Chapter 7

The murders won't stop, and Katherine wants to get justice.

Three days after the first girl, a sophomore, was found dead and tied to a wall in the school, the principal got word of another. This victim was another girl, a senior, who had been put on a wall in the shape of--what one teacher said it looked like--a K. The first victim looked like an capital I.

“That is weird,” said Simon. Him, Claire, and I met in lunch at a table on the side of the room. No one sat around us, but some students gave the two seniors I was sitting with a look of disapproval. “Do you think the killer is going to hunt down these students until he spells something out?”

“That is disturbing, not to mention it could be a lot of students,” I told him, looking around at all of the kids in the cafeteria. Everyone went about their day normally, trying not to think of the murders. But how could they when they could be next?

Claire leaned in, not wanting to say it out so loud. “Let’s not wait to see who is next. Let’s just stake the school out and skip all of our classes until we see this guy.”

Simon and I shook our heads, “No, that could take forever. It’d be boring, and we’d get into a ton of trouble.”

Neither of us knew what to do next. All we wanted to do was help, maybe find out who was doing this, and make sure we’re safe. A teacher had talked to us after word went around about the first girl. He told us that the killer wouldn’t go through the trouble of killing targets, twisting their bodies, unless he had some purpose of actually targeting them. Like maybe their parents did something, or they were rejecting a student. Although, Simon came up with the idea that it couldn’t be a student. Not unless it was a senior who stood out with a ton of magical strength. All the seniors in the school didn’t seem to fit that.

“If this girl was a target, we need to see if there were any links between them,” Claire said, acting as if she was a detective. She took out a notepad and a pen and started to write. First was their names. From them, it didn’t look like they were sisters. Maybe cousins? Neither of us knew. “One was a sophomore and one was a senior. The perp isn’t aiming at just one class rank.”

That told us no one was safe.

“Both were girls. Maybe the guy or woman has something against females.” Simon chimed in, looking around at the other girls in the cafeteria. “Most of them are snobs.”

Claire gave Simon a look, and I just laughed.

“Anything to add, Kate?” Claire readied her pen, but I shook my head. “Great. All we have are two separate class ranks, both female, and now the teachers saying they look like letters on walls.”

“What about where they were put? They weren’t on the same hall,” I finally had something worthy to say. The sophomore girl had been strapped with magic on one of the english wings, while the senior girl was across the school on a math wing. One hall connected the two, and it made me even more nervous since I had to go down the same one once the bell rang. “Oh no, that hall connecting them.”

The bell rang.

Simon and Claire looked at me, worry glued in their eyes. Both of them had to go upstairs for their classes. I hadn’t made any friends other than them, if you can even call them friends. Claire still hated me and only was interested working this mystery alongside me.

“You’ll be okay,” Simon assured me. “Stick with any crowd and stay close.”

That is what I tried, but all of the “snobby” girls walked away from me. No one seemed to notice the danger. Then, something happened. There was a spark of light, an explosion, and everyone started running and screaming.

One girl started calling out that her friend was taken. The PA snapped on, the principals voice saying to find cover and hide, that she’d be on her way.

I couldn’t just hide, not when the thought of saving this poor girl flashed in my head. The hallway where I worried was exactly where he hit, taking the girl. I ran to the branching hallway where the smoke was and lifted my hand. “Clear,” I said, and the smoke seemed to move out of my way. Every was running in the opposite direction, so I wasn’t worried with using magic. Continuing down the hall, I saw more flashes. And as I turned, I saw the worst thing I had ever seen before.

On the far side of the hall I had just turned the corner to was a tall man wearing old rags as a cloak. He had the girl prompted on the wall, a light coming from what looked like a Hex Driver. Her limbs were bound to the wall, and then he looked over.

“Stop!” I shouted. It was too late. Fresh blood seeped from the body on to the floor. The girl was already dead. With me charging him, we put out his hand and mumbled something. I fell flat on my stomach and passed out.

When I woke up, Simon and Claire were sitting next to me in the infirmary. They told me that the principal found me unconscious and had a teacher bring me here right away. Who ever the guy was must have gotten away before anyone else could have spotted him.

Then Claire told me the girl was a freshman. Her body was looped into an N, her spine broken and is what killed her. The blood was from the guy’s magic cutting into her wrists.

“That is horrible,” I said.

“I, K, N.” Simon read off of his own notepad, the letters that the bodies were put in.

Whatever it was he was trying to spell made no sense to any of us. He had marked three walls in a square of branching hallways. All of them surrounded a classroom-less chunk of the school. Which Simon thought was weird that it even had that.

Claire was worried, though, for me. The guy had seen me and I could be the newest target and next body to be shaped into a letter.