The five of them sat down in the middle of the room. Koln and Violetta sat next to each other, across from Bani and Inel respectively. The Count took his place at the top of the formation, sitting just above the space between Koln and Bani.

“Ms. Violetta,” the Count’s raspy voice cut through the air.

Violetta straightened her back up. “Yes!”

“If we’re doing this, we’re doing this the right way.” His tough guy face was back on full blast. “No interruptions.”

She nodded, making her magenta hair swinging forward slightly. “I understand.” Once again, she wasn’t doing anything that complicated. I guess I appreciated the enthusiasm anyway.

“And Koln…” The Count’s eyes shifted to the wall of muscle next to her. “Just do what you did last night. If you’re innocent… then your actions should show it.”

“Yes, Count,” Koln said.

“Don’t worry Count.” Nair pushed the barrel of his gun into the back on Koln’s bald head. “If you catch him in another lie, just give me the word and I will exact your judgment on him.” No pressure.

“Koln, seriously…” I sighed. “You’re not hiding anything else, right?” I didn’t want another cookie-baking revelation dropped on me.

“I’m not.” Koln looked up at me. “Everything is out in the open now.”

I exchanged a glance with Violetta before looking back to Koln. “Do you trust us?”

“Yes…” Koln said. “Please… prove my innocence.”

Alright. As much as Koln pissed me off, he needed our help. He might not have been as immediately likable as someone like Suza was, but he was a victim all the same. Besides, I didn’t want this asshole’s blood on my hands.

Wow. That came out really wrong.

The Count turned his head toward the corner of the room where Ceai and Hadria were sitting. “Are you ready, dear?”

Ceai nodded. "Ready when you are, my love."

“One more thing, Count,” I cut in. “I’ll stay quiet for your ceremony, but you have to promise me something.”

“And what might that be?” he asked.

“If someone does something they didn’t do before, you have to tell me.” I pointed over at the corner. “Even if it’s your wife.”

He paused for a moment. “You have my word.”

“Good,” I said. “Let’s get started then.”

Here went everything.

Ceai reached into a small drawer and pulled out the five-sided cup. There was a piece of yellow tape on one side of it, marking where the garlic was. Probably for the best. We didn’t need any piles of ash during the reenactment.

She set it down in front of her. Next, she reached back into the drawer and pulled out a small glass pitcher. Did they just keep the Count’s blood uncovered and unrefrigerated in there all the time? Not only that, but was it really necessary for them to use actual blood right now?

Ceai carefully held the pitcher next to the cup sitting on the floor. She gently poured its contents so that the cup was around one-third full. Or two-thirds empty for pessimistic people. She set the pitcher down and took the cup with both hands, turning to Hadria next to her. And then… she just sat there. For a full minute.

Fucking Hadria was spacing out.

“Hadria,” Ceai said under her breath. “Take it.”

“Huh?” Hadria jumped. “Oh. Uh, that’s right. The… cup.”

“Yes. The cup.”

Hadria quickly took it from her mother and stood up. She walked briskly over to where Koln was sitting and held it out to him, making the blood slosh forward and almost spill.

The Count face palmed. So much for doing this the right way. Then again, I guess last night was the first time Hadria had ever helped out during the ceremony. She… obviously still needed a lot more practice.

Koln took the cup, turning it in his hand until the side with the yellow tape was to his left. He held it down on his lap for a moment, looking down into the less than sanitary liquid. Finally, he brought it up to his mouth and pretended to take a drink. Thank god they didn’t actually expect Violetta to drink it. He brought the cup back down and turned it once to the side with yellow tape. Then he passed it over to Violetta next to him.

Violetta took it, her eyes filled with fire. She did the same as Koln, putting it in her lap and looking down in it. Then, she suddenly brought it up to her lips and gulped down a mouthful of blood.

“What the fuck are you doing!?” I screamed.

“Quiet, Ryley!” Violetta shouted back, her lips bright red. “I’m acting!” Yeah, okay, but you literally just drank the Count’s blood. Fucking blood. Everyone in the room looked at her with their mouths hanging open as she turned the cup away from the sides she and Koln used and passed it along to Inel.

