Zack stared at the water, still tinted red with blood. It was unfathomable that someone had killed her. It wasn't right- they couldn't…he couldn't..
He felt a gentle touch to his arm, and was tempted to let his face fall into the shoulder until he realized that it wasn't Bailey's ghost, but Maya. Still, she was terrified, and they were some of the last here, refusing to leave.
Bailey had been their friend. For Zack? Oh so much more.
"Sleep. You all need sleep." Mr. Mosby was trying to insist to Cody, who was just staring blankly at the spot where they'd hauled her away.
"I can't. I can't." He shook his head vigorously, "Don't you understand? She was mine! And I was hers…" Zack frowned deeply, and his eyes shifted to find the floating face in the cloud. Bailey, her ghost, was sitting on the far side, head in her hands while a fellow ghost, Camden, rubbed her arms.
It sparked a little jealously in his heart, but he understood that those two were on a different plane of being now, and not to get between a much needed understanding and friendship. Mosby was still trying to urge them away.
"Then go and sit in your rooms. Try at least. Classes are cancelled for tomorrow and we'll be stopping in Florida in two weeks, to give her parents the body." Mosby said, "Now come all." He said, and pushed the group of teens outside. Bailey looked over at him, gave him a sad smile, and motioned for him to go. He had no doubt she'd be there later.
In his room alone, Zack broke down. He had never cried so hard in his life, and the emptiness of his dorm room seemed to reach on for miles. There was no one here, no one but him. His hands were shaking and his body quaked with heavy tremors. Was this what a broken heart felt like? Was this what it meant to lose someone?
If he stood quietly, he could hear his twin on the other side of the hall, quietly blubbering into his pillow. In fact, he was certain any walk down the hall would be filled with sorrow. People had liked Bailey. She had been…good. She was kind, and smart, and funny. She was going to do something with her life, get out of the social norms and be someone. Her name was going to be in magazines or billboards or in Forbes. She was going to help those in need, she was going to solve world hunger and bring world peace. That was she was going to do.
If she hadn't died.
It wasn't fair; she was most deserving of life, and yet he was the one left with a cold bed and icy bones that couldn't have moved him from his bed at all.
There was a pressure to his left, and since his door had not been opened, it was undoubtedly Bailey.
"It's not fair." He growled, rubbing the backs of his eyes, and blinking away the tears.
"Nothing's fair." She murmured.
"I should have died, if anyone. My own brother thinks he'll be bailing me out of jail one day, and I'll just waste my life away. But you…you…" He became choked up again, and Bailey used her thumb to wipe away a lone tear-drop.
"Oh…" She just sighed, and Zack dropped back onto his bed, and pulled her close. He inhailed her hair, and wished that it wasn't only her appiration that he was feeling.
"Cody's devastated." Bailey said mournfully.
"He realized he really loved you." Zack replied stiffly, "Too late."
"I still love a part of him. I feel bad being here now, though." She admitted, "But he doesn't see me…and he wouldn't understand. He's logical…ghosts are not logical."
"I wish you could be mine." Zack said, overwhelmed by the emotions he felt for the small girl.
"I wish that too."
There was a buzz from his phone across the room, and grudgingly he got up, wondering if it was his brother, who need someone to talk to.
It was Maya.
On my way over. I'm not being alone 2nite.
Zack must have pulled a face because Bailey wandered over, and asked what's wrong.
"I can't. I have to tell her that I need to be alone. That sounds reasonable, right?" His fingers were about to type a reply, when Bailey stopped him.
"No. Zack, she's still alive. I'm not. Take care of her first…I'm beyond help." She insisted.
"But…but…"
"She's still your girlfriend. I died on her birthday…don't make it worse by breaking up with her." She pointed out.
"God, Bailey." Zack leaned into her, resting his forhead on hers, "What do I do after? When I want to be with you?"
"Zack…I'm dead. What do you really expect to happen with us? What happens if I one day just…poof?"
"I don't know, but I do know that I don't care. I feel like this is my second chance to have you." He insisted.
