//------------------------------// // Murderer // Story: Dusk // by PeryFire //------------------------------// Sonata sat in the cool grass, her legs crossed, her eyes idly passing over the inscription on the headstone that she had already memorized, but still didn't quite believe it. Aria Blaze was dead. Sonata sighed, and wished that she wasn't spending a Tuesday mourning her friend. She wished that it could be just like any other Tuesday, just once more. She would be the first one in the lunch line at school, and Aria and Adagio would roll their eyes at what lengths she would go to in order to get her tacos before anyone else did. Sometimes her two friends would trail behind her apologizing and doing damage control with the students that Sonata rushed by, and sometimes inadvertently shoved into lockers. But those wonderful Tuesdays were gone forever now. Sonata wasn't even sure if she could enjoy another taco without one of her best friends to share them with. "Hey Sonata." Sonata didn't even start at the sudden voice behind her. She slowly turned to acknowledge her visitor. "Hey Twilight." Her voice was weak. She hadn't much energy since leaving the hospital. Twilight sat down beside her and started idly plucking blades of grass, then carefully tearing them apart, seeing how many times she could half a blade of grass along it's length. "You really miss her, don't you?" "Of course." Sonata replied quickly, but it wasn't malicious in any way. She sighed. "Aria and Adagio and I have been best friends since kindergarten. We were going to graduate together, and go to the same university, and be best friends forever. And now one of us has been... erased. By some sick monster." "I'm really sorry, Sonata." Twilight said, lamely. There was a silence before Sonata asked, "why would anyone do such a thing? What would anyone have to gain from randomly murdering high school kids?" "I don't know." Twilight answered, honestly. "I wish I did." "What are you doing out here anyways?" Sonata asked. "I've never known Twilight Sparkle to ever skip class." "Well, I was worried about you." Twilight replied. "I've never known Sonata Dusk to miss Taco Tuesday." Sonata cringed, and Twilight gave her an apologetic look before returning to carefully shredding the grass in front of her. The two girls sat in silence for a long time, listening to the breeze rustle the leaves of the trees planted around the cemetery and the scratchy rumble of cars rolling by. Sonata got up, breaking the silence. "I'm going to go back home and get some rest. I'm still kind of feeling off from those weeks in the hospital. You should go back to class." "Alright." Twilight agreed, not bothering to offer to walk Sonata home when her friend so clearly wanted to be alone. "Get some rest. I hope you feel better soon." She said as she got up herself and started back towards the school. "And remember to eat something!" She called over her shoulder. "I will." Sonata called back, heading in the opposite direction. When she got to the intersection, she took a left instead of heading straight, the direction of her house. It was a lovely sunny afternoon, and she felt like taking the scenic route home. Adagio left school after lunch time. She had sat alone in the cafeteria that day. Since Aria died and Sonata had been admitted to hospital, she had been joining Twilight and her friends at lunch. But today, the Rainbooms had lunch-hour band rehearsal, and Twilight was nowhere to be found. Getting tired of the pitying glances the other students gave her when they thought she wasn't looking, she decided to skip the remainder of her day's classes and go for a walk around her favourite park. When she entered the park, she smiled. The park was entirely empty at the moment, she had the place to herself. She walked over to the swingset and sat facing the pond, which sparkled in the sun, the glare almost too bright for her to look at. After a few minutes, she decided to go down the edge of the pond and skip rocks across it. The activity was bittersweet. Out of her trio of friends, Aria was always the best at skipping rocks, no doubt about it. She won every competition they had. Adagio tossed a rock and counted. One... Two... Three... Four... Four skips was her average throw. Her record was six, but Aria's was ten. She would miss skipping rocks with Aria, but at least the activity would bring back good memories of her late friend. She threw again. One... Two... Three... She knew she could do better. She imagined Aria standing behind her, lecturing her about proper stance, technique. Even how to pick the perfect rock. One... Two... Three... Four... Five... A better throw. Adagio always did better with Aria walking her through the process. She hoped to break her personal record today, and make Aria proud. Sonata wandered mindlessly. She let herself zone out, and wasn't watching where she was going, nor was she paying any attention at all to her route. But something strange caught her attention. It wasn't a sound, or a smell, or even rough terrain. She just had a feeling, and looked up. There, across the park, was a familiar head of hair, skipping rocks across the pond. She stopped midstep, wondering if she should enter the park and visit her friend. She didn't really want to. She wanted some alone time. She was about to turn away and continue along her way, when something else caught her eye. A hooded figure, not unlike the ones that she had witnessed murdering her friends. But it was the middle of the day, broad daylight. They couldn't possibly be targeting Adagio right now. It would be too risky, even for them. Sonata was about to dismiss the figure, when she saw them approach Adagio. Suddenly, Sonata was sitting in a dark alley, the cold pavement hard against her knees as she cradled Aria, the unmoving dull eyes of her friend staring blankly up at her. Sonata shivered and shook her head, returning her attention to Adagio and the stranger. They were talking to each other. Sonata was too far away to see who was beneath the hood, but Adagio seemed to have recognized them. Sonata figured that she was overreacting. It was probably just someone who was also skipping class that day. She started to walk away again, ready to tune out the world once more. But before she could relax into nothingness, she heard a shout. Sonata turned towards the sound, and saw Adagio on the ground, with the hooded figure kneeling over her. Something must have happened. Did Adagio faint? Concern for her friend overrode her desire to be alone, and she ran towards the two. They were all the way on the other side of the park, and Sonata wasn't a particularly fast runner, but she did her best to get there as soon as she could. When she was about halfway across the park, she noticed something strange about the person she didn't know, in the way that they were kneeling over Adagio. It didn't look like they were helping her, it looked like they were pressing down on her with all their weight. As she got even closer, she was able to see that the stranger's hands were placed around Adagio's throat. Sonata yelled out at the stranger, and pumped her legs faster, trying to close the distance between them as fast as she could. She didn't know what she would do when she got there, but she had to do something. She couldn't bear to lose another friend. She was twenty feet away, the stranger's face was still out of view. Sonata shouted at them, hoping to startle them into letting Adagio go, but they were deaf to her voice. They didn't react in the least, not even when Sonata was ten feet away, five feet away. Sonata was right behind them now, and she wasted no time in grabbing them by the arm, tearing them off Adagio, and spinning them around to face her. Sonata's heart stopped.