OoC: I just love making the titles easy to refer to. It's fun. It actually sounds like a case name in a video game or something. By the way, for those who may be confused, Con has just met Mark for this roleplay, and Mark would not know anything about Con.

BiC: *------*

“What are you doing? What? No, don’t! Stay away! I-” Stars glimmered in the dark recesses of the night, their faint shining the only witnesses to the horrors that followed. Silence echoed throughout the corridors of the huge mansion, a faint sense of dread penetrating those that were sensitive to it.

*------*

He knocked lightly, opening the door cautiously. After all, he wouldn’t want to wake her up if she still slept, right? His head still throbbed from the lack of shut-eye he had been getting. He knew his share of troubles lately dealing with his insanity and the urges of destruction it sent through his blood. Sometimes he didn’t know what he did. He tried to calm himself. He just needed to check on her, as she was all he had left.

Sure, currently Mark had several others for company in his mansion, as he secretly enjoyed hosting people in the spare rooms, but above them all, there was his sister. He loved her so much, more than anything else in the world. She even rivaled his love for Annabelle, despite this being brotherly, and his feelings for Annabelle romantic.

Mina loved her brother equally, always eager to make him pleased as she brought him home wildflowers, stating, "maybe you can be happy again when you see and smell them like you were. You can think of me while you work and remember I love you, big brother." Her naive and pure intentions melted Mark's own heart every time he looked at her.

“Mina?” he whispered, knowing full well it was quite early in the morning, despite the darkness outside. “Mina, are you awake? I brought you some milk to help you sleep if you need it… Mina?” The glass slipped from his hands, shattering on the ground below, sending shards flying across the wooden floor.

She always loved the cool white drink at night, as it helped her to drift off to her dreams. Mark would sit next to her bed as she drank it, and as long as no one else was around, he sang to her. Mark didn’t have the greatest voice, either. He knew this for sure. Mina, however; seemed to love it, so Mark did everything he could for her. The song she chose was a lullaby their mother would use to lull them to sleep when they were young. He would hum softly as he rubbed her head, running his fingers through her smooth hair, much as he did now.

The only difference between those times, so beautiful and filled with hope, and these, was the pool of blood Mark cradled her in. “Mina… Mina…” He ran his hands through her hair as he always did every night, his fingers becoming shades of red as he did so. “Mina…” He rocked back and forth, clutching her body close to his chest, tilting her back for a moment to look at her face. Oh, her face… “It’s okay, Mina… you’re okay… you’re okay…” his voice cracked as he gritted his teeth, his lips trembling into an expression of untold grief that had not yet been accepted.

“Mina… you’ll be okay… just hold on. Please don’t leave me… please,” he begged in a harsh whisper, clutching her tighter as tears began to escape his eyes, squeezed shut. “Mina, please don’t leave me. I love you so much… I promise that everything will be okay, I promise. You’ll be okay… you can’t… di…” his voice left him into a choked sorrow. He panted in an effort to catch his breath between holding back more sobs. Nothing could express his suffering at this moment, nothing. Finally, unable to hold it in any longer, he tightened his grip on her frail, cold body.

He wailed out loud, tears flowing freely down his cheeks as he rocked with her form in his arms, these arms that should be holding her safely. The heart-wrenching, unintelligible cries of agony that continued from the room were such that Red Hill never had and never would hear again.

He shook violently as he continued to cry, his body wracking with the howls of pain that escaped his lips. “Mina… Mina… Mina, no…” He took her top half of her body into his lap, his legs limply sliding in the blood, staining most of his clothes and his hands. “No…”

*--------------------------------*

“What’s going on?” Selene asked urgently, rocketing up from her sleep and shaking Zorlo, although he seemed to have awoken as well at the horrible sounds a few doors down.

“I don’t know!” Zorlo exclaimed, already up and leaving the room to inspect the mourning sounds of such explicit pain. Along with Zorlo, several others popped their heads out of the doors lining the hallway, following him.

Selene flew past Zorlo after a moment, becoming the first to see the scene. She held a hand to her mouth, gagging as she turned away. She had sensed such a profound hurt, one that overcame her. She fell to her knees, whimpering as tears escaped her eyes, unable to take on the weight of the sorrow that emanated from the room.

Mark still rocked back and forth, holding his sister in his arms; his face caked with tears and blood mingling together, his eyes unable to see and his voice nearly gone from the lamentations, the occasional gasping gurgle noise rising from his throat.

Zorlo just stared at the scene, unable to think or react, as did the others that watched, no one daring to do anything, but all of them probably feeling helpless. This went on for a long time, one which nobody moved in. “Somebody get a doctor!” the fencer finally cried, watching as Con sprinted off. No one would be open this time of night, but someone had to do something.

Selene stood after a few moments. She couldn’t… take this for long. The pace at which she was feeling this overwhelming wave of emotion was causing her uncontrollable pain. “Mark…” she took a step into the room, extending a gloved hand. “Mark… what… come on…” She knew he couldn’t talk about what happened now, but she couldn’t just let him stay here hugging his dead younger sister’s body sitting in her blood, could she? “Mark…” She rested a hand on his shoulder. “Come on… we’ll get this sorted out…” She pulled a little. “But you have to let go…”

“No! No, no!” Mark screamed, clinging to Mina’s body as if it were the last safeguard on the earth. “I won’t leave her! No!” his voice came as cracked squeaks, his breath wheezing. “No! I can’t leave her! No!”

