Upon return, Aion and Alphonse found that Aira and Aria hadn't returned yet.
"We should lock down everyone's locations," Alphonse said.
"Splitting up would be bad, considering the fact that Pride physically took down multiple people in the past loop. It's safe to say that us being alone wouldn't be good…" Aion said.
"You bring up a fair point, but I have my own opinions on the matter. I believe the two of us will be safe no matter what."
"What do you mean?"
"Think about it this way: you were alone numerous times in the first loop, and yet no one ever attacked you. As for me, I can beat anyone in a fight that comes after me."
"You're quite confident."
"In this party, there is no one who can beat me."
"..."
Aion narrowed his eyes. Sure, Alphonse was right about Aion, but Alphonse being right about himself seemed suspect. All it took was a simple prick from a needle, and Alphonse was done for.
"Look, if I die, I trust you can take care of things for me," Alphonse said, detecting Aion's uncertainty. "Perhaps I'm overestimating myself, but right now I think we need to take the risk. Otherwise we'll be running out of time."
Aion eyed the clock in the game room and saw that it was 10:39. The night was nearing its end; they wouldn't have much time remaining.
"Fine, but if you die I'll never forgive you," Aion said. "I'm only agreeing to this so we can find Sam and Aira faster. It's still up to you to solve this like you said."
"Yes, yes. I'm sure I'll defeat this killer. After all, from what you said, it sounds like I had figured it out once already."
"It certainly seemed that way. It pissed me off."
Alphonse raised an eyebrow and said, "I take it that isn't a good thing?"
"Right, you don't know that word…"
"Anyway, I'll take the left wing; you can take the right wing."
"Actually, I plan on heading and searching the entire first floor."
"Right, that is a possibility since Arthur wound up dead there. Still strange he was dead in front of the portrait…"
"You can handle the second floor and the library. I think it'd be best to not cover ground twice."
Aion nodded.
"Young master…" Sebastian, finally working up the courage, walked over. "I can help if—"
"No. Aion and I are the only two I am allowing to leave this room, no matter what. Lock yourselves in, and only answer to Aion or my voices."
"But young master—"
"That's an order, Sebastian." Alphonse's voice was cold, causing Sebastian to flinch.
"Understood…young master…"
"If that's all, I'm on my way," Alphonse said and quickly left.
Aion lingered for a moment, taking the scenery in for a moment before entering back into that place that seems to have no sanity within it. No, this place didn't either. Dorothy was still traumatized, Sebastian looked like a broken man, Raphael looked like he was losing faith, and Odelia still sat in the same position he last saw her.
Aion breathed in and went back into the rest of the Manor. The first place he wanted to look was the storage room across from the game room. Inside, there was nothing that stood out. So he decided to check the pantry and into the kitchen next.
He figured places like these probably had no one in them, so he quickly went through them and found he had been correct. So he decided to head toward the ballroom next, taking the entry from the kitchen.
The ballroom felt rather pitiful with the lack of people in it. Well, technically there was someone, Anna Magnatium, but she looked pitiful in her own way. The rest of the ballroom just had the remains of the party, so he decided to check the upper area and then head to the southern rooms where Esme had been killed.
The upper area didn't have a corpse like the last time loop, so he headed to the four rooms. Within each, Aion found no one once more. Just Esme's unfortunate corpse.
Perhaps everyone had brigaded on the first floor. Of course, there was the third floor, but Aion suspected it'd be frowned upon to go to a place like that unless given permission. Of course, considering the circumstances, he wasn't sure if such customs would be followed.
Regardless of the possibility, Aion decided to head to the library next. It was the last part of the eastern wing of the Manor, so he thought it prudent to choose that next.
Entering the library, he was struck once more with how large the place was. It was even larger than the ballroom, so Aion might end up spending a while in this place searching all the places anyone could be hiding.
Amongst the lines and lines of books, Aion noticed that the Yang family was included. At the time, he hadn't thought anything of that name, but now he realized just how important they actually were. Part of him wanted to start flipping through them to find anything about what happened that caused Luna to be framed as the mastermind behind their demise, but he had bigger priorities at the moment.
Descending the steps to the first floor of the library, something caught his eyes, or rather, someone.