Inel pretended to take a drink, then Bani, and finally the Count. When he was done, he set the cup down in front of him. “A-Alright…” He glanced over at Violetta. “This is around where it happened…”

Suddenly Violetta grabbed her throat and gasped in agony. “The pain!” she spoke like she was in a third grade school play. “I am not long for this world, for I have par… um, partaken in the garlic that harms us vampires so!”

…What the fuck was she doing?

Violetta fell backward, coming dangerously close to showing me a shot of her panties or lack thereof from the bottom of her bathrobe. “This is the end!” She rolled around on the floor, clutching at her throat. “Farewell friends! I return to ash… Bleh.” She stuck out her tongue and stopped moving.

The room was silent. I glanced over at Inel and Bani. Both of them were clenching their teeth, veins bulging in their necks. They were just seconds away from exploding. Yeah. Violetta earned this.

“How dare you…” Bani started, his face changing color to resemble a tomato. “How dare you make a group of grown men cry…”

Huh?

“Amazing… Fucking amazing,” Inel added, tears running down his face. “You didn’t even know Nimeni and yet you put so much passion into acting out his last moments.”

…Seriously?

Violetta sat back up rubbed her horns. “Did I do a good job?” she said bashfully. No. No you didn’t.

“And to think you even drank the fruit punch despite us leaving it out for three days and forgetting to throw it out…” The Count nodded. “Truly spectacular dedication.” Spoiled punch? Somehow, that almost seemed worse. Okay, it didn’t, but I was still grossed the fuck out.

“Indeed,” Ceai said. “It makes me proud to be a Succubus.” They all burst into applause.

“Oh, wow!” Violetta blushed. “Thank you, everyone.”

Fuck this stupid place.

A waited a moment for them to stop clapping. “So… was anything different?” I asked.

“Hmm?” The Count looked up at me like he had no idea what the fuck I was talking about. My favorite.

“Did your wife do everything like she did last night?” I snapped. “Did she skip any steps or touch anything differently?”

“My wife did everything just as she always does,” the Count said, crossing his arms. “Last night was no different, and today was no different either.”

There had to be something. I looked over at Ceai. She glared back at me. “Are you… sure you didn’t notice anything strange?”

“Nothing,” the Count sighed. “Mr. Allard… I must say that I think this proves it. Whether he meant to or not, I think it’s clear that Koln is responsible.”

“Oh no…” Violetta gasped. “I’m sorry, Ryley! I’m sorry, Mr. Koln. My acting was so good that I lost us the case…” Yeah. I wasn’t even going to acknowledge that.

“This has gone on for long enough.” The Count ran his hand through his slicked back hair. “You both gave it your all, but I think it’s time we put an end to this.”

Nair pushed the gun up against Koln’s head again. “Just say the word, Count.”

“H-Hold on!” I rushed over and snatched the cup off the ground. There had to be something wrong with this stupid thing. Some kind of trick I was missing. I held it up to my face, but my mind was blank. I needed to stall for time. “I… I still have more questions to ask.”

“And what questions would that be?” the Count’s voice came out rough.

“I need to know… what everyone was doing right before the ceremony,” I said. If Lyili was here, this would be about the time that she claimed I was grasping. In this case, I was. I was grasping more than I had ever grasped.

“You don’t know when to quit,” Ceai sighed. “You already know that Koln and I were in the kitchen making cookies up until the ceremony began.”

“Y-Yeah, but… I don’t know what Inel and Bani were doing…”

“We were having drinks at a bar nearby,” Inel said.

“If you don’t believe us, you can ask the people that work there. We’re a couple…” Bani added. “Of alcoholics. We go there all the time.” Once again, not the best place to pause. More importantly, that didn’t give me anything to work with.

“O-Okay… Uh, Hadria!” I pointed at the underwear collector. “What were you doing before the ceremony?”

“Me?” Hadria smiled. “I was in my room getting my hair and makeup done. It took a long time.” She ran her hands down the sides of her petite figure. “Had to look good for my ceremony debut. He might not look it, but Nair’s really good with makeovers. He puts makeup on like a fucking pro.”

“You speak too highly of me,” Nair said.

I was going nowhere. There was no point in even asking the Count. After all, if he wanted Nimeni dead, he wouldn’t have done it this way, and he certainly wouldn’t have allowed me to put on a trial for it. Fuck. It felt like my brain was a stalled engine, and everything I said was me turning the key only to have it sputter back in response.

