A/N: First of all, sorry for the delay, I was dealing with exams, but I'm done now. And so, I kindly offer you another chapter. there is some German shortly in the end, but there's a translation at the end of the chapter too.
Chapter 5: Locked. But safe?
I hiss as the nurse pulls the stitch tightly close. I was extremely lucky. The knife missed any vital organs due to sliding right past them. The nurse reprimanded me when we had to wake her up in the middle of the night again to stitch a stab wound.
"You reckless teenagers! Don't you have any sense of self-preservation?" she rants as she keeps stitching. Ludwig, Feliciano, and Gilbert are staying with the victims of this night. The unfortunates this night were Carlos Machado, a boy from Cuba with dreadlocks and Sadik Adnan, a boy from Turkey. I didn't really know them all that well, but I still feel horrible about it.
"We're sorry, ma'am. We bumped into the serial killer by accident, they lashed out at Arthur, since he was closest to them." Laura is lying through her teeth. I chased the culprit. And I was stabbed in the back for it. But I gained some new information. When the criminal spoke to me, I recognized a very hoarse but female voice. I can't recall who exactly it was. But I know it was a woman for certain. This is the biggest clue we've found so far. And I feel energized to continue the investigation.
"I don't care, you children are putting yourselves in danger! And for what? To look at some stars. Look at the stars through your windows." The nurse tugs harshly at the stitch again in her fit of anger.
"Sorry, ma'am." I clench the bed underneath me harshly as I apologize. I don't really mean it; I'm planning on going out again if needed. But it satisfies the nurse enough to shut her mouth while finishing her work. I need some tea.
I grumble as the wound in my back pulls with every movement I make. Even just lifting my breakfast to my mouth hurts. I can see Kiku looking at me worriedly.
"Are you feeling okay?" he carefully pries. I don't look up at him to reply.
"Absolutely bloody terrific."
"Translation: like shit," Lovino sarcastically adds.
"Thank you for that, Lovino. What a contribution to society you are," I sarcastically spit at the Italian sitting a bit further away at the table. Lovino just scoffs and keeps eating.
"Arthur, stop being so sarcastic. Your bad mood is making everyone grumpy," Tim grumbles at me. I don't even know why he's even sitting at our table if he hates me so much.
"As the reigning champion, do you feel offended?" I bite back at him.
"Arthur," Laura stomps me on my left arm. I ignore her.
"Whatever," I exclaim before grabbing my tray and abruptly standing up. I'm tired, I've had enough of everything for a while. I just need some time myself. As I want to bring my tray to the dish table, a sudden announcement comes through the intercom.
"All students are to gather in the school's sports hall after breakfast. The school staff wants to make an announcement at exactly 8:30. Any student not present will be punished accordingly." Is all they say. I grumble and drop my tray on the dish table. I look at my watch. It's 8:20 right now. I suppose I can just go wait there already, make sure I'm not late.
I stand by the side of the crowd of chattering students, waiting for the announcement. Kiku found me two minutes after I got here and is now silently standing beside me, which I am grateful for. Most of the students are still seeping into the room, chattering and questioning why they had to come here.
"Do you think it has anything to do with what's been going on lately?" Eduard, the Estonian tech nerd, asks his group.
"I hope so. It's about time they start doing something about it," Toris, the Lithuanian brunette, replies.
"Well, maybe they actually caught the killer?" Feliks, the Polish horse boy, suggests.
"I really doubt that for some reason," Raivis, the Latvian boy, mutters.
"Well, one can only hope, right?" Feliks chuckles.
"Attention!" the headteacher suddenly yells into the microphone and the whole room becomes quiet within ten seconds. "I gathered you all here today to announce two things," he starts his speech. My eyes scan the podium full of staff and teachers behind him. My eyes catch those of the nurse for a second. She gives me a small smile.
"First announcement is that the police force is going to be able to arrive the earliest in nine to ten days due to a storm brewing in the pacific. Luckily the island itself will be spared, but the surrounding area won't." the headteacher shows a TV screen with a weather forecast. Just great. Absolutely fucking brilliant. A movement to the right of the headteacher catches my eye and I spot that new cleaning lady, the pretty one. She looks rather nervous as she looks over the crowd of children in front of her. She must be worried too.
