Chapter Text
“The Tree of Knowledge. A symbol of sentience, intuition and understanding… exists here only as a barren replica. The Tree of Ignorance emulates the wonder of nature but does not achieve it. And justly so…” Simeon’s lips curled up into a smile as he read the next line. “For ignorance often aspires to be seen as wisdom.”
He flicked off the intercom, and he and Mara watched the students react to the sudden elevator in the tree. It took them a moment, but all sixteen began making their way to the entrance.
Mara handed over the designs for the crow mask she and Simeon had discussed while the students had been investigating the crime scene. “It’s going to take them a while to get through the evidence,” she muttered. “We’ll have your outfit and a temporary mask for you by the time they’re finished. We’ll get you a better mask by tomorrow. Do the dimensions look correct?”
“It’s acceptable,” he replied. “I’m not fond of the fact that there’s only one eyehole, but I’ll manage.”
She nodded. “Will you be able to handle yourself and keep the students on track while I get this sorted?”
Simeon’s smile returned, a gleam in his icy blue eyes. “Oh, I’m confident in that, my dear. They seem very capable. It shouldn’t be difficult to keep them focused on the task at hand.”
---
Damon stepped out of the elevator with everyone else. They carefully spread around the circular room. In the center were sixteen podiums…likely meant for him and the rest of the people here to stand at.
“Welcome to the trial room, everyone! You’ve done well to make it this far,” the voice over the speaker greeted them. “Each podium in the room has a name on it. Please find your designated podium and stand there until I give further instructions.”
“…And if we don’t comply?” Eva asked.
“You’ll find that my patience with disobedience in this room is far shorter than outside of it.” The response was smooth and cool, mirroring Eva’s tone perfectly. A chill crawled up Damon’s spine. “You’ve seen what happens when you don’t comply. Do you need another lesson in consequences?”
“Are you going to zap us over every little thing?” Grace barked.
“Just face it, Ms. Madison, we have to go along with his demands,” Wolfgang said, his face twisted into a grimace.
“Mr. Akire is correct,” the voice hummed. Wolfgang shot an uncharacteristically fierce glare at the speaker before the expression smoothed away into a carefully neutral one. Damon blinked. “Now head to your podiums. The longer you drag your feet, the longer you’ll be in here.”
That was enough to get people moving. It took a few minutes—for Damon especially, since his podium was on the opposite side of the room—but they all eventually assumed their places.
Damon could see everyone from his position. The expressions of discomfort, anger, and worry were clear. The faces of people who had been kidnapped and forced to play as pawns in some inane game. People who had no choice but to move forward and comply with their kidnapper’s demands.
Damon’s hands clenched on his podium. They had to solve this murder case.
“Let’s begin with a brief explanation of the class trial,” the voice said. All eyes turned towards the speaker on the wall. “The objective here is simple: explain how the murder took place. Using evidence you gathered during the investigation, you will argue what you believe happened to the victim.”
Sounded simple enough.
“Should you all agree on what happened to the victim, you will be free to leave this place. Should you all agree on the wrong answer…well.” The voice took a far more playful tone that was not in any way reassuring. “You’ll find out! That’s all there is to it. Begin discussing.”
“Somebody…get me out of here…” Grace muttered. The golfer woman was pale and shaking with either fear or rage.
Wolfgang sent her a concerned glance, then looked at the speaker. “Um…if this is something we must discuss; I know a good place to sta—”
“Get me out of here, get me out of here, get me out of here,” Grace’s voice grew louder and more frantic, drowning out Wolfgang’s quiet voice even before it turned into a scream as she slammed her fist down on the podium. “SOMEONE GET ME OUTTA HERE!”
She spasmed immediately afterwards and glared at her watch, and then at the speaker.
“I can increase the intensity of the shocks if you really don’t want to participate, Ms. Madison,” the voice spoke up, tone mild. “It would be interesting to see how much electricity you can take before you stop responding.”
Grace went white, and her wide eyes dropped back down to the watch.
“In case my instructions were not clear, you all are here to discuss the murder of Cara Koskinen,” the voice continued. “Interruptions and derailing will not be tolerated. Do stay on topic.”
Eloise whimpered and Damon couldn’t help sucking in a sharp breath. The people running this thing were not messing around.
"A-as you were sayin', Wolfgang?" Ingrid asked.