On the ground, someone lay still. Of course, it was pretty clear as to why the person in question was mangled, probably from hitting something on the way down from their (presumably) fall. Some of their limbs bent in directions that weren't natural, and their face had been disfigured by the looks of it, likely sometime after death. It had been smashed in, probably meaning the individual was rather hated by the killer.
It was rather difficult to tell who it was considering the long hair she had was stained crimson from her blood, but Aion figured it out from the dress; it was Juno.
Aion grew pale, and he gripped the handle of the staircase before vomiting over the edge, causing the sludge to splat against the ground below. His throat burned and he wanted to throw up more, but his stomach had been empty, so all he had thrown up was stomach acid and bile. He quickly looked away and decided to be done with the library. Maybe someone else was there, but his head had started hurting and pounding.
This was probably the most vile he's seen a corpse be so far, even beating out Sam's unfortunate demise from the last loop.
Aion quickly rushed out of the library and to the western wing, checking the rooms one by one until he finally arrived back at the room with the three corpses. Aira and Aria had already left the premises, so he was left with only the three bodies.
Aion grimaced and quickly left. He really wasn't one for violence and gore in his works of fiction. Sure, a lot of his favorite works did have that, but it wasn't like he loved them for that. Generally he was fine with the content; it just wasn't content he thought to seek out.
In the past it had made him sick and sometimes even reacted much more strongly, but he never felt like this.
He supposed seeing it in a work of fiction, even if it was live action, was much different from experiencing it. With something as lucid as this nightmare, it was basically a step away from actually witnessing it in real life.
Perhaps that's why even though he'd been somewhat interested in toxicology at some point, he instinctively avoided it, knowing that he couldn't actually handle something so disgusting.
Aion sighed. He went through this place much faster than he expected. Perhaps he should check the third floor as well? Eventually they would have to, especially if Alphonse failed to find anyone like Aion did.
No, I did find Juno…Aion thought, grimacing at the memory.
However, regardless of his decision, he should at least report it to Sebastian to then pass it on to Alphonse.
So he knocked and called out, "It's me, Aion Belial. Can you let me in?"
Aion waited for a couple of seconds, and then a few more, followed by several more.
Aion frowned and knocked again, calling once more, "Hello? It's Aion, is everything alright?"
Aion's breath hitched. If they weren't answering, didn't that mean…?
Aion grabbed the knob and tried to open it, but it didn't budge. Aion tried the other entrance, and this time it opened.
Entering the room, Aion scanned the bar-like area and found no one. But when he crossed over to the game part of the room, he froze.
"Ah…" Aion let out a small noise. "Ah…ahhhhh…ahhhhh!"
Aion fell to the ground because his legs had grown weak. He felt more stomach acid rising, and soon he vomited more hot, scalding acid, causing him to breathe heavily. No, he wasn't breathing heavily only because of that.
There was something else, something he didn't want to fully register within his brain. Even if that scene had already burned its way into his retinas, he wanted to eviscerate it before it lodged itself forever in his hippocampus. If he could just grab hold of it and squeeze it until it popped.
Aion vomited again. The idea of popping made him sick.
But no matter how much he fought it, the scene played back in his head over and over and over.
Looping and looping.
Repeating and repeating.
Vomiting and vomiting.
Like a cycle that wouldn't end, it felt like his stomach was bottomless, ejecting an endless amount of acid and bile all to continue that hellish loop. But soon, he just couldn't anymore, and all he could do was start screaming like a child not wanting something to be the case.
But much like a child screaming for the reality to change, Aion's reality remained, completely leaving Aion distraught.
Aion wanted to get away from the splotch of acid and bile, but doing that…
Doing that made him accidentally see it in the corner of his eyes.
That terrible scene.
Blood had stained the floor, the walls, the chairs, the games; everything had blood splattered on it somewhere. But that wasn't all, no, not at all.
Raphael had his head smashed in by the Book of Lunalis, causing it to be somewhat bent. His eyes popped out of his sockets, leaving the tendrils of the optic nerves to be visible. Blood poured from his mouth, his ears, his head, and of course, his eye sockets.
