Chapter Text
It was cruel, you thought, how the world simply ignored the death of another student inside Favonius Academy’s walls.
You knew that her name was Noelle. A bright-eyed, enthusiastic transfer student who was slowly proving herself to be another academic prodigy. In a school as elite as Favonius Academy, that compliment wasn’t given lightly. Of course, being one of the best boarding schools to produce paragons and brilliant scholars, the students themselves have to be exemplary. Genius was the norm here, but to be recognized as the genius among a hall of other geniuses, it was considered as a stellar mark for greatness.
But her flames were extinguished before she could fully rise with the sun. Noelle—the overall third ranker in the academy, who was slowly crawling her way to steal the top spot—tragically met her demise for reasons unknown.
After witnessing death, you would think that the faculty and student body alike would mourn the sudden fate of an honor student. But the incident was barely called an incident. Genius wasn’t the only norm here—death too was a ghost that accompanied the students of Favonius Academy.
It was a normal Wednesday morning, with students clamoring in the stone-walled hallways, their feet padding through the carpet. Their chatters faded as soon as you reached the library, where the silence was steeped in dread rather than the usual comfort you would find between sleep-deprived students and bookshelves. The smell of aging textbooks invaded your nose, but it tasted differently in your tongue today. It sat in your bones and the back of your throat; the coppery scent of blood and rotting flesh.
Rumors were whispered among those who saw the scene before you did. The crowd formed a circle around a rectangular table, their bodies towering over Noelle’s corpse like they were watching a lion in a cage perform tricks.
You caught a glimpse of her from beyond everyone else’s shoulder. She was sitting in front of the table, her body slumped forward. It almost looked like she was slipping peacefully with her head resting on top of the table, her arms serving as the pillow, if it weren’t for the knife stabbed right on her nape.
You didn’t have to take a closer look to know that the knife passed through her throat, if the dried blood pooling over her skirt and the floor were any proof.
This scenario didn’t surprise you—it no longer did. Ever since you stepped foot inside this school, corpses showed up like a surprise exam your professors would give to make the entire class suffer.
First there was Amber, a girl in your year who perfected the entrance exam. Then there was Fischl, who at the beginning was a star student your professors adored. The third corpse was Mika’s, killed during your second year, right before the midterm scores were announced.
Noelle wasn’t the only victim, she was only an added name to a long list of crimes.
Just like you, everyone else was desensitized. Corpses showed up on a random time of day, people would see, then everyone would move on so they wouldn’t be late to class, or to study for an upcoming quiz, or race to meet their deadlines. Nobody cared anymore, especially when graduation is so near.
Looking back, it wasn’t the students’ entire fault why they simply shrugged it off. The first time it happened, everyone was so shaken, they demanded the murderer be found. However, despite the student body’s persistence, no action was taken. The Favonius Academy swept the issue under the rug until everyone soon forgot about it.
They did it with the other victims too. Both Fischl and Mika were never given justice, since the school cared more about maintaining their pristine image than letting the issue blow up. Corpses appeared, but no murderers were found. You wondered how the school explained the students’ disappearances to their families. You wondered if money was involved.
But since nobody tried to fake sympathy, you might as well leave it be. So you turned around and left the library as more students entered to see what happened. There were no empathies, just morbid curiosity to see whose corpse they would find now.
No one feared if they were next because the victims were all honor students… just like you.
As soon as you left the library, you headed for your first class. The image of the new corpse became a fleeting thought at the back of your mind as you recount the lessons you memorized yesterday. You could still feel the slight burn of the formulas seared into your eyes, the equations appearing in the darkness whenever you closed them.
There was no time to mourn someone’s death, especially when they were a stranger, even more so when they were competition. Your dedication was married to your studies; your priorities lie in the nearing graduation. Just a few more months, and you’ll finally escape this hellhole.
Stone walls blurred past you as you mindlessly walked through the hallway. No one paid you any mind and you returned the gesture. Either everyone was too busy spreading the news about Noelle, or they were just like you, eager to get to class before the lessons could spill out of your memory.
You already anticipated the classroom to be empty—you were always the first one in class—but your hand pushing the wooden doors open faltered for a millisecond when you saw someone sitting on your spot.