"Right." Wolfgang nodded, clutching his tie. "The way I see it, the objective of this tri--"
“By the way, can I get, like, a seat with this thing?” Kai interrupted. Damon’s eye twitched. “I’m just gonna be an onlooker. It’s—OWWW.” Kai spasmed and stared down at his watch with big, teary, yellow eyes. “Whyyyy?”
“Oh, so it’s not just me he’s prone to zapping,” Grace muttered. “Good to know.”
“Okayyy, I think that’s the last warning we should need,” Cassidy giggled nervously. “Come on, guys. Who murdered that dummy chick?”
“That ain’t what we’re being asked to solve,” Jean pointed out.
“Right. We’re here to solve how she was murdered,” Wolfgang agreed.
“Did that tablet not explain it?” Toshiko asked, finally peeking out from behind her fan.
“It listed her wounds, yes, but it didn’t explain how they were inflicted,” Wolfgang explained.
Grace took a breath, but Cassidy beat her to the punch. “Probably ‘cause it’s so obvious!”
Wolfgang was starting to squint. Just a little, but Damon could see it in the corner of those violet eyes when he looked down at Cassidy. “But, Ms. Amber, you didn’t even read the tablet.”
Of course she didn’t. She was incapable of taking anything in this situation seriously.
“And I don’t have to!” Cassidy shot back. “It’s obvious what the murder weapon was!”
“I…” Kai sniffled, slowly clenching and unclenching his hand. “I didn’t get a good look at the crime scene, but the body was…pretty bloody.”
“And what else could have spilt that blood…except that big, scary gun?” Cassidy exclaimed.
Okay, no. “Cassidy, can you stop butting in?” Damon snapped. “You barely investigated the crime scene to begin with.”
Cassidy gave another nervous giggle. “Woahhh, what? I searched that place from top to bottom.”
Damon resisted the urge to roll his eyes. From the way that everyone was shifting around him, they also knew that Cassidy hadn’t done much investigating. “Alright, then tell me: how was a fully loaded assault rifle used as the murder weapon?”
“That’s easy—it wasn’t!” Cassidy replied cheerfully. “Obviously, the shooter reloaded their gun to full capacity! Any smart shooter could tell you that! Right, Desmond?”
“Why are you bringing me into this?” the marksman asked, clearly baffled by the outrageous claims Cassidy was making.
Grace had her hands pressed together in front of her face and was taking deep breaths.
"Except the victim suffered multiple stab wounds to the torso," Damon pointed out. "If a gun was fired, not only should the body have bullet wounds, but there would be shell casings from the fired bullets. We saw neither at the crime scene."
"Pft, details!" Cassidy huffed. "If the gun didn't do that chick in, what was the actual murder weapon?"
"The bloody knife," Damon scoffed. "It's just so blatantly obvious. It was literally right next to the victim's body."
Cassidy groaned. "Why's Occam's Razor gotta ruin everything?"
"You should be happy that the murder weapon is obvious," Grace snarled. "The sooner we solve the stupid case, the sooner we get out of here."
"This does bring up an interesting point," Ulysses spoke up as he flipped through his notebook. "Both the knife and the rifle were present at the crime scene, but only the knife was used."
"Kind of weird, choosing the inferior weapon," Desmond hummed.
"Nothin' beats the sting of a sharpened blade!" Ingrid shook her head with a large grin.
Damon supposed the mild disagreement made sense, given their talents, and it was a permissible look into the killer's motives. Knowing those motives might be helpful for solving how this murder was committed.
"If the killer didn't use the rifle, why was it at the crime scene?" Wenona asked.
"Not sure, but it is covered in blood," Jean commented. "Damon and I were inspecting it earlier, so he can confirm."
"Which means it's absolutely related to the murder," Damon agreed.
"Do you reckon that gun even worked?" Ingrid asked. "Or did they bring it along for the aesthetic?"
"I can't see the killer bringing the gun along merely for aesthetic or intimidation purposes." Wenona shook her head.
Merely for intimidation purposes...
"...Hold that thought." Damon raised a finger. Wenona arched an eyebrow and turned to face him. "You're right. But if we keep assuming that the killer had the gun, we'll end up running in circles."
"What, you think the killer was unarmed?" Wenona scoffed, her arms crossed.
