AWKWARD ZOMBIE

Punchy opens the door a little more and fits his head inside.

"Hello? C-cranston?"

Lucky heads over to Octavian's house. "Hope he's not in a bad mood. Probably worse than he usually is." Lucky knocks on the door. "Hello? Everyone's worried about you. You okay?"

Lucky is treated to loud snoring.

Wait, aren't these houses supposed to be soundproof? You decide that maybe you're thinking too much into this are and glad to have some kind of confirmation that Octavian is okay.



You open, the door and find a horrible sight in front of you. Covered in wounds from head to toe, a mash of feathers and blood, you see...





"So... it seems we've lost another bastard. Isn't it just... upupu... a shame..."

Pierce leaves Coco's front yard and catches up to Isabelle at Whitney's house.

"Looks like Coco's out sick today. Mind if I join you, rookie? I worried about Whitney."

He eyes the dog suspiciously.

Whitney exited her house close behind Isabelle. She looked, to put it mildly, a mess. While her fur had been recently brushed, it was still ruffled in a few places, and there was a hollow look in her bloodshot eyes. There was an air of stiffness and shock about her whole body.
"I...I heard about Cranston," she stuttered. "Does...have you seen it yet? Where was he?"

"Whitney?!?!? What happened to you, hawkeye?!?!?"

"Wait....something happened to Cranston?"

"It's...it's nothing. I'm fine." Whitney brushed a stray strand of fur out of her eyes and tried to compose herself. "I passed out on the floor last night, though...I don't know how. My body feels about as stiff as..." She paused, looking sober. "Well, maybe not quite as stiff as Cranston. Cranston's dead, Pierce. Isabelle just told me."

Pierce turns to Isabelle.

"What?!? H-how?!? When?!?"

Whoops, gotta work a few things around to where Isabelle didn't "call" the murder of Cranston;;

A loud shrill noise is heard.

"I-I don't know! I got zero information on this before. But I just saw Nook show up at Cranston's house when Punchy walked in, and I imagine the shrill sound just now was air escaping Punchy's lungs."

"I just... why does this have to happen..." Isabelle says with tears in her eyes. After all, we're... we're..."

"All supposed to have wonderful times here, Isabelle?"

"O-Oh, Tom, what are you doing here? I just saw you at Cranston's."

"Yes well, I came to check on you, but it seems you're too busy babbling on again about how this town is supposed to be paradise where everything is handed to you because of your natural skills and you'll never have to lift a finger for the rest of your life..."

"Then again... some people already have that luxury..." he says, eyeing Pierce. "Or did, at least."

He turns back to Isabelle.

"Now, I suggest that if you want to get on The Mayor's good side, you'll be a good little girl and lead these two bastards over to the dead body, alright? You know we can't sound a proper death alert until 3 non-murderers arrive at the scene."

"Y-yessir." she says, straighting up after wiping the tears from her eyes.

"Please, follow me to the crime scene... and... I'm sorry..."

She leads you two to the body, and with that, an alarm sounds and the ID cards turn red again.

"You know what that means? IT'S MURDER TIME!!!"

Investigation: Start

Whitney had been biting her lip while Isabelle spoke, debating something in her head. Nook's words convinced her to finally speak up. "Pierce," she said in a low voice, "I need to talk to you. In private. It's...really, really important." She started to walk towards her house, motioning for him to follow.

Pierce nods.

"All right, hawkeye. Let's get going, then."

He turns and looks at Cranston's body again.

"Sigh.... Who would do this to him? He didn't do anything wrong...."

The eagle follows Whitney to her house.

"Why?! Why did it have to be him?!" Punchy cries, tears streaming from his eyes.

He curls up into a ball of fur and muffled crying can be heard from inside.