Who's Next?

Four

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Their hearts fell out of their chests; their brains froze. They didn't need the Holy Spirit to tell them what was happening - they had a potential serial killer on the hunt for them. They were mourning their friend's death and now they had to be on the alert for someone who wanted to kill them. They knew they had little time to mourn. If they took things slow, there would be no one to mourn any one.

Titiola bit her fingernails, two at a time. "Who the heck is this woman?"

"Is 'heck' a good word?" Tobey asked.

"Please, Tobey. Please. If every English word is bad then learn Spanish," Dango said.

"Aprender español es fácil." Titiola showed off a little Spanish.

The Holy Spirit brought to Tobey's memory the bible story he read that morning. It was the story of Samson and Delilah, and what struck him newly was that Samson thought his biggest enemies were the Philistines. He didn't know his biggest enemy was beside him all that time.

He thought, "Samson's body was strong, his mind weak. Was he consumed by love or by lust, blinded? The point is that he failed to look beside him - oh, Delilah."

Tobey escaped his thought and focused his gaze on his class teacher in front. She looked old, possibly in her late fifties, but he would not be too surprised if she was the killer. A good percentage of the students in the school felt she was a wicked woman. He kept that thought aside for later revision.

"Will there be more deaths?" Sasha's eyes closed and opened multiple times and she almost fell to the floor. Tolu held her up and checked to see if she was fine.

"That's the best conclusion to her message," Ulabadu responded, "but she won't succeed."

Dango was more furious than he was scared. He balled his fist tight and breathed deeply to control himself from exploding. "Who is she?"

"No one knows-" Ulabadu paused as he almost forgot what he intended to say. "I tried finding out from Aizik three weeks ago, but I couldn't get any relevant information from him. He seems clueless about her identity."

"How can he be clueless?" Dango shouted. He took in another deep breath. "If she spoke to us through him, then he should know her . . . at least a little. Aizik is not that dull."

"We also agreed to go to her picnic without knowing about her."

"None of us had the intention of actually going."

Tobey nodded in agreement. "I'm not trying to say Aizik has a hand in this, but he should have more information about this woman."

Stellar rested her right elbow on her desk and supported her head with that hand. "If she's killing us for not coming, what would have happened if we went? She would have just used us for ritual on the spot and maybe we'll be the meal for the next people she's inviting."

Titiola frowned. "I think she might not have harmed us if we just went for her retreat, but . . . if she can kill Zack because we didn't come for one Sunday retreat, then she expects us to obey her every wish or face death."

Tobey wasn't interested in that conversation. "Where is Aizik?"

"The same question that's been on my mind," Tolu said. "He wasn't there when we went back to the restaurant and he isn't here in class."

"I'll look for him." Dango stood to his feet.

Ulabadu bent one knee to the ground while clasping his hands together. "Dango please, sit down. We don't want anything to go wrong here. If you annoy him, he won't be of any help to us and if he is indeed involved in Zack's death, you'll worsen our punishment."