The next morning Tim walked down the street, still thinking about the last day. A lot had happened, Lina went missing, they found Jake, and then… Lukas happened. He was now on his way to school and it all felt like a dream to him.
He felt his face heat up at the thought of going into the classroom and sitting next to Lukas. His idea to take Tim's mind away from all that had happened truly worked, as he was now only thinking about Lukas.
The way to school was quickly finished as he had not noticed the passage of time during his thoughts. The school was riddled with policemen talking to students. A handful of students had stopped avoiding Tim and expressed their sympathies with heartfelt gestures.
He walked past his locker and all the people who tried to talk to him, including the policemen and teachers. His gaze was lowered to the ground and he turned right into the classroom, bumping into his teacher's chest.
Lukas was not inside the classroom. "Tim, you still have to go to the principal or straight to the police station. I am not going to start my class with you inside, while you're… how do I say that without sounding mean? While you're mentally not with us, maybe?" He looked into the classroom for confirmation from the students, all who nodded or gave him a thumbs up.
"Right away, sir." Tim said. Backpack under his arms, as he had taken it off already while trying to walk into the class, he hurried to the principals office. The teacher looked at his dejected form vanishing down the hallway.
Thinking he could finally sit down he let out a sigh of relief and went over to the waiting benches in front of the secretaries office. He threw his backpack onto the bench and the secretary's shrill voice came through the closed glass door: "Come in. He doesn't want to wait any longer."
"Sure…" He muttered and picked his backpack up again before entering the room.
She pointed to the left, not lifting her head: "Through the door."
His legs were giving up on him as he finally sat down into a chair to relax. Before him sat the principal and the guidance counselor of their school. Behind Tim a policeman entered the room through a different door: "Almost didn't notice you came inside." The officer chuckled.
He grabbed another chair and pulled it from a corner to sit next to Tim.
Tim stared at the principal with a sad tone in his eyes but also anticipation for what is to come.
"Thank you… eh, for coming. We know it must have been hard on you. Paulina went missing only a month after Jake did. Both of them being close friends to you and all that." The guidance counselor said after noticing that the principal did not know how to start this conversation. "The nice officer next to you would like to ask a few questions which might help with their investigation."
The policeman turned to face Tim. "Yesterday's events have been reported to me. First of all, I want to give you my condolences for what happened to you." His hands were moving nervously atop his legs. "Did anything happen between Paulina and you in the last few days, I heard that you told my colleagues about a dispute. Would you be okay telling me more about what happened that day?"
Tim lifted his gaze to meet the policemen's eyes but lowered it again. "After school three days ago, she followed me home and kept insulting me. She made jokes about Jake having vanished and her being my only friend. So I got angry and… I yelled at her, how much I hate her and that she is fat and should just stay away from me." Tears started to drip down onto his hands and his lap. "I haven't seen her since."
"And what happened yesterday, when you found… Jake?" The officer asked in hesitation with worry apparent in his facial expression.
"When I heard that she also went missing, I… I went to my Jake's old hideout where I haven't been since he vanished. Lina knew about it so I had hoped she was hiding there, because if she wasn't, what if she had hurt herself because of me? What if she had…" Tim started hyperventilating, his heart racing.
The officer took Tim by the shoulders, trying to get him to calm down. "It's alright. Everything is going to be okay." He looked at the guidance counsellor and the principal for help, "Just breath. Inhale, as deep as you can, hold it and then release slowly!"
Tim listened to him, scared. His breathing slowly calmed down.
"Can you continue? Or do you wish to have a break and continue at a later time?" He patted Tim's back waiting for an answer.
"I didn't find her…"
"Yes, we know."
"So I started looking into every secret tunnel we dug and… I found one I did not know about after hearing a sound." He clenched his hands, "So I entered it. I knew that she could not possibly have fit down that tunnel but… I had hope. And when I thought I found her, all I saw was a young fox gnawing on what seemed like human remains. And the ripped clothes laying around and covering the body had been those which Jake wore the day he went missing."
The principal and the guidance counsellor were stunned. Horror was obvious on both their faces as they heard Tim retell what had happened yesterday. The guidance counsellor had to sit down out of shock and the principal's horrified face looked like an old painting.
"While I was down there, horrified for long enough that the fox warmed up to me, a noise followed by the light of a flashlight came down the tunnel and I hid."
"Why did you hide?" The principal asked.
"While Jake could have gotten stuck down there, what if he was trapped down there? By someone that was now back and wanted to hurt me too?" He looked horrified, all light having vanished from his eyes and his face pale. It was rather obvious that the poor boy needed therapy and counselling.