"No, they were definitely armed--with the knife." Damon glared at her. Wenona's arched eyebrow rose a little higher. "The reason they didn't use the gun is probably because they never had it to begin with."
"But then, who did?" Eloise's timid voice drifted across the courtroom.
"Easy, the victim," Damon replied, not even bothering to turn away from Wenona.
"The dummy had the gun?" Jett exclaimed.
Damon sighed and turned around to face the drag racer. He could feel eyes tracking him across the courtroom. "If it wasn't the killer, it has to be her. She brought it to the closet. She was probably carrying it before the murder, but dropped it when the killer attacked her."
"Oy, does the blood on the gun support that?" Grace asked.
"I'd say so," Jean replied after a moment of silence. "It seems like that blood came from the victim, though it's hard to be sure with how the crime scene was set up. But from the way the gun was positioned before I picked it up, it is definitely possible that she dropped it after being stabbed."
"My issue with this theory is that the victim was stabbed from the front," Wolfgang commented. "She would have seen the killer coming. If she had the gun, why didn't she shoot them?"
"A stealth attack!" Cassidy blurted out. "I bet the killer memorized her AI movements!"
"That girl must have been killed before she had the chance to defend herself..." Eloise offered in support of the actual useful part of Cassidy's statement.
It was a decent theory but... "That's...not technically true." Damon shook his head.
Confusion flashed across Eloise's face, and everyone turned towards Damon again.
"There's signs of a struggle between the victim and the killer," he explained. "We found dry blood under the victim's fingernails, which implies that she was clawing at her attacker. Of course, no explanation is definitive without photo proof of the attacker, but I'm confident that this is what happened."
"Could we get photo evidence of the killer?" Kai asked. "Is that, like, a thing that can be provided?"
The speaker clicked on. "I'm afraid not, but there should be sufficient evidence to ascertain what happened at the crime scene without it."
"Lame." Damon almost didn't recognize who was muttering but he caught sight of Mark's lips moving. God, that man was quiet.
"Dried blood under nails does sound like she scratched the killer, but why would she resort to scratching if she's carrying a gun?" Ulysses asked.
"Did somethin' get in the way of her usin' it?" Ingrid offered.
"I don't think the killer stole it from her, but the idea oughta be addressed," Jean spoke up.
Eloise shook her head. "You're right. She should have seen or heard them coming from the hallway, at the very least."
Wolfgang blinked and looked down at Eloise. "Why do you think she was in the hallway?"
Eloise suddenly looked much more uncertain, which was her usual state. She had an odd amount of confidence when she helped Jean toss out the thought that the killer had stolen the gun from the victim. "...That's where the fight happened, right?"
"I think you're getting ahead of yourself." Wolfgang's tone grew a little gentler. "How can we be sure the fight happened there?"
"Maybe the fight happened in the hallway, and after it ended, her body was dragged into the closet," Toshiko suggested.
"If that happened, shouldn't there have been streaks of blood on the floor? Or in the hallway?" Eva asked, speaking up for the first time since the trial began.
"Drag marks?" Jett nodded thoughtfully. It made sense he would comment, given he was between Toshiko and Eva. "Can't say I saw any."
"I-it was merely a jest," Toshiko stammered, wilting under Eva's scrutiny. "No need to take it so seriously."
"Instead of dragging the victim, what if the killer carried her?" Desmond suggested. "I don't know why they would want to do that, but it would explain the lack of drag marks."
"B-but!" Fear flickered across Kai's face. "Wouldn't the killer have been covered in...?"
"Blood?" Jean nodded. "Aye, it should have gotten everywhere."
"Girl died from blood loss," Grace agreed with a huff. "If there weren't drag marks, there should have been a bunch of blood splattered across the damn hallway."
"She was obviously killed in the closet," Wenona concluded. "That's where the blood was."
"Y-yes, you're right." Eloise dipped her head, a little hunched in on herself. "I'm so sorry for derailing the conversation."
"Moving on." Eva waved her hand.
"Um, that fight," Diana jumped in for the first time. "The victim had the gun, but she was overpowered?"
"If she wanted to, she could have just...you know..." Kai mumbled.
"If you're gonna talk, could you at least talk clearly?" Grace snapped. "We're tryin' to finish this as quick as possible."
"But he's right," Diana quickly said while Kai, predictably, teared up again. "It doesn't make much sense, does it?"
