CHAPTER 164: 164-SCANDALOUS

Clementine:

As Mr. Brian announced the last part, we all gasped, and our squad lost it. We rushed toward the hall to go see the scene. There was no way Bodhi would do it. He seemed so sweet and so normal, but he was anxious, I remembered.

And then I heard the other squadmates running after us, heading to the Green Squad’s dorm room.

We arrived at the room full of blood. It looked like a bloodbath had taken place here. Three bodies lay on the ground. Two were on the bed, while one was right beside them, holding a gun we recognized from the north. That was the only gun we found from the man’s pocket who we bought with us. Other than that, there were some daggers, knives, and swords. Each of them had one gunshot wound to the head before the last one shot himself in the temple.

I began to lose my footing, and Haiden wrapped his arm around my waist to steady me. Joshua quickly hugged Suki, keeping her head and face away from the sight. The blue squad, I could already tell, was failing to compose themselves as well. Then silence filled the room before Oriana started crying.

"This is so scary." She was right. It was scary.

"I cannot," she muttered, turning around and running out. She was the first to leave. Then the two girls and one boy from the blue squad sprinted out crying. Jessie and Mathias left, and then the white squad followed. We turned to leave too, but Ian stayed behind.

"Ian, come on," Yorick urged as we noticed the ringleaders arrive. Haiden was still holding me close, not letting me look back at the scene.

"He had a diary," Ian said and Yorick grunted.

"Dude, come on, they’re dead. Let’s not think about it right now. Did you not hear what the ringleader said?"

Yorick reminded him that it all happened because we got too consumed by the mysteries. Looking at the other teams, they were doing fine. We tried to find answers, and what happened? We ended up in the north and came back with our heads down in shame. We could not even tell anyone what exactly happened there. Then there was the green squad. They got too involved as well, and look what happened to them. So I didn’t argue with Yorick. At the same time, the ringleaders had come to clean the scene.

"We will be sending their bodies to their packs. However, there will be different approaches from now on, since an entire squad is gone," Mr. Rick announced, gesturing for us to leave.

Reluctantly, Ian had to leave because Troy grabbed his arm and pulled him out. Once we were in the passage, we noticed the white squad slowing down.

"Are you guys happy now?" Jack hissed.

"I remember how condescending they were when one of our girls made a mistake and killed someone," Suki remarked in her usual sassy tone, referring to Melanie’s death as an accident.

"It was not an accident," Ian muttered with a shrug.

"You don’t even look a bit guilty," Joshua shot back.

Ian stopped, and we had to stop with him. "Because I’m not guilty. I feel bad for them, but I’m not guilty. We didn’t do anything wrong. In fact, it was the ringleaders’ fault. If they had taken care of the weapons, the green squad would still be alive. The weapons weren’t stolen from us, they were stolen from the ringleader’s care."

His words made the white squad gasp, while Joshua kept staring him in the eye.

"Now we know what’s going on, and which squad is behind all the trouble," Yash said, of course siding with his white squad. He looked at the blue squad, and they were staring at us with the same judgmental eyes.

"A whole squad is gone, but they aren’t even guilty. Even when the ringleader said it was their fault," Joshua said, looking at the blue squad and the red one.

"And let’s not forget they were in the gnomes’ garden. Do you know what happens there? They probably did it together and came back shamelessly confident," Suki snapped, making everyone gasp and cover their mouths.

"Is it true? Did you guys do it?" one of the girls from the blue squad asked, ignoring the fact that something far worse had just happened.

"What is going on here?" the ringleader of the white squad demanded as the lurkers went into the room to clean and take care of the dead bodies.

"Sir, aren’t there strict rules for those who go beyond decency? We know Clementine is mated to Haiden, but we’ve seen her kiss Troy and get too emotionally attached to Yorick and Ian. And we don’t even know what happened in the gnomes’ world. But there’s no way they came out untouched, unharmed by the lust. So why aren’t they punished for these kinds of crimes?"

Jack took the stand, making us stare at each other before looking at him in disbelief. Three of the crusaders were dead, and yet they were focusing on us.

"Yeah, I’ve been worrying about that myself. It’s unethical for one girl to be involved with so many," Mr. Rick said, shocking us. I noticed my squad mates’ muscles tense up. Of course, I knew they wouldn’t let the ringleaders punish me. At least, they would put up some fight. But by the end of the day, my character, along with theirs, would be scarred.

We had forgotten someone existed who didn’t know when to speak up, and sometimes that worked in our favor.

"If that’s the case, then you better punish Suki," Oriana said, one arm folded over her chest, the elbow resting on the fist of that hand, while her other hand bent to point at Suki.

Suki, who was hugging and standing right next to Joshua, had no clue a finger would soon be pointed at her.

"I’m not doing anything immoral. I came here with my mate, and I’m sticking with him. Since we were together before coming here, I don’t think we did anything wrong. We wouldn’t have asked Clementine to be shamed, she stayed with her mate only."

Suki tried to sound understanding, making it seem like we just had to accept punishment. There was no animosity, only that we broke the rules.

"Oh really? So you’re telling me you’re not fucking Jack on the side?"

Then Oriana stole the ground from under everyone, but yanking it right from Joshua.