July 28

Prosecutor's Lobby No. 5

11:15 AM

Niamh Wood

The atmosphere of the prosecution lobby remained tense as we walked out of the courtroom, and I couldn't seem to shake off the anxiety that had found an iron grip on my stomach. I didn't want to be involved with this case anymore. In fact, I wanted nothing to do with it. Why was I even here putting up with this investigation in the first place? The victim had been stabbed, and I couldn't be around knives for the same reason that I didn't want to be wrapped up in this case anymore. Damn it, give me a break, universe! Can't you just be nice to me for five seconds?!

A hand came down on my shoulder, and I looked up to see Prosecutor Kalles looking down at me with kind and worried eyes. "Niamh, breathe," she instructed, and something about her voice sounded oddly familiar to me even though I had never worked with her before this case. Still, I followed her directions dutifully, and I let out a careful exhale between my teeth a few moments later. I was fine. I was going to have to be fine one way or another. I needed to keep myself together.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Mom asked as she took a few steps closer to me. I had gotten out of the habit of calling her 'Prosecutor Lin' thanks to Nevada, but it was still a bit of a struggle to refer to her as what she was: my adoptive mother. I was endlessly grateful for all that she had done for me, but the disconnect from reality was too strong. I didn't know what I was supposed to think of any of this, whether it related to her or any other part of the world around me.

Prosecutor Kalles guided me over to the couch, and I happily sat down before pressing my hands against my face. I hid my eyes from view, feeling tears well up in the one good eye I had left. The Emsthorpe assassins were the reason for all of this. I absolutely despised them, and I hated that even after all I had been through, I still wasn't away from them. I should have known better than that.

"You're going to be okay," Prosecutor Kalles whispered soothingly. "If you want to talk about what's bothering you, then we would be more than happy to listen. Just do what you think would be best for you, okay?"

I hesitated, wanting to say something but knowing the words weren't going to come out. I pressed down a bit harder against my eyes. Why did the world feel like it was falling apart with me at the center? How was I supposed to push back against all of this? It was too much. I didn't want to be here anymore, not when the assassins who ruined my life were going to be there when we went back to the crime scene. Neptune was probably right about that. We were walking straight into disaster.

"I'm scared," I said before I could hold myself back. "I-I can't run into them again! Not after what happened last time! My father died because of them, and I... I can't see out of one eye anymore! I just want them to leave me alone! I don't care about the grudge they have against my family! It's too much!"

"It's okay," Prosecutor Kalles reiterated, and I followed her instructions when she told me to breathe once again. It took an embarrassingly long time for me to get myself under control again, and I let out a heavy exhale as she pulled my hands away from my face slowly but surely. Something about the way she was handling this told me that she had done this before, but I couldn't quite figure out how. Then again, there was a lot about her I didn't know. I shouldn't have been too shocked.

"We're going to be here for you no matter what happens," MOm told me next. "All you need to do is breathe. If you don't want to work on this case anymore, then it's okay. We would be more than happy to let you go back to the Prosecutor's Office. I'm sure Ghastly would be fine with letting you spend the afternoon in his office. We all know just how much he loves having you around."

I hesitated at that, but before I could push the words out, I realized that we weren't alone anymore. I looked up and realized there were a few more people in the lobby. In fact, it was the entirety of the Wood family... My extended family. I hadn't addressed them as such since all of this began though. I had known for a while that I had other relatives out there, but I hadn't wanted to pursue it. I was too afraid to even think of it, truth be told. It was too much when we knew how dangerous all of this was. They were the reason Mom had even wanted me to take on this case at all, and I couldn't even bring myself to face them. How embarrassing was that?

My uncle was the first to take a step forward, reaching one hand out to try and help me. Mom put an arm between us, and I was grateful she did. I didn't hold anything against him or the rest of his family, but I didn't want anyone close to me right now aside from Mom and I supposed Prosecutor Kalles. I barely knew her, but something about her felt so familiar to me that I didn't even care. Somehow, I knew I was safe around her even though I had never felt this way before now.

"It's alright," Mom told him slowly. "We have this all under control. If there's something you want us to do, all you need to do is say so, but you can leave her to us. I promise."