"Stay with Maya." Bailey said, "Besides, Camden offered to show me all the perks of being dead." She paused, "If that isn't a contradiction in itself."
But she didn't go off with Camden. She floated next door to where Cody was. Cody sat in his room with all the lights off, crying on his bed. His fingers fisted in his hair, the palms of his hands burying deep into his eyes to hide his face as his elbows rested on his knees. This was the look of a broken man.
Bailey sat directly across from him, and watched the tear drops pitter patter to the floor. She didn't know where Woody was, but she was glad it was anywhere but here. She reached out to touch him, but her fingers fell through his arms, reminding her of the wall between them.
"Oh Cody. Once I really loved you. I still love you, just not…anymore." She whispered.
She swam in those early days on the ship, when she had been sure that they were going to get married, go to Harvard or Yale, graduate and have awesome world-changing jobs and produce the smartest kids of the age. She was convinced Cody was hers. He was the sort of quite sentimental guy that was the exact opposite of Moose, the only man she'd ever known. He cooked, he cleaned, he cared about things that guys didn't care about and Bailey was enamored.
Maybe she didn't mean to fight with him like she did. Maybe she had left too quickly, and they could have been great together. Lord knows she wouldn't have died had she not fought with him and been in that place at that time.
Or would she? She liked to imagine that perhaps she was just another victim, randomly chosen. Yet, that was hard to imagine that on some level, the was just another person. Everyone had some connection, but she just couldn't figure it out yet. But if she didn't soon, it may be Cody or Zack next. Either was too heartbreaking to imagine.
Zach was a different kind of love. He showed her that there wasn't just two guys- the Mooses and the Cody's. There were the tortured ones that wore masks, that really did care but only to a few. He was loyal and cunning and made her laugh more than Cody ever did. And it had come out of something so horrible- someone's death, but over the past few months she had fallen inexplicably in love with Zachary Martin in a way she could have never loved Cody. Now that she thought about it, her whole prior imagination with Cody was deeply flawed.
She had seen the likes of her and Cody together, two utterly similar people, and all they did was fight so why would they be any different? Why would they, of all people, make it while countless others had not?
Maybe that's why Cody couldn't see her. She didn't believe in him anymore like she did with Zack. But oh, did she ever wish she could. She wanted to provide her once lover with the final goodbye that he never got. To sooth his soul.
Now that she thought about it, he would live forever knowing he never apologized to her. The guilt would eat him away, and Bailey felt her whole body convulse. What a horrible way to live, in guilt and shame everyday.
She did the one thing she could. Went back to Zack's room, where she was solid (the lights were off here too and Maya was wrapped around Zack in his bed. She felt no jealousy, she knew he loved her) and write 'I forgive you' on a post it note. With great effort she used everything she could to stay corporal and stick it in the bedside table of Cody's room. She hoped he would find it and assume she'd left it there after their fight, and that he would understand.
It had been a stupid fight to begin with anyway.
The note jolted in front of her face scared her more than a voice speaking in the darkness.
Sitting here won't reverse time or make him see you.
She turned around to see Camden, who gave her a sad smile.
"I know. I just wanted to be with him, even if he'll never know. Once I made him a promise that I would always be with him. If I can't with love anymore, I hope he knows in this spirit I still am." The words sounded foolish to her ears, but she just let them all spill out. His smile turned sympathetic, but he led her away because this place was like poison to her.
He took her to Splinter's room, where Splinter and Sophie waited.
"Bailey! I'd say I was glad to see you here…but I'd be lying." He whispered.
"The amount of ghosts on the ship is growing." Sophie whispered sullenly, bowing her head.
"Where was she Camden? With Zack?"
Cody.
Splinter's eyebrows raised in surprise, but Bailey shook her head. "He can't…see me." Saying it out loud solidified her previous thought that they were not meant to end up together.
"Oh." Splinter said, relaxing a bit, "I am sorry." He murmured.
"It's okay…I had just hoped…" She sighed, "Never mind."
