Whoodunit Pt. 3

An alarm was blaring, all were being instructed to report to their classrooms immediately. Violet turned her head in bed, observing the time, 08:45am. Fifteen minutes before their second task would begin. Well she would be the only one in their classroom that was aware of the second task. Taking care to look as if she was in a hurry and had no idea what was going on, Violet was one of the first into the classroom. She sat it her usual seat, she knew it would be uncomfortable but that 'shouldn't' matter. Alex took the seat next to her as usual, but there was no morning greeting. Surprisingly, Kieren was the last to arrive -apart from James- much to the angst of the rest, who kept looking to the door. Several of Foxglove's members looked towards Violet, it was obvious a rift had formed. Alex had never been this quiet before, Ted and Tom kept shooting glances in Violet's direction, and Zen had not removed his eyes from the door. Violet met scornful eyes straight on, threatening them to speak up, they looked away.

Kuznet's voice rang out into the room, "Unless you're incompetent, you should have realized that one of you is missing. They've been murdered by someone in this very room." Unease filtered through the air, "umm, Captain Kuznet..." Alice asked, "murdered in earnest? Or murdered for the sake of a task?"

"Who knows, at exactly 09:00 you are released, there will be instructions in each of your rooms. You have exactly seven days to find the murderer, you must provide incriminating proof. You cannot, under any circumstance use your abilities. Use your brains, if you have any." He left.

All eyes looked to the clock, nine minutes until release time. Ivan who was usually with James spoke up, "James is missing." He looked terse, "If one of you really killed him, you'll be answering to me." Silence followed his proclamation, all eyes returned to the clock. It was another pointer to the fact that something was wrong when Kieren who usually took charge, remained silent, eyes to the window.

The clock hit nine and relief swept into the air as Kieren called out, "We meet outside of James room with each of your letters. You have five minutes."

Violet looked to her floor, another generic letter with her description as James fiancé had been delivered. She met the rest of them in front of James door. Alice and Aiko approached her quietly, "Violet? Are you alright? You're not..." they looked toward Kieren's group. "I'm perfectly fine." Violet replied with a yawn. "Well, if you need anything," Aiko continued with a small smile, "let us know, we don't care... you know..." Violet was pleasantly surprised, she smiled at the girls in earnest, causing Alice to blush. "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind."

When Kieren arrived they entered James' room. Ivan, Mika, and Bret raced to James body, while everyone else looked around in surprise. "He's... he's not breathing!" Mika exclaimed, "someone real-"

"He's not dead," Zen interrupted, "it would be fruitless to actually kill him."

Zen divided them into two groups, one would be in charge of wiping down James and finding the wound or cause of 'death'. The other would clean the room and find hints. Zen placed Violet in the 'find clues' group along with them. Violet felt a surge or annoyance but suppressed it. She set to tidying up the room while ignoring the glances from the twins. Kieren had not looked at her once. She had partially expected to be kicked out from the academy, so the silent treatment was perfectly splendid. Twenty minutes later Foxglove had found nothing, there was no injury, no telltale sign that he had even been damaged. Kieren was standing by the door, he had not moved once, Zen took over again. "There has to be something, this is preposterous!" Alex, annoyed of being on the clues team, and finding nothing, moved over to James body. She started removing his shirt and pants, ignoring the protests from Mika and Ivan. "What! We aren't going to find anything unless we look you turds."

Kieren sighed, "You're all worthless, we were each given a role, start there. I'm his best friend, I have come to ensure he doesn't leave his will to, and I quote," he looked to his paper. "His worthless, spineless, sleazy, and for good measure, whore of a fiancé. Which one of you is that?" Violet laughed drawing everyone's gaze, she flipped open here paper. "Present in the flesh."

Well? Jeck demanded, approaching Violet, "did you kill him?"

