Chapter 6: My Mouth Betrays Me Sometimes

Rhea’s POV…

I basically barge right out of the bathroom and cough in disgust. I think I took quite a lot of time in the bathroom for everyone has gone to their respective classes by the time I came out. The hallway was empty, only the sights of dozen of lockers greeted me. No sign of what happened just few minutes ago, as if it never happened. 

Who were they anyway? Killing a person in daylights wasn’t something common is this town, well as far as I know. I glance back at the cafeteria, walking a step further – 

“You okay?” I jump back, holding a hand to my hyper heart and glare at Eli, as he smiles sheepishly.

“Try not to scare the shit out of me next time and I’ll be perfectly fine.” I grumble. 

“It isn’t my fault you aren’t aware of your surroundings.” Eli grins,  “You took long. Want me to call Rhias?”

“Nah, I’m okay. What could he possibly do anyway unless it’s to take me home and have me interrogated by Mum until I run out of my breath?” I say mockingly, rolling my eyes, “Thanks, I’m fine here.” I wave the idea off. 

Eli nods hesitantly and steps a bit closer. He brushes a hand through his maroon – dyed hair and sighs, the – grin – of – the – moment wiped off, gone as it came. His eyes furrowed in concern as he shook his head. 

Why does he appear so distressed? It’s not like the principal was some sort of his family tree, right? I bite back my nausea down.

“Eli?” I call out cautiously.

He snaps out of his daze, little bewildered and blinks. “Mumbling a “sorry”, he walks off, leaving me all alone in the hallway. I shiver and stride off to my next class, might as well stay distracted. 

***********************

AS Calculus certainly failed to “distract” me, when Mr. Ligue, himself was babbling about not to miss any of the steps he taught this entire hour, which I definitely slacked off. The guy beside me, Jonathan or whatever his name was, kept weeping silently. We got someone softhearted here, crying for someone not exactly related to him. I was taken aback by his kindness. But when I offered him my awkward consolation (patting him on the back), I learned, he wasn’t actually wasting tears for the Principal, rather he cried because he missed half the lecture. 

Imagine my reaction. I “mistakenly” patted hard enough to make him cough out deliberately. I didn’t bother paying my respects to the teacher on my way out, instead nearly sprinted off the classroom. 

The school bell rang minutes ago, signaling the end of studies for today. The once, vacant corridor suddenly became full with boisterous people. Some kept whispering today’s event, while some practically flew from the school, in a hurry to get out of here. The teachers aren’t anywhere to be seen.

While I was busy pulling things out of my locker and stuffing them into my bag, Rhias suddenly appeared beside me, out of thin air, demanding I tell him everything. 

“Calm down, Rhi, would you?” I roll my eyes, shutting the locker and finally facing him. 

He glared at me. “I’m not joking around, Rhea! They could have hurt you!” he exclaimed.

I eye him like he’s grown two heads, “You must be joking, right? Are you aware that you’re telling me that from, like what, 2000 students, they would have picked me as the lucky contestant and bury me alive? ME?” I scoff, “– when I didn’t know their existence until few hours ago…”

He sighed, knowing I had a point, but then again, it was natural of him to worry about me, even when I’m sitting quietly in my room, reading a book. He would barge in every 10 minutes to “check” up on me and Mum agreed with him as if I was some kind of child that just learned how to walk from crawling! 

“Come on, let’s go home.” He said, tired. I follow him to his car and slip inside, throwing my bag at the rear seat.

“Although it was absolutely weird, don’t you think?” I say when he starts the ignition.

“What was?” he grunts.

“The entire school continued like nothing ever happened. Why would they do that? Weren’t they supposed to, I don’t know, give us the day off and prepare a funeral, something like that?” I frown. “Even though, Principal Indigo was heavily strict and a pain in the ass, I think I will miss messing with him” 

“We don’t question that guy, alright? They aren’t like those normal serial killers you see on T.V.” Rhias explains. “I heard rumors, this murder wasn’t the first ever in this school. His father killed a teacher before. They had some kind of rivalry and all, I guess.” 

I take in all that and digest them. 

“When are serial killers ever normal?” I ask him. He shakes his head and remains mute throughout the journey home, with only the radio dictating what we have already encountered as witnesses. 

************

The day went by and we finally came in terms that these would happen once more in the future. At least, that’s what I keep repeating that to myself like a mantra. Rhias completely changed his demeanor once he entered home, smiling ever so cheerfully like he always did and I was very irritated from all these whiplashes, I sprinted off to my room. 

Rhias, later told me, it wasn’t necessary for Mum to worry about what happened at school, and I agreed. He was right. Who knew, he had intelligent moments like this… 

I call Eileen and tell her everything, repeating today’s event and how I witnessed a murder. She wept, asking me if I was okay and kept repeating “Oh my god!” over and over again until Kyle snatched the phone away and told me I shouldn’t bother them with what happened at school. It wasn’t their concern anymore. I heard Eileen protest, her voice muffled. Kyle cut the call without even offering me a bye.

 I knew this would happen anyway. It was exactly why I was reluctant to let Eileen go. 