The anger comes in before your mind could even register his too familiar dark mint hair, as if your heart recognized him first and the resentment you felt for him. It was almost automatic, like the machinations of fate, how he shattered all reason and logic in your head without him lifting a finger.
He must’ve noticed you staring daggers at his back, urging him to turn around. Your glare met his lackluster gaze, making your chest tighten in an unexplainable way that you could only attribute to hatred. Even from this distance you could see the way the crimson of his eyes flicker underneath the morning light, like that of a dying heart, surrounded by an ocean of cerulean and abyss.
You would’ve called him pretty if his condescending smile wasn’t as cruel as a knife.
“Get out of my seat.” You hiss, lips curling into an ugly snarl. You regretted showing displeasure when you saw the amusement dancing in his eyes. Being the most insufferable man in the world, he of all people would be the only one delighted to see how angry he made you.
That was an obvious fact, a silent acceptance; Who was Lohen if not a giant pain in your ass?
He leaned back on your table while using his arms for support. The smirk on his face remained, staring at you like he was proposing a challenge. Your eye twitched ever so slightly. He must be a witch, one look is all it took to get on your nerves.
“It’s first come first serve, little rabbit. You don’t own any of these seats.”
“You know damn well that I always sit there.” You marched closer to him until there were only a few inches between you. He didn’t blink, not breaking eye contact as if to intimidate you. But you were no pushover. Lohen could bully you all he liked, but you’ll just retaliate with harsher words and, if you were in a particularly bad mood, an aggressive beating.
Ever since you met him in first year, Lohen had already set his eyes on you—not in the romantic way, you would sooner fail an exam on purpose than think of him in a romantic light. He thought it was fun to mess with you. It started with little pranks; pulling your hair during a two-hour long lecture, taking a sip out of your glass during lunch time, bothering you for notes when he never studies, and asking to copy your assignments. Those were only a few of his annoying antics to get your attention. It dawned on you pretty quickly that he enjoyed seeing your irritated face.
He wasn’t interested in you. He just liked making you angry.
And you might like burying your nose in books and staying up all night to commit passages of your lectures to memory until your head spun, but you were not the type to swallow down your pride and let other people walk all over you. The moment Lohen made you his personal entertainment, you put a target on him. You were going to make him regret messing with you.
One day, while you were peacefully eating your lunch in the cafeteria hall, Lohen came to bother you again. You paid him no mind like usual, even when he took your glass of apple juice and chugged the entire thing down his throat. He didn’t see the small smirk playing on your lips, too busy relishing the thought of you seething because he stole your food.
What he didn’t know was the rat poison you mixed in your drink. Not enough to kill him, but enough to make him choke on his own blood.
The poison hit him before he could process it. You still remembered when he started coughing, spilling blood all over your remaining food and staining the wooden table. You recalled the gasps of the other students who saw him convulsing, panic humming around the hall at the sight of his misery.
As you looked at his shriveled form, you laughed. It started as a small giggle until you couldn’t contain yourself the sound anymore. You laughed in Lohen’s face, as it reddened and the blood smeared around his lips. You didn’t care if the students watching you thought you were insane—it was all Lohen’s fault anyway. He made you do this. It was your form of justice.
When you looked at him again, your laugh almost stuttered around your throat when you saw the animalistic grin forming in his bloodied face. Crimson covered his teeth, the color just as menacing as his eyes when he glared at you.
That was how it started—the back and forth between you two. You waged a war with him when you retaliated to his annoying tactics.
Ever since then, he made it his goal to make your life miserable. Consumed by your own vengeance, you got back at him tenfold.
It continued on from first year to fourth year, which brings you to now. Lohen found another way to irritate you, but this was tame in comparison to all the other shit he put you through.
“Get out before I slit your throat.” You tried a weak threat, and as expected, he didn’t bite.
His smile didn’t reach his dull eyes, he just stared right into yours. You knew that look. He was waiting for your next move. He wanted to know how far you'd go—how much you really hated him.
You gave him what he wanted.
His eyes widened when you hit him in the head with the heavy book nestled in your arms. The sound it created made you flinch, you might’ve cracked his skull, but that wasn’t enough to remove him from your table. While he was unaware, you kicked him in the side until he slid to the ground.
