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FIFTEEN: A Performance in Two Acts
Folks, get ready for a performance in two acts—featuring puppets on a string.
***
Act One
ANOTHER SUNLIT DAY at Van Duke High.
A heat wave in the middle of August was uncanny. Every student in Mr. Groffman’s BIO 1 class was drenched in sweat. While Persephone-11 was akin to a boiler room, they could not open the windows because of honey bees swarming from the nearby woods.
Isa was fanning herself with a filler notebook. Her eyes drooped from the heat and the boredom. Mickey attentively took notes and persevered. Isaac completely fell asleep, sleepless nights being the culprit.
Meanwhile, Agatha sat in the back
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The Midnight Club Murders SIXTEEN: Wilted Petals
ISA FOUND HERSELF COMING BACK to Christie Claricel's bedroom. Somehow, it felt like home.One evening, while cooking homemade ramen, Noel Marie came home donning the strong, pungent smell of whiskey."Isa make me coffee," he said in a slurred speech, on the verge of passing out.Isa rolled her eyes, "Why are you drunk again?""Coffee.""Will you please answer the question?""Rude fucking bitch. I said, GO MAKE ME COFFEE!""WHY ARE YOU FUCKING DRUNK AGAIN?"In a fit of rage, Noel pulled Isa by her
The Midnight Club Murders ZERO: The Odd One Out
𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑐𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑢𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡, 𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑞𝑢𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑠 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑖𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑑 —𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑖𝑓 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑒𝑑. IN THE DEAD OF THE NIGHT, six friends—who each felt like they have known one another for a lifetime—guffaw and chuckle as they bask in the moonlight’s glow. The moonlight spilled onto their faces through the rickety and old window of the familiar classroom. Two of them joked around. One of them whined about going home. Two of them talked too loud. One almost passed out. The Alcohol Junkie The Whining Thespian The Bibliophile The Know-It-All
The Midnight Club Murders ONE: Voices in the Cafeteria
FOUR DAYS AGO, on a sunny Friday morning, the 11th grade of Van Duke Public High School prayed in the midst of an assembly. One hundred and fifty students stood in lines along the asphalt of the school quadrangle. No one dared to make a sound, not even a breath or a snort. Van Duke appeared frozen in time.“…and we hope that sha’ys one with yah angles. Christie had always been a great friend, schtudent, and sistah,” a cheery girl with short stature and curly hair said onto the microphone podium, in front of the 11th graders with a slight whimper in her high-pitched voice which appeared to badly mimic a grieving tone.The day was the first anniversary of Gwyneth Claricel’s sister, Chr
The Midnight Club Murders TWO: Convictions of Rum & Gin
VAN DUKE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL is a 54-year-old establishment that consisted of four buildings and a quadrangle where assemblies took place, although it only appeared to be outdated because of the substandard construction, leaky faucets, broken windows, and cracking tiles. Rain leaked inside the classrooms through cracks in the ceiling—a great pain in the ass especially during the months of August thru October where the monsoon sets inland.The high school was publicly funded through generous alumni donations and a small provincial fund that barely gets anything fixed. In fact, if it wasn’t for the donations, Van Duke would have been a putrid abandoned mess that posed a biohazard. The comfort rooms reek of leaking pee and bleach as rats and pests ran amok in wall holes and floor gaps. An intercom system, generously set up free of charge by a PTA member, ran from the principal’s mi
The Midnight Club Murders THREE: The Show Must Go On
MONDAY CAME, two days after that sorrowful night. A body was found with a slit throat in Eurydice-11, lying on a pool of blood and with a spilled, white and pink liquid everywhere, which appeared to be liquor. Two bottles of branded alcohol and numerous plastic cups laid around the body. A razor blade which was rusty and bloodied was in its hand. It appeared to be bloated postmortem as it started to decompose. It gave of a putrefying, sulphurous smell which mixed up with the pungent aroma of the liquor, making the cops who were on the scene nauseous. Two days into decomposition, blood pooled on the body’s back and feet, making the skin appear black. Bloating has set in, pushing forward the eyes and making the tongue pop out a little. The scene was horrifyingly grotesque. The monsoon started to kick in. The students were expected to
The Midnight Club Murders FOUR: Intangible Wildfires
Dusk sets in gradually to a night,Birds of dark feather now take flightCold blackness arises to feathery orange,Sleeplessness resonates in rageDawn erases footsteps like the beach,Eyes that fear are closed stitchedIN HIS ROOM lit only by the cold, cyber realms of his computer, Mickey wrote poem after poem. Remnants of scars on his forearms reminded him of years and instruments past. Typewritten poems became his liturgy and coping mechanism. Gone are the years that his only sense of calm was the sharpness of a rusty piece of metal.Yet Mickey found himself secretly longing for it. Petrarchan words in lines and sonnets stopped working. Why did it stop work
The Midnight Club Murders FIVE: Behind the Scenes
CLASSES RESUMED THE FRIDAY thereafter. Another chilly August day with light drizzle every now and then. While the cooking pot of opinions and gossips and commentaries at Van Duke boiled down into a simmer, it never quite disappeared. Mostly fueled by the poisonous silence a week after Dean Ramos’ funeral and shortly just a few days after what seemed to be a prank. While most accepted that Dean’s death was self-inflicted—although only for the reason of accepting something and not dwelling on death any longer—a small few are convinced that something is definitely sketchy about two suicides at Van Duke exactly a year apart. Some of Dean’s teachers and acquaintances that were quite dear to him simply dismissed these and found the conspiracies tasteless and absurd.What remains of the Midnight Club did not exist on our plane of existence. Isaac became a recluse, growing a five-day-old stubble that made him look
The Midnight Club Murders SIX: Fallen Angels
IN THAT CITY, no one is distant from another. In the dark recesses of someone else’s apartment, Isaac laid bare on the bed with some guy he goes to after-school tutor with. “Are you coming to my 18th?” Gio Mendel asked. “I don’t think so, Gio. And, I don’t want to.” He was silent for a moment. “Is it because of the other day?” “Because of what?” “Because I told you, you know?” “Because I told you, what?” “Jesus Christ, Isaac. Stop acting so obtuse. You are fucking hurting me.” Gio looked at Isaac directly. He did seem hurt. “I have nothing to do with your feelings,
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The Midnight Club Murders SIXTEEN: Wilted Petals
The Midnight Club Murders FIFTEEN: A Performance in Two Acts
The Midnight Club Murders FOURTEEN: The Great Humming
The Midnight Club Murders THIRTEEN: The Bryophytes
The Midnight Club Murders TWELVE: This is Melodrama
The Midnight Club Murders ELEVEN: Elm Street of My Own
The Midnight Club Murders ELEVEN: Elm Street of My Own
The Midnight Club Murders TEN: Syndromes of Fear
The Midnight Club Murders NINE: Melting Wax
