The Arcane

12

Nyx's pov

My hands shook as I opened the cover of the book.

Ginny's cursive handwriting stared at me in waiting.

I skimmed through the book urgently to the last page, hoping to find some answers. Adonis looking at me in curious expectancy.

"It's..ripped out." I said confused and disappointed.

They had ripped it out. Whoever did that to Ginny ripped out the evidence.

"What." He exclaimed as he grabbed the book from my hand.

"Someone ripped the page out." I said through gritted teeth as my hands clenched into fists.

He groaned as he threw the diary onto the table. "Great. Just great."

I sighed and put two fingers to my temple. I felt as if we were finally getting somewhere but we're back to square one.

The diary fell to the floor in a somewhat loud clatter. I noticed something whishing out.

"Wait.." I perked up. "Something fell out."

I picked up the diary and the small flat object.

"Its..it's a picture. There was a secret compartment." 

Ginny was a genius for having a secret section, but it also means she knew what was going to happen. And she knew the person who killed her.

"Well, what's the picture?" Adonis asked curiously.

"Uhm it's...a group of people. I don't know who they are." I handed it to him.

"This isn't just a group of people. It's a meeting between the leaders of the school. How did she get this?"

He put the picture down. It was vintage and a bit worn out. It consisted of five people grouped in a circle in some secret meeting.

"And so what? What does it mean?"

He rose an eyebrow. "No one are supposed to know the leaders. This is not supposed the exist." He tapped the photo.

My eyes tracked the movement of his fingers.

My eyebrows furrowed as I tried to make sense of the situation. "Why is this photo bad? I..I'm not understanding."

"I can't tell you that. Just know that we're not supposed to have this. Keep it hidden. Make sure no one sees it."

I followed his order, albeit confused, and tucked it in my shirt.

"There's something else." I opened the compartment. "It's a memory card."

Adonis eyes glued to me before slowly tracing down to the tiny object. "Well shit."

...

Our session was now over and we were currently packing up.

"What should we do with that?" Adonis asked, eyes glued to the memory card as he swung his bag over his shoulders.

"Uhm, I'll keep it safe for now and we'll go to the library downtown and view it on the computers."

"Why not do it here? The school has computers." Adonis had asked as he rose an eyebrow.

"Yeah, well the school also has Ginny's murderer."

He nodded. "Fair point."

"Give me the list. We'll question them tomorrow."

He handed me the list and I placed it in my journal and began to pack up.

"I'll see you later." I said as I headed to the aisle of books while Adonis left the library.

I walked through the tall hallway of bookshelves, my hands scanning over the books on them before stopping on the book I wanted.

I smiled and went to it take it was stopped by a hand grabbing it.

" 'The child of Tragedy', What an interesting choice." I hear a familiar voice mutter.

I trailed my eyes from the book to the person holding it.

A smile came across my face. "It's a good book." I grinned.

"Mhmm I beg to differ." He handed the book back to me.

"You just have no taste in books Park." I grinned. 

Daniel chuckled. "Or maybe my taste in books is too advanced."

"Says the boy reading comics about a superhero fighting in his undies." I headed to the librarian to check out my book.

"Hey, Captain Underpants is the greatest hero of all time. You're missing out."

"Sure." I chuckled and signed out.

He laughed and followed.

"If not comics then what do you come to a library to read?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe something educational that'll actually help in school."

"Bleurgh, how boring." He faked gagged as he swung an arm around my shoulder. "Have some fun Nyxie Pix."

"Oh no, not you too." I groaned at the stupid nickname.

"What?" He chuckled. "I like it." He patted my head gently.

The sound of the bell echoed through the hallway which was as good as empty.

"I'll see you around, Nyx." He winked as he began walking away.

I smiled and began the walk to my dorm.

As I strolled down the empty hallway, I couldn't help but feel as if I was being watched.

I thought that maybe it was just me being paranoid, that it was just my body's way of coping with the murder.

Oh how wrong I was.

As I approached my dorm I saw a piece of paper on my door, a note.

Confused, I ripped it off and entered my dorm.

I clicked the door lock behind me as I moved to sit on my bed, my eyes glued to the envelope in hand.

Intrigued at the strange occurrence, I finally ripped the letter open.

I stared unimpressed at the contents of the envelope.

'Curiosity killed the cat Nyx. 

Don't be that cat.'

I smirked as I read the letter. It was clearly a threat, a warning from the killer, and one that I was waiting for.

Suddenly there was a knock at my door.

Cautiously, I walked to the door and opened it slightly as I peeked through the crack.

There was no one. I thought that maybe it was a prank, someone playing a joke on me.

But as I began to close the door, I noticed a package on the floor.

I picked it up and looked around the hallway. It was clearly meant for me. It had my name written on it in bold letters.

I closed and locked the door as I headed to my desk and laid the box down.

My hands shook as I grabbed the box cutter and began to slice through the thick coatings of tape.

A foul scent clouded the room as I opened the box.

I pinched my nose as I picked up the note in that was in the box.

'DON'T BE A CAT NYX.'

In the box was the head of a cat. Its dead eyes staring at me.

...