A breathless scoff left his mouth when he hit the ground unceremoniously. You smiled despite yourself, almost proud to see him eating dust on the floor. You sat down on your chair before crossing one leg over the other. When he looked up, the reddening of his cheeks and the tip of his ears became evident to you. His eyes were wide, not from shock, but from the adrenaline; the challenge.
You liked him better this way, looking up at you while the heel of your shoes met the center of his throat.
You mocked him with a smile—the same one he gave you earlier—while your heel hovered in front of him. “You should’ve known that a weak threat is still a threat.”
Four years since this started, and you trusted Lohen knew that you never go back on your word.
He laughed. You caught a hint of giddiness and excitement in his tone, and you knew him long enough to know that he relished every part of this.
“And you should know that threats are just words. It holds no substance, you could break it easily.”
One gloved hand moved up to wrap around your ankle. The leather covering his palm rubbed against your thin socks, a strange warmth spreading from that point of contact. He slowly pushed your shoe out of his face. The gesture was almost too soft for a brute like him. It was probably the only gentleness you would receive from him.
Lohen sat up until he was kneeling in front of you, one hand still holding onto your ankle like a lifeline. When his eyes found yours again, they softened into something that felt intimate.
“You never fail to amaze me, little rabbit.” His hand on your ankle slid up until it reached your knee, and he squeezed. Your leg almost jerked at the sudden motion. You wanted to hit him again.
His eyes formed crescent shapes as his cheeks rose when he grinned at you. Sadistic, almost deranged. But it held a certain kind of understanding. You were confident that you had read most of the books in the library, but none of them could explain the way Lohen stared at you.
Hand still resting above your knee, Lohen got up from the ground. He was taller than you now, but you kept your glare. He leaned in closer to you, breath fanning the side of your ear, “Next time, I’d like to see you try to match me with a knife.”
You gritted your teeth. To him, this was only a game. Every interaction was a battle, now he was practically begging you to stab him with a knife—to fight him with weapons more dangerous than words or fists.
You averted your gaze when he turned around and walked away. He finally sat at the seat furthest from you, his usual spot. He never turned around to look back at you again, so you didn’t spare him a glance either.
Soon, the lecture hall was filled with students. You settled for reviewing your notes again while waiting for the professor. Every now and then, your mind would flash an image of what had transpired a few minutes ago. You tried your hardest to fight the shiver that would run up your spine when you remembered the intensity in his gaze, or how his warmth somehow seeped through your skin even with the leather of his gloves and the fabric of your uniform.
You could still feel the shape of his hand on your knee. It frustrated you, how he could still affect you even when his attention was elsewhere. In an attempt to get his face out of your mind, you forcibly clamp your free hand on the knee he touched, as if it could bury the feeling of his hand on your covered skin.
“What the hell is wrong with your knee?”
You almost jumped at the voice from behind you. You turned automatically, only to breathe a sigh of relief after seeing who it was. “I’m fine.” You answered.
Mona raised a brow, clearly doubting you. She glanced at your knee again. Your hand was formed into a claw while you pressed down on it. By the look on her face, you could tell that she wasn’t sure whether to worry about you or this is another one of those instances where you acted like a total nutcase.
The latter wasn’t a rare occurrence either. She always lectured you that studying until dawn would someday kill you.
She sat next to you before pushing a cup of freshly brewed coffee on your desk. “Drink it. I know you pulled another all-nighter.”
You chuckled at the exhaustion in her voice. You took a sip as she continued scolding you. “How many times do I have to tell you that it’s a bad habit? You’ll drop dead from lack of sleep before the exams could get to you.”
She pointed at your face. “See? Your dark circles are getting darker every time I see you,” She feigned disgust. “At this rate, you’re going to look like an asylum patient. You’re gonna be crazier than Lohen before this semester ends.”
You groaned, lips still touching the rim of the cup. “Don’t even mention that lunatic.”
“Right, who could forget how much you hate him.” Mona rolled her eyes. “What did he do this time?”
You told Mona what happened while you finished your coffee. Of course, you didn’t tell her about that awkward part at the end. You didn’t even know how to tell it. The words died on your throat before you could explain, the lack of understanding about what it was about stumped you.
Leaving out a few details was new to you since she was the only one you trusted. Mona had been your friend since your first day in Favonius Academy. She was the first to approach you, and the following conversations made it obvious that you two got along. You were attached to the hips after that. Wherever the other went, the other followed.
