Nethania

Chapter 8: Isn't He?

AUSTIN

"DUDES!" Nico called out, making our heads turn to him.

We had already finished our breakfast at the dorm. We decided to wake up early since it was our routine not to wake up past six AM. We left the dorm and came up with an idea of going to the cafeteria to relax for awhile before going to our classroom. We all agreed to it since the cafeteria was one of the best places to spend leisure time.

"What's that?" I asked, peeking at him. I was scrolling my phone screen but not browsing social media sites but reviewing the topics from yesterday's lesson.

"A surprising live video from the Publication President. He was filming the hallway heading to the stockroom beside the library. Come and take a look! It's enthralling!"

Tyrone immediately moved his chair beside Nico. I pocketed my phone and rushed behind Nico's back. My eyes squeezed when I found it so interesting.

"Someone reported to me that he saw a horrible thing inside the stockroom. Mr. Jon, the janitor, saw it first when he was about to get some cleaning materials to be used in cleaning the gymnasium."

It was Jeromy Stardes, the Alviana Academy Publication President. He was walking toward a crowd where students were peeking inside the stockroom.

"I don't know what's inside the stockroom because I just left the publication office a few minutes ago, but someone told me that it was bloody. I was so excited about seeing it and I felt something strange as I got nearer to the spot."

I looked around the cafeteria. Students were also watching the live video.

"There are campus police officers who are investigating the area. What is happening? Don't tell me that someone died there."

He was nearing the stockroom and excusing himself to pave a way for him when he joined the crowd.

"Shucks! Oh my... There was a dead girl found in the stockroom—"

"Stop it boy! Stop taking a video!"

The video went black. I looked at Nico and then at Tyrone. Our foreheads creased. Crap, what is going on?

Was he saying that there had been a murder?

"Are you sure it's true?" Tyrone scoffed and returned to his seat.

Well, based on Jeromy's reaction, it was real. Jeromy wouldn't fake his video or his reaction just to gain more attention and views. He's the Publication President. He would tell students the truth only or... maybe not.

I returned to my spot and sat in my chair. "It's real. What do you think, Nico?"

Nico jerked in his seat and stared at me. He pinched his nose. "Yes, it's kinda real."

"You don't know what you're talking about!" Tyrone slammed his hand on the table.

I gazed at Nico and sighed. "What about finding the location and knowing everything about it."

We left our table and headed straight to the exit. Nico pulled the handle and Tyrone closed the door. We set forth to find the location. A stockroom was mentioned, but there were so many stockrooms here. I didn't know where to go first. We were walking down the hallway when I saw students approaching us. I clicked my tongue when I noticed a girl. She was pale and perhaps had seen a scene that made her vomit.

I confronted the boy who was the friend of the pale girl.

"Excuse me," I said, stopping them from walking and they looked at me with furrowed brows. "May I know where the location of the said crime scene?" I asked politely, receiving intent gazes from them.

The pale girl covered her mouth and bowed down her head like she was about to vomit as soon as she heard the word crime scene from my mouth. She must have seen it. No wonder.

"At the stockroom beside the library," the boy replied, while caressing the shoulders of the girl.

"Thank you," I said. They continued waking and I went back to my friends. Tyrone stood while his lips curved downwards. He was very likely disappointed in me. Nico just stared at me with his eyes squinting.

"I know where it is. Follow me," I announced.

I began striding along the hallway as my two friends followed my trail.

"Hey! I should be the one who's saying that!" Tyrone yelled.

I clicked my tongue. "You don't know where it is, Tyrone, so just follow me."

Tyrone walked beside us. "Then tell us where it is," he ordered.

"Near the library"

"Follow me," he firmly commanded, and his feet began to move quickly. His pace went fast and Nico and I were almost left out.

"He's determined to be the leader, huh?" Nico sneered. He walked beside me. Tyrone was ahead of us, so eager to see what was on show in the stockroom. We veered to the right and as soon as we reached the hallway leading to the library, we saw students gathering in the stockroom. I even saw Mr. Jon sitting in a chair and holding his head with his both hands like he was confused as f**k.

"Are you coming with me?" I asked them.

They just nodded and together we pressed ourselves into the crowd. Students were mumbling about the scene here. It was quite noisy and uncomfortable.

The sight in front of me was awfully turning my stomach over. I was repulsed by the blood scattered around the dead body, especially what her body had received from her killer. The way she was killed was brutally cruel; she was like a slaughtered animal with some metal sticks inserted through her flesh. I recognized her face and I knew her; she was Margaret Fylvin, a famous cheerleader. What got into the killer's mind to murder her like that?

