Disclaimer: I don't own anything Super Smash Brothers related.
"That can't possibly be..." Joeb muttered under his breath.
Lynn didn't answer. Her eyes flickered towards Lucario but the jackal-like pokemon had given no note that he had communicated with her at all. He was concentrating on his food.
How did you know that was there? she asked suspiciously.
I sense things... and that was all he had to say on that matter. She tried to probe his mind but he'd severed their telepathic contact firmly, making her grow suspicious of the Aura sensing pokemon.
By now all of the Chosen Few had noticed the arrow and were muttering and pointing. Jeka muttered, "Sounds like somebody was busy," he said, shooting a look at Elizebeth, who paled visibly.
"It wasn't me!" she protested, her voice cracking.
"I believe you," Ri assured her. Zack looked at her in surprise but said nothing. He privately felt that Ri was too trusting of others, but he knew if he voiced his opinion aloud to her, she would shoot him down.
"You do?" The older woman asked hopefully at the exact same time Jeka did in an incredulous tone.
"Yes," Ri responded firmly. She got up from the table.
"Where do you think you're going?" Zack asked nervously.
"Where do you think that arrow is pointing towards? I'm not going to wait until I'm finished with supper. Are you guys coming or not?"
Elizebeth paled even more but she nodded. Zack stood up also as did Jeka and Joeb. Lynn, after a moment's reflection stood up gracefully as well.
Drey and Rio also began to stand up but Zack said, "We need somebody to take care of Cammy."
"Cammy?" Drey asked, annoyed. "She can take care of herself!"
"Yeah!" Cammy said, a small frown playing over her lips. "Why can't I come?"
The others exchanged looks and all of them seemed to agree that Cammy was too young for whatever they might unearth.
Cammy and Drey seemed very irritated by the census that had been reached. Rio, on the other hand, sighed in defeat. "Fine. We'll stay. On one condition though, you have to tell us what you find."
"Of course," Jeka responded. Then he looked around him. "Hey, where's Bran?"
The others looked around, but realized that the intelligent teenager had disappeared while they had been talking.
"This isn't good at all," Rio murmured nervously.
"We need to split up. Elizebeth, Zack and Jeka will look for him. There's a good chance the murderer could be after him. Lynn, Joeb and I will go in the arrow's direction," Ri said quickly, her thoughts racing as she said it. To be honest, Lynn creeped her out, but she had to admit that out of all of them the pokemorph seemed the best option to sense any danger. Elizebeth and Jeka seemed to be Brandon's friends, but she didn't want them to go alone so she put Zack with them as well, the person she trusted the most so far.
"Why do you get to decide?" Joeb grumbled. "I'm the oldest." But he was curious about where the arrow led so he didn't say much after that.
"Make sure that you three don't tell the Smashers what we're up to," Ri said to Cammy, Rio and Drey. She had ignored Joeb. "Give them any kind of excuse for our departure. Let's let Zack's group move out first. We will leave a couple of minutes later so we don't arouse any suspicion."
"I hope Bran's okay," Elizebeth whispered as she left. Ri gave her a reassuring smile, but inside the younger girl was sick with worry as well.
Bran was one of the first to see the entrails and he did not want to stick around. There's a good chance that the less people there are around, the more clues I will find. He contemplated telling Jeka to come with him, but decided not to. There was a good chance that Jeka would just think that it was Elizebeth and the last thing Bran needed was to be bombarded with theories about how the woman could have done it. He needed an open mind. As he exited the hall, he tried to recall who was at the table for dinner but then realized that it didn't matter.
"Whoever the murderer is probably committed it earlier and put that arrow up before dinner was served. Which means that the murder probably happened before dinnertime. Maybe during the time after lunch and before dinner." He frowned. Outside the dinner hall, there were three places to go. He could go upstairs, down to the basement or stick around and conduct his search on the main floor.
