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chapter four

Everyone stared at me not knowing what to do. It stayed like this for a few minutes before Jeremy broke the silence.

"It was the weekend before the SATs," he started. "I had spent the entire week tutoring and helping others get ready for it. That left only Saturday and Sunday for me to study. Saturday afternoon was when he came. Antonio Lopez."

"Hey, he's a customer of mine. The dude's always high," Milo added.

"Go on," I urged.

"Anyways, he was rapidly knocking on my door and when I opened it, he had a huge wad of cash in his hands. He kept on rambling on about how there was more money and he needed his college entry essay to be written by Monday. I tried to tell him no, that I was busy, but he knew that I needed the money so he kept on piling up the money until I couldn't say no."

"Why'd you need the money?" I asked.

"My dad just lost his job at the firm. It's just me and him. We needed it. Afterwards, I went back to my room to study more. I think I studied until about 3 in the morning before I dozed off. When I woke up again, it was already Sunday about 4 in the afternoon. I had studied enough, but I still hadn't written Antonio's college entry paper. I knew I didn't have enough time to write the entire thing and make it good, so I did something impulsive. Something I had never done before. I went online and hacked into UCSB's school submission forms from three years ago. UCSB, that was the school he wanted to get into. Anyways, I copy and pasted one of the essays that the school approved onto Antonio's paper and printed it out. The next day at school, I took my test and gave Antonio the essay I copied."

"So he found out and you killed him?" I assumed.

"Kind of. The school found out that his paper was plagiarized and told him that he wasn't allowed to submit another college entry essay to UCSB and it was going to be on his permanent record. That would make getting into any other college extremely hard for him. I felt really bad, but there was really nothing I could do about it. So, I continued with my day like nothing happened. But, after school Antonio found me in the science lab working on a project, and he threatened to tell the school that I wrote his essay for him if I didn't fix it. That would ruin me and any future I have at a good college. There was no one else in the room, so I did something really stupid. I panicked and I threw a beaker at his head. The glass shattered and blood began to spill on the floor."

"Well he can't just die from a beaker to the head. How did you kill him?" I asked.

"I knew I would be in even worse trouble if the school found out I attacked a student. That could result in expulsion. So, I took a drill that I was using to build my project, and plunged it through his neck. I knew that after a while he would bleed out. When I let go of the drill, I couldn't believe what I had done. My entire body was shaking and I couldn't move. That's when I heard a noise in the back of the classroom. I expected to see a teacher, but when I turned around, I saw him. 511."

"So he was just there, watching you?"

"Yeah. I don't know when he walked in, but he seemed to know pretty much everything that happened. He told me to stand in the corner. But, I couldn't move. I just stood there, terrified of what I had done. So, he came over and carried me to the corner of the room. I slid down the back of the wall and just watched. I watched him cut off the limbs of Antonio's body. I watched him clean up the blood and glass splattered on the floor. And I watched him drag the head and body into a trash bag to dispose. When he was finished, he told me to meet him at this storage room. And to wait. Wait for him and the others. He didn't say anything else after that. He just left."

"Ok, so that's how you ended up here?" I questioned.

"Y-yeah," Jeremey answered.

I had this gift. I knew when people were lying and when they were telling the truth and Jeremy was being truthful.

"Who's next?"