A/N: Hello peeps, I'm super excited about this chapter! It's the longest one (over 6 800 words) plus... you will see :). And also a little side note, I'm sorry for being cruel.

ENJOY!

Chapter 2: Unheralded Continuation

Calling the police is useless on an island like this. This is the school of rejects; they don't care about us troubled or unwanted children. No one can get on and off the island except on every last weekend of the month and holidays. For the rest of the time, not even supply boats. All the supplies are always brought with a supply boat on the last weekend of the month. There isn't a single way to get to or from the island. Except if you swim all the way to either Madagascar or India, they're both just as far and unreachable as Singapore and Australia though.

H. Academy, the worst school in the world. Only the rejects of the royal families or the unwanted children of rich parents are sent here. There's no restriction on heritage or ethnicity though. That's at least one thing they're not. Racist. Except for the fact that the main language of the school is English. And you must learn it, even if you can't even speak one word of the language before coming here.

I, for one, never even wanted to come to this godforsaken school, but my mum send me here anyway, to be rid of me. My dad died last year due to an 'accident'. My mum just wanted to be rid of me because I remind her of him. So, she send me to the school my father went to when he was my age. My elder brothers were lucky, they could just move out of the house. They're all attending university or already working. But I still have two school years ahead of me.

And right now, someone's been killed. Not just someone, my roommate and long-time friend/rival. Francis Bonnefoy, a boy from the South of France, send here because his parents were busier with gambling and shopping than paying attention to him. They wanted to get rid of him, so they'd have 'more time and less waste of space' as they called it. And now that he's gone, this bloody fucking school can't even call the police here. The fastest they can get here is in two weeks! Because there are bloody storms everywhere and we don't have an airport. Only a port for boats. What a bloody coincidence. Fuck this school, they're merely too lazy to do anything. They don't care enough.

I sigh and look to the side to see Feliciano staring lifelessly at his breakfast. Neither of us could sleep after last night. After the Italian screamed, the whole floor was awoken, and we were stormed with sleepy, curious teenagers. But I kept them out of my room while trying desperately to calm Feliciano down. I just told them all that Feliciano had a nightmare. But in the morning when the janitors had to come to clean up the corpse and the blood in my- no, our room, everyone eventually got to know the truth. So now I dragged him to the breakfast hall to be away from there.

"I'm sorry you had to see that, Feliciano," I say to the Italian while we're still alone. People are bound to come here at some point to ask more questions.

"It's not your fault, Arthur. You screamed and I came to look, those are completely human reactions," he says, surprising me with the wisdom behind his words.

"Bollocks," I mutter to myself. "I still feel like the Hogwarts express drove me over at high speed. I've only had four hours of sleep, I've had to see my roommate's corpse and was bombarded with questions all night until now," I say and lay my head in my hands. I can hear Feliciano giggle a bit.

"Not sleeping can do that to you," he replies plainly.

"Arthur! Feliciano!" I sigh as I hear that voice.

"Oh, hello Alfred," Feliciano greets him. I am not in the mood for his hyperactive personality this morning.

"Dude, I heard what happened. Are you two okay?" the bespectacled American blonde slides into the seat next to me. I don't even bother looking at him with his irritating cowlick that always sticks up from his head like an antenna.

"I'm alright. Though, I wish I hadn't seen that," the Italian confesses from beside me. I feel guilty at his words. I should have prevented Feliciano from coming inside the room. But I was too distracted by the literal corpse in front of me.

"Yeah, I bet it was difficult for you." Alfred's younger, and also bespectacled, Canadian half-brother, Matthew, sits down on Italy's right. I glance in his direction to find soft violet eyes pointed at me.

"Are you okay too, Arthur? You look grumpier than usual," Matthew then points out and I can't help but roll my eyes. Of course I'm grumpy, I am tired.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm alright," I quickly assure them before they get too worried.

"I can't believe Francis is really gone," Alfred defeatedly mutters as he plays with the breakfast he brought with him. "I mean, he was one of my best friends! I even already bought my Christmas gift for him," the American boy reveals. I can't help but smile softly. Why did that idiot already buy Christmas gifts?

