The Technique

Chapter 15: Best Friend

Warning!!!

This chapter contains violence and mature content. Reader discretion is advised.

A girl aimed her rifle at her friend's head. 

Of course, she had to hide from afar so that her friend won't see her. She waited for a minute until her innocent friend got her head steady while reading a book. She pulled the trigger and watched the bullet pass through her friend's head. 

Her friend's skull, blood, and eyeballs were scattered around the area. The book was now painted with red liquid. "Headshot," the girl whispered, letting her tears fall down her cheeks. 

Kylie paused the video. "You vote for it?" Kylie asked Mike, pointing a finger at her laptop. 

Mike laid prone on Kylie's mattress and stared at the ceiling. "Well, it's just nice to see someone crying because she kills her number one best friend." 

That was how Night at Jackville worked. The show would stop airing if it wasn't because of their wide audience. The audience would be given a chance to request what was going to happen to the next episode, and the producers would choose the best plots. The rest of the audience would vote for what plot they would love to see. And, of course, the plot was all about killing someone. 

Night at Jackville was basically showing characters trapped in a house where one of them would kill one of them every single week. But killing wasn't only the main course there. People also loved watching the love interests between the characters inside the house. The weekly victim would be removed from the show after that. And there was a conspiracy that the whole thing was real, and the killing was real. But of course, people only said that to decline the show's ranking. But the opposite happened. People actually loved watching it, real or not. The show's ratings soared up the highest. 

"That sucks!" Kylie said. "They're best friends! Why would people want to see that thing?" 

"Well, that's Night at Jackville. Everything happens there," I said. 

There was a solid silence after that. The rolling credits appeared on the screen. And their usual question popped up after the credits, 'Who's next?', in blood effects. Then the recap started. 

They were usually showing the killing scene at the end of each episode. Now, they showed the girl shooting the gun on her friend's head again. The camera zoomed in on the scattered blood and eyeballs. 

Suddenly, the pictures of the teachers in the human bags, the man who had his head cracked, and the hanging teacher came across my mind again. This whole week was a nightmare. I wished everything was just a nightmare. 

Mike began snoring on Kylie's mattress. He looked super exhausted. His brown hair had messed his whole face. 

"Omg! This is why I didn't want us to hang out here." Kylie stood up and slapped Mike's cheeks a bit. "Wake up! I'll treat your tacos!" 

But that never woke Mike up. Perhaps, he hadn't had enough sleep last night as well. Maybe, he'd been thinking of what happened back to the rave. That was what I felt when I watched Greg kill the teachers. 

"Mike, Kylie will treat you tacos!" I shouted close to his ears. 

"Tacos?" Mike whispered. He slowly opened his eyes, and I was certain he was sleep-deprived. He blinked multiple times. "You better not lie, alright." He stood up as fast as he could and jumped right out of the room. 

"Wow!" Kylie looked at me. I didn't know if she was happy or mad. "I would like to thank tacos for saving my mattress life." She turned around and followed Mike. "Nathan, wait for us here." 

I sat down to where Mike had slept. I could still feel his body heat there. I almost laid my back there, but the bloody images were waking me up. If Greg didn't kill the teacher last night, then who did it? Because I was certain that wasn't a suicide. Someone had to be there to put the woman up there. It had been closed for a year. No students and teachers could enter the hall. Teachers weren't invited to the party last night, except for the director and Mr. David. Someone had to be there. 

I picked up my phone and checked the latest news. I scrolled down to the bottom. No one was talking about the hung teacher. I opened the top students' group chat, and there I saw them talking about last night. According to them, the authority said that that was pure suicide. The woman went up to the third floor alone without anyone noticing her. The whole place was dark, so no one had actually noticed the woman walking in. When the party started, the woman took the opportunity to put the rope around her neck and hang herself. It was said that the woman had family problems. But some students thought there was a delinquency thing. Her name was Natalia Ashmore. 

I turned my phone off and breathed deeply. I bet I was just overthinking again. But then I remembered the running footsteps. If it wasn't Greg nor Mike, who was it? 

I stared at the open door when I suddenly heard some running footsteps. I stood up to check who it was. I had a little peek when Greg's face appeared in front of me. "No!" I shouted. 

He grabbed my collar and pulled me. "You really want to die, don't you?" he said, panting. 

I felt my wrinkles coming out while staring at his mad face. He looked like he wanted to grab my eyeballs with his fingers. "What are you talking about?" 

"Don't deny it! You're investigating me, right? With your freaking friends! I overheard them in the cafeteria. They didn't know I was there in charge of the tacos!" He pushed me and watched me wince as I hit the ground hard. "Do they also know?" 

"Know what? And I'm not investigating you! Why would I?" I slowly stood up. "M-maybe they are!" 

"What?" 

"Okay, I'll tell you. Just calm down!" I waited until I felt less in danger anymore. "My friends wanted to help me beat you. And they thought that for that to happen, they need to pick holes in you. Trust me. I tried to stop them. I don't even know they are serious about it." 

He stepped forward and eyed me up. "Don't forget. If they know anything about me, you're also dead. How can you be so weak? You can stop them for sure." 

I grabbed my pajama's outer seam and stared at it. "I will." 

He stayed silent for a moment before speaking, "I'm not convinced." He smirked. "Now, let's make a bet." He started whispering, "I will give you the spot that you want. I can flunk myself in the tests. You can be the top 1 on one condition." 

I was about to tear up. "What is that?" Then I heard Kylie laughing in the hallway with Mike. 

He whispered near my ears. "That girl, I think she knows everything already. And I don't want to hear her laugh anymore." 

"What do you mean?" 

He slid his hands on his pockets in a casual way. He smiled while saying, "Kill her with your own hands."