Dangers in the Dark

A Riddle a Day Keeps the Penguin Away 15.2

Considering that the rumours about Mr Marx's unfortunate fate had been spreading through the school like wildfire ever since we had arrived earlier this morning, it came as no surprise that when the time came for Mr Marx's lesson that he used to teach, we were left teacherless. And with so little time to find a substitutes teacher, the school was left with few other options. Rather than just sitting in the classroom and waiting for someone to come and tell us we needn't be there, Tanya and I took the opportunity to go outside.

"How do you think he died?" Tanya asked me as we perched on the edge of the fountain that was outside of the school, basking in the late morning sunlight.

"I don't know," I admitted, though I knew it would probably have something to do with a fear that Mr Marx had. "Either way, I feel awful for his family, if he had any. He was a sweet man and didn't deserve to die in that way."

"No, he didn't," Tanya agreed. "Who do you think will replace him for English? Cause I swear to shit if it's Beryl O'Brian, I will find Marx's killer and pay them to kill me as well."

"Who the hell is Beryl O'Brian?" I asked in confusion.

"She's this bat-shit crazy old woman who was our English teacher a couple of years ago, before you arrived, of course. She, I'm not even kidding, looked exactly like a turtle and was so ancient that I'm sure she was alive when Jesus walked the earth. Anyway, she taught us English and promised that one day she was going to come back to give us all a surprise lesson," Tanya explained.

"I doubt they'll bring her back if she's retired," I countered.

"They might do. She might use her mind powers to force her way back in," Tanya insisted and as I peered over at her, I could see that she was being genuinely serious.

"Yeah, okay," I lightly scoffed, turning away from her and leaning back up against my arms, tilting my head back in the sun and shutting my eyes.

"You can laugh now but when old Beryl is limping down those corridors with her damn walking stick—that is probably just as old as she is—and as she drones on and on about Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 until you want to throw yourself out of the window, then you'll be sorry," Tanya said, and I couldn't help the smile that formed on my lips.

"I'm gonna hold you to that," I told her.

"No, you won't. We'll all have died of boredom before your pea brain can even register what is going on," Tanya continued, forcing me to look back over at her.

"How did we go from discussing Marx to this?" I wondered aloud.

"Easy. We were—" Tanya began but I cut her off.

"It was rhetorical, T," I interrupted.

"Rhetorical my ass," Tanya muttered before she suddenly sat up, her eyes fixated on the school gates. "Why is your dad here?"

Turning in my spot, I saw dad and Harvey walking through the school grounds with the assistant principal. They must be here to investigate Marx's death and talk to our principal about Mr Crane. It was about bloody time.

"Have you seen Jonathon recently?" I changed the subject, making Tanya tear her eyes from dad and Harvey back over to me.

The last time I had seen him was at the pool and I refused to believe that he was involved with what his father was doing. He was barely a few years older than us and I couldn't even comprehend someone so young being involved with something so horrible.

"Not in a few weeks. Why?" Tanya answered.

"I think we should go and see him. After school perhaps?" I suggested.