"Jinn, why are you here? Where are the guards?"
The Matron stepped before Jinn, blocking his line of sight. Jinn's eyes moved up to her face. She spoke with concern, her eyes full of panic, "you should not be here."
She spoke in such a hurry that anyone could barely register her words. So, Mr. Huggings stepped forward. "I will take him back, Sister Agnes. You should handle things here."
"Wait." Just as the pot-bellied teacher was about to take Jinn away, someone stopped them.
"Is there anything you need, Mr. Hunt?" Mr. Huggins turned around and asked in confusion. The other two teachers also looked at him, wondering what he wanted from them.
"It's Captain Hunt, and I want to talk to the boy here." Captain Hunt said gruffly. His eyes never left Jinn since he spotted the boy. "Why are you here, boy?"
Before Jinn could say anything, Sister Agnes stepped between them, facing the old captain, blocking his line of sight.
"Captain Hunt, there is no need or basis for you to talk to a child of mine, is there?" She asked coldly.
With her tone alone, Jinn could sense how enraged she was.
Never in her life did the matron use such a tone with anyone. She was like a mother hen protecting her children.
Such a reaction from her caught the two teachers off guard, but they were not surprised since Jinn was like her reverse scale.
Captain Hunt paused for a second; he looked at the woman in her eyes and said, "I am not interrogating the boy. I just want to ask some harmless questions. Maybe he knows a thing or two about this janitor of yours."
He stepped to the side and peeked at Jinn before adding, "Anything might help us solve this murder faster, who knows."
"Murder?" Jinn asked hesitantly. He blinked his eyes innocently, like he could not understand what was going on.
"Why, of course, this is a murder." The man replied lightly. He glanced at the matron, who seemed troubled but eventually stepped to the side.
"The boy from day before yesterday might have been a suicide, but another one right after it happened once is difficult for me to count as a coincidence." He seemed so sure of his own theory that he did not even wait to consider other options besides, "Either both the deaths or this one are influenced by someone, or someone had a direct hand in it."
Jinn paused, slowly taking in his words. His hands were clenched on the side, and his gaze drifted over to the hanging body as he said, "what do you want to ask me?"
"When was the last time you saw Mr. Moper?"
…
After he was done answering questions, Mr. Huggings personally sent Jinn back to the dormitory and scolded the guards for letting him slip by.
The guards were equally confused about how Jinn slipped by their side, but they did not say anything and silently took the bashing.
"Where did you go?" Sally rushed towards Jinn angrily when she saw him entering the dorm room. Her eyes were blazing with rage, and her silver hair was practically whipping in the air.
"I sneaked into the school to meet sister Agnes." Jinn shrugged before revealing the truth. "It seems something really bad happened. So they are closing the school for now."
"What happened?" Sally got curious, but Jinn ignored her and went back to sit on the table, pulling out a book to read. Seeing him ignore her made Sally even more curious, and like a whiny baby, she continued to pester him, "Come on…. Tell me!! What happened?"
The commotion attracted the others in the room.
Seeing Jinn sitting there like a frozen statue, she even started shaking his arms and head, doing everything to annoy him.
"Urgh! Alright, I will tell you…" In the end, Jinn finally had to give up. "But you have to promise you cannot tell anyone."
Sally nodded hurriedly, a wide smile still plastered on her face.
Jinn looked at her in doubt for a second, but seeing her restless figure, he relented. "They found the missing Janitor… dead."
Forgetting what she promised a second ago, Sally exclaimed in shock and horror. "What? The Janitor is dead?!"
Her voice was loud enough to reach even the ears of the sleeping kids.
"What did I tell you?!" Jinn snarled and slammed a palm on the loudmouth's face, silencing her. But it was too late; the damage was already done.
He slowly took his hand back when the look of realization appeared on the silly girl's face.
"Sorry?" she tried to act cute by showing her tongue and tilting her head while apologizing.
The black-haired boy rolled his eyes and pushed the girl away, "shoo-shoo! Go away now; it was my mistake to even trust a girl who cannot keep her bladder in check to keep a secret."
"You!!" Sally wanted to rip his head off, but recalling what she had done, the girl felt a little guilty and left him alone.
Jinn sat in the corner of the room in silence. Everyone else in the room was now horrified. They looked at each other, wondering if what the Jinn said was true or not.
"I'd have believed your lies if I hadn't seen what you did."Once Sally was far enough, Jinn heard her voice speaking to him in a mocking tone.
"Not only did you fool that captain from the law enforcement squad, but you even found a way to cause chaos without getting your hands dirty."
Jinn stayed silent, but the corner of his lips curled upwards. His gaze drifted towards the wooden box he had left on the table.
Picking the toy up, he started to roll the handle on the side clockwise.
Creakkkk
With each turn, a sickening creaking voice came out of the device. The more Jinn rolled the handle, the louder the voice grew until…
Boo!
The twisted and dirty-looking joker inside the box jumped out right in Jinn's face. But the boy did not flinch; his mind was already somewhere else.
The words of the voice made him recall the memory from two days ago…