11. Pattern

"Kai, would you keep that notebook away?" 

We were sitting in our usual spot for lunch, the only difference was Kai and his constant scribbling. He kept writing in his infamous notebook like a madman. He would then draw something, scratch his head, cut something and rewrite it in a handwriting only he could understand. 

My words didn't fall in his ears. 

I picked up a nugget and threw it at him. It hit his head and fell onto his notebook. He paused, picked up the nugget and glared at me before shoving it in his mouth. 

"What are you even doing, now?" I tried to read what he was writing. 

"The murders," Kai drew something. 

I stopped eating. 

"What about them?"

"I am seeing a pattern here and yet it is not making any sense."

Things left making sense for me a long time ago, I scoffed at the thought. 

I was thankful for Kai not asking questions anymore about my weird behaviour. I had a good sleep last night, there were no whispers. 

I was not sure if it was a good thing or just the silence before a big storm. 

"What pattern?" 

In response, Kai turned his notebook towards me. 

"A toddler has better handwriting than you."

He pulled his notebook back, "I had been doing some research, all the victims are of our age."

"We know that already," I waved my hand in the air, "born on full moon, died near full moon."

"Only one victim was from our town, the rest of them were visitors." Kai was not in his usual mood. 

"This is not just weird anymore, and wait until you hear about their birth month."

Something was telling me I didn't want to hear it. 

"They were all born in January or February."

My lips got dry suddenly. 

"How did you get this information?"

"I may or may not have checked some files," Kai smiled with a shrug. 

I tried to shake off the weird thought. Maybe I was overthinking, maybe all of it was just a coincidence. 

But no matter how much I tried to convince myself, a heavy feeling in my chest was saying otherwise.

The murders were not random. 

Our town was no longer safe. 

I was brought back to reality when I heard Kai mumbling my date of birth under his breath. 

This time, I knew he wrote January in his notebook. 

An uneasy feeling settled in my stomach. I grabbed the glass of water and took a small sip. 

I was still holding the glass when my mark started burning. 

Something shifted around us. 

It was not like when Lucien was around, it was different.

A chill ran down my spine. 

I was sure we were being watched. 

I looked around without creating any suspicions but found everything to be very normal. Only the usual customers were sitting in the cafe, and most of them were students from our college having their lunch.

The glass started vibrating in my hand.

At first, I thought it was me.

Then I looked closer.

The water inside wasn’t still.

It was not the glass that was vibrating, it was the water inside it. 

I quickly let go of the glass. 

"Are you alright?" Kai had a look of worry on his face. 

He checked the area around us. 

I nodded in response.

"We should head back. I don't want to be late for the next class."

His eyes stayed on me a second longer than usual.

"Yeah....Sure," Kai didn't argue or ask anything else, but I had a feeling he had noticed something earlier. 

There was silence on our way back to college. 

Kai was probably thinking about the murders and connecting the dots. While I was thinking about what was happening to me. 

I waved Kai bye and was about to start walking. 

"Let me walk you to your class."

I raised my brows, "Why?"

"Because it's not safe to go anywhere alone."

I couldn't help but laugh at his response, "In our campus? And since when did you start following rules?"

But the expression on Kai's face didn't change. 

"Celeste.." Kai started as we reached in front of the classroom. 

"Yeah?" 

He hesitated for a second, then he shook his head.

"Nothing."

But the serious look on his face was screaming, it was not 'nothing'.