Several soldiers were standing outside the second year building, they were blocking all the entrances both at the front and backside of the building. During the investigation, all the second-year students were ordered to gather outside on the field in front of the second-year building. A lot of rumours were going around in the crowd of students, they were all wondering what was going on.
The second-year teachers started the investigation because they were the first on the scene, when they discovered that it was actually a first-year student who had died, they called in the first-year teacher and handed over the investigation to them. At the back of the building, in the alley, Fay and Hayley were currently investigating the scene together.
Looking around the gruesome scene of the murder, Hayley and Fay were reminded of things they had seen on the battlefield during the war, that's how bad it looked to them. Because they were both war veterans they had become immune to this kind of blood and gore, as Hayley was kneeling on the floor and examining body parts, she seemed to be unaffected by the whole thing, she was picking up bloody bones and bits of flesh like she was checking out some clothes in a fashion store.
After she had looked around for a while it seemed like she had spotted something interesting, she started to pick up body parts one by one and placed them in a specific order, some of them she lined up in a row so she could examine them in more detail.
Looking at what Hayley was doing Fay said, "Are you trying to piece him back together or something?"
"I noticed something strange about all the parts I've gathered and lined up, they all have one thing in common," Hayley replied.
"As far as I can see the only thing they have in common is that they are spattered with blood all over. So what did you notice? Do you think it was some type of beast that came through a portal, or maybe it is a student with an unusual ability?" Fay asked as she looked around, she was trying to see what Hayley had noticed.
Hayley picked up one of the body parts which looked like part of a leg, she then showed it to Fay and said, "You see this here?" while she pointed at two puncture marks. "For the most part it looks like who or whatever did this used some type of claw to dig into this student's flesh, but on some body parts I noticed those puncture wounds that look like teeth marks." Hayley continued, "Sometimes the flesh is ripped from the body in whole chunks, but sometimes it looks like something chewed on it." In a soft voice, she whispered to herself, "It probably wasn't to taste the blood."
"Okay, I see what you're saying," Fay said with confusion on her face. "But doesn't that only confirm our theory that it was a beast that did this?"
"Well, the thing is, this isn't the first time that I've seen these kinds of marks. Do you remember when we went through the red portal and we discovered the true dream member?" Hayley asked. "Well, he wasn't the only one, I've seen the same marks on other students in the sickbay before."
"You're not saying those two students could have anything to do with it, are you?" Fay asked incredulously.
"I'm not saying that they are the culprit, but whatever it is, it's clearly following them around, or linked to them in some way." Hayley replied.
"Once this investigation is over, it looks like we will have to call the two of them in for some more questioning."
*****
Once Vorden had returned to the park, he also explained what had happened on the way there, such as how the news had already spread and regarding the investigation of the scene. After cleaning Peter up with a few bottles of water, and changing his clothes, they all went back to the dorm room together.
Inside the first year building dorm room, the group had gathered. Vorden, Peter, Quinn were all sitting down, Layla, on the other hand, couldn't stop pacing around and was nervously fidgeting with her hair.
"Damn it!" Layla shouted. "Now that I've witnessed everything, I'll be called an accomplice. If they find out about this, we could be put in the dungeon. What will I tell my parents then?"
It was the first time the group had seen Layla so freaked out. Although she tended to overreact to things at times, it never seemed like she couldn't deal with the situation, however this time she was very worried and agitated.
"Peter, I think you owe us an explanation," Vorden said. "Fair enough, if you were hungry and needed to eat something, but why didn't you come to us? You knew we were waiting for you outside. This is the second time that you've done something like this."
"I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me," Peter said. "When the hunger grew and Earl slapped me, I just lost control. When I finally regained control, I was already eating his corpse, I don't know what happened in between."
Peter turned out to be quite an impressive actor. He looked frightened and worried, and everyone there bought it, even Vorden believed him in the end, even though he was unsure at first. Although, there was one exception.