"Don't laugh, Arty! I mean it! I already have Christmas gifts for everyone. For you, for Matthew, for Feliciano and Lovino, for Kiku, and even for Ludwig and Gilbert," Alfred sums up. "I got excited while shopping last weekend," he then adds. "But now I can't give Francis his gift anymore," the tears are brimming on the edges of his eyes. Alfred quickly takes his glasses off to wipe at his eyes, sniffling. Seeing him cry, makes me feel a pang in my heart too, but I don't show it.

"Alfred," Matthew softly says from the other side of the table. But we don't get long to mourn. The next person is already here to worsen my headache and ruin my peaceful morning. Ah, bollocks, it was already ruined anyway.

"You guys," is all the warning we get before three girls slide into the seats opposite of the four of us, their trays clattering against the table. Said girls are Laura, Erzsébet and Lin. The Belgian, Hungarian, and Taiwanese girls. Both Erzsébet and Lin have a flower in their long brown hair as usual. And Laura has a simple ribbon that she ties behind her head, which also keeps her shoulder-length light brown hair from falling on her face. All three accessories are black today. And I know they did that on purpose.

"We heard what happened, are you okay?" Lin's brown eyes bore into mine as she asks that. I don't get to answer though.

"Oh, and poor Feliciano, I'm so sorry you had to see that. Are you okay?" Laura reaches across the table to lay her hands on top of Feliciano's. She's known the Italian twins for all her life apparently, their parents were friends. I even heard a rumour that Lovino had a crush on Laura once. The same as that Erzsébet apparently had a crush on Feliciano once. They all knew each other before coming to this hell hole of a school. I may be antisocial, but I know all the rumours. Curtesy of one French gossiping-… Yeah… him.

"I'm okay, bella," Feliciano smiles at Laura and she smiles softly back. "Thank you for asking," he adds. Laura seems pleased with that and lets her hand slide back to her food. I subtly watch Laura's hand slide back across the table. Why did she only ask Feliciano? I feel a bit jealous at that. Wait, why am I jealous? Get it together, Arthur Kirkland.

"Is Francis really gone? Do you think it hurt?" Erzsébet her voice is soft. Normally, the brunette rarely takes on a tone like this when speaking.

"Yes, he is. And no, I don't think he suffered much before he died," I lie. He probably drowned in his own blood, which is not a painless death. If he didn't die from blood loss before that. Thinking about it frustrates me to no end. Who would do this? Who could do this? This island is blocked off from the rest of the world. I'm completely lost as to who it could be.

"Why would someone want to murder Francis? He was such a nice guy," Lin exclaims. She has a point, No one disliked Francis, he was an easy-going boy who never fought with anyone but me.

"I don't know," Alfred replies a bit angrily. "But I want to find out. I want to find whoever did this and smash their fucking heads in! I swear on my beloved bomber jacket that if I see that killer, whoever they are, I'm going to make them pay," he growls. His exclamation surprises me a bit. He got that jacket from his grandfather who got it from his father who fought in the world wars as a pilot. He would never dare harm it.

"Don't make promises so carelessly, Alfred," Ludwig says as he joins us at the table, sitting beside Laura. The girls make a bit of room so Gilbert, Ludwig's brother can also join. They're the German brothers. Ludwig is a big and very strong blonde who most people fear, he always carries a stern expression. Gilbert, on the other hand, is a bit smaller and slender compared to his younger brother. He's also an albino but strange enough, he doesn't have blue eyes but red ones. Even the doctors don't know why he does. He's a medical mystery.

"No, no, no, you potato bastard. Let him make the promise. Because I'm making it too. Any bastard who dares to kill one of us has to deal with the rest of us," And then there's Lovino, the rude Italian brunette, who works his way in between me and Feliciano. Yes, my somewhat peaceful morning has been ruined. By a full table of loud teenagers. Except for Ludwig, Lin, Erzsébet and Matthew. They're more like me. Calm.

"Fratello, please don't use such vulgar words," Feliciano scolds his twin.

"Tch, don't tell me what to do," Lovino cockily replies. And that's how my day begins.

I need some tea.

