Evil Dead

*Artexi moves and puts her arms around Roatha, attempting to pull him away from Azuma*
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Eve:<Taiyo, do you want to go first?>

*Roatha punches Azuma square in the forehead, knocking him out. When Tirea pulls him to his feet, he elbows her in the side with his left arm & pulls a scalpel out of his pocket with his right hand.*
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N"Yeah?"
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*Lilith & Thiera evidently had no comment.*
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Jane<Really. And was Roatha Arelaz with them?>

"Um, can I come in?" Astarte asked, glancing up and down the hall a little nervously. "I don't wanna be in with the others."

"I don't think so, at least, he didn't participate in the violence," Grimm shook his head. "At least one of them took off the moment it started. The last one to go was somebody I didn't actually recognize, a boy with white hair."

*Tirea knees him in the back, still holding on tightly*
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*Awkward silence*

*He proceeds to stab her in the side with a scalpel & starts jerking it around in there.*

R"Is this all you're good for? No wonder you couldn't help them!"
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N"Uh, I guess, but why not?"

*As he speaks, he opens the door.*
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<Really. And if I told you that Roatha is a suspect in the disappearances, you're SURE you wouldn't have any information?>

"Thanks, Taiyo is crying and I didn't feel like sticking around for that," Astarte walked in and looked around. "Now that I think about it, it's kind of messed up that Lilith and Thiera made you stay all alone in here, huh?"

"I'm sorry, but," Grimm paused, caught in a sudden hesitation, then smiled bleakly down at his shoes for a moment. "There's nothing I can do to help with your investigation... If I told you what I believe, you would just call me insane. I have no facts to help you with, there is nothing I can do. Those kids need help, though, officer. They have enemies, closer to them than they realize."

*Tirea ignores him, instead grabbing Roatha's right hand with her own and yanking it away from her side. She continues kneeing him in the back*

N"I didn't think about it. Who was going to stay in here anyway, Roatha?"

*Nero has reddened eyes with bags under them, uncombed hair, sweat spots from sleeping in his clothes, & overall doesn't look very good, not that Astarte is likely a prize herself at this point.*
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Jane<I've heard a lot of crazy stories already. Humor me.>
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*He grabs her right hand & spins, throwing her against the side of Azuma's bed. He then proceeds to run up & kick her hard enough to make the bed lean up on its side, before falling back down. At best, she has the wind knocked out of her, at worst, some of her ribs are broken. He then points at her.*

R"This isn't even a taste of what I'm going to do to you! Know this: A time will come soon when those you consider friends will turn against each other, & my threats become the only words that you can trust! Until then, I'll be watching everything that you do!"

*Roatha heads for the bathroom.*

"You could have slept with us, what's the worst that could have happened, you see a little skin?" Astarte flicked up the hem of her shirt to show her hip a moment, then sat down on the foot of his bed with her legs crossed. Similarly Astarte had bags under her eyes and messy hair, but probably looked better than she had in days due to the odd lack of stress in her face and body. "I guess you didn't sleep too well on your own. That's a shame, you gotta relax somehow, you don't want to burn out."

"As if there were anything you could do even if you believed me- which you won't," Grimm sighed. "Those kids either caused or angered something in the forest, defying human understanding, and whatever you think happened to Roatha Arelaz and the others, the truth is probably stranger. Not even I know. What's more, if you find yourself speaking with their white-haired friend, know that he is likely a prime suspect. That's all."

*Since Taiyo has apparently died, I guess everyone else gets cleaned up*
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*Tirea stays where she lands, breathing heavily*

*Roatha opens the bathroom door, steps inside, & closes it. The lights flick on as the doctor & nurse from before show up. The lights burn Azuma's eyes as they force him back to consciousness.*

Nurse<What happened in here?!>
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<They said something similar. Funny thing is, they said that YOU were involved.>
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"What? I wasn't worried about being attacked in my sleep, or anything like that. They've been ignoring me so far...."

*He didn't really watch her enter, & only now turns to look up at her.*

"Maybe it's a sign that Roatha is regaining control!"

Tirea:<A boy named Roatha attacked us...>

"It could be, who knows?" Astarte leaned back on her elbows and recrossed her legs. "At this point I don't know if I could tell you fact from fiction, though, so I might not be the best one to talk to about that."

"And I've said that they were responsible in the past, but now I don't know what to think of them," Grimm shook his head. "I doubt any of us are completely right."