If I murdered somebody... Where would I hide the body? The trouble was, Brandon was not a murderer. He didn't know how to think like one. But... Based on the last one, it would seem like these murders are committed because the person wants us to be scared. The murderer wants us to find the body... which means the body would be in a place that we would eventually find sooner or later. But where? He thought, frustrated.
He stared at the three directions. Let me eliminate the basement. It seems illogical that the body would be in the same place which would mean either upstairs or the main floor. He bit his lip, the seconds ticking by before he finally made his decision and started towards it.
"Where do you think he went?" Zack asked once they were out of the dining hall. Elizebeth shrugged as did Jeka whose eyes were trained to his smartphone. Zack gave them an exasperated look. "You both are supposed to be his friends!"
"I... I'm not his friend!" Elizebeth protested. Am I? I hardly know him yet... He's the first one who actually wanted to know my story. Does that make us friends? "I don't know if we're friends," she amended herself. "But I don't know much about him either. I can't tell whether he'd be in the basement, on this floor or if he'd go upstairs."
Jeka looked bored with the conversation; he was playing with his smartphone. Without looking up he said, "Let's play a guessing game then shall we? We have a one in three shot of getting his location right and a one in three shot of ending up on the floor where that arrow wants us to end up."
"I think he took the stairs," Elizebeth said decisively.
"How can you tell?" Jeka asked, an eyebrow arched. He looked up from his phone to narrow his eyes at her suspiciously.
"Yeah, how did you come to that conclusion?" Zack asked, though he tried masking the suspicion from his voice.
Elizebeth looked startled at the hostility Jeka was showing her, but recovered quickly; she was getting used to his suspicious nature regarding her. "It's obvious Bran was looking for the murderer, right? Unless he did the crime himself, which I highly doubt..."
"Because it's you, probably," Jeka muttered, but Zack shot him a look that made him quiet down.
Elizebeth swallowed nervously at his comment, but she continued in a strong voice. "So he probably took the most logical choice that would lead him to where the arrow wanted him to go. I think he took the stairs because the entrails were left on the ceiling. If they were left on the floor he would have taken the basement because the arrow would be closest to the floor..."
"...And if the arrow were on the table then whatever it was we would need to search for would be on the main floor, but it wasn't. It was on the ceiling so it would have to be the highest level." Zack said, catching on.
"Exactly," Elizebeth said, her cheeks flushed. She looked distinctly pleased with herself. "So let's go up those stairs then, shall we?"
"Okay, I think it's time we leave," Joeb said quietly after ten minutes had passed. He turned to Cammy who still looked visibly annoyed that she wasn't coming along and he rolled his eyes at her attitude. Kids.
"Now remember, if anybody asks about us..." Ri began.
"Say that Joeb felt very sick after having the filet and you and Lynn escorted him to his room. We know," Drey shot back, in a bad mood. I should be there... she wanted to say.
As if Joeb could hear her thoughts he said acidly, "You'd be more of a threat than a help."
Drey flushed guiltily while Rio shot him a glare. "That wasn't very nice."
"Me? Not nice? You should look at Princess Dragon here if you think I'm not nice," Joeb snorted. "I come here because I think I can finally relax and what do I get? Chaos. Chaos everywhere."
"Could we stop arguing?" Lynn asked quietly. "We need to move."
"Lynn's right. Let's go," Ri said, looking nervous but determined. She stood up and the other two followed. Cammy watched their retreating backs sourly but did not say a word.
I've seen and handled more than they ever did, I bet! she thought. I hate being treated like a child, like I have to be watched over! I could help if somebody just asked me! But nobody ever does. They're gonna regret it.
Oblivious to the little girl's dark thoughts, Rio's eyes unconsciously slid over to Peach who was giggling at something Mario had just said. The angel sighed. I'd give anything to be in that princess's shoes... She's so lucky. Her eyes flitted over to Link who was looking unnaturally surly, Zelda who also seemed subdued and Marth who was languidly examining his reflection on the back of his soup spoon and finally her eyes rested on Ike who she was shocked to find was looking at her as well. Their eyes locked and within a millisecond, Rio's eyes darted away, panicked. How embarrassing is this! He must think I'm a creep. She blushed, her eyes settling on Captain Falcon who was trying, but miserably failing to grab Samus's attention.