Odelia had been strangled, apparent from the bruises on her neck. But she had her dress partially torn, with several long cuts from presumably a knife. And much like Cassie was, Odelia had blood under her fingernails; some of them were chipped from how hard she'd been scratching. Part of her hair looked like it had been yanked out, leaving clumps of hair lying around her, stained in blood from the last part of her tragic display: the numerous deep stab wounds in her abdomen.
Sebastian had blood pouring from his mouth and his tongue laid proudly like some sort of trophy for all to see and be envious of right atop his forehead. Some of his teeth were scattered about. Some were jabbed into the soft parts of his skin. Some were lying about. But the most ghastly thing was the fact that his head was missing from his body, completely decapitated, and it lay on one of the billiards tables. He had been treated like another pool ball, like he could just be knocked about like some game. The rest of Sebastian's body was lying on the floor pathetically on his stomach like he'd been trying to crawl away. No, that was probably the case considering his legs were bent in awkward and unnatural angles.
And finally, Dorothy had been hung up on the wall like some sort of crucifixion. Knives nailed her to the wall, her clothing stripped away, displaying her bare skin filled with scars from the past and brand new carvings all over. None of the carvings seemed to have any meaning, just random, aggressive slicing and stabbing as if the killer had been maniacally brutalizing her body.
It was horrific. Ghoulish, a work of a demon. And yet Aion couldn't say that was what affected him most. The thing that ate him, the thing that plagued him, the thing that seemed to corrupt him!
The thing that sickened Aion the most was the messages written all over the walls in blood.
Over and over the same two words were written, varying in size, clarity, and angle.
Simply two words:
"I'm Sorry"
Over and over.
"I'm Sorry"
Again and again.
"I'm Sorry"
Continually.
"I'm Sorry"
Endlessly.
"I'm Sorry" "I'm Sorry"
It just kept going.
"I'm Sorry" "I'm Sorry"
Plastering the horrific scene—
"I'm Sorry" "I'm Sorry"
—breaking apart any meaning of those words.
"I'm Sorry" "I'm Sorry" "I'm Sorry"
Removing the heart of them.
"I'm Sorry" "I'm Sorry" "I'm Sorry"
Removing the meaning that Aion had given them.
"I'm Sorry" "I'm Sorry" "I'm Sorry"
Until Aion could only scream at those repeating words.
"I'm Sorry" "I'm Sorry" "I'm Sorry" "I'm Sorry"
Screaming for their meaning back.
"I'm Sorry" "I'm Sorry" "I'm Sorry" "I'm Sorry"
Screaming for a meaning that the killer couldn't have.
"I'm Sorry" "I'm Sorry" "I'm Sorry" "I'm Sorry"
Because the killer couldn't be sorry.
They can't be!
There is no way! It's not possible.
Not possible, not possible, not possible!
The words to the killer must not mean "I'm Sorry".
The words "I'm Sorry" must be something truly evil.
Because such beautiful and honest words like "I'm Sorry" couldn't be tarnished like that.
Such a deeply meaningful gesture—"I'm Sorry"—couldn't be what such a despicable person was using.
But Aion—"I'm Sorry"—couldn't imagine—"I'm Sorry"—anything else—"I'm Sorry"—those words—"I'm Sorry"—could mean.
The—"I'm Sorry"—words—"I'm Sorry"—lodged—"I'm Sorry"—into—"I'm Sorry"—his—"I'm Sorry"—brain—"I'm Sorry"—erasing—"I'm Sorry"—anything—"I'm Sorry"—else—"I'm Sorry"—that—"I'm Sorry"—could—"I'm Sorry"—be—"I'm Sorry"—considered.
"Stop it!" Aion screamed.
"I'm Sorry"
"STOP!"
"I'm Sorry" "I'm Sorry"
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"I'm Sorry""I'm Sorry""I'm Sorry""I'm Sorry""I'm Sorry""I'm Sorry""I'm Sorry""I'm Sorry""I'm Sorry""I'm Sorry""I'm Sorry""I'm Sorry""I'm Sorry""I'm Sorry""I'm Sorry""I'm Sorry""I'm Sorry""I'm Sorry""I'm Sorry""I'm Sorry""I'm Sorry""I'm Sorry""I'm Sorry""I'm Sorry""I'm Sorry""I'm Sorry""I'm Sorry""I'm Sorry""I'm Sorry""I'm Sorry"
…
...
...…
"I'm Sorry"