"So it isn't a pile of limbs, it got reported at two in the morning, and she got murdered at our favourite cafe? How much worse can it get!" Karl says with frustration while walking in circles, pulling his hair.
George is also frustrated, but confused as well. Why did Dream suddenly stop that new technique of his that he seemed to have grown so fond to? He cringes.
Karl doesn't want to look at the body. It's understandable, because his job revolves around a computer, not around witnessing actual murders.
Now George is standing alone with the body, looking at her intensely. He picks up her hand and touches the smiley-face that is engraved in her palm.
He walks to the other side of the dead body to see if there's a smiley-face on her other palm. He raises a brow when he notices that her hand is closed, so he opens it.
A note. His heart beats fast.
Who is that fraud creating those piles? It simply says with a different kind of italic handwriting than last time.
George is beyond confused.
He's also shaken up quite a bit, but mostly confused. What does he mean?
Is he playing games with us again?
Or is this not him?
The thought lingers for a second before Karl enters the room again. "I informed Wilbur, and he agrees, it's so odd," he sighs.
George copies Karl's sigh before asking, "Karl, what do you think Dream means by this?" he innocently questions his friend, holding up the note for him to see.
Karl grabs the note and reads it repeatedly, his face more scared every time he reads it.
"What the-" he cuts himself off, reading it again. "I don't know. What do you think?" he retorts.
"I don't know," George sighs.
They make their way back to the employee's, now with a note in their hand. "I'm sorry," George says, looking at them mourning. He almost feels guilty for her death, even though he shouldn't.
He remembers the mutual smiles they made. "What's her name?" Karl asks, curious, though with a sad frown.
The two employees look up at Karl with teary eyes, "Tina, or Tina Kitten, that's what her nickname was," one of them says, tears pouring out of her eyes as she speaks.
Tina. George thinks. How could such a light hearted soul deserve to die like that?
He shakes himself out of the thoughts, not wanting to build an attachment to the already dead girl, who he's looked deep in the eyes. He know he can't look at her dead body now that he knows her name.
George and Karl leave soon after. George asks Karl if he thinks they should check the note for fingerprints, but then he remembers that they already have his fingerprint.
Today is the day where Karl can finally hack into the police's database and find Dream's identity.
When they enter the building, Karl heads straight to his computer. George trails behind, because he just doesn't get it. He worries more about the note than he should.
Karl seems to have forgotten about the note, because he soon plops himself down on a chair and texts Hannah, asking for the code.
"It might take a while," Karl sighs, "there's so many people to look through," he continues. After Hannah sends him the code, he enters it.
And then he's in. Easy.
But the not-so-easy part, is when Karl looks at the amount of people that could be a potential match to the fingerprint.
Over 3,000 people pop up, a list of people that stare dead into the two's eyes. They all have a description, and George looks at one before Karl scrolls further.
"Can you categorise them?" George asks.
Karl looks for an option to categorise them. Thankfully, there's an option to, but not with many things.
He picks the things that apply to Dream, but the thing is, they almost know nothing about him other than the fingerprint. They don't know his age, height, hair colour, eye colour, anything.
So the only option he picks is male, which ends up shortening the amount of people to around 1700.
"We have to look through all of these and check their fingerprints," Karl sighs, "this might take weeks," he runs a hand through his hair in frustration.
George's jaw clenches.
Karl and George head to Bads office to inform him, and George tries not to worry too much. Weeks.
They make their way to the rooftop and play golf. George raises an amused brow to Karl's second score, only within 20 minutes.
Bad is not bad either, he's actually surprisingly talented.
He scores 17 times in no time. Bad is good at everything.
George doesn't score, because his mind is all scrambled. He doesn't show any remorse though, and stays unbothered.
"George! Why are you so quiet?" Bad asks with a kind, curious tone while aligning his golf tee with the ball.
George shrugs, heading over to sit on the bench. He clearly isn't in the mood for golf.
He remembers that he swore to himself that work wouldn't take over, yet here he his.
A shoulder brushes against his. He looks to his side, "don't think about it too much," he reassures, "okay?"
"Okay," he says, pinching the bridge of his nose.
Bad smiles and leaves the bench with a relieved sigh escaping his mouth. He continues, striking once again.
After golf, George heads to his office.
He checks his phone, and a message has popped up. He raises a brow in amusement.
Clay has sent him his address, and surprisingly, George's mood becomes less heavy-weighed. He thinks that Clay's place, is the only thing he can look forward to today.
