Zac wasn’t sure where the scream had come from, but he knew that he had to find it. Whatever had made Isaac scream that loudly couldn’t possibly be a good thing. It sounded like his brother had been absolutely terrified and that possibility really worried Zac.
He didn’t want to run with a lit candle in his hand, but he hurried as best he could to the stairs and back to the second floor of the house. As loud as it was, he was pretty sure the voice hadn’t been all that close to him. It had definitely come from the second floor; he wasn’t sure where, but of that he was at least certain. He figured the best place to search first was near their bedroom. When he found the right door and looked in, he could see that the room was empty. That only served to increase his worry and fear.
Stepping back into the hallway, he called out, “Isaac? Ike, where are you?”
“Here!” came the reply, soft but still clear enough for Zac to hear the fear in it.
“That’s fucking helpful,” Zac mumbled to himself.
With one hand out to grasp the wall and the candle still held out in the other, the flame shaking as proof of just how nervous he was, Zac began to walk down the hall. He couldn’t be sure which room, but somewhere in the winding halls of the second floor, he knew he would find his brother.
When he neared the recording studio, he could see that the door was slightly ajar and a soft candlelight like his own was seeping out of it.
“Ike?” He asked hesitantly, still a few feet away from the studio out of fear.
No reply came, but the door swung open to reveal Isaac standing on the other side of it, looking deathly pale. His lips trembled and wiggled, but no words came out. He stumbled backward to allow Zac into the room.
Tentatively, Zac walked into the room, holding his candle up near his face to help him see Ike’s a little better. “What’s going on? You’re not hurt or anything.”
Isaac shook his head. “No I’m not. I’m not. But… but…”
As he trailed off, Isaac pointed a shaky finger toward the recording booth. Zac’s stomach dropped. He wasn’t quite sure what Ike meant, but he could guess, and he didn’t like the idea at all. He reached out for Isaac’s arm and grasped his sleeve tightly. Zac wanted to ask who, but he couldn’t seem to make his mouth form the words.
It was like witnessing a car wreck. He didn’t want to look, he really didn’t, but he had to see it. He had to know. And so Zac found himself walking toward the recording booth, dragging Isaac along behind him. He could sense Isaac’s reluctance to look again, but Zac was the stronger of the two and his strength won out.
As they reached the recording booth door and Zac pushed it open, he felt Isaac tugging back out of his grasp. Frustrated, he let go. Whatever was in the other room, Isaac obviously didn’t want to see again, and if he was going to fight that badly, Zac wouldn’t force him to look. Taking a deep breath, Zac shoved the door open and peaked his head in.
He only looked for a second – just long enough to confirm his fears. It was a dead person, but it wasn’t Taylor. Not that that really made it any less of a tragedy, but it meant he could relax just a little. Now that he had seen it, he pulled the door together and fell back against it, suddenly finding it difficult to breathe.
“What – what are we gonna do, Ike? There’s a fucking… a fucking…” he stuttered out, his mind filling with a thousand terrible thoughts one after another.
“Dead person? Murderer? Big, fuck off thunder storm?” Isaac offered. “Yeah, I know.”
The sound of the studio door opening made Zac jump and immediately he began to scan the room for some sort of weapon. What if the murderer was back? What if they were going to kill him or Isaac next?
“Guys? Are you in here?”
Zac and Isaac both spun around quickly, holding out their candles as makeshift weapons. It was only Taylor. Zac let out a sigh and lowered his candle slightly.
“Don’t come any closer,” Isaac said.
Taylor ignored him and took a few steps forward. “What? What’s going on? I heard you scream, what happened?”
“Took you long enough to come see, didn’t it?”
“I was… well. I looked everywhere. Now what the hell is going on?”
Zac cleared his throat. “It’s Remy, Tay. Somebody killed him.”
“What? You’re shitting me, right? That’s a terrible joke.”
“It’s not a joke!” Ike screeched, waving his hand toward the recording booth. “Look for yourself if you don’t believe us.”
