AN: Thanks for the reviews, faves, and follows! Here's the second chapter.
Felix immediately ran out into the hallway to dial 911 while Felicia ran onto the stage and went over to where Dustin lay. She pressed two fingers on his neck where his jugular vein would be, holding her breath while she waited for something, anything, maybe just a tiny thump, to indicate that he was still with them. At least his body was still warm. Soon, she felt a light pulse in his vein, and she let out a sigh of relief.
"He's still alive…weak, but alive…" She said, her voice quivering with the earlier fright. "Wright, come here and help me get these lights off him."
Trucy stood there like a deer in the headlights, too shocked to even move. It was almost like she was catatonic. As much as Felicia didn't want to leave Dustin's side, she couldn't help him by herself, so she quickly went over to Trucy and laid a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm sure whatever you saw really scared you, but Dustin's breathing and right now I need you to help me get him out from that mess before he gets any worse!"
Trucy's mind clicked, and she started to think over Felicia's words and the situation altogether. If Dustin made it out alive, then everyone would look past this accident and he would recover. Most importantly, she wouldn't get in trouble for rocking the ladder, which could have ultimately ended his life. She'd rather be responsible for hurting him than killing him, after all. Maybe he wouldn't even remember that she made him fall. As long as Dustin pulled through, everything would be alright.
Without saying anything, Trucy nodded and she and Felicia made a beeline towards the fallen teenager. Felicia noticed that Trucy was acting very odd this whole time; all of her movements seemed entirely mechanic. There was fear in her eyes, but her expression overall was totally blank. Whatever she had witnessed must have been too horrific for her young, innocent mind to comprehend.
The weight of the battens was almost too much for the young girls to handle, but their willpower was enough to drive their strength and drag the heavy pieces of equipment off of Dustin's body. The boy coughed up dust and let out a weak moan in response before going completely still again. Felicia was at his side in an instant.
"Hang in there, Dustin!" She cried. "You'll be okay, just keep holding on until help arrives!"
At that moment, Felix ran back into the auditorium, his face pale and sweaty. "EMTs are on the way. They should be here any minute now."
"Great. I'll wait for them outside. Felix, Trucy, keep an eye on Dustin."
Again, Trucy didn't say anything, just staying where she was with her eyes glued to the ground. Felix eyed her curiously before going over to the stage and looking at the gravely injured teenager. As he stood there, he noticed a nagging feeling in the back of his mind as he thought about the moments leading up to all of this. Dustin and Trucy arguing, Dustin falling off a ladder, Trucy being the only one in there at the time…when he realized what he was thinking about, he quickly shut his mind off, unable to dwell on it further. He couldn't suspect Trucy…could he? Even still, he pulled out his cell phone and snapped a picture of the scene before him, just in case. Trucy didn't notice anything.
About five minutes passed before paramedics and the police finally arrived. They hastily burst through the doors of the auditorium, rushing towards the stage with a gurney in tow. Felix and Trucy immediately got out of the way as they watched the EMTs begin to treat Dustin, a wave of concern passing over them when they saw them doing CPR. Trucy was once again filled with the gut-gnawing fear as she watched them desperately try to resuscitate him, knowing that if he died now, then…it would be by her hands.
But…it was just a prank!
She was so caught up in her feelings that she didn't notice one of the police trying to get her attention until she was tapped on the shoulder. The young magician looked up, her eyes widening when she recognized the person who was trying to talk to her.
"Ms. Skye!"
Ema smiled friendly down at the young girl, but Trucy could still perceive the seriousness and concern in her eyes. She hoped to high heaven that the concern wasn't for her, but she couldn't deny that that was most likely the case.
"Hey, Truce. You seem out of it." Ema remarked, her smile fading as she lightly gripped the younger girl's shoulder. "Why don't we go out into the hall?"
Trucy couldn't bring herself to give Ema one of her cheerful grins, so she just nodded solemnly and allowed the detective to guide her out of the auditorium where Felicia and Felix were waiting. Before they could walk out of the door, someone hollered out to them.
"Ema!"
Trucy tilted her head in confusion upon seeing the person who just called. "Who's she?"
"Ah, you haven't met her." Ema motioned for the woman to come over. "Trucy, this is my older sister, Lana. She just got a job at the precinct. Lana, this is Trucy. She's Mr. Wright's daughter."
Lana smiled as she extended her hand towards the young magician. "A pleasure to meet you. Ema's told me a lot about you."
