Under Her Cursed Scythe

"Here. I have enlarged some parts of the photos in the newspaper clips and autopsy reports." Albert said and eagerly pulled out some more pictures from the pile of files. "These are the marks that I was talking about."

"These are Chinese characters." someone pointed out.

Chinese symbols were seen in each of the enlarged images. Each of these Chinese characters was different from one another but they all looked as if they were being stigmatized on the skin through the use of hot iron. They were brownish-pink in colour and looked like an extra layer of skin was coated on the lines and dots that constituted them.

"I have done some research on these Chinese characters but nothing with a connection came up. I am thinking of asking one of my father's friends who is a Chinese and a historian about these to see whether I can discover anything. However, I did find something that relates to the way these marks are printed on these people's skin. As you may have noticed, these are not tattooed onto the skin, they are more like being-"

"Branded."

"Exactly!" Albert's face lit up. "And one particular kind of ritual that requires the process of branding caught my eye during my research-the ritual of summoning a daemon. It is said that those who were marked with it would be killed on a certain date and their souls would be sacrificed to the daemons summoned." he explained.

"Daemons? You mean the dark creatures with sharp fangs, bat wings, red skin, horns and bright red beaming eyes?" questioned Cain, a tall boy who was standing on the right hand side of Joshua. He was a repeater and was two years older than most of the kids in his class. "You are suggesting that these weird deaths are related to these mythical beings?"

"Of course! I read all about it from a secret journal dated back in the...500 ADs and it was written by someone called Theophilus...Theophilus of Adana who was... said to be the first man on Earth to make a deal with not just a daemon but the Devil himself, the greatest evil among all evil!" Albert illustrated with an enthusiastic tone.

"If you say he was from the 500 ADs and his journal is supposed to be 'secret', how come an ordinary middle school student like you can get your hands on such precious item?" Cain challenged.

"Haven't you forgotten? My dad works as a historian too! He discovers, investigates and most importantly, gets access to these kinds of things and I somehow found a way to persuade him to let me photocopy some of the photos he took of that journal..."

"He probably sneaked into his dad's room and had stolen those pictures." someone whispered to the person next to her and both of them giggled softly.

But Albert didn't hear that. He was more immersed into his presentation of his grand discoveries.

Then, he slid his finger down another paragraph on the side. "There's also an account from a book- The Book of Soyga, once possessed by John Dee, an advisor of the British Queen Elizabeth I who turned his back against the queen and went on a quest to explore the secrets that were rarely been unfolded- magic. In that manuscript he owned, I discovered a type of ritual called soul branding which was commonly used by Witches during the 15th century for sacrifices to the daemons. There's also a saying that these symbols might be branded by Reapers to mark those whose death is near at hand, but there's not much evidence to support this saying..."

Cain chuckled right after Albert finished reading off the bracket of information.

"What?" Albert growled at him.

"Soul-branding, witches and... now DAEMONS and REAPERS? Don't you think it's a bit too much?" Cain shook his head. "There's no way that these deaths are related to any of these."

"Hang on, before you make any quick conclusions, let me show you something." Albert pulled out a magnifying glass from the left pocket of his shirt and placed it on the newspaper clip about the death of the 18-year-old boy. "Come!" he motioned Cain to come closer.

"See the mark on his forearm?" he asked as he jabbed his finger at the magnified image.

"Yes, I can see it's a similar mark." Cain drawled, flicking Albert an enquiring glance. "So what?"

"So what? What are the odds that not only two but six people having similar Chinese character tattoos appearing on their bodies and they all died of unexplained causes? There's no way this is a coincidence!" Albert insisted. "And you know what? I suspect foul play."

"Foul...play?" Puzzled expressions floated on the faces of his peers.

Albert rolled his eyes at these failures of deciphering the two fancy words he had used.

"Meaning... I think they are murdered...murdered by someone who-"

"Murdered!?" Aside from Joshua and Cain, the group of people around Joshua's desk were stirred up instantly, even Regina's attention was instantly drawn back to their conversation.

"Gals, don't tell me you seriously believe in what he said?" Cain interjected. "All his geese are swans! That might just be a tattoo. Maybe they came from a Chinese mob gang or they are secret agents working for the Chinese government. You don't know much about these people. They might have their dirty little secrets and yes, perhaps these are not random killings but having daemons, witches, Reapers and soul-branding involved in all of these? Come on, it's the 21st century! Everything is about science and facts not fantasy and fairy tales!" he stated strongly.

"You are blinkered, do you know that? Just like one of those stubborn, non-open minded OLD people." said Albert, taking on a matter-of-fact tone, while shaking his head. "I can pretty much ensure you that magic does exist in this world!" he argued. "If you don't believe in me, I have a video to prove it!" He took out his phone and began to search for a clip that he had downloaded the night before.

"A video? That's your final 'weapon' against me?" Cain ridiculed.

"Oh, just shut up and watch it!" Albert demanded rudely.

He agitatedly showed the screen of his phone to the group while pointing at a dark figure. "Focus on this girl who is wearing black." he intoned. "You will see... she is stalking Bob Duckings, the park keeper I mentioned to you just now."

After he had briefly explained the video, he touched the "play" button on the screen of his phone and described, "So she is getting closer and closer towards the man. And then, here! See?"

He paused the video again and pointed at an action. "She pats on his shoulder." he described.

"Why are you so certain that this person is a she?" someone questioned. "I can only see blur on that person's face."

"Well, judging from the way she walks… the gap between the legs is smaller, and… her chest…" Albert traced his finger along the image on the screen. "Slightly curvy… it's quite obvious that we are looking at a girl."

"Ewww…what a perv!"

"That's just Biology, imbeciles." Albert groaned.

Then, he pushed the "play" button again and illustrated, "Anyways, Bob Duckings turns around and suddenly, he falls on the ground. Now, look at the girl. At first, she just stands there and stares at the man to make sure he's dead. Then, she kneels down and you will see her taking something away from him. I'm not sure what but her hands were cupped and she later took out some kind of a container and slipped something into it."

"She could be doing a CPR on him." Cain challenged.

"Though her hands are on his chest, that doesn't mean she's doing a CPR." Albert stopped the video from playing and argued, his eyes contained a heated impatience. "That's not the right way to do a CPR, trust me. I am certified in this area."

He put down his phone and demonstrated. "The hand on top should interlock the fingers of the hand at the bottom and you can't flex your arms when you are pushing. Besides, you have to use both of your hands. You can't just tap someone on the chest with one hand and say you are doing a CPR."

He picked his phone up from the table and pressed on, "But this is not what I want to focus on. What follows after is the main point!" he said and continued to play the video. "Now, hang on...look! Look!" He almost screamed his last word.

"Oh my!" someone exclaimed. "Replay it!" The person pressed the backward button and played it again.

"She disappeared!"

"Yes! Yes! So do you see my point now?" Albert intoned, with enthusiasm. "Magic must exist in this world or else how can you explain that? She just vanished from the scene within the blink of an eye!"

"So what? Gals, that video might be a-"

"And you know what?" The volume of his voice went up, attempting to cover up Cain's voice. "She didn't just magic her way out. I think she also used magic to kill him! Those movements of patting him on the chest and shoulder must be part of the spell-casting process! And, AND," he raised his voice even further to sustain everyone's attention. "Though I've found similar cases happening outside our town, my research shows that these cases occur most frequently here, right in this shitty little town! So it is possible that there's a serial killer here and no one is aware of it!" he underlined vehemently.

Then suddenly,