The Troublesome Duo |Spook|

The halls of Foresta were packed with students scurrying around, preparing for classes which were starting in a couple of days. Most people were hectically searching all the classroom numbers trying to figure out where they had to be a head of time so that they wouldn’t be late for class on the first day. Others were just hanging around trying to make friends as the chaos was going on so at least they had someone to suffer through the worst of classes with. Then there was Miller.

Miller wasn’t bothering with the whole ordeal that was taking place, classes weren’t the most prevalent thoughts on his mind. He was only caught in the crowd because he wanted to put himself in a spot where he could be most noticed by people so that maybe his friends would see him. He’s been having a tough time with friends because their numbers seemed to be dwindling each day.

The crowd of people were cautious when passing by Miller considering he had a growth-like weapon weighing down one of his arms. It wasn’t like he could put it away though. He strolled down the halls with a very investigative look on his face. He quickly gazed at each person he passed trying to identify whether or not he might know who they are. Considering that he didn’t know very many people, it was quite obvious that he didn’t recognize any of the faces. The hall was long and filled nearly to the brim, so there was a lot of ground for him to cover before he was going give up. He just really needed a friend.

The crowd bustled from all sides, shoving impatiently. Lilly recognized very few people, except as memories of vague scents along corridors, and that was nigh-on meaningless.

Walking through the towers of people down the hallway, Lilly could really feel her height. She hated it. It wasn't just that, however- the extra bulk of their bags meant they were less aware of her presence, and she had been slammed into a few times. Both the offenders wondered off too quickly for action to be worthwhile.

She had to weave and bend her way through the people, for once using her height, to get anywhere. What she really needed was somewhere where she could look at her timetable without the risk of someone bumping into her.

Lilly didn't take long to spot a tall head above much of the crowd. She needed little encouragement to head over in that direction. She meandered a little, finding it difficult to keep track on direction while being jostled around. Lilly was very unused to it being this busy here.

That scent was familiar, and it took her very little time to recognize the man in front of her. The man’s distinctive blade was blocked from her sight, but she could smell the fear off of the nearby people, and that equated similarly.

Lilly hesitated for a bit, pulling a strand of whiter hair out of her eye. He probably couldn't see her from his position, and given she was wedged between two boys in the year above her. He looked a little lonely, and Lilly knew she’d feel better with someone she knew a little about than being shoved around by students a foot taller than her.

She shuffled around, and barged through nearby to the man, approaching from his right.

Lilly cleared her throat, so she wouldn't surprise him too much. ”Hello, Miller.”

Miller continued down the hall as he stared at as many people as he could without stopping his movement. He got in return an odd variety of mixed reaction from people, which was probably quite reasonable given his appearance and the fact he gave people a very wide stare with his already dark gargantuan eyes.

His face grew an expression of dissatisfaction as his plan seemed to be a very early failure. Someone among within the plethora of students had to have noticed and identified him. It wasn’t long until he was proven right though, as he heard the sound of a voice emerge from his right. His head twisted to his right, but he didn’t see anyone, though once his eyelevel fell lower he noticed the very tiny woman. She was incredibly small compared to the majority of the crowd already, but next to Miller they both looked to be of completely different species, which was technically true.

He grew a small smile as his gazed focused on the girl. He had to contort his neck in a very strange manner in order to see her correctly, but he didn’t mind. His mind slipped on what her name might be, but he responded trying to disguise his slip up. “Oh, hey you” he greeted with a plain smile not knowing if they were on good terms or not.

Miller began to slow down his movements so that the girl could keep up with him better. People who passed by Miller made sure to keep their distance, not necessarily because they were afraid of the boy himself, but more so they didn’t want to bump into his left arm on accident. The hallways were cramped enough as they were, but the people still tried to steer themselves out of his path.

Lilly disliked how Miller had to lower his eyesight to find her. She knew it was inevitable, but it made her extremely conscious of their size gap. Lilly had to crane her head up to look at Miller, and quickly knew that that would soon give her a serious crick in the neck.

Lilly wasn't sure how she felt at being addressed as “you,” but it was better than being addressed by her size like quite a few people as large as him might have done. She couldn't help wondering if he even remembered her, as his gestures signaled against- she thought given the events which had occurred on their last meeting, she’d be a little harder to forget than that- but was unsure how to remind him.

