle this graduation... I think her behavior has been a bit odd this time around," Mr. Morix told us. "Previously, she only spoke with the headmaster, but this time, she's been almost avoiding him in favor of only being around the students. She barely even seems to want to do that."

"I think we should go and talk to Niamh about all of this," Yuri declared. "I don't know if that's going to shine a huge light on everything, but it's probably going to be a step in the right direction at the very least. Maybe she'll be able to tell us a little bit more about what happened in the courtroom earlier today."

"Ah, there you are. My apologies for the interruption."

Our conversation fell silent as Headmaster Oakley appeared down the hallway. He had a small smile on his face, though something about his expression seemed strange to me. "I was hoping that I would be able to catch the three of you before you left for the day," he went on. "I take it you were just talking with Ms. Venia, yes?"

"We were," I nodded. "She told us a bit more about the case, though she doesn't seem to want much to do with us, I'm afraid. She's firm in believing that the defendant was responsible for the murder as well."

"I think that's her way of showing that she cares," Headmaster Oakley explained. "She did a lot to keep the incident from a few years ago under wraps when she was last here, and she wanted to do everything she could to defend the students from the attention of those outside the school. She wants to preserve the reputation of Ashbrook Academy, though I don't agree with her belief that Niamh was the one behind the murder. I know Niamh would never harm anyone, much less a teacher she loved so much... I just wish Ms. Venia agreed with me on that."

"Why did you want to talk to us?" I questioned. "I thought we had already discussed everything you thought was notable enough to merit a conversation."

"I thought so as well, but I started to think a bit more about everything that's been happening recently... More specifically, I was thinking about Ms. Venia," Headmaster Oakley replied. "It's been many years since I last saw her, but something about her has struck me as strange since she returned to the school recently... I decided to do a little bit of research to see what could have been bothering me, and... I believe I've struck gold."

He pulled out his phone before turning it around and showing us. There was a picture of a woman standing next to a man in the photo, and when I looked a bit closer, I realized based on the caption that it was a picture of Ms. Venia. She was seemingly taking a photo with her boyfriend, though I couldn't tell what the occasion was. I assumed the picture had been posted on social media, but that wasn't what caught my eye at all.

Instead, I was too busy staring at her face. Something about it just felt uncanny, like she just barely didn't look the way that she should have. The differences between the woman we had just spoken to and the face in the photo were small, but it still struck me strangely, settling in my stomach like a lead weight. There was something amiss here, and I had no idea what exactly I was supposed to think of it all.

"I suppose it was because of this photo that I found something to be strange about her," Headmaster Oakley continued. "When I thought about it a bit more, I realized that she looked differently from how I remembered her. At first, I assumed it was simply because we hadn't seen each other in years. Of course she would look a bit different from how I remembered her after all those years apart. But... I couldn't shake the feeling there was something more to it. Now, I think I can see it... She doesn't seem like how I thought she would. This picture was posted very recently, so I can only imagine something could have changed in the span of a few weeks."

I glanced over to Yuri and Mr. Morix once more, not entirely sure as to what this could have meant but already able to sense there was a lot to it that we hadn't been seeing up to this point. Ms. Venia's behavior was strange at best, and I had no idea how we were meant to address it. Perhaps this was what we had been looking for all along. It was hard to say for sure how this slotted in with everything else we had found, but it wouldn't hurt for us to ask around a bit more about it.

"Thank you for this information," Mr. Morix told Headmaster Oakley with a small nod. "We appreciate you sharing the picture with us. I believe this is going to be an important fact for us going forward."

"Of course," Headmaster Oakley smiled. "Please... Do everything you can to show that Niamh isn't guilty. She would never even dream of hurting another person, and I know that without a shadow of a doubt. She has a good heart, and she deserves better than all of this."

"We'll do everything we can," I assured him. "Tomorrow, we're going to do everything we can to end this nightmare in the courtroom. You can count on that no matter what."

Headmaster Oakley nodded. "I knew I could depend on you." He took that as his cue to leave, and the three of us watched him from afar as he retreated from the hallway to return to his office. None of us dared to say a word until he was out of sight once more.

After he was gone, we all looked over to one another with Mr. Morix speaking up first. "I think that's our cue to go and see what we can hear from Prosecutor Wood," he declared. "She's bound to have at least a bit of new information for us, especially given everything we heard from the other students."

"And that doesn't even factor in everything you think you could hear from her about the past case," Yuri chimed in. "We've got a lot to talk about, so we should get right on down there and learn everything we can."

We all nodded in agreement before starting for the exit of the school. I still wasn't entirely sure where all of these pieces were meant to fit together yet, but we would figure that out in time. Until then, Prosecutor Wood was waiting, and I didn't want to leave her alone for any longer than we had to.

May 4

Detention Center

2:20 PM

Lily Shield

Prosecutor Wood arrived out in the visitors' room soon after we returned to the detention center, and she watched us carefully for a few long, silent moments. When she finally broke the quiet, her voice was tight with anxiety. "They told you," she said softly.

"They did," Mr. Morix confirmed with a small nod. "The incident from six years ago..."

