A Night of Madness

A man in his fifties approached me, he was one of the detectives from the last time.

“What a mess of a situation we have here.”, he sighs. “Let’s talk inside my car.”

I get up without saying anything and follow him to his car.

The detective opened the door for me and I sat in the back seat. Inside I saw the other detective from the last time in the driver’s seat. He was looking at me in the mirror with piercing eyes.

After sitting in the passenger’s seat, the detective started talking. “So can you explain me what happened there?”

“That’s what I wanted to know, Mr. Detective.”

“It’s Arata. Like I said before, I’m trying to be your friend, so call me using my name.”

“I’m sorry… Arata.”

“Good. Now, tell me what were you doing there.”

I couldn't do anything else, so I told him everything that happened. Answering every single question.

“That’s a really strange story. Do you mind if check your phone?”

I give my phone to Arata who starts to read the messages there. The other detective is still looking at me in the mirror.

“Here’s your phone.”

“Thank you.”, I said while getting it.

Arata stays silent with his eyes closed for a moment before he speaks again. “Both the first murder and this one makes really easy to blame you. Considering we don’t have any other lead and the only other suspect is your friend Hayato, if I arrest you right now, I don’t think anyone would complain.”

“What?! But I’m innocent! I had no reason to kill them!”

“Wait, I didn’t finish yet.”, he once again sighs. “Still, there’s something really strange here. After Mei’s incident, I questioned that girl, Sakura, and she said that you would never kill Mei, but she never really explained why.”

She did say something like that to me earlier today.

“So, the biggest question is: Why would you kill someone who defended you?”

That’s right. If I was Mei’s killer, killing Sakura wouldn’t help me in anything.

“Arata, I think someone is trying to frame me. I don’t know why, but that’s what I believe.”

“That’s one possibility. But that create a bunch of other questions.”

This situation is terrible. I’m innocent, but without any hard evidence to prove that, no one will truly believe me. Arata can keep saying he is my friend, but he’ll still suspect me until the very end…

“Can I ask something?”

“Go ahead, Souma.”

“Did Sakura say anything about Mei acting weird that Friday?”

Arata scratches his head. “Huh, I don’t think I need to hide this from you… She did say that Mei was a bit weird that day. During the activities of the gardening club in special, she was very distracted, as if she was constantly thinking about something. And Mei didn’t do anything strange on the previous days. Sakura said that something probably happened after Mei returned home from school on Thursday and that would explain her behavior during Friday.”

While Arata gave me more details, it was basically the same thing Sakura said to me this morning. With one exception...

“And did she say anything about going to hide something with Mei?”

“Huh? No, she didn’t say anything about this. What would they hide? After all the questioning, it’s safe to say that Sakura and Mei were never together outside the school in the past two weeks. Are you saying they hid something in the school?”

“No, I can’t affirm that. We talked this morning and I asked her about Mei. She said basically the same thing she said to you, but she mentioned about hiding something before she changed the topic.”

“I’ll keep that in mind when questioning Sakura’s friends. But for now, you can go home.”

Although I can’t really say I’m happy, those words made me feel a little better.

“Just remember one thing: Don’t tell anyone about Sakura’s death. We’ll try to hide this for some days because two murders in less than one week could cause some panic. This city isn’t used to such violence, so Mei’s death alone was enough to make the media go a bit crazy.”

“I understand. So, if you excuse me.”

“Sure, have a good night.”

“Good night for you two too.”

I left the car and went home, so I didn’t heard the conversation inside the car.

“Are you sure about that, Arata? Didn’t you speak a little too much?”

“Ha ha ha, not at all. Everything is going as planned.”

“Still, I would just keep him under arrest for now.”

“That won’t work. If the killer is trying to blame Souma, keeping him under arrest would only help the killer.”

“But if Souma is the killer, he just proved he’ll keep killing. No… Even if Souma isn’t the killer, the murders...”

“Will keep happening, right? I really don’t want anyone else to die, so I’m gambling here... Well, the bait has been placed, now we wait.”

Arata looked outside, the police still working on the scene. “Sill, I respect your opinion, so you can go with that.”

