Today was one of the few days where everyone returned to the apartment for dinner at a reasonable time. Hathor was last to arrive, opening the door only for her senses to be overwhelmed by the smell of spices. Delicious-smelling spices. Sweet-smelling spices. Spicy-smelling spices. And an outraged cry of "Gods damn it, Isaiah!"

Maddie was giving Isaiah a crash course in cooking, glaring every time his natural frost begun forming on the counter. No doubt that was the cause of her outburst moments ago. The Glacis gave Hathor a wave as she passed while his 'teacher' was too busy muttering to herself to notice.

Hathor dumped the books from her last class in her room before flopping onto the lounge in the main area. Troy was already there, remote in hand and flipping through channels on the TV. Hathor put her head in his lap and stretched out. 

Imogene was reading a textbook on the other lounge, Sky sitting beside her and tapping away at his computer. Whatever he was doing, it involved a lot of fast-moving lines on the holographic screen. Hathor wanted to ask but knew better than to distract Sky while he was in the moment. Imogene, who had deemed her Charms textbook too boring, on the other hand, didn't know better. 

"What are you doing?" No answer. "What are you doing?" She tried poking his arm. "Sky. Sky. Sky. Sky." 

Sky slammed his hands on the keyboard. "What?" 

Imogene's hair flared white with her surprise. She recovered quickly. "What are you doing?"

"Something very important that I won't be able to do if you keep distracting me!" With those words, he stormed into his room, the door slamming shut.

* * * * * * * * 

Sky didn't come out when he was called for dinner. Or dessert. Or when his favourite show was on that night. Hathor waited a few more minutes before taking food into his room, Troy close on her heels as per usual. 

"Are you dead in here?" Troy asked as they stepped inside. 

"No," came the answer

Hathor walked over to the desk and slid the tray in front of Sky. He looked over his glasses at it, at her, at Troy. Sky pulled the tray closer, put his glasses to the side, and devoured the main part of the meal - a large bowl of pasta and two toasted slices of bread - within minutes. 

Hathor laughed. "This is why you shouldn't skip dinner!"

"Sorry," he said around the last mouthful. "Was doing something important."

Troy leaned against the desk, looking over the screen. "Looks like a bunch of letters and numbers to me."

Sky shook his head before taking a bite of fruit. "I'm trying to get into the restricted section of the library." 

"You're what?" Hathor yelped.

"Just the cameras!" He begun typing again, the fruit next to the keyboard forgotten. "I figured it would be a good start. If I can get into the cameras and any of us need to get into the restricted section, then one of us can keep an eye on things and warn the others when someone is coming."

"Genius!" Troy slapped his back. "You really are one."

"I guess you now longer love me," Hathor cooed. 

"If you two love birds are willing to to leave me alone, I'll call you when I get something."

Hathor took the now-empty tray as Troy opened the door for her. They called goodnight as they left. Hathor, deciding she wasn't tired, helped Maddie finish washing up. Once that was done, she took a long enough bath that Imogene ended up knocking on the door to make sure she hadn't drowned herself. By the time she dried herself and changed, Hathor found everyone but Troy and Sky were asleep.

"You look tired," Troy noted.

Hathor stifled a yawn. "What's this tired you speak of?"

He took the towel she was using to dry her hair. "You've been standing there for ten minutes rubbing your hair." He disappeared into the bathroom, coming back empty handed. "Go sleep."

"I'll sleep if you sleep,."

"Well," Troy said, taking her hands. "I'll only sleep if you sleep."

"Then we're agreed." 

"It would appear so."

Hathor felt herself warm at how close he was to her. Any closer and they should share breath.

She took a step back, keeping hold of his hand until she was out of reach. "Goodnight."

"Night, Hathy."

* * * * * * * * 

"I'm in!"

Hathor was jolted awake by Sky's triumphant cry as the sun begun rising. She almost fell out of bed in her rush to go to his room. Troy was already there, looking over Sky's shoulders. Hathor came up on his other side. Imogene, Isaiah, and Maddie came to see what all the noise was about. A short explanation from Sky had them just as amazed as he begun flipping through the cameras.

"Wait." Imogene said. "I thought I saw someone on that last one. Go back. Go back."

Sky did as he was asked, flipping back to the previous camera. The group had varying reactions to what they saw but they all said the same thing. Shock. Hathor ran from the room, the others close behind her. 

"I know another way in," she said as they ran down the road, barely lit in the rising sun. 

Hathor led them upstream to the entrance Dex had taken her to twice before, running through the narrow pathway. She could smell it now, the metallic stench of Human blood. Hathor pushed on bookshelf covering the tunnel's end and let the others in. They gaped at the books but returned to attention when Hathor clapped.

"Camera should be just up ahead," Sky said. "Two rows down."

The group ran into the stacks, Hathor following Sky's directions. She almost overshot the second row of books but managed to stop, running down the long row of books and slid to her knees beside the face-down body. Unable to stop herself, Hathor rolled the body over. 

Her hands shot to her mouth and she scrambled away from it. But she recognised the scent. "Oh, Gods. Ella."

Troy appeared at her side, took one look at the hole where a face should have been, and dragged Hathor away with Maddie's help. Imogene had turned away, one hand over her mouth and looking like she was about to throw up. Isaiah and Sky were staring. 

"I'm going to find something to cover her with," Isaiah said softly. He took Imogene's hand, leading her away from the sight.

Hathor, unable to look away from Ella's body, fumbled for her phone. She pressed the first name that appeared in her recent contacts.

"'Sup, Hathy?" said Jay. 

"M-murder," Hathor said, voice shaking. "Restricted section."

"What? Where are you?"

"Restic-"

"No, where in the restricted section?"

Hathor looked around for a sign but found nothing that could be used to tell it apart. Her eyes landed on the camera. "Sky!" she called. "What's the camera number?"

Sky shook out of his shocked state. "Oh, uh -" he opened the screen "- five. Number five."

"Camera five," Hathor repeated.

"Okay," Jay said. "Stay where you are. I'm coming now."