Hello again, and welcome as always to the new chapter of Smashed Minds (which I actually managed to finish earlier than planned)! This has been the longest chapter so far (over 4,000 words without the notes), but it went by relatively fast for me, and I hope you enjoy it.

Thanks to everyone who have given me reviews and commentary about the chapters so far- all of your input and speculation really fuels me to keep writing more! I especially like the predictions as to who the Raven is (you wouldn't believe how many people have been asking me to tell them who it is), and how there are so many theories so far. I can't tell you guys who it is yet- you'll have to keep reading in order to learn! :) Although for all you Dr. Soloro haters out there, I did get a little revenge on him in this chapter for being such a giant jerk-wad of a character. Heh.

Anyways, enough of my rambling. We left off at a major cliffhanger last time, so let's get to what happens next. I'll stick a small A/U at the bottom, but for now just read, review, and enjoy!

*Nintendo owns everything*

Chapter Five: Eye of the Storm

It was as if a terrible car accident had taken place: David wanted to look away, but couldn't take his eyes off the swinging corpse suspended above him. His heart stopped as he gazed in horror at the bloody holes where the eyes of the nurse had once been, and then looked at the message scrawled across her in her own blood. His mind worked to overcome what he was seeing by logically repeating that this couldn't possibly be the work of the Raven. Whoever it was wouldn't have had enough time to commit such a terrible act while talking to David. Yet the message was obviously meant for his eyes, and the Raven had directed him down here, so the possibility still existed. This explanation produced another question: who was the Raven, and why had it committed such a violent and brazen act against the nurse in the first place?

"Who's there?"

The sudden crack of a voice in the silence startled David, who spun around only to have a blinding light strike his face. Dazed and blinking, he was briefly stunned until the light was lowered, revealing Dr. Soloro standing a few feet away with evident confusion and a flashlight in his hand. He seemed to have been awoken and had gone to investigate, since he had traded his doctor's coat for a gray tee shirt and plaid flannel pajama bottoms. Such a combination would be amusing for someone who usually looked so professional, but in this situation, all humor was removed.

"Mr. Kojima?" Dr. Soloro looked surprised, and then glared suspiciously. "What the hell are you doing out here this late-?"

As he had asked his question, the doctor had move his flashlight beam, which now illuminated the corpse for him to see, causing him to fade off as he finally noticed it. At first, he merely blinked, as if not quite realizing what he was seeing was real. Then his eyes widened in horror as the shock and truth slammed into his mind, while his face paled to the point where he looked ready to pass out. A garbled cry bubbled up in his throat and combined with the beginning of a curse, as Soloro dropped the flashlight with a clunk and shakily took a step back, before wrenching forward and violently throwing up onto the floor. The sudden action made David wince as he contained his own feelings of sickness and disgust, but he couldn't help but feel a semblance of pity for the doctor. "I didn't do this- I just found her like this only a few seconds-" David tried to explain himself, but was silenced when the doctor stuck up a hand, as he had recovered enough to assume a bent over position as he breathed heavily.

"Get Rosalina: she's the first door to the left in the doctor's hallway," Dr. Soloro ordered with a shaky whimper, before whispering what sounded like "Dear God, why is she-" before being violently sick again.

David didn't waste any time to see if Isaac was okay, and instead hurried to the hallway where the nurses and doctors resided. A few of the staff peered out their doors and left their rooms as he approached, and began to filter out to see what was going on as he passed them and banged on the indicated door. It only took a moment for the head nurse to answer, as she opened the door to stand wearily in a blue nightgown. "David?" Tilting her head to one side, she blinked the sleep out of her eyes as she asked, "What's wrong?"

"I'm sorry to wake you, but-" A high-pitched female scream came from the hall (indicating one of the other nurses had probably found the corpse), causing David to finish lamely, "there's been an incident."

Rosalina sucked in a sharp breath- the only external sign she gave to show her concern and panic. She brushed past David and out into the hall in a rush of motion, with her bare feet padding along and echoing off the floor with dry thumps. The small crowd of doctors of nurses, some of them in various levels of emotion, parted to let her by as she marched past Soloro, who was leaning against the wall with his face painted a light green hue. David, who had been following behind the nurse, paused beside the shaking doctor as Rosalina slowed to a stop, stared up at the mangled corpse, and then quietly announced, "It's Lyn."

