Chương 3: Chapter 2 | Fallen Daily... Life
That night, Reilly was walking back from Leslie's office, as she had asked them to help rearrange her office. They spent a few hours after everyone began retiring for the night, rearranging bottles of pills, deadly drugs, and liquids of such unknownities to Reilly. Thinking about it, Reilly would admit that they didn't really do much, they just handed Leslie the bottle or jar with the certain thing in it and she was the one who put it in the right spot. "I guess Leslie got tired of doing it all alone, because of how much stuff there is in the cabinet inventory..." Reilly mumbled to themself as they turned the corner to the front foyer. Their eyes scanned the entire area. "The school building looks a lot creepier at night... with how dim the lights are, I could probably just be murdered here and now." Reilly joked with themself, laughing quietly at their own joke before the school halls were silent once more.
A Dark figure suddenly stood at the end of the more dimmed school hallway lights, on the other side of the front foyer, staring at Reilly's figure from their side.
Reilly stopped on their tracks, having a staredown with the shadow at the end of the hallway. Silence echoed between them and through the entire school. Reilly felt their breath catch in their throat. Everyone promised they wouldn't leave their rooms at night, Reilly was the only exception because Leslie had asked them to help them before the Night Time announcement went off, and everyone but Jessica was present when she had asked for their assistance. The silence between them and the figure across the hall was deafening to Reilly, they couldn't stand it for much longer. Reilly took a deep breath.
"H-Hey... You there!" They call out to the figure, only for them to run back the way they came from in a clear panic from Reilly's sudden appearance in their way. Reilly scoffed before taking off down the hall, running behind them. "I said wait!!" They shout at the figure, who turned right and disappeared down the stairs leading to the dormitories. Reilly growled to themself as they stumbled into a sprint after jumping off the stairs, middle step. They eventually lost the shadowy figure in the dimly lit hallways. They furrow their eyebrows in frustration. "Huh? Where'd they go?" Nothing but silence answered Reilly as they took deep breaths to try and re-even their breathing after their unsuccessful chase. Their fists tighten and they let out an annoyed huff as they enter their dorm, which was only down the hall from where they stood. The Cream coloured room already gave Reilly a headache, and it was only the third day of being in that room specifically. Everything was the cream colour palette. The walls were cream, the floor was a pale yellow with a cream carpet, everything. Reilly had gone to bed in the headache-inducing room, staring up at the ceiling in silence in thought.
"Who was that figure? What were they going to do if I wasn't there? Who would break the promise we all made on the first day?" Reilly's thoughts were chaotic, but they rolled over onto their side and tried to get some sort of sleep, as tomorrow wouldn't be any less chaotic than the day before, everyone was still adjusting and were pretty scared of dying to someone, whether it would be by each other's hands, or by Monoia's hands.
The next morning, nobody would shake the previous day's events from their minds, it was still so fresh in their minds and it wasn't every day that they would be threatened with death in three days if they didn't murder someone within that time period. It was new and scary to the sixteen teenagers, who were still trapped in the unfamiliar school that they were slowly getting used to being in.
Everyone sat in the cafeteria in awkward silence, unsure of how to talk to one another after Monoia's motive from the previous day. Leslie was staying in her office. Kaname, Kei, and Hayami were sitting improperly, occupying themselves with fiddling their clothes. Lucinda and Kim were talking to each other. Rowan was to himself and had his eyes closed as Kosuke and Shimoda nervously joined him in his meditation, and Aiko, Saki, and Hanaya were playing Uno. After who knows how long of watching the madness in the cafeteria, Eamon and Summer return, without Jessica, just like the night before. "She didn't want to talk to anyone." Eamon sighs as he pets his white rat in his hand. "Told you so, stupid ginger," Kaname called. "Shut up, Elizabeth." Hayami hissed to the Gifted Assassin across from her. That ticked Kaname off, because soon later, they were bickering and challenging each other to an arm wrestle to prove the superior one.
Eamon and Summer sat down at their table. Their table consisted of usually just Jessica, Eamon and Summer. However, since Jessica refused to leave her room, it was only the two friends that day sitting at their table.
Reilly rolled their eyes in hopelessness, standing up from their seat around the table they sat at. "I'll be back, I'm going to check on Leslie." They sigh as they left the room. The walk to Leslie's Office was quiet and still. Eventually, they reach her office and opened the door to see her sitting at her desk. "Hey, Leslie... what are you doing?" They asked, and Leslie looked up from her wooden desk and the book that was open on its surface. "Oh... I was just checking the inventory... if we're gonna be here for a while, I wanted to know what we had..." Leslie gave a sad smile.
"... It's about Jessica, isn't it?" Reilly asked, and Leslie nodded slowly. "Yeah, it is..." - "Do you know what may have set Jessica off?" Reilly asked. Leslie shrugged. "I may have an idea, but it would be wrong for me to tell someone if it isn't the case." - "Understandable, everyone should have privacy. Even if we're stuck with each other for only two more days, maybe more depending on how this motive business goes, everyone deserves their secrets." Leslie looked at Reilly with a smile, adjusting her glasses. "That's true. You're very inspiring, Reilly. You know that, right?" Reilly nodded. "That's what they all say because I am the great Gifted Protagonist." Reilly sighed. Leslie rested her hand on their shoulder.
