II. The Case of the Mysterious Blood

Ivory awakened; her room was dark, and her cell phone's clock said it was midnight. Ivory gasped, seeing that four days had passed.

Ivory jolted, seeing that she had no pain; how could she had been asleep for four days straight? Something wasn't right; she didn't sleep for that long when she had first gotten shot. Maybe four days didn't pass. Ivory double-checked the date and four days did indeed pass. Ivory turned to see that the I.V. line wasn't in her room and observed her room. She scoffed and held her nose. There was such a putrid, metallic smell. Ivory hoped that it wasn't her abdomen.

Ivory ran into her bathroom and spend a good few minutes emptying her bowels. Ivory felt so tired and weak, her head pounded, but she couldn't figure out why. Ivory figured she still felt the effects of her gun shot wound. When Ivory finished, she turned off the bathroom lights and found herself in her bedroom. There was something off about the energy near her bedroom door. Ivory felt too tired to investigate, but felt that something was trying to tell her something.

Ivory could have sworn she saw someone near her vent. She jumped and turned, seeing that no one was there; however, a white figure quickly vanished. Ivory figured it was Roxie and sensed nothing of Roxie's spirit lingering.

Her room was very dark, but she noticed that the walls under her bedroom vent looked darker in certain areas. She found that odd, but figured it was because of the moon. Ivory slowly got out of bed and stood, feeling great to stretch her legs and move again. Ivory felt hungry and decided to get food. She went to her door, which was near the vent, but stepped in a warm liquid. She took a few seconds and looked down, seeing that something coated the bottoms of her feet. Ivory felt nervous and was too scared to turn on her lights, so she exited her room and saw Rover.

"Rover," she said gently.

Rover smiled, "Hey kid, how are you —" he looked down and his face went white, "Ivory, why are your feet covered in blood?"

Ivory's eyes widened. She felt her face get hot. "I don't know; I saw this strange liquid by my vent, but it was too dark to make out."

Rover ran past her and turned on her bedroom light. "Fuck!" He shouted. "Ivory, there's blood all over your floor!"

Ivory looked and panicked; dark red blood oozed from her vent and onto the floor. Ivory saw that the blood covered the floors from the door to the vent. Ivory sent the number "1" to Blue, which indicated an emergency.

"Rover, did four days pass?"

"Yes, why?"

"I was asleep for four days."

"You needed to heal from your wound," he said.

"No, Rover, I slept through the four days."

"That's impossible. Are you sure?"

"I'm positive; I think someone drugged me or something."

Rover's face twisted; he looked angry. "Ivory, let me message Spike," Rover sent Spike a message, and Spike quickly answered. "Ivory, he said no one but Oak and Blue entered your room. He said he caught footage of them removing the I.V. line, but that's it. There's no way they placed that blood in your vents. They entered your room empty-handed."

Ivory felt like she was going insane. The young woman wondered how that was possible, but Rover seemed stumped as well. Rover had never looked so aghast and confused.

"I think it's some sick joke."

"No, someone definitely crawled inside and poured it into the vent. By its smell and color, it had to be there not even an hour. Don't worry, we'll get to the bottom of this."

Blue came by and saw the blood and called for backup. Rover told him what happened, and Blue assured that something probably crawled through and died, or someone pulled a joke. Ivory hoped it was the first one because it disturbed her that someone would place blood into her vents.

Rover sniffed the vent, "There's nothing inside that smells. Someone did this, Blue. Do you realize how messed up that is?"

Hawks and Harley came over and Hawks screamed. "What's with all the blood?"

"Maybe it was those men," Ivory speculated.

"No, they're in room thirteen," Blue said. "To clear things, Swindle H brought you back to the strip club because she told Charm, who is Chris, that if he gave you a prepaid phone that he could track you and kill the gang. Apparently, she has been working with the Red Wolves, but I guess it's too bad Honor and Harley got to her first."

"I understand. I'm sorry Blue, it won't happen again."

"Take my advice," Blue said, and Ivory remembered what he had told her days prior.

A blonde-haired man came over and introduced himself as "Seth," and said that he would clean the blood. Seth also said that he'd see if anything was in the vents. As Seth was cleaning the vent, Blue told everyone that they should go back to sleep.

After, Blue and Ivory were the only ones left. It was quiet until Seth finished cleaning the vent and said that there was nothing inside. Better yet, Rover returned and said that no one was near the vents, so the case of the mysterious blood was a cold case. Seth apologized and left, and Rover was stumped but also freaked out.

Rover left, but Ivory felt someone starting at her. She looked at Blue who leered at her. She narrowed her eyes at him, wondering if he had something to do with the blood. It would make sense because she left for four days straight, and the blood happened to be in the vents and on the floor when she had awoken. Blue had to know something. Blue said nothing and walked away, leaving Ivory scared, confused, and paranoid. Ivory worried for what the next few weeks would bring.