Harridan
XI: Proctors

"Why was she here," Donnie bellowed. James cupped his forehead. Donnie spun James to face him. "Look at me!" James broke him off. "Why was she--"

"I'm dating her mother," James stated coolly. Donnie furrowed his eyebrows at James. He turned back down the way. "Do you want a detailed run-through of how we met and all the events leading to right now, or do you want to find Kieran before she lashes out in front of someone?" Donnie took out his car keys. "She has a knack for regularly disappearing. She's probably somewhere solitary. Abandoned, maybe."

"There're dozens of abandoned warehouses on Ivory Street."

"That's not where she's going," James stated then got in the passenger seat. "Head down Old Bridge Road; passed the town line and on the windward side of District Hill." Donnie furrowed his eyebrows at James. "Go!"

Donnie scoffed but started his engine and drove off the property, following Stirling Lane towards the New Bristol Wood with his whippers whipping rapidly. Donnie was tapping his thumbs impatiently on his steering wheel whilst whooshing over the speed limit in the heavy rain. James watched the road ahead, looking for any markers. The red pickup truck roared over the road and passed the town line.

Visibility was expectedly low in the dark trees, but the darkness around it was clearly not the late hour. James squinted to see through it, to no avail. Donnie slowed down, looking out the windscreen and in the side mirrors. The red pickup truck along the desolate road in the rain had Donnie growing more and more worried. The coursing storm was paired with his thumbs still tapping his worry.

"There, on the right," James declared. The Mercedes-Benz jerked wildly when Donnie pushed it off road, nearing the motorcycle. Donnie didn't turn off the headlights or his engine when he leaped out of the car with his phone's torch lighting the way. "No! No, no," James declared. He pranced on Donnie and grabbed the phone. "You could hurt her with that," he stated and covered the light. "We don't know what state she's in."

Donnie ignored him and ventured into the blinding darkness. Getting soaked didn't stop him from trekking the wilderness. "Why would she be out here?" James directed Donnie's torch towards the cottage. Shadows hiss and peeled away, revealing the little construct. "Is she an umbra affinity?" It was James' turn to ignore Donnie as he left the unoccupied cottage behind him. "How do you know where to go?"

"The blackness," James answered over the heavy rain. Donnie couldn't see him anymore, even with his torch. "The less you can see, the closer we're getting."

"It's all the same."

"This's an example of the age-old battle of experience versus knowledge. Reading only helps you so much, Donovan. You're no use to anyone if you can't apply what you know. Or this case, screw what you know and your intuition."

Donnie scrunched his shoulders from the howling wind that brought a freezing cold. He trailed into the trees, following James' footprints in the mud. Donnie followed James to the tree line of the meadow, where his torch was rendered useless. The torch was still on, but the range was nothing more than a few inches. Donnie shone it around the meadow with no reaction from the darkness. James held his hand out in front of him and saw nothing.

He held out his left hand to Donnie's torch. His vegvisir began spinning. Donnie, despite his dumbfound, shone his phone more purposefully over the back of James' hand. All tattooed compass slowed down and the crescent moon point - which was usually south - pointed northwest. Without saying a word, James trekked into the shadows and Donnie followed blindly. Under the great storm, shrieking sobs saturated the darkness. Donnie strained against the shadows with the torch being of very little help to find a soaked Kieran huddled in the tall grass.

The surrounding shadows were reaching out to Kieran as if they were embracing her. Some were airy feathers caressing her cheeks, some were harsh silvers that would gash anything wide open. Kieran's shaking form peered up to them, sobbing profusely. Her black eyes were singeing against the torch, and she quickly turned back to her meek kowtow of despair. Donnie didn't hesitate to reach for her.

"Get back," James hollered and pulled him away. Donnie broke free from him, but James was adamant. "Look at her eyes!" James wiped his face to dry it. "She's not in control. She could hurt herself, but she definitely will hurt someone if we move her in that state. She has to be contained enough to..."

"I know her," Donnie declared.

"You're letting your emotions--"

"So what!" Donnie shrugged James off him and kneeled to face Kieran's rippling form. He brushed her hair out of her face but it was so diluted that it stuck to her face. "Rie, it's just me," he began and took his ring off. "It's just me," he echoed in a whisper, gathering her in his arms. She crawled away from him with the shadows coiling between them. "Let me help you."

