A/N: Another chapter! Yay. ENJOY!
Chapter 3: Mistakes and Progress
"If I hadn't been listening to music, maybe I could have heard the murderer walk past my room," I mutter.
"You could have, yes," Ludwig replies, looking up from our group project. "But right now, we're doing history homework," the blonde taps his finger on the papers a few times to make a statement.
"Ludwig is right, da," Ivan decides to speak up.
"Hm," is all the noise this conversation is able to get out of Berwald.
"Aren't you four concerned about the murderer on the loose?" I exclaim a bit violently. All four of my groupmates look up to stare at me. And let me tell you, I can describe all four of them with three simple words. Tall, blonde, and intimidating. Ludwig, the youngest of the German brothers who everyone is secretly afraid of. Berwald, the silent Swede boy who strangely always practically sticks to Tino, the Finnish boy. Ivan, the Russian boy who once beat up another kid with a faucet because they were trying to bully Ivan. And last but not least Tim, the irritating, stingy Dutch boy who hates me. Just great. Why me.
"Not really," Ivan chuckles after a while. Berwald shrugs and Tim scoffs.
"Look, Arthur, we know you're distraught since both of them were your friends-" Ludwig starts. I interrupt him by slamming my fist on the table.
"They were your friends too!" I throw at him. Ludwig is taken aback for a bit before sighing.
"I know that, Arthur. But obsessing over it also isn't healthy. You shouldn't focus on it so much. You are allowed to grieve, yes. But you're turning your grief into anger and resentment," Ludwig explains softly. "I'm not saying I don't want the killer caught. But-" he trails off and I look down at my hands. I know he's right. I know that what I am doing is unhealthy. But I can't just let this go.
"Let's finish for today, we're not getting anywhere like this," Tim stands up from his seat and closes his books violently.
"Agreed," Berwald stands up too and gathers his things before speed walking away. Tim strides out the door after him.
"If you feel the need to talk to someone, Arthur. My door is always open," Ludwig says before also walking out the door. That leaves me and Ivan alone in the room.
"You know, little Arthur. If the killer ever comes into my room, I'll kill them for you. I know five different ways to kill someone silently," he says with a friendly smile. I flinch away from his ominous aura. That boy needs help himself.
"Arthur, Kiku, hey," Laura and Erzsébet come walking up to me.
"Hello, Laura and Erzsébet," I greet the two girls sombrely. Kiku nods at them in greeting.
"Some of the girls have decided we're going to do a girl's night in Erzsébet's room tonight. We need to cheer ourselves up a bit," Laura announces. I lay my notebook down for a moment to look up at her.
"So, you'll have the room to yourself tonight," Erzsébet adds.
"Who'll have the honour to join?" I ask in curiosity. Erzsébet gives me a frown.
"Why do you want to know? You going to peek on us?" she taunts. I scowl and glare at her.
"No. I was just curious. But never mind then," I stubbornly reply.
"Michelle from Seychelles. Natalya from Belarus. Irina from Ukraine. Hedvika from Czechia. Erika from Liechtenstein. Lin from Taiwan. Liên from Vietnam. And last but not least Erzsébet from Hungary and me," Laura helpfully answers my question like a normal person. I hum in thought. Why did she name all of their ethnicities? I know every one of those girls at least by name.
"You finally got it right!" Erzsébet cheers as she gives Laura a high-five. Oh, that's why she was doing that.
"I finally remembered," Laura laughs it off. I share a quick look with Kiku. He seems to be thinking the same thing as me. Weird girls.
"Alright, have fun," I wish to them as they walk away again.
"Must be nice, having a girl's night," Kiku says as they disappear out of sight. I look at my former roommate.
"I think they're doing it out of the need to have something cheer them up. Especially Laura, she was really shaken from what happened this night," I point out. Kiku sighs and looks at Matthew who's still sitting lifelessly beside him.
"I can understand that," he agrees. "Are you alright, Arthur? You have seen both the murder cases now. You must be having a hard time too," the boy from Japan asks me. I clench my fist and look down at my notebook.
"I'm fine," I quickly dismiss his worries. I am, in fact, not fine. But I won't let other people worry about me. We have other priorities on our hands.
"If you say so," my former roommate shrugs. I look up at Matthew and sigh. He's staring at his hands, clearly thinking about things he shouldn't think about if he wants to stay sane.
"Hey, Matthew," I say softly as I lay my hand on his lower arm. "How about you answer our questions really quick so you can go sleep a bit, hm?" I smile softly at the blonde. Matthew slowly looks up at me, the usual stray curl hanging in front of his face.
"Okay," he replies meekly. I frown but gather my courage. We need to do this if we want to find the murderer.
"Alright, so do you remember anything about the killer?" I start. Matthew fumbles with his hands and looks down again.
"I-" he stutters- "don't really remember much," he finishes. "All I remember is hearing some weird gurgling noises. So, I woke up and asked Alfred why he was making so much noise. But then suddenly, someone jumped on top of me and-" the Canadian freezes- "they stabbed me. After that, everything is a bit of a blur. I remember you coming in, and then Laura-" Matthew slowly trails off and sighs at the end.