"What is the whole who can see ghost criteria?" Sophie wondered out loud, "I would imagine with the connection you two had, Cody should have been able to see you. That's what I thought it was, right- the strength of a connection. I mean, I loved Gemma like a sister and Splinter hated Camden with a ton of passion…"
Her words did make a good point.
"And how to ghosts connect to people. If it was the strength, then shouldn't Gemma be with you?"
"Yeah, I know I was the last one to see her alive. I thought maybe it was the first one to find them, and I was also the first one to find her, but yet…well I've only seen her once. I feel like she'd avoiding me." Sophie frowned, "Maybe she thinks I'm mad at her for…killing herself."
"We know it's not that." Splinter patted her shoulders, "Whoever killed her killed Camden and Bailey now too. It's a serial killer."
"But what's the motive?" Bailey asked, "I think it's fair to want to know why I was killed!" She objected loudly. Camden nodded in vigorous agreement.
Splinter sighed.
"I don't know." He murmured, "I wish I had answers and trust me, it's killing me- wait, bad word choice- really bugging me that I'm alive and I can't figure it out." He looked out of the porthole and frowned deeply.
"It could be anyone, and anyone could be killed." Sophie whispered the words that Splinter refused to say, and Splinter hung his head in sorrow.
The next morning, the class gathered in the auditorium where Mr. Mosby wrung his hands as he stood at the podium.
"If you haven't already guessed, the game of assassin is done. We will attempt to continue with the school year the best we can as exams are still approaching, and put some normality back into your lives. Bailey Pickett's funeral will be off ship the next time we dock, if anyone would like to attend." He said, and his hands shook.
Everyone knew that he found Bailey to be special, along with her friends. Perhaps to him, it was like loosing a daughter. If only he knew that there were two others that suffered the same fate she did, but for now, those were lost souls.
Zack did not see Bailey all day.
He figured she was trying to let him be with Maya in how he had to be, and to not make him too sad by watching her float around a foot above the ground.
In reality, it made things difficult. He wanted to end things with Maya, but she was a wreck. Maybe her and Bailey had only been friends through the shared title of a Martin Significant Other, but he never knew she cared this much.
And he couldn't say that he needed to be alone, because alone was the last thing he needed to be, because he feared the growing darkness within him to break free of his good sense lest he be left to his own devices.
Already, when he went to the bathroom he noted the sharp edge of the razor just within his reach, and left abruptly without ever actually going because that was just one moment, and a few more could be deadly.
He didn't even know if he'd come back as a ghost, yet so far it was 3 for 3 on this ship.
At around lunch time, it seemed all the students on board all meandered toward the same place. No one wanted to be alone, but at the same time, no one wanted to admit they were frightened. It just got real. It wasn't squirt guns with red paint in it anymore, it wasn't little humorous notes underneath sandwiches, or quickly thrown wet socks through the halls, a girl had drowned violently. A kind girl that most of them had known. And it made people wonder…what did Bailey Pickett do that they didn't know about to get her killed? Was it that she was a nice girl and good girls always die first? Or was she doing something secretly that no one knew about.
It made Zack sickened. Bailey was pure. She was like a magical goddess capable of doing no wrong. How dare they insult her like that? How dare they question her, spew lies about her and degrade her name before she's even cold in the ground? It made Zack hate his schoolmates.
It seemed to anger Maya, who listened intently, although her face stayed impassive. Zack knew she wouldn't have been listening unless she found it disturbing as well.
"Don't listen to them. Bailey was good. They don't know her like us." Zack said with comfort, placing a hand over hers. She jumped and looked at him, eyes wild and wide. She paused, as if digesting.
"Yes, I know."
She was jumpy today, although Zack saw nothing out of the ordinary for such an event. Hell, he was jumpy too! Everyone was on their toes.
Maya jerked again when her name was called across the table where a group of girls were sitting. She kissed Zack on the cheek, and excused herself quietly. Zack understood. He shouldn't push her to stay, not when he was trying to slowly distance himself. Also, these were her friends. And everyone needed their friends now.