There was a knock at the door, making Reilly and Leslie turn their attention from each other and over to the door. "Come in," Leslie called out. The door opened to reveal Jessica standing there, shyly standing in the doorway. "Hey, Les..." She greeted quietly. Leslie stood and folded her hands in front of her, looking at Jessica with a look of pity. "Hi, Jess." She greeted back. "I wanted to do something to thank you for your hard work as the only doctor here, but I accidentally pulled a muscle in my arm, can I get some pain killers?" Jessica asked, pointing to the cabinets. Leslie smiled and nodded. "Of course you may, it should be the cabinet closest to Reilly on the third shelf." Leslie pointed to the glass case, and Jessica stepped into the room, carrying an undesirable aura around her with every step she took towards the cabinet.
She opened the glass case and reached up to the third shelf of the middle cabinet, pulling out a bottle of pills while blocking sight of the label of what it was from the two's sight. Reilly watched from their peripheral vision with interested eyes as Jessica retracted her hand from the cabinet, closing the glass quickly. "Thanks, Les. I'll bring them back when I'm done." Jessica said as she bowed, and quickly left the room. Leslie waved her farewell and looked back at Reilly as she sat back down on her chair. "She didn't have to make me something," Leslie said with a smile, sighing happily.
Reilly got up from their chair and smiled at the Gifted Doctor. "Mm. I guess I should be going. I have things I have to look for. I'll see you around." Leslie stood up quickly. "W-wait!" She called, making Reilly stop on their tracks in the middle of the room. Leslie walked up to them and hugged them. "Thank you, for everything you're doing." Reilly rubbed Leslie's back before they broke away and she waved goodbye as Reilly left and headed back for the cafeteria. When they entered, the smell of cookies baking hit their nose. "Hey, Jess! Those cookies smell good!" Reilly called the Hairdresser in the kitchen, who poked her head through the window counter looking into the kitchen.
"Thank you!" Jessica called back in reply to Reilly's compliment.
Reilly rested their hand on the glass door and pushed the door to the greenhouse open and nearly hit poor Eamon in the face as he was chasing his rat. "Oh my god! Eamon! I'm so sorry, are you okay?!" Reilly asked worriedly as Eamon hit the door with his hand to prevent himself from running into it. "Yeah. I'm fine, just almost caused a mess." He said with a smile, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. Kim shortly jogged over to them, out of breath. "Hey, Reilly! What's up?" Kim asked, trying to catch the lost breath from running around the encasement. "I wanted to just hang out with you guys, see if you guys needed any help with anything important, that's all." - "Oh, can you help us try and catch Eamon's rat... uh... what was the name?" Kim asked Eamon, who sighed in annoyance. "The name is Larleit, you fiend." Eamon hissed, turning his head to look at the Korean boy who had curiosity on his face. "I'll help, sure." Reilly agreed.
After a while, Reilly, Kim, and Eamon had caught his Larleit and were sitting in the domed greenhouse-like addition to the school, the grass around them distracted Eamon and Kim. Reilly glanced over to the door to see Jessica handing Leslie a tray of cookies that she had made, while the two of them share a conversation that Reilly couldn't read.
As Leslie walked away, Jessica pulled out the bottle she took from Leslie's Nurse's office and looked at it with an evil grin. Reilly watched as Jessica exited the room and walked away with the bottle. "What's up?" Kim asked, looking through the door with Reilly, trying to find what they were looking at. "Nothing... I thought I saw Jessica... guess it was just my imagination..."
Reilly trailed off, continuing what they were doing. Kim looked at them confused, but didn't ask anymore and helped them with their task. "Eamon, how did you get your Gifted Title?" Reilly asked the animal caretaker. He looked at her silent for a few seconds, contemplating his wording, before speaking. "I got it by taking in all the homeless animals and brought them back to good health. Some small animals, like my rats, Kokichi and Nagito, they stayed with me, and I sort of kept them with me everywhere I went." He says, petting Larleit's head. Reilly smiled slightly and nodded. "That's so nice of you to do that." - "how about you, Reilly? How did you get your Gifted Title?"
Reilly didn't respond. Now that they thought of it, they didn't know how they DID get their status. They just led a lot and the event played out with their choices. That's how it's always been. "I... don't know. I've been a leader in a lot of events and they turned out how my choices went." Reilly says, shrugging. "So, like based on a choose-your-own-adventure game??" - "I guess you could explain it that way." Reilly shrugged.
