The Key to X | Editing - but on hold

Artemis

"Artie!" Luis barged into my room, his gray eyes in shock under his blonde bangs. I sat up, rubbing my blue eyes and yawned. "Our helicopter pilot was found dead on campus! Just last night, X killed him!" My eyes widened and froze in mid-yawn. I rolled out of bed, my hair a bit messy. I waved him off and entered my bathroom to set myself for the day. I splashed cool water on my face, bringing away the weariness. I brushed my teeth, washed my face and brushed my hair. I blinked a few times before changing my clothes and rushing out of my bookcase room. Luis, Grace, and Marco were waiting for me, their faces grim. Luis stood as soon as he saw me, motioning Grace and Marco to follow. My face was pale as soon as we exited the building. Luis took my hand, motioning Marco, who held Grace's hand to follow him. He weaved his way through the crowd and approached a rotting body. The smell hit me like a titanium Frisbee. I wrinkled my nose in disgust at the wretched smell. On the ground, there was an unmistakable x dripped onto the cement. Luis tightened his hold on my hand worriedly, before quickly leading me away from the crowd with Marco and Grace.

"Come on! Let's go check the security cameras. It must have caught onto the murder." Grace swallowed, breaking into a slow job towards the academy. The three of us, Marco, Luis and I followed her into the building and towards the security door. Grace banged on the door, hoping to get the door open. No luck. Marco stepped forward, stepping back and ran into the wall, breaking it to smithereens. My eyes widened, turning to Grace and Luis, who stepped into the room without checking up on Marco. I frowned, walking over to where the curly haired boy was dusting himself off.

"Don't mind me." He told me, waving me off, directing me towards the security camera footage. "I'm invincible." I mentally facepalmed at his cockiness within the statement but went towards where Grace was clicking at the footage. She backed it up to 23:45, or 11:45. She played it, just showing night. We could hear off-key whistling that was being whistled by our helicopter pilot, Frank. Suddenly, Frank fell over, tackled by a black-cloaked figure. There was a glint of a silver knife, that reflected off of the moon, bringing our attention to another knife, a golden one, this time, glinting off of the moonlight. We watched silently as the figure slashed at Frank, cutting his tongue and slashing parts of his body. After being stabbed in the heart, Frank rarely, and weakly managed to pull off of the mask. Luis paused the video, zooming into what we could see of X's appearance. The killer was intelligent, almost as if he knew this would happen and wore a black mask. All we could see were red eyes and a mass of messy jet-black hair. Luis continued the video when I noted that Frank looked like he was freaked out about X's eyes. I furrowed my eyebrows, making no comment after X dripped blood onto the concrete floor into a bloody x. He turned towards the camera, his gaze sharp and gave us a smirk before scattering off into the darkness.

"Is it just me, or is that incredibly creepy?" Marco shuddered, glancing at the clock, shaken about the murder. "Shoot! We've got a Criminal Justice class. I don't even why Maddox signed us all up for that. Come on, let's go before we get detention." Marco raced off, leaving Luis, Grace and I staring after where he just was. Luis sighed, motioning us to follow him, leaving the security room unguarded with a broken wall- thanks to Marco the Invincible.

***

The bell had just rung, just as Luis, Grace and I stepped into the room. Marco gave us a frown, confused by why we were late. Grace stuck her tongue out at him before sitting down in the seat next to him, leaving me with Luis. A young woman walked in, walking in with a tall brown haired man with hazel eyes.

"Hello class," the woman smiled faintly, pushing the man in front of her. "This is my husband, Detective Ace. He will be our guest speaker today. You do not need to take notes on this, but it is good to stay focused, especially when a killer is on the loose." The woman stepped back, letting the man forward.

"Well," the man smiled, his mouth curving up into a faint and grim smile. "Thank you for introducing me, Professor Ace. Now, I'd like to start off by asking one simple question." He cleared his throat. "How many people do you think X has killed?" A few hands shot into the air before the detective pointed at a blonde girl in the front.

"Twenty?" He shook his head, pointing at more students that were all guessing.

"Sixteen?"

"Fifty?"

"One hundred?" A few students looked discouraged, dropping their hands from being called.

"Two hundred sixty-nine." A voice called out in the back, revealing Maddox, who was sitting amongst other deans and heads of some teams. People looked at him as if he were crazy.

"Surprisingly, that is correct." The detective nodded, a bit surprised at Maddox's accuracy. He pulled out a small silver box, before clearing his throat once again. "I'm going to play one of the clues that X has left behind. I found this only briefly at the scene of John Miller's murder." He held up the silver box, pressing something on it. A smooth deep voice erupted from the box.

"Ah, I see that you have found my recorder. Congratulations, Paul Ace. No matter, you will not find me. Let me remind you, Paul, that you and Gwen are safe. You are not on the list of ones I feel to urge to kill. Just a hint, I recommend you find what my victims have in common. I'm from this town; by the way, I thought I should visit. Just a few deaths to satisfy my appetite for blood, eh? Best of luck, and goodbye, until we meet." A few girls squealed, listening to the deep voice of the killer, surprised by the smooth tone of the murderer.

"Do not be swayed by his voice. I'd also like to show a few videos of X. I managed to put them together. Be careful, and stay inside when it is dark. Frank Bones lost his life to X, and I highly recommend that none of you go out at night. The detective pressed a few buttons on his wife's computers, opening up a file, which showed pictures and sketches of what X may have possibly looked like. He then played the security video. I wrinkled my nose at the video, covering my face and burying it in Luis's shoulder, waiting until it was over. Luis poked me when it was done; the video paused where X looked at the camera. The detective played a few more videos; one video paused where X's entire face was revealed. He had pale, peachy skin with messy jet-black hair.

"He looks like Nico di Angelo. Like he's dead." Luis joked with me, causing a small smile to spread across my face. "Just that he has red eyes, which... I didn't think was possible." I sighed, leaning my head on his shoulder, as the video continued.

"Well then, Paul. I guess you got a video of me. Woopie. Hello, people in Gwen's class! I am X, you know, that killer that killed Frank Bones." The detective jumped in shock, before stepping back from the screen. "Oh yeah, I guess you don't have a record of this video. Hehe, I guess I can predict the future! Sorry for hacking your account Gwen, you need a better password than irock123. Anyway, good luck finding me." The boy winked his red eye at the camera before the screen froze at his smirking face.

"Ugh!" Professor Ace groaned, glaring at the boy. A few snickers broke out in the crowd before the detective raised his hands.

"Now you can see that X... likes to play around. I don't even know how he got in since I've never seen him in person. I've never let that computer out of mine, or my wife's sight. Argh! X, if you're listening right now, you are a frustrating person!" A wave of laughter broke out into the crowd, cutting it all off when the bell rang.

"No homework tonight. I think you should all deserve a break. Have a good day!" The professor yelled, resulting in a few students high-fiving each other. I grinned, turning to Grace, who seemed to be asleep on Marco's shoulder. Luis and I snickered to each other before approaching the two. Just before we reached them, I felt Maddox's hand on my shoulder. He pushed past us, lifting Grace up and walked towards the elevator and to our room. Marco gave us a blank look before motioning us to follow him to the library.

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Hmm... now you get a little idea about how creepy X is.  Too bad Artemis can't figure out her ability... at least Marco's ability has been uncovered! Breaking walls down by running into them! Just kidding. He's just Marco the Invincible, the undestroyable Italian boy. Any questions, tips or comments? Leave them below.

-Charlie