"Alright, thank you," Kiku thanks him for the explanation. Kiku was against questioning Matthew so early after it happened. But I convinced him to do it today. He might forget details after a while and the killer might come back. We could hopefully catch this murderer with this information.
"Do you remember what the person looked like?" I ask as I write down whatever Matthew answers.
"No, they were dressed in all black. They even had a-a balaclava," Matthew gestures at his own face vaguely as he describes that. "But when I was struggling against them, I noticed that they had brown eyes. The moon shone straight into them through the gap in our curtain," the Canadian seems to be a bit more composed now. Good, I hate seeing him so lifelessly.
"Anything else?" I try.
"No."
"Thank you for that, Matthew. You're helping us out a lot," Kiku bows his head curtly. Matthew clearly forces himself to smile at Kiku.
"I'm glad to help," he then replies.
"You can go now, thank you," I inform Matthew. No need to make him remember the worse parts of the night.
"See you later," Matthew waves before walking away.
"Brown eyes, huh?" I say once Kiku and I are alone in the study hall.
"That does not eliminate many people," Kiku gestures at his own brown eyes. "And we don't even know their gender," he adds.
"No, it could still be almost anyone at this point," I tap my pencil angrily against my notebook.
"Did you have a good look at Alfred's body?" Kiku asks.
"Yeah, he had the exact same wounds as Francis. Throat cut cleanly, stab wound in the crotch," I describe.
"Do you think it's a hate crime against a certain type of people?" Kiku suddenly points out. I hum in thought.
"Could be," I reply after a while.
"But which motive could they have?" Kiku closes his own notebook which is full of drawings instead of notes. "They both had blonde hair blue eyes? They were both wealthy? I don't know…" Kiku tries to sum up some things but runs out of ideas very quickly. That's also when the dinner bell goes off.
"Well, time for dinner." We stand up and make our way to the cafeteria. I sigh and feel my stomach start to rumble. I put my hand over it in embarrassment, I hope no one heard that.
"What do you suppose we're eating today?" I ponder. Kiku hums and scratches his chin.
"It's the last day of North-American meals week so we're probably eating something greasy or something with fries," Kiku guesses. "I'm already looking forward to the East-Asian meals in two weeks," Kiku adds with a soft and guilty smile. I chuckle.
"If we're eating chips with a hamburger, Alfred will be cursing as a ghost. He loved hamburgers," I joke, thinking back to the times I witnessed Alfred devouring hamburgers.
"I'm going to miss him," Kiku replies to that. I sigh. I look to my left to see one of the cleaning ladies at the windows. Didn't they already clean those windows last week? And I don't recognize her. Must be a new one. The cleaning lady turns her head to look at me. Our gazes cross and she gives me a brilliant smile. Wow, she's pretty. I awkwardly smile back. How blessed we are, both of our cleaning ladies are beautiful. One from Africa and one from what I assume is Australia, judging by the literal Australian flag on her apron.
"Ah, I just hope the ginger cook will at least be a bit more friendly today. She always glares at me," Kiku pouts. I chuckle and pat him on the shoulder.
"I don't think that lady has been friendly to anyone in her whole life, she glares at everyone," I comfort him. "But at least there's still that brunette man with the freckles, he always gives you some extra if you ask for it," I say to cheer him up.
"Yeah, that's right. Everyone likes him," Kiku smiles a bit.
I stare up at the ceiling. I can't sleep again. I keep tossing and turning. In the two nights before, I only got 6 hours of sleep. And that's both of them added together. I'm tired and sure you can see it on my face at this point. But I just can't sleep.
Every time I almost fall asleep, some noise wakes me up again. And it is driving me crazy. I can't stand it. Suddenly, the door to my room opens and a dark silhouette walks in. I look up to find Laura walking back inside the room. I turn on my nightlamp so I can see her better.
"I thought you were going to sleep with the girls tonight?" I ask her as she stands in the middle of the room. She awkwardly rubs her arm and looks down.
"I know, but I just- I'm afraid," she reveals. I sit up and sigh.
"You can't sleep either?" I ask her. She hums in agreement. She then slowly approaches my side of the room.
"Could I-" she hesitates, I can see her fumbling with her hair. She looks shy and it's adorable. I want to tease her about it, but decide not to.
"Could you… what?" I question. She sighs and comes to stand right beside my bed.
"How are you so calm, Arthur?" she asks me. I am surprised by her question. "I mean, you look so composed. Even after seeing two people be killed two nights in a row. I only saw Alfred and I already-" she sobs. Oh no, she's crying. What do I do? Bloody hell, why me? I'm the last person you should ask for consolation. I am bad with feelings. I awkwardly let her sit on the bed with me and give her a pat on the shoulder, not sure about what to do. I don't want to overstep any boundaries.