The other detective smiled, like he was eagerly waiting for that approval.

“Now, what are you going to do, Souma?”, Arata said when the other detective started the car.

After resting a bit at home, my stomach makes a sound. It’s like an alarm saying I need to eat now, so I go to the kitchen.

“Maybe I should get something in the fridge.”, I said to myself.

I open the fridge, inside a girl is looking at me. Her face full of blood with eyes that seem to beg for mercy…

I wake up yelling. Near me, my phone’s alarm is rigging.

“A nightmare...”

I put my hand in my face trying to calm myself. After some moments, I start my morning routine.

When I leave my home, something unexpected happened: Hayato was outside waiting for me.

“Hi! Let’s go together today?”

“Hi. What brings you here at this hour? You need to go out of your way to pass here first.”

“You know… It was because of my sister.”

We start walking towards the school.

“Your sister? Is this another thing she asked for you to do?”

Hayato scratches his head. “Something like that...”

“Oh...”

“I’m not very good in thinking about difficult stuff, so...”

The day before.

“Brother, aren’t you being a bit too carefree?”

“Huh? Why are you saying that?”

“How can you ask that while playing video games?!”, she sighs. “Listen! Even if you don’t care about what happened, how is Souma doing? He is your best friend, right? Shouldn’t you be helping him more?”

“Helping with what?”

“Aaaaahhhhh!”, she yelled. “My dear brother, you would do everything for your sister, right?”, a strange smile was on her face.

“Of course!”

“So, tomorrow morning you’ll visit Souma and go to school with him!”

“What?”

“Do you understand?!”

“Yes, my dear sister!”

“And here I’m! So, my best friend, you can share your worryings with me!”, he said in a joking tone.

“You really do everything your sister asks you.”, I say laughing.

“Of course! She is my precious little sister!”

“Anyway, thank you.”

“Don’t mention it! So, let’s talk about something good! Yesterday I was playing a RPG...”

Yeah, I can’t stay gloomy. I need to confront everything with my head up.

And for the first time in years, we went together to school.

As we entered the classroom, I could hear a girl sobbing, the same girl who was crying yesterday.

I can’t imagine how she’ll feel when she learns about Sakura’s death.

Hina and Naoto were already here, so I greeted them and some minutes after, the teacher arrived.

Two desks were empty. One of them, Mei’s, had some flowers.

“Before we start today, Sakura’s family said she’ll be absent for some days because of some personal matters.”

Lies.

“And like yesterday, no one should stay after school. Go straight to your home. Understood?”

“Yes!”, the class replied.

“So, let’s start.”

“What you wanted to say to us?”, Hina asked.

Just like yesterday, we’re eating lunch at the same spot in the schoolyard.

“The police said I shouldn’t tell this to anyone, but I don’t think it’s right to hide this from you. That said, this is a secret between us, understood?”

My friends stayed silent, just nodding to reply my question.

“What the teacher said earlier is a lie, Sakura was murdered yesterday.”

“Wha-”, before he could finish, Hina blocked Hayato’s mouth with her hand.

“Don’t say anything loud, stupid!”

“That’s a shocking information, but how do you know that?”, Naoto asked.

“I found her body.”

“Wha-”, Hina once again blocked Hayato’s mouth.

Naoto adjusted his glasses. “Is your new hobby to find dead people, Souma?”

“Don’t even joke about that! Sakura said she wanted to visit me so we could talk, but she never came. So I left my house to go to hers, but I didn’t know where she lived and when I tried to call someone, I found her body near my house.”

“That’s a strange story. I know you aren’t a murderer, but could you tell us everything in detail, so we can understand better?”, Naoto asked.

Since the beginning, my intention was to tell everything to them, so I did that.

“Just trying to think about this makes my head hurt.”, Hayato said giving up already.

“That means Sakura knew something, right? I talked with some girls yesterday about what happened with Mei and no one told me anything about Sakura. I think I’ll need to speak with them again.”, Hina said.

“There’s something really strange about this.”

“What is strange?”, I asked Naoto.