"I have to find whoever did this," I say to Kiku as he helps me pack some stuff. Laura agreed to let me stay in her room for now. I can't force myself to stay in the room Francis was murdered in. It just doesn't feel the same. Plus, she's the only person apart from Herakles who doesn't have a roommate. But Herakles has about three cats walking around his room and I'm allergic. And yes, his Greek parents named him after the person from mythology. I pity him for that, Sadik, the Turkish teen, has been teasing him for it.

So now I'm going to share a room with a girl. Officially, we can't do this. But the teachers and the headteacher don't care enough to stop us.

"Arthur, honestly I don't think that's a good idea. But if you really want to find the murderer, I want to help you," Kiku replies. I pause from dropping some underwear into a sack to look at the Japanese boy. Last year, I shared a room with him so we're fairly close. But that he would offer to help me? That surprises me. Kiku mostly just plays video games or watches television. Sometimes he reads too. Depends on what mood he's in.

"Are you taking the piss?" I ask him, a bit confused.

"I assure you, I am not peeing my pants," Kiku quickly replies with an awkward expression, his brown eyes flitting nervously towards me and back. I realize I was speaking in my British dialect.

"No, it's an expression. It means- never mind. Sorry about that," I sigh and continue packing some clothes. "I meant to say. Are you serious about your proposal?" I then correct myself. My old roommate hums shortly while nodding. But then I realize he was just agreeing in Japanese. Well, that's actually good news. I have done some group work with Kiku before and he's a great working partner. I would be glad to work with him on this.

"I would gladly let you help me then, Kiku," I say to the black-haired boy. He smiles in response, I smile back.

"But where should we start?" Kiku asks as we pack up the last of my clothes.

"Perhaps we should check the CCTV footage? I think I saw something move outside the building last night. But I wasn't sure, so I didn't think much of it," I tell him. Kiku hums in thought.

"Yes, I think that is an excellent plan. Once we have put your things in Laura's room, we will go to mine to use my computer. I think I can get us into the system," Kiku gives me a small smirk after that. I smirk back.

"Right-io," I chuckle, picking up all my things and following Kiku to Laura's. People are not paying much mind to us as we travel to the second floor. Laura's room is 220. The first room on the right of the left-wing on the second floor. She's already waiting for us at her door, talking with Hedvika and Erika who sleep in the next room over. When they see the two of us coming, they stop their conversation.

"That was quicker than I thought," Laura comments as she looks at her watch.

"Well, I don't have to pack three kilos of make-up," I quip at her.

"Ouch," Hedvika snorts, crossing her arms.

"You know he was referring to you too, right?" Erika meekly points out. Hedvika stays quiet after that. Bless that little girl, Erika. She's Basch his sister and he is constantly threatening any male who even comes in her vicinity with killing them. Basch is Swiss but Erika is from Liechtenstein, their parents are divorced and live separately. This is why they have different ethnicities even though they're related. The funny thing about them is that they both have the same blonde hairdo though. Hedvika is a brunette from Czechia, she is rather boastful and apparently doesn't like me much. I still haven't figured out why though.

"Alright, ladies. We'll let these boys inside so they can settle Arthur in," Laura says, throwing me a playful look and sticking her tongue out, her green eyes glinting in the light. I give her an annoyed look as I walk through the door behind Kiku, also sticking my tongue out.

"Is it alright if I lay all your stuff on the bed?" Kiku asks as he stands in front of the unoccupied bed. I nod and drop whatever I was carrying beside the bed.

"Again, thank you for helping me, Kiku," I say to the Japanese. He merely smiles softly in answer.

"I hope you don't snore, Arthur," Laura says as she closes the door behind her. Hedvika and Erika must have left.

"I would never, gentlemen don't snore," I retort. Laura laughs as she sits down on her own bed.

"Well, I do. But I warned you in advance, so no complaining, alright?" she replies to that. That playful look is back, and I feel my stomach tingle as she looks me in the eyes.

"I know, I've heard," I acknowledge. "Due to your habit of falling asleep in class," I point out. Laura is actually from the same year as me and we're often in the same classes due to that. She was also the first person to ever willingly come sit beside me in class when I first transferred to this school last year.

