Felicia didn't receive the apt response or the reaction she deemed necessary and so she felt obliged to repeat her words.

" Where is the body?" Her body found itself to be gritting the surfaces of it's teeth without conscience and it's fists clenching, crumpling the paper from its center.

And when her eyes looked back, the look on Brenda's face made it clear and along with the silence that came after.

It was near the lab Claire ran off to.

Forensics...

The thump of her legs appeared faster than usual alarming the others who were moving into work to move aside, paving way. She swiped the card that showed proof of her identity and shoved the door open, the mechanics of it not bothered and closed behind her.

Not finding the lifeless body at the table, she clicked her tongue and looked at the mess that comprised the table near. Felicia scanned for vital notes and eyed the subject ID, walking over and dialing Operations, requesting their assistance to call the victim's body to the lab and announced they were to start their line of work as soon as possible.

" Thank you, Kale" She set down the land-line and massaged her temples.

And when she consumed enough time, she put her hands into her jean and pulled out her cell, brooding to herself and poising her index on a certain contact. She hesitantly dialed it, noticing how the history of contact was broken over the course of time.

It rang.

Once.

Twice.

Thrice.

And when it reached the eight in due surge of seconds, a voice spoke up.

" This is Alice Krüze!" A chirp reached Felicia's ears. ( Krüze roughly means Crumbs or Crutches in German )

" I don't know why but you're not lucky, not reaching me of all people!! I mean, pick up, me! Anyways feel free to send me a message after the bell!" And another chime was heard, signalling that the person wasn't available and that confirmed Felicia's line of thought.

And almost at the moment when she shifted the phone into her pocket-

The elevator inside the lab whirred to life and opened, displaying a covered shape, that which resembled a human. While the cover was sloppily and carelessly veiled over the trolley, which didn't do a good enough job of covering parts of the face and the hand which already would be alarming as they should be secured in restraining belts, it didn't make up for the fact that Felicia was the one to reveal to herself who this was.

And with a heavy breath expelling out her lugs, Felicia lifted the sheet off with a tong knowing she wasn't one to leave sanitation and cause infection, lifted enough to view their face.

And didn't give that piece of hope that she hoped for.

The pale complexion ending near the mouth and a trail of grey running down as it darkened down the throat, the dark hair running amok as the colour changed to an run down electric blue at the tips.

Felicia felt a wave of overwhelming nausea from seeing the path that the epidermal layer brought upon her mouth at best and it only worsened by the time it got down to the lower regions of the cadaver of the 23 year girl who couldn't open her eyes anymore.

The valley of grey decay withered more and more while it went towards the digestive tract as Felicia doubled down and reached over to the bin at the side of the stand where the girl was placed.

After throwing up and feeling a little better overall, her eyes blurred in and out of focus after about two minutes.

Her gut clenched more and more, closing in on herself. 

Her hope, shattered...

But Felicia wasn't one to be wavered by things such as this. She knew very well of the existence of the mob warfare that took not so periodic turns at disturbing the civil-livelihood near the neighborhood that circles around Munich, the quiet boroughs of Maxvorstadt and the urban streets of Bogenhausen.

Two years had passed as if they were only a ripple across an ever expansive sleet of the terror that this country had over it's age old history but-

This ripple spread it's advances far and wide, sending shivers up the other events. 

The Gray Wolves or Graue Wölfe, in irony, popularly named by the Organizations as well as parts of the city credited them as, grew more rampant but suddenly dying out to unknown cases.

Before sprouting their fangs at the Dias for culling their count. But only a few knew it was the labour of the Phase and the lesser known demon, Klinge meaning Blade on a rampant hunt for blood.

Letting those thoughts sink in deeper, she took up some disinfectant and rubbed it on her pale palms and felt the chill turn to a drier sensation while her veins pricked at her. She looked at the charts and the values that corresponded to the pulse of hers and stopped at a point.