"It might not be Kieran you're talking to," James commented. "She's in a very specific state. A state where she has no conscious control over her resulting actions. That's why she can't speak."

Donnie held out his hand to her. "We've known each other for ten years. Come with me," he whispered.

Kieran tilted her head at him. Her black eyes didn't change. Shadows slithered over his hand that reached for hers. Lightning stuck audibly nearby, solidifying the darkness. Jagged stalagmites surrounded all three of them. The ground tremoring beneath them also helped shake Kieran from her haze. She sobbed and pressed her forehead into the dirt without Donnie looking away from her frigid form.

"Please don't kill me," she pleaded.

Donnie shook his head. Donnie tugged her against his chest. Kieran sobbed into his shoulder. James looked around the meadow that was clearing up. He looked down to Donnie resting Kieran's arm around him. "How did you do that," he asked. Donnie stood with Kieran cradled in his arms. "I've never heard of anyone being talked out of stasis." Sᴇaʀch Thᴇ (ꜰind)ɴʘvel.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

"I used my intuition."

Donnie stepped passed him and retraced their flooded footprints through the trees. Kieran was quaking and the rain picking up was no help. The cottage passed them, and Donnie parked Kieran in the passenger seat. James cleared the remainder of hair from her face and seeing how blue she was turning. "We're not going to hurt you," was all James said while searching her pockets. He took out her bike keys and looked to Donnie. "Keep her out of direct light. If she becomes hypothermic, the hypothermia will only make her weaknesses more effective. I'll be right behind you. Go."

Donnie turned the car's internal light off and turned up the heat on his air-conditioning. Kieran shrank into her seat, hugging herself, while Donnie practiced his F1 times. Kieran moaned from the jolts on the road the splashed droplets from her hair. The lightning striking made her wince and sink into the leather. Donnie looked over to her quivering with darkness rippling off her, still. James zoomed passed them and Kieran gasped from her bike's lights brushing over her.

Donnie saw her firm her rigid disposition when they neared the end of their drive. The large homes on Stirling Lane passed all too quickly, and soon, the red Mercedes-Benz pulled up to house number eighteen. Kieran looked over to Donnie and swallowed hard. He came to help her out of the car, resting his arms around her waist from the height of his car. She sniffled and combed her hair out of her face and tucked her hands into her pockets.

Kieran bristled, walking back through the garage and into the kitchen. The backup lights were still on, and James was nowhere to be found. Donnie started rummaging through the linen closet. He peeled Kieran out of her jacket and draped her in the towel. They sat on the couch with Donnie starting to shiver next to her. Still he had her wrapped in his arms to keep her warm.

Her head rested on his shoulder with the house's great darkness swirling around them. "Hey, calm down," he whispered. "I promise, we won't hurt you."

A bright, white light filled the living room. The darkness gave low screeches as it retreated away from Kieran. James walked in, shining a huge lantern. He set it next to the fireplace... closer to Kieran... then stood before them with his arms folded. "You two okay?" Kieran clutched the tower tighter around her. "Look, Kieran, I'm sure you've heard stories about what we do but we protect. We don't harm people who have no reason to be harmed."

"We just want to help you," Donnie chorused.

"H-help me," her blue lips echoed. She sniffled, looking down at her soaked sneakers. "What am-m I?" James crossed his eyebrows at that.

"An umbra affinity."

"I'm sure she's deduced as much, Donovan." James furrowed his eyebrows then came down onto his haunches. Kieran nestled deeper into Donnie's chest. "You're a harridan." Donnie did a double take at James. Before he could say anything, James shook his head at him. James held out a tin jar to Kieran. "We'll discuss that later. This's a... we'll call it a tea bath concoction; I ran a hot bath for you. Pour some of it in, submerge yourself. It will calm you and your capabilities." Kieran's rued pout only looked at the jar. "It's just dried reishi mushrooms, chamomile, rose water and lavender oil. Nothing that can hurt you." Cyan fingers took the cold jar and Donnie let her go. "You too," James dictated to the shivering Donnie. "There're four other bathrooms in this house, go find one."

Kieran kicked off her sneakers, looking around her bedroom for anything out of the ordinary. Welcoming steam sailed out of the ajar bathroom door. Kieran stepped into the room, feeling the warm make goosebumps run down her cerulean form. Doing as James ordered, Kieran got into the warm water. The clear tub turned black, making her sigh. The shadows around her spread into the water; a familiar sight from her bathtime at the cottage with Doreen.

