Chương 4: Chapter 3 | Fallen... Killing Life
Whispers rose amongst the fourteen other students, everyone asking the same question. "Was Reilly really the Culprit behind Leslie's murder?"
Reilly and Kaname had a silent staring contest within the whispers rising around them. "Uh oh..." Kim mumbled. "You... imbecile..." Reilly growled lowly, lowering their head. "You asshole..." Everyone backed away from the two carefully, sensing Reilly's anger hitting its edge. "You BASTARD!!" They shout at Kaname, meeting his eyes with their teary eyes, gritting their teeth in a seething rage. "You actually think I would MURDER my friend?! I just MET HER, I don't know ANYTHING about her, but I considered her a Friend! How fucking DARE you accuse me of murder!!" Reilly shouted, about to walk straight up to Kaname while screaming, but Kim grabbed their wrist and held them back from him, as he took a step back in case of them coming at him. "Reilly, no! He's not worth it!" Kim begged the Gifted Protagonist who was ready to strangle the boy who stood adjacent to them. "Reilly is innocent until proven guilty, Kaname. You'll need proof to back your accusation up." Kim shot at Kaname, who glared at the two of them.
Reilly stopped pulling against Kim but never broke eye contact with Kaname. "Right... we still have a court period to get through... as well as an investigation to conduct." They sighed, sounding tired and quiet. They returned to face the body and everyone took that as a sign to leave and investigate every room they can think of. Kaname stopped walking in the doorway, before turning around to face the back of Reilly's head.
"That temper is going to be the death of you. Remember that before attacking someone in a rage." He warned before turned around again and stalked steadily out of the room and around the corner, disappearing into the corridor. Reilly scoffs at Kaname before approaching Leslie's body to inspect it.
"I'm sorry, Leslie... I could've saved you..." they whisper, closing Leslie's eyes gently. Reilly then rolled Leslie's body over, the body hitting the floor with its weight with a loud thud. Reilly's eyebrows furrow in confusion as they inspect where the supposed listed stab wound was told on the Court File on their student electronic handbook.
Surprisingly, there was no tear in Leslie's trench coat, shirt, or skin where the blood was coming from her body.
"Huh? But the file says she was stabbed! How did she die?!" Kim asked as he watched Reilly open Leslie's mouth, to reveal it coated in blood. "Definitely not from a stab wound." Reilly says as they look at the floor, rubbing their finger over the smooth, marble surface muttering "not even a speck of hair... whoever did it knew how to clean up hair surprisingly well." Their eyes travel to the cabinet, where they notice the knocked over green liquid in the cabinet, with a tiny bit of blood on the handle of the window. Reilly travelled over to it, inspecting it better. The bottle beside the spill looked out of place, and it was missing its label. "It wasn't knocked over yesterday... and where did the label go on that bottle...?" They asked themself, holding their chin in thought. "Perhaps there was a struggle?" Kim suggested, looking around at the slightly messy desk.
"no... Leslie's neck, arms, or wrists show no bruises, the signs of a struggle." Then Reilly points at the knife on the floor as Kim's eyes followed their finger. "And the knife wasn't dropped or thrown. It was placed on the ground from the way the blood on the floor is. It isn't all over the place, it's where the blade laid. Besides, even if it was the actual murder weapon, wouldn't the murderer actually dispose of it?" They ask Kim.
He nods slowly. "Yeah... so... it was used to distract us?" Kim trailed off as Reilly peaked at the desk where the cookie tray sat on it. "Looks like it." They reply bluntly as they look closer. It looked hurriedly moved, and it was missing cookies. Reilly then leaned over and looked at the trash can to see the cookies in the trash bin. They looked to be a day old, almost two days. "now that I think of it... last night before night hours, Kosuke, Shimoda, Aiko, and I were in the cafeteria when Jessica came in a little frantic, holding a label in her hand." - "What did it say? The label??" - "Fentanyl." Reillys's eyes widen, then looked at Leslie's body. "Kim... you just cracked the cause of death... because yesterday, Jessica grabbed the Fentanyl without Leslie knowing, by hiding the label strategically from sight, and then baked the drug into cookies for Leslie, and left the cafeteria after Leslie got them, with the bottle and when she was laying in the room dying- QUICK! To the disposal room!" Reilly exclaimed, earning a nervous look from Kim.