I lock the door, with dried tears on my cheek and jump onto the bed, frustrated at the Kyle, at that Leather – jacket guy for bringing back things I kept buried long time ago. I hate lying to Mum, I hate how Dad gets away with everything! 

I don’t even know when I dozed off. 

********

“Did you know Professor Quirrell was the same person who acted Professor Lupin in Harry Potter?” Eli asked, bewildered. He tapped the pencil on the desk. Once…twice in a row…thrice… 

We are currently seated in Biochemistry Class and the teacher has yet to enter. I was hugely discouraged to come to school, when the only thing I wanted to do was lay on my bed for hours…maybe days.. Some of the girls kept giggling like having eaten a candy while some guys bellowed on top of their voices, challenging who slept with the highest amount of girls. Disgusting beasts, I’m telling you. Today’s present students, compared to yesterday and every other day was less. 

Eli jabs me in the stomach and I glare at him.

“Yes, I know. You sent the text today morning, remember?” I hit his head with my own pencil, warning to stop the tapping. 

He grins widely. “You remember that? I’m proud of you! You’re learning!” 

“I will block you if you keep sending messages that aren’t of any use.” I threaten. “Besides, who rings someone until they don’t see their messages?”

“Hey! Those are bloody important! You’re supposed to know facts every single day. That’s how, you know, you can enhance your dose of knowledge.” He scowls, “Besides, you offended me!”

“Tell me something, Eli, a genuine fact, would you?” I ask, raising my eyebrows. He nods too fast, eager to tell me his stupid everyday facts. 

“Can babies actually grow up to be mature when they didn’t receive enough oxygen during their time in the womb?” 

Eli furrows his eyebrows, pondering on the question. After an eternity (few minutes in reality), he scowled hard at me, knowing what I exactly meant.

“You’re cruel.” He mutters . 

Suddenly, the class is deafening silence. All the giggles and howls were wiped off with just the entrance of three human beings we never expected to see in the first place. Leather – Jacket, his brother (which I came to know from Eli today), and the other guy entered the class like mighty gods and took their seats at the last corner. The room was pin – drop silence, not a word was heard. Everyone held their breaths , I think I did the same. 

They were way good-looking for someone who murders during daylights. I nearly slap myself for thinking that loud. 

Mrs. Linda finally graced us with her presence and everyone exhaled. Rumours went around that Mrs. Linda was their fraternal aunt. How did I never know this?  

Not a person dared to utter a word in the class while I jabbed Eli with my pencil. I didn’t notice at the beginning but as I peer closer, Eli appeared stiffened, a stone and his hands clutched the each other in a tight grip. 

He half – turned towards me with a cold, lifeless eyes, I jumped back, blinking hard and scooted away from him. Eli, noticing my movements, relaxed momentarily, his eyes retuning color. He looked guilty, facing away from me and murmured sorry. 

That was terrifying, he was never like this, not ever. I didn’t talk for the entire hour, didn’t even dare to move a little. When the class finally ended, I gathered my things up and glanced at Eli,. He shifted from his seat, allowing me to go and told me to wait for him. I nod.

But as I reached the door, I was suddenly propelled forwards, nearly toppling over with all my books and pencil case. I would have screamed at the person behind the cause but I ate my words once I saw him, leather – jacket behind me. I moved away and let him pass but he dropped his toupee, walking off. Waiting for his brother or his friend to pick it, I clutched my books harder. They didn’t. 

Walk away Rhea, walk away right now, walk –

 “Hey leather – jacket! You dropped something!” I yell out to him. 

When my mouth finally excreted the sentence , I realized I’ve have a grave mistake. Great! All attention are on me, including of those three. With a rough jerk, Eli pulled me towards him and shook his head, disappointedly. My heart thumped loudly, reaching my ears. My hands kept sweating profusely as I looked away guiltily.

When I snuck a stare back at them, Leather – jacket stared back at me, his eyes hard and unreadable, totally void. He moved his gaze to the spot where his toupee laid, abandoned, and then moved it back up to me. A zap of shiver went through me. His brother (on his right, I think) smirked amusedly, his eyes twinkling like he found something so horribly funny. The third guy was motionless and waited for leather-jacket to make a move as if this scene was some kind of chessboard. All the other people aware of this situation kept standing, sharing the same thoughts as the third guy. They kept waiting clulessly as if waiting for some kind of direction. 

Irritated, Eli grunted at people to move their asses, dragging me along with him. When I snuck another glance at them, leather-jacket trailed his intense gaze from me to Eli, a glimpse of recognition, and then again it moved to me. My stomach twisted in unease. Eli dropped me off to Rhias’s car, whispering something to Rhias on his way and told me to go home. He told me he would talk to me later. 

I was still shell-shocked from the scene that occurred a couple seconds earlier. Rhias muttered something underneath his breath and under normal circumstances, I would have urged him to speak that out loud but today, I couldn’t give a damn about what he said. He helped me in and we drove off from school. 

What I can’t seem to shake off of my mind was when I was pulled away the last second, all away from their sights, leather-jacket smirked dangerously at me, a promising evil glint onto his eyes. 

It was just a figure of my imagination, right?