Taylor scoffed, but shoved past Isaac and Zac nonetheless. He peeked his head into the recording booth and just as quickly, backed away from it, his face three shades lighter than usual.
“Do you believe me now?”
Taylor didn’t answer, merely sank onto the nearest couch and stared at the wall. After a few minutes of silence, he looked up and stared at his brothers.
“What are we going to do?”
Isaac took a long, deep breath. “I think we get to be detectives now.”
In just a matter of minutes, Isaac had a plan. He wasn’t sure why he felt like he should be in charge, but if he didn’t at least try to take control of the situation, he would probably spend the rest of the weekend cowering in a corner. Mustering up all the courage he had, he sent his brothers off to look for all the other guests, while he paced around the library trying to figure out what to do next.
The Agatha Christie paperback still sat abandoned in the floor where it had fallen when the lights went out. Isaac wished he had the smarts to really be a detective, but he figured he could do his best. It wasn’t like Miss Marple or Poirot ever did anything anyway; the solutions just seemed to fall into their laps. Not that Isaac wanted a murderer to fall into his lap, but he certainly wished he knew which one of the guests he ought to be running away from.
After a few more minutes spent pacing, the door opened. Taylor walked in with Jude and Blaine trailing behind himself. Blaine had managed to find a flashlight and both he and Jude looked absolutely frightened. Isaac wondered how much Taylor had actually told them about the situation. He could only assume that everyone else had been asleep, or else they would have heard his scream anyway and come running. It didn’t really make sense, though – shouldn’t someone else have been curious?
“Where’s everyone else?” Isaac asked as he watched Rio and Blaine make their way to seats.
Taylor cleared his throat. “Poppy is… uh, she’s on her way.”
Isaac decided it was best not to push that particular issue, and pressed his lips tight together to keep any snide comments from slipping out on their own.
A few minutes later the door opened and Zac walked in with Gwyn and Rio. He walked a little too close to Gwyn for Isaac’s comfort – it seemed he was following in Taylor’s footsteps and that worried Ike. He resisted the urge to groan at the sight, or roll his eyes at the two candles Rio clutched tightly in his hands.
“Leave it to you to hog the candles so the rest of us are left in the dark,” Jude mumbled.
Thankfully, Rio chose not to reply, but merely snarled in Jude’s general direction as he took up a seat on the other side of the room. Isaac was really hoping people would keep the dramatics to a minimum, but he supposed that was too much to ask for in such a situation. He was smart enough to realize that things would only get worse, too.
Everyone sat in awkward silence for several minutes, until the door finally swung open and revealed Poppy, her candle illuminating her flustered expression. She stood in the doorway for a moment, her eyes darting around the room, before scurrying to a seat next to Taylor.
Isaac really didn’t want to dwell on that, so he decide to forge ahead and get the announcement over with. He cleared his throat and looked around at everyone, feeling strangely self conscious as he realized how many pairs of eyes were trained on him. It wasn’t really a large crowd, but he had the attention of all of them and that, coupled with the news he was about to deliver, made it rather unnerving.
“Guys… we’ve got some terrible news. Remy is dead. Murdered, we think.”
“He’s what?” Rio yelped.
“Dead,” Zac repeated. “We found him – well, Ike found him – in the studio. It’s really not a pretty sight.”
“Who would do something like that?” Poppy asked.
“Oh for god’s sake, how are they supposed to know that?” Rio asked, rolling his eyes. “I mean, unless they did it.”
Poppy sank back into her seat with a pout and Isaac turned away from her to face the rest of the room. He looked to Zac in hopes that he would offer him some support but Zac’s attention was focused on Gwyn.
“I wouldn’t exactly be telling all of you about it if I killed him, would I?” Isaac asked, but didn’t wait for a reply before he continued, “Look, the phones are out so until we get power back, we can’t call the cops. So we’re all stuck here with Remy in the studio. Whoever killed him is probably still here. I don’t know what to do. I’m a musician, not a detective. But if I can do anything to figure out who did this, I’d like to try. Right now, I can’t trust any of you except for Taylor and Zac.”
And I barely trust them… Isaac thought to himself, but did not say it.