She poured out the contents of the jar and the water singed with bubbles. The darkness started fading from the water. The perfume was sensational; almost like a high. She hummed then sank deeper into the luxe tub. Kieran took a deep breath and slouched under water. The warmth was piping hot and much welcomed.

Kieran had no effect on the flickering silhouettes created by the candles James lit around the bathroom. When Kieran sat up, all that was black in the water was her hair. She pushed her hair out of her face and gave a shaky exhale. Kieran indulged in the hot bath more, pouring herself with the water frequently. The dregs of tears dripped into the water with her arching her knees and hugging herself.

James exited his bedroom - refreshed from his shower - to find Donnie raiding his kitchen to fix himself a sandwich. "So," Donnie sang, "you're dating Magnolia Arclight?" James sighed. "You know she wrote that article about Rie?"

"I saw it at work," James nodded sullenly. Donnie looked down at the second sandwich he had made. "Donovan?" Donnie sighed then looked up. James gave a small smile to the basketball captain. "'Rie'?" Donnie scoffed, shaking his head. "No, no. It's good. I'm glad she's not alone."

"That's opened to interpretation," Donnie commented. Kieran on the stairs halted conversation and Donnie moved over with the second sandwich. "Feeling better," he asked her.

"Where's Anna," Kieran deflected. Whenever she thought the housekeeper - as of late, at least - all she could think of was how Anna lost her son.

James replied, "why, what's wrong?"

Kieran lightly shook her head. "I ask where's Magnolia, you give me a straight answer. I ask where the woman who actually cares about is, it's a thing."

James cleared his throat lightly. "I gave her the rest of the night off." Kieran looked down at her Uggs and tightened the fleece bathrobe around her. "There's clearly a conversation we need to have," James added.

The soccer defender gave a weak nod. "I'm a witch."

"You're a harridan, not a witch," James countered.

"Like the woman in the candy house in Hansel and Gretel," Donnie added.

Kieran combed down her hair, pulling a few strands straight. The confusion, James saw, was bold. "Think of it this way: waywards are a family. Harridans are a witch's cousin. That quiet cousin that stays in the background, doesn't say much yet everyone expects the worst in them."

"Witches are difficult to track because of how alike they are to everyone else, and they can be men or women. Harridans are women categorised by their solitary behaviour, inherently evil capabilities and - on occasion - their taste for human flesh," Donnie added on. Kieran's widened eyes shot towards him. "There's also the disdain for the opposite sex, save for when they're about sixteen-ish and they feel compelled to reproduce."

"I-I never felt that. O-or ate human meat."

"The traits are a chop-and-change, although it's unlikely you've never had human meat, considering how powerful you are."

"Pretty sure Magnolia wasn't grocery shopping in a morgue."

"Your grandmother was a harridan; one who lived in the perfect place to hunt unsuspecting victims," Donnie answered in rebuttal. "You wouldn't have been the wiser and probably had it a bucketful of times."

Kieran's thick eyebrows crossed as she thought back to her 'summer camp' days with Doreen. Whole summers where they would be at an open fire and make homemade burgers, hotdogs, meatballs, kababs, even bacon looked and tasted a little different. "No! No, sh-she hunted game meat," Kieran argued, remembering one evening where they had grilled 'venison' steaks.

"Kieran, did you ever go grocery shopping, or hunting with your grandmother?" Her little pout was telling. "Did it have a sweeter taste? Look like beef when it's raw, then a lot like lamb or veal when it was cooked?" Kieran gave a small gasp. "Did you ever eat something that was hard on the outside and soft and glutinous in the middle, with a fishy or gamey taste?"

Donnie dropped his shoulders and his eyebrows. "You think she ate a penis," he jeered.

"Did you?"

"Oh my God, gran!"

"She did it for your benefit," James encouraged.

"I'm a cannibal?"

"Don't think too much of it, Rie."

"It's gruesome and wrong."

"Donovan is right," James stated and loosened his folded arms. "Listen to me, Kieran. How your grandmother sourced her meat: irrelevant. You ate human meat: standard, it's in your nature. These are the facts: you never publicly hunted for meat, you never threatened to make a meal of someone. It's only gross to you because the ordinary world dictates that human cannibalism is wrong. You are not an ordinary, you're a wayward. A carnivorous, asocial, wayward. This's just what it means to be a harridan, so don't sweat the morality of your lifestyle."

