“She’s in a state of shock,” said the officer the four people that stood before him.
“She hasn’t spoken yet?” asked David.
The man shook his head, “No, it’s no that she doesn’t want to though, it’s more like she can’t.”
They all looked at him in confusion, he tilted his head and sighed, speaking softly he told them, “she’s been through a great deal of loss and trauma within much too short a time, her mind couldn’t take so much bad information all at once like that, she can’t comprehend what’s happened so her mind has partially shut down, or shut out the information.  Once she starts talking though, she should start to process the information, my guess is that it won’t be pretty.”
The four of them sat in silence, silence that was occasionally broken by the sobs and sniffles that racked Anthony and Aurora.
David and Ella had remained composed throughout, although out of those four only one had seen inside of that room, only one who knew what it was that she saw, but no one knew what it was that had happened.
The officers had arrived at the rooms only moments after the alarm had been triggered.  David and Jessica had to be moved and the rooms cordoned off.  Moving the two to one of the upper level lounges, stopping to clean them up and give them a spare change of clothes, David spoke very little and Jessica nothing at all.  It wasn’t until they were changed and settled that Anthony and Aurora at David’s request were sent for, and, joined by Ella, they arrived shortly and were told briefly what had happened.
The first hour that they were all together was spent trying to comfort the family.  Ella and the officer, and occasionally David, tried to console the younger two, although he did not leave Jessica’s side, gently attempting to get her to talk or even look at him.  When this failed he tried getting her to eat or at least drink something.  She took the glass of water he offered her and after on tentative sip just sat staring at it.
The captain, who had been detained so far by his duties at the ball and a want to call little attention to them, finally joined them.  With him were another two officers and one of the ships nurses all three of which, gently excused themselves to David and extracted Jessica from him.
“Where do you think you are taking her,” he became outraged, “after all she’s been through!”
As the others lead her away the captain tried to reassure him, “I know she had been through a lot this evening, but if we’re going to catch whoever did this sooner rather than later,” he paused to gauge David’s reaction, he was still scowling and now looked as though a thunder storm had settled on his brow, “we need to know what happened in that room, what she saw, anything that she could tell us to help solve this.”
“What about the security cameras?” piped in Ella.  “They had been disabled, since around mid-day, apparently a call was put into maintenance to fix it but it wasn’t high priority.”  Turning back to David he continued, “We just need something anything from her to give us a clue so that we can stop this from happening again.”
David’s glare had not receded so the captain dutifully bowed his head, and hurried off after the others.
It was several minutes before the senior officer returned to update them on the situation.
“We were hoping that maybe one of you would try speaking to her,” he spoke to all four of them but was looking at David, “the captain is getting anxious, he knows that this news cannot long be contained and he wants to make sure that the news that does get out is minimal.”
Ella stood up, “they can’t do that,” she looked to David for support, “if word gets up to the people in there,” waving her hand in the ball room’s general direction, “that there’s a killer onboard, there’ll be panic!”
“He’s right,” said David in an voice that sounded irked, and before Ella could continue, “the information will get out, but the more that can be done now, the less worse the news will be and the less the panic will be, if it gets out later, people will be distressed that they were lied to.  Besides,” he concluded whilst looking towards to two teenagers, “with the amount of wagging tongues and nasty gossips on this ship, their family name will be in peril.  We can’t let anything else bad happen to this family.”
Ella pulled him to one side, “perhaps you aught to go try to talk to her,” she quietly suggested, “I think she’d be more likely to respond to you.”
Despite her hushed manner the other three turned to look at him, the officer approached. 
“If you could get her to talk,” he gave him an imploring look, “anything at this point would be better than nothing, it’d be at least a step in the right direction.”
With a quick glance at each of the others, he gave a brief nod and went with the officer to where they were attempting to question her.

The room that she was sat in was of a small yet bright white sort but the room that her mind was in, remained the dark, blood-stained pit that was trapping her thoughts with the sight that had caught her there.
Whilst the sight of her mother’s slaughtered body was horrifying beyond belief, it was not what had stilled her.
Despite the fact that the figure in the room was completely cloaked, Jessica had seen and known his face immediately.  She had begun her scream before she could see him and when she did, it went silent.
“Dad?” she mouthed.