"The second announcement is that from now on, the doors to all rooms and the dorms themselves will be locked at night. There will be a curfew and I will personally come close every single door with my key. I will then guard said key and the only copy in my own room. This is to prevent any more unneeded bloodshed." The headteacher then announces, and I feel a weight fall off my shoulders. Finally, they're going to do something about all of this. Finally. I could smile brightly and cheer out in joy. But I won't. I know better than to celebrate early. The rest of the crowd of students do though, they all seem rather relieved.
"That was all, you can now go to class," the headteacher then finishes. I look at the staff neutrally, looking for a reaction that stands out. Most of them seem relieved, the cooks, the cleaning crew. Even the teachers. Nothing out of the ordinary. Slowly, everyone starts trickling out of the sports hall.
"Come on, Arthur. We don't want to be late for class," Kiku drags me away to class. I look over my shoulder one last time. I look straight into the pretty cleaning lady's eyes. She has an unreadable expression. But then we turn a corner and she's out of sight. For the rest of the day, I can't seem to spot the woman anymore. Weird.
The rest of the day, I'm in a better mood. My wound even seems to hurt less. Even though it stings and throbs with almost every move I make. And at the end of the day, when Kiku, Laura and I sit in the library, I am content.
"What are you smiling like an idiot for?" Laura points out, placing her chair right beside mine. I look up at her, not bothering to drop my smile as she smiles at me. The green ribbon in her hair doesn't stop some locks from falling in her face. I get the urge to brush them out of her face, they bother me for some reason. But I decide to just frown at her instead.
"I don't know, can't I be in a good mood for once?" I simply reply.
"You're never in a good mood without a reason, so no." Her face is deadly serious. I give her an annoyed look.
"Well, thanks for ruining it now," I grumble. She laughs and stomps me playfully on the arm.
"I was joking, Arthur. It's actually nice to see you smile for once. You're always so broody," she then leans into my side, and I smile again.
"I'm just glad that the school is finally going to do something about all of this. We can now finally start investigating at our own pace. We don't have to worry about more deaths during the night anymore. The doors will all be locked," I share with my closest friends. "That just makes me feel happy and relieved," I clarify.
"Yeah, me too. I think I will even sleep better tonight, knowing our doors are locked," the Belgian girl confesses as she leans into my side shamelessly. I can see Kiku looking up briefly before smiling and looking back down. What's with him? Oh well, we have work to do.
"How about we start with listing up what we know again?" I say as I grab my notebook and open it to the pages where I write all the investigation information.
"Right," Laura sits upright in her chair again but doesn't bother to move it away from mine.
"Alright, so first we'll state what we know about the victims," I start.
"They're all students," Kiku points out. "They're mostly male and have all been killed in the same professional way. Erzsébet was the only victim who was not stabbed in the crotch or private area. She was also the only victim where the rest of the room was not targeted. Except of course with you, Arthur, because you weren't there." Kiku lists off, reading from his laptop what he has typed down. I silently listen to him.
"We also know that the victims are all left alone after that. We speculate the rooms are being chosen at random, but there's no way to know," I finish. "Now, what do we know about the perpetrator?" I then ask Kiku. Laura silently listens to us, not having heard everything yet.
"Yesterday, you confirmed she is a female. We also know from you she's around Laura's height and rather on the skinny side. From Matthew, we know she has brown eyes. We have no definitive motive, but we know they trained for this by the way her kills are always too perfect. The cuts never look clumsy, and her work is always done within a short span of time. If the period of the disappearing surveillance footage is reliable. She has also failed to eliminate Matthew and you though, so she's also not perfect. We know she has to be somewhere on this island too. There's no way on or off. Perhaps staff or a person who has a place to hide," Kiku reads out loud.
"Right and we also know she dresses in all black and is very skilled at being silent and sneaky," I add.
"Sounds like she's a ninja from your description," Laura softly comments jokingly. I chuckle at the image that pops up in my head at that. I give her a little shove with my elbow as she giggles.
"Anyway, who are our suspects?" I continue.
"Any woman with brown eyes and about Laura's height," Kiku replies sadly. "So, we have a lot of possible suspects," he sighs.
"Well, you can scratch me from the list, I've got green eyes," Laura pipes up.
"You were never on there, Laura," I reassure her. She chuckles.
