Flipside

Part 5, Part 2

"So, you're telling me that Mallory shot Michael in the chest... and then you stabbed her." Nevin looked at Marsha.

"Yes!" She said.

"Calm down, I believe you. And I'm cool with it." He clutched his stomach, wincing.

"What's wrong?" Marsha asked.

"Nothing." His smile looked forced. "Can you take this from me for a while?" He held out his knife. She took it, but he had trouble letting go. He released it as soon as he could, and she looked at him in confusion. He sighed in relief as the weapon left his grasp.

"Nevin, what's going on." She asked.

"We'll get to that later-" he started.

"Now." She glared at him. He scratched at the scab, showing her the dark blood.

"Enough said." He pulled his shirt over the wound again.

"That isn't enough said! I don't understand!" She protested.

"So, I'm in the Following. I didn't join on purpose. It happened when you were born. I'll assume you immediately opened a paradox, as the leader dude came and cut this in. I pick at it all the time, and so the scab's been there for twelve years. It hurts when I'm near you with a weapon. If I want it to go away I have to kill you." He explained.

"Oh." She nodded.

"So just be careful around me. I'm not trustworthy." And he walked away for the second time that day.

***

Meanwhile, there was another creature who identified as a male walking away.

And that person was Charles.

He had just found two corpses. Michael, he didn't care about. But Mallory was the glue that held the group together, despite being arguably terrible at it. He had examined the body carefully to identify a suspect. There was a stab wound which penetrated completely through the body. Pepper, with her spear, was the first one who came to mind. But she was already dead, and they left her spear behind as a grave marker. Besides, the hole wasn't the right shape for that. So he decided it must be Marsha. But how could she sneak up on Mallory? And why would the corpses be positioned as hugging? The only person who he could think of was the teammate he cared about the most. Him, a murderer? But he wasn't as directly involved. Yes, Charles believed Gregory had trapped Mallory with his net, and his weird overly nice antics had convinced him dead bodies looked good hugging. So he had left. He didn't know what to do about that.

Yet.

See, there's something called a 'Sin State'. As implied, when you feel one of the seven deadly sins, you will become more powerful until whatever caused you to feel that way is dealt with. Charles went into what we call a 'Wrath State'. But we'll skip that because it's not critical to the plot. He calmed down in solitude, but still felt murdery. That is now a word.

Anyways, he felt the need to sate this murderish sensation.

That's also now a word.

And, he had just thought he had solved a crime, so what else was there to do?

Isn't it great when you can put criminals in their place and calm yourself down at the same time?

Despite Gregory not being involved at all?

***

"Hey, Marsha!" Gregory ran up to her.

"Hello." She nodded.

"Have you seen Charles?" He asked.

"No, can't say I have." She sighed.

"He's been gone for a while now. He went over to the valley last time I saw him." Gregory seemed worried.

Oh god, thought Marsha. He probably found the dead bodies.

"Can you come with me to try to find him?" Asked the Aquian.

"Um, sure." Marsha's heart was just about ready to jump out of her chest.

"Thanks." He grabbed her hand and pulled her along.

"So, uh, the valley, right?" She wanted to make sure that she hadn't just heard things out of paranoia. He nodded.

When they arrived, Gregory stopped in his tracks. The hideous mixture of red and black blood made him want to vomit.

"Oh god... oh my god..." he whispered.

"I knew it! The criminal always returns to the place of the crime!" Charles suddenly appeared. "Well, criminals."

"I'm not a c-criminal! You think I did this?" Gregory gasped.

"Not exactly. You restrained Mallory while Marsha stabbed her." He elaborated.

"I..." he was frozen.

"Shut up!" Charles shouted, coming closer.

"Look, this is a murder scene, but how about we make it one for only two people?" Marsha said. Charles flicked a red marble at her and she burst into flames.

"Marsha!" Gregory called. "Stop, drop, and roll!" She flopped over and rolled through the dirt.

"I thought you didn't want to do that! I thought you wanted to help me!" Charles turned to him.

"No! I won't kill anyone!"

"A little too late for that, don't you think?" Charles tossed a few metallic marbles into the ground.

"No! Please, I didn't do anything!" He protested. Charles shoved his face into the silver puddle and glared.

"What is that?" Marsha rolled over, wiping ash off of her face.

"None of your business."

"Mercury?" She guessed. Scars she had noticed before on Gregory opened up as he touched the liquid. "What are those?"

"Gills." Charles rolled his eyes. "Can you please shut up?"

"So is he, like, inhaling that?" Charles but his lip and sucked air in slowly, trying to hold onto whatever sanity he had left. She finally moved, but didn't tear her eyes away. She groped for her sword and pulled it out, using the flat end to knock Charles over. "Gregory, can you get up?" He rose slowly and got his net out. She saw o other option but to kill him. She stabbed at Charles, and a large hole formed in his torso that the sword went through. It then closed up.

"No fair! You can't use your powers like that!" Gregory groaned.

"Why not?" Charles seemed to liquefy for a moment, then reformed, looking like Gregory. "Do you find it disturbing?"

"Well I certainly do!" Marsha's eyes widened. "What even is that?"

"Shapeshifting." He turned back to himself.

"Okay, he's right. That is no fair."

"You should see Gregory's powers!" He laughed. "He's freaking ruthless."

"I don't use them like that!" He protested quietly.

"Oh, so it wasn't you who brought entire armies to their knees with your mind. You weren't the guy who drove over a hundred people to insanity." Charles raised an eyebrow.

"I was three!" Gregory screamed. "And you helped. You were half of it."

"This isn't going anywhere." Charles sighed. "Can we just get this over with?"

"That's gonna take some time." Marsha growled.

"Yeah, no. I think not." Charles tipped the entire bag upside down, and after a delay of a few seconds, it exploded. A very big explosion, might I add. The explosion was so large that it didn't only kill Gregory, Charles, and Marsha, but also Sasha, who had a heart attack from the air pressure change.

And then all we had was Gemma and Nevin.