Patrick Pine Groundskeeper

The fetid body stunk to high heaven as Gwyn looked down upon it, Patrick Pine had been murdered in cold blood. The bloated putrid remains were hardly recognizable but her system confirmed it, their only lead was gone.

To explain this discovery we must go back in time a moment.

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Upon waking after the cold bitter night had passed, Gwyn had distanced herself from groping limbs and then stepped out into the morning sun.

As the only member of the group that could function as the sun rose it had been up to her to set about waking the rest, it would have been more fun if they weren’t so grumpy.

The half asleep group were eventually bundled up into the showers, not even Marion was awake enough that early to mess around.

Gwyn had the privilege to witness their bumbling forms, she wondered how they managed at school without maids. She distinctly recalled they were often more awake than herself, she was probably just worse off before the system.

She had checked but there was still no change, thinking that at least her education or social standing might have fluctuated but no such luck.

Unlike her last school, WSfG had an extremely talented roster of cooks and chefs on staff to feed the horde of hungry girls, it was a good thing too as an intense hunger had befallen Gwyn.

She had commandeered a table for her friends and ordered enough breakfast for them all and double the amount for herself. Plates of beautifully scrambled eggs and the finest of bacon were brought out along with breads and juices galore. The enticing smells had finally woken her friends to feast upon the spread.

Once they had soothed the aching hunger they thought about their plans, half had wanted to find Mr Pine themselves while the other advocated to confer with Myra.

“I’m just saying it could be too late by the time we find him.” Tatiana had spoken her stance to the group, Marion beside her nodding along.

“Yes but if we go alone Myra won't be able to help us if we find him, we can't just interrogate him on school grounds.” Gwyn had been of the opinion that they should use the ally they had just made and Cécilia agreed with her.

“How about we split up? You two go meet with ‘Myra’ while we go see if we can’t find him. I swear we’ll wait if we find him till you arrive with the principal”

Tatiana had proposed this plan to the group, she still didn’t seem to like Principal Godheart all that much. Gwyn thought it was because they were too similar, they both liked control.

However Tatiana found herself in a position where she lacked that control in regards to Gwyn and Myra’s relationship, despite her knowing it wasn’t the same as theirs she was still jealous.

Once they had agreed they then split up to carry out their respective tasks.

Gwyn had knocked on Myra's office door, she’d ignored the scowling receptionist who was powerless to stop her.

“Come in.”

Inside the plush office Myra had just settled in for the day, a plate of half eaten breakfast sat on her desk alongside a pile of papers she was in the process of reviewing. Gwyn had felt a little bad about interrupting her day.

“We found out who the groundskeeper was, his name is Patrick Pines.”

Myra had blinked in surprise at their early morning report, only barely awake herself.

“Good work girls,” she had praised, “just let me look his schedule up, we’ll find where he is hiding.”

Myra then had turned to her work computer and had brought up the work rosters, after a brief search she had found Mr Pine’s sign in information “huh, that’s strange and concerning.”

Gwyn and Cécilia shared a look before asking in unison “what is?”

“It appears Mr Pine hasn’t arrived at work for over a week, in fact since the morning you found the orb.” Myra had shared a grim look with the girls before standing up, she then quickly finished her coffee before storming out of her office.

As she had strode past her secretary the young woman had called out “Miss Godheart! You have a meeting with the board in ten minutes!”

Myra had given the young secretary an unamused look “tell them I’m busy.”

Eventually they then met up with team 2 at the groundskeeper’s lodgings.

“Any luck?”

Gwyn had asked this of Tatiana when they reunited, the dark haired girl had seized her arm with a heated look at Myra, much to the woman’s amusement.

“Nothing, he’s not here nor was there anything of note.”

“I’ll ignore the fact that you broke into a staff’s quarters,” Myra had given the pair a stern look, “Mr Pine hasn’t been seen all week.”

The others understood the grim implications at the time. Gwyn hadn’t known where he was right then but she had thought that they could look into where he had been.

“Let's check the woods, it’s a longshot but we have nowhere else to look.”

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They all had conceded to the idea and set out to the woods behind the dorms, with Myra taking the lead they weren’t stopped for being out of class. Gwyn had retraced her steps the best she could, ledding the group towards where she had found the orb.

She had thought herself lost at the time but Cécilia had called out.

“Stop!”

The group had frozen at the loud exclamation before they then had turned towards the stony faced Cécilia.

“Look” she had pointed at the clearing in front of them.

When Gwyn had looked at the clearing all she had seen then was a patch of disturbed earth covered in branches and mosses, multiple prints she had assumed belonged to the groundskeepers dotted the location.

Cécilia had removed the innocence of the sight by saying to them “it’s a grave.”

She had then pointed around the section “there are six separate prints, two women; one dress shoes the other with heels, three men; two in heavy boots the other dress shoes,” she had paused a second before continuing, “the last I can’t tell, it’s too degraded.”

The rest had stared in a stunned and impressed silence. Gwyn had been properly amazed by Cécilia's analysis, she hadn’t even seen the prints let alone what kinds.

“Well, we’d best get digging.”

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Back to our present.