Speaking of, Splinter, Cody, Woody, London, and Addison sat with him. It had been ages since the group of them, minus Splinter, were all sitting with each other. There was an empty space though.
"It should be Bailey." London said, "She was…my only friend." She admitted, and Zack felt no offence taken. He loved London like a sister, but it was exhausting to be her best friend.
"Although she was obsessed with something in the final days. She kept writing in this journal, over and over. She had a lot of those stupid mystery who dun it books with her. It was weird." She went on, "Maybe-," London suddenly feel silent, "Never mind. Of course she wouldn't have."
Splinter and Zack locked eyes. Maybe she had been killed because she knew something. Something that could be important.
"Can we see that notebook, London?" Zack asked, "I'm just curious." Cody gave him a strange look, and he sighed, "Fine you wanna know the truth? She was helping me with my English final, which was a mystery book. I mean, not to be rude, but I do want to see those notes."
"Could you be any more insensitive?" Cody thundered suddenly, rocketing over the table, "She's been dead less than a day an you're worried about her not being able to help you with school?" He asked, venom seeping into every word.
"Dude, I need to pass!" Zack knew he sounded like the biggest asshole of the whole class, but he needed to see those notes.
Cody huffed and sputtered, unable to form words, and London cut in nervously.
"It seemed like she was putting a lot of effort into those, Cody. Maybe she'd want Zack to have them?" She offered. For once in her life, London actually made a point that made Cody stop and stare at her. Something clicked within him, and he sat back down.
"Right, right. I'm sorry, bro. I'm just so…so…" He stared at his hands, "I thought I saw her in my room last night. All last night. Like a ghost. But I'm just tired and angry and depressed."
Addison gave a little cooing noise and patted Cody on the back. "It's going to get better." She promised, rubbing circles with her thumb. Cody, bent his head, and used his arms to shield his face. London picked up her bagel, and stood.
"We may as well look now." She shrugged, "I have a manicure for the funeral soon."
Zack heard a snippet of the girl's table conversation. They were all crying with a whole truck-load of tissue boxes between them.
"It's all my fault!" Kennedy was crying, which caused Zack to slow down to hear the rest of her explanation, "I was the one who took that damn picture at the games so long ago. I had sent it to Gemma between girls, just for fun! And I cheated on Splinter with Camden and now he's vanished! His family hasn't heard from him and he's not here and I think the same person that killed Bailey got to him too!" She cried, "I'm so afraid." She said weakly, and all the girls rushed to comfort her.
Zack gnawed on her words while she walked. It had begun with the photo. Of him and Splinter. And hateful words that clearly showed that teenagers believed anything that was written alongside pictures of Kim Kardashian. He'd heard all about the night Camden was killed and leading up to it. How Camden and Splinter had got in a little discussion about Kennedy's rendezvous and the next day Camden had been killed…it was all fitting together now that she said that. Things were stringing up like Christmas lights, although not all the bulbs were lit.
There were still things Zack didn't understand.
He also worried about Kennedy going to Mosby, or Camden's family. Bailey had never told them what happened to Camden exactly, so he wasn't sure how good her tracks were covered. Then he realized they would lead back to a dead girl, and that didn't make him feel any better.
The door was already open to their room when Zack arrived.
"London, do you always keep this open?" He asked warily.
"Mhh, the door? Yeah, you see I lost my key and it's a lot easier to never close it than go down to the desk and get another." She said.
"Don't you worry about people stealing things?" Splinter frowned.
"What the heck would they want to steal of Bailey's? And my clothes? So yesterday anyway." She shrugged nonchalantly.
She sighed, putting her hands on her hips and shrugged, "I don't know where the notebook was. I don't really care either. I'm going to go to my manicure now." She said, grabbing her purse as she left.
Splinter and Cody looked at each other.
"Backpack?" Splinter gave an educated guess, and picked up her satchel bag. While he was rummaging through her bag, Zack went and sat on her bed. It was a little creepy, but he took her pillow and inhaled deeply. So what if she was still a ghost, she was right…one day she may just…poof. And gone.