Felicia suddenly looked around for the EKG which wasn't near sight so she had to call in Finn Kroll's assistance who came in with a concerned look as soon as he laid eyes on Felicia actions and her frantic and agitated movements.

Finn stuck around for a little longer, seeing what the new-ish adult did with the new admission and had to make sure the huntress didn't mess anything up, setting off an explosion in the most secure place they had to offer.

But to his misfortune, she did know what she was doing but it wasn't in gain for her.

And she began the pulse rate analysis. To which, her eyes were glued on the wave and trough of the remaining blood in the girl's carrion. It wasn't much and the results of everything else stayed as a testimonial contrary to the monitor which showed the ebb of blood rather than the languid flow.

And as she noted the readings from time to time, inverting the machine's hum, courtesy of Vanessa Glühe, time went on and on, not of her work but of the time she had left to think of a plausible reason why the body was barely tied together but the blood still found a way to escape the trail of death and blight that strangely continued to spread even after halfway past the first hour.

The scientist always outdid herself in ways no one thinks of, like inverting an EKG on demand, making it easier for the examination of people devoid of breath or so much so that they look like one. 

The inventor Vanessa Glühe, with a name suspiciously pronounced glue, was given her calling by her Nordic mother who loved astronomy and named her child after a surprising Hebrew word that meant Star. And when she took on her family surname as children do, the name Glühe stating a beautiful glow was given to her.

And she was. A beauty to the vision of anyone who lays their eyes on her fair, snow skin and her bewitching electric eyes finished by her ashen blonde roots. So much so she was nicknamed the Snow Witch by colleagues, which didn't fit her because she was looked upon also as a goddess.

Mostly because Vanessa was the one who made about three quarters of their weapons and gears, all the way to the scopes and their armor. She was a mad genius in a frank sense of reality.

*****

Even in the cold conditions of the morning hours at the Dias, Felicia began slowly siphoning out sweat from her brows and wiped it off occasionally with a wet tissue. She took the already haunting results of the EKG and deduced the only reason her body had a pulse-

Well, it wasn't a technical pulse. It was just the extraction of the scarlet blood Alice's body had to offer because it wasn't just your usual murder.

Brenda was right. She had a sharp mind but it had a tendency to act on it's thoughts later than sooner.

It wasn't an assault. It wasn't harassment or rape. It wasn't even torture.

" It's a bloody experimentation" Felicia worded to herself, knowing she had reaped the seeds someone had sown. She started to stumble upon her footsteps and went to find her footholds onto the cushion of a swiveling chair.

" But...why?" The question popped into her head, as she reached for the conclusions. She looked at all the results she undertook these past three hours and a bit were laid out easy to analyze.

There were no blood cells in the streams of broken down tissues, letting the dryness settle further and some bacteria to start plaguing the skin. But every other part that wasn't directly in the path, including organs were completely intact.

The diagnostics were easy to manage, the brain was intact, the eyes were not too damaged but the throat and the entire respiratory as well as the digestive tract were completely drained of erythrocytes. 

But even though the body was dead, the rate of which it started to decompose was inhuman. The speed wasn't that of a deceased's metabolism, if it even had one.

Her face collapsed on her hands as she sunk further back into the soft cushion, further back into the room which was now filled with a musty stench from the rapid degradation of Alice's withering figure.

After a few moments, Felicia look into her hands, the tag that was tied on the victim's feet, keeping both her thumbs together. The Dias had a more efficient way to organize the corpses if necessary. 

If the tag was tied on only the right thumb of their foot, it would mean that it would go to the incinerator, meaning if the body was not necessary or was deemed too hard to analyze.

If it were on both the thumbs, holding them like the locks of a gate, it would state the analysis team hadn't worked on it yet or it was supposedly held up.

However, if it were on the left foot's thumb, they had the possibility of returning to their families. If there were no tags, the team had cracked the riddle and it would also mean they would be returned to their respective families and homes.

