Page 32 of Finders Reapers

I didn’t understand it, but the guys had come home from delivering the crowd of massacred souls directly to HQ and thought ‘time to party.’

The suite was pulsating with people, dressed up in that sparkle that only the Vegas strip offered. Two people came in full-body leotards and face paint—which I recognized from one of the circus shows in its tenure on the Strip. A woman (the fox costume had breasts) was dressed up as a mascot. I assumed she was a furry.

I had squirreled myself away as soon as the amount of the guests outweighed the people that actually lived in the suite, and I locked myself in the bedroom. My pillow was folded over my head as I tossed and turned, desperate for some kind of relief from the itching under my skin. My selfish and all-encompassing grief waited on the side-lines like a hovering dark cloud, and I knew the second I stopped and gave in, it would grab hold and not let go.

I washungrybut not for food, socialization, or entertainment. For closure.

I wanted to gorge myself on information.

I wanted that damn contract that Charon had flicked through. I wanted to see what my father had signed. What was so important, so alluring, that he had to sign over his firstborn child’s soul for it? Would I ever know?

With a growl, I rolled back over in bed and grabbed the iPad.

I had told myself that I wouldn’t Google myself again—but that was a lie. I could only imagine what my Twitter feed would look like if I gave in to the urge to revisit my old online life.

Hi guys! It’s Valentina! Death isn’t the end. Hell is real. You’re all screwed. Kisses and hugs

I could still smell the blood and burning flash from Asylum. I could hear the thump of the bodies dropping and the screams of the bystanders as the heavy EDM pumped out of the massive speakers on either side of the DJ booth.

I shook my head to clear it.

One thing at a time. I decided.

My rant to Sasha, Rome’s paramour, played through my head on repeat as well, mixing together to make a shell-shocked cocktail with a heavy dose of shame. I was scared, alone, and lashing out. It was almost as if I was ten years old again when my mother passed from breast cancer.

I rolled to my back and got comfortable as I once again googled my username. I didn’t have to go far to find what Sasha had been talking about. I was trending. CNN. Local news. Fox. Even the BBC, Buzzfeed, and Reddit were on it.

The words influencer, Tiktoker, YouTuber, and streamer were all interchanged, which annoyed me a bit—I was a gamer with multiple platforms. My manager and agent often used the term E-Celebrity.

The first article was posted Sunday morning and included a link to the video I had watched earlier that evening. A video that had since been removed.

Tiktok Tragedy – Influencer ValentineXO dies ages 21

Valentina Rossi, who rose to fame with her Beatsaber and Dance Dance Revolution videos on YouTube, was pronounced dead this Saturday after diving into the rooftop pool of the Paris MGM casino in Las Vegas.

The event was streamed to an audience of two million live viewers on various platforms—Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and twitch—and later uploaded in error to the Elite Energy channel.

The video in question showed Ms. Rossi’s death in explicit detail.

Ms. Rossi, while holding a can of Elite Energy, which witnesses alluded to being spiked with hard liquor, climbed the diving board and proceeded to jump into the pool while appearing inebriated. The audience in the video was seen to encourage Ms. Rossi’s behavior, but the event quickly turned sour when Ms. Rossi was unable to come up for air and later drowned at the scene.

The event, sponsored by Elite Energy, was held to celebrate Ms. Rossi’s twenty-first birthday and her twenty million subscriber count. A milestone within the community, especially after Ms. Rossi had lost a number of followers because of her makeup pallet release the precious year. The pallet in question was said to contain mica powder from unethical sources. This claim was later found to be false, resulting in a lawsuit between Ms. Rossi and the RealiTea Gossip channel on YouTube.

I clicked through to the next article.

Murder at the Paris MGM? - Influencer death ruled as ‘suspicious.’

Valentina Rossi, 21, tragically passed away this Saturday during an event at the Paris MGM.

The coroner on the scene, Andrew Staples MD, gave the public statement that Ms. Rossi’s death was ‘likely’ a drowning caused by intoxication; however, further evidence has come to light that suggests that the influencer was the victim of foul play.

The Las Vegas PD has released a statement advising young women on the strip to be mindful of wearing clothing that exposes skin on legs and arms as there has been a rise in needle-spiking in the area.

Stills from the recently removed video of Ms. Rossi’s death show that Ms. Rossi had bruised and hard skin on her legs, as well as puncture wounds on her calf muscle. A site commonly used in needle spiking cases, as it is not easily noticed.

The Las Vegas coroner's office has issued a statement that Ms. Rossi had a large amount of rophinol, ketamine, and midazolam in her system at the time of her death. Each drug is a sedative, with Midazolam known for causing respiratory distress.

“If that girl had that many drugs in her system, it was a miracle she could even walk. The second Miss Rossi hit the water, her muscles would have been too weak to swim to the surface or even to hold her breath until she could have been rescued.” Chief Medical Examiner Marcia Gonzales said in a statement.