She smirked when you finished retelling everything you wanted to say. “Serves him right. He just never stops bothering you, does he? If I didn’t know any better, I’d think he was flirting with you.”
You glared at her. The implication was enough reason to slit your throat instead of his. “That’s not a good joke.”
She shrugged. “You have to admit, he’s only like that to you.”
You smacked her playfully. Even if it were true, Lohen’s insufferable actions only drove you to dislike him more. He wasn’t exactly the ideal type, either. You haven’t seen that man pick up a book or listen carefully during lectures. You doubted that he cared about his studies.
While it was a known fact that the students of Favonius Academy were the best of the best, there were still a small percentage that, for reasons that remained a mystery to you, didn’t really meet the academy’s standard. Those students were like trash to you—a waste of resources. You have no idea why the school wouldn’t kick them out when it was clear they have nothing to offer.
One of those students was Lohen. You never saw him make any effort in his classes. Even in the school’s ranking, his name never showed up in the Top 20. You’ve seen students cry when they make more than ten mistakes during finals. Meanwhile, Lohen didn’t even bother looking at his test scores.
You didn’t know what about him irritated you more; His personality or his lack of motivation. You thought that he was wasting his opportunity.
Your conversation with Mona died when you noticed the time. Professor Roland was still nowhere, even though the rest of the class were already in the hall. You turned to Mona, sharing your concern.
“This is the first time Professor Roland was ever late to class.” You commented. Mona looked around, noticing it as well.
She sighed. “It’s probably because of what happened this morning. Did you see it? The corpse in the library.”
You forgot about it, but you didn’t admit that. “Noelle, huh?”
“It’s so scary, isn’t it?” Mona shuddered. “This is the, what? Fourth victim? And yet the school isn’t doing anything. They’re just letting the students die.”
You weren’t sure what to say. It felt like expressing sympathy was wrong, especially when it wasn’t sincere. You wanted to feel bad, you really did, but what would that do? They were already dead. There was nothing you could do. Mourning was a waste of time.
Mona must’ve felt the same because she changed the subject as soon as it was brushed upon, like it was only a short footnote, a short topic like addressing the weather.
You admitted that it was cruel, but there was more at stake than a few lost lives. You couldn’t afford to lose points over something… inevitable.
The days blurred in a symphony of late-night reviews, ink-stained skin, and shuffling of index cards and exam papers. Before you knew it, three weeks had passed since the dead body was found in the library. Nobody was mentioning it anymore, as if it was a fleeting urban legend. Noelle was slowly forgotten by the student body with her name disappearing in the student rankings.
You stood at the bulletin board, your eyes focused on the name at the very top. It was yours. The very same spot Noelle almost took from you, until the gods showed you mercy in their own twisted way.
You were only here to check if she was still here, but the faculty was eager to bury her. Not a trace of her remained—her spot was now taken by someone else.
Right below your name was the second-ranker, Albedo. He was steadily holding on to that position. He never ranked lower, and he never had the chance to steal the first rank from you. While Noelle was only the third-ranker, you knew before that it was only a matter of time before she took his place away from him.
After Albedo were Dahlia, Sucrose, then Durin. You scanned the names of your rivals. If looks meant anything, you might’ve accidentally cursed them already.
You commit your percentiles to memory. You were untouchable at 98%, but Albedo was getting closer. You only hoped that by some miracle, the gap would widen.
“Don’t you think it’s weird?”
So absorbed in your own world, you didn’t realize someone was getting closer to you. You stayed rooted in your place as his hot breath fanned the hair framing your face. He was so close, you could hear his own breathing.
“Every prodigy is dropping like flies. I wonder who’s going to be next.” His tone was playful, insinuating something.
You turned to Lohen, whose eyes always glinted with that uncanny madness. He walked backwards, both hands hiding behind his back. Maybe he was hiding a knife there, you wouldn’t put it past him.
You tilted your head cautiously. “Do you hope that I’ll be next?”
His smile dropped at your question. You only saw this expression when he was bored, but that didn’t seem like the issue. Your words set Lohen off. In what way, you didn’t know yet.
“Why would the murderer kill you?” He stepped forward. It scared you that there was no amusement in his eyes. You knew that Lohen was batshit insane, something was fundamentally wrong with him, but nothing scared you more than his predatory, humorless eyes.