Damon nodded. There had to be something they were missing here. The voice had said that there was sufficient evidence to prove the theory about the victim clawing at the killer correct or incorrect, and he felt as though they were on the right track.
"Let's say..." Ingrid slowly began. "That slimy killer pulled a fast one, and knocked the gun out of her hands!"
"By the sound of it, those two did have a crazy tussle!" Cassidy nodded.
"But...she still had the gun," Mark muttered. "So...why didn't she shoot?"
"I bet that girl didn't even see them coming," Jean suggested, tone dark.
See?
"Maybe she thought the killer was her friend?" Diana asked.
Damon remembered brushing away Cara's hair, the synthetic texture of it reassuring him that she was fake, to get a closer look at the chemical burns around her eyes.
"I know I wouldn't want to kill a friend..." Diana continued, sadness clear in her tone.
The dummy didn't smell like a corpse, or like anything at all, but there had been a bucket in the closet that had absolutely reeked of bleach--the one chemical in the closet that Desmond had said was missing from the bottles on the shelves.
"Um, she tried clawing their eyes out!" Kai refuted.
Damon snapped his fingers, and once again, all eyes in the courtroom turned to him. "On the subject of eyes, Jean actually has a point. The victim probably couldn't see what was going on. According to the tablet, she suffered chemical burns to the face and eyes. That sort of injury would have effectively blinded her. Also, inside the janitor's closet, there was a large, empty bottle of bleach. That's probably the chemical that caused the burns."
"Blinded...with bleach? That's horrible!" Eloise exclaimed.
"All that pain, yet she still managed to fight back?" Wenona mused.
"She sure put up a struggle," Ingrid agreed. "Without a gun, I guess the next best thing was her hands."
"So the killer was definitely the one who blinded her," Diana spoke up again, tone thoughtful.
"Indeed. Knowing she had a gun, he blinded her to make her less dangerous," Wolfgang concluded. "Then, when he pinned her against the door and stabbed her, she tried to retaliate."
"Until eventually dying from her wounds," Eva added.
"Jeez, this is brutal!" Cassidy exclaimed. "Couldn't they have toned down the violence?"
"The past is in the past, and we can't change that," Jean replied. "All we can do is solve her untimely death, ey?"
"Right, so moving on to the next mystery," Grace huffed. "How was the bleach used?"
Wolfgang blinked. "Pardon?"
"The bleach! How did he blind that girl with it?" Grace demanded.
"I-I kind of assumed that he just poured it on her?" Diana replied.
"Yeah. Just tipped the bottle over," Jett agreed, making a pouring motion with his hand.
"Hmm, I don't think so," Desmond commented, looking over at Diana. "The bottle was neatly ordered with every other bottle at the back of the shelf. The gun and knife were just lying on the floor, so it's weird that this 'weapon' was treated so differently."
"Do you think the killer just poured the contents of that bottle into something else?" Diana asked.
"Sure, before the actual murder took place, I'd say." Desmond nodded.
"So, like...another bottle?" Kai asked.
"A container, more likely," Ingrid remarked. "There were a bunch of 'em in the closet!"
“She’s correct.” Damon dipped his head towards Ingrid before turning back to the room at large. “The killer put the chemicals in a bucket. More specifically, the same bucket we found at the crime scene. After all, it reeked of bleach. If the killer didn’t use it to transport bleach, what else would they use it for? Personal cleaning? I doubt it.”
Eva arched an eyebrow at him. She didn’t smile, but there was a flash of emotion in her eyes at his tone. There and gone.
“Yo, that makes sense!” Jett exclaimed.
Ingrid gave a small, slightly embarrassed giggle. “A broken clock is right twice a day.”
“Okay, cool,” Grace forged on. “So, how’d the killer use that bucket to spill bleach in the victim’s eyes?”
Wolfgang hummed faintly, and most of the eyes in the room turned to him. “It would be a fairly heavy bucket, so it’s unlikely he threw it on her…”
Grace scoffed. “She’d shoot him before he even had the chance. Use your brain, mate.”
Damon kept his expression neutral, but he did note Grace’s attention to detail. Wolfgang stammered out an apology, but the exact wording was lost as Damon mentally filed away that the golfer woman would actually be a decent ally to have when she actually set her mind on getting something finished. She was doing an excellent job of keeping this trial moving.
