Chapter 22: Accusations
The bus ride back was completely silent.
Aside from everyone being extremely exhausted for having to wake up early to pack and leave the resort, news travelled quickly. Takabi especially could feel it, the heavy, dark cloud hanging over everyone's heads.
It was all over social media. Twitter, Instagram and such. The death toll had dropped considerably since Erodon was taken out. Heads were held high, a load off everyone's shoulders about randomly being attacked when they were alone, and yet when everyone was on their phones as the bus pulled off, everyone released a simultaneous gasp.
Four reported dead.
Three in a home further up north.
One from falling out of an eight story building.
The bodies were claimed the night it happened, and only two were reported to see if anyone had any connections to the victims.
Jose Garcia.
Marie, formally Garcia, Caraballo.
The names traveled fast among the students, and each pair of eyes turned to Takabi. Even Nana looked at him with a worried gaze. His face was blank as he read over the article of their deaths. Not a single crack in his mask.
Inside, he didn't know what to feel, or even think.
What happened? A break in? Okay, but nothing was reported to be taken. The bedroom Marie was in was covered in blood from her, her boyfriend and his daughter. Why break into a house just to kill? It was a sick idea, but realistically there must've been plenty of people out in the street that would've been prime targets. If not a robbery, then Marie and Jose were intentional targets, since nothing was taken from Jose's office or his apartment either according to the news.
Intentional targets. Both connected to Carlos.
"Is Anna a target too…" He muttered, quickly dialing the number to the mental facility. Placing the phone against his ear, the woman at the desk quickly picked up the phone. Her tone was tired and gruff, like many would be at five thirty in the morning.
"Hello, Connecticut Psycho Evaluation, this is Elizabeth speaking, how may I help you?"
"Elizabeth?" He questioned, blinking. He glanced at Nana, and her look of worry was replaced by jealous curiosity. Sweeping off her glare, he spoke softly, "Aren't you in charge of taking care of Anna?"
"I'm sorry, sir, I can't reveal that… Oh! Wait, I recognize your voice. You're the boy from before. Takabi, right?"
He nodded, not that she could see him.
"Well, she doesn't want to be bothered at the moment." Her voice grew somber, and she lowered it to speak directly into the phone's speaker. "Did you hear about her parents being murdered? It was awful, her reaction. You could actually see her heart breaking in her eyes. She was excited for them to come visit her too."
Takabi reached into one of his bags, pulling out a notebook and pencil and scribbling down what she said. Then he began to put together everyone he knew of, and anyone who would have any sort of motive for murdering both of them. Nana looked at his handwriting, and sat back in the seat, crossing her arms.
"Poor girl. Tell her I'll make plans to stop by soon. I just got off the trip and everyone's heading home right now."
Elizabeth agreed, saying her goodbyes and hanging up. Takabi slipped his phone in his pocket and looked over the page of messily written notes, reading them out for Nana to hear.
"Jose and Maire. Carlos and Anna's parents. The family knew me, but I was with you all night up until now so obviously I didn't do it. The attacker must've planned it out, seeing as how they both died the same night, roughly around an hour or so apart. Premeditated murder, and it had to have been by human hands. Demons wouldn't leave a body, at least not intact." He touched his chin, thoughts roaming through his mind.
"What are the chances Carlos did it himself?" Takabi looked at the seat to their right.
Jewel and Ariel were watching them, and Jewel moved forward so she was leaning into the aisle. "I mean… You two had it out. Both of you said some pretty hurtful things, and he didn't look happy about how everything went down. He even left the resort by himself."
"No way," Takabi immediately dismissed. "I've known Carlos for years. No way he'd ever consider doing something like that. He might've been angry at me, but that doesn't translate into hurting anyone innocent, especially his parents."
Nana pursed her lips softly. "People change though. As far as we know, his heart did a complete 180 and he ended up more twisted than Erodon. You gotta admit, he was a little sketchy last we saw him."
He watched her for a moment, utter disbelief in his expression. The three girls exchanged looks and sighed.
"Look," Ariel said, "We get that he's your pal and all, and I don't have any real right to talk since I don't know you that well, but from him suggesting to his own best friend to let him fuck his girl, I don't think he saw you both as friends, at least not then."
Before he could speak, Nana put a finger to his lips. "I know how you feel about him, but there is no way you're going to sit there and defend him after he said that. I saw you clock him in the nose, so you have no excuses."
He bit his lip and sat back. "That doesn't make him a killer though, and to suddenly start accusing him of something like that is beyond extreme."
The three went silent, and the other students began to chat more loudly. It went from the news to other random things. No reason for them to get hung up on the murders, since they didn't have any connection to them. Takabi knew that, and couldn't fault them.
For once, he wished he was among that crowd. The crowd that wasn't connected to anything and was just normal.
His sense of normality left as soon as he recovered his memories, or any possibility he had for it anyway.
"This Carlos. What was he like?"
Ariel's eyes widened and she looked around, blinking frantically. Jewel touched her arm and smiled. "Relax. It's telepathy. You'll get used to it, at least if you stay involved with us."
"Y-yeah… Just, who said that?"
"He was a friend. That's all you need to know, Kairas." Takabi's tone was more irritated mentally. The three girls picked up on it quickly but didn't address it. "Why are you on top of the bus anyway? Just fly to my house. You know where it is."
The boy scoffed, and subtled shifting could be heard on the roof of the bus.
The driver looked up in his spot, but shrugged and chose to ignore it.
"I want to stick close to you. Make sure whatever happened the other night doesn't happen again."
"What happened the other night," Jewel asked Nana.
The girl rubbed her shoulder. "You remember. We got attacked, fought them off. That was it." She seemed like she was trying to avoid the subject of the Gems, and Takabi's transformation. It was an image, a subject she didn't like thinking about, nor did she want to even talk about.
"You'd know if it happens. It was like both of them were synced up, and they activated at the same time. Look, can we just talk about this later? All of it?" Takabi looked up at the bus ceiling, then at the girls. "I'm tired."
"Fine," Nana said, and they all sat in silence and let sleep take them over.