You avoided his eyes by turning to the board. You stared at your name at the very top, like the number itself was a laurel wreath. “I don’t know. I seem like a perfect target, don’t I? If the victims are always the top students, then it’s only right that I’m next.”
It was that reasoning that clicked something inside him. You didn’t notice the way his eyes lit up, as if he found something that was lost to you.
When you looked at him again, his smile was back.
“Don’t worry,” he purred. It was unsettling how his mood changed so fast. “If anyone were to stab you, it would be me, little rabbit. No one gets to steal my price.”
His words puzzled you, but you let him go when he turned and ran. Your eyes fell on the spot where he was standing, his hot breath a distant memory against your cold cheeks.
Something that you weren’t aware of happened in that conversation, because for the next two days, Lohen steered clear from you. You never saw him in classrooms, he didn’t even bother you during vacant hours. It was surreal how the persistent presence that loomed over you was nowhere to be found.
You suspected that he didn’t give two shits about his studies, but it wasn’t like him to skip classes. You were still studying in a boarding school, and boarding schools never allow students to leave. There were no other places he could go to and satiate his boredom.
Out of possible answers, you started to entertain the fact that maybe Lohen has grown bored of you, and he had picked another student to mess with.
“Isn’t that what you wanted?” Mona questioned when your conversation inevitably went to him. “At least now, there’s no rat in your ear telling you stupid shit.”
You supposed that you should be happy. Two days without Lohen, and somehow it felt like you managed to get a complete eight hours of sleep even though you haven’t slept well in a month. His absence meant that you could finally be at peace, but there was something gnawing at you.
Maybe you just weren’t used to it. After all, you did just spend four years of your life going back and forth with him. Soldiers who won wars didn’t immediately go back to normal. It was obviously the same thing.
Still, you couldn’t help but imagine who on earth was Lohen’s new toy. You imagined him pushing someone else’s button, and knowing how vexing he is, he would know exactly what to say to get someone’s nerves. You thought about the snarky comments he’d throw at someone. You wondered if some other student could handle Lohen and his punches.
Deep down you knew you were the only one who could truly match his level. Wasn’t that the reason why he had so much fun messing with you? This was a fact to you, but you weren’t going to admit that. You weren’t ready for that terrifying truth.
For now, you only imagined Lohen with another student, who he would kneel for and hold onto like a vice, and everything else turned to static.
You snapped out of your trance when Mona called your name, followed by the sound of something shattering and falling to the ground. You didn’t realize that the glass in your hand had broken into tiny pieces if you hadn't looked down. Your blood ran down your fingers in rivulets, leaving behind a crimson trail.
You blinked a couple of times before it dawned on you. Mona was already holding a towel to wrap around your face while a cafeteria staff cleaned the broken glass. Its edges were stained in your blood, but you could only stare at your reflection on the unbroken surface.
Mona held your hand with worry wrinkling her face. “I warned you, but you keep zoning out!” The cloth in your hands was soaked in your blood. “Who breaks a glass with their bare hands? Are you crazy? What the hell is wrong with you?”
You weren’t sure what to tell her either.
You let her drag you to the infirmary, where the nurse could bandage your wounds. Luckily, your wounds were too shallow to need stitches. That didn’t stop Mona from talking your ear off for being reckless. You agreed with her, mumbling a soft sorry, but your heart wasn’t on her words.
She screamed while you thought back to your last interaction with Lohen.
Her incessant shouting was only interrupted by a higher, blood-curdling scream. It was piercing, causing you to jolt in your seat and look at Mona. Even the nurse who had tended to you became alert. She was the first out the door before you could properly stand.
You assured Mona that your hand was fine and it won’t affect your ability to run, before you two exited the infirmary. You followed after the nurse, and you fell into rhythm with the other students who also heard the scream and ran to it.
You only stopped in front of a lecture hall. The nurse got there first, and the scream she let out was even worse than the first one. Students, fueled by their natural curiosity, started to pour inside the hall.
Trapped between their bodies, you were swept away with them. You only managed to break free when they finally stopped. You were separated from Mona due to the chaos, but you didn’t have time to look for her. Keeping your injured hand protected, you walked closer to the source of everyone’s interest.
Shoulders collided against other bodies until you got to the front. You didn’t know what was supposed to greet you, but you didn’t expect this.