There was that temper to worry about, though. Damon would need to keep an eye on her until they got out of this mess.
“Even if he did manage to splash her, the girl should have sustained intense facial burns,” Ulysses pointed out. “However…aside from her eyes, her face was relatively untouched.”
“Well, if ya check the tablet, it says she has burns to the scalp, too,” Jean said.
Diana’s nose scrunched up. “Burns…to the scalp? How does that work?” She squinted, clearly thinking hard. “Unless…those chemicals…came from above?”
Above? Damon’s attention snapped fully towards Diana. She was right—the chemicals had to have come from above!
Eloise rambled about a mechanism that would tip the bucket when the door opened, Jett asked about the bucket in confusion—fair, the drag racer didn’t seem to have much of an imagination, and Damon was still mapping out the schematics of how this had worked in his head. Kai made some sort of comment, Grace was glaring at him, so Damon probably didn’t have to pay attention to it—
“Was the killer somehow hiding above the doorframe?” Ingrid offered.
“There’s no way they were up there,” Damon refuted immediately. “There’s nothing for them to sit or hold on to. Not to mention, they couldn’t have stabbed her from up there.”
“And if there’s no place for the killer to sit, then there’s no place for the bucket to sit,” Kai said with enough confidence that it was impressive how wrong he was.
“Unless you take into account the size difference,” Damon shot back.
“Eh?” Kai blinked.
“The space above the entrance might not be able to support a person, but it could still support something as small as a bucket.”
“And that thing supporting the bucket…?” Wenona challenged.
“I don’t know how we overlooked this, but I’ve got it,” Damon replied, turning to face her again. “The killer just balanced the bucket on the door.”
“Like in those water bucket pranks people film?” Kai asked, realization entering his eyes.
"Exactly." Damon nodded. He would not comment on how long it had taken Kai to understand that; Grace would jump down his throat for it. "When the victim came into the room, she pushed open the door and caused the bucket to fall on her. This would make it so she couldn't shoot back or even get a chance to see her assailant." He paused to map out the scene in his head again. "When the bucket hit the ground, it probably rolled away. That's why we found it a couple feet from the victim."
"That...is a possibility, yes," Wolfgang admitted.
"Mhm, it sounds like the best conclusion." Ingrid smiled at Damon.
"There's just one problem: how was the killer able to reach that high?" Wenona asked. "Unless they were abnormally tall, it'd be difficult to place something on top of that door."
"Well, let's use that as our next point of discussion!" Diana offered. "How did the killer set up this trap?"
Maybe that grating conversation with Cassidy and Wolfgang during the investigation had some use after all. "There was a stepladder hiding behind the closet door," Damon said. "The killer probably used that. After climbing it, they could position the bucket right on top of the door."
"Figures..." Mark agreed with a low sigh.
"My precious stepladder?" Cassidy gasped dramatically. "You think the bad guy used my super duper obvious stepladder?"
"Match point, Occam's Razor!" Jett gave two big thumbs up.
"Yes, it appears our killer didn't care much for subtlety," Wolfgang agreed. "No matter how obvious it may seem, it's the only answer that makes sense."
"It was the only knickknack of its kind, too," Ingrid chimed in. "If there's somethin' else that killer could'a used, it's escapin' me!"
"I see, I see." Grace smiled. "It makes sense with what we've got so far. Next point!"
"Please give us a break...we've been talking for ages..." Kai groaned.
"Hey, don't be like that," Diana scolded. "Grace may be loud, but her questions have really helped our discussion!"
"I think this is the last of it, so you can sit your high royal ass down after we're done and we've figured out this murder," Grace huffed. "Now. What was the killer doing when that bucket poured onto the girl's head?"
"He obviously didn't just stand there and observe," Jean commented.
Damon nodded. The killer would need to take full advantage of their victim's blindness. "The killer was hiding in the back of the closet. If he was pressed up against the furthest shelf and facing the entrances, there'd be a diagonal path between him and his victim." Ingrid and Wenona both leaned over their podiums to watch as he attempted to visually block out what he was envisioning with his hands. “I say diagonal, because that’s the only way he could make a direct charge forward.” He slammed his right fist into his left palm, then flicked his left hand upwards and distanced it a little from his fist. “Also, when the victim entered the room, she would have been standing with her back to the hallway—right outside the killer’s range. That’s why the stab wounds were only made to her chest.”