"We had offal for Christmas. Offal and ribs," Kieran derided.

"Were the ribs marinated, or was it that red wine and bay leaf recipe Doreen told your mother she's never getting her hands on?" Kieran scoffed her disbelief. "We can't investigate a deceased harridan. We could if Doreen was a scold, or a termagant, or a crone, or--"

"Those are all synonyms for..." Kieran looked from James to his lavender infuser, streamed from the pressed ceiling "... unpleasant women." The electricity returned but, still, Kieran digressed. "You knew. The entire time, you knew."

"I suspected," James corrected. "To a trained eye you're terrible at hiding your capabilities. At first, I thought maybe you could be a kage-onna. They're Japanese shadows. Living shadows. I didn't guess harridan until recently. Not until after the benefactor put the cottage in your name, and I saw the address. We suspected a harridan was living outside town, but Doreen was outside our jurisdiction and the bones were disposed of swiftly and unsuspectingly."

Kieran shook her head and folded her arms. "And, now, because I eat human meat, I killed Blaine." Donnie squeezed her shoulder and lightly shook his head. "Which wouldn't have happened, if you didn't trigger me!"

"What," Donnie breathed.

"He was egging me on. He was trying to get it out of me!"

"I meant the letters," James yelled. "Anna told me about these letters you're getting from the benefactor. She said you're being stalked!"

"I killed my sister because of you!"

"It wasn't my intention to get you riled up, and I am sorry for the role I played." James squeezed her arms but Kieran shook her head. "I know how much she meant to both of you," he whispered. "And I hope one day you can find it in you to forgive me, but I know that day won't come anytime soon."

"You killed Blaine," Donnie roared. James looked down weakly. "You killed Blaine! And you used Kieran as a weapon!"

Donnie shook his head with the sunrise reflecting off his hazel eyes. Kieran watched him charge for the foyer. "You can't leave," James barked ruefully. Donnie sighed as he threw his head back. "Your mother's coming around."

"We have school in two hours."

"Not today."

Donnie glanced at Kieran and her pout turned to him before flashing it towards James. For the first time, in the past hours, she saw the resemblance between them. She turned to follow Donnie across the foyer and into the living room. They settled on the couch where they sat when they were freezing. Again, Donnie rested his arm around her. Against her better judgement, Kieran nestled into him.

"You're father and son."

"Uncle and nephew," Donnie corrected.

Kieran sniffed roughly then shut her eyes against his shoulder, finding sleep easily against her regret. Donnie too shut his eyes, leaning into the damp hair and his arms around her waist. James shut his eyes, leaning against the archway. In front of him, Donnie stroked Kieran's arm feeling the sun on his face and her steady breathing on his neck. Donnie felt sleep take him too and James nodded to himself. The master of the house went to prepare himself a cup of coffee and to rest his eyes in the kitchen.

Anna came in with a furrow in her eyebrows but went to work on cooking up breakfast. The aroma of her cooking stirred James to find his coffee cooled enough to lose steam. Over the stove, Anna was frying mushrooms, hashbrowns and bacon. James sighed then ran his hands over his face. After a stiff yawn, he saw Anna turn to his waffle iron to refill with batter. She said nothing but took his cup. Anna refilled his coffee and set back in front of him before returning to her cooking.

"Dare I ask," the housekeeper finally piped up, pointing her ladle towards the living room.

James shook his head then stole a strip of bacon from the small pile. "Look, Anna," he began, "after breakfast, I need you to take the day off." Anna flipped over the hashbrowns in her pan, eyeing him quizzically. "What?"

"Whenever, you start a sentence with 'look' and someone's name, you're usually doing that cryptic-man-with-bad-news thing. Now, I've worked in this house for ten years, and in that time, you've dated three women. Only one of them has a child and you don't have the best streak with children. If this's about Kieran..."

"It is," James cut in. "It's not that. There's, um..." James scratched his eyebrow then collected his cool. "She's meeting my sister in a few..." A loud knock sounded at the door "... minutes." He sighed.

Anna scraped the last of the bacon onto the pile, humming a weak chuckle. She flipped the last two hashbrowns out of the pan and turned off the waffle iron. All that simmered was the mushrooms on a low heat. Anna squeezed James' shoulders before retreating to her room, on the other end of the mansion. James, split from her to greet Janice and Macy jumping into his ribs. She a resounding trill that made Kieran jump to her feet.