”So incidents happen often enough that you don’t even remember them?” She muttered. The thought worried her.

Miller’s stride was far longer than Lilly’s, almost comically so; she did appreciate the slowing of pace on a level, though she felt offended that he thought she was unable to keep up if she wanted to. It was nice that the crowd tried to split around Miller, as Lilly could walk around without having to worry about people bumping their rucksacks in her face.

Approaching from his right was definitely a good option, now seeing that blade clearly again. She’d forgotten its size, even though she’d felt it before.

”Seems I’m not the only amnesiac at this school.” Maybe it was a good thing if he couldn't remember; he was unlikely to give the game away in that case. ”I’m Lilly.” She almost held out her left hand to shake, but quickly switched.

The minute Lilly mentioned an incident, he knew exactly what she was talking about. His eyes went wide and he analyzed the people around them if they overheard what they were speaking of. Such a vague term as that would be nothing incriminating, but even hinting toward it was enough to make him nervous. No one seemed to mind they’re conversation, they were all basically focused on their own tasks and issues, but that didn’t make the area safe enough for him.

Miller stared back at Lilly, his jaw a bit loose showing his embarrassment of not remembering her name. “Oh, yes. Sorry. Those memories are sort of repressed, anything involving it I try to forget” he answered as he realigned his jaw in a quiet tone. He hoped that nobody was able to piece together what it was they were talking about, though it was probably impossible for even the greatest detectives to decode what they were saying without context. Luckily, the students were left in the dark about the prime suspects behind the murder.

Miller shook the small woman’s hand once he noticed her gesture. His large black eyes glared at each side of the hall before he looked back down at Lilly. “This isn’t the place to talk about this, down the hall looks less populated, maybe there’s an empty corridor we could find over there” he instructed silently as he pointed down the hall toward a corner that led to another hallway.

Lilly was a little surprised he could hear her quieter tones that clearly. His expression, and all those small ticks of body language he probably hadn't noticed himself, told her he knew what she meant. Her sense of smell told her of no-body who was currently suspicious, although it wasn't entirely reliable around this many people, and it wasn't the most reliable method anyway.

Lilly heard him perfectly despite his lowered voice. A perk of super-senses was that whispered conversations were very easy. ”No need to be. That’s fair enough.” She kept her voice as low as she thought he could hear.

Her eyes flicking around probably looked a bit suspicious, but it was better than risking someone who knew the evidence listening in.

Lilly withdrew her hand quickly, not wanting to seem suspiciously familiar in front of people when they weren't even meant to have met previously.

”I’ll check.” Her thinking was that someone her size sneaking off to check was a lot less suspicious than someone that much taller.

Lilly nodded, and slipped ahead down the hall, and into the corridor, ducking below one girl’s rucksack. She looked around. A few doors lined the hall, but they seemed empty, and she could only see a few people, most of the way down the corridor. They seemed wrapped up in conversation, and were too far away to hear as long as they were cautious not to yell- not that that was likely. As long as they kept an eye open for these other students, there shouldn't be any real issues.

Listening carefully, and taking advantage of her sense of smell, she couldn't identify anybody else nearby who might be able to hear the conversation.

She gestured for Miller to follow from around the corner.

Miller watched Lilly’s tiny body sneak past the clusters of people until she was completely hidden within the crowd. Miller wished he do such a thing, but he had a different advantage than the small girl did, people steered clear of him so it was easier to manipulate the crowd into moving out of the way. He kept a decent pace, trying not to look like he was in a hurry as he made his way over to where he instructed Lilly to go.

She obviously was the first to make it to the near empty corridor and signaled for him to follow. He assumed that meant that the hall was less crowded, so at least his hunch was right. After he separated himself from the river of people, he entered their assigned meeting place. There weren’t many other students in the hall, but there were still some. Which meant he had to stay within his normal guise until there were no eyes on him.

Miller’s eyes glared at the other people since it was their fault they had less privacy than he wanted, but he had to accept that a school was bound to have plenty of witnesses within any area. His bulbous eyes glanced over to a nearby wall as he leaned his left shoulder against it and stared at Lilly. “We haven’t seen each other since…” his head darted back to the little groups of people and his voice went a lot quieter “…since the suicide right?” “I can’t remember.”