The two took off running to the cafeteria- Reilly in the lead- where they ran to the room connected to the kitchen. The garbage disposal room. The two began digging through the trash to find the missing label. "FOUND IT!" Kim exclaimed. "Good job! What does it say?" Reilly asked, out of breath. Kim held up the label "Fentanyl" in his hand. "We found some actual proof! With alibis!" Reilly exclaimed. "Yeah! Because Jessica was in the kitchen baking when you came outside, and you said it yourself that evening you thought you saw Jessica leave the cafeteria after giving the cookies to Leslie earlier that day!"
"We should talk with Kosuke, Shimoda, and Aiko for their sides of the story." Reilly points out, and the Korean boy nodded in agreement. The two broke off into a run and began searching for the three students.
"Aiko!" Reilly exclaimed, and the pink-haired girl turned to look at Reilly, who slowed to a stop in front of her. "Hey." - "hi! Question. Yesterday, did you see Jessica enter the cafeteria with these in her hands?" Reilly asked the astrologist straight away. She nodded. "In fact I did! She was very frantic and was in a hurry. Said that Leslie would kill her if she found out she used half of the entire bottle of the pain killer. Why?" - "because We figured out Leslie's cause of death!" - "yeah... it was the stab wound on the side of her stomach." Reilly's eyes narrow at Aiko, before taking a deep sigh. "No. Leslie has no stab wounds! She was poisoned with Lethal Pain Killers." Reilly says, holding up the label for the Fentanyl. Aiko looked at her confused. Then it dawned on her. "Oh... ooooh! That's why she was unwell before I went to bed!"
"unwell?" Reilly repeated. "Yeah! Leslie was heading back to her office to take something to ease the queasy feeling in her stomach. She explained it like a cramp, but worse and all over your insides." Aiko grimaced at the memory of Leslie's unusual wording. Reilly felt their body recoil in disgust at the wording, but they didn't show it. "Ah. Okay. Thank you, Aiko!" Reilly thanked. "Anytime!" Reilly turned to their thoughts. Leslie, last time they had seen her, was doing fine. She seemed normal. Then, the Announcement System rang to life.
"Alrighty, kiddos. I've gotten bored watching you all panic. Time for Court! Head for the elevator near the Nurse's Office." Monoia declared, the boredom in his voice present.
Reilly's eyes widen as they felt nervous, as their nerves started up with every step they took towards the elevator. "Is what we found enough evidence to catch the true killer cold? What if we fail and I'm voted instead?! This... This can't be a reality... I don't want to die!" A step closer to the elevator was another step towards their possible demise. Everyone was waiting inside the elevator.
"Hey! I got Kosuke's and Shimoda's side of the story." Kim whispers. "I got Aiko's side," Reilly whispered back as they stood in the far corner of the elevator. "Did Leslie say she was unwell?" Kim asked. Reilly nodded in silence. Once everyone entered, the elevator doors closed and began heading downward. "... Kim... am I going to die?" Reilly nervously asked the Korean quietly, as they felt Kaname's piercing gaze on them. Kim shook his head. "No. We have solid evidence. We just need to corner the culprit into saying something. Meaning, you should keep the cookies quiet." He whispered into her ear quiet enough where nobody could hear.
Once the elevator stopped, it opened to reveal a long corridor. Everyone slowly walked toward the end of it, gawking about how long the well-lit hallway was. After a 15 minute walk down the long corridor, there was a turn to the left, and a large set of doors looming above everyone. "Okay, everyone. This is it." Saki says quietly as Hanaya pushed them open slowly.
The bright lights in the octagonal-shaped room blinded everyone as they stepped into the room. There was a throne at the very front of the room, where Monoia was found to be sitting looking excited, and sixteen stands in the shape of two brackets laid in front of him. "Welcome, kiddos! To the Court Room! Here, you'll be put in a court trial to find out WHO was the culprit of a murder! There are a few simple things to keep in mind. One, you all have your own separate stands, find the ones with your nameplate on them! Second, the trial will go as the following: everyone will need to point fingers, it's natural for humans to do that. HOWEVER, if everyone picks the wrong person to be the final chosen culprit, everyone but the blacken dies, letting the culprit have their freedom back! Lastly, if you guess the correct final culprit, they will get punished for disturbing the peace! Easy peasy, right?!" Monoia asked the students as they walk around the stands to find their right ones with a wide, sick grin on his excited face.
