Lost Off

Chapter 2 - Begin

In the time between seeing Kate and reaching the terrace, someone murdered her. Maybe he was hiding on the terrace the whole time and Kate didn't notice her. Maybe this is all just a prank to humiliate me. I called the police and told them she was like this when I arrived. They said that the chances of her being alive is almost, well, none. She was not just stabbed, but torn open from behind over the waist. At one point, I thought her spine was visible. This can't be done by some mediocre person who hated her and also, the guy was audacious enough to show himself to me. The act didn't affect him, even a little.

I was disturbed, and I couldn't sleep. All I could think about was Kate's dead body lying in spilled blood. The image was horrendous and I couldn't get it off my mind. Who could've done such a thing? I start to reminisce all the things Kate told me and everything pointed at only one act that would consequently lead to this. Kate-Brad break up. I knew that Brad was a bad guy, but he was a douche. Not some serial killer type guy. Even though I hated that guy to the core, I can never imagine he'd kill someone like this. The maniac murdered her out of anger.

15th October - 5 days ago

The next day at school was different. It was quiet. There was low murmur in the hallway. I ignored all of that and across the long corridor I saw Brad, smiling like nothing happened. Talking with his so called buddies and looking at me like a son of a bitch he is. For a second I thought that I wouldn't be surprised if the police came right now through the door and arrested Brad.

I was thinking all these profound thoughts about how I should walk up to him, grab him by the collar, push him into his locker and ask "Why'd you do it?". But I stopped myself because if the real killer is amongst us it would make him conscious and I'd blow my chance to catch that clown.

I started to become suspicious. Noticing everything and anything that hasn't been living off it's daily routine. Anyone who didn't attend school that day. But it would be a huge parameter. I didn't stress it enough. Although this shouldn't be my job to be detective, it was Det. Rogers who was the real deal in town. But I thought that I can't just sit around and wait for the killer to be caught. He obviously wanted me in this, that's why he showed himself. The second parameter were the people she was close with. Her neighbors, friends, best friends. She was a popular girl so it was really difficult by that parameter also. History was never this boring for me. The class felt like it was never going to end. The excitement just, vanished.

I got home and there was a guy in a long trench coat, about six feet tall, buffed up and black. There wasn't a single hair on his head. He was talking to my parents in the living room.

"Matthew! Where have you been?", my mom said as if she didn't know I went to school.

"This is Mr. Smi-

"Detective Roger Smith" the guy said approaching me.

I never saw him, atleast not from this close. His voice was deep and very masculine. Much like a male opera singer. I thought I should tell him to change his career path and try singing. But you didn't want to hit a guy with a joke like that who's twice your size and dead serious.

"Don't panic Mr. Matthew, I'm not gon' do anything to you. I just wanna ask some questions about Kate Harrington", Det. Roger said with some Ghetto flavor.

"Okay", I said. There's not much you can do when some big tall buffed detective who is dead serious looks you into the eye and wants to ask questions about the murder of a 17year old girl who called you to meet up at the murder spot. I'm definitely going to prison.

"How well you knew Ms. Harrington?".

"We've been only talking for a couple of months", I said.

"Did she tell you anything which might caused this murder?".

"No".

"She had any enemies? Did she had a fight with any of her friends?".

"Kate had a vast circle of friends and I was not that close to her. Even if she had a fight, she wouldn't tell me", I lied. I won't tell this Floyd Mayweather that she had a fight with Brad, they'll go all out and start interrogating him and it'll be all over the school that the investigation for Kate's murder is on. I have to avoid that. I need to make sure that the killer is oblivious of my investigation.

"Okay", Det. Roger said finally giving up on hope that he could get anything from me.

He picked up his hat walked towards the main door.

"Good day Mr. and Mrs. Park. Sorry for inconvenience", he said opening the door.

"I liked Kate since middle school so you don't have to worry about me being the murderer", I spoke up so that he'll hear me at the door.

Det. Roger scoffed. He came closer.

"Midnight, only two people at the murder spot. She called you up at the terrace even though you weren't close to her. No murder weapon. No clues." He took a pause and put his hat on this head, "We'll decide who's the murderer Mr. Matthew Park. Sit tight and make sure to never come into our suspicion", he said closing the door. The power in his voice and the words sent chills up my spine. I got petrified. He's not wrong, if they didn't find the killer, everything's gonna be blamed on me. I'm the kid who met her last.

I got up to my room and opened our school's website, not the original one, but the one our student's made, louisiananottherealone.com. It was a site where you can chat, post pictures and update statuses, much like Facebook. But it will all be done anonymously. People will see the post and the user but will not know who the student is. The students will use fake names. The idea was the freedom of chatting and posting whatever one wants without getting into trouble. The person can post any obscene or violent material and people won't know who is posting. Fun part, it was only for the people of our school. The hackers who made this had installed some type of firewall where you can't access the site without inputting your ID no. (which of course will be hidden once you signed up).

I logged in here first time since Kate's murder, and it was all over the site. '#KateMurder' became the most trending topic on the site. That's the thing about social medias, if Kate came back to life, she'd laugh at how many people are trying to show their sympathy when they loathed her at school. I closed my laptop and opened my diary to write.

"This has been hard, I'm slowly forgetting myself. The autumn I used to love became an excruciating nightmare. I fell with the falling leaves and lying on ground, this is followed by winter. Cold, vague winter, much like myself. But it's ok, I've been through this before, the cold outside my body won't affect the warmness in my soul. Just hold on till we're up again. And let's hang on a little more."

I slept.

I woke up around 8pm and checked louisiananottherealone.com again and my eyes were wide open. Someone, no, 'kateskiller98' had sent me a gun emoji.

"Let the games Begin!", the next message read.

"Fuck You", I replied.