"Did you see the look on Pew's face when she realized she was trapped," Jeremy said, laughing so hard he started choking.

"We have battles next week. We are going to KICK ASS with you on our team," Star squealed happily.

I opened my mouth to express my own enthusiasm when something caught my eye. I cocked my head, focusing my eyes a couple feet ahead where a large crowd was quickly congregating.

"What are they looking at?"

"Who?" Star asked, before following my gaze.

"Let's check it out."

Nodding, I followed Jeremy quickly over to the crowd. Pushing my way through the crowd, I squeezed into a spot that was close enough to see what they were looking at. My blood ran cold when I saw him. A scrawny little boy with hair so thick it was completely shielding his face. His body lay there still as puddles of blood were quickly surrounding him.

"What the hell?"

"What is it Saron? I can't see," Star asked, struggling to see over the crowd of people on her tippy toes.

"A boy is dead."

She tugged on my sleeve, bringing my attention back on her.

"Could you find out what happened? Like you did with the girl?"

"Shit," I said out loud, ignoring Star's confusion.

Was this death connected to that girl? I shivered at the memory of her gruesome death.

I pushed forward, the students clearing once they recognized who I was. Star was right. I had to figure out what happened. If their deaths were connected, we had a serial killer on our hands.

I stepped around him, kneeling before brushing his hair to the sides to reveal his face.

"What are you doing?" an unknown voice asked. I turned around to find another boy, the spitting image of the one lying before me. I looked back at the boy before looking at him realizing they were twins.

I opened my mouth to question him on what had happened but after seeing his blood shot eyes, clearly from balling his eyes out and his trembling body, I couldn't find it in me to make him relive the memory.

"I'm sorry for your loss." 

Sniffing, he wiped his runny nose with his sleeve before nodding. His silence said everything he couldn't bring himself to say. I could see from the softening of his eyes that he was allowing me to find out what happened. Behind that hurt and pain, I could see a silent fury, a fury that demanded for justice. Recognizing that feeling, I shot him a sad smile before placing my hand on the boys cold forehead and closing my eyes. Just as before, I felt myself being transported to his final memory.

"Finally. That class is torture."

"I told you we should've skipped, but you wanted to be a goody two shoes."

"That's my job as your older brother, Dawit. Who else is gonna keep your sorry ass in line?" The boy joked before ruffling his brother's hair roughly.

"Whatever you say Dez," Dawit replied, rolling his eyes as he swatted Dez's hand away.

"Where's Fre? He should be here by now. Text him to hurry his ass up. I'm starving," Dez whined, annoyed.

"Let's just go without him. He'll meet us there."

"Remember what happened last time we ditched him? He wouldn't let us forget it for a month."

Groaning, Dawit reached into his pocket pulling out his own to quickly shoot a text to Fre.

"Dawit, your nose is bleeding bro."

Reaching up, he felt his finger soaked with blood as he touched it to his nostril.

"That's we-"

He wasn't able to finish his sentence before he dropped to the ground. I screamed in agony as I felt my organs tear within me, causing blood to start spurting out of every hole on my body. Blood started flowing out of my eyes, ears, mouth, nose, etc. as I started to shake on the ground as my body became overwhelmed with the severity of my wounds. It felt as if my body had lit itself with gasoline and was burning from the inside out. The worst part of it, no matter how loud I screamed I wasn't able to make a sound. All I could hear was the intense ringing in my ears as I suffered in silence.

Remembering I was reliving Dawit's death, I began chanting my go to phrase in hopes that it would pull me out of this memory. This isn't real.

I felt the pain lessen as I was pulled out of the memory quickly. My eyes shot open as I yanked my hand back off the boy's forehead and stood up.

Next time, it'll be someone you know.

My heart started racing as I struggled to process what I had just heard. This was clearly the work of a serial killer, but who was in my head? Was it the killer? How were they speaking to me in my mind? Nothing made sense. I had convinced myself I was going crazy and pushed it away in hopes of it disappearing but here it was, now threatening my friends.