"You know I can see the future," Captain Falcon smirked.
"That's great," Samus responded flatly.
"The future tells me that you're not going to be wearing pants in about fifteen minutes."
"I'm not falling for it, Falcon," Samus snapped, finally turning to him. "You think that's supposed to turn me on?" She rolled her eyes upward, and then stopped midroll. And Rio knew why.
She grabbed Drey's arm, muttering, "Samus's just seen the arrow. What do we do now?"
Drey, who was angrily scarfing down her dessert stopped midbite to look at the blonde bounty hunter. They watched as Samus grabbed Captain Falcon's shoulder.
"Falcon," she said urgently. "Look up."
"I would, but your face must be a magnet, 'cause my eyes can only be pulled towards you," Captain Falcon said smirking.
"Seriously, Douglas. Look up."
At the sound of his first name, the other bounty hunter looked up curiously. "I don't see what's so..." And then his eyes widened. "My God," he said softly. "What the hell is thatl?"
"This isn't good," Drey muttered. "Everybody at our table is gone except us three. They'll think we're up to something. We need to do something."
"Well we need to do something fast, because things are about to get ugly real fast!" Rio responded.
"Whose idea was it to take the basement, again?" Ri asked nervously. It was dark in here and unnaturally warm. Too dark for Ri's liking. She wasn't a huge fan of being stuck in the dark, unless there was somebody with her. Unfortunately the people with her now did nothing to alleviate the stress she was going through.
"Mine," Lynn responded and there was no regret in her voice. "Something tells me this place holds some answers here."
There was a click and Ri and Lynn jumped but Joeb said in a dead calm voice, "Sorry. I got my gun out. You can't be too careful here."
This did nothing to calm Ri, though she agreed with his words. She was beginning to wonder why she'd gone with Lynn and Joeb. Both seemed scary to her. She couldn't make out Lynn's personality. On one hand, the pokemorph seemed totally sane on the surface and yet... She shuddered. There was something about her that seemed deranged.
It was a similar case for Joeb, though not as sinister. Joeb seemed normal, but it was moments like drawing his gun that Ri questioned whether or not he was innocent. As she studied him now, she couldn't help thinking that he held that gun as if he had known how to his whole life and had used it on many occasions. A chill went down her spine and she tried to focus her thoughts on their surroundings.
The basement was huge, consisting of many doors and spaces. There were also a maze of objects on the floor. More than once Ri tripped on these objects but Joeb and Lynn seemed less clumsy.
"Could you be any quieter?" Joeb hissed irritably. "Do you think the murderer's deaf?"
Ri muttered an apology, her cheeks flushing. She began concentrating on the floor instead. Was it her imagination or was the room getting hotter as they went in deeper? The floor was littered with newspapers, gym equipment, and other odd assorted items. After neatly dodging a pair of bear traps, she noticed dark stains on the linoleum floor and sucked in her breath, fast.
"What is it?" Lynn whispered.
"Something definitely happened here..." She pulled out her phone and switched it on so that it lit up and she could see the floor clearer. As the three studied the floor they noticed the dark stains leading further in.
"That's blood," Lynn said, her eyes widening. Ri's hand was beginning to shake as she pointed her phone further down. The trail of blood seemed to get heavier and heavier down.
Joeb knelt down on one knee and placed a finger on one of the stains. He frowned. "It's dry. You don't think this is just Sean's blood left over?"
Lynn knelt down too, but instead of touching the blood with her fingers she put her head close to the stain and breathed in deeply. "No. I can still smell it. If it were several days old, like Sean's, then I would barely be able to detect it."
Ri shuddered, despite the fact that she was beginning to sweat from the heat. "So what do we do? Move on?"
