Dying Light (a danganronpa fanfiction)

-5-

-Marina's POV-

I silently walked toward the cafeteria, Verity's footsteps pattered gently on the floor behind me. The image of Kat's body was burned into my mind. I couldn't wrap around my head around the whole thing. It couldn't be real.. My best friend, my only friend, since I was four.. She couldn't be dead. I saw her body with my own two eyes, but I couldn't bring myself to accept it. I didn't know how I could handle losing another person..

I hadn't realized it, but I'd arrived at the cafeteria. I nearly tripped over a chair. "O-oh, we're here." I said. Damn, my voice sounded even more pathetic than usual.. I suppose that can't be helped though, and this was no time to be feeling sorry for myself. Verity stopped next to me. "You can just sit down, dear. I'll make you some tea. Do you have a favorite kind?" I shook my head. "T-this is just a cafeteria though.. Where are y-you going to get the stuff to make tea?" I tried to speak carefully, but my stupid stutter still came through. It got worse when I was nervous or scared, and you can imagine how I was feeling in that moment, so it was really prominent.

"There's a kitchen through that door." Verity said, pointing at a pair of sliver double-doors across the dim cafeteria. "Oh, I see." I said, sitting down in the chair I nearly tripped over. "Just stay here, I'll be right back." He said, walking toward the two doors.

As I sat alone in the dark room, I laid my head on the table and stifled sobs. Someone at this school had murdered Kat. And for what? What kind of motive could they possibly have? We didn't even know if there was an easy way out yet. What if we could just walk off campus? Why would we need to walk off campus with one less person?

The doors to the kitchen were  pushed open, briefly spilling light across the floor before snapping shut. Verity walked out of the kitchen holding two cups of tea, one with a straw in it. "Here you are. I got you a straw because I assumed it would make it easier to drink, what with your mask and all." He said, putting the cup with the straw on the table in front of me. I nodded, as he was right. If I had to drink in front of others, I would always use a straw. He took a sip of his tea and stared into the cup, narrowing his eyes. I brought the straw to my lips and was about to take a sip as well, when I realized it smelled like peaches. I can't stand the taste of peaches, so I just pretended to take a sip as to not be rude and set the cup back down.

"How're you feeling?" He said finally. "Not great." I said, sniffling. "I understand.." He said, his voice was filled with so much sorrow. I wondered why, as he never knew Kat. I wondered why he was being so kind to me, someone that people usually overlooked. He seemed like a very empathetic person to me. He looked up from the tea and brushed a strand of gray hair out of his eyes. "I'm sorry. Do you want to talk about her? I've heard that sometimes that can help people with loss."

"Y-yeah, sure.." I said. I laughed quietly despite the circumstances. "Heh, i-it's funny.. She said t-that exact same thing to me back when we first m-met, after my sister died.. You two h-have a lot in common, you know? Y-you're both very kind, and empathetic. K-Katherine was just m-more.. energetic, I guess." Verity's eyes had a weird sadness to them as I spoke. "Oh, I wouldn't say that.."

-Erwin's POV-

I stumbled back from the door. "Melanie, you.. Your dress! Don't tell me you.." The dress was splattered all over with pink. Was Melanie really the murderer? Did she really do that bad of a job cleaning up?

"Quiet. I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about but you've got it wrong. I was performing a blood ritual in order to contact the spirits here and see if they could assist us in escaping, but I spilled the blood as I was carrying it." She said, smoothing out her dress as she spoke, her tone was deadpan and annoyed.

"Oh.." I said, though doubt still swirled in my mind. "Where on earth did you get the blood??" Alex said from next to me, stepping forward. "Calm yourself, it's pig's blood. The ritual would've worked better with human blood, but I doubt I could've found a willing volunteer." 

"And may I ask why you have pig's blood with you?" Lowella chimed in from behind us. To that Melanie just shrugged. "Never leave home without it." 

"See what I mean about this girl freaking me out??" Alex said, turning to look at the rest of us. "Say what you want about me, I don't care. Now what are you guys knocking for anyways?" Melanie said, opening her door slightly wider, but still clutched the doorknob as if she was prepared to close it if she thought we weren't worth her time. 

"Uh... I don't know if you knew but.. Katherine is dead." I said with as much confidence as I could muster, which wasn't much. Melanie narrowed her eyes. "I see.. that explains why I felt an anxious presence tonight. But what does that have to do with anything?"

I was taken aback by how casual she was, but continued anyways. "We need your help investigating." 

"Ah, why didn't you just say so? Just give me a second to change into something that isn't.. covered in blood." With that, she closed the door. 

"That girl.. She wasn't even phased by the news." Trina said quietly, but her voice was coursing with anger. 

"And do you guys really buy that whole 'pig's blood' crap?!" Alex said, his tone frustrated.

"Hey hey, let's give her the benefit of the doubt. Save the accusations for the trial. Although I will admit it's odd that she wasn't surprised.." Cynthia said, trailing off. 

The door cracked open and Melanie stepped back out, her dress now clean. "Right, now where are we investigating?"