"No!" A young nurse with orange hair let out a gasp and clutched the shoulder of the pink-haired nurse beside her. "I just saw Lyn a few hours ago and she was fine! She's one of the best nurses here, and she was so good with tending to the patients! Who would want to...to..." At this point, the nurse buried her face in her friend's shoulder and bawled, too overcome with emotion to say any more.

"Ana's right," a doctor with black hair in a bowl cut exclaimed. "Who would want to do such a terrible thing to one of our nurses?"

Isaac, who had managed to get a semblance of control over himself, soberly shook his head and looked as if he was going to be sick again, causing David to step back cautiously. This movement caught Dr. Soloro's eye, and he shot a look at the reporter in realization. "I heard someone coming downstairs," he said aloud, "and when I went to investigate I found Mr. Kojima standing here. Do you mind telling us why you were out here this late, Mr. Kojima?"

David felt his blood run cold at the veiled accusation in Soloro's question, but as he was about the respond, Rosalina interrupted him. "He didn't kill her, Isaac." She pointed at the blood on Lyn's uniform and continued, "The blood hasn't had time to dry completely. If he had killed her, he wouldn't have had time to wash the blood off himself, which means he wouldn't be as clean as he is now."

Dr. Soloro looked angrily at Rosalina, but then glanced at the corpse and sighed dejectedly. "You're right," he admitted, "but I half-wished the whole affair could be solved that easily."

Not to mention you'd wish I'd done it, so you'd have a larger reason to hate me. David thought silently, but said aloud, "What do we do?"

Rosalina once again seemed ready with an answer. "Someone go fetch a ladder so I can get the body down, and someone else go get a mop and some water so we can clean up all this mess. You, Isaac, can go alert Dr. Main about what has occurred.

The doctor visibly shuddered at the prospect of bringing the bad news to his boss, but nodded and scurried off down the hall as the others watched his departure.

David took this time to turn his attention away from the body in order to clear his mind and understand some questions he had. Slowly stumbling away from the group to move toward the stairs, he couldn't help but wonder if he was to blame for the young nurse's death. The message left by the Raven had been meant to show him not to believe Main's lies, and the Raven had been keen to win him over to his side minutes before he had been told to come down here. Yet, the main question remained: why? Why was being on the Raven's side so important that it would lead to murder? Moreover, how had the crime been committed so quickly if the Raven had been talking to David?

Suddenly, the reporter spotted a small gray object at the foot of the stairs, half-obscured by shadows but still faintly visible in the soft moonlight. He carefully scooped it up for a closer inspection and found it was an oblong cylindrical-shaped rod, with one end flattened into a circle and the other end squared with a triangular notch. It wasn't incredibly heavy, but it did carry some weight, and if he had to guess as to what it was made of, he would have said it was some sort of metal. This looks like a key, David realized as he turned the object over gently with his thumb. So what does it go to, and why is it here on the ground? It didn't resemble the keys he had seen on Dr. Soloro the other day, but it also didn't look like a key which sole purpose of creation had been to make a key. It was shabbily constructed as if it was made in a hurry, and numerous dents coated it from someone fumbling it into a lock on more than one occasion. Whatever its purpose, it had evidently been important to someone...and perhaps whoever it belonged to would try to find it again. Could it be that whoever had murdered Lyn had used this somehow? There was only one way to find out. Without drawing attention to himself, David slipped the key into his pocket and tucked this new mystery into the back of his mind.

"Such a tragedy."

David nearly jumped out his skin, but held himself together as he turned to look at Miles, who had appeared silently at his side. His red eyes were fixed on the bloodied form of Lyn, which was about to be taken down by Rosalina, who had been given a ladder tall enough to reach the chandelier. He seemed unusually calm for seeing such a horrific sight, which prompted David to ask, "Pretty shocking, isn't it? I can't believe someone would do something like this."