"I can't bear to see it any longer, Tin. Let's leave, or else I'll vomit here," Nico whispered. His face went white and twisted like he was suppressing vomit.

"Yah, you're right. Let's leave. Call Tyrone."

We left the crowd and walked away from the crime scene. What's bothering my mind right now was the words I saw at the top corner of the wall. "One down, you're next," I mumbled. "What does it mean?" I looked upwards and inserted my hands into my pocket.

"Are you saying something, Tin?" Nico asked quietly.

I shook my head. "No, no."

"You three, stop right there!" We stopped walking and we eyed each other. We knew whose voice was it. It belonged to our head student, Alexandra Mayville. When she calls someone, it usually means trouble. And this time, she called us three. That means we are in trouble.

We faced her with innocent gazes. I knew what she was going to say. It's about the crime that happened there. I knew within myself that I was innocent.

"Who is Tyrone in your group?" she asked. My finger instinctively pointed at the man standing beside Nico. And Nico did the same.

Tyrone just glared at us. No words escaped from his mouth. He looked at Alexandra and smiled, but his eyes screamed fright. I could see his lips quivering.

Alexandra placed her hands on her waist and c****d her head while eyeing Tyrone with squinted eyes. "Are you Margaret's boyfriend?"

"Yes. What do you need?" He answered, putting his chest out and holding his chin up.

Tyrone was fully aware that his girlfriend had died this morning. He left the crime instantly when he saw it and when we asked him if he was okay, he just shook his head and wiped his tears from his eyes.

Alexandra extended her forefinger to him. "You. I need you."

"For what?"

"For an interrogation."

"What?" Tyrone raised his hand and creased his forehead. "How come I got involved in that case?" He raised his voice, which made Alexandra fold her arms and raise her eyebrows at him.

Nico leaned closer to me. "Tin, perhaps we should leave right now," he whispered, still looking at them who were engaging in a staring contest.

"No, I replied. If we slipped off secretly, we might have given them a wrong presumption about us. You know what I mean, don't you?"

Nico nodded and subtly glanced at me. "You're right. We'll stay here until they let us go."

"Exactly, dude. Stay safe."

"How did you get involved?" Alexandra began, "Simple, because you are the last person who saw Margaret before her death."

"What are you talking about?" Tyrone blatted. "You have no evidence!"

Our eyes moved to the sight of a man in his mid-thirties, wearing a cap, a blue uniform, and black shades. He was walking toward us, holding a small clipboard and a pen attached to it.

His nameplate revealed his name, A. SUAREZ. I knew this man. He was our campus police chief officer. His complete name is Azeer Suarez.

He patted Alex's shoulders. "Alexandra, that's enough. Is this Tyrone Fyle?" He took off his shades and looked at Tyrone.

"Yes, officer," Alexandra responded.

He stepped forward. "Tyrone, I know you already know—"

"I don't know about that crime, Officer. It also surprised me," Tyrone cut officer's words out of respect.

"I see, boy, I see. But do you understand why you have been reached out to?" Officer Suarez asked, maintaining a serious look and his voice was calm.

Tyrone pulled his hair backwards and scratched his neck. "Yes, I understand that I shouldn't be here and absolutely, I ain't the one you should confront."

I inserted my hand inside my pocket and eyed Tyrone. He seemed intimidated and he kept blinking his eyes.

Officer Suarez scribbled something on his clipboard. "I see your point. However, you have been regarded as a person of interest."

I sighed. That was what I've been thinking about since Alexandra called us. Tyrone followed Margaret after the confrontation in the cafeteria and then she died the next morning.

"What? I can't believe it!" Tyrone spun around and stomped his feet on the ground. He crouched and hit the pavement with his clenched fist, gritting his teeth.

His knuckles began to bleed. I stepped forward, but I felt Nico's arms stretched across my body, stopping me from walking. "You said, stay safe, so stay here."

I turned my head to Tyrone and finally he was standing and engaging in a staring contest with them.

"You've been with Margaret before she was killed and you're his boyfriend—"

"I didn't kill Margaret!" Tyrone yelled. He closed his eyes and rolled his hands into firm fists. His chest was moving up and down and his nostrils were moving as he breathed.

All the students turned to our spot. I even noticed the clique of Avia curiously moving their eyes to where we were standing. I feel pressure right now. It was like they were judging us that we did the crime. Especially that Officer Suarez was talking with us right now.

"I didn't mention that you actually killed Margaret, Tyrone, but what I'm conveying is that you're a person of interest, which means that you're identified as someone who is involved in a criminal investigation but has not been arrested or formally accused of a crime. Understood?"