Joeb stood up, a grim look settling over his face. A trickle of sweat moved down his cheek but Ri couldn't tell whether it was due to the heat or nerves. "We're following that trail."
"Where do we search then?" Zack asked. They were on the second floor, where all the bedrooms were.
"Why don't we start with Wario's room?" Jeka suggested. "Didn't I hear somebody say he was missing from the dining room?"
"That seems the most logical choice," Zack agreed. And because she had no idea what else to do, Elizebeth was also forced to agree. They walked past the different dormitories. Each dorm housed characters from their respective games and according to their respective insignia. The big red and white mushroom on one door for example, indicated that Mario, Peach, Luigi and Bowser all lived there.
"Would Wario be in the Mushroom Dorm or have his own?" Zack mused. He stared at the door with the red mushroom. "Wario's had his own games, but he's Mario's cousin..."
Jeka frowned. "I think he'd have his own dorm. It's Wario after all. He's greedy enough to want his own room. Besides, you've seen his insignia right? It's not a mushroom, it's a W which means he's probably on his own."
"That makes sense," Elizebeth responded, nodding. "Shall we go then?"
"Lead the way," Zack said, gesturing forward. They walked down the corridor. Wario's room was all the way at the end since he was a third generation Smasher. There was a big "W" emblazoned on it, the color of gold. Zack rapped lightly at the door with his knuckles. "Uh, Wario? Hello?"
There was no answer. A sinking feeling was overcoming Zack. He turned his head back to Jeka and Elizebeth who both looked equally as nervous.
"Try harder?" Jeka suggested. "Maybe he didn't hear."
"Or maybe he's just not there," Elizebeth said, trying to keep her voice calm. "Maybe he's in the practice arena."
They all exchanged looks. It was highly unlikely that Wario, who was known for his sloth-like attitude on life, would be practicing.
Zack knocked at the door more insistently. "Wario?" he called out more loudly.
There was another ominous silence.
Jeka finally pushed Zack out of the way. "Let me try," he said impatiently. He tried the doorknob, ignoring Elizebeth's comment that they were invading his privacy.
To their surprise, the door actually opened. "He didn't lock his door?" Elizebeth asked, her voice uncharacteristically high. Wario tended to guard his belongings to the point where it was almost an unhealthy obsession. Why wouldn't he lock his door? Elizebeth knew the answer, but she did not want to think it. Couldn't think it.
Jeka sauntered into the room first and then stopped abruptly in his tracks. He gave a low, surprised whistle. Zack entered in too, eager to see what had driven the white haired boy to whistle and then stopped too.
Elizebeth was nervous, but she didn't want the boys to think she was more scared than they were, so she stepped in as well and breathed in sharply. A strong scent of cologne pervaded the air.
Wario's room was small with many things inside, things mostly made of gold or other precious metals and stones. His own bed frame, which was coated in gold, had rubies encrusted in a big "W" on the headboard. It was a treasure trove, that was for sure.
And it also looked as if a fight had taken place here because everything was in shambles. A lamp, made of fat sapphires had been knocked over, and the bed sheets looked thoroughly messy. Books, old antiques were strewn about the floor. The curtains had been ripped at the ends.
"Something happened here," Elizebeth said nervously. "A fight." She took a step forward and nearly stumbled over an upended bookcase. Zack seized her by the arm and brought her up.
Jeka looked grim. "If a fight happened here, then where are the people who were in the fight?" He sniffed the air, wrinkling his nose at the cologne and tried to make his way over to the source of the scent. He finally reached a broken cologne bottle, probably worth more than all of Jeka's life savings and picked it up gingerly. "Look at this," he called out.
Zack and Elizebeth strode over and Jeka held up the broken bottle. The cologne was still dripping from a sharp edge of the bottle. "This probably happened not too long ago," Jeka declared.
But Elizebeth had noticed something else. "Is that... hair?" She asked, horrified.