The stench the overripe body was giving off almost made Gwyn puke, her only saving grace was the floral smelling masks Cécilia had given out before they unearthed the corpse from its shallow grave.

She was tired and sore from the digging but they had finally exhumed Patrick Pine, it appeared that someone had murder him in the same place he had lost the orb. Someone had a flair for poetry or perhaps this spot was the least traveled, it would explain why it was where the orb had landed.

Myra had gone into a quiet fury upon confirmation of his death.

Seeing the grim result of someone’s schemes on her soil had been too much.

Gwyn watched as Cécilia donned a pair of rubber gloves that ran all the way up to her shoulder, she wondered why the assassin had those until she jumped in the hole and started examining the befouled cadaver.

She seemed to Gwyn to be fairly confident she’d find something and none of the others wanted to do the grizzly job either.

The squishy sounds were too much for her so she vacated the area to breath fresh air and allow the stoic girl to do her examination in peace.

After Gwyn had finally gotten her stomach under control Cécilia called out.

“I’m done!”

Cécilia climbed out of the hole then began stripping off the gore slick gloves, binning them in a black trash bag.

“What did you find?” Gwyn asked as the group removed themselves from the stench.

Cécilia held up an expended bullet which she had cleaned before returning.

“One 9mm subsonic round was buried deep within his skull. From the residue and powder burns I’d conclude he had been executed from behind while he was kneeling, there were scrapes and bruises on his knees from being forced onto the hard dirt.”

Cécilia then positioned herself as if she was standing over a kneeling man from behind.

“From the trajectory I’d say it was one of the women, or perhaps a shorter man.”

Gwyn blinked rapidly as she took in the information, it seemed like a lot but what did they really know?

“So back to square one.” Marion said as she eyed the assassin still posing.

“Not so, we know roughly how many there are,” Tatiana replied to her, “a cabal of six; 2 women, 3 men and another undetermined. Presumably one of the men was Patrick Pines,” She gestured back towards the grave, “so now five left.”

“And we also know that they are armed.” Gwyn pointed out.

The others grimaced at that, someone had managed to smuggle a gun into the school. They’d need to be extra careful going forwards.

“What do we do now?”

“Nothing,” Myra answered, “you attend class like normal and watch for anyone suspicious,” she took in the stinking corpse before her, “I’ll take care of this.”

With nothing else to add the foursome left the muddy grave and its rotten occupant behind. The other groundskeepers would definitely have a heart attack when they saw that.

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Gwyn gasped desperately as she came up for air, her lungs burned and her heart beat a wild rhythm for the intensity of her exertions. For a moment black spots had danced around her vision threatening to rob her of consciousness.

Above her oxygen deprived and dripping face was Tatiana, her generous thighs were slick with moisture as she sat before Gwyn. The lightheaded girl had to grip their softness to steady herself as she stared dumbly up into her girlfriends own red face.

She smirked down in victory at the splashed girl before her, her breath too came in ragged gasps.

“I win, you really need to learn how to hold your breath better.”

Gwyn playfully glared at the heavily breathing girl as she had no air for words or banter, she did feel a spike of arousal at the taunting tone.

The curvaceous girl foxily laced her slim fingers through Gwyn’s sodden green locks “ready for round two?” her answer was a competitive smirk. She pushed Gwyn down further into the wetness.

Cool waters of the gym’s swimming pool encapsulated Gwyn buxom form as she was pushed underwater. She swam down into the deepest depths, bubbles steadily streaming from her mouth to rise upwards in a column.

Upon reaching the bottom of the deep pool she snatched up a series of brightly colored rings and kicked off hard to power to the surface, racing the teasing Tatiana who swam like she was born in the water.

Once again she breached the surface with a gasp that drove back the black spots in her vision. Looking over she saw she had placed second out of two once more.

“Ha, I win!” Tatiana gloated as she floated, “that means I get the prize.”

“When did we decide that?” Gwyn already knew what she wanted and it was fun for her as well but it was the principal of the matter.

“I did, right now.” Tatiana smirked as she drifted closer.

“Hmm? I don’t know.”

“I’ll return the favor.” Tatiana fluttered her eyelashes, drops of water dripped mesmerizingly from them.

“Sure!” Gwyn squeaked as she hastily replied.

Just as she was about to ask a titillating follow up question they were rudely interrupted by the loud yelling of Mrs Beckhelden “Alright girls, times up! Get out of the pool and get showered!”

Gwyn exited the pool with Tatiana.

Her body dripped with water as they walked back to the changing rooms, up ahead there seemed to be a commotion inside the changing rooms. Gwyn and Tatiana shared a look, it was likely Marion had caused a stir somehow.

Entering the changing room they were confronted with the sight of Cécilia and Marion in a tense standoff with the class bullies, the pair weren’t the type to back down from a fight.

Tatiana stepped forwards to interrupt the fight, that was of course the moment when something heavy and metallic was smashed into the back of Gwyn’s head. Her head rang with the blow and she slipped on the wet floor crashing down in pain and disorientation.

Her muddled mind couldn’t register the noises and yelling, the only thing that she could think was her blood was very red as it mixed with the water.