Violet shrugged, "sure, why not? Although by the sounds of my letter, I have him wrapped around my finger. I'm sure the will has my name on it. Who are you Jeck?" Jeck looked awkward, "I'm.. a business partner, I've been trying to convince him not to release his latest invention."

Sam whistled while looking at his letter, "I bet we all look guilty. I'm his cousin, been hiding in his shadow all my life and only showed up for in case he leaves me something. I also have a grudge against Kieren." Sam froze looking to his letter. He cleared his through and almost whispered, "something about him being an awful best friend because I caught him sleeping with James fiancé..." Eyes darted between Violet and Kieren, Violet shrugged, "wrapped around my finger." She moved closer to James, poking him in the face. Alex who was looking through his clothes gasped pulling out hairs, "These are mine... and I found this pen and this lipstick?"

An irked Violet claimed the pen, "this is mine." Alex nodded, "whose lipstick is this?" Nobody claimed the lipstick, and suspicious glances were shared around the room. Violet had guessed that Mika would panic. She bit back a smile.

Almost an hour later, they were no closer to an answer than they had been in the classroom.

With a sudden groan James opened his eyes. Ivan gasped and helped him sit up, all at once voices chimed in demanding answers to questions James could not hear. James looked around in confusion. Tom crouched down, glaring at everybody to shut up. "What time did they get you?" After some time James opened his mouth, voice raspy and sore he croaked out, "before midnight, I think." He closed his mouth and gasped in surprise. "Urggg!!" He made a gagging sound, and tried to spit something out. Tom shoved his fingers in his mouth pulling out a sliver of purple and foam, "Motherfucker! It's an numbing pill! Quickly James, do you remember anything? Anything at all?" James however was not listening, he was panicking, he gripped Tom's arms breaths coming out in terrified gasps, "igm allergk.. alar.. aller." Understanding dawned on Zen's face. "He's allergic to the pill! Violet heal him." Violet shook her head, "I can't-"

"You worthless dirty bitch," Ivan cut in advancing with his arm raised. "What are you good for then?" Violet stared him down unbothered, "Kuznet said no powers, moron. Why don't you stop wasting my time and carry him to the infirmary since you care so much?"

James had passed out again so they did, they all stood, now crowding the infirmary. Ivan still irate that Violet had refused to heal him, snapped in her direction. "Well we have a time of 'murder' where were you between 10:00 and 12:00 last night?"

"She was in the gymnasium," it was Alice who had answered, "I was there as well, she arrived at like 9:30, we walked in together and she was still there past midnight because that's when I left and she was sparring with Shou." Violet felt Kieren's eyes flash in her direction, she ignored it. Zen, a pen and notebook in hand, asked that everybody present an alibi. He took careful notes, Ivan was still glaring at Violet when he declared that he had been in the food hall until 11:00 and that there were several people who could prove it. With only Kieren left to answer there were five, Mika included, who could not provide a solid alibi and they all looked nervous. "I don't have anybody who can prove where I was." Eyes turned in shock to Kieren. He stared back, "I was alone."

Technically that was not true, not that he would be sharing. He had been so overwhelmed by Violet's reply, that he had driven to his house. Jace had been shocked to see him and even more alarmed when Kieren headed towards the bunker. As a child born with more power than he could at one point handle, his family had ensured that most places he visited had a bunker. Kieren had always been prone to fits of rage in which his power exploded out of him destroying everything in its path. He had locked himself in the bunker and proceeded to let wrath take over. An hour and a half later Jace had entered to find Kieren laid out on the floor confusion and sadness clouding his handsome face. Jace was different from the rest of the group, he answered only to Kieren and technically had no ties to the Ruenen. Kieren had saved him and given him life. He had always been the only true confidant Kieren had ever had. He had tapped Kieren on the arm once and said, "whatever you need I'll do it, if it's something only you can do, do it. You've never let anybody tell you no before, not even the Ruenen lords."

Kieren returned to the present eyes settling over Violet, Jace's voice echoing in his mind. "I was alone."