It was. A swath of brown hair coated in something dark and sticky was attached to the sharp edge. It took a moment for Elizebeth to realize that the something that was dark and sticky was blood.
"The attacker must have hit Wario with this bottle on the head," Zack said, his mind working rapidly.
Jeka tried not to imagine the scene and instead said, "Do you think the attacker left any fingerprints on this thing?"
Zack sighed. "With any luck, maybe. But this is Smash Mansion. What if the attacker isn't even human? If it had been Kirby, Game and Watch or Bowser or something, their would be no fingerprints to track."
"What about any DNA?" Elizebeth asked. "I saw a show on TV once and it talked about how easy it was to leave DNA traces behind. If we looked for hair, or dead skin or something..."
"That's TV, Elizebeth, get real," Jeka snorted. "I know Wario probably didn't have a lot of friends, but it would take a lot of time to comb through all the DNA traces left in this room. I'm sure people have came and went ever since Wario got this room, and their DNA traces would still be in this room. Anyway, I'm sure the attacker, whoever he is, is an expert. He wouldn't leave anything that would trace him back."
"Yes he would," Zack said suddenly.
"What do you mean?" Jeka asked, an eyebrow raised.
"I get the feeling that the murderer wants us to find him. These murders are meant to scare us, show us whose really in charge. He's going to toy with us by murdering people but then he's going to start dropping clues and we'll eat them up until we finally figure out who it is. But by then, it'll be too late," Zack said. His eyes were strangely unfocused and he looked paler than he normally was.
Jeka raised an eyebrow and said, with an uncertain laugh, "Are you trying to tell us something, Zack? That you go by an alias called Zack Attack and you do this kind of stuff when you're bored?"
Zack snapped back to reality. He rolled his eyes. "Of course not," he said lightly. He shrugged. "I just think that whoever's behind this is playing with us right now. We're just a game to him."
Elizebeth shuddered at Zack's words. For the first time, she studied him. It wasn't possible that Zack, normal friendly Zack who joked around constantly, was behind it all, was it? She forced herself to think rationally. Of course it couldn't be Zack, she told herself. It was ludicrous to think that a guy from Crossington, a mail delivery assistant, for Christ's sake, was the mastermind behind Sean and possibly Wario's death.
It was stupid.
...Still, she thought uncertainly as she looked at Zack whose back was turned towards her as he turned to talk to an equally unnerved Jeka. She was going to keep an eye on him. Right now, Zack Taran was number 1 on her suspect list.
Jeka, Elizebeth and Zack were wrong in thinking that Brandon had gone up the stairs. He had, instead taken the main floor. He wasn't exactly sure why he'd decided to take the main floor. Perhaps it was because most Smashers tended to hang out over here when they weren't in the dining hall or practicing, or in the middle of a match. After all, the main floor also contained the kitchen, their personal home theater, a lounge, the library and a gym among other rooms. He walked quickly, each step increasing his pulse. Though Brandon normally had no trouble in being alone, he wished he'd brought Jeka with him. Despite the fact that Jeka was quick to point fingers at people, he felt that it was far better to have his friend at his side to protect him. Jeka had a powerful sense of self-assuredness that Brandon couldn't help but admire, and actually washed off on him as well, making him feel safe.
Wait, friend? Brandon frowned, backtracking. Since when had he viewed Jeka as his friend? It had only been a couple of days since he'd met the older, and far taller teen. Brandon waved the thought away. He would deal with his personal feelings later. Right now, he had a killer to catch.
He stalked the carpeted halls, ignoring the paintings that graced its walls. Each painting depicted scenes from the Subspace Emissary. There was one of the Halberd, one of Samus freeing Pikachu from its experiment cell, and even one of Petey Pirhana, looking even more horrible than he did in real life, blood dripping from his leaves and sharpened teeth, towering over Zelda and Peach who had uncharacteristically frightened expressions on their faces as they cowered away from him. Brandon had already studied all the paintings already in great detail. Each was a masterpiece in its own right though he doubted that the artist had been there to experience the events that had unfolded. The one that fascinated Brandon the most was the final fight against Tabuu, anyway. It was a gigantic mural that depicted every single Smasher, old and new, tearing at the angel-esque deity. It puzzled Brandon that even the old Smashers were in on the fight. They were never credited as the heroes, after all.
