CHAPTER 3: THE WITNESS

CHAPTER 3: THE WITNESS 

“If you really want to kill me, do it,” I challenged him.

I know he won’t give a damn about my life but my instinct is telling me that he couldn’t do it. Or maybe because I feel like he knows someone who resembles me. He said it himself that he mistook me for someone else, the reason why he saved me that night.

“You couldn’t do it? Why? Does my face look familiar?

His brows furrowed. Looks like he didn’t expect I would see through him.

“What do you know?” he asked coldly.

“Do I look like Anna?”

His eyes narrowed. I don’t know who this Anna is, but I could still remember what he asked me that night. He asked if I was Anna. Whoever she is, I think she is important to him.

“How did you know her?” His grip on my neck tightened.

“Is she your lover? Perhaps, waiting for her to be born again?

Because of what happened back then, I’ve read and studied almost all supernatural beings in mythical books. Even stuff like reincarnation. And facing such a transcendent being now, I figured nothing is impossible. Who knows all those supernatural tales are true?

“You know nothing. You are not her.”

“I never claimed her identity. But I can read you and I think I guessed it right.”

He smirked and shook his head. “You’re wrong for one thing. She is not my lover.”

“Oh. Unrequited love, is it?”

He moved his head closer to whisper in my ear. “Let’s not see each other again, Detective. And I hope you will forget about me.”

Then just like that, he disappeared.

I touched my neck. He didn’t leave a single scratch. I know he could have easily killed me for knowing that he is not human, but he didn’t. I don’t know if it’s because he remembers that woman in me, or because he knows no one would believe me if I expose it. Whatever his reason was, I can say that I was lucky enough to survive such an encounter.

My phone rang. I saw Kane’s name on the screen and I sighed. I completely forgot the investigation.

“Where did you go? You just disappeared,” Kane asked when I went back. He was already inside and checking the area.

“Nothing. I just saw someone I know and we talked a little.”

He nodded and gave me his phone.

“Here’s the footage in all the cameras outside the school yesterday Louie sent.”

“Okay.”

“Amber, I think it’s impossible the murderer is also a student. Yes, we can’t be sure if there was another person who didn’t leave the school, but if the murderer stayed till morning, people must have caught him in a mess, or he would be seen in the CCTV leaving the premises this morning, but so far there was no suspicious person…”

I couldn’t follow everything Kane had said. I was watching the footage but my head was a mess. I can’t stop thinking about that man, how I can find him again, how I can make him agree to help me, how I can…

“Amber, are you listening?”

I snapped out of my thoughts.

“Are you alright? Did something happen?”

“Fine. I’m fine… uh, should we talk with the janitor?”

It was a long afternoon. After we talked with Elliot, the janitor, I figured out something. I think he was telling the truth. He was just a witness. I saw the pure horror in his eyes while he was talking about what he had seen.

Though, he could only give us vague details about the murderer. He said it happened in the dark part of the school and he could barely see their faces. He claimed to be passing by in the distance when he saw the two students being beaten by a man he couldn’t see the face from where he was. He heard muffled noises and when he saw how the man threw a chair to one of the students, he figured something serious was going on, and out of fear, he immediately left.

Why didn’t he call the police? He said his phone was left in the faculty office and if he would go there, he would have to cross the area where the crime happened. He was too afraid and just hid himself in the music room till morning. It was reasonable. He’s not acquainted with those students, so why would he risk his life?

“Elliot said that it can’t be a student because the murderer was much taller than the students and looked like a full-grown man. It can’t also be a teacher or any of the school staff since he would have recognized his physique. No fingerprints, no buried or hidden bodies around the school, no traces aside from broken chairs and torn clothes. The phones of the students are also nowhere to be found so we can’t trace their contacts. Plus the fact that those two students are not even friends, not in the same grade, nor related to each other in any way. What the hell is this, Amber? Is this some sort of a prank?”

My eyes narrowed while examining the torn clothes left in the crime scene. The families claimed that those belong to the two students.

Wearing a pair of gloves, I picked up a piece and checked it out.

“No stains of blood, but smells rusty,” I said to Kane. He shrugged, running out of ideas.

I shook my head. I was busy checking out all the things in the crime scene when I noticed something in the piece of broken chair.

“Kane, over here. Doesn’t it look like a scratch?” I pointed out a part of the chair. There were three horizontal lines as if it was scratched by a wild animal with long nails. It is barely noticeable, but if you are someone who looks at every detail, there is no way you would miss it.

“Uh-huh. These chairs were already used by students. You know, kids. They love doing stuff in their chairs, writing, carving. It’s nothing unusual I think.”

I was in the middle of my thoughts when my phone beeped. I received a text from an unknown sender.

‘I know things about the murder in Mansfield. If you want to know who the killer is, meet me at Diamond Café tonight at seven.’