Tyrone loosen his clenched fist and simply stared at Officer Suarez.

"There will be an investigation and we need your statements," Officer Suarez remarked, flipping the pen using his fingers.

Tyrone unconsciously leaned on the wall beside him and looked down. He was, perhaps, terrified when he concluded that he was suspected of murder, but it turned out that he hadn't been verified for doing it.

My body felt something moving behind me. A hand reached for my arm. I glared at Nico, who stood so firm and hard behind me. He kept pinching my arm while looking ahead.

I cleared my throat when I saw Officer Suarez approaching us. I stood up straight while looking at him. He smiled at us when he stopped and positioned himself like a superior.

I smiled. "What can we help, officer?" I asked politely. I noticed Nico just stared at him and he even didn't move his lips to give a smile. Act normally, Nico!

"Are you Tyrone's close friends? Hmm... Austin Vince and Nico?" He pointed his pen toward us and looked at us with his head slightly bowed down.

"Yes—"

"Friends, just friends!" I gazed at Nico, who cut my answer off. He was smiling, but his lips weren't curving upwards and beads of sweat began popping out of his pores.

I grinned. "Actually, Officer, he is our friend and our classmate."

He nodded and his pen began moving on the paper. "Okay, I have some questions for you."

"We'll answer it, officer," I confidently said.

"Do you know Margaret?"

"Yes, she's a famous cheerleader and she's not our classmate," I replied.

My smile vanished when he was still looking at me like he was expecting more answer from me.

"Is that all?"

"Yes."

"You." He faced Nico, whose hands were trembling while reaching for my arm. I shook his hand but he kept reaching for it. "Hey, stop it!" I whispered.

"Ah-A cheerleader," he stammered and threw a glance at me. "A flirt, a cheerful b*tch and a friendly one, that's all," he said in a rush.

He sighed. "When and where did you last saw Tyrone and Margaret together?"

I felt Nico was poking my side. I subtly glared at him and fixed my gaze on Officer Azeer. "Yesterday, at eleven o'clock in the morning, after a commotion happened between Margaret and another student, Margaret went out, Tyrone followed her, and they never came back into the cafeteria again," I stated.

He nodded and scribbled again on his clipboard. "So did he attend classes after following Margaret somewhere? What time did he go home?" He asked without looking at me.

"He didn't attend our afternoon classes and he went home at seven o'clock in the evening," I answered.

He looked around and stared at his clipboard. "Perhaps that's all. I'll call you if we need more information. He looked at us. "Okay, I'll go ahead. Study hard." He left us and brought Tyrone with him.

Tyrone eyed us with crestfallen eyes, begging us to drag him from the grip of criminal investigation, but we couldn't give him that. He was a person of interest and we didn't know if he was the killer or not.

"Thanks, Officer," I said, following them with my gaze, and when they were gone from my sight, I turned to Nico, who went back to his natural skin color.

"Thanks, Tin!" He hugged me and patted my back. And because I wasn't used to hugs, I simply pushed him away from my body, but he refused to let go.

"Hey, Nic! Let go of me."

"I'm grateful to have you right now! I couldn't move my lips to answer him. I was so, so, speechless," he chortled, smiling from ear to ear. "I thought I'd be a person of interest too!"

"No, no. I just answered his questions and we know deep down to our souls that we had nothing to do with this case. We're innocent!"

"Yes! We're innocent but it was too close," he agreed.

"Let's go.We still have morning classes."

The campus police cleaned up the mess as fast as they could. Almost half of the students had seen the horrible crime. I hope this will be the last one.

We strode down the hallway. My hands were in my pockets and Nico was swaying his hands while walking. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket, so I took it out.

"Hello?"

[Austin, how are you?]

My eyes widened when I recognized the voice of the caller. "Hello, Mr. Montevestre, a pleasant morning."

[A pleasant morning to you too, Austin.]

"Why did you call? Is there any problem?"

Conversing with this kind of man gave me creeps and a cold aura.

[News came to me that there was a murder that happened in the academy. I wanted to secure the safety of the students, so I increased the number of campus police force. And I want you to be with Avia to protect her anywhere she goes, since you two are classmates, right? It's easy for you to be with her.]

Oh, crap. This was the insane request that I received from him! Did he already forget what had gotten in between us?

"But Avia is still angry with me. Surely, she will ignore me."

[Don't worry about it. I'll handle her. All you have to do is to keep her safe.]

"As you wish, Mr. Montevestre."