In fact, Brandon thought, stopping suddenly in his tracks they weren't mentioned at all since the Subspace happened. Brandon thought with a cold feeling, when exactly was the last time he'd seen Roy, Dr. Mario, Mewtwo or any of ex-Smashers make a public appearance? He frowned deeply. None of them had been seen since the last tournament that they'd participated in, at least that much he could recall. He'd have to double check to be sure. But not right now. For now, he needed to search the main floor.
The first room he checked was the lounge which was basically a large sitting room where the Smashers hung around to talk, read, play card games or play their DS's together. Couches, bean bags, coffee tables with magazines and newspapers draped across them, adorned this room. Brandon doubted he would find something here but he checked anyway. He had no idea what he was looking for. A speck of blood? A sharp object? He checked in the couches, lifting the cushions, but aside from loose change, old receipts, and even a dogeared steamy romance novel (Which Brandon figured probably belonged to one of the female Smashers), and some other items there was nothing of interest between them. Frustrated, Brandon ran his hands through his face. Why wasn't this easier?
Think, Brandon. Think! He squeezed his eyes shut but he'd drawn a hopeless blank. There had to be something that they'd all missed. He'd read once that serial killers, the brilliant ones especially, wanted to be found because they wanted recognition for their work. Whoever was behind the murders had to have left something behind, something only a smart, observant person would pick up on. Brandon counted himself as both smart and observant and therefore he felt like the killer was laughing at him, jeering that he wasn't smart enough.
But Brandon was smart. And I'll prove it by finding you before you get too far, he added silently to himself. He began to leave the room, when something caught his eye.
It was a newspaper, yesterday's edition of Nintendo Times. It had been folded to the games section, where the crossword puzzle, the Sudoku challenge, Bridge scenarios, Jumble and other games were on it. Whoever had been reading the paper obviously had the intent to do any of these games.
Except that there was no mark on the page at all. None, even though the page had been folded so that only the games section was showing. Curiously, Brandon stared at it. Why would it be folded to the games section, when the person hadn't even played any games on it? Were they trying to hide something in the newspaper? If so, why didn't they just throw it away? It could be nothing but...
He flipped the newspaper open and then began to rapidly flip through the pages but he didn't have to flip long until he realized what was being hidden. It wasn't an incriminating article. No, it was something weirder.
There were words cut up from each article with almost laser-like precision. Random words. Somebody had cut them out and collected them. What were the words?
That was definitely strange. Brandon's mind was racing with possibilities, but he decided to figure it out later. So he took the paper and tucked it into his pocket for safekeeping and moved along.
"Where are your friends?" Captain Falcon demanded for the fifth time. His dark eyes bore into Rio's eyes dangerously who gave a huge gulp. She didn't know what to say.
"We told you, Joeb fell sick after eating the filet, so the others took him up," Cammy cut in defiantly.
"Yeah," Drey said. "Leave Rio alone." She glowered at Captain Falcon.
If she thought that the acclaimed racer would just back off she was wrong. Instead he rounded on her. "I find it hard to believe that practically all of your friends left just because of one person's incapability to digest the fish," he said icily.
"Tell us the truth, and maybe then we'll leave you alone," DK said, his tone almost as harsh as Captain Falcon's.
Rio cowered. She wished that she was as strong as Cammy and Drey to fight back but she was actually terrible at confrontations especially when she was forced to lie. It wasn't in her.
"You can't possibly expect us to believe that their disappearance has nothing to do with what's on the ceiling," Metaknight added broodingly. Rio couldn't tell whether or not Metaknight was angry too; his voice always sounded like he was brooding.
