Chapter Three

Marcel and Jacob can be seen walking by the crime scene on their way to school even though it’s not their usual road that they take while going to school.

“Look I don’t know why you insisted on following this road, we’re gonna be late for class man" marcel questioned Jacob 

“Relax it’s not like anyone knew you were here and besides you hate going to school early. You’re just scared of someone recognising you since you’re there most times , I just wanted to see it for myself, shame police had packed the body already” replied Jacob with a straight face 

“You just made us take the long way to school just because you wanted to see a dead body?” Marcel said looking at Jacob like he wanted to hit him with a brick.

“Yap, at least I’ll have a story to tell Cindy when we get to school”

“Cindy huh, the one you’ve been pining for since our freshman year. You want to tell her about a corpse you saw on the road, are you crazy, what makes you think she'll talk to you ever again?"

“Hey keep your opinion to yourself man, Cindy and I were meant to be she just can’t see it yet” Jacob said looking at Marcel who gave him an incredulous look knowing fully well who the girl they were talking about was, but all he could do was shake his head and keep walking.

“Whatever man... and what was that about you and strange women underwear, I thought you stopped that already” questioned Marcel 

“Old habits die hard c’mon forget it" replied Jacob

   Their conversation went on like that till they got to school but none of them knew they were being followed by the same person that followed Marcel home the previous night. When they got to school which was quite big with flowers planted around the buildings that made it look so beautiful to look at, storey buildings were lined up in a parallel way and in all of them were classes, staff rooms, toilets etc. Students were loitering around the compound since the bell had not rung for classes. 

“My own personal hell just know I won’t be staying till the bell rings for end of classes "Marcel said with a tired look

“Hahaha, its not that bad just get used to it. At least we have other people to talk to so wipe that look off your face and let’s go in.”Jacob said before he walked past the school gates followed closely by Marcel. 

     Few hours later when it was break time Marcel could be seen running away from school having jumped the fence at the far end of the school along a path which was rarely trespassed by anyone because of the knee-length grasses that’s growing around the area. ‘there’s something wrong with me, feeling so restless lately maybe I should go to the brothel and meet Marcus for my first delivery, Jacob will take my schoolbag with him when he goes home’ he said inwardly as he kept running till he got to a park that was usually filled with people but strangely he saw no one, not even birds on trees was seen, just total and absolute silence.

 “what is going on” he said as kept looking for any signs of life around him, when looked ahead he saw a figure step out from a tree staring straight at him without saying a word, marcel watched the figure for a few seconds who hasn’t said a thing before he couldn’t take it anymore so he spoke first.

“Who are you?" he asked

“I’ve been looking everywhere for you Jhin, I didn’t know you were hiding out here with these humans” the figure spoke with distaste 

“Once again who are you, what do you want? And who is this Jhin you’re looking for?” Marcel asked him again

“So you’re telling me you don’t know your own name?" the figure replied 

The unknown man stepped forward and Marcel saw that what the man looked like. Well calling him a man was an understatement seeing as he was just the same age as him wearing a black hoodie zipped up to his neck with the hood on his face, he was wearing some expensive looking pants with black boots on his feet. Marcel looked at the part of his face that was visible before the stranger  pulled the hood down and it was shocking because his face was littered with scars from his forehead down to his jaw and some burn marks on it. It looked as if someone used his face as a chopping board.

“urgh, dude what happened to your face?" Marcel asked with a disturbed look

“Oh you mean this face?” he gestured to his own face “well I  suppose I have you to thank for that since you have no idea how difficult it was to locate you so let’s not talk about it now ok?” he said before pulling his hood back on his head “as for what I want......   I want you to die".

                                                                                   XXXXX

Back at the school Jacob was walking around looking for the girl he hopes to one day take out on a date till he finally saw her walking amongst her friends in the hallway, after making up his mind he walked up to them to start a conversation.

“Hey girls, hey Cindy” he greeted with a smile

“Hey” they all replied before walking past him leaving only cindy who stopped to talk to him “whats up Jacob, you were late today why?” she asked him as they kept walking slowly

“Well blame Marcel for that, he insisted on taking the long route today just so he could see that dead body on the news this morning, weird huh?” he lied ‘forgive me bro, but I’m sure you’ll understand why I had to do this’.

“Really?” she asked looking surprised “never figured he liked seeing stuffs like that. According to the press that was a very brutal murder, makes you wonder who’s safe in this city with psychotic murderers everywhere” she said with a sad face.

“Don’t worry, I’ll protect you from any danger that threatens you” Jacob replied with his chest puffed up trying to look cool, Cindy saw  that and broke out into laughter. “Ok Mr. hero I can always count on you” she replied him with a smile to which he returned before nervousness set in as his mind went back to the reason why he approached her in the first place.

“umm Cindy I-I-I was wondering if you’re free sometime on Saturday, maybe we can meet up somewhere and talk” he tried to sound calm but his heart was beating rapidly in his chest afraid of rejection.

“Oh I’m not sure, I have somewhere to be on that day, maybe some other time”

“ok ok yeah next time” he tried not to sound disappointed

“cool, bye Jacob” she said as she walked away leaving him behind, he kept staring at her till she was out of sight. 

“well at least I tried, I wonder what Marcel is doing now”  he spoke to himself.