the person i'd have to become | presley, clue

[gamemaker 💀 hades lochlan]

» presley «

The alcohol seemed like such a bad idea in hindsight. Not that Presley himself had really even had the time to indulge- between the rocky entrance and news of Principal Morrigan's death, he'd already been considering leaving with the crowd. He figured by now he'd be back at his place, curled up under a soft blanket with a good book, quietly sobbing away his many agonies like the water sign he is. But he'd chosen to stay because Clara was there and this was Elaina's party and Stella showed up. It didn't take a rocket scientist or a serial killer to know that the night wasn't on track to end on a high note.

And, like, then there also turned out to be a serial killer. So.

Sometimes he hated how correct his intuition was.

For clarity, he wasn't at the bonfire when this information was revealed- he hadn't made his way there from the front yet, under the oak tree where he'd smoked with Clara until she ditched him for Naomi. He'd told them to go on ahead without him, that he needed some time for the redness in his eyes to go away or Maverick would know he'd been crying over him. As if it wasn't a safe guess at this point.

But as he sat there, woeing and sighing the night away, staring up at the big blanket of stars above him, he suddenly felt like he was being watched. He checked his surroundings- even got paranoid enough to look up in the tree top just to be safe. No one. Nothing. Still, he felt eyes on him.

"Hello?"

No answer.

"Nope. Fuck that."

Someone else could be a hero- Presley was going to find the rest of the group.

He stood and quickly began to gather his things, and then he saw from a distance Naomi walking into the house with Maverick. Good. Maybe she was putting him to bed before he further made an ass out of himself. Presley brushed the dirt off of his ass and had made it halfway across the yard when he saw Ally go in after them.

He gasped, then forced himself to gag at the mere sight of her.

Couldn't believe he'd ever considered her a friend.

"Oh I don't think so, bimbo!" he muttered under his breath, stalking across the rest of the yard and straight inside.

The house was... dark. And creepy. He didn't really notice until the door closed behind him, but now that he was in here things felt wrong somehow. It was strange, but only barely felt as he barreled straight into the master bedroom. Breath of relief, it was empty. He caught sight of a single key hanging on the wall as he closed the door, and thought its shape looked a bit funny. He held it up in the light to get a better look, and could just make out a star shape there at the end. He briefly considered not taking it, but the Keyford family was rich. They could afford a replacement. He smirked. Literally their name is Keyford. Like?

He slid it into his pocket.

[gamemaker 💀 hades lochlan]

» presley «

He stopped off in the kitchen for a drink of water and heard a loud thump upstairs. Too loud to be the house settling- he was certain. No gaslighting himself out of it. There was definitely someone up there. He hadn't ever seen Naomi come back out, so he wasn't expecting the worst. Naomi didn't seem like she'd be into group play at any rate, especially not now that she and Clara had whatever was going on there happening. But he knew he needed to get to them before Naomi left because a second sooner could've meant-

He cleared his throat and frowned. Hearts were such evil, cruel things. His especially. Making him care for something so sharp when he's so easily cut to pieces.

He hurried out of the kitchen and nearly practically ran into Ally in the living room. She gripped a fire poker like it was a weapon, and her drunken stare was fixed on Presley.

"Jeeze, could you-!" he waved a hand at her, "put the frickin' firepoker away? Nice killer stalk Ally, been practicing?" He folded his arms over his chest indignantly. Then he hesitated. Ally St. Cloud might've been a total tramp as far as Presley was concerned, but he didn't think she was a killer.

"Where are Mav and Naomi?"

He waited a chastising moment, and then he heard another thud from upstairs.

"There's that sound again! Is that them?" without waiting to see if Ally was following, he made his way up the stairs.

[gamemaker 💀 hades lochlan]

» presley «

Turns out, Presley didn't exactly make the best bounty hunter. He'd somehow managed to lose two people he thought he'd chased upstairs. Ally was trailing behind him- he tried his best to drown her out while he continued to look. Something about having seen Mav but then he left but then he asked her to find Naomi or something- not relevant beyond the news that apparently no one could stay put. The fact that Maverick was difficult to hunt down sometimes was not exactly news.

"You heard the thudding too, right?"

Just looking for confirmation that he wasn't crazy.

Every room he'd checked was empty. No one, as far as he knew, was up here. Yet more than once he'd been certain that there was a loud bang, like a shoe being kicked off a foot or a book falling from a shelf. He'd almost given up when he heard it a third time, still above head.

Ugh. Not the attic. And yet so perfectly in character for a scorpio to go and sulk. He sighed heavily.

"Are you too drunk to climb a ladder right now?"

Too bad if she was.

The attic was appropriately dusty. There were windows at either end, and boxes and things covered in sheets so as to resemble vaguely humanoid ghosts littered practically every square inch, save a couple footpaths that'd been carved by the years. No one was here. A quick survey of the room didn't point out any obvious noise-makers either. Strange.

He poked and prodded for a couple minutes at various boxes. The moonlight from the far end window bathed everything in an ominous blue light. The closer window had a perfect view of the backyard. Warm orangey tones danced unsteadily against the walls here from the bonfire, still going strong despite almost everyone having ran away from it by that point.

"Where the heck did everyone go?"

Had he somehow managed to be one of the last people at a party? How lame. He slid a pile of boxes over and he noticed a tall, thin safe. It was screwed into the ground, and looked like it was supposed to be hidden behind a fake bookshelf or something based on the way it seemed to be built into the wall. He tried the handle and it was locked, but then he noticed the keyhole and had to suppress a smile. It was a star.

He locked eyes with Ally as he pulled the key out of his pocket. The two of them seemed to make some silent agreement, and then he slid the key inside and clicked it open.

There were a bunch of work documents and some sentimental crap, some jewelry Mrs. Keyford clearly cared about enough to stow away. But most notably of the items inside- Presley picked up a pistol and held it up for Ally to see.

"The hell does Mr. Keyford need with this?" He hated when people used the protection argument for keeping weapons around. Like, okay, so what emergency is occurring in which you imminently need a gun but also have the time to run upstairs, climb the ladder into your attic, and get said gun from the safe? Exactly, made no sense as far as he was concerned. He walked over to the other window and took a gander. He saw something moving and squinted.

"Oh, there's someone..." He couldn't make out the form well from so far away in the dark. It was over near the shed he'd seen Naomi coming from before, he thought. He tried thinking back: was anyone wearing black tonight? Was that a dress? A coat, maybe?

"Come on, I think Mav is smoking outside maybe."