“If Sakura knew something, she had a lot of time to tell the police about it.”

“So maybe it’s not that Sakura knew who was the killer, but she had something that could reveal his identity?”, Hina said.

“That’s probably the reason”.

“Sakura told me about hiding something with Mei. Maybe that’s it? But she didn’t say anything about this to the police.”, I give this new information to them.

“The more I hear about this, everything makes even less sense.”, Naoto said in defeat.

Before we could continue, the bell ringed.

“After school, I’m going to see my girlfriend, but I’ll try to think about something. I want to help you.”, Naoto said to me while we returned to the classroom.

“Me too! Like I said, I’ll question the girls again!”, Hina said trying to smile.

“I’m not good about thinking, but if you need a hand, just say!”, Hayato offered his help.

“Thank you. I’ll try to do something too.”

I need to find something. Anything that could help me get out of this situation. So even if it’s something meaningless, I will act today.

After the classes ended, I did as the teacher said and went straight home.

I have some plans for this night, so as soon I arrived, I went to my bed to get some rest. After emptying my mind, I slept.

After a much needed nap, it was time to go. I left my bed and went to the wardrobe to get a change of clothes, but when I opened its door and saw what was inside, my heart jumped. There, a girl with her face full of despair and blood was looking at me.

“Why did I have to die?”

I open my eyes and put my hands in my face. My nightmares are getting crazier and thanks to them I don’t feel rested at all.

It was still 7 PM. Too early.

I go to the window. The city was still alive with some cars passing in the street. Then, something caught my attention.

“Is that a man behind the light pole?”

Across the street, a strange man was leaning against a light pole, but I could only see a small part of him. I stayed there trying to get a better look at him when he moved a bit to look at my house.

As by instinct, I moved away from the window for a moment. When I looked again, he was hiding once more.

Who is him? A cop? Or… the murderer?

I closed the curtain and went to the kitchen to get something to eat. After that, I played some games until it was really dark.

11:00 PM. I open the curtain to look outside again. After confirming that the street is empty and silent, I get a flashlight and leave the house.

My plan right now is to just go to the school. I don’t know what I really expect to find there, but by doing this, by trying to do anything, I think I’ll remove some weight from my shoulders.

In the way, I see Tama again.

Go away, you give bad luck.

And as if he could read my thoughts, he disappeared in the darkness.

Not a single soul in the street, not a single sound. It’s like I’m in a ghost town. But I can’t keep calm, I keep looking everywhere, imagining someone could appear from the shadows to attack me.

I pass in front of a still opened convenience store and I see a light down the street, a light from a police car.

To not be seen by it, I return to the convenience store, entering inside it. While seeing the police car passing by in the street, I bought a chocolate and put it in my pants pocket.

After leaving the store, I checked the street again to make sure no one was there and resumed my walk to the school.

Soon, I reached the closed school’s gate. I looked inside and it was nearly pitch black with very few lights on in the schoolyard. I kept looking for some time, trying to find any source of light that would reveal Akira’s position right now, but I found nothing. And that’s really strange... If he isn’t patrolling the school, why isn’t he by the gate?

I can’t stay here forever, so I once again check the street, only to be greeted by the empty night. After nodding to myself, I jumped the gate.

Now, what should I do?

Sakura and Mei probably hid something here in the school, but that’s everything I know. How could I search for something I don’t know what is in a big school like this one? I knew from the very beginning it was a waste of time, but I really wanted to tell to myself that I’m trying to do something, that I’m not just sitting in my house praying for good news.

I walk towards the central area of the schoolyard, and there I look at each building. I still can’t see any sight of where Akira is and this is making me a bit uneasy. I look at the top of the first building, the place where I found Mei’s body, trying to think about anything. But it’s useless. Without a clear goal in mind, I enter the first building.

Inside is completely dark, so I turned on the flashlight I brought with me. I look left and right in the corridor, just to find emptiness… A bunch of first year classrooms, the stairs to the second floor and a very small room under the stairs for the janitor.

I go to the janitor’s room to find it locked. Then, I try to open a classroom door in the left side of the corridor and it really opened.

