Panic Room

Chapter 7: 'Man of Poison'

"Y-you did kill him! Why else would you have that?!" Ari whisper-yelled, catching the attention of Claire, who narrowed her eyes at them.

"Shush, Ari, let me explain, you're drawing attention." Juno hushed, looking back to see Claire staring at the two of them.

"No kidding! You're a murderer and trying to blame it on the victim's best friend!" She retorted, although having lowered her voice a bit.

"You're trying to blame Axel?" Claire asked, now crouching down next to the two.

"Hey, we gave you the chance to be in on our plan and you refused. Scram." Juno growled, Claire merely rolling her eyes and glancing at Ari.

"Well now I'm interested, and if you're guilty? I can get outta here faster- whoa wait is that poison?!" Claire asked, scooting back as Juno sighed a bit, loudly.

"I found it in one of the books!" He suddenly said, both girls facing him as he held it up again.

"When the detective came in with you, Ari, I noticed a book seemed a little out of place. They were all in alphabetical order, expect this one was a 'M' in the middle of a bunch of 'J' books."

Juno told them, nudging his head to where he'd found the book, and sure enough it was there.

"What's your point? Someone probably just misplaced it, what does it have to do with a fucking bottle of poison?!" Claire asked, standing up quietly, going over to where the misplaced book was.

"Just open the book." Juno told her, Ari tilting her head to the side to see what was happening as Juno watched Claire closely.

Claire hesitated, biting her lip a bit before slowly grabbing the book, pulling it off the shelf and inspecting it.

She felt confusion wash over her, the book was way too light for its size.

Glancing over at Juno for a moment, she opened the book, inhaling a sharp breath as she nearly dropped the thing.

"It's..."

She paused as Juno walked over to her, gently taking the book and flashing it over to Ari.

"Hollow." They all said, their three gazes on the book.

Juno took the bottle of poison again and dropped it into the empty containment of the book, closing the cover on it.

Handing it back to Claire, she stared in both realization and horror.

"It, looks like a normal book. It feels normal." She whispered.

"I know." Juno said, crossing his arms and holding out his hand as Claire slowly gave the book back to him.

"I need someone to get me to the panic room."

Claire and Juno both snapped out of their trance like state, looking over at Ari who'd stood up.

"What why?" Claire asked, taking a step towards Ari while Juno looked at her with a genuine questioning look.

"The blood, the officers chalked the body right?" Ari asked frantically, worried that she wouldn't have enough time to go through her plan as Axel and Kira should be back soon enough.

"Yeah..." Juno trailed off before gasping, grabbing Ari's arms.

"If he was poisoned he would've coughed up blood! We need to see if and where the blood is. You're right, one of us needs to get into the room."

"It has to be Ari." Claire said, nodding at the now very confident looking girl.

"She's so quiet, the officers hardly notice her. Juno, if we cause a scene she could sneak out for a moment."

Juno nodded, turning to Ari.

"Go."

He then turned around and smacked Claire, hard.

"HEY WHAT THE HELL!" She screamed, all the officers turning to look at the two as Ari quickly faded into the shadows like she normally does.

"You bitch! I told you to not ask questions about me!" Juno yelled back, starting up trouble as he flashed a look at Ari while the officers all ran over to where Claire was as she tried to punch Juno.

Ari took a deep breath, pushing open the door which was normally crowded, and bolting down the corridor.

"C'mon, where was it?!" She found herself back in front of the now very empty ballroom.

Inhaling quickly, she closed her eyes for a moment and tried to remember where she had headed earlier that night.

Following her instincts, she as fast as possible, fled down the most familiar hallway, stopping when she saw police tape around a room.

"Frick!" She whisper yelled seeing two officers by the door still, talking about something casually.

That was until a loud beeping noise started going off.

One grabbed their walkie-talkie form their belt, and began talking into it as the other watched suspiciously. An angry look growing on his face before he closed the phone and turned to say something to the other, before both running off.

"Good timing." Ari mumbled, quickly making her way into the panic room, trying to contain herself as she felt even more terror settling into her bones.

"Light, light, light..." She mumbled as she searched for a light switch, giving up after a moment and just squinting in the dark room. Her only light source being from the hallway outside the door, she saw where the thick chalk lines were on the floor.

Quietly stepping towards it her eyes trailed the lines as she searched for where the head would be.

As she found it, she took in a stuttering breath, digging her fingers into her palms as she kneeled down slowly.

And as quickly as she had entered the room, she fled.

She found her answer, her mind and heart racing as adrenaline filled what felt like every vein in her body as she raced back towards where she hoped was the library Juno and Claire were still in.

Zakou had definitely, been poisoned.

And she was certain it had been done by a particular boy in blue.

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Unedited

Word Count: 1022 

Hello again! Thank you all for over 400 reads!! I honestly don't know how to thank you for the support! But, see you next chapter, have a great day/night!

Also, don't worry, the story is far from over ;))