Twenty Six

CHAPTER 26

"Miss Scoots!" snapped Mr. Payne suddenly.

Mr. Payne's loud voice startled Brittany. She turned around to find him looking at her. Mr. Payne looked angry as his hands were clasped over his chest. He adjusted his glasses, then tapped the blackboard with the marker in his hand. "Is my class so boring for you that you choose to ignore it?"

Everyone turned their eyes to Brittany. The girl felt even more pressured by the attitude of the other students. Brittany's face was red as a tomato, she was so embarrassed to be treated like that by Mr. Payne. She bit her lip in fear, then tried to reply to Mr. Payne's question with the remaining courage she had. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to talk inside-"

"That's enough, Miss Scoots!" Mr. Payne cut Brittany off.

That scared Brittany even more. She looked around, people were still watching. They all seemed to be mesmerized by Mr. Payne's words. But before Brittany could speak up to defend herself, Mr. Payne had already said,

"I let you out of my class, Miss Scoots," Mr. Payne exclaimed in a high tone. He looked very angry in his place and all the students in the class could only look down in fear as he delivered his order.

He was indeed an expert at intimidating others. His voice was loud, his words were clear and his orders could make anyone feel goosebumps instantly.

"But, Mr. Payne-"

"There are no excuses in my class." Mr. Payne's eyes darted around, sweeping the gazes of the other students who were observing the trouble in their classroom. "Whoever is causing trouble should come out and be prepared to receive a D if they argue. Do you think I'm playing around here? Do you all understand that I'm serious now?"

"Understood, sir!"

The unified voice of the students answering Mr. Payne's question made Brittany's guts grow smaller. She was losing her nerve. She was completely defeated. And Mr. Payne was grinning triumphantly from where he stood. He shoved both hands into his pants pockets, then lowered his gaze slightly and said.

"You can come out now, Miss Scoots. I don't accept any excuses, because it's not a question but an order."

A sigh escaped Brittany's mouth. She finally pulled out her bag, stood up, "All right, Mr. Payne," and left the classroom with mixed feelings. She was sorry, embarrassed, and scared all at once. Her grades were definitely in danger of being lowered after this, considering Mr. Payne could not be paid with anything, especially money. Mr. Payne was not your typical money-oriented teacher, everything was not about money. Brittany wouldn't be able to bribe him.

The girl named Brittany Scoots decided to go back to her room after being kicked out by Mr. Payne. She would rather stay in her room than wait in the cafeteria and look like a deliberately truant student until the next class came.

And to get to her room, Brittany had to walk alone down the main hallway because the classroom was in a different building from the dormitory building. There was a separate path there. And while passing through hallway 001, she heard someone's voice from inside the room that caught her attention.

"How did that girl get away?! Alicia should be in prison by now! Why is she so slick and smart?"

Brittany, who felt that the person was talking about Alicia in there, immediately stopped walking. Brittany immediately put her ear to the door to listen in on their conversation. She lowered her voice, trying to stick her ear as close as possible to hear the voices in the room as clearly as possible.

"I don't want to hear any excuses just so you know! Alicia has to go back to prison or I'll make her die like the others!"

Brittany gasped as she heard the word 'die' mentioned. She was shocked to death and almost screamed, if she hadn't quickly covered her mouth with both hands.

Brittany's sudden movement made her lose her balance. She crashed into the door beside her and made a loud noise that attracted attention.

"What's that noise?!"

The voice from inside the room made Brittany panic now. She looked around, trying to find a hiding place as quickly as possible. The hallway was so quiet, it was only natural that the slightest sound could be heard there.

And the sound of tapping shoes coming from inside the room made Brittany even more desperate. She immediately ran as fast as she could to her room to hide. Brittany had nowhere else to hide at the moment, at least she couldn't be caught by anyone talking about death without such guilt.

Whoever was in that room couldn't know she was overhearing the death talk. That must be dangerous! Whoever was in that room was definitely not a random person and Brittany knew it. This was dangerous, shouldn't she tell Alicia or Nicholas about this now?

Brittany closed the door to her room not far away and stood behind the door. Struggling to catch her ragged breath, Brittany was able to breathe freely after a few minutes of leaning against the door.

Her legs gave out and her heart was still pounding as she managed to run away from whoever was behind her. She clutched her chest. It felt like the heart inside her was about to jump out.

KRIEEET!

But without realizing it, the person in the room had noticed Brittany's presence because he had seen the closed door of the girl's room. She stood in the doorway, her hand still clutching her cell phone.

With a sly grin on the corners of his thin lips, he put the phone screen to his ear and said, "By the way, do you know Brittany Scoots? She's the girl who lives in the same hallway as me."

[...]

"Yes, you're right. She's a friend of Alicia's. I think they're pretty close, so please write down Brittany's name as our next victim. You know what I mean, right?"