Donnie too bolted to a defensive stance with a knife arched in front of him. Macy ran passed James, towards Donnie and high fived him. The colour returned to Donnie's face when he saw his mother in the archway, and he tucked his knife back into his baseball jacket's inner pocket. Kieran exhaled lightly and pushed her hair back. Janice's expression drooped when she saw Kieran and she stopped playing with the envelope she held.

"You poor thing," Janice sang and pulled Kieran into a firm hug. "How are you keeping?" Janice's dark eyes scanned over the senior and she pulled her face away. "There's something different about you."

"She took a reishi bath," James stated.

"Oh," Janice replied casually then looked over Kieran again. "O-oh," she said more seriously. "Dating a wayward, James Madigan?"

"I'm dating a carrier with a wayward daughter. An uninitiated carrier." James cupped Kieran's shoulder but she shrugged him off coldly. She returned to Donnie's side. "What's so important you had to come this early to-- what's that," he inquired, looking to the envelope.

Janice glanced over to her son before answering: "it's Blaine's autopsy."

Kieran felt Donnie grow stiff and she matched it. Donnie's hand then cupped Kieran's shoulder. James laced his fingers together and gave yet another sigh of defeat. "Maybe you two should go upstairs and..."

"It was his fault," Donnie hissed. Janice turned to Donnie, as did Macy. "He provoked Kieran."

"Kieran didn't do this," Janice stated and halted the room. "At least, I imagine she didn't. Wayward or not. What wayward are you, if you don't mind my asking?"

"She's an umbra affinity harridan." Janice's dark brown eyes went wide when she shot her brother a look. "One who can go into stasis."

"Wow," Janice commented, looking back to Kieran. "You're just a combination of rarities, aren't you?"

"Y-you said I didn't... kill... Blaine?"

James and Donnie stood on either side of Janice as she peeled open the envelope. Macy sat on the settee after tugging Donnie's phone from his back pocket. Kieran swallowed hard, watching the town's medical examiner take out the file. Macy playing games on her brother's phone was the only noise in the bristled living room. It drowned out Kieran's racing heartbeat and her heavy breathing.

Trails of darkness began rippling off her in anticipation, watching Janice open the tidy file. Donnie gasped at photographs of Blaine's purpled body. James looked at him in pure pity. Janice, not so much. "D'you expect me to believe you've never seen a nude woman before?"

"I've seen her naked before. I've seen her... lifeless..."

"What do you see?" Tears filled his eyes at her smiley resting face. Kieran swallowed hard, hugging herself. Janice shook her head at Donnie then went on, "see the claw marks on her chest? What do they tell you." Kieran whimpered and tucked her lips. "Focus, Donovan! What do the claw marks tell you?"

"It wasn't Kieran? I don't know."

"Rage," Janice corrected. "Wayward nature is to go for lower abdomen, come up. These start on top and go down. Whoever did this, wanted to maximise Blaine's pain. They're deeper than they needed to be; this person slashed right through sixteen of her ribs and both lungs and nicked her liver. But that's not what killed her."

"Ohmygod," Kieran exclaimed, turning away.

She turned back to see Janice flip to the next photograph and Donnie looked away in disgust. "See the hole under her shoulder?"

"How can I not when it's the focal point," Donnie gagged.

"The killer ripped her heart out." Kieran covered her mouth and Donnie turned away, going pale. "Like I said, I don't imagine Kieran did this but stealing a human heart is a very harridan thing to do; rich source of fats, proteins, and ketones."

"She didn't," James countered. "She wasn't covered enough blood to pull that off." James saw relief and sheer dread combined on her features with tears. "Wait a second. Kieran, how long did you shroud the darkness?"

"T-two seconds, maybe three."

"Harridans can't move that fast. Unless..." James looked over Kieran. "Do you remember what happens when you go into stasis?" Kieran's lips were moving but no words came out. She only hugged the fleece bathrobe tighter. "When your eyes change colour, it means you’ve tapped into emotions strong enough for your capabilities to take over."

"Rie," Donnie whispered. "Stasis is when your mind is dormant but the capabilities aren't. It happens reflexively, or subconsciously, or at the height of emotion."

"Scary, isn’t it? You think you know the limits of your powers and then stasis kicks in and suddenly you have a new depth," Janice voiced. "We need to know if you remember what happens when that happens."

