Under Her Cursed Scythe

Some of them rushed out of the classroom once they had gathered up their books, to play at the basketball court or to find their friends from other classes; and some remained in the classroom while they ate their little snacks, played with their phones and chattered among themselves. And while Alivia had gone back to her slumber as a way to isolate herself from the crowd and reduce the chances of falling into conversations with others, Joshua found his desk being packed with chatty people.

"Where's Erica? I don't see her around you today." Joshua asked.

"Oh...her father passed away last weekend...from a heart attack. " Regina lamented. "She headed back to her father's hometown for the funeral so she won't be coming to school for these few days."

"Mr. Cheng passed away!? That's terrible news!" Joshua reacted with slight astonishment and great sorrow in his tone. "He was a good man...I still remember that incident happened last summer when he rushed into the fire to save those people from the building...without a second thought!"

"He was fortunate enough to be alive back then. It was a miracle!" someone commented. "Who would ever thought that it was a heart attack that took his life instead."

"Poor Erica." Regina sniffed. "I teared up right away the moment I heard the news. Mr. Cheng was my idol after all." she sounded as though she really meant it.

"Well..." Albert, also known as the "nerd" in the class, abruptly interrupted the disconsolate atmosphere, saying the word "Well" with longer duration and a rise in intonation. "I don't think the death of Erica's father is as simple as it seems. I would say, it somehow relates to a series of weird deaths."

"Weird? Why?"

Intrigued by Albert's peculiar statement, more people began to gather around Joshua's desk.

"Are you suggesting that Erika's father didn't die of a heart attack?" someone queried.

"You can say that." Albert said, taking on a haughty tone, when he successfully seized the crowd's attention.

"Hey wait! How did you even know that Erica's father died or how he died? I only found out about it last night!" asked Regina, doubtfully.

"Well…" Albert habitually adjusted his glasses. "If you remember, my next door neighbour, Uncle Bennett, is the town sheriff and he was in my house when he received the call about Erica's father. That's how I knew about his death right away. And not long after he had left the house, I hacked into the system of the hospital where Erica's father was sent to before he was announced officially dead." he answered, smugly.

"Wow, you carry these around with you?" someone asked, shockingly. "How about your textbooks and notes? Where do you store them?"

"Here, of course." Albert jabbed his finger at his head. "Besides, this is nothing, really. These are just a few research materials among the many I've found. You should see my room." he denoted and slicked back his gelled hair with a conceited look on his face. "Anyhow, according to the autopsy report, it seemed that there were no blockage of oxygen-rich blood flow and he had a healthy heart so it's very unlikely that this is a cardiac incident."

"What does that mean? Blockage of oxygen-rich blood flow … and that Cardi..." Regina queried with confusion in her voice.

"It's Cardiac incident." Being galled by the girl's interruption, Albert intoned in a rude tone of judgement. "It means there's no way that Erika's father died from a heart attack. Clear?" He could have ended right there but his ego just couldn't keep him from being mean. " Girls are just better off if they just stay in their kitchens instead of coming to schools. It's a waste of government resources, to be honest! You gain nothing from here except from dividing us boys and distracting us from important matters with your little games of love and romance!"

The faces of the girls around the desk hardened instantly at Albert's hubris. They crossed their arms and hissed in a disgruntled tone among themselves but no one dare to say anything against him. They didn't know how to or they didn't know whether they had the right to, since some of their fathers, uncles and brothers said similar things to their moms and aunts and they chose to endure it and stay quiet about it. The concept of "Feminism" was still new to their town.

Regina gandered at Joshua furtively, hoping that he was hearing all of these and would react to them.

However, little did she know, he had been, though not intentionally, checked out of their conversation since the moment Albert's voice resounded, side-tracked by something else.

From the way he had rested his chin on his fist, one might think he was daydreaming. But, no, a smile was playing around his lips and his head was slightly turned towards his left, keeping his interest as well as a rapt eye upon one person at that particular direction.

When Regina followed the line of his gaze, she saw the face of Alivia, again, who was quietly sleeping in her seat and saliva dangling from her bottom lip in long thick strands.

The moment she discovered this, Regina narrowed her eyes on Alivia, the corners of her mouth were turned down and Albert's twittering faded into the background.

"Anyhow, back to what I was saying, his medical records here show," Albert went on, telling himself not to haggle over trifles with people who were less intelligent than him, and pretending not to notice the girls' disgust towards him. "That he was extremely healthy during his lifetime and there was a very low chance for him to die from a heart attack or a stroke. Aside from that," He sorted through the pile of files and pulled out some newspaper clips. Then, he spread them across Joshua's desk. "I manage to find other similar cases that were unexplained as well, all around this area…these are some."

He pulled in another wooden desk nearby and unfolded an A4 tourist blue grey and green coloured map where he had jotted down black dots on certain spots across it. "And all of these start from a case four years ago when a man called John Clan was found dead before his house and his son claiming that his father was killed...but for sure, the police was too stupid to believe in him, thinking that a child's words couldn't be trusted...and what followed was the death of Jane Claire, a housewife who died two years ago...then after that, Bob Ducklings, a park keeper who died last year. And this..." He pointed the newspaper clip in the middle and read the title, "18-year-old boy found dead at a cemetery This is from today's newspaper and this incident happened last night. I believe this case is somehow related to these weird deaths too."

"But how? In what way?" someone asked.

"All these people were claimed to have died of a heart attack or a stroke like Erica's father but none of the doctors could tell what had caused them and why, and most importantly, strange marks were invariably found hidden in the most private parts of the bodies of those who died of unexplained causes..." Albert justified. "Which, oddly, no one seems to have noticed it, except me! I mean isn't that strange enough? I told my parents about it and they-" he hesitated. "Well... it's hard to say, isn't it? Mum is just dumb and she gives most of her attention to Uncle Bennett, giggling at his stupid jokes. And dad, is just too immersed in his work to take notice of what a genius I am." he muttered, half to himself.