Despair's last gambit

Chapter 3- Pain runs deep

Blake and Kichiro left Brooke to tend to Ciara's body, as the only female of the group they felt it would be best for her to keep watch over the body; meanwhile they would travel to the others and inform them of her death. Soon after they left,  Brooke peeled back the coat which was covering Ciara's body to see for herself that she was really dead; Until now she had been too scared to even try but she needed to know for certain that there was no hope she was still alive. Touching her ice cold hand was all she needed to do to confirm she was gone forever; as she held up Ciara's arm she caught sight of her bangle "NG code: taking off any item of clothing." Flashed across the screen. Brooke sighed and positioned Ciara so that her hands were draped across her chest before covering her again.

Only a few minutes passed before Nizey and Shinsuke entered, neither seemed to be in a talkative mood and both made their way to the body silently before they pulled the coat away in tandem and knelt to examine her corpse. "Strangulation, a slow and painful demise." Nizey surmised, "the traitor obviously wants us to suffer in here." Shinsuke responded. Mieko and Ayako were the next to arrive, Ayako was about to shut the door but stopped himself and looked out at the hallway, watching as Lily walked towards them and entered nervously. Shinsuke and Nizey turned to the new arrivals, "they weren't lying, she really is dead." Was all they saw fit to say to them. The others came in slowly across the next few minutes, each one taking their time to confirm that what they had been told was correct. Yuko was distraught at the sight of her dead body she turned around to embrace Mieko but instead Mieko caught her hands and assured her they would make it out alive. Shinsuke opened his mouth about to say something but stopped himself at the last second, accidentally drawing attention and cursory glances. Sayuri instead addressed the room, "there must be some way of finding out who the traitor is before they can strike again." She said ponderously.  Kazuo looked around and his gaze lingered on Lily who had her head bowed looking at the floor, "is there something you'd like to say?" He asked, "ummm, y-y-yes" she said shivering, everyone turned to face her which made her shrink even further into herself. She stood there silent as everyone began to grow impatient, "so what is it?" Nizey asked angrily, he was an intimidating man; quite tall, with fiery red hair and dressed most often in all black apparel. The tattoo of a wolf head on his hand reminding everyone of his youth spent in Fenrir and his lethal combat skills. Lily somehow shrank even further into herself, " I..I...I mean I...I.. I have nothing to say!" She said stammering before blurting out the last few words. Everyone was taken aback at her sudden outburst and the silence only made the next noise all the more gut wrenching.

Lily's bangle made a short jingle before she hunched over and collapsed to the ground. Her failure to lie in response to Nizey's question had proved her demise.

Everyone gathered round her and Ayako frantically attempted to get her breathing again, Juvi even handed over his Kunai in the hope he could perform some rudimentary surgery there and then, but nothing any of them did could save her. Lily was the first victim of the forbidden actions. Nizey was frozen to the spot, unable to say anything until finally he began to walk out, cadence tried to pull him back but at less than five feet tall she was unable to hinder him. It was only when Blake grabbed onto him that Nizey was forced to stay; Aiko asked what everyone was thinking "where are you going? We should stick together." She said trying to be as convincing as possible, Nizey threw off Blakes arm with some difficulty "you're all liabilities to me." He shouted at them as he pulled back his sleeve exposing his bangle and everyone else paused to read it "NG code: witnessing a murder." Nizey then continued "being around you people could get me killed! I don't care what the rest of you do but I'll be investigating on my own from now on. One of you is a killer and a traitor and until I know who I can't trust any of you." He said passionately, Aiko tried to interject and say that if they would stay together they would be safer but Nizey waved her away "Lily just died in front of all of us, there's no safety in numbers; she died all because I asked her a question and I'm not taking the chance one of you might cost me my life." He said storming out.