"Ah, right," at least she sounds awkward about it. "But enough about that." She dismissively waves her hand back and forth beside her head. "Have you-"

*BANG*

The door slams open and in comes Tim.

"Arthur, you British prick." Oh boy, here we go. I was expecting him actually, ever since we decided I would share a room with Laura. You see, Laura, Tim and Luca are all three from the low countries. Laura from Belgium, Tim from the Netherlands, and Luca from Luxembourg. The three of them are very close and have been since childhood. Lovino and Feliciano have also known the three of them for long, but they weren't as close as siblings with them. More like occasional friends. But these three have sort of adopted each other as siblings. Tim the big brother, Laura the middle sister and Luca the little brother. Even though they're not really related.

"Tim, please calm down," Luca is right behind the gigantic Dutch asshole. Literally, the prick's at least 1m95. But poor Luca is only about my height and doesn't have much muscle on him. So, his efforts to stop Tim are useless.

"No, I turn my back for five minutes and this asshole is already trying to get in my sister's pants," Tim comes to stand right in front of me, staring menacingly down at me. To be honest, I'm scared of him. But I keep a neutral face and look right back up at him.

"For the record, Tim, Laura proposed this idea herself," I say to him. Tim does not like my answer at all.

"And I'm supposed to believe that?" he replies dryly. I sigh, luckily Laura and Luca decide to intervene.

"Tim, he's telling the truth. I proposed the idea to him because his only other option was sleeping with Herakles, but Arthur's allergic to cats." Laura pulls Tim back a bit. "And Artur wouldn't do anything anyway, I know him better than you. He's a polite and earnest boy who respects women," Laura explains, glancing in my direction. I genuinely feel flattered by her praise, but don't let it show either.

"I'll – er – take my leave," Kiku says softly to me before quickly escaping the tense atmosphere and leaving me behind. Thank you very much for the support, Kiku.

"I don't care that he respects women," Tim starts. "I don't trust him," he throws at my head. Luca awkwardly makes eye contact with me.

"Sorry about him," he mouths at me. I shrug, what can you do about it.

"Well, I do!" the two arguing don't notice our little conversation. Suddenly, I get a brilliant idea. Isn't Tim's favourite quote, 'Money makes the world go round'?

"Say, Tim. What if I pay you a hundred pounds, you greedy wanker? To gain your trust," I interrupt the argument. "I know all you care about is money, and I've got plenty," I clarify. Suddenly Tim snaps his head in my direction and narrows his eyes. Normally, I would never persuade people with money. But with Tim and Basch, you can never go wrong by offering them money.

"I'm interested, but don't think you can just buy my trust with a measly hundred pounds," he haggles. I sigh and bring out my phone.

"How much do you want? Two hundred?" I comply. Tim sees this as his golden opportunity and straightens his back.

"Five hundred," he demands. I shrug and open my online banking app. He shows me his account number and I transfer the money.

"Done, now bugger off," I bite at him. I also show him proof of the transaction and he huffs, clearly pleased.

"Alright, I'll accept your presence for now. But if anything happens to Laura, you won't only pay in money," he threatens before taking a dramatic leave, slamming with the door and all. Once Tim is gone, both Luca and Laura sigh in relief.

"I thought he would start a fight for a moment there," Luca exclaims, smiling brightly. He then turns to me and chuckles. "I guess we're lucky you were smart enough to know his weakness," Luca jokes. I let a smirk slide onto my face.

"Know your enemy," I comment. Luca laughs and brushes his light brown bangs out of his face. But it's useless, it simply just falls back in front of his eye. It's a mystery to me why he has cut his hair like that if it only hangs in front of his eye. But who am I to judge other people when I'm walking around with the bird nest that I call hair?

"I sort of feel disappointed Tim would just sell me off like this," Laura comments with a defeated look and I pat her on the shoulder.

"Don't worry too much about it, Luv. Deep down inside he still cared enough to come here didn't he?" I reassure her. Laura smiles softly and sighs.

"I guess," she says. I chuckle and let my hand slide off her shoulder.

"Anyways, I better go find Kiku again. He promised to help me with something," I say when I have put my things in my part of the room.