I enter the classroom, but… “Now what?”, I sigh. A normal, empty classroom, with no place to hide anything.

After wasting some time, I leave that classroom and go to the next.

Nothing again.

And then, I go to the next.

Of course, nothing there.

And I arrive in the last one. Inside, I sit on chair while looking to the ceiling.

“What am I doing? I really can’t do anything?”

Where would be a good place to hide an object in a school? It must be place where the other students can’t find it by accident…

After some minutes thinking, I leave the classroom and…

“What?!”

I can’t believe what I’m seeing. Footprints in the corridor! Looking closer, they start right in front of the door of the classroom, going in the direction of the other end of the corridor.

They weren’t here when I entered!

I touch one of the footprints…

“Earth?”

With caution, I follow the footprints. I pass in front of the classes I entered earlier, the janitor’s room and the stairs. I finally stop in front of another classroom door.

“Whoever left those footprints entered this classroom...?”

There’s a small glass panel in the door, so I peek inside. It’s completely dark, but I don’t see any strange shadow inside.

There’s no other option.

I put my hand in the doorknob and I slowly open the door, peeking inside while doing that.

The classroom seemed really empty, still I illuminated it with my flashlight. Seeing only the student’s desks, I fought the urge of wanting to turn the lights on. But when I turned to the blackboard I froze in place. Someone had left a message written there.

“Help me? What’s the meaning of this?”

At that moment, I hear a strange sound and looking around me, I don’t find its source.

“Stay calm.”, I say to myself while closing my eyes.

The sound… A sound of something swinging?

I leave the classroom trying to find its source.

“It’s coming from the second floor?”, I say to myself while stopping in front of the stairs.

I hold my breath, slowly going upstairs. Meanwhile, the sound seems to be getting weaker, so whatever is swinging is coming to a stop.

Arriving in the second floor, I look to both sides to find that I’m alone.

The now very weak sound is coming from the classroom directly above the last one I was before, so go in its direction.

At the door, I again peek inside through the small glass panel. There, I see a big shadow hanging in the middle of the classroom. What is that? Without lights, I can’t make out anything.

With a trembling hand, I try to open the door, but it’s locked.

“What? Why? Every other classroom is opened!”

I try to open again with some force, but it won’t budge. I look inside again, the shadow still there.

Damn it! Why is this locked?!

I can’t just try to break the door, the sound would surely draw the attention of the night guard who was somewhere in the school.

Frustrated, I give up and start to walk away.

Click.

The sound of the door unlocking.

I stop. It seems like my soul will leave my body at any moment. I keep waiting for the door to open, but that never happens.

What is happening here?!

I return to the door, but before trying to open it, I look inside. Nothing changed, the shadow is still there.

With my heart racing like never before, I try to open the door. The sound of it opening brings fear to every single part of my body. Not seeing anything right in front of me, I enter the classroom, with my attention fixed into the shadow.

Slowly, I move the flashlight’s light in its direction and my heart stops.

“What is this?! No… No… This is impossible! This can’t be happening!”

The shadow was a person. It was Akira, hanged. But this can’t be a suicide! This would be the most absurd suicide ever! Because there’s something in his chest, something like a stake piercing his heart.

My brain can’t process the absurdity of this situation. Nothing about this scene makes any sense besides explaining why I couldn't find Akira anywhere. Still, I try to calm myself without success.

What should I do? What should I do?!

Once again, I hear a sound. A sound clearly coming from the first floor.

In despair, I leave the classroom, stopping in front of the stairs. Steps. Someone is coming, my escape route is blocked.

For some reason, my brain sounds every alarm in my body, like it’s saying I’m going to die.

Finally, I see a shadow. That’s when I run to the end of corridor. There, I open a window. Looking outside I see some grass.

Good.

Without thinking twice, with my body full of adrenaline, I jump. Not really felling the impact, I run to the gate, jumping it in a way I never imagined I could do. Still dominated by the fear, I disappeared in the night. I didn’t even see the car parked across the street in front of the school. A car that wasn’t there before.