K Y R I L ' S MURDER MYSTERY - DISCONTINUED

Chapter 3

Dawson hugs Cato, an awkward feat considering that Dawson's really short and younger than any of us.

We all stand by and comfort Cato, tears streaming down her face.

They're fogging her vision and pouring down like waterfalls, splashing down onto the ground.

No noise comes out, but we can tell she's really upset, by the way she buries her head into our shoulders.

Dawson sighs and the small girl leans over into the other room, her low dirty blonde ponytail dipping onto the polished cream floor.

She sees the sickening blood, just starting to dry on the floor next to the broken navy blue, auburn, and white vase, cracked and broken, chips and bits spilling over its mouth.

I gag at the metallic smell of the blood and back away, holding my nose and grappling onto my denim suspenders with my other hand, shaking my head rapidly.

I feel like passing out.

You know, maybe I could. I could just kneel over and faint right here, fading into oblivion and surfacing when this entire bloody mansion is gone from our lives.

But I don't. I won't let me.

I just shiver; face paling and ice shooting up my spine.

"Hey Raina, you okay?" Asher asks, then follows my gaze. He leaves the huddle and goes over to the blood-spewed message, followed by Dawson and I, leaving Chara to comfort Cato.

Asher goes back into the smoky wooden room. This mansion is basically just entirely cream-colored and polished colours of sandstone, tan, and other smeared colours clean and cool.

This just makes the blood stand out even more.

Dawson sinks to her knees and bends over the terrible-smelling substance, basically sniffing it.

"What are you doing?" Asher asks, cocking his head to the side and scoffing slightly.

Dawson shrugs, her marigold orange sneakers folding from underneath herself.

Brushing her dirty blonde hair aside, she dips in and wipes her fingers through the mess like its simple watercolors. Cato looks ready to pass out. I gag.

Dawson doesn't seem too bothered by the smell, just feels it in between her fingers curiously, like its paint she can use in her sketchbook. She looks at us and shivers slightly.

"Yup, it's blood."

Asher facepalms and Cato's face goes white against her cocoa skin.

I step towards Dawson, curling a stand of penny copper hair in my fingers.

"So, what does it mean? Whose blood is it even? You don't think that it's..." Suddenly my blood runs cold.

"You...you don't think that it's...Kyril's blood...do you?" Dawson stumbles backwards.

A sudden ring of the doorbell makes us all scream.

Shadows cascade onto the windows, just next to the door, and a giant pool of shadows cross the floor.

Chara screams and backs up. Asher rolls his eyes.

"Dudes, it's probably just some trick-or-treaters, we'll just say we're out of candy for them, let them leave, then look for Kyril, easily."

He opens the tan wooden door to reveal five other people, just a bit taller than us. Asher backs up and his mouth falls open slightly.

One of the people is in an almost black hoodie, streaked with shadows.