At that, Drey faltered but Cammy surprisingly didn't.
"It's what they told us," she said, her chin sticking out defiantly. "Instead of accusing us, why don't you try finding out where that arrow is pointed, hm?" she challenged. She tossed her hair over her shoulders, the perfect picture of childish defiance. But her eyes were narrowed as dangerously as Captain Falcon's.
"She has a point," Olimar piped up. "We can't go making any accusations until we find out what the arrow is for."
"But what if it's a trap?" Ness asked fearfully. The memory of discovering Sean's body was still fresh on his mind.
"Jig! Jiggly! Jigglypuff!" Jigglypuff countered, determinedly.
"Jigglypuff's right," Link said. Not for the first time did Cammy wish that she had the wristwatch that all the Smashers wore. Not only did they tell the time, but they also served as communicators, and its most impressive feature allowed all the Smashers to understand one another regardless of language barriers. This explained why all Smashers could communicate and understand Mr. Game and Watch, ROB and even the Pokemon who could only ever say their own names. But whatever Pikachu, Jigglypuff and the rest of the Pokemon said would forever be a mystery for Cammy. She could only guess what they were trying to say by picking up clues from their tone and facial expressions.
"What did she say?" Drey asked.
Link wasn't looking at her when he responded, "It doesn't matter if it's a trap. We still need to see if everybody's okay."
"Okay, what can we do to help?" Drey asked eagerly. She counted it as a sign that Link responding to her was a good thing.
This time Link's eyes sliced towards her's and his eyes, normally a blue that reminded her of a warm beach, were now glacial. "You can help by doing nothing. You've already done enough."
The comment stung more than it should have. "But..." she said, her confidence faltering. Rio frowned at Link's attitude.
"I didn't expect you to be such a jerk at a time like this!" She burst out, surprising everybody including herself. She didn't mean to say it out loud, but every part of her was thinking it. "We said we wanted to help, so let us help you!"
Link looked startled before his face turned hard. "This is none of your business," he said in a clipped voice.
Samus coughed and stood between Link and Rio. "Okay people, calm down. Look, we need to work together. I agree that we haven't been the best of hosts so far, but now we need to cooperate. People are dying here. This isn't any time to argue or to view each other with distrust." Her blue eyes flickered. "No more secrets, okay? Please tell us what you know and we'll include you in as much as we can."
Rio's eyes met Samus's. They were open, trusting and none of the coldness that she was known for as a reputed bounty hunter, was in them right now. This was what compelled Rio to say, "The others are searching for the killer right now. Or at least some of them are. Brandon's gone, so the others went to go look for him."
Samus's eyes widened. "Brandon's gone? What do you mean?" She asked. She felt a certain fondness for the boy. If Samus's life had been normal, she thought, she might have spent her childhood and teenage years with the same interests as Brandon.
"He took off on his own," Rio said. "The others went to go look for him to see if he was okay."
"He went alone by himself?" Wolf asked nastily. "That doesn't sound suspicious at all."
"If I want your opinion, O'Donnell I'll ask for it," Samus snapped, shutting him up. Everybody knew not to mess with Samus when she used that tone of voice. Oblivious to the way everybody quieted down, she tapped her chin, thinking deeply. Finally she rose her head and turned to Captain Falcon and Snake who were standing beside her.
"Captain Falcon, Snake, come with me to the lab. The rest of you," She said, turning on the Smashers. "I want you to divide yourselves into three groups and I want Drey, Cammy and Rio to be divided into these groups. Search the grounds, the forest, the lakes, anywhere you can find. And make sure that our guests are safe first and foremost. Find them and make sure they are not harmed."
With that she turned her heel and stalked out, closely flanked by Captain Falcon and Snake, the latter of who looked slightly annoyed that he was taking commands from her.