“Creating the crime scene we found!” Cassidy exclaimed, briefly and rapidly tapping two of her fingers against her opposite palm in an approximation of the rapid stabbing that must have taken place. She beamed at the rest of them. “Great job, guys, we’re actually doing this!”
Desmond returned her grin with a relieved smile. “That was the last mystery, right? We must’ve put everything together now.”
“Even if it’s all fake, I feel really bad for this victim.” Eloise wrung her hands.
“It’s an ugly sight, but she’s no victim,” Wenona spoke up. Eloise sent her a startled glance, and she continued, “Well, technically she is, but let’s be real. The girl was carrying a gun. She probably provoked the killer, and they killed her in self-defense. It’s a clear-cut case of the hunter becoming the hunted, no?”
“…That’s no excuse.” Wolfgang’s voice was quiet, but it carried across the courtroom with a sudden, vicious weight to it.
“What?” Wenona’s gaze flicked towards him—she had clearly heard the tension beneath those three words as well.
“There’s no justifying murder,” Wolfgang replied, his hand clenched around his tie. “Killing a woman…is the worst thing a man could do.”
“You’re emanating a sizable amount of emotional tension.” Toshiko hesitantly leaned over her podium to look at Wolfgang. “Are you okay?”
“There’s no excuse,” Wolfgang continued, completely ignoring Toshiko, which was so unlike what Damon had seen of him that he could sense something coming, something big. “There never was an excuse.” His hand slammed down on the podium and his voice rose to a shout. “Twenty-eight stab wounds! No girl, no person, should ever suffer Cara’s fate!”
“Wait, who’s Cara?” Jett asked.
“It was the victim’s name!” Wolfgang shrieked. “Didn’t anyone read the tablet?”
Yes, Damon and Jean at the very least had, though Damon was surprised that Wolfgang was so upset over the fact that many of their classmates hadn’t. It was clear that many of them hadn’t taken the investigation seriously. Why would he be so upset about it now?
Desmond’s soft attempt to calm Wolfgang down was drowned out by Grace’s voice. “Oy. What’s all this about? We’ve figured out the case, stop dragging it on,” she scolded.
“No,” Wolfgang growled, and Grace’s eyes widened. “We’re not finished here. There’s no murder without a proper motive. We need to discuss why Cara died.”
“I am not going this far for a fictional murder case,” Wenona snapped. Why had she even brought up the fact that Cara wasn’t a victim, then? That was what had started this entire route of discussion! “We’re not looking for a murderer. We’re looking for answers, which we have.”
“Do you turn in a half-finished exam, Wenona?” Wolfgang snapped back. “An essay without its conclusion? This isn’t about efficiency. This is about being right. Or do you, a supposed entrepreneur, not value integrity?”
“What the hell?” Wenona looked flabbergasted.
Damon couldn’t blame her. This had come out of nowhere. There was suddenly cruelty in Wolfgang’s anger, a bite to his words that he had never imagined the gentle lawyer having.
“L-let’s just talk about the motive.” Diana waved her hands as if that could diffuse the sudden tension in the air. “There’s no harm in doing that, right?”
Eva adjusted her glasses. “Well, what was the motive? Was the killer fighting for their life, or were they going out of their way to murder?”
“Maybe the gun freaked him out,” Mark offered, voice still soft enough that Damon had to strain to hear it. The music producer had subtly shifted so that he was on the side of his podium furthest away from Wolfgang.
“If I was in the killer’s shoes, I’d definitely be nervous,” Desmond remarked, expression dead serious. “Thing is…while acting out of self-defense is possible, since when does it look like this?”
Bless him for being the biggest voice of reason in the room. Damon wished that Desmond had talked more often during the other parts of the trial, but he was making up for it in spades here.
“Given the severity, I’d liken it to a crime of passion…” Ulysses pointed out. Also a good theory.
“Something done on impulse?” Jean arched an eyebrow. That one was unlikely; there was too much planning involved for this to truly have been done on impulse.
“What if they were frightened?” Cassidy was grinning again. “A spooky thing might have set them off big time!”
