The Phantom School

During the whole lesson, I could think about nothing but ways to protect her from the fate she was yet to face. Mr. Kenan wasn"t thinking so seriously about it, but an amateur operation could easily kill people. I was a bit too lucky to survive, but it was possible that the others wouldn"t share the same fate with me. It was a stupid risk to take. "Ambitions" of The Community was about to cause deaths once again, after many years... Time quickly pa.s.sed as I was thinking about all those.

Towards the end of the lesson, I peeked into my suitcase. The knife was still there, in case I ever needed it.

The bell rang. It was lunch time.

Everyone started to get out of the cla.s.sroom, but I had to find that girl. I spotted her grouping up with her friends near the corner of the cla.s.sroom. I had no idea how to get her to follow me without evincing the hard situation I was in. I had to figure out a good lie.

I approached the group and called her out.

"Hey, uh... Cansu!"

"Hi there, teacher!" she replied cheerfully. "You need help with the door again?"

That girl and her mocking "humor"... She was almost starting to get on my nerves.

"No, I don"t, thank you." I said, calmly. "Mr. Kenan is your teacher, right?" I asked her.

"Oh, yeah." she replied. "Why did you ask?"

"He was looking for you before this lesson." I said. "I think it was urgent. He asked me to tell you if I encounter you."

"Oh, I got it." she said. "He probably wants to see my notes from previous cla.s.s again." She grabbed one of her notebooks and got out of the cla.s.sroom without saying anything to me. I followed her from a distance as she made her way to the chemistry lab. Apparently, it was well known that Mr. Kenan was spending most of his time there instead of the teachers" room.

She got inside, and after a few seconds I heard something fall down inside the lab. I followed her in... What a sight!

She was laying still on the ground, and her notebook was just next to her on the floor. However, there was no blood at all.

I immediately opened up my suitcase, searcing for the knife. When I was looking for it, I started feeling dizzy. Suddenly, I felt something on my arms. It was Mr. Kenan. He pushed me out of the lab. I fell down on my back, and everything inside my suitcase scattered around. He held me tightly as he put on a gas mask in my face. That mask certainly wasn"t a part of a usual lab gear.

"You will need that." he said and let me go. He quickly ran back inside the lab. "Come in when you are ready." he said and closed the door.

I looked around to see my folders and papers scattered around on the floor. I had to collect them before I went back inside. I looked back inside my suitcase to see what"s left. It was alarming, the knife wasn"t there! It wasn"t something I could lose. It wasn"t only that I would be left defenseless, but if someone had found it laying around, there would be a crisis in the school. I immediately started searching for it, and found it under one of the folders on the floor. I was very lucky that it wasn"t spotted by Mr. Kenan or someone else that happened to pa.s.s by.

I quickly put everything back into my suitcase and got inside the lab.

"Lock it." said Mr. Kenan. I locked the lab"s door and went to a smaller room at the back of the lab. My student... She was laying there on her back unconsciously, with no clear expression of any emotion.

Mr. Kenan was holding a syringe, trying to adjust the dose of some medicine. He noticed me looking curiously at it.

"Since you were too worried, I thought we could be more professional this time." he said. He really had brought some medical equipment in the lab secretly. But no matter how much equipment we had, unless we were in a hospital with real surgeons, operating on a human being was unacceptable. Not only that it was illegal; but it was cruel, immoral, savage. I couldn"t possibly watch him butchering one of my students. My time to act was approaching.

Mr. Kenan was finally satisfied with the precision of the dose of the medicine in the syringe. He started walking this way to start the operation. I was nervous. I was sweating and my hands were shaking, but I had no time to lose. I opened my suitcase and grabbed the knife without getting it out for Mr. Kenan to see.

He suddenly stopped walking and looked at my face. I was probably looking very nervous.

"Are you okay? Is the chemical affecting you?" he asked.

"P-perhaps..." I said.

"Go take fresh air outside, and come back again before I begin. Don"t forget to lock the door again as you come back." he said. I released the knife and got my mask off, then went out of the lab.

I wanted to get rid of Mr. Kenan. No matter what his motives were, I couldn"t support the way he chose to deal with the situation.

I took my time outside trying to calm myself down. I had seen people die, but it definitely wasn"t making it easy to murder someone. I replayed and altered my plan in my head a few times.

After I got rid of Mr. Kenan, I would get Cansu out of the lab and lock Mr. Kenan"s corpse inside for the rest of the day. The chemistry lab wasn"t being used since the year had just started a few days ago, and the students were just getting started with the first subjects. As he had no lessons after lunchtime today, no one would come looking for Mr. Kenan in there. After the end of the day, I would come back to the lab to clean it up of the evidence. After that, I would get the body and the weapon out of the building. I would burn the body and bury the ashes with the knife somewhere in the woodland, far below ground level.

"No, still too risky." I murmured.

While playing every possible murder scenario in my head, I had spent a lot of time. I noticed that and rushed back into the lab. I locked the door behind me. No matter what would happen afterwards, I had to do what I had in my mind.

"There you are." he looked up. "I was almost done."

"WHAT!?" I yelled. I was late, and it was horrifying. Cansu was laying on her chest, half naked. Her back was full of blood, and some cuts were still bleeding as Mr. Kenan was trying to close them up in amateur ways.

"Why didn"t you tell me!?" I asked.

"You were looking nervous, so I figured that it would be better for you if you didn"t have to see the whole operation." he said.

I put my right hand inside my suitcase again, trying to find the knife. I finally found and grabbed it, but didn"t pull it out. I wanted to wait for Mr. Kenan to close up the wounds. I couldn"t leave her wounded like that.

After he was done roughly sealing up the cuts and cleaning up her back, he went to put some of the equipment away.

He wasn"t looking this way.

It was time. I held my breath.

Just when he was returning, I pulled the knife out.