< Breaking Dawn | HighSchoolOfShadows | Backstory >

Helena stands up and stretches, cracking her neck and back, then slips out of the closet to meet up with the first few students arriving at the school outside.

<Mese> It's a little too early as yet for anyone to have reached the corridoor in which the corpse of old Mr. Chepworth lies, pooled in his own sticky blood. But Helena knows it is just a matter of time.

Cole is already at the school -- but she's waiting for Ophelia at the gate.

Cole sniffs the air, after a few moments, then heads thoughtfully into the school.

ophel1a looks for Cole as is her habit, and walks over to her when she spots her. "Hey Cole," she says listlessly.

<Cole> "Oh, hey."

<Cole> "Do you smell that?"

ophel1a sniffs the air, "Uh smell what?"

<Cole> "Uh...never mind. Come on." Cole walks into the school with renewed determination.

ophel1a follows her in, with a little shrug.

Helena walks up to Cole and Ophelia.

<Helena> "Hey guys! What's up?"

<Cole> "Oh, hey. Do YOU smell that?"

Cole doesn't stop walking.

Helena sniffs herself.

Helena falls into step beside the girls.

<Mese> Usually the janitor would have been up first, to get the lioghts on and set the school up for the day. But things are oddly dark today, once you get in.

<Cole> Cole continues following her nose, looking for the peculiar scent she's noticed...a scent that makes her mouth water.

<Mese> Evidently the first teacher due in had already sorted out the lock on the gates, but some of the building's intenral doors haven't been opened yet. Cole's nose leads her to one corridoor in particular... but the doors are locked.

<Cole> "So how are you guys doing?" Cole asks absently.

Cole rattles the door thoughtfully.

<Cole> "Isn't this door supposed to be unlocked by now? How are we supposed to get to Philosophy class?"

<ophel1a> "Maybe school is closed today and we can all go home?" Ophelia says hopefully

<Helena> "Maybe it's some sort of thought experiment?"

<Cole> "Well, let's test the premises." Cole applies a little more force to the door.

<Mese> It bursts open; the cheap internal locks not being exactly key to building security anyway.

<Helena> "Buridan's ass, maybe?"

Helena chortles.

<Mese> The scenet of blood is very much in Cole's nostrils now. Just around this corner..

Cole steps around the corner, and catches her breath.

<Cole> "Uh-oh."

<Helena> "That was a philosophy joke."

<Helena> "...I think."

<ophel1a> "What now?" Ophelia peers around Cole, and then gasps. "Holy shit"

<Cole> "I didn't get it."

Cole squats and checks the janitor for signs of life.

<ophel1a> "We should call the cops or something," Ophelia says, unsurely

<Mese> The kindly old janitor is definitely dead, but hasn;t had time to become decomposed and gross. He's just lying their, twisted, as if asleep... although n-one sleepign would ever have assumed this position.

Helena gasps. "This is horrible."

<Mese> It's immediately clear to even the most novice forensic examiner that he took a nasty blow to the head.

<Cole> "No, not the cops. I was just dealing with them, they'll never buy this."

<Cole> "I think we should just leave. Somebody will find the body soon enough."

<Cole> "Let's split up."

<Helena> "Are- are you sure?"

<Cole> "Yeah. You just got in trouble with that cop, remember? You don't want to be found here either."

<Cole> "It'll be okay. Let somebody else take care of it."

Cole looks uncomfortable, but not necessarily in the manner you would expect somebody poking a recent corpse to look uncomfortable.

<Helena> "But we just broke in here, can't they figure out it was us? The CFI people?"

<ophel1a> Ophelia looks at the corpse again and feels sick. "Yeah, okay... Not our problem." She tries to convince herself.

<Cole> "I'll just...clean off the handle, remove my fingerprints. There are plenty of broken doors around here."

<Cole> "You'd definitely better go then. I'll find some cloth or something and clean up so that they won't know we were here."

<Cole> "Go!"

<Helena> "um, Okay"

Helena runs off, looking unsure.

ophel1a just walks away, and looks for somewhere she can try to sleep again, because this is pretty much all just a bad dream anyway.

<Mese> Cole is alone with the corpse.

Cole does rip a piece of cloth off the body and clean her fingerprints off the door handle, then quickly returns and looks for a closet or something nearby, something she can hide in.

<Mese> The janitor's closet is, of course, right nearby..

Cole drags the body into the closet, closing it after her, then grabs a couple of washcloths and tucks them into her collar.

Cole looks down at the body for a few moments...then begins breakfast in earnest.

Helena peeks out from behind the trash can in morbid fascination.

<Mese> *

<Mese> *

<Mese> *

Cole burps, but in a ladylike way. She quickly stacks the bones and the horrid washclothes and wraps them in a trash bag, dropping it hurriedly in the janitor's trash cart as the bell rings. She checks herself in a compact, picks a tooth, then runs to get to class, leaving the closet door swinging open.

Helena pushes out the metal trash can and crawls out from under the shelf. She stands up and goes to root through the trash cart.

Helena pulls out the bundle, picks at a bit of flesh left on a bone, sniffs it, then pops it into her mouth with a shrug.

Helena shudders and grimaces, putting the bundle back into the cart and loading it with cleaning supplies from the shelf.

<Mese> *

< Breaking Dawn | HighSchoolOfShadows | Backstory >