The 12th Kiss

❁eyes that fear

"And I'm trying hard to make you love me but I don't wanna try too hard

And I'm trying hard to take it lightly but we're here now" – Four Walls, Broods

❁eyes that fear

Metilda sat in school hallway, reading the districts magazine lying around. She was waiting for Louis and his class to return from their fieldtrip to the aquarium. Few other parents and grandparents were waiting for their kids as well. 

Sadly, Reed Smith, Daniel's father wasn't among them. Metilda had been wanting to apologize to him for John's rude behavior.

She took a deep breathe in, the school smelled of mold and rotten meat. It took Metilda all her willpower to not gag at the smell. She looked around the compact hallway, the upholstered chairs and medals and trophies siting in the dusty cases. They really didn't clean this place, did they?

"Hello?" Metilda's gaze met dull grey eyes. The school principal was hovering over her petite figure.

She shifted awkwardly in seat before standing up. "Good evening, Mr. Thompson."

"How are you, Metilda?" He held out his hand for her to shake. She took his sweaty hand and gave it a firm shake. Warren Thompson was a chubby, old man with pepper grey and black hair. He had a friendly demeanor, the kind that made anyone feel right at home. 

"I'm fine. The weather's been quite chill for spring, hasn't it?"

Warren nodded in agreement. "It has. So how's Louis? The last time you came to my office you were quite worried about him," It was true. She was fiercely protective of him. So when Louis came home, crying that his teacher had yelled at him, all hell broke loose.

"The homeroom teacher's actions were justified, I suppose. I mean Louis can be a really naughty sometimes. He shouldn't have dumped paint on that small girl."

The sides of his eyes crinkled as he laughed. "What is a child that isn't mischievous? Your husband must have a hard time with him. He works for the police, doesn't he?"

Metilda wondered how he knew about her husband. Then shook off her doubt, thinking that he was the principal. After all they have access to that sort of information.

"Yah, he's a detective."

Something flashed in his eyes, a tad bit of unease which he quickly concealed with a jaggery sweet smile. "Well, I know who to call if we have trouble."

                ❁ ❁ ❁

                John was having trouble. Nothing was adding up. The principal was a suspicious character. Why was he visiting the school website over a fifty times a day? No man in the world took his job so seriously.

                Clicking on the Ketpal Elementary School website, he scrolled through the page. It seemed like a pretty dull website. Maybe on the surface, maybe there was something hiding beneath. John rung up the IT department.

                Samuel also known as lazy ass, answered. "Ello?"

John contemplated if he should ask him for help or not. Considering how slow he was, it was better if John did the work himself. "Sam, bring over the Tech servers and encryptors."

"Planning to hack some account, sir?"

"Yup."

                "Well, it's better if you come to the IT department and use our computers. They have a better processors than the ones at your office,"

                Like John had said, Samuel was a lazy ass.

                ❁ ❁ ❁

After an hour going through various interference and codes, John finally hacked into the principal's school e-mail account. His suspicion had been true. The principal had been using the school website.

He e-mailed his fellow partners the time of the meeting on the school website and then encoded a chatting system to the school website. After each chat session, the chat system was removed. There was no better way to hold extremist group meeting than that. No-one was going to doubt a school's website.

John opened the latest mail received on the Warren's account.

               Mαʀᴄн ₅﹐₂₀₁₅

               Mιѕѕιᴏɴ Rᴇʟᴇαѕᴇ вᴇɢιɴѕ.

               ᴇɴᴅ ᴏғ  Adlιтᴇм

               "Adlitem?" John thought out loud. "What is that?"

"Spelt backwards. Oldest trick in the book." Samuel who was munching away on a mayo sandwich, muttered through his open mouth. "A-d-l-i-t-e-m. Spells Metilda." Samuel wiped the salad from his mouth. "Metilda, who's that?"

               John's eyes widened. "That's my wife."

He shot up in his chair. "Sam, call the police. Red alert at the Elementary school."

               She was going to be the bait for Mission Release. John had to get there before anything happened to her. If anyone lay a single finger on her, John was going to make sure they never see daylight again.

                ❁ ❁ ❁

         Speeding at 120 miles an hour, John arrived at the Elementary school. All was quite. He brought out his gun and walked into the school. In center of the hall, stood a crazed Warren with a revolver pointed straight at Metilda.

Metilda was on her knees. Not a trace of fear in her eyes.

John was the one who had fear captured in his eyes.

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                Note: What do you think of this chapter? :D The song four walls really fits this story, thank you Dhruti for suggesting the song.