Game On (An oc x DRV2 au)

Chapter Twenty-Six

There's something so much eerier when a body is suspended as opposed to just limp on the floor. It just... makes it seem so much more like a ragdoll. A puppet on strings. And it gets even eerier when the victim's own flute is lodged into his chest.

I'm frozen in spot, no noise coming out of my mouth. My heart thumps loudly in my chest. I have so many questions- when? How? Why? WHO??

As these thoughts swirl in my head, I realize how quiet it is. Too quiet. I mean, there's no screaming, but by now we'd also have heard-

Wait a minute.

"The body discovery announcement hasn't gone off!" I realize, horrified as it dawns on me. "He's still alive!"

"What??" Caim exclaims.

Dana grabs the chair and gets up on it, gently reaching out and checking Iris's wrist for a pulse. "No, she's right. I can still feel his heart beating."

"Wee-woo! Wee-woo! Get 'em to the emergency room before someone becomes the blackened!" Monokumace orders from the loudspeaker. "You don't want another trial, do ya?"

Will runs to her side, carefully positioning himself next to Iris as Dana methodically begins to remove the ropes the flautist is all tangled up in. The videographer catches Iris as the last rope is removed.

"Light as a feather," Will mumbles, adjusting the ash-blonde in his arms before hurrying out of the cottage as fast as he can, Dana hot on his heels.

I stand there for a long minute before a small voice in my head tells me what needs to be done. And that voice sounds an awful lot like Stolas.

"If Iris... y'know... we're gonna have to have a trial," I say to Caim.

He blinks as he processes my words. "Yeah."

"Let's start by figuring out what we can right now." I slowly approach the chair, staring up at the ropes still dangling from one of the wooden ceiling beams.

"How on earth did someone manage to get him all the way up there?" Caim asks, his gaze locked onto the ropes.

"I don't know, but they managed it." I pause. "Not perfectly well, though, because the ropes were loose enough that Will slamming the door too hard caused Iris to roll off."

"I mean, that kind of makes sense.  But the fact that he was all the way up there... There's no ladder, so they must've used some sort of pulley system," he says thoughtfully.

"That still requires some skill," I murmur. "So the killer stabbed Iris and then, knowing they couldn't move it in broad daylight without getting caught, attempted to hide the body where nobody would check. And then that would make it so while everyone would be searching for Iris, they could properly dispose of the body?"

"I guess so. And they wanted to leave as little evidence as possible, so they used the flute as opposed to a knife or something," Caim adds.

"What's going on?" Azrael demands as he appears in the doorway. "I heard commotion and..."

He looks past us towards the chair. "Did he... escape?"

I bite my lip. "Yeah... not quite."

Azrael's expression darkens. "Oh. But I didn't hear the body announcement-" His eyes widen in realization. "He's alive?"

"I hope so," Caim answers.

"W-well, we should go make sure he's okay!" Azrael insists, turning and hurrying down the line of cottages.

Caim and I exchange glances before chasing after the poet, who's definitely regained some speed since cooling off in the hotel lobby. As someone who really isn't that athletic, I'm gasping for breath by the time we breeze through the central island and cross over to the third island. We rush into the hospital, where Dana and Will are exchanging anxious words outside a closed room.