Who are you?

I spoke back to it in my mind, not expecting a response. The voice seemed to come and go whenever it seemed fit, leaving me in confusion.

I'm you

What? What do you mean you're me? How could I be talking to myself?

Hello?

It was no use, the voice was gone. The slimy feeling I got whenever it appeared has disappeared as well.

"Saron, WAKE UP," I heard a voice scream into my ear, causing me to wince.

I blinked, ashamed to see that I was still standing above Dawit's course frozen like a crazy person.

"What did you see?"

I turned to see everyone's eyes on me, the most desperate being Dez's.

How was I supposed to explain that his brother died in complete pain and a voice inside my head may be the serial killer.

"He had a heart attack. He died in peace."

Not believing me, he narrowed his eyes at me in confusion.

"I'm very sorry. He loved you. It was fitting that you were with him in the end," I added, in attempts to deflect from my horrible lie.

He visibly relaxed as he reverted his gaze to his brother.

"I have to go," I said to Star, nodding to Jeremy before flitting away quickly.

Who the fuck was in my head?

A ping in my phone startled me. I grabbed into my pocket, pulling it out to find a text from Zion.

Can we meet?

I locked my phone, shoving it back into my pocket. Sorry Zion. My mind couldn't focus on anything else right now but that voice. I needed to find out who was in my head and stop them from hurting my friends before it was too late. That's why I started darting as fast as I could towards the only person I could think of who might help me without getting their feelings involved. Narxus.

"I must say, I was starting to think you wouldn't show up," he said indifferently. To anyone else, that would sound like an annoyed teacher who couldn't be bothered. But the slight upturn of the side of his lip and the softening of his gaze every so often, I knew Narxus was anything but that.

I smiled warmly before walking towards him.

"What's wrong?"

Of course he already knew something was up.

"We have a problem," I started.

"What sort of issue?"

"First, I need you to swear to keep this between us for now."

"Very well," he said, motioning for me to take a seat across from him.

"You need to see it for yourself," I said, grabbing his hands before he could protest.

I closed my eyes, pulling him in and allowing him to see what I saw.  The unusual deaths of Baer and of Dawit. The creepy voice in my head. All of it. Once I had showed him everything, I let go, allowing him to exit my mind.

"You should've come to me sooner," he said angrily yanking his hands from my grip.

"What's wrong?" I asked, my brows furrowing in confusion.

"We must alert the Headmaster."

"What is it? Narxus, TELL ME!"

"I've seen this happen before. You have traces of dark magic lingering in you from your battle. It wasn't enough to effect your magic so we foolishly thought everything was fine. Bloody Liam. He was always 10 steps ahead and still we underestimated him. Liam must've done a spell, binding the dark magic to him whether it was in his body or not. He's controlling the dark magic and trying to claim you. Hes using the killings to push you over the edge and take control when you're the most vulnerable. He wants your power. You've been fighting it, but soon you won't be strong enough to keep fighting it. Especially now that it's threatened your friends. Saron, no matter what you have to keep fighting the dark magic. We can't wait for Liam to attack any longer. We have to kill him."

I stared at him in silence, my mouth agape as I processed what he had just told me.

"I'm sorry but we have to tell the Headmaster."

I nodded quickly, letting him know I understood.

He nodded before disappearing. I took a deep breath before quickly following him to the Headmaster's Office.

We arrived merely a second apart, walking inside to find the Headmaster busy with a crowd of students. Noticing the looks on our faces, she quickly ordered everyone to leave before lighting a privacy candle and locking the door.

Narxus began speaking. I saw his lips move but heard nothing as I could feel myself drowning in my own mind. Killing me wasn't enough, Liam wanted to take over my mind? I was so damn tired of running. Fighting. Hiding. Lying. I couldn't even enjoy one day in school like a normal student without something happening. I was so tired. But I didn't even have the privilege of letting go. I could feel him, lingering in my mind out of sight waiting for an opening to take over. And I wasn't going to let him.