Trucy forced herself to return the smile as she weakly shook the woman's hand. "It's nice to meet you too." For some reason, Lana's military clothing was enough to make her look intimidating, and Trucy wanted nothing more than to curl up in a corner and go unnoticed.
Ema noticed how unusually quiet Trucy was being, but decided not to bring it up. "So, Lana. You called?"
At this, Lana's expression grew more serious as she shook her head yes. "I need to speak with you…alone."
"Okay." Ema turned to Trucy. "Can you wait for me outside? I have some things I'd like to ask you and your classmates."
Trucy visibly paled, but said nothing as she obediently went out to the hall, leaving both sisters alone.
Wonder what's gotten into her. I've never seen her this shaken up before. Ema sighed before turning to her sister. "Alright, Lana. What's up?"
"It's the boy." Lana spoke gravely as she indicated to the scene. The paramedics had abandoned treating Dustin and were now conversing with the police officers. "He couldn't be revived."
Ema tried not to let the shock appear on her face. Stifling her emotions, she asked in a professional tone, "Time of death?"
"5:03. They're going to determine the cause back at the city morgue. But…there's something else I need to discuss with you."
"Let me hear it."
"I know it's been a while since I've been in the investigation field, but my detective senses haven't let me down yet. When I was looking at the scene, I started to get this strange feeling that something was not right about all of this...almost as if there was foul play involved."
"What do you mean? You think he's…"
Lana acknowledged Ema's thoughts before she could even speak them, uttering in a low voice, "I think that…this was no accident."
Felicia, Felix, and Trucy were waiting in the hallway outside the auditorium. After being in such a chaotic event, the three of them wanted nothing more than to go home and actually do their homework. Anything to get their mind off of everything that had happened just now. After a few more minutes of standing around in silence had passed, the doors to the auditorium opened and Ema walked out, a grim expression on her face. Trucy's face fell as she felt her stomach drop while Felicia was quick to cut to the chase.
"How's Dustin?!" She cried. "Will he be okay?"
Ema stifled a depressed sigh as she slowly shook her head. "I'm sorry…"
Those two words and Ema's low tone of voice was enough to drive it all home for them. Felicia brought a hand up to her mouth, Felix's skin complexion visibly paled, and Trucy gave off the slightest flinch at the news. It was so hard to believe that Dustin, the kid they've been working with for five weeks and was alive only a few hours ago, was gone. Not one of them could find it in themselves to believe it. Ema uneasily cleared her throat to get their attentions, as she still had one more job to do.
"I understand that this is hard for you, dealing with the loss of your fellow classmate, but I need to know what happened. Can you tell me what you know?"
Conflicting emotions swelled within Trucy's mind. She knew that she had to obey the law and tell the authorities everything, but part of her was afraid that she would be blamed for Dustin's death. Yes, she slightly jiggled the ladder, but she didn't mean any harm towards the boy! In fact, the shake was so light that he shouldn't have fallen off anyways. But still…Felicia and Felix saw everything. She knew that if she kept quiet, then one of them would be bound to say something. Maybe if she spoke up now, she wouldn't be in that much trouble if she just came clean with the truth. Besides, she had a personal connection with Ema. If she told the detective her intentions, Ema would probably believe her and vouch for her in court. It had to work.
She made her decision. She was going to tell. However, when Trucy opened her mouth to reveal everything, she suddenly couldn't find her voice and words couldn't come out. Just the sight of the handcuffs that were dangling from Ema's lab coat pockets was enough to scare her into silence, and she couldn't go through with it after all. She tried to ignore Ema's gaze on her, but it felt like it was burrowing into her soul, digging up all the secrets that she was trying so hard to keep hidden. She couldn't take this…she needed to get out of there and get some fresh air. She felt like she was suffocating.
"Well…" The shaky voice of Felix caught everyone's attention. "My…my sister and I came back from the storage room, and…Wright was…"
Here it was. She was going to be ratted out by her classmate. Trucy closed her eyes, waiting for everything to be brought to light.
"The ladder was unstable."
The magician's eyelids shot wide open. In that instant before the reveal, Felicia cut her brother off with her own words, and she realized what the older teen was doing. She was trying to cover for her! Even Felix was staring confused at what she had just said.
