Scanning around the area of the cave in a storm was tough work. It was a dumb idea but I tried searching by footsteps and any left trace marks inside the cave while losing track when I see pictures of my sister. If it was true, this beast is probably still hanging out in the woods close by with that recent attack on a student. The mud gripped me tightly, restricting my movements as I squinted through the thick air that ricocheted like a fallen dead cloud smearing its particles across the atmosphere to make it a struggle for human nature and animal nature to use their most vital sense, that is the eye. Nobody couldn't see me or hear me like I couldn't see or hear them. It was like a battle royal game, anything could happen at any moment and senses were heightened.

The nation cutout was saved and the electricians found a resolution to avoid another breakout, after the news was heard, teachers immediately phoned their close ones and the police while students phoned their loved ones just to alert them that they are doing ok. Three weeks, entering nearly a month, took that amount of time for the cops to finally arrive at our destination - everyone felt relief when they saw screeching red and blue lights followed by a group of ten officers investigating the crimes that took place in the storms. Since the evidence was wiped away from the explosion of the rain it'll take extra time and extra resources to take down the culprit. Eighteen assault crimes, sixteen students, two teachers, racked out like a bomb and the attacker hasn't been found; these weren't my crimes. I'm trying my best to ignore these intrusive thoughts and sort out my health before it derails into craziness.

Lia and George were safe, but the radius of the attacks are getting closer and closer to our school's territory. Our campsite was divided into districts of our schools based on our rankings and Lia's school was one ahead of us. There were twenty total schools counted and the school with the lowest count of students in class lowered to eighteen. The highest was one-hundred and forty, to an estimated average day, if it was a good day, it'll become two-hundred and eighty, it's way bigger than our class to improvise on the situation. Not leading to any clues and exhausted, I head back to the campsite, struggling against the storm as my muscles agonized in torture. Once I eventually arrived, I checked inside my tent and saw nobody was in, I fiddled around with my balaclava and stepped towards the Eating Centre. Cops were everywhere blinding the fog with their glaring torches when I arrived, spotting Lia and George sitting beside each other under shelter, trying to eat their meals in peace.

"Hey!" George chirped and took a long time figuring out who the shadow was, I knew he was shitting his pants by his blank face alone. I eyed Lia and she smiled at me with a vibrant wave as I inch closer to cuddle up the piling heat that evacuated from these two alone.

"You almost scared me, you bastard." George laughed, handing me a ham sandwich.

"Admit it, you were shitting your pants just now," I replied with a cocky sign.

"Tsh, childhood friend benefits...I thought you were them." George informed me, them as in meaning the loose assaulter. The thing is, after interacting with Duncan twice, he would have a clear image of who I am and knows I am a muted student. So, hiding that I want to be found, I still had to keep low around the hospital room because there's an exact window facing this Food Centre but the storm was blocking that exposure.

"Oh! The news of our situation became worldwide!" Lia interrupted with a surprise as she gawked intensely at her shimmering phone screen. Instinctively and noisily, I poked my head around the phone to see the screen so I could read the news about our problem. Excellent, the crimes of this place splattered across the entire screen, making up 80% of the actual newsworthy things. Why do I suddenly feel warm?

"Uh, Aaron, you're a bit close there," George muttered under his breath, confused. I glanced up and came to recognise Lia's eyes were an inch away from mine so I could see all the ripening colours in her eyes that bonded into one to perform a masterpiece of art. Our forehead was smudged up with each other and I felt the beats of her veins that ran down the sides of her forehead - her boiling heat collided with my coldness and fought a conflict that rolled into the right temperature of warmth. Lia didn't look annoyed or bothered, she looked particularly shy and embarrassed as her cheeks became splashes of hot pink. Her eyes and mine never left each other as we read each other's shades of colours while slipping away into the soul.

Feeling awkward, I backed away and patted Lia's head and quickly ate my sandwich before snipping away into the distance to avoid any more cringe or awkwardness in my life. Scrubbing the thoughts out of my maturing mind, I walked to the area where I last interacted with Duncan and last had occupation of my phone. I knew it was stupid, but I had to contact my family to remind them I'm safe and well; I dug around, pushing my arms through the ponds of mud, dirtying my hands as I searched for my phone. Then, I saw feet to the corner of my eyes, pointed smart shoes with black jeans from what I could collect.

"Looking for this?" A female with an intense hectic voice travelled above me. I slowly looked up and saw a 4'8 female cop in a heavy rain-protective coat mirroring my eyes with a grin as my phone was in a transparent small bag. She shook the bag gently like she was toying with her prey before she crouched down to get a better read of my face and try to give off an intimidating appearance for her lack of height.

"Coincidentally, I am." I nervously signed, feeling my beating heart panic into madness. It took the officer a long time to understand what I said but when she got the grip of what she translated my sign language into, she nodded in acknowledgement with a grin of knowledge.

"What is your phone doing at a crime scene?" The female asked.

"Crime scene?" I signed, checking the place out, finding no crime tapes to be seen anywhere, "You sure it's a crime scene? I don't see any crime tapes." I added to the sentence.

"We're going to be handed them crime tapes very soon. Can I take a fingerprint, please?" The officer asked politely, pulling out a finger scanner. I nonchalantly placed my finger on the scanner after I was forced into a dead-end and took a deep breath as it scanned the prints of my finger. Acting like she caught an evasive mouse in a sneaky, clever trap as her smile grew wider. She left her gripping stare off me to turn around to grab scientific equipment out of her briefcase. It took a long time, but the more time she took reading the prints of what seemed like Duncan's coat, something inside me kept changing at an incredible pace.

"Mhmm." The female hummed to herself, facing me as she grabbed hold of her radio as she began to mouth the words that snapped something inside me, "I've found the culprit-" She began to alert the investigation team before she was suddenly interrupted by a loud thud to her face as she flew onto the ground.

She needed to die…

Mumbling under the deep dirt, she tried her absolute best to warn the other officers of my whereabouts but I was quick enough to knee her in the back and tear the wire of the radio, smashing it into pieces as I snatched the female's hair to rip her backwards so she could face my cold stare.

"Kid! S-Stop, we can help!-" She screamed with a reason that went unheard as I lowered the hardened briefcase under her head and repeatedly smashed her head onto the briefcase. She stuttered and coughed in pain as blood sputtered out of her mouth and rained down from her nose with a cut on the forehead that squirted a little amount of blood to blind her recognisable identity.

She has to die…

Without any breaks, I continued to smash her head with unstoppable strength when the rage was all I felt take over my self-esteem and self. I was turning into a beast and I couldn't even stop myself anymore. Her blood dyed the briefcase that had dents as she became unconscious. It didn't halt me though, I continued banging her head on the briefcase and when I couldn't feel her struggling to breathe anymore. I stood up from the victim and immediately looked around to see if anyone else was seen capturing all this on the footage. Murder, I committed the first murder of my life and...I didn't have the remorse, empathy or courage to turn myself in. I stood there like a mannequin staring off into the gloomy distance as I became a gloomy killer that was coldblooded.

She had a picture tucked in her pocket when I threw her over my shoulder, it was a picture of her and her husband holding a newborn in their arms, smiling with glee, and I took that away from her all because I became mentally unstable and was braindead to not get help. A place far from the campsite, rarely visited, was the place I dropped her body and dug her into the ground with my own hands. Seeing her dead, I had to pretend I had to empathise and shut her eyes out forever. It all started from the phone.

If I didn't just leave the phone alone, if I didn't just hide the thoughts of this phone because I was afraid of being caught in my crimes, If I wasn't weak enough to stop these intrusive thoughts.

I wouldn't have murdered a person...