And then there were none

Tiphanie realizes the rabbithole goes deeper than she wished.

Forum game prompt: “What are you hiding from me?”

Characters: Tiphanie, Souadou, Aya, Aurelien has like 1 line

Warnings: Mentions of a vague mob-related deal gone wrong, and death and violence that followed. Also mentions of drugs and vague mentions of drug dealing.

Wordcount: 1,148

Vibe: Tense ‘uh oh’ vibe

AN:

yaye forum game prompt thing

this is a rough scene thats been in my head thought i’d try writing it out (at 2am any%)

tldr tiphanie witnesses Aya murder some drug makers in a cabin and gets upset about it. souadou is very good at google.

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“It’s over. We need to get out of here.”

Tiphanie didn’t reply, only nodded. As Aya exited the cabin behind her, Tiphanie’s horrified gaze was transfixed on the mess.
She felt sick to her stomach. Tiphanie was used to sparkly, neon-coloured gore-themed art in the scenecore revival circles online. But this…

“Are you coming?” Aya called out from the entrance to the cabin, her voice a bit frustrated.

“Yeah…”

Without any words, Aya and Tiphanie walked the dirt path away from the cabin, towards the road where Aya’s bodyguard had parked. Tiphanie looked back at the cabin, the door still left open – and a body visible.

“Shouldn’t we close the door? I can see-” Tiphanie started to say, but was cut off.

“Wild pokemon will get to them before anyone bothers to check.” Aya responded, deadpan.

The two made it in the back of the car, where Aya let out a heavy sigh as she sank into the seat.

“I wanted this to be a clean job. If I knew it was going to be messy, I would have worn something different.”

The blood had dripped from Aya’s mouth, staining her dress and coat.

“I… I’m sorry. I…” Tiphanie mumbled, unable to finish her sentence. She wasn’t sure what she could say after what just happened.

“It’s your first time – though why mi amor insisted you come for this of all things… I’ll never know.”

“Right…”

The rest of the car ride back to Lumiose was silent. Aya’s bodyguard pulled up in the alley behind the Richissme Hotel that she owned. Aya’s bodyguard quickly did her best to obscure Aya as they both entered through the hotel’s back entrance. leaving Tiphanie to enter by her own accord.

Tiphanie just quickly made her way up to her room, doing her best to avoid any eye contact. She felt like they knew.

In her room, Souadou was waiting in her pajamas – as Tiphanie had invited her over to stay a couple days earlier. Her legs were crossed, and she was browsing the web on her laptop on top of Tiphanie’s bed.

“Hey! Tiph…?” she called out, initially excited to see her back, but quickly picked up that something was wrong.

“I…” Tiphanie started.
“I need to take a shower. Hold on.”

Tiphanie spent a solid 30 minutes under the hot water, mostly thinking. Thinking what she’d do next. Would she tell Souadou? Should she bring it up to Aurelien? Is this normal?
Her train of thought fizzled into nothing.

Tiphanie changed into her own pajamas and exited the bathroom, before flopping onto bed next to Souadou – burying her face in the pillow.
There was a period of silence before Souadou said anything.

“Seriously, what’s up? Did that thing with Aya go ok? Or was she weird?”

“I don’t think ‘weird’ properly begins to sum up what just fucking happened.”

Souadou closed her laptop and nudged closer.

“Hey, you can vent to me.”

“I’m… really not sure if I can.”

“Did she hurt you?”

“No.” Tiphanie lifted her head up from the pillow to look at Souadou.
“But… others. She…”

The vision of Aya taking on her beast-like form and ripping at the people in the cabin with her teeth came back, as it had almost seared itself into Tiphanie’s mind.
Tiphanie winced at the thought, and Souadou became upset.

“Tiphanie! If I need to kick her ass, call authorities, WHATEVER, let me know! If you’re not safe here, we can start packing!”

Tiphanie sighed and rolled onto her back.

“She said they were bad people. I… want to believe her, but…” she said, her voice panicked.

Souadou took Tiphanie’s hair and ran her hand through it.

“If you tell me what happened, I can do research. Nothing like a good ‘ol wiki dive to figure the world out.”

“Right…”

So, Tiphanie gave a rough recount of what happened. Her voice was a bit frantic, as Souadou nodded along with increasing concern, until Tiphanie got to the climax of the story – when Souadou interrupted her.

“Wait wait wait… this whole thing sounds like some kind of drug deal gone wrong, at least in my head.”

“I know! Like, I know Aurelien and Aya do drug stuff, like how else would they be so filthy rich? But…” Tiphanie paused.
“I don’t know. I didn’t know they she… killed people? Like, sure, they were making whatever in that cabin, but I don’t think it was a deal – she just… went for the neck. Figuratively and literally.”

“Eesh. The vibes those two have are weird. I’ll see if I can find anything.”

“Alright…” Tiphanie said with a yawn.

Tiphanie watched Souadou browse for clues for a little while before falling asleep.

She would later be shaken awake, waking up to Souadou’s repeating of Tiphanie’s name in a frantic matter.

“Holy shit, Tiph, I feel like I’ve cracked some kind of code here.”

“What?” Tiphanie responded groggily.

“It’s the mob! She’s the leader of the fucking Kalos mob!” Souadou said, her words almost tripping over each other.
“It just! It makes sense! Her personality, her pseudonyms, her actions… god damn it!!”

“Woah woah, what?!” Tiphanie sat up.
“Again I… I knew she did drug stuff! But you really think she’s like… an international crime leader? I mean, I’m not doubting you, but…”

“Look, I can go over it! I made a messy document.”

Tiphanie leaned over to Souadou as she scrolled through the document. And as she did, it all came together for Tiphanie as well.

“Shit! You’re so right! Man, Interpol is useless compared to you.” Tiphanie said.

“And she hasn’t told you about any of this?”

“Nope. I only know about the drug stuff by accident. I figure… the two of them didn’t want me to know about that either.”

“This is fucked. What should we do?” Souadou turned to Tiphanie and asked, her eyes full of concern.

Tiphanie thought for a moment, then let out a sigh.

“I… I’m going to try talking to her. But I wanna make sure Aurelien’s around too.”

“Doesn’t that seem… dangerous?!”

“I know… that Aurelien can’t hurt me. She doesn’t want to hurt me, she sees me like family… but I feel like I haven’t earned Aya’s trust yet.”

“Look, Tiph, I get you wanting to be forwards about it, but if she doesn’t quite trust you, I’m not sure if it’s the best option.”

“I’ll make it work.”

Souadou gave a concerned look before closing her laptop.

“Alright. But please don’t put yourself in danger.”

Tiphanie went up to Aurelien and Aya’s suite, where she was greeted by the two of them cuddling on the couch and watching television.

“Oi! What’s up Tiph? You didn’t ring in.” Aurelien said as she paused whatever she was watching.

“Aurelien… Aya…” Tiphanie said, taking a deep breath.
“What are you hiding from me?“