"I-I don't like to talk about it," Prosecutor Wood murmured. "It's the whole reason I became a prosecutor, but thinking about it makes me want to be sick."

"Then let's shift gears and talk about something else," I suggested. "First off, let's discuss the current case. We've heard from the other students that they think something is amiss with Ms. Venia. Do you have any ideas as to what that could be about?"

Prosecutor Wood hesitated before looking down to the ground. "That... That's a bit of a complicated question," she confessed. "I think the decision to not mention her being there until the trial was already in session was deliberate. They wanted to wait until they would be able to get the truth out without anyone trying to get in the way."

"It was intentional?" Yuri echoed, her eyes going wide. "Then... They think she's responsible for the murder, don't they?"

"I-I didn't say that, but... Her behavior has been a bit strange. You have to admit that," Prosecutor Wood said carefully. "I don't want to just come out here and accuse her, but I feel like something is wrong... I didn't ever speak to her six years ago since Headmaster Oakley wanted to keep us as far from the coverup effort as possible. He thought it was going to stress us out, so we stayed away from it as he instructed of us. Still... I saw her around a few times, and she never seemed quite this... Harsh, I suppose."

"Is that reason enough to suspect her for the murder though?" Yuri asked. "I mean, the way that you talk abut it makes it sound like she came here because she was always planning on killing the victim."

"I don't have any evidence of that. I guess... The way she was carrying herself in the courtroom reminded me a lot of a few other people who we once knew. The confidence, the brutality, the look in her eyes..." Prosecutor Wood trailed off at that before sighing and looking back up to us. "Just how much do you know about what happened six years ago?"

"We heard there was an incident at Sparx Factory that ended with a class of students being put into a simulation program to test the limits of their minds," I began to explain. "The one behind it was a member of Occisor, and she hired two others to work under her command and carry out the investigation into the minds of the children. After you escaped, those who had perished in the simulation were left comatose and continue to sleep inside Sparx to this day."

"Yeah... That's right," Prosecutor Wood confirmed. "The one who hired the other scientists was Tammy Ghunshotte, though she had a place in the world before that too. You told the story about Occisor forming, and back then, she was Fatanne Lease. She was always trying to learn more about the way the human mind worked, and she thought the best way to gain that information was to push people to their limits. She's in prison now, probably somewhere else within this building, but... She's out of the picture."

"The other two scientists remain at large to this very day," Mr. Morix went on with a small frown. "We know their names, but they were able to escape before the students in the factory were rescued, and we haven't the slightest idea what could have happened to them."

"I saw them during the final confrontation," Prosecutor Wood murmured. "They were the ones behind the smaller details of the simulation, and they even tuned into it themselves. Fatanne Lease remained detached from it, but the two of them got involved with all of us from within the simulation, and... The look in their eyes... It reminded me so much of how Ms. Venia looked in court today. I know that's not really something I can use to say that she was a murderer, but I can't help feeling as if there's something else going on here. I think the other students can tell it too. They're sure she has something on her mind, and they're worried."

"I understand why... I have a bad feeling about all of this," Yuri sighed. "We're going to have to wait and see where this takes us next, I suppose. Do you have anything else you think we should hear about before we get deeper into the investigation?"

Prosecutor Wood thought about it before shrugging. "I... I guess I'm sorry for not wanting to talk about what happened six years ago," she whispered. "I feel bad for not being able to tell you, but I said years ago that I wasn't going to discuss it openly if I could avoid it. Headmaster Oakley wanted to protect us, and he said that us staying quiet was a crucial part of that. The last thing we want is for other people to pick up the scent of the case and try to learn more about it. I didn't want to talk about it because of that, and... I was scared. I've been trying to avoid it for so long, but I can't keep running forever."

"Nobody can outrun a horrible truth like that," Mr. Morix confirmed. "But you don't need to shoulder that burden on your own. There are other people who can help you through these dark times."

"I know... And I'm going to tell Chief Prosecutor Bespoke and Prosecutor Lin about it when I get the chance. I feel like I owe it to them to say why I decided to pursue this path to begin with," Prosecutor Wood said. I inwardly noted how she didn't even say that they were her parents, instead opting for their titles to put a little bit of distance between herself and them. It was a defense mechanism of some sort, I could only assume, and I chose to not comment on it. "They're not going to judge me for anything I say, and... I really need that sort of kindness right about now."

"Understandably so," I assured her. "They're going to be willing to listen, and we'd be more than happy to talk to you about it as well. All you need to do is say the word, and we'll be right there for you." I smiled to her gently.

Prosecutor Wood nodded at that while staring down at the floor, though she didn't say anything else for a long time. I could tell that she wanted to pivot away from the subject of the incident from six years ago, and everyone else seemed to agree that it was time to oblige. Prosecutor Wood swallowed dryly before glancing back up to us. "Um... Do you have any other questions for me about the investigation then?" she asked. "I don't want to keep you for too long if you need to be somewhere else."

"We do have a few questions for you, as a matter of fact," Mr. Morix began. "But I'm afraid you're not going to like what I'm going to say next."