The trail of blood was getting heavier now and a strange smell was assailing Joeb's nostrils. He knew the smell, had smelt it many times before. He tried to inhale deeply to calm his senses, but breathing slowly and deeply only made the smell more intense. His experiences in the army told him it was too late to save anyone at this point. He began to tremble violently.
It was Lynn who noticed his symptoms first. She could sense the way his mind was beginning to decline into insanity. She knew what it was, had read it in psychology books. They called it PTSD. Post traumatic stress disorder. It normally rendered a person a complete mess of violent emotions and sometimes they hallucinated, thinking they were still in the war.
"Are you alright?" she asked softly. Joeb looked at her, but in the dim light all she seemed to be was a ghostly apparition.
"No," he gasped. In his mind's eye, he could see war all around her with the stench of burning flesh taking up his senses. Gunfire, dust swirling everywhere coating everything and a blind panic creeping on him.
He blinked and the war was gone.
But the sweet, sickly stink of burning flesh remained. "He's already dead," he said, his voice level.
"What do you mean?" Ri asked fearfully. "How do you know?"
Joeb stared at the floor. There were claw marks of blood on the floor, as though the victim had tried so hard to escape his attacker. He closed his eyes, breathing in through his mouth to avoid the scent. "There's too much blood on the floor," he said. "But have you realized there have been no screams? Whimpers? Moans? There are no noises coming from him. He's dead, and judging by the temperature and smell, I know how he died."
Ri shivered. The truth was staring her straight in the face, but she didn't want to admit it. "Maybe they bound him up and gagged him," she whispered.
"No," Joeb said clearly. "The murderer had an intent to kill. He's dead. Can't you smell it? Can't you smell the burnt flesh?"
"You're saying he's been burnt alive in the boiler," Lynn stated bluntly. Ri flinched.
"That's exactly what I'm saying." He wiped the sweat from his face. It was boiling hot in here. "If he'd been put in there and if he was still alive he'd be screaming his face off. But he's not." He felt sick to his stomach but was careful not to show it. "Not anymore."
Ri let out a hastily stifled sob. "We don't know that yet," she protested. "We have to find them first."
Joeb didn't say anything. He was over thirty, but sometimes he still remembered how teenagers were. They all felt like they were invincible, like they could never die. Death was for older people. Wario couldn't have been older than twenty five.
He sighed and they continued forward. Ri tried to ignore how the claw marks suddenly became more insistent and then gradually stopped until the claw marks stopped. And then they finally reached the boiler, the smell at its strongest now. There was a burnt body just outside. It had been burnt so badly that it was hardly identifiable except for the fact that the person was extremely rotund and short and had been lain on the floor so that its back faced the air. A bright, shiny red apple had been forced into the body's mouth. He'd been dressed to look like a pig.
How sick was that? The serial killer definitely had a twisted sense of humor.
Ri whimpered and closed her eyes, turning away from the scene. It was an awful sight to her. Joeb patted her on the shoulder awkwardly. Lynn couldn't help but look at the scene with a sort of morbid fascination.
There was a message on the linoleum floor waiting for them. A message that was written in blood.
The writing, Lynn noticed with a faint sort of interest, was precise, almost like a font. It was different from the chaotic slashing that was instilled in Sean's chest.
DINNER IS SERVED.
Whaaattt? It's pretty easy to guess who the carcass belongs to. Thoughts? Originally, I wasn't going to post the last part, but I figured that you guys deserved it since I made you wait so long! Sorry! I was on vacation for about two and a half weeks in a place that had no computers, plus I'm working on other stuff.
While I'm on the subject of what I've been working on, go check out CEObrainz's "Everybody's Brawl"! Its a huge collaboration where many awesome writers have written a one-shot for each Smasher and the story of how they got into the Smash business. I had the honor of writing Captain Falcon and enjoyed it immensely! It's pretty long, as there are so many Smashers to cover, but each piece is truly unique and a work of art. So don't forget to check it out!
As always, if you have any concerns or criticisms, please don't hesitate to tell me as long as it's constructive. Thanks!