Another corpse. Another murder.
For the first time, you were stunned in your position. The other deaths weren’t a shock to you, but this one was.
“Call the professors!” The nurse managed to squeak out before she ran towards the body. The girl whose scream you heard earlier, you think her name was Eula, was escorted out of the way by someone.
From your peripheral vision, you saw a student walk out of the classroom to call the professors. There was no urgency in their gait, too used to the grotesque to even care.
But you were shaking. You didn’t know why but you were rattled, the sound of your heartbeat muffled any other sound.
“This is bad,” You heard someone behind you say. There was no panic in their voice, just casual acknowledgement. “Wasn’t she the daughter of the Headmaster? Seamus Pegg?”
You thought bile was going to rise in your throat. The students were right. She was the daughter of Headmaster Seamus, Barbara.
Barbara, who was the sweet theatre kid who was kind to everyone.
Barbara, who was the darling of her department.
Barbara, who wasn’t even a top ranking student in the academy.
You were confused, hyperventilating, and utterly lost—but you knew one thing. Barbara wasn’t supposed to be a victim.
“Let’s go before the professors get here.” You heard the retreating footsteps; void of emotion or remorse. They didn’t waste any time. They knew that things were going back to normal despite the appearance of another corpse.
To the student body, this was no tragedy. No justice existed here. This was what normal felt like.
“There’s no way the school will keep this a secret now,” Someone whispered. “I mean, it’s Barbara. The Headmaster would have to be really heartless if he’s going to ignore his daughter’s death.”
“Maybe they’ll finally do something about the murders.”
“This is so creepy, I wanna go.”
You couldn’t follow everyone else as they existed. You just stared at Barbara’s dead body, her blood swirling around the floor she laid on. It was almost a piece of art.
One glance, and you knew that her cause of death wasn’t from the stab wounds or the loss of blood. No, it was poison. You could tell from the dried foam at the corner of her mouth. Whoever did this, they carved up her body because they wanted to. Not to kill, but for presentation.
A heavy hand settled on your shoulder. You didn’t even wince, but your heartbeat quickened. You felt him looming behind you like a devil in the shadows.
He called your name, as if tethering you back to the mortal world. “Come with me. I need to talk to you in my office.”
You turned on your heel and nodded. Professor Roland didn’t show any emotions as he led you out of the lecture hall. Mona was nowhere when you stepped outside, and you guessed that she must’ve thought that you left with the other students and went to look for you somewhere else.
You were glad she wasn’t here. You weren’t in the right state of mind to explain anything.
No one noticed you passing through the hallway with Professor Roland. They were too occupied by the new dead body, anticipating what the school had to say now that this case seemed more personal. They paid you no mind, and neither did you.
When you stepped inside his office and heard the lock screeching close, you turned to Professor Roland, chest heaving in something akin to anxiety.
“I didn’t do it,” The world flew out of your mouth before you could form a single, coherent defense. “I swear, Professor. I didn’t do anything.”
He only looked at you with a passive gaze, and you feared the worst. He didn’t believe you, but what else were you supposed to say?
Arms folded behind his back, he walked past you to reach his desk. From the cabinet he grabbed a dagger, sleek and slender and made of white stone, but the hilt was too stained from use.
Now, the stone carried the scent of blood, the dark hue covering the pristine craftsmanship underneath.
You shook your head, the motion making you dizzy. You wanted to spill your guys out on his red carpet. “I swear… Professor, believe me. I didn’t kill her. That wasn’t me.”
“Then what do you expect me to believe,” He scowls. “That there is another killer inside the academy?"
Your lips trembled. Your hands turned clammy. How do you prove your innocence to someone who already knew your other sins?
“This time, it wasn’t me.” You pushed further. “You know I wouldn’t kill anyone if it didn’t benefit me. I would’ve told you first. You know that, Professor.”
Why would you kill someone who didn’t threaten your position at the top? In the first place, the only time you ever picked up a blade was to eliminate the unfortunate student who was getting too close to your position.
Amber, Fischl, Mika, Noelle. That was all your handiwork. No one will take the first rank but you.
“If it wasn’t you…” He turned the dagger and pointed it at you. “Then who killed her?”
That, you didn’t know.
You really didn’t know.
There was another murderer inside Favonius Academy other than you.