"It's okay," Prosecutor Wood assured him. "I've been keeping enough secrets up to this point, and I think it's time I stepped back and tried to be as honest as possible. I'm not going to cause any other problems for you, so ask away, and I'll tell you what I can."

"In that case... Would you be willing to tell us about an incident that took place in the Council of Six Headquarters?" Mr. Morix asked. Prosecutor Wood went stiff immediately, and I could tell that we had struck a nerve. "I'm sorry to approach such a delicate subject, but we heard that you were involved with an incident there a few years ago."

"I guess I couldn't really avoid that either," Prosecutor Wood sighed with a shake of her head. "It happened soon after I moved away from Ashbrook. I was alone at the time and didn't know what I was supposed to do with myself. I wanted to find the truth behind what had happened, but I had no idea where I was supposed to start. I wound up trying to learn more about my family since I... I was searching for Zach. That was when I received a message calling me to the Council of Six Headquarters."

"What happened once you got there?" Yuri questioned slowly. She could already tell the answer wasn't going to be pretty. The more anxious Yuri got, the larger the black hole of nerves in my stomach became, and I could have sworn my heart skipped a beat or two from fear.

"I met my father for the first time," Prosecutor Wood smiled to herself. "The story of my family's history is a long and complicated one, but... I never knew him. All of my memories are with my aunt's family or at Ashbrook. When I was trying to uncover more about everything I had missed out with my extended family, he reached out to me and asked that I meet him at his workplace. He... He was the leader of the Council of Six... Robin Wood."

"What can you tell us about the Council of Six?" Yuri asked next. "I don't know all that much about the group, so I'd like to hear any little details you can offer."

"They're a group of important judges," Prosecutor Wood began. "They keep everything under control as far as limiting corruption from the judges' side of a courtroom. The previous leader of the group-and its founder, as a matter of fact-was my grandfather, Gabriel Wood. After he passed away, my father took up the mantle. The job was a dangerous one though, and that was why he sent me away. His work led to the death of my mother, and he didn't want to risk anything happening to me. We didn't see each other for almost ten years after that... At least, we didn't see each other until we met the day of his death."

"During a previous case, we heard that there was an incident in the Council of Six Headquarters a few years ago that ended with a judge in the group being murdered," Mr. Morix began. "That's why we wanted to ask questions to begin with. Along the way... We heard that you were involved with it as well."

"I was," Prosecutor Wood sighed. "I wish I could forget everything else about that day, but... I remember enough of it. I was speaking with my father for the first time, and the door burst open. A man came storming inside, though I'm not entirely sure who he was. My memory of that day is so hazy... He murdered my father, and I saw it happened. But... He..." She let one hand come up to her left eye, the one covered by her bangs.

Yuri's demeanor immediately shifted, and I could tell she had noticed the parallels between herself and Prosecutor Wood with the ways they styled their hair. "Your eye... That's what happened, isn't it?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah... The man who killed my father... He cut my eye open, and I blacked out," Prosecutor Wood whispered. "I don't know exactly what happened that day. My memories of the day are faint at best, but I know there was somebody else there who killed him. All I can really recall is... The knife... A gunshot... A scream... Nothing."

"I had no idea you had gone through so much," I whispered before I could stop myself. "Being sent away by your father, winding up at Ashbrook, the incident at the factory, and then the death of your father..."

"I don't like to talk about it. That's why nobody knew," Prosecutor Wood explained hurriedly. "After I had recovered from the attack and the damage to my face, I started adapting to the world only being able to see through one eye. That was when I started working a bit more earnestly in the Prosecutor's Office, and then I met Prosecutor Lin and Chief Prosecutor Bespoke. Everything seemed to come into place then, and we were fine. I didn't ever tell them the extent of what I had gone through, and they didn't want to ask too many questions about it either. They just wanted to get me out of the foster home I was staying with at the time, and they did."

"I see... Thank you for sharing so much with us," Mr. Morix nodded to her. "You don't need to say anything else. I'm glad that you felt safe enough to tell us so much, but we won't push you beyond that."

"Thanks," Prosecutor Wood sighed. "And... Please do what you can to keep this away from Prosecutor Lin and Chief Prosecutor Bespoke. I don't want to worry them too much after everything we've already had to deal with. I'm going to tell them about everything soon, but I'm not going to push it until after this case is over."

"We understand," I smiled to her. "Thank you again for talking to us. We'll do everything we can to show that you didn't commit this crime in the courtroom tomorrow. I promise."

"Thank you," Prosecutor Wood repeated. She took in a careful breath as she rose to her feet and started to walk towards the door. The guard escorted her out, and I watched her until the door tapped shut in her wake.

Even after Prosecutor Wood had left, the room remained silent. Mr. Morix shook his head to himself. "We've still got a lot to unravel," he whispered. "I get the feeling there's much more going on as far as Prosecutor Wood's story is concerned, but for the time being, we can leave it at that. We have more important things to tackle right now anyway."

I nodded my agreement. We could figure out more when the time was right, but for now, we understood everything we needed to address this trial. That was what mattered most. Prosecutor Wood would be free soon enough, and we would be the ones to do it within a day's time.

speed runs posting this

-Digital