"See you at dinner," Laura and Luca say as I leave the room again. I just grunt an acknowledgement back and leave for Kiku his room.

"Any luck?" I ask the Japanese as I enter his room without knocking. I know he doesn't mind. Ka Lung looks up from the desk and I frown.

"If you're searching for Kiku, he told me to tell you he went to the library to use their computers," the boy from Hong Kong says as he looks back down at his homework. I feel a bit embarrassed when I realize I was talking to someone who isn't even in the room.

"Ah, right, I'll go look for him there," I quickly walk back out of the room. Ka Lung was my roommate for a very short while in the first year, but he asked to switch and so I ended up with Kiku so Ka Lung could room with Yao, the Chinese boy. I still don't know why he did that, I'm not even sure if it was because he hates me or because Yao forced him to.

"Arthur! Where are you going, man?" the idiot calls out to me, I roll my eyes as he catches up with me.

"The library," I simply reply as Alfred comes to walk beside me.

"What a coincidence! Me too!" Alfred beams at me with his far too-white teeth. I sigh and give him a questioning look.

"Are you sure it's not just because you're bored and need someone to bother to cure that boredom?" I question. Alfred looks like a deer caught in the headlights and chuckles nervously.

"You know me too well, Arty," the American laughs. "But anyway, what are you going to do in the library?" he then asks.

"I'm going to find out who killed Francis and make them pay," I reply simply. There's a short silence. I can see some people turn their heads that heard me. In particular, a girl from South Africa, a boy from Australia and a boy from New Zealand. I quickly look away from them in embarrassment.

"Oh," is all the American idiot can bring out.

"Yes," I answer as we leave the dorm building.

"Well, I'll help then," he finally decides, I look up at him with an awry little smile.

"Let's not make Kiku wait for us for too long then," I conclude and start walking towards the school buildings and towards our library.

"Arthur, there you are," Kiku looks up from the most isolated computer he could find. "Oh, and you brought Alfred, good. We can use some help," he says as he bends back towards the computer screen.

"Have you found something?" I ask as we approach.

"Yes and no," the dark-haired boy replies. "I have been able to get into the system, but there's something weird," he explains. I go to stand behind him to look over his shoulder, Alfred on his other side. "When I searched for the footage from around the time you said Francis had to have been killed, I stumbled upon a little problem," Kiku points at the screen as he plays some footage. It shows the entrance to the dorms, the date and the time in the corner of the screen.

"That's you and Feliciano," Alfred states the obvious as we see the enthusiastic Italian and me exiting the building. I frown at my own hair, it's worse than usual, a complete mess of blonde locks. Maybe it's better if I just shave it off…

"And then this happens," Kiku points at the clock in the corner. The clock shows a time of 02:23 in the morning. And then it suddenly very abruptly changes to 2:38 in the morning. And it shows Feliciano and I walking back into the dorms. I frown.

"Someone deleted the footage from all of the cameras in the whole school around the time they were in the vicinity of the cameras. The cameras from the dorm from 2:23 until 2:38. And the cameras from the main building and the sports fields from 2:09 until 2:56. It's rather weird that they have different times. But I guess whoever deleted the footage knew what they were doing because I can't find any traces of them," Kiku explains as he shows us other cameras around the school skipping the timeframe he just named.

"Well, whoever did it must be familiar with the school," I think out loud. "There's no way to get on and off this island without a valuable reason to come here. And no one can get on and off without the ferry we take," I add.

"Yeah, so that means that whoever did it must be someone from the student body or from the staff of this school," Alfred concludes.

"So, from now on, everyone is our suspect but Feliciano and me," I say, intensely staring at the screen. "And you two of course," I then add.

"Right," Alfred gives me a small and awkward smile. Kiku just starts shutting off the programs he was using. Not leaving a trace of what we were doing.

"I think our next step should be trying to find other clues. Clues like footprints and such." Kiku proposes. I shake my head.

"The janitors cleaned the whole room and the hallways, there won't be any such thing for us to find," I explain.

"Or maybe we can see Francis' body and find something on him," Kiku seems a bit more hesitant with this idea.

"Where is Francis' body?" Alfred asks a good question. Then I remember something.