"That's cool!" Kim exclaimed brightly. "My status was earned when I started my music career! People loved my Korean pop music." Kim says proudly. Reilly smiled at the brown-haired boy beside them. "I bet. Korean Pop has been really popular recently." Reilly says. Kim nodded in agreement. "It has. It's risen the demand for more international releases of popular songs." Kim sighed. "It's been quite stressful, but I enjoy what I do... Although... I did want to art instead of music. I guess I'm stuck with what I got." Kim sighed in disappointment. "Many other Kpop bands have things they do that isn't their greatest talent, so you don't have to feel obligated to stay in the music industry tightly. You can branch out to everything else, you know." Eamon pointed out. Kim smiled. "That's right... I can."
The day went by pretty quickly, as night time hit and they were all in their rooms, getting ready for bed. As they were writing down the events of the day in their journal book on their desk, Reilly couldn't shake the memory of Jessica with the bottle in her hand with a grin as they sat on the wooden chair quietly. Suddenly, a knock at their door made them jump from their thoughts to reality. They got up and unlocked their door, opening to reveal Summer. "Hey. Have you spoke to Jessica at all today?" - "no, but I saw her give cookies to Leslie earlier today." Summer's eyes widen slightly. "To Leslie??" She asked. "Yeah. As a thank you for being the doctor for us, why?." Reilly asked. "you need to check on Leslie in the morning, okay? I have a bad feeling about those cookies." Summer frowned. "I will don't worry about Leslie, Summer. Have a good night." - "You too, Reilly." Summer nodded as Reilly closed their bedroom door. They returned to their desk after locking the door as Summer returned to her room. Reilly suddenly had a bad feeling creep up their spine. What if Jessica did something to those cookies? "That's impossible... Jessica couldn't do anything to get anyone... But I will still check in the morning." Reilly sighed in a whisper, rubbing their face with their hands as they put their pen down and got up from the chair, walking to their bed. They laid down on the comfortable bed and they drifted off to sleep for the night.
Reilly woke up right at the Announcement Systems bell toll. "Time to get up for the day, kiddos! Looks like someone made the bold move last night and made someone kick the bucket!" Monoia laughed and the system fell silent.
Reilly was processing Monoia's words, sitting on their cream coloured bed unresponsive, before gasping and jumped out of bed in a hurry, stumbling to the door and pushed it open as they rushed out of the room and into the dimly lit dormitory hallway, past the other students who were slowly emerging from their bedrooms from the night, unsteadily ran up the stairs, and charged towards Leslie's office, not stopping at anyone's call out to them. They wanted to check up on Leslie, as the bad feeling from the night before had returned.
They weren't paying attention as they ran, and misstepped, slipping and falling on the ground, but due to the adrenaline running through their veins, they didn't feel the pain. They let out a grunt at their collision with the floor, before pushing themself back onto their feet and they ran down the classroom hallway towards the Nurse's Office. They pushed Leslie's light wooded-office door open, it slamming against the wall loudly from the force used to push it open, and all Reilly could do, was stare at the scene in front of them with shaking limbs, and a blurry vision.
There, in front of the cabinet on the far back wall, laid Leslie in a small pool of her own blood, dying some of her trench coat, face, hands, and glasses. Her eyes were wide in horror as blood droplets slid down from the corner of her and mouth, down her face and it dripped into the blood puddle under her. A bloodied knife laid far beside her on the ground, looking suspiciously unnaturally placed on the marble floor, dying the vicinity underneath its blade with the metallic blood.
The blood under the Gifted Doctor continued to spread out slowly as though it was a faucet, as after a few minutes of no sound coming from their throat, Reilly let out an ear-piercing shriek, it echoing through the school halls as they fell back onto their butt and onto the cold, hard marble floor.
"LESLIE!!!"
The sound of a pair of feet running came, but Reilly couldn't move, all they could do, was stare at their deceased friend laying on the ground in her own blood, in horror. "I... I could've stopped this...! If only I-" Kim whipped around to look at Reilly, interrupting their train of thought. "It's not your fault, Reilly! Don't blame yourself! It's whoever killed her's fault." He says firmly, gripping Reilly's shoulders tightly. Reilly nodded hesitantly, and the two turn to look at Leslie's body sadly. Summer and everyone else came shortly. "Hey, we heard a shriek- OH MY GOD! LESLIE!" Summer exclaimed with wide eyes, covering her mouth, turning away immediately as she felt her gag reflexes kick in. Lucinda looked at Leslie's body with a wide grin, and everyone else looked away in disappointment or as though they were going to be sick.
"A body has been discovered! Finding evidence of whoever could've done the crime will be helpful when at Court! Chop chop, kiddos! The clock is ticking!" Monoia announced, and Kim looked Reilly's side profile as they cried silent tears for their deceased friend.
"We'll find the murderer, I promise Leslie. I won't rest until you get the justice you deserve."
"Not if you get prosecuted first," Kaname says, and Reilly looked at him with wide eyes. "You're the last person who was seen to last see Leslie alive, Reilly." Everyone looked at them nervously. Reilly felt their heart drop under the gazes of fourteen other students around them. They felt their eyes widen when the reality dawned on them from what Kaname accused.
"Don't tell me... you guys think I did this...?"
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