When Marzy had seen Stolas pulling the straps of a bag tight around Furfur's neck, he'd panicked. And that had cost him his life. The Combat Pro had taking his moment of hesitation to unsheathe his sword, and then it had all gone black. Until he woke up on something uncomfortable, like some sort of rack. The first thing he'd seen was Furfur's dead body hit the floor as someone dropped it. There was blood everywhere. And then he saw him. That madman who'd backstabbed them.

Marzy was pretty sure he'd said something, but what he remembered most was the agonizing pain in his neck. The way he couldn't breathe no matter how hard he tried. The way that it felt like there was a hole in his neck or something. And seconds later, he blacked out. He blinked awake to voices. Once he started to regain awareness of his surroundings as he sat up, he realized he couldn't feel the pain in his neck anymore. After his eyes finished adjusting, though, the neck pain became the last thing on his mind once he saw who was standing there.

He swore he was seeing a ghost.

"Hey, you, you're finally awake," Furfur said.

"SKYRIM REFERENCE?!" a familiar voice yelped as Rori entered Marzy's periphery. Rori f*cking Andrade, who he'd seen die.

"Ay, lay offa the guy 'til he's adjusted," a gruff voice told them. Marzy recognized that voice, but he'd seen its owner drop dead in front of everyone...

"What the bloody hell is happening?" he demanded as he got up off of the rack he'd been laying on.

A familiar red-and-cyan-haired dealer rolled their yellow eyes and nodded to something behind him. "See for yourself."

Marzy turned. And stared. His own lifeless body was laying limply across the rack, blood still dripping from the massive gash in his neck and landing in a puddle on the floor.

"Oh heavens," he breathed.

"So ya understand the situation now?" Tristan asked him.

Marzy blinked before fully understanding the question. "...I'm not quite sure."

"Then I'll explain it," Furfur shrugged. "Last thing I remember's being unable to breathe, like I was being strangled, and then I woke up in here on the floor. Once I got a grip, I saw Stolas dragging by body around the music venue like a big, bloody paintbrush. That's when I saw these dorks all staring at me! Told me I was dead, as if I hadn't put two and two together yet. Then we watched you wake up, lose your sh*t, and then Stolas cut your throat like a jelly donut."

"What kind of analogy is that?" Ryn raised an eyebrow.

Furfur gave her a look. "Hey, jelly donuts are easy to cut and have red filling! I'm implying that Stolas cut Marzy's throat like it was nothing, and it leaked out red filling!"

"Can we end this conversation, please?" Marzy asked, glancing around. "Where is Stolas?"

Furfur phased her head through the door, which definitely made him jump. "Uh, looks like he just left."

"Now here's the interesting part," En cut in. "Based on what we've been watching, and based on what we already know about him, Stolas knows what he's doing. He hardly batted an eye when he had to deal with you, Marzy. I'm curious to see if his plan truly is foolproof. After all, he is the lead detective, so there's no doubt that everyone will trust him."

"Here's what I haven't been understanding," Furfur said as they all went to exit by phasing through the wall. "Why'd he need to break the door handle? Like, that didn't seem completely necessary. And doesn't that make it look like someone super smart and careful was behind it? So what's the purpose of it?"

"It's so he doesn't get in." Rori pointed to someone entering through the music venue doorway.

Marzy squinted to make out the figure in the dim light, and had to do a double-take once he did.

"You're sh*tting me," Furfur said, hands on her hips as she watched the familiar flautist, chess board in hand, follow the bloody trail on the floor towards the storage room.

"I... him? He just... I truly thought it would've been you, En," Marzy said, bewildered by what he was seeing.

En snorted. "Even after you found a chess board next to my body?"

"I had theories, okay?" he responded defensively.

They watched as Iris tried the door handle, swore under his breath when it was locked, and then set down the chess board, dumping a board's worth of chess pieces out of his flute bag onto the floor before beginning to set up.

"This is making me sick," Furfur winced as she watched him dip his hands in the trail of blood and begin to coat two of the chess pieces in the subtance.

"Yeah, none of us really have any idea why he's doing this," Ryn admitted. "But hey, at least you guys know why Stolas locked the door now. It's because he used Iris's flute bag to strangle you, Furfur."

"Oh." The geologist blinked. "That... makes more sense now."

"I dunno. Stolas is smart. Is this going to be it?" Rori asked.

"I'm still confused as to why he's doing this," Marzy said.

"Yeah, same for th' rest of us," Tristan grumbled, crossing his arms. "'s not like we've been tryna figure that out fo' the last half-houa'."

Furfur turned and looked at the street fighter. "Hang, on, say 'hour' again."

Tristan narrowed his eyes. "Why's it matta t'you?"

"You pronounce it 'owah'," she said. "I'm trying to figure out your accent. I thought I was off the hook after Evangeline and Marzy, but I guess I never really talked with you before you died."

"No need t' guess," Tristan shrugged. "I'm from Brooklyn- tha's New York fo' th' Brit ova there."

Marzy didn't respond, because he was secretly grateful it'd been spelled out for him like that. How the hell was he to know American cities when the Americans themselves didn't either?

"Oh, that makes sense why you're a street fighter, then," Furfur commented. "All the crime and stuff."