"I can," Miles replied shortly, not taking his eyes off Lyn. It was almost as if he was transfixed by the sight of her crimson blood spilled everywhere, and his intense gaze was beginning to be unnerving.

"Did you know her?"

"I talked to her a few times: she was the sort who never really opened up to people. Of course, I tend to be the same way, but...well, she kept to herself, but none of the patients or staff had a problem with her. Now look at her...all that blood on her. Shocking how much blood the human body contains- you would think such fragile creatures like ourselves would be made of nothing more than skin and bones, that we couldn't hold that much inside of ourselves." Miles stared for a moment more, and then seemed to snap back to his senses as he lazily turned his head and remarked dryly, "Here comes Soloro."

There came from sound of a light thump at that moment, as if someone had struck the floor with a wooden object. All of the conversational babble died off as Isaac emerged from Main's hallway, and walked slowly besides a figure David couldn't make out in the darkness. While the young doctor stepped into the light of the moon that passed through the windows, the person accompanying him stayed on the fringes of the shadows, causing the noise (which David realized was the sound of a cane smacking the ground) to cease. It didn't take a whole lot of thinking to realize that this hidden figure was Dr. Main, who seemed to have come out from hiding in his office to investigate what was going on. As if the Master could read David's thoughts, the voice of Dr. Main cut through the silence. "What happened here?"

"We don't know yet, sir," Rosalina answered soberly from her position on the ladder. "It looks to me as if she was already dead before she was hung, probably due to the extent of her...injuries. It will take some time before we can be sure as to what killed-"

"Check her pockets." The growled command was nearly barked out by Main. "I want to see something."

The blonde nurse looked dubious, but didn't question the orders as she reached for Lyn's pockets on the side of the uniform. As she jostled the corpse on accident (nearly upsetting her precarious balance), a small piece of paper dislodged itself from her stained uniform and fluttered end over end to the floor, where it came to a delicate rest in the light. Although it was a little smaller than David's thumb, he could still make out the inked message that had been plainly written in blood, which shone eerily for those close enough to read it.

Your move, Main

Nobody said a word, as every eye focused on anything they could but Dr. Main. "So," Main wheezed coldly, "You want to play your little games? Well then, consider me your opponent." The figure of Dr. Main stuck out a single hand dressed in a pale white glove, and plucked the paper up to deliver it back into shadow. "Soloro, Rosalina, learn what caused this young woman's death and come to me when you have the results. Give her a proper funeral as well- bury her somewhere where she won't be disturbed. Miles, come with me: there's something we need to discuss. The rest of you, go about your business as usual. Do not let the patients know what occurred here, since it will only agitate them. We will get to the bottom of this, I promise: Lyn's terrible murder will not go unsolved or unpunished. Someone will pay for this senseless act." Main began to shuffle back down the hall as Miles came to trail behind him like a tall ghost, but added as an afterthought, " Soloro...get this mess and yourself cleaned up," and then walked off to his office, clanking his cane as he moved. The staff remained frozen until the sound of the office doors being slammed shut echoed through the Mansion. Then they snapped back into quiet conversations and scattered away like frightened mice to their rooms.

David watched the office doors for a moment longer, and was about to go as well when Rosalina called his name. She had carefully clambered down the ladder, and avoided the messes on the floor as she approached him. He couldn't help but noticed that her pale hands were stained red with Lyn's blood, but she paid no regard to it as her blue eyes bored into him. "I know you didn't kill Lyn," she murmured calmly as she quickly glanced at Isaac, who was too occupied in mopping up his bile to pay any attention to their conversation, "but Dr. Soloro found you by the body. You were at the scene of the crime, and that will instill suspicion in many here. Tell me, why were you out of your room tonight and down here when?"

With some slight hesitation, David answered, "I was writing earlier in my room-"

"In the dark? You were able to see without any light?"

"I meant I had been writing earlier when there was still light, but I think I fell asleep, because when I woke up it was dark." The rest of the lie slipped nimbly off of David's tongue as he continues, "Anyways, I woke up because I heard what sounded like someone moving around outside my room, but when I went to take a look there was no one there. My curiosity kind of took control from there, so I went downstairs to see if someone was down there and..."