Mr. Wood shared a brief glance with his wife, and I was left with the sudden realization of how little I knew about people I knew myself to be related to. I knew their names and their faces, but that was just about it. Damn it, how had this become my life? Still, he didn't bother to make a fuss about it, instead just shaking his head with a weary smile. "Of course. You would know her best after all your years spent together," my uncle said. "I simply wished to say that we were here for her if she needed us."

"The assassins are... They're terrifying. I understand that," Mrs. Wood went on. "But we're going to be alright. It might not seem that way right now, but we're all here for one another, and we'll help you too if you decide that you need it. If you want to take that step, all you need to do is say so. We're happy to do what you ask of us. That's never going to change."

I hesitated before nodding, though the action felt foreign to me. "Yeah... Thank you," I whispered. I closed my eyes and rubbed away my tears, feigning to scrape away liquid from my bad eye even though I knew there was no reason for the ruse. They already knew there would be no tears from the left side of my face. They knew just about everything about my life, but I knew next to nothing about them. Life certainly was brutal with its irony, wasn't it?

"We're going to be okay!" Everett cried out, though I could tell by his excessive burst of noise that he was trying to overcompensate for his own fear. "There are all sorts of police at the main building, and they'll do what they can to keep us safe from anything bad that happens there. I promise it's all going to be fine. You don't need to be afraid."

I nodded once again, though I didn't entirely believe the motion I would have liked. Still, I was trying my best, and that had to count for something. "I hope so," I muttered, hoping they didn't hear my lack of optimism. I wanted to believe that everything would be alright, but I knew better than that. There was too much going on here for me to put up too much of a front. I was just glad Mom and Prosecutor Kalles were there to ease me through it.

"We should give her some space," Mrs. Wood suggested to the rest of her family. "We can head back to the main building, and we'll meet with them when they arrive. For now, the police may want to speak with us, and I don't want to keep them." It was a sorry excuse, just something to get the rest of her family away from me so that I could try to push through all of this, but I appreciated it regardless. How could I not? This was what I needed whether I wanted to admit it or not.

"We'll speak with you again later, Niamh... You're never alone, and we'd be more than happy to prove it if you need that from us," Mr. Wood said. He sent me a smile and a wave over his shoulder before he left. Everett hesitated before waving as well, his uncertainty showing despite his previous attempts to shove it aside. They were struggling just as much as I was. They had probably known Neptune was going to bring up something like this from the start, but there wasn't much they could do about it. This was our reality, and we just had to deal with that.

I remained silent as the family walked out, but Harvey paused in the doorway. He turned to face me, his eyes unreadable. "Nobody blames you for it, you know," he told me softly. "What happened to your father, that is. We've never held it against you. I wish you would stop doing the same." He was gone a moment later before I could try to protest, not that I would have been able to say much of anything on the matter. My throat refused to form words, and all I could do was stare. He had read right through me despite how little we had interacted. I had tried so hard to try and push all of my fears about my father's death aside, but I couldn't do that forever, and we all knew it. Harvey was right in saying that I couldn't hold it against myself forever... If only it was as done said as it was said.

Still, his words struck a chord with me that I never would have expected, and I found myself letting out another whimper before I collapsed into my mother's arms. She pulled me in close and stroked at my hair, a hum on her lips of a tune she knew I liked. She had eased me through many breakdowns of this sort, and she knew how to handle it. "I've got you," Mom whispered, her words muffled by my hair. "You're okay. I promise."

I nodded as Prosecutor Kalles' hand came down on my arm. She stroked gently at my arm, and I simply allowed her to do it. This was what I needed. I hated the way this trial was going, but at least I was finding a bit of peace from it. This wasn't perfect, but it was a step in the right direction, and it was exactly what I needed.

July 28

Gather Law Headquarters

11:45 AM

Pieter Fury

Our journey back to Gather Law was just as nerve-wracking as one would have expected given the events of the trial. I hadn't stopped shaking since Neptune offered her ideas of what had happened on the day of the crime, and I was grateful Lily had driven us all to the courthouse for the day. She was more than happy to take control of the car once again when we got outside, allowing me to slip into the passenger's seat while Sky took up a spot in the back. None of us said a word, unsure as to what could even be said that would make all of this easier. Nothing could fix the truth of the matter though, and we knew it.