“Mr. Allard?” the Count’s voice snapped me back to reality. “Are you satisfied?”

Of course I wasn’t.

“You know… trials in my world take a lot longer than one day. We could always… suspend it until tomorrow.”

“I understand that Hook’s trials took only one day,” the Count answered back immediately. “I see no reason why this one shouldn’t take the same amount of time.”

Oh great. The king was managing to fuck this trial up without even being here. Fine. If he wasn’t going to extend the trial, I’d have to give him a reason why he had to.

“We’re… we’re doing it again.” I stomped over to Ceai and shoved the cup into her hands. “Violetta, move. I’m taking your place.”

“B-But…” Violetta’s eyes turned to waterfalls. “My acting… wasn’t good enough? I… let you down?” This again? She didn’t even need to act in the first place.

“No, I just need to experience this myself.” I sat down, forcing Violetta out of her spot. “If I don’t, uh, see it from the victim’s perspective, I’ll never understand what really happened.” Yeah, total bullshit, but this was all I had left.

Koln stared at me. “Ryley…”

“Count,” I said. “It’s imperative that we do the ceremony again.” Come on. I used a big word. That was convincing.

The Count looked me over like he was sizing me up. “Fine. We’ll do it one more time.” He gestured to his wife. “But this is the last time, understood?”

“Understood.”

I only had a few minutes. In the time it took to finish this second reenactment, I would need to blow the lid off this case. I would need to do… the thing.

Ceai poured a tiny amount of fruit punch into the cup and gave it to Hadria. Hadria got up and handed it along to Koln. Koln took the cup, pretended to drink from it, and then rotated it to the taped side. He passed it to me.

I brought it up and took a pretend sip, then let it rest in my hands on my lap. This was… This was exactly the same as before. Nothing was different.

I looked down at the red liquid in the cup. This was basically Koln’s life. If I passed this along now without realizing anything, I was ending it. But… what was I supposed to do? Why couldn’t I just stop caring? I rotated it to the next side.

Oops.

I turned it the wrong way. Wrong… way.

Something inside of me sparked, and the engine of my brain roared to life. This was the moment I was waiting for.

“FUCK YES!” Not the moment elegant thing to yell, but I think it served its purpose.

The Count practically fell over backwards. “Mr. Allard!?”

“It’s the thing!” Hadria yelled. “Ryley’s whipping out his thing.” Okay, did demons just not know how to talk or what?

“Koln.” I turned to my musclebound client. “You turned this cup counterclockwise just now. Why did you do that?”

“W-What do you mean ‘why’?” Koln looked at me like I was crazy. “I… just turned it. I didn’t think about the direction.”

“And I turned it without thinking too, yet I ended up turning it clockwise,” I continued. “Violetta, are most demons right-handed or left-handed?”

“Most demons are right-handed,” Violetta said, wiggling her fingers in front of her like she was going to fondle me. “I don’t even think I’ve met someone that uses their left to write before…”

Koln cleared his throat. “I’m… left-handed.”

“Oh, then I guess I have then!” Violetta smiled. “What’s it like writing with your left hand?”

“I don’t know… What’s it like writing with your right hand?”

“Hmm…” Violetta violated the air with her fingers again. “That’s a very good question.”

Oh my god. I could feel the brain cells dying.

“Everyone,” I yelled. “If Koln’s left-handed, then this changes everything.”

“It… does?” the Count narrowed his eyes. Apparently I was going to have to spell it out for him.

“Koln, start over.” I shoved the ceremonial cup back over to him. “But this time, turn it clockwise for me.”

“O-Okay…” It took him a moment to orient it the right way, but when he did, I saw his mouth drop open. “The tape… The side with the garlic on it…”

“That’s right. It’s not the next side anymore, is it?” I asked, badass as hell. “And if we kept on turning it like this around the circle… where would it end up?”

Everyone’s eyes went wide. Mind blowing in progress. Now I just needed to drive it home.

“The real killer thought the cup was going to be turned clockwise.”

Hadria, who had long since stopped acting like a prosecutor, spoke up. “But then that would mean…”

“Exactly.” I grinned. “Nimeni wasn’t the target for the poisoning. Whoever put the garlic on this cup was trying to kill the Count!”