"I think the janitors who came to clean up our room were talking about preserving his body in the freezers by the cafeteria. There are some spare freezers and I think they put him in there," I recall. The other two look up at me and frown.

"In the freezers? Where they store our food?" Alfred sounds disgusted.

"Yes, unfortunately."

"Well." Kiku stands up with a determined expression. "Let's go tonight."

"Personnel only," I read the sign. "And we don't care," I push the door open with a shrug. I don't put on the lights to prevent us from being found out and instead use the torchlight from my phone.

"I didn't know you had it in you to be a rebel, mister British gentleman," Alfred teases me as we enter the kitchen and the food storage.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures," I reply coolly.

"The freezers are this way," Kiku points with the torch of his phone in the direction of the freezers. I point the torch of my own phone in the direction of the kitchen and other areas to check for any people that could be here. I spot no one. The clock on my phone catches my eyes. 1:09 in the morning. We left the dorm at one o'clock sharp.

"I just hope we won't be caught," Alfred says as we approach the freezers. Once there we look at the labels on the freezers and check them one by one. To make transporting them easier, the freezers are big chest like machines which you can roll from place to place. These freezers are mostly used to transport food to and from the island. Right now, they're unoccupied because most food is already in the food storage. After checking almost ten freezers, Alfred speaks up.

"I found him," his voice is soft. Kiku and I approach him and also point our torches at the inside of the freezer. The freezers are big enough to fit about three Francis'. They're that gigantic. Once I lay my eyes upon Francis' body, I feel nauseous. They didn't even bother to clean him. Dried blood has caked onto his clothes and skin. His skin itself is an ugly white and dark blue colour and his whole body has swollen up. It's disgusting. But we must bear it.

"Ah, I'm going to throw up," Kiku exclaims as the smell hits us next. All three of us retract from the freezer and it slams shut again. Kiku stumbles to the floor and holds back his bile. Alfred leans against the opposite wall with a hand in front of his mouth. I stand in the middle of the room, a hand in front of my mouth, staring at the freezer.

"Oh God, that's worse than I thought it would be," Alfred confesses.

"What did you expect, you git? A peaceful scene with roses and lilies?" I throw at him.

"At least they put the freezer on, so his body won't decay any further for the time being," Kiku points out. We all stay silent for a bit before I take a deep breath and hold my sleeve in front of my face.

"We'll have to endure it," I say determinedly. I hold my phone in the hand that's occupied with pressing my sleeve to my face so I can use the other one to open and close the freezer. I carefully open the freezer and look inside again. My eyes fall upon the wound in Francis' throat and the nausea rises again. But I close my eyes and take another deep breath. I must endure it.

"He has two knife wounds," Kiku is suddenly standing beside me, he startles me. I almost drop the freezer's lid. "Sorry," Kiku quickly apologizes. I look at him to see he's holding a handkerchief in front of his face and his phone in his other hand. I then follow his gaze towards Francis' crotch. That's when I notice Kiku's right. Francis was stabbed in the crotch. I can't see where exactly the knife hit due to his baggy pyjama pants. But it's clear the knife was trying to hit something 'vital' there.

"I've seen enough," I conclude once I've scanned Francis' body twice after that.

"Let's go back to the dorms and discuss this tomorrow after we've slept. It's Sunday tomorrow so we still don't have school," Alfred says from behind us as I close the freezer again. He's still standing against the wall, probably shaken from the corpse. He's taken off his glasses so he can rub his eyes. To be honest, I feel horrible too. I can understand why he's feeling that way.

"Right," I reply and we quickly leave the school building again. None of us speaks a word as we walk.

"Where were you?" Laura asks as I enter the room around 1:39 in the morning. I look up from trying to silently crawl back into bed. It appears I failed.

"I went to see Francis' body with Alfred and Kiku, we wanted to see if we could find some more clues. We want to find whoever did this," I tell her softly. She hums in understanding.

"Hmm, well, tell me next time you're going on a midnight stroll. I was worried," she mutters sleepily. I chuckle nervously.