Lilly swung her bag off of one shoulder, lowering it to the floor, and leaned against a wall, trying to make the following conversation seem more natural if the other students happened to look over.

She wasn't there for long before Miller turned the corner.

”Good call.” Lilly noted Miller’s reaction to the other students. ”It’s not ideal, but I doubt we’ll find anywhere with fewer people right now.”

”No. We haven’t.” Saying she’d smelt him around probably wouldn't have been a good way to continue that line of conversation.

She had to work to keep her voice level, so she didn't give anything away. ”No-one else has implied they know anything about it to you specifically, have they?” Lilly glared up at Miller, trying to stress how important this was. The reason for the curfews was obvious to her, even if the exact details had been hidden. It was only natural there were some suspicions among those who knew. Lilly was just concerned for if they had enough “evidence” to make accusations.

The fact Miller had been alone in the hall suggested that this probably wasn't too big a need for concern.
She frowned, trying to think exactly what “evidence” there was. Traces of her own blood, hairs, finger and footprints. That alone would be pretty incriminating (assuming anyone had her records), but she was fairly sure that blade was unique among the students. Accusations could already be swinging towards the larger boy. No-they probably were already there. But Miller was innocent, as far as Lilly was aware. She couldn't allow that.

Aware she had been gazing into a spot just to the left of Miller’s face while thinking, Lilly shook her head suddenly.

"Do you reckon that girl was admitted because she could control people?" It sure would be a lot easier to get out of this situation if she was.

Miller liked what he was hearing, Lilly was filling him in on exactly what he needed to be clarified. He first questioned the journal when it said that the girl was controlling him, but with how naturally she spoke it, it had to be true. “Actually, Miller is suspected to be the prime culprit, but given what I’ve found recently, that might not be the case” Miller’s voice suddenly changed from a masculine one to a more mono-gendered one.

Miller stared back at the groups behind him to reassure that it was safe enough for him to reveal herself. The large arm-bladed boy held out his hand as a police badge emerged from the palm of his hand. “Officer Demostrate, I’m undercover to investigate the case behind Margaret’s death. Miller was caught a while back, but his location is unknown now. We have little leads and little evidence, so I’m pretty much the last resort” she stated in a low vocal tone to reassure that she wasn’t heard by anyone around them.

Tem felt safe enough letting this girl in on the secret since she did seem to actually care for Miller, at least more than Tem could admit to be. She wasn’t sure why Lilly had never been brought up in the investigation since she was making it sound like she was there for when the bald woman was killed. “You’re gonna need to tell me as much as you know if you want your friend to stay out of custody, that is if we ever find him” she continued in a more serious tone.

(OoC: Genius.)

Lilly narrowed her eyes a little as he slipped into third person. ”Is this that whole “we” thing again?” She muttered, accusingly.

The change in voice should have alerted her, but the name really did it. Either this was some sort of possession, like before, or a shape-shifter. The first idea made her angry enough that her claws nearly came out without her intentions. At least the chances of this went down with the police badge. She seriously doubted miller had one of those.

That was the first time a shape-shifter had been able to fool her super-senses. Lilly didn't know how, until she actually checked again. The scent was a little off. Maybe she’d wanted to see Miller so much she’d imagined the correct scent. That would also explain why she hadn't seen him.

But Miller had smelt not quite human, and nor did the person in front of her. Was it possible he- no, they- weren't?

Lilly narrowed her eyes further. ”How do I know I can trust you?” Half of her told her to just trust, and half of her told her caution would be the best option. ”You know enough about him to be able to copy his appearance. Isn't that identity theft or something? And doesn't it suggest you might know a bit more than you’re letting on?”

She was ticked off that she’d been fooled, but decided anyone who knew many details would probably have known her name already, despite her previous statement. Lilly guessed it was okay to share information. It wasn't like she could hurt the situation- it was pretty messed up as it was- and if there was a chance this could help, when she knew he was innocent, there wasn't much else she could do.

”How much do you already know?” The fewer details she had to give, the better if anybody over-heard this conversation.