He wished he could linger in her smell forever, rustic and earthy but yet still feminine. He sighed contently, and for a horribly teenager boy moment, wondered if anyone would notice if he took one of her pant-no!
"Zack, if you're done getting high on her pillows, I may have found it." He said, pulling out an untitled notebook that for the first couple pages were blank. Then, it was a list of everyone and how they died, where they found them, who was there. Cross lists and everything…but there were pages missing. Zack carefully looked at the binding of the college bound notebook.
"They were torn." He deduced. He looked at the open door, "Either Bailey took them because she really was onto something, or someone beat us here." He said, frowning, "Think we could hack into the school's cameras?" He asked.
"London had them removed from her hallway because she was worried about the alien attacks, remember?" Splinter reminded wearily, "It wouldn't be worth it."
"Damn it. I was the one who scared her about the aliens in the firs place. Seriously regretting that now." He mourned.
"Well it's not like Bailey isn't just floating around. We can ask her if she took them. We don't have to go raiding her corpse." Splinter rolled his eyes. Zack gave a visible wince.
"Don't say that." He muttered, "Not like that."
"What? Corpse?" Splinter gave him a look, "She's dead. How else should I say it?"
"Just don't then." Zack snapped uncharacteristically.
Splinter raised his hands in a defensive motion, but stood. "There's nothing more that's of use to us. Let's go and find her." He said.
Zack was happy to follow him.
Far away, Sophie was once again minding her own bees-wax when a Martin twin appeared to her. She saw the blond hair and the lanky figure and sighed.
"Zack," She began but frowned, "Oh, Cody?" She frowned.
"Sophie, Sophie…" The smarter twin said, with a little hiccup, and stood over her, but his figure swayed.
"Are you…drunk?" She pushed her glasses down to gaze at him over the top of them, and gave a hiss of disgust.
"Little." He said, and sat down, "I didn't mean to get drunk, but I don't know my limits. That's Zack's expertise." He said.
"Oh." She sighed, "Are you here to tell me that? Torture the first person you see? I need to change my place I read on this ship."
"I want to ask about Gemma." He said. Sophie snapped her book shut angrily.
"Not you too." She said, "What is it with the Martins and not letting things go?" She asked.
"Huh?" She realized that Cody had no idea his twin had paid her a visit not long ago, or that she was friends with him whatsoever. To be honest, it was tiring answering the same questions to everyone.
"Nevermind." She sighed, "Ask me." Cody was drunk and the sooner he got his answers the sooner he would leave. She didn't want to know what shady connections he had or how much he begged and weeped or whatever, but she found it pathetic. Her best friend died, and she just had to sit and act like nothing had happened. Besides, Cody and Bailey were in an ending relationship anyway. She knew one when she saw one. It was hard, but it's not like the two were madly in love anymore.
"I think there's a killer on this ship. And they killed Gemma too." He said outright, which, it wasn't a question, but it caught Sophie by surprise. She recovered quickly.
"She killed herself, Cody." She reminded him.
"Nuh-uh. Don't believe it." He said, "I was really thinking about it, and I don't think it's true."
"Why…if I may ask?" She said, and was even more tense at his outburst.
"I just…I don't know." He replied with a tinge of embarrassment, "But I might be thinking about it too much. I thought I saw her just now- did you know?"
Sophie let out a half-choke, half-laugh. "That's crazy." She said, her throat dry and hollow.
"You don't sound convinced." He said, looking at her. She sucked in a hard breath.
"She's dead. She wouldn't be walking around." She insisted firmly, and Cody giggled.
"I know you're lying. But I won't tell anyone you see dead people."
Sophie's lips pressed into a firm line. "Are you done?" She asked, "I'm in no mood for jokes, if you can imagine."
Cody seemed to sober, and he sighed. "Okay, fine. I just don't want to be alone. I thought…you…of all people…could understand?" He asked.