"Can I sleep with you tonight, Arthur?" the tears are softly flowing out of Laura's green eyes. I bite my lip. Tim is going to make me pay him more or possibly kill me. But Laura is crying, and someone needs to comfort her. And I don't know what else to do. And it's not like I mind…
"Sure," I eventually say, after making sure I won't sound too excited about it. "I'll get your pillow," I say as I stand up and walk over to her bed. I grab her pillow and lay it beside mine. Luckily the beds here are big enough to fit two people. Not comfortably if you're not a couple. But I can't say no to Laura. She's done a lot for me already in the past. She's always ready to help anyone. For once, she's asking for help, and I can't abandon her now.
"Thank you," she says as I crawl back into my bed. I shuffle all the way to the wall so she can join. Laura sniffles and works her way into my arms. I awkwardly let her hug me and carefully lay my hand down on an appropriate place. I do not want to offend her or make her uncomfortable. Especially in a situation like this. And eventually, she falls asleep. The situation is so peaceful. I contently close my eyes too.
Room 101. The system wasn't done loading, but I'm certain there were targets in this room, the silhouette thinks. They open the door. There are a lot of people in the room. The silhouette looks over them. They're- they're not their targets. But then their eye falls upon a single person in the room. The one in the bed. They, they're a target it appears, they must be. They may have long hair, but they're a target. They look like a target. The system wouldn't lie.
I'll make quick work of it, they think. They fumble inside their pocket and take a small gas canister out of it. It's their adaption from the mistake they made last night. Inside is a gas that's often used during burglaries. It makes you sleep deeper. It makes it easier to rob your house while you're asleep. The only after-effect is a headache when you wake in the morning. The silhouette themselves won't be affected with their mask on and because they are awake. They already stocked up on the gas just in case beforehand. And they have used it before.
The silhouette lets the gas fill the room. All the sleeping students sleep even deeper. 8 of them in total, one empty bed. And one target. This target enrages her. They're disgusting. In a room full of girls. The silhouette can't imagine what the target may be doing with all these girls. Once the gas has been spread around the room, the silhouette quickly goes to their target.
A flash of silver. Flesh tears and deep crimson liquid gushes out. The target starts gurgling, they don't wake up. They die in their sleep. The silhouette watches them squirm gleefully. That's when their eyes fall upon two plump breasts on their target. Oh no, what have they done? This wasn't a target! They panic. They quickly flee the room. They flee into the night, devastated. They killed the wrong person. This was not a target of theirs!
I wake up with a mouth full of hair. And when I want to move my right arm to get the hair out, I notice it's stuck underneath Laura, much like most of my body. She's lying on top of me now. Her head's resting on my chest, one arm around my chest and one of her legs over mine too. I don't even remember falling asleep. But here we are. And I'm embarrassed.
So, I use my left arm to move the hair out of my mouth instead since I can still move that one. But now I have a new dilemma. Should I wake her or continue to lay in an awkward position until she wakes up too? Well, we have to wake up for school anyway. Let's just wake her up.
"Laura," I say softly to her as I shake her softly. No reaction. Bloody hell. I try to move my chest up to get her to fall off me. But as I do so, I feel her breasts rub against me. I look down to see the two bulbs pressed flat against my chest underneath her shirt. And as a result, I feel the heat sinking down to you know where. Shite. Why now?
"Laura, wake up," I am harsher now, shaking her with my only useable arm. "Laura," I continue. I finally get a hum and some movement out of her.
"Five more minutes," she mutters as she snuggles up to me even more.
"Laura, for God's sake, wake up," I curse. This makes her look up with a sleepy expression. She turns to look straight into my disgruntled face. She now officially wakes up and her face turns red.
"Oh my God, I am so sorry," she quickly rolls off me and off the bed too. She comes down on the ground with a heavy thump.
"Are you alright?" I ask her while awkwardly trying my very best to get my penis to calm down.
"I'm okay," she murmurs while rubbing her butt. A knock on our door interrupts the uncomfortable situation and Laura quickly jumps up to go open the door. Before she reaches the door, it's already being pushed open harshly by three girls. All three of them are bawling their eyes out and immediately jump at the chance to hug Laura. I recognize Lin, Erika and Irina, the Ukrainian girl.
"What-" Laura tries to speak but is interrupted by the other girls.
"Erzsébet was-" Lin tries to start but she doesn't get far.
"I'm- I'm so glad you're alive!" Irina exclaims while crying and clinging to Laura. I get a bad feeling at the word 'alive'. I immediately jump out of my bed, not even bothered by the fact I'm only wearing my nightclothes. After this, my tent has gone down already anyway.
I ignore Laura calling my name and run towards the stairs. I practically slide down the railings just to be by Erzsébet's room quicker. When I reach the first floor, I find a crowd of crying or grieving girls in front of room 101. But Erzsébet is not with them. I practically jump over the crying girl from Seychelles to get inside the room. There I find a lot of blood. And another murder scene.
"Fuck," I exclaim loudly.
A little note: Only students are countries. The staff of the school are random people from a random country some choice-maker website decides for me. :P