Under Her Cursed Scythe

Cain's face dropped at once. "Oh my heck! Here he goes again! The OTHER attention seeker of our class…" he sounded as soon as he heard Albert's voice.

"Neither the Jinx nor her mother is the killer that we are looking for. From my analysis of the video I've just shown you guys, the serial killer who uses magic to kill people should be a girl with straight pink-dyed hair, not curly brown! I have enlarged the image of her on the footage and there were large amount of pink pixels near the shoulder area…" Albert shouted from the back of the classroom where Joshua had once stood, making sure everyone in the room could hear him and hoping to take the opportunity to regain everyone's attention like what Joshua did.

"In fact, I will be writing a more detailed analysis on this matter on my Xanga blog and you will be updated with my latest discoveries if you follow it! It's called 'Albert the Expert of Supernatural Matters'." His voice rose as he announced himself. "You can go and check it out, I have-"

Before Albert could successfully seize the spotlight, he was interrupted by a firm hand on his shoulder.

"What?" He turned around, shoving Cain's hand off his shoulder.

"Albert, are you sure this is the right time to bring your blog or your theories up again?" Cain questioned in the kindest way he could.

"Why? What's the matter?"

"I don't think-"

"No!" Albert instinctively denied before Cain could say anything. "Everyone…even the girls were interested in it before they got distracted by that Jinx!" he blamed, unable to realise that some of his classmates were now rolling their eyes at him; some were giggling behind his back; and some had simply turned their backs against him and pressed on with whatever they were doing before the gossips began.

"Listen, everyone! There's a serial killer in this town and magic, yes magic, it's real! It's around-"

"Shut up, Albert!" snapped Cain as though Albert's words were forbidden to say. "D-don't you see it? No one is really treating your stuff seriously! They just want to trash talk about someone and you gave them the perfect reason to!" he intoned in a gentler tone in his next few sentences, trying to cover up the hint of panic that had infiltrated his voice when he snapped.

"This is not the right way to make friends… no, don't deny it!" he answered to whatever it was in Albert's mind even when Albert didn't make a single sound but only creased his brows a little bit. "I know you want to make friends... I know…" His brows pulled down, shooting Albert a compassionate look. "That's why I am trying to help you. If you keep on telling them about your 'discoveries', they would only find you more… weird and…annoying."

"I don't need the ability of reading minds to tell you that they are not interested, Albert! It's all on their faces!" Cain sighed. "The fact is, there are a lot of people who claimed to have seen aliens, angels, mermaids or… fairies whatsoever." He waved his other hand. "And they have videos and photos to prove their points too but most of these cases were proved to be frauds!" He eventually busted out the ugly truth. "That video you showed us, might be a work of video-editing or Photoshop only. So if you keep on insisting on the existence of these mythical creatures, people will only find you-"

"No, it's not fake!" Albert cut in resentfully and flared back at Cain. "Look! This was captured by the severance cameras near the scene where the murder happened!" he stressed, almost shouting, but at that point, no one in the classroom was giving any more attention to him, not even a roll of the eye.

"Albert, give it up!" said Cain. "Besides, Joshua's right! If there's really such thing as a serial killer in this town...Why didn't the police or the officials say anything about it? I mean if there are so many 'similar' cases...they should have done something about it long time ago."

"Maybe someone was suspicious and someone might have an inkling of the truth." Albert suspected. "But... somehow when they reached a certain point, their path was blocked, their memories were wiped in that the truth or their discoveries were covered and could never be revealed! It's possible if there's magic in this world."

"Oh please, Albert! " Cain smirked. "Can you restrain your imaginations for a second?" he demanded. "And why these people? How were these 'victims' chosen? Why people who have not much in common? That housewife on Arnos Street, the park keeper's body that was found in St. James park. Erika's father and that boy… " He accurately pointed out the details of each case and even mentioned information that had not been discovered by Albert before, as if he was quite familiar with these cases himself.

"But why them? Assuming these cases are really linked to each other, the most I can say, other than the fact that they all died at night and of unexplained causes, is that they were not at home and were mostly alone before they were killed but… the problem is, there are much easier targets out there who wonder on the street at night but at the same time, are unidentified, nameless and untraceable-"

"Like that old poof outside our school?" Albert gave a snide remark which he considered to be a joke that would improve his interpersonal relationships as suggested in the books.

"Old poof?" [**Poof: An old disparaging and offensive British slang used to refer to male homosexuals.]

"Poof for sure! Look at those rainbow socks and mittens he wore…"Albert noted, with a tone of revulsion resounding in his words.

In the meantime, he flipped opened his mobile phone again and revealed a picture he took of the senile, old man who sat in front of the stairs of their school, talking incessantly about everything from day to night- from stories about widows summoning the spirits of the dead to memories of his youth when he travelled to the forest of Uruguay with a beautiful European woman a hundred years ago.

"Caught him gnawing dreamily at a dress in a boutique the other day. Bet he likes to dress up like girls…" Clapping the cover of his phone down, he snickered, "No wonder he's homeless. Who would accept a poof like him?"

"Do not call him that." Cain's voice dropped and sounded grave. He was still in a rather panicky mood one moment ago but after hearing the offensive term Albert had used to describe the old man, his mouth flattened into a severe line. "For centuries, I've witnessed William carefully hiding his true desires. Then, for once in his miserable prolonged life, he just wanted to be true to himself…but his family-"

"What William? What family? What the hell are you talking about?" Albert inquired, impatiently. "I am talking about the old poof outside our school! That-"

"Stop calling him a poof! It's not funny!" Cain barked at Alert. His voice was once again louder than what he had intended and it instantly dropped to a whisper when he noticed his raised voice had attracted attention from others.

"Jeez, what's the matter with you? I'm just joking! Besides, I'm not entirely wrong! I overheard him telling the Jinx that those women he travelled with, was just a cover-up for his sexual orientation! So what's wrong with calling him poof?" Albert argued and flashed a sly smirk. "He is one, isn't he?"

Cain twisted his head from side to side, fuming over Albert's words. "You're an asshole!" he hissed.

"Well, I'd rather be an asshole than a poof!" Albert said, intentionally.

Cain clenched his jaw to keep a much worse retort from slipping off his tongue.

"Hey! Where are you going? Albert asked as he chased after Cain who was now marching away angrily. "I have a theory as to why those people were chosen."

But Cain could no longer put up with his snobbishness. "Hey! I know-"

*DING DONG DING DONG…

The bell that signalled the end of free period resonated.

Claiming that she was not feeling well, Regina headed down to the sick room. Her loud intentional whining echoed through the hallways as Ashley supported her, telling her not to do anything rash with a feigned tone of concern.

Cain, sat down on his chair and covered his ears. An annoyed expression spread across his face and he kept on mouthing the words "Shut up" under his breath.

Though she had witnessed everything that had happened during recess from outside of the classroom, Alivia quietly sneaked back to her seat with her new chair and her usual listless facial expression.

And of course, Joshua's eyes instantly lit up the moment he spotted Alivia's figure and when she sat down, he asked whether she was alright again and again even though she ignored every single word he said.

Everyone else in the classroom were returning to their seats as well, except for Albert who was still collecting all his stuff from Joshua's desk, and grumbling.

He made a face at Cain. "What's wrong with him? Acting so emotional all of a sudden! Me weird? More like you are the one who's weird!" he groaned, feeling irritated by Cain's refusal of giving him more responses and reactions.