The Witness's Testimony

Everybody, including the suspects and guards, was back on the cruise.

"So... who wants to check if the man is alive?" Lina asked, not wanting to touch what may or may not be a dead body.

"I'll do it, where is he?" Snow volunteered.

"The kitchen," Eri said. "Lina and I will come with you."

"Alright," Snow said, and he and the two girls went to the kitchen.

The man was still sitting at the desk. Eri clutched the note tightly in her hands, "I guess you just shove him...?"

"Okay," Snow said, and he shoved the man.

"AH! What was that for?!" the man jolted up from his position.

"You're alive?!" Snow exclaimed.

"Yes, I didn't want to end up murdered like the others, so I faked dying. I've also been asleep, so that's that too," the man said.

Eri backed away slowly.

The man held up his hands in innocence, "Don't worry! I didn't kill them. Some of them were even my friends." He frowned.

"My condolences. However, we're trying to catch the murderer, do you know who did this?" Snow asked.

The man said, "Well, the thing is, there wasn't just one person who did the killing. However, nobody on this cruise had a gun, so that means all the people who were killed with a gun were killed by one person."

"That's at least half! There were about twenty five people dead from shooting!" Snow said.

Eri put her hand over her mouth, "My god..."

"Wait, what do you mean by it wasn't just one person doing the killing?" Lina asked.

"When the shooter got her first person dead, somebody tried to throw a knife at her and ended up stabbing somebody else. That was when people stupidly started turning on each other, rather than catching the shooter. While the passengers started to kill each other, the shooter picked off half of us," the man said.

"'Her?' So the shooter was female?" Snow asked.

"Yes. I heard her voice, though I never saw her," the man said.

"So Winter is out of the picture," Eri said.

"TOLD YOU!" Winter yelled.

"Did he just yell from the other room?" Lina asked.

"YES!" Winter yelled.

"Great. We have a witness now!" Eri said.

"Yeah. So, Mr. Witness is it okay if we take you to the two suspects and question you?" Snow asked.

"Yes, it's fine. Also, this isn't my real name, but you can call me Steve," the man now dubbed Steve said.

"Okay Steve. Everybody is in the lobby," Snow said, and the group of four headed to the lobby.

"Ah, so the mister was still alive? That's good!" Lorina said. She and Ocotillo were sitting on the ground.

"Yeah. It's definitely nice to be alive, at the very least," Ocotillo said.

"Agreed. I enjoy being alive," Steve said. His shoulders tensed and he narrowed his eyes and looked at Lorina. "Talk again."

"Apocalypses suck butts," Lorina said.

Steve's shoulders relaxed a little bit, but he kept his eyes on Lorina. "You know, you sound kinda like the shooter. Though, her voice was lower."

"Shoot, I tend to have a lower voice," Ocotillo said. "Didn't mean say shoot, in case that was insensitive."

"So, Steve, about that note you were writing, why did you write it?" Eri asked. She held up the note that they'd found under his hands.

"That? I never wrote that! The shooter shoved the note and pen in my hands!" Steve said.

"Wait!" Qibli said.

"What?" Lina asked.

"English isn't a standard writing system that dragons learn, so the shooter must've been Lorina!" Qibli said.

"Yeah. I may be learning, but I can't write a grammatically perfect sentence yet. So I didn't write that," Ocotillo said.

"Let me see that," Riley snatched the note from Eri.

"What? Did you notice something?" Eri asked.

After looking at it, Riley just handed the note back to Eri and shut herself up.

"So anyway, that's all I know about the shooter," Steve said.

"Okay, I guess you can leave now," Eri said.

"Farewell detectives, I hope to never see you again, no offense," Steve said.

"None taken," Eri said.

Steve gave her a sad smile, and he waved bye to the group and left the ship.

"I know! The shooter shot the people with a gun, so if Ocotillo and Lorina don't have a gun, they're not guilty!" Eri said.

"Wrong. They could have disposed of their weapons in the water," Snow said.

"Dang it. You're right!" Eri said.

"I don't have a gun," Ocotillo said. "I do have a knife, but the shooter didn't use one."

"If I had a gun, I'd probably accidentally shoot myself," Lorina said.

"No you wouldn't. Back before you died, you shot a deer," Riley said.

"Yeah, but that was a lucky shot. I mostly used traps to catch small animals. The deer was really lucky. Plus, that's _why_ I died, because I couldn't defend myself with the guns we had," Lorina said.

"What about the handwriting?" Riley averted her gaze from Lorina.

"What do you mean?" Lorina asked.

"The handwriting on the note is exactly like yours," Riley mumbled quietly.

"What did you say?" Lorina asked, her voice going slightly lower.

Riley looked her friend in the eyes, "I SAID THE HANDWRITING IS YOURS!"

"Pfft. It's written in cursive. Most cursive looks the same," Lorina said.

"It's half cursive. The s's are written like print s's, and the r's are written that way too! You write like that in cursive," Riley said.

"That's still circumstantial evidence," Lorina said.

"Lorina?" Eri called out.

"Yeah? What do you want?" Lorina asked.

"I ordered so that none of the suspects could see the note since it was evidence..." Eri started growing a wide grin. She looked at Lorina sadistically, "So if you never saw it, how do you know that it was written in cursive?"