The second she did, a spasm of pain racked her body as she felt what felt like a spike or a knife plunge into the base of her spine.
At this, Jared stepped calmly towards her and before she could comprehend what was happening, he had placed a hand to her forehead and she felt whatever it was that had penetrated her spine being sucked through her entire body towards his hand.
The pain was excruciating as hands of knives were groping and slicing at her insides, trying to cling onto the life that she exuded.
Just as suddenly as it had begun, the pain ceased.
Jared pulled his hand away causing her to twist around in a jerking fashion as she fell, fell towards the body of Clarissa.  Not before seeing what looked like a pale green ball of light that seemed to be made up of energy.  In it she saw evil, pure malice and brimming hatred.  It were as though she were looking into the eye of hell and at this momentary glimpse the amount of unfiltered malevolence infiltrated her mind and she knew no more.
When she came to, she found herself curled up in a hidden corner of the room her hands and clothing covered in blood perhaps from where she had fallen on Clarissa?  There came a loud thump at the door and then a loud crash as something came crashing through it.
Fear seized her heart and she curled up even tighter, the fear came from, she didn’t know where, but it held her in a frozen state.  Whatever it was had taken, or fallen to the floor, and let out a whisper, calling her name.  For a moment her senses wouldn’t believe that the voice was familiar, but upon instant reflection she knew that it was not only a voice that would save her from her terror but that it belonged to her David.
She let out a breath, not realising that she had been holding it.  No sooner had the relief passed her lips that the memory of the eye came spilling back. 
So much evil she had never witnessed, the eye she felt had penetrated her being, he heart and her very soul, leaving a mark, a stain on her that she knew she would never be aloud to forget or escape.  She could feel the very nature of death and suffering clouding up her mind.
What was it that her own father had done to her? 
For it was him, he was not dead, or at least he hadn’t stayed so.  The feeling of ultimate betrayal and confusion mixed with the evil that had been scared on her insides, crowded her mind and from that instant the world became numb.
Even when David had appeared in front of her and had carried her from the room she could barely realise it.
It was several hours later that she had been removed from him, had begun to come to her senses.  They had sat her in that cold, sterile little room and begun their attempts to probe her, asking her simple questions in a gentle manner but quite quickly getting frustrated and irritated by her lack of response.  Eventually the last officer gave up and throwing his hands up in despair, stalked out of the room.
She was left alone.
Trying to focus she tried to think, to figure out how to proceed with what she had seen.  She tried to think of what she had, her brother and sister, Ella and David.
Her thoughts turned to each of them, yet at each loved one all she could see of them was shrouded in gloom, an invisible mist that preyed upon each thought and no matter how hard she tried to disperse the gloom, it would not budge.  She could feel a cloud of fear and dread mixed with anger and hatred hanging all around her and the more she could sense it soaking into her skin, almost as though it were clouding her very personality. 
She could feel the darkness closing in around her.  Where was her light?  How was she to find her way without it?
The sound of the door handle turning startled her so that she took to her feet, knocking the chair backwards.  Turning sharply to pick it up, she heard the door being closed again.  Bending slightly she pulled the chair upright and leaning her arm against it turned to inspect her visitor.
Seeing his face brought waves of relief washing over her.
Her light.
Unable to contain herself any further, she rushed into his arms, their enclosing strength and warmth holding her there.  She leant her head against his shoulder and was gratified to feel his hand gently supporting it there, softly stroking her hair.
He could feel her shaking within his embrace, he was hard put to not crush her into him in an attempt to stop the trembles.
She turned her head to look up at his face.  Again, seeing tears that had slid down her cheeks, he struggled to fight the urge to bend his head and kiss them away.
Looking into his eyes, she whispered, “I was so lost.  All I could find was darkness.”  She leant her head back on his shoulder, “I was so lost.”
“Shhh,” he murmured, brushing away her tears with his thumb, “I’ll always find you.  I’ll be your light.”
She raised her head again, “David, I…”  “Shhh, not now,” he stopped her, “not here, not because of this.  When we’re far away from here, when we’re home.”
His thumb was still absently stroking her cheek, and their embrace, still strong yet warm and gentle.
Without realising it, their head had drawn so close together that they could feel each other breath on one another’s lips.  Their mouths so tantalizingly close yet they paused, holding onto the moment, letting the tension build to the pinnacle before…