Sophie looked at him, and he seemed a little deflated after admitting such things, an little more childish. His body shook, and he frowned shaking his head. Sophie had been able to go to no one after Gemma died. No one knew what it felt like, and most said nasty things about her best friend for committing suicide. It was lonely. Only after finding that things weren't as normal as it seemed, she found herself not alone anymore. Not with Splinter, Zack, Bailey, and Camden. She knew the feeling all too well.
"You're right." She said. She could be a good person and be here for a guy who had never been anything but nice to her, "Let's get some ice-cream." She said.
Cody started.
"But it's closed."
Sophie sighed. She couldn't believe she was doing this, but it was past the point of hiding things. She held up a key. "I may or may not have copied the key from when I worked there." She said and Cody balked. Then, he smiled.
Farther away even still was Bailey, as a ghost, floating around almost freely. She was going to figure out who killed her and Camden and Gemma gosh darn it, now that she had nothing else to do. Camden had shrugged when she asked if he wanted to join, and seemed a little too relaxed about the whole thing now.
"You were killed. Murdered. Painfully." She said, frowning, "And you don't want to know who it is?"
Whoever this guy is, he's crazy. What if he can see us too? And kills more people because we're poking around?
"What if he kills someone either way?" Bailey pointed out, and Camden gave a slow shrug.
"Fine. I'll look myself." She said firmly.
She went around the whole ship. She of course had some ideas, but nothing concrete about anything at all. She had to think. Why was everyone killed?
There was a clattering pan from behind her, and she turned to see Godrick staring at her wide-eyed, a pan of noodles now on the carpet. She tried to float away slowly, but he shook his head.
"Bailey?" He asked.
She started floating through a wall, but found that she could not morph through easily. Crap, he really could see her.
"Hi, Godrick." She greeted with a wince, "So, uh, do you by chance see any other ghosts in your life?" She asked.
"My grandmother but-woah." He squinted, "I thought I was crazy."
"Most do." She said, and now that he was around, walked and grabbed his hand, leading him to a near-by table. Easier to tell him everything than ignore this.
"Look. Camden and Gemma are floating around too. Sophie, Splinter, and Zack can see us." She said with a flip of her hair, "And now you can. I'm surprised you haven't seen Camden. He's not exactly the most conspicuous ghost."
"I thought I saw him once, but it was two A.M." He confirmed, "So, any idea who killed you three?" He asked.
"Don't you mean two?" She asked.
"If all three of you are still around, that means that you're waiting for a release or vengeance. Those that commit suicide come back, but not as real people, but as bad energy. So I've heard." He shrugged, and he took out a sheet, "So- what do we know?"
"Uhh…" Bailey paused, looking at him. He looked up, and frowned.
"My father's a politician. My mother tracks people down. I live by facts and finding things." He said, "Now, chop-chop."
Bailey re-told everything she knew, but left out the parts about her and Zack, because Godrick- the kid she hardly knew- didn't need to know that.
"Three is hardly serial killer, but it's bad. Too bad I don't think it's enough to figure anything out yet." He said, sucking on the end of his pen, "But I agree. Reina is for sure a very guilty looking person at the moment."
"Maybe we should find her and ask her some questions? Or you, since she shouldn't be able to see me?"
"Quite right." He said, and stuck a pen behind his ear, "Where's her room?" He asked.
"It's down that way," Bailey said-pointing to the left, "But every Wednesday, her and Kennedy watch bad movies with popcorn in Kennedy's room." She supplied, "I was invited to one once or twice." She admitted, smiling at what seemed to be a fond memory.
They were half-way there when Bailey stopped Godrick. There was a crumpled figure in the middle of the hall. Godrick pushed past Bailey though, and nudged it with his foot. The figure slumped onto it's back, and the still eyes of Reina stared back.
Bailey stifled a shriek. Godrick was on the ground and immediately pushed two fingers against her neck.
"My god, she's still breathing. But it looks like she threw something up and she's foaming at the mouth." He reported quickly, more to himself. With strength he, grabbed her in his arms and began to run.