I knew Neptune was right. The recent string of cases made it perfectly clear that she was right about this. She had been telling the truth when she said that we were going to be faced up against Emsthorpe assassins, and all of us knew it. The Emsthorpe family that had been causing more than enough problems for us over the course of the last few months, and they were behind this too. They just had to be. Their grudge against the Wood family and their recent urge to gather information made the picture all too clear. I had no idea where they were going to take it from here, but I knew where we stood at present, and the picture was far from being a pretty one.

When we stepped out of the car and into the main building, Lily let out a sigh, already knowing that she was going to have to be the one to take charge of the investigation for the time being. "Alright. We should head back to the file room. There has to be something in the area that could point us to the truth," she declared. "If somebody really did break into the file room-which certainly seems to be the case-then we need to find a piece of evidence to prove it before tomorrow."

"You're right," I said, surprised at how easy it was to shove all of my emotions aside to speak the words. This wasn't a time to be afraid. I was terrified no matter how much I wanted to admit it, but I couldn't let that show now. There was too much riding on our victory in this case, and we needed to find the truth one way or another. It all started with this search of the file room.

When we arrived back at the file room, I was completely unsurprised to see Detective Erikson and Detective Umber stationed at different locations in the large space. Detective Umber was examining a set of files while Detective Erikson read something off his phone. I could only assume that they had jumped right back into their search for the truth of what had happened at the time of the crime, and that all began with the motive. They needed to know what files the criminal had touched. If nobody had a reason to kill Artorious Bagge, then they would certainly have a reason to get into the evidence room, and this was just the beginning.

Detective Erikson was the first one to notice us, and he looked up with a tired smile. "Hello, you three," he greeted. "I'm glad to see you're here. I had a feeling you would be arriving soon."

"Hey, Detective Erikson," I smiled in return. "I see that you've been busy... You're trying to figure out what files the criminal touched or took, right?"

"You got it... Though it's much easier said than done, I'm afraid," Detective Umber sighed. She pinched at the bridge of her nose as she pulled away from the nearby bookshelf. "There are a lot more files in here than you could have ever imagined. This place makes the police station's evidence room look like a joke. Gather Law is serious when it comes to what they do, and that's only making our jobs harder."

"You can say that again," Sky muttered under his breath, though he didn't bother to explain himself at all. Instead, he looked away from all of us, and that 'away' just so happened to be the wall where the door touched the outer perimeter of the room. He stared for a moment before he walked closer, seemingly overtaken by something unfamiliar.

"What are you looking at?" Pieter questioned. Sky didn't answer though, instead just moving the left door out of the way. As soon as he had moved the door, Sky froze, and Pieter took a few steps after him. "What did you find, Sky?"

Both me and Pieter came up behind him, and we looked at what had caught his attention. My jaw immediately dropped, and I could see easily just why he had gotten so distracted. How could anybody not get distracted at the sight of this?

Blood.

"This... This is it!" Pieter cried out. "This is probably the evidence we've been looking for all this time!" He reached one hand out toward the wall, already knowing the blood was going to be dried when he touched it. "I'm willing to bet this came from the crime. The victim's blood, I could only assume."

"In other words, it seems we have an explanation for how the criminal was able to get away," I realized. "They probably hid behind the door when they were sure nobody was paying attention. After the fact, they slipped out without anybody seeing what was happening. That's how they were able to get away from the police without anyone asking questions."

"It makes a lot of sense... But I don't know what we're supposed to do with all of this," Sky frowned. "Unless we can find somebody who we know used this method of hiding their presence at the crime scene, we're kind of at another blockade. There has to be some proof that would point us in the right direction, but where would we start to find it?"

"If a person was really in here, then it stands to reason that somebody would have seen them... Perhaps there's someone here in the building who doesn't belong," Detective Erikson said as he walked closer. "There's a chance they tried to swear any witnesses to silence, but if we can push in the right ways, we might be able to reveal everything we've been searching for."