"Are you that convinced I am harmless?" she taunts. I look calmly down at her.
"For a fact, yes. You wouldn't even be able to tackle me if you tried," I reply smugly. She scoffs and lifts her chin at me.
"Challenge accepted," she quips, a broad smile creeping on her lips. I smile back but don't say anything anymore. I turn back to my notebook.
"We've really got to try to get more evidence," I state as I look at our measly list of actual evidence. "The only real-life evidence we have are the knives stuck in Matthew's shoulder and my back but around three people touched it afterwards. The fingerprints will be gone by now. Plus, she was also wearing gloves yesterday, so hope for any fingerprints at all is unnecessary," I remind my two friends. Kiku sighs and rubs over his face.
"At this rate, we won't be able to catch the woman at all," he says defeatedly. I can't help but agree. I lean back in my chair but hiss as the back pushes against my wound and sit forward again.
"Maybe we're just tired. Let's all just go to our rooms, get a good night's rest and think about this again tomorrow," Laura proposes with a soft voice.
"Yeah, you're probably right," I agree. All three of us are silent for a moment, staring at nothing. Kiku is the first to act.
"Alright, I promised Eduard I would go over some code hacking with him tonight. I'll be going first. I'll see you tomorrow then?" Kiku closes his laptop and stands up carefully.
"Yeah, we'll come here again tomorrow," I confirm. The Japanese smiles before walking away. I also close my notebook and stick my biro in between the pages as a bookmark. Laura also stands up.
"I'll go check on the girls before going to our room," she informs me.
"Alright, I'll see you soon," I wave her off. She smiles one last time at me before disappearing behind a bookshelf. I pick up my notebook and stare at the front. Suddenly, I realize it's not even my own notebook. For the last few days, I've been using one of Francis' notebooks to write in. How did I miss that? I shake my head. I shouldn't think about Francis. I should think happy thoughts. Tea. Biscuits. Fish and chips. Okay, what is it with these stereotypes, Arthur? Think about other happy things. Like Laura. She's always in a good mood. She's-
*THUMP*
My head snaps to the side to see a book has fallen from a shelf. One of the cleaning ladies bends over to pick it up. I recognize her as the one who was staring at me earlier, the new pretty one. She notices I'm looking at her. She quickly smiles awkwardly before scurrying off. How odd. I shrug it off and start making my way to the dorm building.
"Hey, Arthur," Gilbert waves at me as he walks up to me, Ivan, Toris, Feliks, and Yao on his heels. I politely wait for them. "How's your back doing?" the albino asks concernedly. I smile softly at him.
"It's doing fine, it doesn't hurt all that much anymore," I assure him. Meanwhile, my back aches as a reminder that it is not as fine as I claim.
"That's good to hear," Gilbert sighs in relief. He smiles brightly and gives me a soft shoulder pat before walking off with his friends again. Toris and Feliks smile at me while walking past. Ivan grins creepily and Yao almost looks annoyed. For some reason that Chinese bastard also doesn't like me. Something about Opium. I have never understood his grudge against me.
I continue my walk towards my room from there and try to forget that weird encounter. But I almost quite literally bump into Matthew on my way inside.
"Oh, hello, Matthew," I greet the boy. He politely smiles at me. But I can still see the emotion isn't quite there yet.
"Hello, Arthur," he mutters dully. I can see his eyes travel down to my hips. I frown before realizing he's searching for bandages. His own arm is still in a sling to prevent the wound in his shoulder from opening again.
"So, she got you too, huh?" The boy looks back up at my face.
"Yes, I thought I could catch her. But I only got a knife in my back," I recall. Matthew looks so miserable. Has been for the past two days. But he ignores anyone who tries to cheer him up or distract him. That boy, he's going to cause his own mental breakdown like this.
"Come on, let's go to my room," I say as I grab the Canadian by the arm and start dragging him towards the dorm building. Matthew doesn't really protest. He just follows along like a lost little puppy. I drag him inside the elevator and up to my shared room with Laura. I then set him down on the bed and I grab my computer.
"What are you doing?" Matthew asks as I fumble around.
"We're going to watch a film. A comedy." I simply state. Matthew huffs out a short laugh and sits himself comfortably. I then settle beside him and choose the first film I see.
"I did not expect him to do that," Matthew laughs. Wholeheartedly. He laughs and I feel content.