Lorina's eyes widened quickly, and she took a step back. "I... uh..."

"You know come to think of it, this cruise ship is pretty warm. Why are you still wearing that cloak of yours?" Lina asked. "Or are you hiding something with it? Something like... a gun?" She pulled back the side of Lorina's cloak to reveal a pistol holder on Lorina's waist.

"I can explain..." Lorina held her hands up in innocence.

"Explain what? That you shot up this ship?" Snow asked.

"I didn't!" Lorina yelled.

"Guys? Lorina's really frazzled right now," Moon said.

"Moon, we're getting really close, now isn't the time to try and consider her feelings," Qibli said.

"No, what I'm trying to say is, since she's frazzled, whatever block she put on her mind is no longer there. I read her mind, and she did it. She shot half of these people," Moon announced.

"No... I didn't do it," Lorina put her hands in her head, "Lorina didn't do it." She collapsed onto her knees.

"Uh, why is she referring to herself in third person?" Ocotillo asked.

"Lorina, face the truth. You did it! Moon read your mind," Riley said.

"I didn't do it..." Lorina looked up from her hands, with tears in her eyes, "I didn't do it... it wasn't me."

"I think she may be in shock. Let's bring her back and decide what to do with her," Eri said.

Riley tugged Lorina back up and held her hand as the group walked out from the ship.

Eri looked back at the ship as they walked back to the hotel. "We should hold a funeral for these people. Or at least send them off. I'd feel bad letting these people just stay here for the rest of their days."

"Yeah. We can do that after figuring out the Lorina thing," Lina said.

When they got back to the hotel, Lorina was smiling again. "Yo, so on the way back here, Riley, Snow, and I thought maybe the reason I killed all those people may be related to why I'm still alive. Because I don't have a motive to shoot these people. I never met them before."

"Oh, so now you admit that you shot them," Lina said in annoyance.

"Yeah. I guess your friend was right about being in shock," Lorina said.

"Yeah. So there's no logical reason Lorina should be alive," Snow said, "But if we add in the fact that we know supernatural occurrences happen, we think Lorina's body may be possessed by some evil spirit with a vengeance to kill people!"

"Her body may have been reanimated by the spirit," Riley added.

"Interesting. Hey, Hermione! Go grab a book on spirits, maybe we can find something out with those. Everybody else can go do something else if they want," Lina said.

"On it!" Hermione said and ran to her room.

"So Winter, what _were_ you feel guilty about?" Moon asked.

"Um... I felt guilty about immediately accusing Ocotillo of murdering those people," Winter said and turned to Ocotillo. "After all, we're friends, right? Accusing each other of murder isn't something friends do. I'm... I'm really sorry."

"Forgiven, I guess. I'd probably accuse me of murder too," Ocotillo said.

"Why did your mind have a block on when Moon was reading yours?" Winter asked.

"I didn't. I guess I'm just confusing to read," Ocotillo said.

"She's right. She really doesn't need skyfire considering I can't read her mind seventy-five percent of the time," Moon said. "Not that I want to read her mind."

Ocotillo yawned, "What time is it even? I'm tired."

"It's about 11:45 P.M. so it's kinda late," Moon said.

"I'm back!" Hermione said. She went to the table where Lorina, Snow, Riley, Lina and Eri were sitting. She set down a book and flipped open to a page.

"That was quick," Riley said.

"That's what she said," Snow said.

Lorina shoved Snow, "That's not kid-friendly!"

"...Anyway, there are five sure signs that you are being possessed, so I'll ask you a few questions," Hermione said.

"Okay," Lorina said, "Fire away."

"Are your eyes a different color than their natural colors?" Hermione questioned.

Lorina shook her head, "Nope. My eyes are still the brown I was born with. See?" She leaned towards Snow, who would know her eye color since they knew each other the longest.

"Yep. That is, indeed, brown," Snow said, and Lorina went back to her normal position.

"Alright. Moving on. Do you have any memories that aren't actually yours. Like you're not sure you actually experienced it?" Hermione asked.

"Um, Riley, did we ever try to sneak into a bar?" Lorina asked.

"No, I don't want to drink alcohol," Riley said.

"Okay, so that's definitely a fake memory," Lorina said.

"Have you had any negative mood swings unrelated to feminine monthly cycles or any mental illness you may or may not have?" Hermione asked.

"Yep. Sometimes I just get angry over something so little," Lorina said.

"I guess that counts. How about a sudden loss of appetite?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah..." Lorina reluctantly said.

"And the final one, are there any unknown voices in your head?" Hermione asked.

"No, there are no voices in my head," Lorina said.

"Hm... so there's a three in five chance that you're being possessed," Lina said.

"Those aren't good odds," Snow said.

"Actually, there's a five out of five chance I'm being possessed," Lorina said.

"How do you know that for sure?" Riley asked.

"Because I can do this," Lorina stood up, and closed her eyes.

Eri started to say, "Wow, you can stand? How inte-" when she was interrupted by Lorina.

Lorina snapped her fingers, and two things happened. The lights went off, and everybody passed out except herself, Riley, and Snow.