"Yes... I suppose we're getting closer to figuring out who was behind this," Pieter murmured. I could already tell that his hands were going to be shaking when I looked down, and sure enough, I wasn't disappointed. His anxiety was clear to see, and I swallowed dryly before trying to focus on the situation at hand once again. We couldn't afford to get distracted now when there was so much on the line.

I nodded at that, though I admittedly had no idea what we were supposed to do when it came to putting the other pieces together and finding the criminal. I was confident the one behind it was an Emsthorpe assassin, but there wasn't much we could do with just that information alone. If the criminal was really as good at hiding as the other Emsthorpe criminals seemed to be from their lengthy track record of crimes, then we were in for quite the difficult search. I didn't like how much work was going to be ahead of us, but we would have to unravel the truth one way or another no matter how hard it was.

There was one other thing I wanted to figure out in the meantime though. I glanced over to Sky and noticed that he was staring blankly ahead at the wall where the blood was smeared behind the door. There wasn't much crimson, but he was still staring at it like he thought it would swallow him if he took his eyes off it. He had been unfocused ever since he spoke with Mr. Wood the day before, and I was tired of seeing Sky suffer without willing to say a word about it. There had to be something I could do to help him, and as long as I could try it, I was going to put in the effort.

I let one hand come down on Sky's shoulder gently, and he immediately whirled around to face me with fear on his face for a brief moment before he managed to hide it away. Before he had the chance to speak though, I spoke up, concern laced in my gaze. "I think we should talk," I told him. "You've been miserable ever since yesterday, and I can't just sit here while you're suffering. Please... I know you're scared of talking about it, but I want to do something to try and help you."

Sky stared at me like a deer caught in the headlights for a few dark, criminal moments. When he was finally able to get a grip on himself, he sighed and shook his head. "I don't think I can do that," he admitted softly. "It's just... It's not right. It wouldn't be honest of me to share all of it with you."

"And hiding it is honest?" I asked slowly. Sky winced at that, clearly having seen it coming from the start. "You can talk to us, Sky. I don't know what you're going through, but it's eating you inside out. I want to try and help. You should try to get it out of your system."

Sky glanced over my shoulder at Detective Erikson and Detective Umber. The former was watching him carefully while the latter combed through the file cabinets, a frown on her face. When Sky realized how cornered he was, he let out a hefty sigh and began to push past me. "Not here. Let's find a private room somewhere else," he told me and Pieter softly. I nodded before following him, Pieter taking up the rear. Pieter gave Detective Erikson a brief glance to let him know that this wasn't personal, but Detective Erikson already seemed to understand. He just gave us a small nod to wish us luck before he turned back to his previous work once again.

It didn't take long for Sky to find a private room for us to duck into, and I could only imagine that this was where he had spoken with Mr. Wood the first time. He sighed as he closed the door behind us, still refusing to look at me and Pieter directly. "I need you to promise me that you're not going to say a word of this to anybody else once we leave this room," Sky began. Pieter and I shared a worried glance, and Sky looked up at us nervously. "I know you don't want to listen to me when I say that, but... I really need you to promise that you'll keep it hidden. I can't talk to other people about this."

Pieter and I looked to one another once again, trying to figure out if this was really a good idea of something to agree with. In the end though, we both seemed to come to the same conclusion. We weren't going to be able to get the truth out of him unless we agreed to this condition. I nodded to Sky a few heavy moments later. "Yeah... Okay," I told him. "Whatever you want to tell us, we'll keep it a secret."

Sky took in a shaky breath, afraid of releasing the words before he could even think of speaking them. He looked down at the floor, rubbing at the tiles with the toe of his shoe. "Alright... Well, it all started a long time ago..."

July 28

Gather Law Headquarters

12:15 AM

Sora Lin

When we got back to the scene of the crime, Neptune and Clarith were speaking about something in hushed voices near the entrance of the building. I couldn't make out what they were talking about from the distance, but something about them seemed oddly familiar when they whispered about important matters this way. I glanced to Amy and Niamh, but neither one of them bothered with looking back at me. Instead, I just pressed onward.