“That’s wrong… there’s no way this was done in self-defense,” Wolfgang insisted. “No matter what excuse the killer uses, it doesn’t excuse the fact that they have blood on their hands…”
“Yo, bud.” Jett’s head was cocked in a way that seemed like he was giving Wolfgang quite the side-eye. “Ya seem a little pressed.”
“Silence!” Wolfgang snapped. “I won’t allow this! To kill Cara so easily, and without restraint…there is no way to justify this!”
“Take a chill pill, man…” Kai was extremely pale, staring at Wolfgang as if the lawyer had grown a second head.
“You expect me to remain calm? This was the sadistic killing of one of humanity’s brightest!”
“The violence in this murder was excessive and intentional,” Damon jumped in before anyone else could get another word out. “The killer stabbed the victim twenty-eight times. Even when the victim started clawing at their neck, the killer persisted. They wanted to inflict as much damage as possible. That’s clearly sadistic.”
Eva looked across the courtroom at him. “…I understand that, but shouldn’t we consider the killer’s point of view?” Damon blinked at her. “The victim was carrying a gun at the time of the murder…it’s possible they were also trying to kill someone.”
“When the mind is clouded by fear, the body makes rash decisions,” Toshiko chimed in.
“Right. The killer was…” Eva grimaced. “Definitely excessive with the stabbing, but they could have been overwhelmed with emotion.” She raised a finger. “In fact, the trap doesn’t even work unless someone from the outside opens the door. The killer might have actually been protecting themselves.”
She would have been an excellent debater. Damon could tell that she was crafting all of this on the spot, with what they had for the investigation, and she raised a few good points. Still... "I disagree."
It was her turn to cock her head in confusion.
"The killer needed a lot of time to set up the trap," Damon explained. "They had to fill the bucket with bleach, move the ladder, climb up the ladder...that's not even mentioning the time it would take to figure out this plan. Most people don't come up with ideas like this on the spot."
"Making the plan is sadistic enough, but actually executing it?" Jean's expression darkened. "You'd need to be a real psychopath."
"If the victim was actually hunting them, the killer couldn't possibly have had the time to formulate this trap and then set it up, especially if they were scared. No...they clearly had ample time to do this." Damon looked down at his podium before he looked up at Eva again. "The victim might not have even been hunting them. The killer could have lured her to the closet by making noise, and then killed her brutally. This was a brutal, savage crime...Wolfgang might be right to be so passionate."
Wolfgang was silent, his hand splayed over his face. What little Damon could see of his expression was stricken.
Eva was quiet for a long moment, and then slowly nodded. "I suppose I can't dispute that."
"Are we done here?" Grace asked.
There was silence from the courtroom. Wolfgang looked up from whatever void he was staring into and nodded.
"Good. Hey! Weird disembodied voice! We've solved your stupid case! Now let us leave!" Grace yelled.
There was silence for a moment before the speaker clicked back on. "Excellent! Now present your findings to me, please."
"Was this not presenting our findings to you?" Toshiko asked.
"You call that a presentation?" the voice cried. "That mess of brainstorming and arguments? That was barely an outline, much less a fully fleshed-out statement of facts and evidence!"
"Oh no, we're back to talking about essays," Kai groaned.
"Summarize your findings and present them properly, please," the voice said. "I know the facts of the case. I want to know if you know the facts of the case."
He really did sound like a teacher at the moment. A very bossy, particular teacher, who had equipped his students with shock collars. "Fine. I'll do as you ask," Damon told him. "I'll present the truth--"
"We'll present the truth together!" Cassidy interrupted with a giggle. "Let's dig into it!"
Damon sighed but stood up straight and braced his hands on his podium. "The victim was Cara Koskinen, the Ultimate Teacher's Aide. Right before her death, she was wandering around the 'academy' carrying a large assault rifle. That's probably when our unnamed killer, who was armed with a knife, spotted her..."
"And...decided he'd put her to eternal rest," Ingrid continued. Damon nodded at her, and she continued, "He slid inside that lil' janitor's closet, where he began hatchin' a deadly scheme."
"Aye, they needed a way to surprise the victim, who was better armed," Jean jumped in. "The killer grabbed a bottle of bleach from the closet, and poured its contents into a bucket."
"That's because they wanted to blind Cara by splashing the bleach in her eyes..." Diana fiddled with her chameleon bracelet as she stared down at her podium.
"Sneaky little bastard!" Grace hissed.
