Chapter 108 - Finding Proofs

While most of the students were enjoying the music, far away in the dungeon, Roman stood with his back leaning against the wall. His eyes were closed as if he was taking a quick nap, but his senses were sharp.

Hearing footsteps in the dungeon, he opened his eyes that had darkened. Tilting his head, he noticed Olivia making her way to the front of the cell. She carried a paper in her hand. 

"It took a while for Isolde to leave the office from there. Is this what you were looking for?" asked Olivia, handing the paper to Roman, which he took in his hand. Flicking the lighter, where the flame was bright, his eyes read through the page. 

"Do you see the entry in here?" questioned Roman and Olivia moved closer to take a look at the sheet that was filled with details about medicines and bottles used. "The number of bottles brought in doesn't match up with the number used in the university. The only way to not get caught is to pick up an ingredient that is already present in the university without needing it to be smuggled in."

Olivia furrowed her eyebrows, and she asked, "Isolde and the others, we keep the name of the patients visiting us, and the bottles of Silverwater are kept in a different room. We always keep a count of the special bottles."

"It was possibly replaced with a false one to make it believe that there was the full count, when in truth one or more had been picked out for contamination. I don't think it's a recent switch and he must have planned it out long ago," stated Roman, his eyes narrowed before he said, "Get this to Donovan, and it should be enough link."

"But it doesn't make sense," said Olivia. "What if it was Mateo who did it and not Griffin?" 

Roman handed the papers back to Olivia and said, "Did you know that some of the humans, who were on the verge of death, had been killed by the Elders? Even if there was a possibility of them being alive. Both Donovan and Luciano drank blood from the humans, and one of them was Griffin's family."

"He should already know that going against an Elder is nothing less than facing death," commented Olivia, pursing her lips in concentration. 

"We all have different levels of hate when it comes to them. But we are now part of the same boat, and we try to tolerate," remarked Roman. "He's already thrown the bottle away, but I think it would be better to check in Max and my room." 

Seeing Olivia raise her eyebrows, Roman said, "If I am not wrong, Griffin will try to plant the evidence in our rooms to frame us. Take a sweep in my old room."

"I dropped by Julie's room earlier to check if she was alright. But she wasn't there, someone said that she was called home," said Olivia, while Roman slipped the lighter into his jeans pocket. He didn't comment at Olivia's words, and she said, "I will get these to Elder Donovan," and she left the dungeon. 

With Simon and Victoria's help, Olivia looked around the rooms, going through things to search for the little vial bottle in which they stored the Silverwater. When they were looking through the human's room, Victoria found an empty vial in the drawer that was placed at the end. 

"Is this the one?" asked Victoria without picking it up and showing it to Olivia. 

"Well well, looks like he was planning to frame the human out of spite," commented Simon, and he questioned, "How much dosage is this?"

"The highest that's there in the collection," replied Olivia and then said, "I will run it through the scan, but it will take time." 

"Time is what we have," said Simon and when they were getting out of the dorm and about to walk through the corridor, Melanie's door opened. "Hello sunshine—"

On seeing Simon, Melanie quickly closed the door on his face. The corner of his lips pulled up. It seemed like someone was shy, he thought in his mind. He looked at the dorm door before walking out of the building. 

Olivia said, "You both can run the scan while I go back and check how many other vials have been switched." 

Back in the town of Queenstorm, in the quiet motel, Julie watched the lightning strike in the sky through the window. She sat at the window for a long time before sweeping the blanket across the floor and getting into bed. 

For a motel where the rooms were almost occupied, it looked very deserted and quiet. Unless they were all couples, who had cuddled themselves in the bed now. She pulled her blanket closer to her. Julie wished she could rewind the time and go back to where it was just she and Roman in the river. 

With her body tired, Julie's eyes started to turn heavy with sleep, and she slowly started to drift to sleep.

The rain outside the motel had slowed down, where only heavy drops of water falling on the puddle could be heard. The flame in the lantern had turned low until it extinguished itself, leaving the room dark. And for a moment, it was as if everything froze, while an eerie whisper could be heard in the corridor outside Julie's room. 

Now away from Veteris ground, light sound of snaps could be heard in the room. As if a tree was trying to stretch it arms, while moving towards where Julie laid in the bed. It was the creature in the black cloak and bird-like face. But there were more than five of them that surrounded her bed. 

One of the creatures that stood right next to her left, brought its twig-like hand forward, ready to place it on her head, when Julie's eyes flew open.

Julie looked around her, seeing nothing but emptiness while her breathing had quickened. Was it a dream?