"I do have a question, Mr. Monoia," Saki asked politely, raising her hand. "What is it?" He asked with narrowed eyes, annoyed. "Why is there... a portrait of Leslie at her stand...?" She asked, pointing to the portrait of Leslie on a stand staring at them with a red X across her face. "It's because it felt respectful for the fallen student to watch over everyone as they try and find the culprit of their murder! You know?" He asked, giggling at the end of his sentence. "I see..." Is all she replies with as she looked down in silence. "Well then. Are we ready to start?" Kaname asked out of the blue. Nobody objected to his question.
"Well then! Let the first Class Trial begin, Kiddos!" Monoia exclaimed, throwing his arms up in the air, with his gavel in hand.
CLASS TRIAL 1:
IN SESSION!
"I accuse Reilly as the culprit." Kaname shot straight away. "Why would I hurt, or any less, kill Leslie? She was my friend!" Reilly objected. "Where's your proof that Reilly did it?" Eamon asked, annoyed with Kaname's behaviour. And that he was stuck beside him. "Reilly was the last person to see Leslie before she perished. It seemed only fair to say that they did it." Kaname says as he shot a smug look in Reilly's direction.
"That's wrong! Reilly didn't see Leslie last. I saw Jessica leave her office with a pill bottle in her hand as Leslie watched her." Summer shouted. "wasn't that the same one I saw her take?" Reilly asked. "No. The pill bottle had the words Melatonin written on it. However, I remember Leslie looked really uncomfortable, and in some sort of pain as Jessica left the office." - "As if I would execute a plan that ambitious!" Jessica laughed, crossing her arms. "So, Jessica took a bottle of Melatonin with her, before the death?" - "no. It wasn't even night time at that time." Shimoda says. "It is true. And while Shimoda, Kim, Aiko and I were in the cafeteria before night time, Jessica entered the cafeteria with a Fentanyl bottle label, and went to the kitchen, disappeared for a few minutes, and then reappeared without the label." Kosuke says. "That doesn't explain who stabbed her!" Kaname argues. Reilly's eyebrows furrowed together as they threw their finger toward Kaname's position.
"THAT'S WRONG!" Reilly exclaimed. Kaname looked at her with furrowed eyebrows. "Wrong?! How so?? The court file says she was stabbed!" He snapped. "I have proof! I took a photo of where the supposed stab wound was, but there was no tear where a knife should've entered in her trench coat, shirt, or skin, even if she was stabbed, the culprit would've tried and disposed of the knife first thing, not leave it out in the opening! Even if it was used, the blade was placed on the floor, as evident by the blood in the shape of the blade" Reilly says, showing the photo taken on their e-handbook.
Kaname seemed to have backed down because he didn't say anything in retaliation. "It was a lie?? Then... what was used to kill her? Was there a struggle in the attempt to kill her?" Jessica asked. "No! There were no bruises, the signs of a struggle on her throat, arms or wrists. Plus, all the hair on the floor was missing. No strands of DNA anywhere. Whoever it was had to have cleaned hair a lot to know how to get rid of it that strategically." Reilly states, showing the photo of the cleaner floor and Leslie's arms, wrists and neck, looking at Jessica. "So then... it was natural causes? Like... a heart attack?" - "it couldn't have been. There was too much blood for it to BE a heart attack. Maybe she was deathly ill and she didn't tell us anything." Jessica suggested.
"No! That's wrong!" Jessica recoiled at Reilly's loud voice. "How so?!" Jessica asked, getting irritated at Reilly.
"Leslie had a lot of blood covering the inside of her mouth. And, blood streaks dripped down her mouth and eyes, something no illness does to people. Only when poisoned or with a certain health condition does that happen. Now hush it and stop being so bloody defensive." Reilly snapped back at Jessica.
Avery flinched at the snappy remark Reilly had made. "How much longer are we gonna argue??" Avery asked shyly, but nobody heard him "There was a knocked over liquid bottle in her cabinet, and it was where the Fentanyl pills were supposed to be. Clearly, whoever was trying to cover up their crime didn't know how to be careful and knocked it over. In their hurry, they left behind a simple detail." That made Jessica slightly nervous. "And, what was it?" - "they cleaned the hairs on the floor, but didn't clean the hair IN the cabinet, and the colour of the stand was purple."