"But, to do that, they would need to set a trap and catch the victim by surprise," Desmond said. "The killer moved a stepladder behind the closet door and climbed up it to reach the doorframe. There, they carefully placed the bucket."
"That way, when the victim opened the door, the bucket would empty its contents all over her!" Cassidy continued.
Ulysses cleared his throat. "After completing this setup, the killer retreated to the far end of the janitor's closet, and waited for the victim's arrival. The killer could have made noise to attract the victim's attention. Either way, the victim tried to open the door."
"A-and, um..." Eloise took a deep breath before continuing, "The bleach splashed all over her. Her scalp, face, and eyes were severely burned."
"Yeowch!" Jett exclaimed.
Wolfgang straightened to his full height. "The victim leapt from his hiding place and began viciously attacking Cara. In his fit of rage and cruelty, he stabbed her from the front twenty-eight times."
"While being stabbed, the victim tried to fight back by clawing at the killer. This left the dried blood under her fingernails," Eva continued. "However, it didn't deter the killer, and the victim eventually died."
"At present, we don't have enough information to reveal the killer's true identity. But their actions haven't been forgotten. That is the truth behind this case!" Damon concluded before he turned to the speaker again. "Was that satisfactory?"
"Yes, you summed up what happened there quite nicely," the voice replied. "Well done."
"Then let us leave!" Grace snapped.
"Patience. There are a couple more items of business to attend to before you leave this room," the voice replied. "However, I believe that we should discuss them in person. Give me a moment."
"In...person?" Desmond blinked.
"Everyone--" Diana pointed behind Damon.
The entire group whirled around, including Damon. White steam rose around the empty throne at the opposite end of the room from the elevator, and Damon had to press himself against his podium to avoid getting blasted by the sudden heat. It roared around the obscured chair for a moment, swirling, before there was a sharp clap, and the steam dispersed as if it had never been there.
White still filled Damon's vision, but now it was a swirling overcoat, beautiful heeled boots, a cravat set over a blinding white and gray vest. His pants, what little was visible of them, were dark blue, as were the gloves peeking out from the sleeves of the coat. His face and head were all obscured by a white bird mask--all that was visible from one small eyehole was deathly pale skin and one piercing, icy blue eye.
"And here you all are." He spread his hands, and Damon couldn't help a small gasp. His voice...it was the same one from the speakers. "Students of Eden's Garden Academy, it is so wonderful to finally show myself to you."
Eloise and Jett screamed. Wenona and Ingrid both looked stunned into silence.
"A-a-are you the speaker guy?" Kai asked.
The man tilted his head towards Kai and dropped his hands to his hips with a sigh. "Eloquent as always, I see. Yes, I'm the one who has been addressing you." He pressed a hand to his chest and bowed deeply to all of them. "You may call me Simeon. I will be a substitute for your headmaster and host for the time being."
"Headmaster?" Cassidy squawked.
"Substitute...?" Eva followed up.
"Yes." Simeon straightened up from his bow. "He's quite disappointed that he couldn't be here, but as he is indisposed, I shall be performing his duties until he is able to return. You may think of me as a teacher in his employ."
"Was there any information about the headmaster in the documents?" Jean whispered.
"None that I recall," Wolfgang replied quietly.
"Alright, so what's this business that you mentioned?" Wenona asked. "...It doesn't sound like you'll be letting us go."
"No, I will not be allowing you to leave this academy," Simeon confirmed. "Completing a trial is the requirement to leave this room."
"What?" Grace yelled.
"But you said we could go home if we solved the mystery!" Diana protested.
"No. I said you would be free to leave this place." Simeon sat down at the edge of the platform that held the throne. "I said nothing about releasing you from the Academy or going home. If you wanted that to be our bargain, you should have asked for clarification."
"Y-you sneaky son of a bitch!" Grace's voice trembled with rage.
"That's--you're full of shit, man!" Kai added.
"You haven't fulfilled the roles you're meant to play here yet," Simeon told them, completely unruffled by their rage. "This was a mock trial, meant to give you some practice before the game begins. I'm glad you're all so clever. That will serve you well in your life here."
"Game?" Cassidy's voice brightened a little. She still sounded wary, but her curiosity had clearly gotten the better of her. "What game?"
Simeon's eye crinkled up. Evidence of a smile.
"You, my dear students, are going to kill each other."