Neptune and Clarith fell silent as soon as they realized they weren't alone, not saying anything to keep us from accidentally listening in. Clarith's eyes went wide as she stared at us, and Neptune sent us a smile that burnt hotter than the sun, but not in the usual way. Instead, she seemed upset and anxious more than anything else like she was trying to block out the rest of the world. In a word, it was worrying, but I didn't know for sure what to think of it. Somehow, I already knew I wasn't going to be pressing anything out of her no matter how hard I tried.

"Hey there, you three!" Neptune exclaimed. Her eyes lingered on Amy for just a few seconds too long, but given that Neptune was already all too aware of the truth behind Oracle, I couldn't say it surprised me all that much. "I hope you didn't run into any trouble in coming back here."

"We're fine," Amy assured her. "Would you be able to share anything else of note with us about the crime? I'm afraid we were a bit caught up with... Other matters that delayed us."

Niamh squirmed at that even though Amy hadn't said anything that deliberately blamed her for what was happening. Niamh's anxiety had remained just as powerful and potent as we headed back to Gather Law, and she seemed determined to calculate escape routes in any given room. I could see her trying to figure out how she would run from the moment we walked inside, and I wished with everything I had that we could find the truth behind the case at hand as soon as possible. I hated seeing Niamh worked up like this.

She hadn't even wanted to talk to us about what had happened when she first ran into the Emsthorpe assassins. Niamh only talked to us about it when she realized there would be no way for her to hide it any longer, and all of a sudden, everything about her made so much more sense. She was terrified of opening up because she thought it would end with somebody around her dying. It was a fear that would never be replicated, but how could you tell someone they were safe when they had thought they were safe the day they witnessed another person's murder?

"I see," Neptune said, deliberately not looking at Niamh so as to not make her uncomfortable. "We just got back here ourselves, so I'm afraid we don't have much of anything to add beyond what you've already heard. I hope that you can find some luck in searching for the truth from here on out though. I wouldn't want you to be bogged down any more than you already have given how awful this case has already been for everyone involved."

"You can say that again," I snorted loosely. I shook my head before concentrating my attention on the hallway that would take us back to the file room. "Should we go and see what we can find back there? I mean, it seems to me like that's our best hint at figuring out who was behind all of this. If there's evidence that will lead us to the truth, that's where it's going to be."

"Yeah... Going on back there is a good idea," Neptune agreed. "I heard a few of the officers say that the defense team went into the file room a little while ago, but I didn't see them. I was probably unwinding after the trial at the time and just missed them when they got here."

Clarith gave Neptune a worried look before she focused on the matter at hand once again, smiling gently to me, Amy, and Niamh. "We would be happy to lead you back there if you would like," she told us.

"That would be great," Amy smiled to her. Clarith returned the gesture, and I stared at her for a few moments longer. Once again, I was hit with the strange sensation that she was familiar somehow, not that I really knew how I would have known her. I mean, I met her through Chrysalis and Neptune, but I felt as if I had known her for much longer than that. Maybe it was just me being ridiculous, but there was a strange sense of deja vu around Clarith and Neptune that refused to leave me alone. If only I could figure that out... It would certainly put my mind at ease, even if only a little bit.

Clarith gestured for us to follow her, and Neptune joined her while pressing her hands up behind her head. I could tell by the way Neptune was pretending to not glare at the ground that she had seen a little bit of trouble before now, not that I had any idea how I was meant to approach the subject without scaring her off. I mean, if she had something that she wanted to keep a secret, there was no doubt a reason for it. I could still wonder what she was trying to accomplish, but I probably wasn't going to tease the truth out of her yet. If anybody was going to pull that off, it probably would have been Chrysalis, and... Well, for reasons the rest of the world couldn't know about yet, Chrysalis wasn't exactly available to talk to her at the moment. It would just need to wait for a while longer.

The halls of Gather Law felt so much longer this time around than they had the time before, and Niamh seemed to agree. She bumped into me a few times, but she didn't bother to look up and apologize either. Instead, just leaned against me as much as she could without making it obvious what she was doing. I wrapped a gentle arm around her shoulders and pulled her in for a moment. She practically melted against my grip, glad to know that she wasn't alone even if it was just for a few moments. She took in a careful breath before letting it out when we arrived at our destination.

And as soon as we arrived, I realized that there was something off.

No, not something... Someone else was here.

late update shh

-Digital