"I don't," Kieran replied. "It's just blackout blurs. I do know that it didn't happen that night. Blaine kept trying to get closer and I kept trying to hold it back. She saw it and she didn't run, she didn't even look bothered by it."

"Did you ever tell her or try to...?" Kieran shook her head at Janice. "Then that poor girl really did just have a pure heart." Kieran looked down at the wisps over her fingers. "You didn't kill Blaine, Kieran, you didn't even hurt her. Whoever did this just took advantage of the circumstances you created."

"That James created," Donnie spat.

James gave a brief glance to Donnie then focused on Kieran. "Stasis is volatile ability. That type of source will hurt you, and the ones around you, and you can’t control it yet."

Kieran turned out of the living room, hearing an approach. The front door opened and in came Magnolia. "What's going on," she jeered. "Kieran, you're going to be late for school!"

"Urg, Arclight," Janice gagged. Magnolia scoffed at her. "Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to make that aloud."

"What is your problem with me?"

"You broke into the morgue, twice, looking for information on the District Hill murders," Janice started counting on her fingers, "you manipulate facts to suit yourself, and you wrote a damning article about Kieran without straight facts that only incriminated her more in Blaine's death."

"I interviewed Kieran myself, Janice."

"Sure, you did," Janice countered the cupped Donnie's shoulder. "I'll see you at home, I still need to get this to the Sulkins."

"Is that the autopsy," Magnolia pressed and pulled out her pen and notebook. "Any comment?"

"I do have one, actually," Janice stated as Macy fell in step with her. Magnolia whipped her dirty blonde hair behind her shoulder and was ready to write. "Feel free to quote me on this: you owe Kieran a retraction." Magnolia hummed her disdain but wrote anyway. "Furthermore, what kind of mother does that to her own child?"

Janice brushed down Kieran's hair before making for the foyer with Macy. "Off the record," Magnolia deflected.

Janice looked passed James and coldly took in the journalist. "Off the record, the thing that killed Blaine Sulkin, it was a bear. The fur confirm it was a black bear. There’s no way Kieran could have seen it with the power out."

Macy hugged James a final time before following her mother out. James looked to Kieran and Donnie. "Anna made breakfast." He gestured his head towards the kitchen. Kieran scolded passed her mother and Donnie did the same passed James. James didn't move a muscle, even when Kieran and Donnie were well out of earshot. Magnolia hummed then turned on her heel "How could you do that to her!"

"How could I do my job? The same way you do yours."

"You captioned the article, Young Woman Murdered by Classmate?, Magnolia! You just told the entire town that Kieran is murderer without batting an eye."

"Did you not see the question mark? It implies the possibility that she didn't. And who are you? I told you not to keep Kieran from school! She has a perfect attendance record that you just reduced to nothing." Magnolia shook her head. "Maybe I should find somewhere else to stay because, clearly, you and I aren't ready."

"You're only here because your house burnt down. Or do you blame Kieran for that too?"

Kieran shook her head, holding her cup of coffee to warm her hands. Donnie was pecking at the pile of bacon on the table, looking at the permanent scowl over her face and the steam turning black as it neared her face. Donnie pushed the plate of bacon towards her. Kieran took a strip then twiddle it in her fingers.

"What does it taste like," Donnie whispered. Kieran arched a brow at him. "The meat?" She shivered her disgust. "Look at it like a burger. What was it like," he pressed with curiosity burning off him.

Kieran put her piece of bacon down. "It was sweeter," she began. "Like pork in a dessert." Kieran sighed then steadily peered up to Donnie. "She used to make this snack for me. I relived the memory while we were sleeping. We called them buttered fingers," Kieran stated and Donnie straightened. "I used to bite my nails, so I always-always started with the nails. She stopped making them when I was around six-ish."

"She probably didn't want you to ask questions yet."

"I used to love de-boning them. She would get angry at me for eating them raw but I liked the squishiness." Donnie gave a warm grin to her gloomy form. "Why are we doing this," she began softly. "Whatever killed Blaine is still out there and we're talking about human meat delicacies."

"We could try going to school," Donnie offered. "We'll start with people who had motive and go from there."

"Who in that Hellscape would want to kill Blaine?"

"Well, nobody we know. But the timing is a little convenient with the prom polls about to open. Blaine was a frontrunner since we started high school." Kieran rolled her eyes. "Sometimes the most wayward crimes have the most ordinary motives, Rie."

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