Darknening World II

The forest next to the campus wasn't that big, the group followed behind the phantom's trail, Beatrice was guarding at all times with Andrew leading her by the hand, a happy occasion for her if not for the internal frustration she was going through.

In Sophia's case, she was at the front, between Sasha and Andrew, trying to protect him in case anything happened and while she was at it, trying to strike up a conversation with her 'best friend' who she wasn't even sure anymore if they were the same person.

'Are you still Sasha?'

'...'

'Are you the monster instead? if so, what are you?'

'...'

'Why won't you say anything?'

'...'

It didn't matter what she asked there was no answer coming back, leading only to further frustration.

"Sophia, stop..." Andrew caught up and held Sophia's wrist, shaking his head when he noticed the girl was at the border of crying, "We don't know what happened to her... maybe she lost her memories-"

As he spoke, Sasha stopped abruptly, leading them to another sudden moment of silence. Andrew pulled both Sophia and Beatrice behind him, he didn't know if he could protect them.

'But I must try at least...' his only security was to know that those blue flames may reappear if he was injured, even if he didn't know what they were.

...

Sophia's gaze ruminated over the area, it was the edge of the forest where the metallic fence was located, on the other side of it there was a desolated street, the highway leading to Kingsbridge.

"It is very subtle, but I can smell it..." Beatrice said suddenly and her words earned Sasha's attention, a glare.

'It is here...' Sasha finally spoke, pointing to the ground beneath her.

"No way…" Andrew understood right away what she was pointing at, the situation in itself was surreal, but out of nowhere now, there was a corpse involved.

"They didn't do the job properly... I can even tell that place was dug before. Without even looking at Sasha's position, Beatrice walked to the compound lump of dirt where she was standing before kneeling to grasp some of that dirt.

"It is not even compressed... those guys were in a rush... I don't think you will want to see what's in here, Andrew".

"They didn't get rid of the corpse..." He commented, feeling nauseous with all the experience; knowing beneath their feet lay the corpse of an innocent girl, the very phantom in front of him.

"They did; but they didn't burn it as I expected them to... maybe the time was inappropriate, burning the corpse would have gotten too much attention. The smell of burning flesh is distinctive and someone would have noticed and called the police, hence why they couldn't do it... that means the crime was committed at an early hour. If I had to say, after six o'clock when the students have already left, but there are still professors and school personnel around" Beatrice stood up and held Andrew's shoulders when she saw how impacted he was.

'I can't believe it... right here, there is someone I'm unable to see and yet this individual... led us to her corpse. It is... mindblowing. I have to take Andrew out of here, everything is starting to give me some odd vibes'.

"How do you know all this?" Andrew -taking the chance- hugged her tightly.

"The smell? I have burned some too..."

"..."

"Let's go, I'll call someone to handle this, we have done enough, just finding the corpse is going to give Leon Jones a lot of useful information to use during the hearing".

Andrew nodded to her idea, he didn't want to be here anymore.

'Wait a minute... I want to-' Sophia stopped him, she had the intention to at least exchange some words with Sasha. But all she received was scorn.

'It was all your fault'.

!!!

'They slaughtered me because of you. Because I was your friend... and you weren't there to protect me as you said you would... it is all your fault, Sophia'.

The voice of the phantom was neutral, but the hatred it concealed was as clear as the moon hanging in the sky.

'N-No...'

For Sophia, it was a heavy blow to be blamed for her friend's death, the impact so devastating that Andrew saw her stagger, he had to rush and hold her before she lost focus. The next thing he heard was weeping, what he witnessed were tears.

'Sorry... please forgive me'.

Seeing her like this, Andrew's glare fixed on the phantom of Sasha whose gaze still contained resentment, he put Sophia down and walked up to her with an equally threatening glare.

"You can't blame her for this..."

'You are... A-Andrew Mayers, what do you even know? you don't care about anyone but yourself! The heir of the Mayers, can't seem to care in the slightest about anything except his wealth'.

Hearing her piercing words, Andrew was immutable.

"You are the one that knows nothing... we could stand here all night arguing, but we don't have the time".

Andrew walked forward, forcing Sasha to give one step back with gritting teeth.

"You can't blame her for this... if you want to blame someone, you can only blame those that did this to you. We're trying to arrange enough proof to bring those people to justice, Mariah and her bunch. If you help us then we can make sure your death wasn't in vain".

'Justice is just a leisure of comfort... there is no true justice when life is already lost! what is the point of sending them to jail? I am already dead!'

"I know... but didn't you notice?" He stepped aside, allowing her to see Sophia who was still kneeling on the floor, weeping.

'...hmn?' Sasha was confused at first until she noticed something.

"Come here for a second, Beatrice" Andrew called for Beatrice who had been nearby, listening to the boy speak to himself. She heeded and came up to him but in doing so, she phased through the weeping Sophia.

!!!

The sight confused Sasha deeply for a moment her eyes settled on Sophia and that was when she saw it, the phantom mirage sight of a fallen girl lying on the floor of her room, dead.

"Sophia is dead too... it wasn't only your life that was lost. Trying to bring justice to you... she got murdered as well" Andrew held a bewildered Beatrice who opted to rub her temples and ignore logic.

'S-Sophia... why?'

Before Sasha could speak any further, Sophia lounged on her, tackling her to the ground and crying.

'Because I knew you would never commit suicide! we promised each other we would surpass this!'

...

For the next few minutes, Andrew decided to give them space and move away with Beatrice, explaining to her everything that was happening. All he could hear from the distance was the weeping of two aggrieved spirits, innocent souls victims of human wickedness.

Two souls that would never live again even if justice was laid on the table.