"Sorry, I thought you wouldn't notice," I admit. My expression then turns sour. "Francis never noticed," I say bitterly before crawling in my bed. Laura stays silent after that, and I close my eyes. Bloody hell, this is going to be difficult to get used to. Francis is really gone. I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight after what I've seen. Francis' corpse keeps reappearing in front of my eyes. And that scene when I came back inside my room. And then there's also that alley in the centre of London that I was reminded of last night. In other words, nothing I think about is something I actually want to think about.

The silhouette creeps up the stairs to the second floor. The marked room numbers are in their hand. In room 216, there are two targets again. They hope both targets are there this time. They quickly stuff the list back in their pocket. There the room is.

The silhouette silently and carefully opens the door. They check the beds before proceeding. Both are soundly asleep. Alright, they think, I'll kill the right bastard first. The silhouette moves soundlessly, almost like they are floating towards the right bed. The unsuspecting victim is snoring in his bed. Their blonde hair is tousled around on the pillow, their glasses on the table beside their bed. The silhouette snorts at their Captain America pyjamas. How manly, they mock.

The silhouette readies their knife and softly grabs the head. They softly lift it, careful to not rouse the sleeping boy. The knife flashes, flesh slices apart and blood starts gushing out. The knife raises a second time and comes down in their next targeted spot.

The boy wakens and starts gurgling. They thrash and grasp at their throat. They try to breathe. But they can't. The silhouette knows, their knife has carefully cut through the trachea, to prevent screaming. It has cut through the carotid artery, to make sure no blood can get to the brain anymore. Lastly, the silhouette's knife has severed the jugular vein, allowing blood to easily leave the brain. The silhouette watches delightfully as the villain struggles to cling to his fading life. But the silhouette has practised, it's useless. They know that for certain. It only takes 30 to 60 seconds, they timed it.

"Alfred? Why are you making so much noise?" the other target is awake now. The silhouette rushes to the other side of the room, this is something they did not calculate. The noise, why does their target make so much noise while dying? They jump onto the next target; they try to scream but the silhouette silences them by hitting them in the stomach as hard as they can. The wind is knocked out of the blonde and he wheezes.

"Help," the boy wheezes. The silhouette panics and moves their knife towards the boy's chest, but he's able to move and the knife lodges itself in the boy's shoulder. The silhouette curses. This isn't going according to plan. They have to abandon the mission. They will have to retreat for now. Next time, they will succeed for sure.

"HELP!" the second target now screams. But the silhouette is already disappearing in the night. They made some mistakes tonight, but they will learn and adapt.

"HELP!" the cry for help resounds harshly through the dorm building. I immediately shoot upright in my bed, pulling my headphone off. I wasn't able to sleep so I was listening to some calming tunes. But now I jump out of bed and practically kick my door open. As I come out into the hall, I can hear the doors to the stairs fall closed. Oh no. Not again!

"Someone, help," it's Matthew. No, no, no. They were in Matthew and Alfred's room. Please, no. I rush to the end of the hallway to the only open door and find Matthew on the ground, crying his eyes out, a knife lodged firmly into his right shoulder and Alfred's lifeless and bloody body in his lap. The blood is running on the blonde's clothes and on the carpet. And once again, I am reminded of that one event from a year ago. The images flash in front of me. An abandoned alley, two bloodied men sprawled over the ground.

"Alfred," Matthew sobs. "Someone help us," Matthew looks up to find me standing in the opening of his room.

"Don't tell me," I feel myself starting to cry. "Please, no." My tears run down my cheeks and I blink to get the blurriness out of my eyes. That's the second one of my close friends.

"A-Arthur, you ha-have to help m-me. Alfred is-isn't res-responding," Matthew sobs loudly as he clings to the lifeless body of his half-brother. The blood covering his hands and mixing with the stream that's running down from his own shoulder. I quickly rush to Matthew side, clicking the lights on, on my way. I wipe away my tears and hope Matthew didn't see them.

"Matthew, I-" I kneel beside the Canadian and look at Alfred. He's long gone. He's not breathing. I lay my fingers on Alfred's wrist. No pulse. Maybe it's the wrong spot- No, there's just no heartbeat. I do my best not to cry anymore as I look up at Matthew. "I'm sorry, we're too late," I say to Matthew. The blonde boy now completely breaks down, he starts wailing.