Felicia ignored their stares and continued, "I left Trucy to work on the backdrop as Dustin was changing a light bulb while Felix and I went to the storage room to get more paint. When we came back, Dustin already had the ladder out and was leaning over to take the bulb out. I warned him to be careful because the ladder was wobbling, but he didn't listen. Next thing I know…the ladder gave out from underneath his feet and…he fell."
The way she explained everything without choking or stuttering was so convincing, even Trucy was starting to believe that had actually went down. Ema nodded as she wrote all of this down on a pad of paper.
"And what about the stage battens? How did they fall?" She asked.
At this point, Felicia looked like she didn't know what to say. Not one of them did. The sets of lights should have been securely suspended in the air by their cords, but they wouldn't know because they weren't on the lighting crew. Suddenly, Felicia came up with an excuse that sounded plausible, "When the ladder fell, Dustin tried grabbing onto the light sets to hang on, but I don't think those things were enough to support his weight so the cords snapped. But we're not experienced with lighting so we're not sure how reliable the cords were. You'll have to talk with our friend Eric Conway, but he's out right now."
"Gotcha." Even though Ema appeared to be penning the information down like she was supposed to, something was actually pestering the young detective as she took notes. With the way Felicia described everything, it sounded just like an unfortunate accident. But then there were her sister's words…
…Something was not right about all of this…almost as if there was foul play involved.
"And you're sure that's what happened. Nothing else to add?" Ema inquired sternly, trying to keep her voice steady as she could.
Felicia nodded her head confidently. "There's no more to say. That's what we saw. Right, Felix?"
Felix looked visibly uncomfortable to be put on the spot by his sister like that, especially when he knew his sister had just lied in front of a detective! Part of him wanted to disagree and give an explanation about what he saw, the real truth, but he caught onto that tone in Felicia's voice and reluctantly agreed.
"Yes." He whispered. "That's what happened."
Ema looked at them for a long time, attempting to see if she could catch any strange behavior coming from them to prove that they were lying. When she saw none, she just sighed and pocketed her notes away.
Apollo would have this in the bag, I'm sure, but it's not like I don't have any reason not to trust them. It's been years since Lana's done any detective work after coming out of prison. Being back on the force probably excited her nerves a bit. Yeah…that's probably it.
"Very well then, thank you for your time."
"That's it?" Felicia asked.
"That's it. I suggest you go home and get some rest. I'm sure this has been very stressing for you."
More than you can imagine. Trucy thought. She still couldn't believe that Felicia and Felix out right lied to Ema about the events surrounding Dustin's death…all to protect her. It was almost too surreal…
"C'mon, Trucy." Felicia said, immediately snapping her out of her daze. "You're coming home with us today, remember?"
"Oh yeah…uh, right…" Another lie, but it wasn't like they would get in trouble for that one. Besides, Felicia was offering her a ride home, and at this point Trucy definitely wanted to leave the school right now rather than waiting for Phoenix to come and pick her up. The trio exited the building and headed towards the parking lot when they heard someone call out to them.
"Felicia!"
All three simultaneously turned to see Deacon and Eric running towards them, carrying a small box. Both boys were frantic, as they probably noticed all of the police cars and the ambulance parked outside the school.
"We got the bulb!" Deacon announced, pointing to the box in Eric's hand. "But what happened here? Why are there cops and all that?"
"Nothing." Felicia curtly replied. "Look, guys, just go home."
"But we just got here…" Eric started, but Felicia glaring at him prompted him to stop.
"Now!"
Deacon and Eric yelped at her sudden change in voice, but quickly nodded as they ran back to Deacon's car, instantly forgetting about the bulb that needed to be changed. Felicia looked back at her brother and Trucy before indicating for them to follow her to her car. They quickly obeyed.
The ride from the school to the Wright Anything Agency was dead silent as not one of them wanted to talk about the accident, nor the lies they had told to cover for Trucy. Even still, as Trucy gazed out the window at the blur of buildings passing by, she couldn't help but feel sick about all of this. Now she was wishing she could get her service hours another way; she'd gladly give up a few weekends to go do volunteer work anywhere instead of working on that blasted stage with a short-tempered senior, who angered her and basically prompted her to make him fall. All of this could have easily been avoided…it just wasn't fair!
As she continued to stare out the car window, a hazy image flashed in front of her. She raised her eyebrow as she rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn't merely seeing things. When she opened her eyelids again, that was when…she saw it. Just the sight of it made her blood run cold and her breath catch in her throat. What she saw, in that moment, was a bloody stepladder.