Trailing off, David felt guilty for lying to the nurse, but knew he couldn't mention his conversation with the Raven to her. It wasn't as if he didn't trust her, but she was working for Main, a man who up until now had told David that the Raven didn't exist. If he told her anything, Main could get wind of it...and that path only led to trouble.

Luckily, she seemed to believe him, as she simply remarked, "I see. Did you realize you're not wearing your glasses?"

She was right: in his haste to see what was happening, he had forgotten to put them on, which explained why everything was a little hard to see. Sheepishly, he grumbled, "I suppose I was distracted by what I thought I heard and forgot to put them on."

"Ah. Well then, go ahead back to your room. There's nothing more to investigate here- Dr. Soloro and I will take care of everything. There's nothing to worry about either: like Dr. Main said, we'll find out whoever did this...this horrible thing to Lyn."

"I thought you guys would let the police handle this."

Rosalina smirked. "They don't come here anymore, due to the superstition of the island and the Mansion. Here, we must find our own justice." Shaking her head in remorse, Rosalina drifted away like a forlorn spirit, while David (evading the suspicious glare of Soloro) trudged back up the stairs and eventually into his room. The room welcomed his return with darkness, but all David could see was Lyn's bloodied face, and the dark red words smeared across her uniform that had become etched into his mind. The blood that he had wiped from his forehead still lingered on his fingers, and as he moved to the sink and turned the water on, he came to the realization that his hands were shaking. They wouldn't stop, even when he clenched them into fists, and soon his knees felt like putty. He quickly turned off the water and sat on the edge of his cot to avoid falling and hurting himself, as the terrible images from the night raced through his mind at breakneck speeds. Heaving deep breaths in order to calm his rattled nerves, David stared down at his shaking hands and repeated over and over to himself the one question that he had avoided since his arrival at the Mansion: "What have I gotten myself into?"

"Are you even listening?"

Gann's thunderous question slashed through David's thoughts like a sword, causing him to look up at the giant and Sam hovering over his position on the sunroom couch. "What?"

"He wanted to know why you seem so out of everything," Sam answered as she flopped down onto the couch, her face filled with confused concern. "You know, Steve, you don't look so good. Are you coming down with something? If you are, don't breathe on me: I don't want to get it."

"I...just have a lot on my mind," David replied. This was true: ever since he had returned to his room last night, troubling things had managed to find him. Once again, that night he had dreamed of fighting, only this time every enemy he faced was a screaming Lyn corpse with eyes like Miles', which melted into blood that burned like a fiery brew. It had made for a fitful sleep, and he had awakened in the morning with his head in an exhausted fog. As he had stumbled down the stairs, he had been greeted by the sight of Miles slipping out the front door, with a large burlap sack thrown over his shoulder. The man had not seen David and had left before the reporter could greet him, which wasn't odd but still filled David with a sense of suspicion. There was nothing to do outside the Mansion's walls, and it couldn't be that the cook was headed for the mainland, since the boat wouldn't be returning for another four weeks. So where was he heading, and what was he carrying? Usually David would leave such things be, but after the mysterious murder of Lyn, everything was now up for speculation.

"That's understandable," Gann conceded as he took a seat and pressed the tips of his meaty fingers together. "After the turmoil of last night, any person would have a multitude of things to think about."

The words almost flew over David's head as being unimportant, but he caught their meaning. "Wait, how do you know about last night?"

This time Sam laughed to herself and spoke up to say, "It's not hard to know something went down: the doctors and nurses are all jumpy, and they tried to stuff us with twice the usual dosage-"

"Which still doesn't work," Gann interrupted, earning him a smack on the arm from Sam.

"Quiet you, I'm talking! Anyways, you find out stuff sooner or later here, Steve, whether it's told by Main, the staff, or by the Raven."

The last subject sent an icy chill down David's spine. "The Raven?"

"That's what I said, isn't it? The Raven always wants to send a message to Main that his control is slipping, but Main just ignores it time and time again."

"Until now, that is," clarified Gann. "Now that the Raven has struck at Main, Main has struck back."

