The moonlight washed the Academy in its picturesque glow. It hovered over the city, casting shadows in its wake, its silvery form spilling over the insignificant stream flowing across the ground.
Three figures hung below the moon like a pretty painting. Yet in that pretty painting, blood flowed. Like a beauty turned horror, the red blood shone in its vicious light.
A figure raised his head high as he bellowed to the moon. An indecipherable pattern of blood stuck to his shirt, a trail running across his arm. In the moonlight, the figure looked more beast than man.
Then the screams turned to tears and the man emerged from the beast. A murderer. But a man nonetheless.
Jace rose, still heaving. His legs felt heavy, so so heavy. He stumbled forward, aware of the heavy liquid dripping off his shirt.
He moved forward. A step, then two, before collapsing to the ground. "How?"
The young boy's mutterings were whispers made aloud by the quiet of the night. Jace raised his arms, the blood dripping a drown as he questioned the night, himself, maybe even anyone in the vicinity. "Why?"
Jace's eyes rested on the blood spread across the ground, staining his legs. His eyes trailed the stream, heading closer to the source as his eyes welled. A tooth lay in the middle of the stream, its white glimmering in the river of red.
A few metres away, a small orb lay. It was doused in the viscous liquid–the actual object undistinguishable. Jace's gaze moved onward as his eyes caught sight of the bully's face–if it could even be called a face.
Jace's eyes shifted to the ground as he whirled, unable to take in the sight. He muttered slowly, the words spilling forth from his lips. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
The words came out faster yet Jace couldn't stop. He couldn't take another glance, couldn't move, couldn't even cry, all he could say was sorry. All he could do was apologize. All he could do was–"I SAID I WAS SORRY!"
Jace's voice fell. His lips mumbled ceaselessly yet no sound could be heard. Finally, Jace stopped. He inhaled deeply as he forced himself to turn.
His eyes drifted back to the dead student's body, to his face. A wave of disgust rose as Jace forced it down, steeling himself as he gazed at the damage he had caused.
The bully's head was caved in, bones sticking out from his skin. A little puddle of blood lay gently on his face, obscuring the rest of his features.
Jace let out a shaky breath as he muttered with a sense of finality. "I'm sorry,"
And with that, he turned and left. Behind him the corpse of the young boy who had once considered himself unkillable.
● ● ●
"This place's a shit show," The woman exclaimed as she nodded at Bill's body.
Wearing a simple dress with a necklace around her neck and gloves on her wrist, she looked vastly out of place with the blood.
"Warned you not to come out looking like you were going for prom."
The man who spoke walked behind her. Unlike her, he was wearing a simple lab coat and was carrying a large black box.
"When that old fart called me and said he wanted to talk, of course I would dress like this. Didn't even consider my feelings."
She spoke slowly, her voice and tone emotionless. She frowned as she gazed at the body, rapping her finger against her leg.
The man knelt beside Bill, his knee causing a ripple in the puddle of blood, as he analyzed Bill's body.
"Found anything?" The woman asked as she walked over to where the student lay. Throughout the events of the night, he had remained unconscious.
"DNA or blood samples can't be used to find the culprit of this murder."
"Why?" The woman asked as she prodded the student's cheek with a pen to see no reaction.
"The blood. With the amount of bone damage this guy suffered and the way his skull caved in. It's highly likely the murderer used his fists."
And with the way the bone pops out from the victim's skin, it's highly likely he cut his hand. The problem is the blood has mixed."
"Can't you try analyzing?" The woman asked as she felt the student's body, an action that could be interpreted by many in some other way.
"Too tiring. If even a fraction of it goes wrong or there's one inconsistency, and it's some super rich kid that we identify as the murderer then we're losing our jobs."
"Fingerprints?"
The man gazed at her feeling through the student's body as he snapped. "Don't touch him so much!"
Sighing, he continued "There's blood everywhere. You really think we're getting an accurate fingerprint."
The woman exhaled as she turned to her partner. "So we're using that."
He shrugged. "Pretty much"
She sighed heavily, nodding to the unconscious student. "Wake him up. We can ask him first."
The man walked over to the student still lying on the floor beside the corpse. He felt the student's pulse just as the woman's sharp voice declared. "You can wake up already. I know you're awake."
The student trembled for a second before slightly opening one eye. He noticed the face of the man glaring overhead and almost instantaneously distanced himself.
"You knew he was awake?" The man asked, staring in fascination at the trembling now–awake boy. Her answer was a snort.
"Who—uhm, Wat are you doi–Who are you?" The student questioned as the man smiled disarmingly.
"You can call me Jake, and her–" He motioned to his partner. "Rue. We were called by the General to investigate…"
He motioned to the dead body "That."
The student almost jumped as his eyes met the body. He spoke hurriedly, the words stumbling out his mouth. "Holy shit, is that Bill? He's dead, someone killed him. That's impossible, downright crazy, unless its the legacies then that makes sense but why kill, why in the back of the library, unless its a plot, a conspiracy. It's prob–"
"Uhmm," Jake asserted, breaking the student's train of thought as Rue sighed.
"Get the kid out of here. He's nothing but a troublemaker,"
The student protested vehemently "But I can help. I spent two years helping my local head solve crimes and he even named me a Honorary Member of the Punishment Enforcers Ma–"
"That position doesn't exist." Jake cut blankly as he rose. He stretched out his arm as the student grabbed onto it and lifted himself up
"Go. Don't tell anyone what you saw today. Just go."
The student hurried away, stopping for a moment to turn only for his eyes to meet Rue's and for him to turn back, whistling an imaginary tune. A second later, he was gone.
Rue watched the student leave before saunteering over to Bill's corpse. Stretching forth her hand, she declared "Oh Goddess of Death, release this humble soul for a simple moment."
Behind her, Jake shook his head, muttering on about "saying lines to look cool" and "wasting too much money on her 'goddess'"
As if a switch had been turned on, what looked like a hologram suddenly appeared on Bill's body, flickering in and out of existence. Finally, it solidified to reveal a gray see–through figure, Bill.
Rue probed slowly "We don't have much time so tell us. Who killed you?"
The ghost's expression morphed from confusion to hatred "I don't rem…No, I do. It was Jace, that hateful Jace. I saw him once, in the courtyard. I marked his face. It was him. Next time, I'll kill him. Next time I'll–"
He stopped as choked sobs echoed through the night. "He was smiling. He was smiling"
Finally, terror struck. He pleaded. "Don't let him meet me. Please. I can't see him, not like this. Plea–"
"Unfortunately you won't be meeting him," Rue spoke as she pinched the bridge of her nose "You're dead."
Bill's expression twisted as he yelled "No, I'm not dead. I can talk, I'm alive. I can still com–"
His soul flickered out of existence with a tiny spark, leaving the two Investigators. "Jace uh, I'll inform the general. Maybe this time he'll give us a good review."
Jake nodded as the two walked away, unaware of the two glowing green orbs in the darkness trailing them.
"They've found him. What do you want me to do?" The owner of the green eyes whispered into the night, his tone playful.
"Leave it. Let them take it to the military. It serves our purpose." The cold voice echoed out of a small metal stuck into the green eyes's ear.
"And the two guests?"
The cold voice hesitated before the command came through "Let them meet their employer. Afterwards…"
A soft sigh rang out as the cold voice continued "They can't be allowed to roam free with a secret of this magnitude."
The playful voice whispered into the night "I see,"
And then the two orbs vanished into the night, the only shining light The Moon.