On the sixth day, Mark was in the restroom with Scott and a few friends. As coldness invaded the room, he found himself shivering. Fortunately, he had brought a jacket on the previous Monday. He took it out of his bag.
“It's not your jacket, is it ?” asked Scott.
When he became headmaster, three years before, Mr. Smith had wanted to establish a uniform. Many parents had disagreed with him and they had found a compromise: the students were given a jacket by the school which they had to wear. Surprisingly, they had responded with much enthusiasm and most of them wore it outside of the school because they thought it gave them a classy look.
“No, it is Jen... I mean, was, Jenna's. Her parents gave it to me after she... ya know, and I like to wear it, kinda reminds me of her...” His voice broke. The only times he talked about her, he always ended up filled with guilt and on the verge of tears so he quickly changed the subject. “And you ? Where's yours ?”
“Me ? Oh, hum... I, uh... My dog ! My dog ripped it ! You know, stupid dog, tries to eat everything he finds...” His voice was trembling from the cold. He sounded as if Mark were interrogating him
“Oh, okay.”
Mark caught him staring at Charles who was also there, still by himself, and seemed to have forgotten his jacket. The guy was shaking violently but Mark couldn't really tell if it was from fear or because of the cold. He thought he was getting weirder and weirder. He had even caught him talking to himself, twice ! The poor boy seemed to be losing his mind and Mark had to admit that he kind of pitied him. Jenna really hadn't been nice to him. When he left the room, Scott finally spoke.
”It's him. It can only be him.”
“Be what ?”
“The killer of course !”
Mark looked at him, dumbfounded.
“You're kidding right ?”
But Scott seemed deadly serious.
“Come on, didn't you see how he was trembling and nervous and guilty-looking and all that shit ?”
“Yeah, well we are ALL scared and nervous from being locked in a school with a killer for a week ! If you reason this way then everyone, including you and me, would be serial killers !”
Scott went a little pale at that.
“I know ! But look at him, he's got the perfect motive: Jenna made his life hell, he hated her and he's a freaking weirdo ! Who knows what this guy is capable of ?”
“Yes, maybe, I don't know, man.” answered Mark, defeated. And then, he remembered what Scott had said a few days prior. “Didn't you say that you thought it wasn't someone from the school ?”
“Yeah, well, I've changed my mind.”
652Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyJGLqtNZFu
Mr. Smith must have realized that the camera wasn't working and that the mic had been broken because, on the seventh day, new equipments were set. To punish the students, he changed the food delivery to only once a day. Seven students, chosen at random, were also called into his office. Both the loss of their freedom in the restroom and the hunger undermined everyone's morale and the whole school fell into a deadly and depressing silence once again. The fact that seven random people were punished finally destroyed what was left of the solidarity of the students. From this moment, most people decided to only play for themselves without caring about what happened to the others anymore. That evening, the principal asked everyone to meet him at the cafeteria, once again.
“I can't even begin to tell you how furious I am right now ! You've tried to trick me by not telling me that a camera wasn't working. You've broken the rules. You've taken me for a fool ! But I'm going to show you how powerful I am against you. I am the master of this game and you are at my mercy. From now on, every day until the culprit is revealed, I will take students to my office and the chief of the police will question them all day long. I took seven students today because it's been seven days since you were locked here. I will take eight more tomorrow and we'll go on like this every day until the case is solved."652Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7qfijiEDNr