"The only person who has purple hair is Jessica. Then she must be he culprit." Lucinda's crazy toned voice spoke up in the crowd finally. "Jessica was in her room with us when that happened..." - "She could've easily taken the melatonin pills with her before anyone realized it. Leslie's body looked to have been laying there since around 1:50 am. Jessica could've easily slipped in, grabbed the melatonin pills, and left without seeming suspicious." Reilly concluded. "How?! She must've eaten those cookies in the trash can in her office that had hidden Fentanyl in them and overdosed without knowing it, getting poisoned. I didn't do anything to her!" Everyone fell silent at her words.
"Jessica... nobody mentioned anything about cookies being IN the trash can... let alone anything about Cookies being given to Leslie in general..." Jessica froze, dread dawning onto her face as though it was sliding its entire baggage of sins across her back. "H-Huh?!" She panicked. "Y-You didn't...? I-I swear you did!" Jessica tried to back herself up. "No, I didn't."
Monoia began laughing.
"SO YOU'RE BLAMING ME?!" - "you were the only person to have seen Leslie with the cookies because you BAKED them, you also took the fentanyl pills from Leslie's cabinet, I saw you do it yesterday." Reilly calmly says.
"then how did you know if I disposed of the label in the trash?!" She demanded, not keeping her innocence filter in check. "Because we have witnesses! Kim, Aiko, Kosuke, and Shimoda SAW you enter the cafeteria with the label but saw you leave without them, but with a knife instead, in a hurry before night time. You wanted to hurry and cover your ass by trying to hide the cookies, any DNA you left behind, and cover up the poisoning by pretending she was stabbed by using one of the blood transplant bags in her office to cover a knife in the blood." Reilly says, furrowing their eyebrows at the edged Hairstylist. "LIES!" She screamed at them.
"Oh? Then tell us if this story is wrong..." Reilly began.
"The culprit was shaken by something... maybe a motive that involved Leslie, and decided to get arid of her once and for all. The culprit planned their deed when they fled the group after we agreed to not look at the motives and secretly did in their room. They planned and up a brilliant plan in motion by pretending they were doing something to apologize to Leslie for their outburst.
They would've had free access to her cabinet with her guard down but was not expecting to be another in the room, so they had to cover the label to sneak it out. As they made the cookies, revealed to be the cause of the death, they added the entire bottle of fentanyl. When they were done and saw Leslie walking by, they called her over and gave her the cookies. Knowing the Fentanyl became effective slowly through time, the culprit had enough time to gather everything that would point to them as the culprit and dispose of it.
Just before Leslie's death, the culprit reentered Leslie's office, mid overdose attack, they went into the cabinet again to get arid something, but accidentally knocked the liquid beside it over in their haste. In their hurry, they closed the cabinet door just as Leslie died as they planned. The culprit quickly set it up so it looked like a stabbing, removed all DNA from the floor, and dumped the cookies into the trash, hoping nobody would notice. They fled the scene, forgetting the liquid spilt in the cabinet."
"It would've been a brilliant plan if you had fixed the flaws you left behind... Jessica Hall." After Reilly finished, Jessica looked horrified mixed with guilt. "Well? Anything to say?" They asked the stricken girl. "I..." Jessica couldn't form any words, she was too in shock at how flawless Reilly's deduction was.
"I rest my case," Reilly says quietly. "Jess... why...? Leslie was a friend to you..." Eamon began to ask.
"BECAUSE SHE LIED TO ME!" Jessica shrieked at Eamon, making him recoil at her risen voice. She was furious at the accusation. Mostly at herself, evident by her tears. "... Leslie promised me that she would help with the breakthrough at school. I DISCOVERED it, and SHE TOOK THE CREDIT! She LIED to me!" Jessica cried. "or should I say HE lied to me!" she seethed. "Fuhuhu! I'd say that was an intense trial! The reason why Jessica was so torn about it was that she was supposed to become a Gifted Doctor, not Leslie. However, due to her decision, Leslie took the credit and paved her path over Jessica's hopes of becoming a doctor." Monoia revealed the secret, making everyone either pity Jessica, who stood there ashamed or looked at Leslie's stand with grim expressions. "Another little tidbit is that Leslie is a Transgender Female! She transitioned in Middle School and that's when Jessica and Her met!" Monoia added quickly. "So... Leslie was a he this entire time?!" Shimoda asked. "technically... Leslie is still a she. Leslie is a Male to Female transgender human." Kaname corrected the blue-haired girl. "Right... my bad." She sighed.
