Pacing.
There had been a lot of that these past thirty minutes.
Back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth.
The same repetitive motion, again and again, in complete and utter silence. Or at least it would be complete and utter silence if Beyond had been allowed to demolish the clock which continued to tick despite his obvious hatred towards the sound.
Tick. Tock.
Tick. Tock.
Tick.Tock.
It was mocking him. It must be mocking him. He had no other explanation for it's incessant need to continue with the sole function it's life depended on. Time keeping. What a meticulous and unfortunate thing to excel in.
The concept of time wasn't something Beyond thoroughly enjoyed anyway. It set him off, you see. If he didn't judge the time correctly it could ruin one of his plans. That man. His 'adopted father'. He didn't keep to his time scale and look at where that got him.
Dead.
Time had too much power in Beyond's eyes. It was a constant reminder that no matter what you do, time is always moving forward. Someone will die but time won't stop to grieve for the loss of the soul. Time will continue no matter what, even if there's nothing there to mark the passage of time.
So why were they so insistent on stopping him from destroying the clocks?
If there were no clocks there wouldn't be too much difference. Time would still progress. Days would still end. Life would still move forward. Only things would be more free and relaxed. But, at the same time, Beyond couldn't function without time. The idea of his kills or plans not being executed correctly sent a cold shiver down his spine, raising the tiny goosebumps on his arms for the first time in years.
Time.
What an infuriating thing it was.
Finally, Beyond stopped and spun on his heels to face the other presence in the room. A. The silent boy. The one who'd done nothing but watch Beyond walk back and forth over and over again. He didn't even make any noise as he breathed.
"Do you have to do that?" The anger in his tone was evident, although uncalled for. The boy had, technically, not done anything and, by the sudden tilt of his head, it appeared he knew that.
"Oh, come on! That staring thing. All you've done for thirty minutes is stare! You've not moved, not fidgeted, not looked around. You've just watched me!"
The lazy shrug of the small male's shoulders angered Beyond more than he cared to admit.
With his fists clenched at his sides, the young killer took a deep breath and composed himself before shaking his head and continuing in his pacing. The children had been told to wait in this particular classroom for their teacher to arrive. The teacher who, Beyond assumed, should have arrived quite a while ago.
Beyond hoped they were dead.
But the sound of a door being pushed, hesitantly, open caused B's head to whip around, a few black strands of hair spattering his cheek. A young man with glasses appeared to be peeking inside but, upon realising that there were actually children inside, his features were replaced with a look of relief.
"I found you!"
This was the person they had sent to instruct them? To teach them to hone their abilities? This thing?! Beyond's anger rose to the surface again but he quickly buried it and grinned, walking forward to meet the teacher before he entered too much into the room.
"Mr Oakland I presume?"
A small hand was extended towards the, clearly very disorganised, man as his smile grew even further. This was obviously an unexpected gesture and the poor, flustered fool soon dropped various papers and a bag in his quick attempt to shake the hand offered to him. However, it wasn't until a nervous, shaky hand had pushed up and repositioned his glasses that he decided to speak.
"Ah! Yes. That's me. I wasn't aware that you had been informed of my name! How interesting."
Beyond nodded eagerly.
"Oh yes, I know more than you'd think."
B found himself biting back a small chuckle at that because that fact was actually rather true. At first glance, Beyond did know more about him than the man did himself. After all, one doesn't just happen to know the date their going to die.
"Well, I don't have a reason to complain. I guess that makes things easier on me then do-"
"How many figures of pi can you recite?"
The sudden interruption clearly through him off guard and Beyond smirked as he found himself watch the 'teacher' flounder for an appropriate answer.
"Erm... excuse me?"
Oh how I loath having to repeat myself to morons.
"Pi. The mathematical number? How many figures can you recite off-by-heart?"
There was an evidently confused blink before his mouth opened again. "Three point one four one five nine?"
Beyond sighed.
"That didn't answer the question I asked. Had I asked you to recite pi then you would have been correct, I simply asked how many. Try again."
"I can recite it to five decimal places. Why is this important?"
"I can recite it to around one million digits by memory. That's two hundred thousand times more than the amount you can remember."
Another confused blink was offered to the conversation in place of a response. It was met with another, rather frustrated, sigh.
"Are you incapable of grasping what it is that I'm implying, Mr Oakland? Your intelligence is nowhere near equal to mine. Whether or not it is equal to little A over there is something I am unaware of as, it appears, the young fool refuses to utter a word in my presence. However, it does not match mine, therefore how do you suppose you are capable and suitable to teach us to a level which might even be considered moderately useful?"
Beyond's question was met with silence - apart from that incessant ticking, of course - as the man's brain attempted to process the information which had just been supplied to him.
He's that slow he hasn't even figured out you've insulted him yet.
However, that was short-lived and the moment his brain caught up, his features were creased slightly in a mixture of surprise and anger. But, Beyond wasn't going to allow him to feel as though he had any right to shout at him because, quite frankly, that would be more foolish than the apparent 'teacher' stood in front of him.
A small hand was lifted to silence the voice of the adult that was threatening to escape. His polite smile returned.
"For your own safety and for my own sanity, I suggest you collect those papers you have strewn across this space, pick up your bag, and leave. You will have no positive contribution to either of our lives, therefore this would just be a waste of our time."
When he made no move to leave, obviously perplexed by what was happening here, Beyond dropped the smile and lowered his voice so A wouldn't be able to hear.
"If you're not gone in the next thirty seconds, I'm going to kill you where you stand. You're going to lie and say that you don't have anything to teach us that we don't already know. You're going to mention nothing of our encounter and you're just going to leave quietly. Do you understand?"
There was a light nod of a bespectacled head.
"Good. Now, if I find out that you have lied to me, I will find you. Don't take that lightly." The quiet voice lifted to a higher and happier volume as his smile returned. "It's been a pleasure meeting you, Mr Oakland. I'm sure you'll have such a wonderful life."
He turned his back and sauntered over to one of the desks, perching on the table just in time to see the quickly retreating back of poor Mr Oakland. However, when he turned his attention back to A, there was an obvious question being displayed on the small boy's features.
What just happened?
This was just met with a small lift and fall of Beyond's slender shoulders and a small smile. "What can I say? He just wasn't cut out for the job."
A was an intelligent child, just like Beyond, so B had no doubt that he would fall for that obvious lie for one second. However he internally hoped he was smart enough not to push it any further. A wasn't a worthy third victim, after all.
Clearly he was smart enough since Beyond was just met with another question. Although, this one was technically more of a statement, the question behind the five words was clear.
We weren't told his name.
Beyond tapped the side of his nose and grinned. "Perhaps you weren't, but I have my sources."
Oh, if only he knew how true that was.
*Author's Note*: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, viewed, favourited and followed. I'm so very glad that each and every one of you like this story so much. It makes writing this a lot more enjoyable, to be honest. So I'm grateful to you all. You will, hopefully, be introduced to a new character soon (as long as everything goes to plan) so I'm looking forward to showing you all him/her. I won't keep you waiting too long, hopefully.
I love you all and hope you have a nice Christmas if I don't speak to you before!