Selene released her hand, backing away. “Mark… oh, Mark… I’m… so sorry… so sorry.”

Time passed, minute after minute, Mark shaking silently, his sobs hardly audible now since he had so little energy left. Zorlo realized Selene was right. They had to get to the bottom of this… to do so… Mark would have to leave Mina. “Mark…”

“I won’t leave her… I can’t…”

Con returned, looking at Zorlo. The two would have to drag Mark away… for his own health, both mental and physical. They approached and each hooked an arm under Mark’s, pulling with a firm, yet sympathizing grip.

“No! No! I can’t leave her! Let me go! No!” Mark extended a hand towards Mina’s body as it slumped lifeless in the pool of blood next to her bed. “Let me go!” Jackie shut the door as they passed, Con indicating to her to do so, locking it. His eyes widened as he dragged Mark to the hallway, letting him fall.

Mark pushed Zorlo and Con aside, hurling himself at the door, clawing as if he were a wild animal. “Mina! Mina, no! Mina! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! Mina… Mina!” He finally slumped, gagging. He threw himself at the opposite door which was the bathroom, promptly throwing up in the sink from all the sorrow and trauma he endured.

The party remained silent still, hardly able to believe the truth. Mina was dead.

*----------------------------------------------*

“How did she do it? Why would an eight-year-old commit… suicide?” Selene whispered to Zorlo as they all sat in the lobby of the mansion, the room still locked after about two days. No one spoke of it, but they knew that the room itself would start to smell badly soon, as if it didn’t already.

“Murder.”

Everyone turned to look at Mark, who, after two days of complete silence and solitude, had spoken.

“What?” Con asked, blinking. “What did you say?”

“Murder. Mina did not commit suicide.” Mark lifted his head up, surveying the party, a cold glaze over his usual vivid eyes.

“Then… who? And why? And how?” asked Zorlo, wringing his hands a bit and shifting.

“Who… one among us. It had to be. No one enters my mansion without my permission. Someone. Right here, right now, murdered Mina.” He scanned over the group of onlookers. One of them had slaughtered his innocent sister.

Was it Zorlo? The fencer of Tasogare? He usually didn’t stay in the mansion… strange that he would choose to come conveniently close to the murder, perhaps a week before. However, many others shared that fact. He would easily overpower Mina, and knew the layout of the mansion, thanks to Mark showing him around so much.

Perhaps it was Selene, his lover. The angel had admitted before to absorbing emotion, and that too much gave her pain. Maybe Mina’s happiness was too much for her, even if it was positive. Too much of a good thing…

It could be Con, the mysterious stranger who showed up at Mark’s door just short of Selene and Zorlo, asking for shelter. He hadn’t spoken much to Mark, and had been poking around things lately. He certainly seemed capable.

Maybe his girl friend that accompanied him, Jackie was her name. She hadn’t seemed dangerous to Mark, and was very friendly to Mina. She was very quiet, though, and hung around a lot with Con. It was possible they were accomplices….

It would be another chance if it were the newest person Mark befriended, Sarah, the writer. She had come with Jackie and Con, and seemed to be thankful for the shelter. She would be the least suspected, since Mark knew her the least. It would be simpler for her to pull it off.

The blonde then had a revolutionary thought. He couldn’t remember the last time he saw Mina before she had… died. Why couldn’t he? No… it wasn’t possible. Just as if he had been slapped in the face, Mark realized he, too, was a suspect.

The scientist snapped out of his thoughts for a moment. “One of us right here killed my sister. I’m not going to rest until I find out whom. No one leaves this mansion until then. I don’t care if you have to eat each other when and if we run out of food; no one is stepping foot outside.”

“The room is still there, then…” Selene said softly. “Locked and all. If an investigation took place, everything should be in basic order as it was when this… murder took place.”

“You’re right.” Mark heaved a long sigh and shuddered as he rested his chin on his hands. “Alright. I…” He released a slow, tremor-filled breath. “I’m going to perform an autopsy on the body… then I’m going to bury her. After I figure out who did it. I’ll prepare her for burial in my lab… first, I’m going to go get her.”

“How, then, do we know you won’t do something to remove evidence?” Con asked, narrowing his eyes and crossing his hands about his chest. He felt he had a valid point.

“Alright. You come with me. Make sure… that I don’t… move anything but the body, alright?”

“I will.” Con nodded slowly, a solemn look on his face.

“We know that someone here did it. If you tell me now, then maybe I’ll let you leave without killing you.” Mark spat, his eyes staring daggers into all of them. “Alright… then we know that one of us did it, and the person isn’t going to own up easily.” He did not forget that he was also a suspect. Someone had to have done it…

But who, was the main question? And how to find out? Mark wasn’t a detective, after all.

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Thanks to Alti... HAH. ... Sorry. Selene, Mark, Raziel, Arlen and Kate