"Now then! Let's begin the vote! Everyone must vote for the culprit, and whoever has the most votes, will be either proven guilty or innocent!" Monoia exclaimed. "W-Wait! If Jessica is guilty, she S-Shouldn't have to be punished!" Eamon exclaimed, but Monoia ignored his cry.
Everyone looked down at the sudden voting system that appeared in front of their stands and pressed a name labelled button out of the sixteen names.
Like a bingo, they watched the screen to reveal that Jessica was guilty. "Fuhuhu! It is decided! Jessica Hall is Guilty of the murder of one Leslie Kindlewood!" Monoia declares to the fifteen students. "Jess..." - "I'm sorry... Eamon... we're not getting out of here alive together..." Jessica apologized to the ginger friend of hers across the way, tears picking up in her eyes. "IIIIIIIIIIT'S PUNISHMENT TIME!" Monoia says, smacking a red button.
Jessica nervously looked at the crowd of her former friends and sweatdropped as a wire suddenly wrapped around her neck, and wrists, dragging her away towards a curtained doorway. Eamon screamed as he reached out to her, pleading for her mercy, as she disappeared through the door.
In a second, Jessica was in a dark room, with only a spotlight illuminating her form in the vast room. Monoia appeared with scissors in his hand, and like darts, he began throwing them at her. Jessica kept trying to dodge them, but due to the wire, it barriered some of her movement, causing some to grazed her skin as they flew by, causing the wounds to bleed. Then, the room lit up and revealed scissors in the same wire that was around her neck and wrists. Her eyes widen as the scissors began whipping around by an unknown force, purposely littering her body with cuts and grazes over her body, until one impaled her through her stomach, making her cough blood as it poured from her stomach like a faucet, her eyes widening as they cried blood.
She weakly met eyes with Reilly, who looked at her in apology. "I'm sorry... get them out of here... and survive... for me..." she whispered to them as she soon fell limp, her eyes losing the shine and life in them, only to have an empty, dull force in them.
The fourteen surviving students stared at the devastating execution their friend went through. Eamon let out a wail as Summer hugged him as she cried herself. Reilly looked at the two, then back at Jessica's body hanging in the air by the wire, now lifeless as the blood from her body dropped onto the floor in small droplets, which soon grew into small puddles. Kim stopped beside them and the two don't say anything until Reilly opened their mouth to speak.
"This place... is the doom of us all..." Is all they say to Kim, as the Korean sadly agreed. "It is... how many more lives are we going to lose?" He asked. "I don't know.. I don't want to know... I just want to get out of here." - "everyone does. But I know we will." Kim says, sharing a facial expression exchange with Reilly, but they nod in agreement. "You're right... everyone is always right..." they trail off, enveloping the room with silence, save for the cries of everyone. Monoia watched Kaname with a sideway's glance from far behind him, a grin etching it's way onto the child's face at the other's reactions.
Survivors: 14
"I can hear you, Monoia." The male voice spoke in the dark cafeteria, feeling the kid's presence behind him.
"I know you can, Liz. How much longer are you going to 'pretend' to be a good boy?" Monoia asked the blue-eyed boy, who was not pleased with his ally's presence. "Long enough until they radiate the heartbreak, and hopelessness I felt. Then I'll reveal myself. Just relax, and play along until that day comes, got it? After all, it was you who forced me to come back against my very own will." He says in an annoyed tone.
"Okay, Okay. But you better watch your back, because it might backfire on you~" - "I'm confident that it'll work out according to plan." He says. "Now go away. You're bothering me." He grumbled. "Fine." Monoia sighed as he disappears into the kitchen, leaving the mysterious person alone. He grinned evilly as he held a black cloth scrunched up in his hand. He began laughing quietly to himself.
"Oh, I'm sure it won't backfire. I know it won't."
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