David gave the giant a confused glance, and was unsure if the man was being truthful or was speaking in drug-induced riddles. "Struck back?"

The dark eyes of the giant held David's attention as he rumbled, "You're a reporter with an eye for details- certainly by now you've noticed that there's more than a nurse missing from the occupants of this room."

Craning his neck and scanning the room, David looked around at everything he could see before he finally found the anomaly. Gesturing with the pencil he held in his hand, he pointed it out to the two patients. "There. On the couch over there, next to the guy with the mustache. Yesterday, there was a woman beside him- his girlfriend, I think- but now she's not there, and she's not anywhere in the rest of the room."

"Oh man, Steve's right." Sam uttered a curse under her breath, and then told Gann, "She's not there."

"I can see that, Samantha."

"Don't call me that."

Confused, David wondered aloud, "Where is she?"

Sam and Gann averted their gaze from the reporter, until Sam murmured, "Main believes in using an 'eye-for-an-eye' approach when it comes to dealing justice. Looks like the only way to get back at the Raven was...well..."

The sight of Miles slipping out the front door suddenly made sickening sense, and quickly cleared up the question as to the contents of his bag. A feeling of queasiness welled up in the bottom of David's stomach as he incredulously hissed, "You mean he had her killed?!"

"Without a doubt."

"He can't...that's not...I need to talk to him about this."

David moved to stand up, but Sam and Gann both gave short cries and yanked him back down again onto the couch. "Steve! What the hell are you doing- sit down!" Sam shot a look to the corner of the room, where Dr. Soloro was writing on his clipboard before quietly exclaiming, "are you out of your mind?! You can't go to Main!"

"It's not right though," David muttered. "That woman had nothing to do with what went on. How can the head of an asylum do this? How is taking an innocent life right?"

"You could say the same thing of the Raven," Gann cut in with a sigh. "It boils down to a simple truth: he does it because he can, and because he wants control. Main has always been the jury, judge, and executioner of the Mansion, and now he must wage war against someone who threatens his control. Casualties are expected, and people are going to be used as pawns, mark my words. In something like this, the only rule is that if an opponent hits you, you hit them right back just as hard."

Shaking his head, David stared at the couch where Mario sat alone. "It doesn't seem right."

"It isn't, but there's nothing we can do about it. Who are we to interfere in something beyond our control?"

"So what do we do then?"

"Easy: believe everything, trust nothing, obey all. All one has to do is buy their time." The giant moved on of his black checkers to skip over one of David's which was removed from the board and placed beside Gann. "The Raven has made his first move, and Main has responded in turn. Now we just have to wait until the opportunity to act against Main arises. Yes, the waiting will require sacrifice, but patience will be rewarded in the end. Like the saying goes, good things always come to those who wait."

It's a little known fact, but I've partly based the mood and style of each chapter off of music I've been listening to while writing and/or thinking. Chapter One, for example, is based to the song 'Sail', by AWOLNation, which is raw and powerful and seems to convey the uncertainty and strangeness of David's arrival at the Mansion, along with the song "Home by the Sea", which reflects the story's overall theme. 'The Rifle's Spiral' by The Shins helped form Chapter Two, and the title of Chapter Three, "The Grand Illusion", came from the song by Styx. Chapter Four was originally going to be called "Force Ten", after the Rush song that inspired its mood, but I changed it at the last minute. This chapter, which borrows its title from the lyrics of "Force Ten", was actually inspired by listening to "The Confessor" by Joe Walsh for several days on end. If you have the time (and YouTube), you should give these five a listen, although they don't have to be read with the story itself. It just goes to show how much music can affect someone's writing and what they produce after listening to certain songs.

Moving on, I'll try to have a new chapter up within a month, since it's looking like I won't be under as much pressure with my schedule from now until the end of April. Be sure to leave a little review in the review box if you can, since that would mean the world to me (and shows people actually read this instead of just skimming through). Plus, if you know a fellow fanfiction author who needs something to read, feel free to share this with them! I personally love getting to read new things people write, and I think others do too!

Have a happy spring, and I'll see you next time!