Spade decided it would be better for everyone involved and uninvolved if Xerc and Addie just remained separated. Addie seemed perfectly fine with it, and remained in her dorm for most of the day. Xerc was less than optimistic.

"If you let her go, someone's gonna end up dead," Xerc said to him, visibly angry.

"And if I let you two within five feet of each other, she's gonna end up dead," Spade remarked. "And if she's innocent, that does us no good."

Xerc had stormed off and not talked to anyone since. Spade was somewhat worried for the ultimate artist, but didn't want to bother him if he was angry.

So instead Spade walked with Akik to explore the now open fifth floor. He was very aware of Gradient following them around from the shadows, but he didn't stop him. He was sure Gradient was planning on killing them all at some point, and he already knew he wasn't going to let it happen. Besides, what would picking them off while they were apart do?

The first thing found on the fifth floor happened to be nothing but two different generic classrooms. But beyond that was a hall that led left and right. There was a wall closer to the end of the left hall, so Spade and Akik both took a left.

Down that short hallway was what seemed to be a martial arts dojo. It made Spade think of Anatox, but he shook the thought away. He couldn't focus on the past, not when the future could be short. The two left after a moment and walked across the hallway to find a larger, more expansive room filled with light. As Spade looked up at the ceiling, he almost thought he saw the sky, a crisp, blue expanse above his head. But it wasn't, for it was simply a blue ceiling with clouds painted on it.

"Not even the plants get a clear sky, huh?" Akik said, looking around the room. It was a large garden by the looks of it, filled with flowers and plants of all sorts.

"Monokumadi is ensuring quite well that we don't leave this place," Spade said, observing the room too. "Even five stories up, a window could provide some means of escape, gods forbid."

"You can say that again," Akik sighed.

There wasn't too much in the garden besides the various plants, so Spade and Akik eventually left the room alone and proceeded down the hallway.

There was another classroom at the end of the corridor, at the corner of another hall that went left from there. There was a room at the end, and as the two entered, they found what seemed to be another lab of sorts. Biology, judging by the contents of the glass cabinets.

However, that's not what interested either of them.

"Something's off here," Spade said, more of an aside mutter that Akik could barely make out.

Akik glanced at him. "Hm?"

Spade went further into the room, looking around. There was nothing really remarkable in the biology lab, just various jars and containers of mysterious objects that were probably samples of dead organisms or something. It was silent, like it should be, since no one was here. But there was something off-putting about that silence. Spade didn't quite find it natural, like the air was almost holding its breath in suspense.

He took a step around a lab counter and froze as his eyes met dead, dull blue pupils.

A body lay there. But it wasn't one he recognized. Surely he would remember the odd, pink hue of the body's skin, the odd gills jutting out of the weirdly triangular-shaped head, the long finned tail. Lifeless, unblinking eyes gazed at the ceiling in finally moments of agony. Spade could see why - there was a lot of blood. It looked like someone had beat the crap out of it, then stabbed it twenty times over.

His vision almost... glitched? Spade couldn't describe it. He shook his head, rubbing his temple.

"Akik? You, uh..." he hesitated. "...well, maybe you don't wanna see this but... there's a body over here. And I don't know who it is...?"

Akik peeked over the counter, then recoiled backwards in some mix of disgust, surprise, and fear. He looked sickened.

"...what the hell?" He said, voice wavering.

Spade wanted to reprimand him for at least not being prepared for more death in this wretched hellhole of a school, but knew he'd been through a bit recently and didn't want to add to his mental stew by telling him how he should feel.

"I'll take it you don't know what it is?" Spade said to him.

"I... no, I'd definitely know what that thing was if I'd encountered it at least." Akik stared at it. "Definitely not human, at least. It's beat up pretty bad, though. Someone went all-out here."

It was then that Spade finally realized the silence. Still the same suspenseful silence, but it was wrong now. Monokumadi should have made the announcement by now that a body had been found! Human or not, this was a murder that should probably be solved before its doer struck again. But still no voice sounded over the intercom.

"Should we get everybody, since Monokumadi seems to be unhelpful here?" Spade said.

Akik listened for a moment, as if expecting her to talk on that cue, but nothing happened. He nodded. "Yeahhhh good idea."

Slowly the two made their way out of the room. Spade didn't quite know what to think of the situation. What was that thing, even? It looked almost reptilian, but seemed anthropomorphic. Was it some kind of robot, like they all assumed Monokumadi to be? Then how could it be bleeding out on the floor...?

Spade wanted to push it from his mind, but felt it was best to keep it settling in his thoughts for a bit in case there was something not immediately obvious about the crime scene.

What felt like a thousand flights of stairs later, they made it to the first floor. They found Xerc in his dorm, no surprise there. When they knocked he emerged, seeming like he was sleeping before they'd found him. His hair was more disheveled than usual, his eyes barely visible through her black strands.

"The hell do you want?"

"We found something we thought the group would wanna see," Spade explained to him.

Xerc glared skeptically at him. "Where are the others, then? Last I checked, it was more than you two."

"We're on our was to get Addie now," Spade said. With an annoyed tone he added, "And I know for a fact that Gradient's been following us this entire time."

Xerc didn't respond at first, then nodded, rubbing his eyes. "Sure. Gimme a sec."

He retreated back to his dorm before coming out again a few seconds later, nothing changing besides the sketchbook and pencil now in his hand. Why does he carry it everywhere? Spade decides not to question him.

Soon they all stood in front of Addie's dorm. Spade went to knock on the door, but as his hand made contact with the door, he noticed something. Looking down, he realized that the doorknob was loose. The plate it was on was crooked, revealing the hole through the door where the lock mechanism was hidden.

The lock was broken.

"That's not a great sign," Akik sighed, shaking his head and running his fingers nervously through his hair.

"Agreed," Spade said. He raised his voice a bit. "Addie? Are you alright in there?"

No answer.

He felt bad breaking into her room, but he had probable cause at this point. He pushed the door open, eyes searching the room until he found the sad sight he'd dreaded he'd see.

Black and red spilled from a wound where a silver knife - the very one, it seemed, that Gradient had been carrying around - was buried in flesh. And there was a lot of blood - not only was it splattered all over her blazer, but it pooled around her on the floor, branched out on the wall, and spilled from multiple other stab wounds around her torso. Addie sat limply on the far side of the room, eyes partially rolled back into her head, and without a sound.

They didn't need Monokumadi's announcement to know that Addie was dead.

-

1402 words

Someone killed me :(

Aight who do y'all think did it