*The doctor opens the bathroom door.*

Doctor<There...isn't anyone in this room.>

Nurse<And we would have seen him leave. Us or the police all over the building.>
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*Nero looks off to the side.*

"I've been thinking about it...he had to be hiding somewhere with a crematorium, but in the basement--probably abandoned...it had to be the asylum. But even if we went there, what could we do about it?"
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Jane<Say I believed you. If I went into the forest, found the site of the bus crash--what would I find there?>
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*When Eve gets out of the shower, Thiera heads in, but stops to look at her.*

T"We need more information. Could you try to find something, anything about Ira?"

*Eve stops brushing her hair and looks at Thiera, shrugging*

<I could try, however I'm rather doubtful I'll fight anything new.>

*That being said, Eve sits up against a wall and turns on her laptop*
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Tirea:<I know how impossible this is but you have to believe me.>

"Nothing that I know of," Astarte rolled her neck to ease a little tension. "Maybe the professor or that cunt Vanessa will have some ideas. If they do I don't know why they haven't told us already, though. Maybe you'll get a flash of inspiration?"

"I don't know, but I don't recommend it given its history," Grimm began to turn away. "Will that be all?"

Azuma: "Save your breath."

Azuma forces himself to his feet and tries leaving.

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Assuming everyone else had got cleaned up, Taiyo does as well. Outside of the lack of ashes, she doesn't look any better.

*The doctor stands in the doorway & holds out his hands.*

Doctor<Sir, you can't leave right now, there's going to be an investigation & we need to make sure you don't have a concussion.>

Nurse<Can you tell me who, where, & when you are?>
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T"I don't know what you'll find either, but we have to do SOMETHING."

*With that, she heads into the bathroom. Meanwhile, Lilith sits on the bed & undoes her braid in preparation for washing her hair.*

L"I guess Astarte went over to check on Nero."
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N"Someone said something about using radiation to drive Ira out of Roatha, but I'm guessing they don't mean like chemotherapy."
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*She opens her door & starts her car.*

Jane<For the time being, I suppose those are all of my questions, yes.>

*Tirea tries to get back into bed*

<Roatha beat him up pretty bad and stabbed me.>

*She shows the doctor her side*
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*As soon as her computer turns on, Eve checks her email before searching for an archive of local newspapers*

"Maybe if you shot him with one of those special bullets of hers, but then I guess you'd be shooting Roatha," Astarte shrugged, then assumed a pose closer to 'draw me like one of your French girls'. "They say the best thing to do to get fresh ideas is take your mind off it for a while."

"Take care," Grimm went inside the church. Stefan waited until Jane left to follow.

Azuma: "Azuma Huraka, hospital, how the hell should I know? There hasn't exactly been an established timeframe. For all I know, it's October."

*Inside, who else would be sitting on the alter but Roatha?*

R"You know, loose lips sink ships. Are you sure you didn't tell that bitch anything I wouldn't?"
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Doctor<Go check her, I can handle this. You're a bit confused, son, it's almost December.>

*So the nurse heads over to inspect the wound.*

Nurse<It is a stab wound. It's pretty deep, & it looks like it was from a scalpel. It's surrounded by a bunch of lacerations, as though someone was twisting it around.>

Doctor<Can you tell if it was self-inflicted?>

Nurse<It couldn't be. The angle is too steep.>
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*Other than sports, weather, student philanthropy, & updates on the campus, the only story is about the shooting from yesterday. She has received no E-mails aside from the normal ones she'd receive from family, friends, or classes.*
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*Nero watches her suspiciously.*

"...You don't seriously think this can convince me to pull the trigger, do you?"

*Eve then attempts to look through old newspaper archives, searching keywords like, "monster," "asylum," and, "unexplained disappearance." She also opens a new tab and heads to a sight like Ancestry.com or some shit and types in Roatha's name*
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Tirea:<It was a scalpel and that's what he did.>

"Of course I don't expect you to shoot him, and probably nobody else that's left either," Astarte turned onto her back and put her hands under her head, stretching her torso and legs with satisfaction. "I honestly don't care- not about that or any of it. If I came over here with an agenda it wasn't that."

"If she takes anything away from that it is that I make as much sense or less as those moronic kids," Grimm said, and Stefan froze in the doorway behind them. "At best I muddied the issue."

Azuma: "All right, fine. I'm going."