"So, you enjoyed the film?" I ask him and he nods with a smile remaining on his face.
"Yeah, thank you, Arthur. I needed that," he confesses. I lay a hand on top of his good shoulder and give him a soft smile.
"Anytime, Matthew." I just say and then Matthew is off.
"Having fun without me, I see." Laura approaches, clearly coming from Lin her room. If the strong smell of candles is anything to go off of. Lin and her roommate, Michelle from Seychelles, really like to light scented candles.
"Always," I quip back. Laura laughs. I turn around to walk back inside the room, intending to turn off my computer. But before I can reach my bed, Laura slams heavily into me and causes us to topple over onto my bed. Luckily on my fort and not on the wound in my back.
"Ha! I tackled you," she suddenly yells out triumphantly and I laugh. She was careful in her landing and has avoided touching my wound which I am thankful for.
"Are you off your knockers, Laura?" I ask her, both amused that she took the challenge seriously and annoyed that we almost crushed my laptop. "We almost fell on top of my laptop." I point at my laptop laying just beside my head. Laura looks at my laptop and grimaces before smiling down at me.
"Oops," she giggles. I sigh and I relax into my mattress. Laura then stands up again and quickly lays my laptop on the table in the middle of our room. "Well, but I did tackle you though," she recovers. "And I believe that I have now proven that I can tackle you." She walks back over to the bed and sits down beside me.
"Okay, I admit it my defeat." I sit up, careful with the wound in my back, and fold one leg under me so I can sit sideways and face her. "But I still wouldn't have put you on the suspect list though," I admit. Laura shrugs.
"I'll take that as a compliment," she smiles.
"I'll be closing your door now," The headteacher says as he closes our door. "Goodnight," he calls as he locks the door.
"Goodnight," Laura and I reply in unison. And then we swap into our pyjamas to go to sleep. As I crawl in bed, I can see Laura hesitate for some reason. But then she looks at the locked door and shakes her head. And then, she crawls in her own bed and I feel a bit disappointed she didn't come to lay down with me again.
The silhouette laughs to herself, the keys twirling between her fingers. That dumb principal. He isn't guarding the keys at all. He just hangs them on a little rack in front of his room. This is too easy. That man doesn't really care about his students. None of the people here do. They only care about the high pay rate and the free vacation on a beautiful island with a nice climate.
She repeats the room number inside her head. 019. 019. 019. Gilbert Beilschmidt. 019. And Ludwig Beilschmidt by default, even though he's gay. But brothers share the same blood, they're both villains. 019. 019. They approach the door with gas already in hand. The silhouette opens the door with the keys. She doesn't bother to look around before throwing the gas. She just lets it fill the room.
She's exceptionally merry this night, knowing she's eliminating truly evil targets. What she saw last night, convinced her that they need to be purged. She walks over to the left bed, to the albino first. The silhouette grabs the albino's neck, bares it to herself. A knife slips out of her sleeve. A flash of silver. Gurgling. A stab. She watches gleefully.
"Du Mörder!" a male suddenly yells from behind the silhouette. She quickly turns around. Just in time to stop the chair from hitting her across the head. "Geh weg von meinem Bruder." The voice is deep and is wavering. The silhouette notices the tears running down the boy's cheeks. The chair is being lifted again. The silhouette makes a quick decision and backs away towards the door, her knives still at the ready just in case. "Ich bringe dich um!1"
The silhouette quickly bolts from the room. She slams the door in the boy's face and feels glad she left the keys on the door so she can quickly lock it again. She better get out of here.
Ludwig's cries and thrashing are heard through the whole dorm at night. He's cursing in German so loudly even Laura and I wake up from it, two stories up. It's not that difficult for him to be heard, he has a very deep and loud voice in and of itself. But now he was really doing his best. It's only when I start listening that I am alarmed.
"Warum?! Warum Gilbert? Er hat nichts Schlimmes getan2!" And that's when I realize that the murders are still happening and that no one is safe. And this time, Ludwig reminds me of my past self.
1 German = You murderer! Get away from my brother. I'm going to kill you!
2 German = Why?! Why Gilbert? He did nothing wrong!
You can say it, I suck. I hate myself too. I'm sorry, Gilbert and Ludwig. I'm starting to feel bad for killing off all these characters.