Archive of Our Own ^beta

“That lab was HELLA fun!!” Vincent exclaimed as they skipped down the dank west hall of the Priory building. His voice echoed off the stone walls.

No one answered.

That made sense though, he thought. There were fewer students at Ardess now than in 1876, her lowest enrollment year. If only they all knew why...

Maybe everyone would notice, finally , if he tried something a little more... dramatic.

Their last few classes had been in the cadaver lab and Vincent had learned quite a lot. His scalpel wielding was more confident, his samples properly sized -- even his handwriting had improved after taking so many lab notes.

Still. This was the age of the internet! He’d wait till Quincy went to bed and then borrow their computer to learn a little more.

~~~~~

Vincent hadn’t counted on Quincy staying up all night in a hyperfocused frenzy of library archive exploration. When Vincent brought them dinner (chicken and waffles) Quincy barely acknowledged them, and Vincent was pretty sure they were getting syrup all over their papers.

While Quincy researched, Vincent lay on their bed and watched Ambrose as he did his daily lunges back and forth across the room.

“Can you at least be helpful?”

“Helpful? Me? If you did fifty lunges every evening you would need MUCH less help.”

Vincent rolled his eyes and threw his lab notes at Ambrose. “Here. Quiz me.”

“Lab safety includes which of the following: (a) disposable gloves--”

“Not THAT, dumbass. The actual helpful stuff? Dissection...the history of necrotomy, maybe? Identifying internal organs based on texture and color.”

Ambrose raised an eyebrow and grinned.

“Look in the back of the book, that’s where I put the more personal notes.”

~~~~~

V.A.L. // 7 October // 51

- Ben: stabbing

- Bertha: stabbing

- Francis: decapitation

- Jason: stabbing

- Lucia: poison

- Matthew: stabbing

- Xander: stabbing

B Campbell left a comment: vince i am NOT reading this and you should really be more careful which platforms you use to share this kind of thing (anyone can edit this google doc? really?) but if you’re really going to keep working on this “project,” for god’s sake be a little more creative??

~~~~~

“Let’s see...n3fastus^tr1n!tas36o...new incognito window...and jesus FUCK how do I turn on dark mode?”

Vincent turned the screen brightness all the way down and clicked their way back to the open tab to begin his research.

creative murder methods

Help is available. Call 988 now to speak to one of our trained professionals.

“C’mon, man.”

creative murder methods to kill my classmates i dont want to kill myself

Help is available. Call 988 now to speak to one of our trained professionals.

how to do dissection when the subject is still alive

Help is available. Call 988 now to speak to one of our trained professionals.

“Dude! This is NOT helpful!”

head wound vs amputated limb

Help is available.

if i push someone off a six story building will they die

Help is available.

if i push someone off a six story building onto a spiky iron fence will they die

Help is available.

“I need help with KILLING, not wiTH NOT KILLING!!”

“Darling? What are you doing? It’s the middle of the night.” Quincy stood squinting in the doorway in flannel pajamas and no glasses.

Vincent snapped the laptop closed and tried not to look suspicious. “Oh-- sorry love. I was um-- watching porn. On your laptop. Sorry.”

“Okay... are you okay?”

“Yeah!”

They didn’t look convinced.

“Yeah really, just.... Hey! You’re good at research! Can you help me?”

Quincy glanced up at the tiny window near the ceiling where the sun was already blinking through. “I have class in an hour... but yes. What do you need?”

A confession, several reassurances, and twenty minutes later, Vincent was prepared with the basics of truncation.

~~~~~

V.A.L. // 16 October // 52

- stabbing !!

- premature burial

- ^or similarly, death by crushing

- eaten alive -- the technical cause of death would be bleeding out but if there were a few body parts with bite marks that turned up on campus that would be a delicious morsel for the Daily >:]

- externally induced wick effect

- pneumonia :3

~~~~~

“That lab was HELLA fun!!” Vincent exclaimed, and no one answered. No one was in the hall today, and there’d only been one other student in lab. That student wouldn’t be there next week. Such a shame... those gloves she’d so carefully selected hadn’t been safe or sanitary at all.