Not High Enough (The Second Murder)

As soon as the monitors turned off, Leo recovered from his stupor and continued to run in the direction that he believed the sound came from.

He caught sight of Elson and Cassini, both looking clearly panicked as they discussed frantically with each other.

"Guys!" Leo shouted as he ran up, gasping for air. "You heard the scream too, right?"

"We wouldn't be up at nearly 2:00 in the goddamned morning if there wasn't a scream," Cassini remarked with a scowl.

Soon after, a crowd began heading towards the three of them, with Raven in the lead. Her hair was tousled and she was wearing a pair of light pink pajamas paired with white flip flops. As Leo scanned the crowd, he felt as if his heart had stopped. "Is this everyone...Raven?"

She silently nodded.

Elson paled in response to her acknowledgement to Leo's question. "You couldn't find Eve or Cornelia?"

Yumi stepped forward with a grim expression on her face. "Don't pressure her, guys. We can't afford to assume the worst. For now, let's just go to the hot springs. One of them has to be alive."

Gin pointed down the bridge. "It'll take about five minutes to get there if we run."

"Let's not dawdle, then. Let's go!" Yumi commanded as she began to run down the bridge. Leo and the others quickly obeyed as they followed behind her. "Please be okay," he muttered under his breath.

They reached the end of the bridge, looking around frantically. "Follow me, everyone," Raven ordered as she headed to the right. Leo looked around as he tried to spot either of the missing girls' figures in the moonlight.

A small figure suddenly crashed into him. He let out a shout in surprise and fell backwards, hands instinctively coming up to protect the person who had ran into him.

Raven stopped and looked back, covering her mouth. "Oh no."

Leo sat up slowly and looked down at who it was, finally recognizing who the trembling person was. "Eve?"

Eve suddenly burst into tears, holding onto his shirt tightly. She was completely soaked, water dripping down from her hair and her clothes. "I-I didn't do anything. I didn't do anything!"

Aspen squatted down next to them, patting her back gently. "Eve. Where exactly is her body in the hot springs?"

The Ultimate Medium shook her head as she wept quietly.

Cassini scowled as he grabbed the back of her shirt and yanked the girl up. "We don't have the time for this! Take us there now, you murderer!"

The group, including Eve, was stunned by his outburst.

Aspen laughed nervously. "Let's not reach conclusions so fast. But please, Eve. Please let us see her. We can't help avenge her if we can't even see the body."

Eve hicupped quietly as she nodded miserably. Leo attempted to comfort her, putting his hand on her shoulder gently. "Lead the way."

The girl began to slowly stumble back to the springs, the group following closely behind. Leo's breath became shallower and shallower as they got closer to the apparent site of the murder.

They walked into the locker rooms.

There was nothing there.

Eve continued into the changing rooms.

No one was there.

The group approached the springs.

Stunned, Leo looked around as he realized that there was nothing there.

Eve took a shaky breath as she pointed at the small bridge that arched over the hot springs. "I found...a cave under the springs."

Raven looked at where she was pointing quietly before she sighed. "So that means we have to jump in. In that case, everyone get changed first. We need to investigate after all. It'll be a hassle to move around in wet clothes."

With that, they split off momentarily, everyone getting changed into proper swimwear before coming back to where Eve was waiting for them. The Ultimate Medium slowly began to wade into the water, her head disappearing underneath the bridge before it disappeared entirely.

They followed suit. Leo closed his eyes as he walked in, ducking his head to avoid the bridge as he held his breath and walked blindly into the area where Eve and the others apparently went into.

As he stepped forward, he felt his feet suddenly sink down into a hole, panic rising as he fell in. There was a rush of cold water before he suddenly felt a draft of humid air and landed into another small pool of water beneath him.

Leo resurfaced and gasped, opening his eyes before he got out of the water. A few people were standing in front of him, motionless and backs turned. Leo swallowed nervously, standing up and getting out of the pool as he slowly walked towards the crowd.

His stomach lurched as he saw the body of Cornelia Herring slumped against the wall of the cave.

Her body was wet, water dripping from her hair and her chin. She was clad in a bikini, blood staining the clothing. One of her hands rest against the floor, the other lay across her lap as it seemed to be tightly clutching something. Her hair was tousled and roughed up, a part of it missing in the back. There was a gaping wound in her chest, blood slowly dripping from it and covering the entire front of her body. The water had mingled with it, emitting the strong scent of iron.

Leo covered his mouth to hold back the urge to vomit as he quickly turned away.

He became more sick to his stomach as he realized that no matter how hard he began to think about it, there seemed to be no logical explanation to the death of the Ultimate Pilot. 

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