Tem snorted at the girl accusing her of not being trustworthy, she shook her head as she replied to her. “If I felt that I couldn’t trust you why would I reveal my true identity to you. I left myself vulnerable in your hands, if you wanted to you could rat me out, but you won’t because right now I’m the only thing that will stop Miller from being imprisoned or worse” she argued though lacking a harsh tone as she usually would. She didn’t truly care one way or another for the true fate of Miller, but this whole case was giving the gifted a bad name. She wasn’t a gifted being nor did she like being referred to as one, but she will always be identified as one regardless.

“I only know his appearance by pictures that were taken when he was apprehended, I’ve never seen him in person, I had to study those few pictures very hard before anyone deemed I looked close enough to the real thing” she answered. As for the scent of her body, she had previously been shifting through Miller’s stuff a few days prior. She made sure to get as much of his smell onto her to account for any person with super-senses, she had to factor in every ability she thought possible in order to make her disguise perfect considering that she was entering an area filled with people who could spot her phoniness. She also had to heat up her body to make sure that anyone who could detect body heat wouldn’t see through her. X-ray vision was about the only thing that she couldn’t combat against.

“I know only as much as the rest of the force knows, which isn’t much and a journal I found in his room with only one entry. From what he said in the journal, the girl was controlling him, I wasn’t too sure about the idea until you mentioned it since a lot of what was written in that thing didn’t make much sense to me.”

”To get trust?” Lilly shrugged. ”I don’t know, but given the circumstances, I've got to check first.”


Lilly hated that “or worse” there. She was scared enough of him going to prison. She didn't know the US legal system to have a decent idea of what that meant, but she could guess.


Hearing about the officer’s mistakes, it was a lot easier to believe them. Lilly doubted that someone who had easy access to a reference would make those mistakes, and she couldn't ignore this if this could help.

Additionally, now she actually concentrated on her senses, Lilly could detect one other mistake. It had gone unnoticed while they’d been among so many people, and she preferred to ignore this detail anyway, even with only one person around, because she felt it was prying.


”You don’t have a heartbeat. At least, I don’t think you do.” And the person in front of her didn't smell human. She knew her senses weren't tricking her, or at least, weren't giving her false information.


”Was anything found around there? Other than a body?” Lilly knew full well the library had been refurbished shortly afterwards, and had no-idea if any evidence would have survived that.


”I’m pretty sure he was being controlled. It’s rare for people to “surrender” then attempt to slash through your legs, and from what that girl said, I’m sure she had a serious influence there.” She paused, trying to explain the bad memories. ”And the look on his face afterwards- I can’t believe he meant anything intentional.” Lilly had a sense that that probably wasn't too helpful to her cause.


Commenting on his journal not making sense, Lilly snorted.


”Are you really suggesting that you can’t think why? This is the best place for Gifteds I’m aware of, and it’s not like we’re from all over the world or anything, or from any dubious backgrounds.You don’t think everyone here speaks and writes English perfectly, do you?” Regardless of whether the officer could speak Greek or not, she thought it would demonstrate her point.


”Do I start from the beginning? Honestly, I don’t know how it started.”

“Yep, I don’t have any internal organs. Don’t need’em.” she blatantly explained to Lilly, displaying her lack of care about what she learned of her. As long as they didn’t do any testing on her, Tem was fine with people investigating her.

Tem’s large black eyes investigated the other people once more and returned her focus on Lilly, she had to keep vigilance regardless of how safe she felt with the tiny girl. “The body was sent back to the girl’s mother after we did some slight investigations on it. The teachers told us that the body was dragged into the basement based on the trail left behind. All of the evidence that was on the crime scene was unidentifiable, which I suppose was yours and Miller’s DNA. We got a chance to look around before the renovations” she exposited without even being winded.

The reason behind Lilly’s DNA being unknown perplexed Tem, she wasn’t sure why an ordinary teenage looking girl wouldn’t be on record, but she questioned why Miller as well. Perhaps they were connected in a way, but Miller seemed less than human to her than Lilly did. This kind of stuff wasn’t for Tem to figure out anyway, she wasn’t the subtle investigative type of officer. She was only assigned to the job because to her ability.

