The Girl Who Couldn't Kill

Chapter 21-Say You're Sorry

After 15 cruel hours of mental suffrage, Rory was ready to sneak out of her dorm. She readied her satchel for everything she needed; which involved multiple spectrums of knives: a switchblade, a kitchen knife, and a utility knife. She also brought a flashlight and a rope to accompany her journey.

This felt like a relieved nightmare, the deja vu that got her into this mess in the first place. As she steadied herself in the mirror, she looked at herself in a new light.

She thought about the possibility of death that may occur to people whom she loved or even to herself. Either way, if she did die, she would make a proud stance against evil. Rory wanted to be proud of herself and to be seen as someone with capability and an actual heart; she was glad that her mindset had changed comapred to the beginning of the murder. Maybe this whole situation wasn't about impressing others but rather an improvement of herself. To prove to herself that she was worth loving for and that despite her twisted fantasies, she was a morally rightful person and would never condone the crime of murder.

Rory still had a lot to figure out for herself, like what her fantasies specifically stemmed from and finding ways to cure her anxieties.

But she took this in as a learning experience, a way to better herself and fight the evil that haunted this school for the past week.

Before she left her dorm, she pinned her location and messaged Officer Hong about her endeavors, hoping she wouldn't be scolded and punished too badly if she managed to survive. She was just praying that she would check her messages past 12 am.

Rory also wrote a letter for her parents, Autumn, and Ajax, and left it at her table before she clicked her dorm door shut, like leaving her past behind safe and sound. Who knows what will happen?

The illuminating lights in the girls' dorm hall were flickering, highlighting the scarlet red carpet that lay in a narrow path. She turned the corner to take the flight of stairs to the west side of the school. She had to cross the east wing and then the dining hall to the east wing.

As Rory arrived at the elevator where Connor had been brutally murdered, the flashback hit her into a daze.

The elevator doors separated, exposing the corpse that sat straight up. Eyes bulging with glossiness and bowels sliced open, Connor was propped against the wall, unmoving and silently still. Life and soul were sucked out of the poor boy, blood smeared on his empty palms and face, as the dim light made out his facials of fear.

But now lay an opened elevator drizzled with fairy lights and a sleek nightstand table in the center of the compartment, a candle enshrouded with fake blood stood on top of it. A banner hung over the elevator that had the words Monopoly of Murder painted in red

"What the..." Rory had entered Chrome's game territory.

She picked up the candle and lit it up with a lighter provided and burnt the paper that said Welcome Rory that had been placed on the candle.

The aroma of the candle was of rosy smell, enriching the intoxicating atmosphere of the area. With slow steps, Rory followed the path that had been laid out with black and red streamers, all the way to the courtyard.

Once she had stepped out into the breezy night, her soul tensed when she spotted the familiar dark shadow walking towards her with a limp. As it got closer and closer, the shape stopped just 20 feet away from her. She held her ground firm for what felt like decades.

The speared green eyes stared into her soul and tilted their head to the side, releasing a muffled chuckle through the Balaclava.

"It's been a minute Rory," The familiar voice reeked with malice. Rory's eyes widened when she realized the exact person who was under the mask.

Rory felt her body go numb from shock. "Noel...b-but?"

"Oh? The eyes? Their contacts," He stuck a finger to his eyeballs, and took them out, revealing his hazel eyes under the limelight. He chucked his contacts to the side on the grass. Something that was an utterly natural action but a behavior that the normal Noel didn't seem immoral enough to do.

Rory eyed him with hatred. "What the hell. That's not what I mean." She felt nauseous. "How could you?"

"How could you what? I didn't kill Connor and Adam. That wasn't me at all." He said with a smirk, his arms gesturing around him.

"Bullshit." Rory glared at him, her switchblade burned in her pocket against her leg. Her hands went into her pocket and clutched it tight as she pulled it out in front of her.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Noel said while shaking his index finger and making a tsk tsk noise.

Just then, Noel made a fragile sprint towards her, glistening blade in hand, he sculpted a half circle in the air. Aiming his knife towards her neck, Rory ducked to the side and kneed him in the ribs. Noel yelled in pain and reached to pull on her leg, Rory tripped backward and dunked her face on the ground. She quickly rolled over just as the tip of the blade went slashing down her cheeks—

Rory's life flashed before her eyes.

She saw all the colors that ever existed spiral in a projection playing from the back of her mind. Her memories of her parents surfaced, and the familiar faces that she had lost touch with her due to school. The memories with Autumn, the last time they had a dorm sleepover after midterms one time. They had bought boba tea from 10 different types of boba shops and performed a taste test and rated all of them from worst to best. They laughed until the pearls came spilling out of their mouths and when their sugar levels reached its maximum level, leaving them sugar high. They ended up sharing the drink with the rest of the girls on the volleyball team and having a blast.

Then her memories drifted to Ajax. Someone who she had met just recently but felt such a deep connection with that she cannot deny her liking towards him. He created a pathway of new emotions for her, something she never thought she would experience: Love. But maybe it wasn't love yet. But it was the start of it. She wondered about the what ifs; what if Ajax continued to accept her, support her, and care for her? Would they date, or would they just be friends?

Everything and anything would be fine. She just didn't want to die now.

It was a weird feeling.

Because Rory always invited the idea of death, she believed it was something that everyone would eventually experience, just sooner or later. It wasn't as if she particularly wanted to die, she just didn't care if she did. She believed that was up to fate. But she didn't believe in fate anymore, but rather, she believed in destiny. The ability to pave your own road, to change what originally cannot be changed. A philosophy that she stands by proudly.

Rory's eyes flutter open, was she dead?

No. She had passed out for some reason.

Rory's hands were tied to her side and her body was restrained from moving. A knife was just above Rory's throat, a centimeter away from piercing her skin. The knife hovering above her body was shaking slightly until she realized there was another presence.

It was Mr. Volkov.