The Sinners' Queen

He didn"t know what kind of bad luck struck at him today but even after fulfilling his a.s.signed role, the Monday committee leader made him carry all the cleaning tools back to the storage room by himself. The leader reasoned out they would be the ones to arrange the armchairs and tables back in.

In the end, he could only blame himself for not going that extra mile to skip the remaining cla.s.ses.

"Let me help you!"

It was right amidst the flight of stairs headed towards the ground floor that a girl with wavy long hair stood in his way and said this. A dazzling smile...was not on her face, instead, she still looked like someone commanding her underling.

"Consider it my apology, so let me help."

"If you want to offer a hand, why just when that someone is descending the staircase? Are you sure your intention is to help and not to distract and make him fall down?"

Fortunately, Chris still had some self-control so he only stared at her coldly and did not speak his thoughts aloud. He then evaded her and sped up his steps after reaching the ground floor.

"Hey!"

Chris turned his body to the side so that the girl wouldn"t be able to steal the big box with tools sticking out on it from him. Afterward, he resumed walking, leaving the girl frustrated at her failed attempt.

"You"re not talking, and you"re not letting me help you in carrying that. What do you want?"

"Peace of mind," he unconsciously replied.

"Huh? But what I mean is I want to apologize," said the girl who had obviously followed him.

In an annoyed voice, and without turning his head back, he clarified. "That"s why I said, peace of mind. You go away, don"t ever bother me, and we"re gonna be even."

If he could only see Wendy"s current expression, the girl"s face was dark. She was also pouting. It was unknown whether she was feeling wronged or guilty.

"You trying to get rid of me is clear proof that you don"t want to forgive me. I"m really sorry. What do you really want me to do for you to accept that?" she muttered begrudgingly.

By that time, he had already dropped off everything inside the storage room. He didn"t bother checking if something fell off or missing and just made way to the door of the dark and dusty room. He extremely disliked this place, and if possible, it was somewhere he doesn"t ever want to go back. It was due to this that he was in a hurry to turn around and leave.

When he turned around, at the doorway, Wendy was giving him an expression that was different from usual. She looked troubled, making him wonder if she was the type who disliked owing anything to someone. Was this the reason she was being persistent? Because she owed him an apology?

He shook his head, especially when the foreign being started singing its tune again.

Admiringly, despite hearing its obnoxious comment, Chris" expression didn"t change. He didn"t act offended even though it mentioned so many insensitive things like her and his virginity. He just remained cold-looking and expressionless as if he never heart a thing in the first place.

This deepened the annoyance and guilt in Wendy"s heart though. She was wondering why this bloke hadn"t said anything yet. Was her fault really too much this time? Well, she did mention the word heartbreak and that must have poked the wound in his heart regarding Felicity"s death so she could understand... but why was he not saying anything? All she wanted to know was how to get his forgiveness so that she could peacefully move on with her life without having her conscience acting up from time to time.

"Don"t tell me I have to bring up a ridiculous story of me suddenly losing track of reality thus mistakenly saying that... just to deal with this mess?" she asked inwardly with a grimace.

In the end, the guy who was now free of extra weights kept his silence and even ran away in order to leave her behind. She stupidly watched him go away and when she realized what just happen, she could only angrily stare at his fleeing figure, cursing at his unreasonableness for making a fool out of her in front of some other students.

Actually Chris just truly didn"t want to entangle with her and so he used that "not forgiving you ever" excuse to remain dodgy and cold to her. Anyway, he wouldn"t be seeing her anymore after this week, so making up or not, it wouldn"t make a difference.

Yes, it wouldn"t. After all, they were not really more than strangers to each other. Why deepen a relations.h.i.+p that would never be advanced? They wouldn"t cross paths anymore. It would just be a waste of effort and time.

Or at least that was what he wanted to believe.

Sadly, reality had always been not kind to people who always wanted to deny it. For example, it made him have more numerous coincidental encounters with Wendy. Reality really was also tightly connected to fate thus moving in a way not mostly expected and liked by many people who don"t want to be knocked out of their set beliefs.

