Alice had a lot of questions. Veronica didn't blame her, obviously, so would she, if she had just been told this weird story. Still, it was a little annoying when it was the middle of the night and Veronica was trying to fall asleep.

"The app just... deleted itself?" Alice asked. It seemed to be the part she was most hung up on. "That's suspicious."

"I know," Veronica huffed. "It's why I started investigating, as I've told you."

"It's so weird," Alice mused. She still seemed wide awake, a fact that did not make Veronica happy. "You can't investigate anymore, though, you're locked up in here."

"I'm aware."

Alice hummed. Veronica's waning enthusiasm didn't seem to deter her in the slightest. "Reminds me about what happened a couple months ago. Oh! That reminds me, do you think we'll miss Halloween in here-."

Veronica sat up so quickly that her blanket was launched across the room. Alice jumped, startled, but Veronica took no notice.

"What are you talking about?" Veronica asked quickly. "What happened in the summer?!"

BANG!

"Hey, quiet down there!"

Veronica and Alice froze, neither making a sound for a couple minutes. But when Veronica couldn't hold her curiosity back anymore, she leaned over to looked down at Alice, who looked back at her with wide eyes. The bunk beds, despite how uncomfortable they were, made conversation easier. 

"What happened over the summer?" Veronica whispered.

Alice sat up once again. "I'm surprised you haven't heard, everyone knows what happened," she said. Veronica grimaced, suddenly remembering her mother doing everything to keep her from media in the summer, using the excuse of 'you need to get outside more'. "It was June the fourteenth. A bunch of people got brutally murdered all over the city, in the most random locations. No one was sure how it was done, but the police knew it was one person, or organization, or something."

"Oh," Veronica laid back on her bed, disappointed. "So there isn't any connection between this and that."

"i never said there was," Alice told her. 

"Whatever. Did they have any suspects?"

"A couple. It was the weirdest thing. They all admitted to the murders, and they said that they had been possessed."

"Possessed?"

"Yeah, it was weird. The police just put it down as insanity, or some kind of cult."

"Huh."

Those two girls, Alice and Veronica, were still talking. There whispers echoed throughout the halls, and Shirley could hear what they were saying. They were talking about the July incident. Shirley remembered that.

"Quiet," Shirley huffed when she passed their cell. The girls immediately shut up. Good. Shirley didn't need more unnecessary memories clogging up her focus.

But, of course, they came anyway.

Yes, this year was the time for brutal murders. They were almost similar, except the murders had stopped after one day before, thank god. The people had been completely torn apart back then, and it got a lot of coverage. The people morbid curiosity couldn't be satisfied.

Shirley frowned, a sudden thought occurring to her. She mulled her new ideas in her head, spinning a spare pencil in her hand.

For one, it could be the same organization (organization was the final guess of the police. The suspects sure as hell weren't saying anything), but they were just being more careful this time. After all, none of these people new each other and they didn't have any connections with each other. The murders were and had been completely random (the police had guessed 'it was a demonstration' for this one). It'd make sense if they were the same people, and yet...

It'd make make even more sense if it was a copy cat. Someone looking to get some popularity and fame. They must have seen how much press the first murders got, so they were trying to do it again. It happened time and time again with these sick people. It was utterly disgusting, and a complete waste of human life.

Shirley shook out her head, trying to shake off her thoughts. At the end of the day, these were just theories, and there wasn't enough evidence to support them. If Shirley really was going to get angry, she should try and flesh out her idea's first.

Shirley paused, listening closely. The temporary cells were all quiet now. The girls must have fallen asleep. Good. No more scheming for them.

They just didn't understand, Shirley sighed. This whole thing was far beyond what they could know. They were the ones that practically just stood around and watch as the numbers pile up so quickly they could hardly keep track. They weren't the ones that had to deal with the broken and mourning families, too many to ever truly compensate for.  They weren't the ones that had to look over face after face and decide who could have ever done something like this, and who was being accused of a horrible crime.

The pencil snapped in Shirley's hand.

They would never understand.