"He's lying." The system said.
"What do you mean?" Quinn asked.
"Remember how I said that he would be required to eat human flesh. The worst-case scenario would be him losing control tomorrow. Even then the process would have been slower than this. He would have gotten hunger pangs first, and later he would slowly become unstable. You would have also felt the connection between the two of you grow weaker as he got more hungry. If you want to find out the truth, here is my advice, this is what you need to do…."
Quinn then stepped forward, in front of the others, with a serious look on his face as he confronted Peter.
"You need to tell me the truth, Peter. Why did you kill him?" As Quinn asked this question, he bit down on his thumb using his fang. He then lifted his hand, and like some type of magnet, Peter was attracted to it.
Peter immediately leapt up from where he was and started to suck on Quinn's thumb, absorbing the blood into his body. The connection between the two started to grow stronger again, and both of their eyes started to glow.
"Stop, stand back!" Quinn said in an authoritative voice, making Peter do as he was told and stand back.
"Now tell me, why did you kill that student?" Quinn again used that authoritative voice.
Peter's eyes lit up red and he felt like an urge to answer truthfully. It was like a magic truth spell, it forced Peter to be truthful with his master. He immediately started telling Quinn the truth.
"Earl, if it was anyone that deserved to die, it was him. Any day, whenever I was on my own and when your backs were turned from me, he would come to torture me. If I didn't obey, he would snap my fingers. Then, they had a healer come by and heal it again, proceeding to repeat the process of torturing me." Peter articulated his reasoning, sighing before continuing.
He saw me as an easy target. If I wanted to get away from the pain, I had no choice but to follow his orders. After I met with Duke I got rewarded with the ability books, but he didn't get anything from Duke, so he wanted to take his anger out on me.
He took me to that alley with a plan to beat me, just to satisfy his own need to be in control. But this time I finally had the power to fight back, so I decided to show him he can't mess with me anymore, he had it coming and he deserved everything he got. Eating him was just a little bonus, and I might have overdone it a bit."
Hearing the truth come out of Peter's mouth made Quinn feel a lot better. If he had done it for pleasure, or because his mind had been overcome with the hunger for human flesh, it would have made Quinn truly fearful. However, Peter had a good reason, even though it was a bit extreme.
At the moment, the way the school and the whole world worked, anyone who suddenly rose in power drastically would stand up and retaliate to their suppressors. It was just the way the system worked. Of course, this didn't happen very often, because most people didn't have a way to grow in power faster than their oppressors, not like Quinn and Peter anyhow.
"Peter your actions aren't wrong, and if I was in your shoes I would have done the same thing," Vorden said. "But here is where you and I are different. Your actions also put Quinn in danger. If you're caught, there is always a chance that it could lead back to him. And what's even more, we are involved as well." Vorden glared at Peter before continuing, "I plan to take my revenge on Duke and Momo in our second year, but when I do I will do it carefully, so no one else gets hurt."
When Vorden said this, he was also talking about himself. What happened to Peter made him feel like it was a reflection of his own actions. It was only because Vorden chose to hang out with them, which upset the order of things at the school, and then started to target the second years, that Duke seemed to have it out for him. And to get close to Vorden, he targeted his friends first.
It was the reason why he couldn't completely blame Peter for his actions.
With everything out in the open, there was no more use talking about it. It was best if they never spoke of what happened again, but all of them knew that it would have to be brought up soon.
"System, is there any way for Peter to stop consuming meat? Any way at all?" Quinn asked.
"Of course there is, but you're not going to like the answer I'm about to give you." The system said. "Just like yourself when you consume blood, you grow stronger, the same goes for Peter when he eats human flesh. Although for him there is a limit. Eventually, he will grow so strong that he will be able to evolve and will no longer require human flesh."
As the system said, Quinn didn't like this answer at all. The solution to Peter no longer requiring to eat human flesh was to eat more human flesh.