Chris was already back to the cla.s.sroom and was fetching his backpack, ready to go home. At the hallway, he had already nodded his goodbye to his remaining cla.s.smates and acquaintances. When he arrived at the locker room, there were only less than ten students there who were probably cleaners of the day like him, albeit from the other sections.

He opened his own locker and took out the pair of rubber shoes he left there. Normally he only uses them when in the PE cla.s.s, but due to the slight drizzling outside, he had to exchange his current leather shoes with it.

A few minutes later, Chris was about to open the folding umbrella in his hands when the unbound system"s high-pitch voice suddenly deafened the heck out of him, almost causing him to tumble.

His hands opening the umbrella paused. Chris" whole person seemed to have been rooted in place. There were various reasons behind this, but the number one was not discovering the system"s fear of him losing his chance to become a host, but its mention of a life getting in danger.

He asked while still in a daze. "What did you say again...? She"s in danger? But we just parted ways not long ago so why is she in danger?"

If Chris says he didn"t hesitate after regaining his mind and realizing the situation had something to do with one of the mysterious hosts, then he"d be lying big time. There was also his supposed vow to not get involved with either the hosts and Wendy. And his apprehension that maybe, this system was just lying to make him go to its intended mission target.

However, when he thought of an ordinary person defenselessly getting attacked by a criminal, he couldn"t pretend to not know anything. He might have gone through a tremendous change in temperament and became a lot colder and indifferent, but deep down, he was still the same morally good and stupidly soft-hearted Chris Meyer. Since there was already a precedent, he knew that there was a possibility, a high one even, that the host earlier got Wendy under control again! As someone in the know, he could not remain cold and unconcerned.

This was why he immediately dispelled all thoughts of pretending to be oblivious to it just to stick to his initial plan. And when the system graciously provided him her current location, he no longer dilly-dallied and madly began to sprint towards the said place.

Whether he becomes a hero or a stupid fool later was the least of his worries.

He thought, he"d save the worries for later.

For now, what important was to ensure Wendy Gomez" safety!

He ignored its nonsense, especially the "your" before that woman"s name, and just stared straight ahead. He was only about four meters away and from outside the door, he could see a very familiar woman with arms crossed under her bust, who was initially staring inside the Faculty Room, turning her head to his direction.

Chris stopped running a meter away from the beautiful woman, especially when he noticed her holding a cellphone with its camera pointed at the doorway"s direction. As he panted for breath, he couldn"t take away from what was in her hands, the system and the imaginary alarms in his head ringing continuously without pause, reminding him that something was wrong about the situation.

"Are you headed for the Faculty Room?" suddenly the female senior asked, a smile was hung on her perfectly shaped red colored lips. Her pupils faintly lit up, literally, for a very brief moment. Were it not for the devil in his head warning him, he might have missed the oddness in her tone and eyes.

Because of its reminder, he didn"t bother nodding at the famed campus beauty and just stormed into the room. He didn"t expect though to be greeted by the sight that he only often saw from a movie.

There were screams coming from everywhere. More than ten Faculty members dressed in blue teacher"s uniform were huddling at one side in groups of threes or fours. Papers, pens, and even chairs were messily scattered on the floor, and on one corner of this mess, somewhere near the other door from the left, was a beautiful long-haired girl.

She was facing his direction so he could somehow see the real situation. Her hair was a mess, and her eyes obviously lacking in focus.

Another person was next to her, lying on his back, motionless.

When he darted his eyes back to Wendy, he saw her kneeling next to that fat teacher. There was a strong metallic scent in the air and when he looked again closely, the part of the teacher"s clothes around the stomach was heavily drenched in red, the color still spreading at a speed visible to the naked eye like ink on a paper.

Somehow, the sight of that red made Chris" breathing a bit labored. Because of this, he couldn"t help but hold his breath a bit.

He didn"t like it.

He just couldn"t, because he saw that its shade was alarmingly similar to what was coating Wendy"s right hand.... which was still tightly holding on a similarly red-dyed knife...