“Greek isn’t my best out of the European languages” she rebutted in a sort of broken Greek. In her early years out of the tomb, the European countries were the first of which she visited and really were the only places she really cared enough to learn most of the languages, her strongest were more so German and French. The others she sort of dabbled in. “But, I’m not saying that his writing style was confusing in that sense. The one page he wrote on was kind of a mess, a lot of scribbles and repeating words. He seemed deranged, but I guess having the blood of someone else on your hands does that to you” she would laugh at the idea of even caring about human life, but she had to keep somewhat of a professional image.

“It’s not that I didn’t believe it, it’s that if everyone went around scribbling in journals that someone with mind control made them do bad things then the justice system would be broken. Having more than one source telling me so, however, tells me that there’s truth behind it. Besides, it isn’t often that a person with mind control would use someone else to commit suicide for them, on the surface it seems like a pretty hokey story to me.”

Lilly shrugged. It didn't really matter to her. In fact, she thought it was pretty cool to find a sentient being with no internal organs. Honestly, she was impressed by worms, and they couldn't even think, and were only missing part of their nervous systems.


The girl tensed up when the officer mentioned about the body being “dragged”. She covered it quickly, but it was probably still noticeable. Would that look really bad? Would it make her story seem like a lie?


”Suppose? Do you have any samples in storage now?” Something told her allowing the officer to have her bio-metrics was a terrible idea, even in the circumstances, but she couldn't remember why. She was loath to admit it, but she hated needles (and therefore blood samples) anyway.


Lilly was a little surprised at the Greek coming back at her, even if it was disjointed. She was even a little pleased. ”He did seem pretty shaken up, but wouldn't everyone be?” He had been in a bad enough state before any blood or dying had got involved. Despite this, the apparent extent of the errors surprised her. She’d expected a few errors in pronouns like last time they’d met, or weird word-orders, that kind of thing.


”I don’t know why either, but that’s certainly the way it looked. If someone’s ready to kill themselves, they’re not going to be in the best mental state, are they?” She thought back, trying to work out how accurate that seemed. ”She was really angry, and people act stupidly when enraged.” She was a frequent and accurate testament to that. ”To be fair, I knew her for less that fifteen minutes, I reckon, but all that time she seemed a little past the point of “sane”.” Sane was a long time before saying how other people deserved to die, in Lilly’s mind.


”And besides, she was talking about how he had to be disposed of. She seemed fairly intelligent, (not that I’m a good judge of that,) and I wouldn't have been surprised if she planned for him to be framed and carted off to some testing camp.


“Really, it isn't often that anybody kills themselves.”


Lilly now noticed all the time that officer Demostrate hadn't made a note of anything in the conversation so far. ”Shouldn't you be noting this down or something? What if you forget or recall incorrectly?”

Tem looked down at her bladed arm after Lilly questioned why she wasn’t writing anything down. To anyone looking directly at her, it seemed as though she hadn’t been, but she had plenty of space within her body to conceal what she was doing. “Well, given the body I’ve disguised myself in, writing stuff down isn’t necessarily easy, but…” she stated as she searched around to make sure no one could see the front of her torso. When she assured her cover was safe, the stomach of her person opened to reveal a small cubby. Within the sand walled storage place was a note pad along with a pencil that was half sunken into one of the sides. She would have brought a recording device of some kind, but concealing it was sand would have been problematic. “It’s relatively easy this way and it lets me be more discrete with this conversation” she continued as she shut the window into her body.

“I only suppose that your dna is the other unknown dna since as far as anyone knows you’re the only other person who was at the crime scene. I wouldn’t know if your dna is still being kept but it probably is since the case hasn’t been closed yet. That’s someone else’s job to look after those, not mine.”

Tem was going to make a comment on how the boy named Miller seemed quite pathetic to her, but for several different reasons she felt that it was probably better to not make that comment. Though, she did listen closely toward her next few sentences since Lilly’s perspective was the only point of view that they had for the case. Margaret was dead, her parents had no idea where she had been for the past three years, and Miller was gone. Any information was good information.

“So, by the sounds of it, the girl was not stable and ended up killing herself with Miller to frame him. In Miller’s journal he says that she believed she was freeing him by killing herself. Was there some sort of past relation with the two of them that would make sense of any of this?”