"Arthur? Matthew?" Laura as the door, staring at the three of us, tears shining in the corners of her eyes.

"Alfred, no!" Matthew wails loudly, the tears streaming out of his eyes. "Please, not my brother. God. Please," the boy cries out in his sorrow. I clench my fists in my lap and look down at the floor, I feel terrible. I feel furious, I feel miserable, I feel helpless.

"No," Laura realizes what this means. Her hands fly to her face. She starts crying and quickly closes the door. "God no," she exclaims, locking the door. "We can't let others see this," she mutters as she leans against the door.

"Matthew I'm so sorry," I say as I crawl across the floor to hug the grieving boy. Laura helps me pry Alfred's body from his grasp. I lay Alfred carefully down on the floor. His eyes are open wide, it's creepy. I slide my fingers downwards over his eyelids to close them. Much better. I look at his crotch, there's a knife wound there. I'm certain now, it was the same person. I want to cry, but I have to be strong, for Matthew. Laura has led Matthew to his bed so he can calm down.

When morning comes, I make Matthew take a shower with me before anyone else wakes up so we can wash the blood off. The knife is still in Matthew's shoulder, we didn't dare take it out. I do my best to keep the tired and grieving boy upright in the showers, he constantly wants to sink to the floor. He's lifeless. A husk. He's in shock.

After the shower, Laura and I lock his room and take Matthew to the infirmary. The nurse asks a lot of questions, we answer them all for Matthew. We don't get a single word or reaction out of him. He screams as the nurse pulls the knife out, squeezing my hand tightly, but stays lifeless for the rest of the time. By the time the nurse says we can go, everyone is already coming to breakfast. The nurse also told us that she'll tell the staff to go clean up Alfred's body and the blood. The knife I could keep. And I will. It's evidence. I am putting it in a plastic bag and keeping it for evidence once the police get here or we can get off the island to the police.

"How are we going to tell the others Alfred was the next victim?" Laura asks as she lets Matthew sit down at the breakfast table. I put down both my own and Matthew's breakfast and sit down on the boy's right, by the wounded shoulder. His arm is in a sling to prevent further tearing of the tissue. Laura sits down across from us.

"Good morning," Ludwig greets as he and Gilbert come to sit down at our table by Laura's side. I turn towards Laura and give her a neutral look.

"Like this, Luv," I state before turning to the German brothers. "Alfred's dead. The murderer came and killed him and wounded Matthew while trying to kill him too. Alfred was killed in the exact same way as Francis was. With one more victim, we'll have a serial killer on our hands inside this very school," I inform them coldly. Both brothers look at me with a baffled expressions. Beside me, I can hear Matthew already starting to sob again. Oh dear, that was cold of me.

"A- a serial killer?" Feliciano is suddenly right behind me. He must have heard.

"You're not serious, you tea-drinking bastard," Lovino slams his food down beside me to glare at me. I give him a neutral look.

"I am, I don't joke about things like this," I bite back at him.

"So, Alfred is really-?" Gilbert doesn't finish his question, but everyone understands it perfectly. I merely nod, Matthew starts sobbing again beside me and I feel horrible for talking about this with him already in a bad mental state. Laura looks down at her hands on the other side of the table. Her shoulder-length light brown hair falls in front of her face, not being tied back by a ribbon for the first time since I met her.

"Verdammt noch mal," Ludwig slams his fist on the table angrily. In response, Matthew pushes his face in his hand as he silently cries. I don't really know what to do to comfort him. I've never been good at that. Luckily, Feliciano does and hugs Matthew tightly but carefully.

Endnote: 'un' in Japanese means 'yes' or 'yeah' in casual language. The word 'un' can sound like a grunt or a hum in some cases. That's what Arthur means when he says: "But then I realize he was just agreeing in Japanese".

Another: Verdammt noch mal is German cursing which is a polite equivalent of 'God damn it'. At least to me when I speak German.

Another thing. No, I don't hate Alfred. I actually like him as a character. But I needed to crush Arthur's spirit a bit. So, yeah... Until next week.