So that's what he does. He thinks about it up until his shift is over, answering phone calls and purposefully making them short-lived.
The paperwork gets messy scribbles instead of actual letters.
"Hey," Clay says as George enters his apartment.
George smiles and immediately takes a liking to Clay and Sapnap's minimalistic apartment. When you walk in, a grey sofa can be spotted, the kitchen to the left.
Only a few plants can be seen, and George chuckles internally at that. The walls are a beige colour, though to the whiter side.
George takes off his shoes and walks further into the apartment, noticing trinkets that dot around every window sill.
Clay fondly smiles besides him at the appalled look on George's face, "Sapnap is getting groceries because i felt like we didn't have any appealing food," he chuckles nervously.
George turns around to face Clay. He takes a better look at him, and notices the two silver rings and silver necklace that fulfill his outfit. He wears a forest green shirt with slightly baggy jeans.
He forgets to answer for a second before making mutual gaze, "yeah, that'd be cool," he responds.
He makes his way over to the trinkets that lay on one of the window sills. He notices that Clay's cluster of jewelry, is stored there.
He has a miniature bowl with rings in, and a simple, not so fancy looking box with a few necklaces that look similar to the other ones. One is gold, the other two silver.
He holds up the different pieces of jewelry, inspecting it in the sun's ray.
Then he hears footsteps behind him.
"You found my collection," Clay sneers, looking over George's shoulder, slightly looking down at him because of the height difference.
Clay opens the box, fidgeting with a silver chain necklace. "This would look good on you," he breathes.
George's heart unexpectedly starts beating at a more rapid pace. He doesn't know why.
George shakes the thoughts away and smiles, turning around to go look in the mirror.
They both decide to watch some TV and wait for Sapnap to arrive. They settle on animal planet, though they both look at their phones in secret.
Something about Clay's presence calms George because he's so laid back. George is amused by that fact.
Sooner or later, Sapnap arrives. They all cheer when he enters, because he brought pizza, warm pizza.
George notices that Clay gives Sapnap a look of annoyance because groceries was the main worry, not pizza. But he brushes it off quickly.
Sapnap turns to George and starts asking him questions. George flips the questions around, and Sapnap doesn't notice. He learns that when Sapnap was six, he accidentally made a kid cry, twice, because he was stubborn enough to not give back the lollipop he stole.
He also learns that he loves sushi, and George gasps when he's finally found his sushi-partner.
Clay has never tried sushi, so they all mutually agree to go out and get sushi sometime.
When they finish eating, they decide to watch a movie.
Sapnap and George have no idea what the movie Clay has chosen, is about. They find it rather interesting though.
George snuggles under the dark blue blanket, feeling a wave of coldness wash over him before his body slowly adjusts to the temperature.
"Are you cold?" Clay questions in a soft tone.
Are you hot?
He shakes the thought away.
Clay must've noticed how George has been moving around and almost engulfing himself in the blanket. Though, George responds with a reassuring "m'fine."
"Oh my god, guys this scene is important, look!" Sapnap says, almost moving forward with parted lips with an amazed gaze lingering on the TV.
They all three chuckle, "you're stupid," Clay leers.
"No, seriously look-" Sapnap says, before his jaw drops. Clay and George still don't get what's so important about that particular scene, so they brush it off.
Clay leans closer, whispering, "he's a bit of an idiot."
George smiles at that, glancing at Clay one more time before returning to the movie.
After the movie finishes, George stands at the front door and waves goodbye to Sapnap who just microwaved a slice of pizza and is now disappearing down the hallway.
George looks at Clay, he almost forgot he was standing in front of him.
Clay leans against the doorframe. "I'll see you soon, hopefully," he smiles.
"It was fun hanging here," George airs, earning a prideful smile from Clay. "I'll come 'round at the bar when i have time again," he reassures.
"It'd be a pleasure," he smiles.
George remembers he's got his necklace on. He traces his fingers against it before he feels the lock.
Clay stops him, "no, keep it, i have enough," he laughs. George smiles and nods.
Clay learns forward and whispers into George's ear, "I wasn't lying when i said it looks good on you," he murmurs in a very soft and delicate whisper. George can feel Clay's breath tingle on his neck when he leans back again.
George looks stunned. He doesn't know what to say, other than match his energy, so he smirks and leans in to Clay's ear.
"It looks good on you as well," he whispers in a soft tone.
Then he turns around.
"Bye Clay!" George says, a big grin on his face.
He hears the door echo shut above him while he's going down the stairs.