"Check on Kennedy!" He yelled back to Bailey who was shaking hard, but she nodded. IT took her good couple moments to regain herself. She sort of hated Reina because of what her and Cody may or may not have, but she didn't want her dead!
In Kennedy's room, a movie played in the background, still spinning, and there was the thick smell of freshly-popped popcorn, but no Kennedy. The bathroom door, however, was closed and locked. Bailey tried to knock, but her fingers went through the wood, so she braced herself and floated through.
Kennedy was on the floor too, but one look at her told Bailey that she was for sure dead. Her blond hair was spread out on the tile floor like a halo, and he eyes were glassy. There was vomit in the toilet and the same foam around her mouth, and it seems as she collapsed hard, because there was a slow forming puddle of blood beneath her head. Bailey couldn't be sure if it was whatever she was throwing up that had killed her, or the fall.
Sick to her stomach herself, Bailey floated back out and noticed a half-drunk bottle of wine on the bedside table. It wasn't the cheap stuff either, but five-star restaurant quality. One wine glass was almost empty, but there were remnants that a whole glass had been downed. The second glass was near the door, and there was only a little at the bottom, as if someone was just simply sampling a little.
Bailey didn't have to touch; smell, or guess to know the wine had been poisoned. As she figured it, Kennedy had taken a whole glass, and went into the bathroom saying she felt sick. Reina, who probably heard her friend retching and then silence after a thud, had gone to get help, after tasting the wine to see if that's what had her friend sick.
Which was stupid, true, and a chef like Reina should have known better than to taste something like that. But when in tense situations, people did a lot of stupid things.
They had found Reina about four doors down from the bedroom. Maybe it was because she hadn't drunk as much, or maybe because she forced herself to barf it up, but she was alive and that's what mattered.
She sat and waited, because it wasn't long until Godrick and Mr. Mosby burst into the room. Godrick slyly looked at Bailey who pointed to the bathroom door and the wine bottle and drinks. She saw connections go off in Godrick's head, and he pointed the locked door out to Mosby.
Bailey left right after, not wanting to be around to see another death, because it reminded her all too violently of her own demise. She wondered if Kennedy would return as a ghost, and to whom, and where?
Godrick followed her out, and caught her hand. "Reina's alive. She had poison. The wine. The doctor says she'll be up soon, but not to bug her."
"We have to know, though! It's not just coincidence." Bailey said.
"I know. Let's go and see. Maybe Kennedy's ghost will be with her, because, you know-connections." He shrugged.
The hospital area was of course dark and being guarded by a hawk-eyed woman. Bailey looked in, and saw Reina sitting in the darkness, and nodded to Godrick. The two slinked in and Godrick carefully approached Reina's bed.
"Hey, how are you?" He whispered. Reina looked up and smiled.
"They say you found me." She whispered and bit her lip, "I can't…thank you enough."
"Don't thank me yet." Godrick said, a shadow covering his face as he bowed his head. Reina gripped the side of the bed.
"Oh, no. Kennedy. She was vomiting and she was moaning and everything and then she wouldn't answer me. I had a sip of my wine, I mean, I don't like it much to begin with but I thought I was going to have to break open the door or something. I felt sick so I ran…and she…"
Godrick pursed his lips into each other so that it didn't look like he had lips at all. Reina gave a strangled cry, and shook her head.
"No!" She whispered, "No, no…"
"Hey, calm down." Godrick grabbed her arm, "I'm not supposed to be in here, but you need to tell me now who gave you that wine." He said.
"It was a guh-gift." Reina trembled.
"From who?" He pressed.
Reina licked her lips, "Splinter."
Godrick, forgetting where he was, shot a look back to Bailey. She moaned into her hands.
"Awe shit."
It took some time to explain his sudden looks to Reina, or to get away without upsetting her more, but she promised to cry when they told her about Kennedy and not to let anyone know that she saw Godrick here. Bailey scoffed a little bitterly; she was good at keeping secrets, wasn't she?
When Godrick knocked on Splinter's door, he was lucky to find everyone already there.
"Splint, we need to talk."