Nobody

Chapter 10

"I'm not letting you win!" Maxwell roared as he lifted himself and shoved his hand up the killer's mask, taking it off in the process.

The killer shielded her face with a gloved hand. "No!"

Maxwell panted as the killer lowered her palm, revealing her identity. "You… You're the killer?"

As he stared at her in recognition, he could recall that moment of intimacy by the apartment window.

Without a reply, Jasmine swiped at his throat, leaving a slit across it. Hands flying to his neck, Maxwell tried to stop the blood from gushing out, but he fell to the soil, his eyes fixated on the killer's face, unknown by anyone but him. Not long after, the murderer drove the knife through Maxwell's eye socket, stealing his soul at last.

Then, in that breath of clarity, Jasmine rose up and hovered over the fresh piece of cadaver. "Fuck you..."

* * *

Facing her laptop, Shoji peered at the screen. A smile widened her lips.

After the incident at the school garden, she found solace in an online chatting app where anonymous identities could exchange messages.

She met Xoliloqi there. Eventually, they moved to emails for the sake of record and confidentiality.

To loosen the white-hot ire in her chest, her fingers bounced across the keyboard, typing out email after email about her experiences. About her feelings. About the incident. Everything that she needed to get off of her chest, she sent to Xoliloqi.

"I couldn't believe that my own best friend would…" Shoji stamped the words as her mind traveled backwards, to a time where she uncovered a betrayal. Around the corner, she turned and stopped in her tracks when she found Haley inserting a note in her locker.

By the time she left, not without a few hurls of her gaze to check the scene, Shoji approached her locker and read the note. "Meet me at the school garden after class."

And when she went to the school garden, expecting to see her, expecting a chance at reconciliation, she met Maxwell Norris instead. There, he confined her to the ground and tried to pillage her dignity. Because of adrenaline, fear and anger altogether, Shoji fought back. She drove a hand against the side of his neck, proceeding to ward him off with a bottle that she'd smashed against a pot.

"Try me, Max. I will fucking kill you." She threatened him.

"You know you can't do that, right? Women like you are weak," Maxwell laughed wickedly. "How could you ever kill? You don't have the guts."

Quivering from the aftershock of his violation, Shoji's scowl intensified. "You're right. I don't have the guts. But one day, people will know you for who you are."

Maxwell scoffed at her. "That's not going to happen."

Shoji cocked her head to the side, still aiming the shattered bottle at him. "Don't you fucking touch me again," cried Shoji as she strode backwards, cautiously taking herself away from the garden. Then, she broke off into a sprint.

Racing away from that place, Shoji wiped the tears in her eyes. The picture in her vision started to blur. Since the side effects of that encounter were too overwhelming to abandon, she anchored herself from the strong updraft of trauma and planted her back against a brick wall.

Her mind coasted from Maxwell, the predator, to Haley, the girl who led her to the garden. Shoji knew at that point that it was a petty game that summoned her wrath. She wanted to leave the school. She wanted to leave her home because Haley was her neighbor.