"Crime and street fightin' are two different things," Tristan muttered. "Where ya from anyways, Lil' Miss Accents?"

Furfur puffed out her chest proudly. "Austin, born and raised!"

"Oh, that makes sense why you're a geologist, then. All the dirt n' rocks n' dumb hats n' stuff."

The geologist's jaw dropped at his remark, while everyone else burst into laughter.

"Ay, when ya street fight like me, ya gotta learn to come up wi' insults on the spot," Tristan smirked.

"Anyways, how long do we think it'll take for someone to find the bodies?" Rori spoke up after a moment, reminding everyone of the situation and making them all realize that Iris had left the venue a while ago by now.

"I'd say ten to eleven o'clock," Ryn guessed. "Nobody's really been doing that much exploring until then, so it seems reasonable."

"I'd agree with that," Furfur said, then paused. "So... what do we do now? Do ghosts sleep?"

"I mean, we do. We're still able to sleep in our beds without phasing through them, it's just people we can't touch no matter what," Rori explained.

Marzy's head was still swimming slightly, but he just nodded and acted like everything was fine. Had he accidentally taken medication from the hospital, or inhaled unstable fumes? Because this did feel like a fever dream. Still, he found himself walking alongside the other ghosts back across the islands to the cottages. Other ghosts. God, he was a ghost now. And to be fair, he was certainly convinced now that he took the time to notice the slight transparency of his hands.

"Let's plan to meet over at the music venue around nine, but if you happen to hear the dead body discovery announcement before then, get over there as soon as possible," Ryn announced.

"An' if ya're not there by nine-thirty or half an hour afta th' announcement, I'll come by ya cottage n' collect ya myself," Tristan added. Marzy had a feeling he wasn't kidding, and he would make sure that he wouldn't have to find out.

He didn't realize how exhausted he was from everything that had happened- from the panic he'd felt after seeing Stolas strangling Furfur, from the blood loss and pain, from seeing all his dead classmates again... No wonder he practically collapsed on his bed, relieved to feel the softness of the pillows and not having phased through them. He didn't even care that he was laying on top of his blazer- all he wanted right now was to just...

When he blinked awake, his first thought was that maybe it was all just a crazy dream he'd had. Until he sat up, reached out to touch his night stand out of curiosity, and realized that his hand could, in fact, phase through.

"Curious," he said to himself before getting up, grabbing his blazer, and draping it over his shoulders as usual before heading out the door.

It was bright outside, and one quick glance at his digital handbook- which he could apparently still touch given it was on him when he'd died- told him that it was nearly nine o'clock. Perfect. Marzy pondered for a moment whether he should go try to grab a quick breakfast or not, only to realize that he didn't feel hungry at all. A ghost thing, he supposed. So he just headed right over to the music venue as fast as he could.

"Ah, a minute and three seconds late," En drawled, glancing up from their digital handbook to give him a smug glance as he stepped into the music venue.

Marzy narrowed his eyes. "Well, seems as if there's no point in being on time, seeing as you and I are the only ones here right now."

"I do strongly believe that the time one arrives is a show of character," the dealer responded evenly. "It's easier to trust one who is on time with a task rather than one who is late, is it not? But don't fret, Dr. Farlay, I do believe you are a trustworthy person who can get a job done well and done quickly, even if your slip-up today should say otherwise. I shall give you the benefit of the doubt, as you've had a lot to process, and I don't doubt that you are quite the science-minded individual. For you, just this once, I shall let it slide.

"But for her..." they continued, looking towards the doorway as Ryn arrived.

Marzy was getting the feeling that En didn't like Ryn that much. But then again, the latter had bashed in the former's head; he'd seen it with his own eyes when inspecting the body.

And from the look Ryn gave En, it seemed that the feeling was mutual.

Soon after, Furfur and Rori arrived, chatting together about rocks. Marzy tuned that discussion out rather quickly and instead focused his attention back on his conversation with Ryn.

"Oh, that's good," she said once he told her that Mononity was taking care of the calf she'd been so fixated on nursing while she was alive.

"Hm, how odd," En spoke once more, gaze focused on the doorway.

"What's wrong?" Furfur raised her pierced eyebrow in confusion.

The dealer tilted their head. "Ah, well, a certain street fighter hasn't shown up yet. And it's nearly nine-fifteen."

"Well, he's got fifteen minutes before we go looking for him," Ryn reminded them.

But fifteen minutes later, there was still no sign of Tristan.

"...okay, well, I never pegged him to be the on-time type, but I didn't think he'd be a no-show, either," Furfur mumbled.

"Do you think something's wrong?" Ryn asked everyone. "I mean, he himself basically guaranteed he'd show.  Maybe he slept in too late by accident?"

The group collectively decided to go and look for Tristan, walking back over to the first island and checking his cottage.  But there was still no trace of the street fighter.

"Tristan?" Rori called.  No response.

"Well, perhaps he'll show up eventually," En suggested.

But even after they got back to the music venue, there wasn't anything.  It was like Tristan had disappeared, which definitely wasn't easy for a hulking, loud figure like him.  Marzy was starting to get worried.

Where on earth could he have gone?

***

(2088 words)

Uh oh the goofy fighter boys missing-