And so, Felicia did crack the puzzle within hours. What was used, how it was used, in what way, and how long the girl was exposed to it.

But she couldn't bring herself to do it. Her hands trembled at the thought of sending this rotting daughter to her family. She couldn't cut the piece of plastic. All she could see was the name, her age, and the only needed information of her.

" Alicia Krüze" It seemed to say.

She let her fingers that held it loose, thinking how she could do such a thing. She couldn't possibly send this girl back.

But how could she deny that? How could she deny a family of their somewhat deformed daughter? Deny a mother of her child? 

Finn watched all of this from behind her, seeing the newbie flinch at her first trial.

" Miss Jäger?" He gingerly called out and broke the silent air. ( Jägerin [f ] translates to Huntress in German )

" Any help for the mastermind?" His mouth broke into a smile as he put his hand on her shoulder, showing that he was there to help if she needed. For a symbol of comforting.

Felicia turned around, and handed Finn the files of her deduction and looked at his dark brown eyes, almost mistaken for black.

" I-I...I can't..." She stuttered, as if to say it was a success, but it was hard for her to do the succeeding process.

" I get it" Finn replied, looking at the bundle of papers and walked to the cabinet, pulling out a glove for his right hand and plunged his hand in, securing it all while Felicia still held her head down, like she could see the Earth where the body would eventually end up.

He reached for a handle and took out a new tag and a pair of clippers a bit larger than your average ones and did no time lousing around and snapped the tag in his left and slid it into the bin and tied one around the thumb of the right foot and put a sheet over the body, unraveled the gloves and threw them into disposal, squirted a bit of disinfectant and cleaned himself up.

" Hallo? Das ist Finn. Ja, ja. Es ist fertig. ( Hello? This is Finn. Yeah, yeah. It is finished ) " He dialed Operations and informed them. And after a pause, Vanessa screamed at him, almost audible even without the phone in his ear as he flinched.

" Huh? You're not the only genius here, Switch! We got one as well!" Finn yelled back.

" Send someone her to take the girl to the incinerator! NO? NOT THE GIRL! THE DEAD GIRL! ARE YOU DRUNK AGAIN YOU IDIOT!?"

A moment where no one spoke went by.

The Snow Witch spoke again, this time by not yelling at him but in a more serious tone. Finn understood this and replied in the same manner.

" Okay, that'll be great. Thanks a lot."

Finn fell silent again for a few seconds.

" A package? For us? Oh, for Felicia." Felicia raised her head a little, brought back to reality. She looked up at Finn. Finn noticed this and smiled at her, whispering that she had a surprise for her in store.

" Ja, tschüss." He cut the call. He spoke to Felicia after yet another moment of silence.

" It happens to all of us. First time is really the worst day we have. Yet you took on the case and finished everything within four hours by yourself. That's remarkable, Felicia. So come on, take the rest of the day off, I'll talk to the Head. Go eat something to Claire to cheer you up?" He suggested.

" thank you..." Was all she could say to Finn, because she didn't have anything rolling in her track of thoughts.

Finn walked out, giving Felicia some time to think it out as he wondered why he didn't remember being like that on his first case.

" Right...that's why" He laughed to himself, remembering the time he spent as an officer, driving around in his car like a feral cat on a catnip overdose and engaging in gunfights and killing the wolves along with his other cohorts, occasionally losing some.

" Yyyyyeeeeeeep. That's it..." Finn Glas marched nonchalantly in the corridor, chuckling at his own words, scratching his head.

But what he didn't know was that wasn't why Felicia wept.

She cried, because she couldn't keep her end of the deal. She cried because that was the end she knew was coming soon, although not to that brutal end. She cried-

Because she won. What she said happened. She was right.

Felicia shed tears because her deductions were almost always true. And that terrified her. 

What she found out within the three hours and forty seven minutes...terrified her. Not the dead girl in front of her.

It was an experiment. Not murder. And from the looks of it-

It's not going to stop anytime soon.

*****