THE ROOT OF DARKNESS

CHAPTER SEVEN

The loud crash the bodies of Katiana and Jensen made when they fell ontop the car was loud enough to get anyone’s attention. 

But in room 312, the spare room Miss Penelope had bought, neither did Caleb who was frantically reading his physics textbook nor Derrick who was listening to his music with his headphones on hear the sound at all. 

Although Caleb did glance to look at Derrick once in a while. His presence distracted him from what he was reading as Caleb wasn’t one who could read with others who weren’t. 

But Caleb decided to fuss it all up and throw himself down into his book at all cost. Just when he felt he was suddenly trying to grasp Doppler’s effect, the door to the room he was in was thrown open. 

Caleb quirked his brow in confusion as he saw Becky panting heavily. “What are you doing?”. He questioned out of disgust as he focused his attention back to his book, reading all over again. 

“Have you seen my cellphone?”. Becky questioned as Caleb scoffed. 

“Do I even know what your cellphone looks like? And why are you asking me, ask Kira or something”. 

“Kira hasn’t been in the room for a while now”.

“Then go look for your phone”. Becky closed the door as she turned around and left heading to God knows where. 

Back in the room, Caleb cursed softly. “I can’t believe I have to read through all this all over again just because she was looking for her phone”. He flipped the pages of his physics textbook as he probed himself towards solving questions. 

“Don’t you have anything to do rather than read all day?”. Derrick questioned as Caleb let out a frustrated sigh. 

“Don’t you have anything to do all day than listen to music?” Caleb counter attacked as Derrick chuckled at his cheeky behavior. 

“I’m just saying though, you literally have no competition in school so whether you read or not, you’ll still stay top”

“I’m not looking at whether or not I have a competition in this school. The college I want to go to is one of the best college in town and to be chosen, I need to be the best amongst others. So if you don’t mind, I would like some quiet now”. 

Derrick nodded his head with understanding that Caleb had thought he’d gotten his message through to him but it was rather the opposite. 

“Don’t you think that girl Kira is weird?”. Came Derrick’s deep voice all of a sudden as Caleb let out a frustrated groan. He knew if he didn’t give Derrick a listening ear, the dude won’t shut up. 

“What is it now?”. 

“I saw her that day, although I pretended I didn’t and I know you saw her too”. 

“If you are going to speak in parables just…”

“That day she came out of the amusement park. That was blood on her, wasn’t it?”. 

Caleb stilled as he was suddenly reminded of that day he dreaded more than anything in the world.

When Kira had defended herself saying it was ketchup, he knew that it wasn’t because as the genius or rather nerd he was, he could tell the difference between the color of blood and that of ketchup.

Moreover, there was the thickness. Blood was way thicker than ketchup. He’d just decided to brush it off that day because he didn’t want anything to happen to him. Whatever the matter was, the conclusion was that Kira was not normal. 

But all those were none of Caleb’s business as long as it didn’t help his chances of getting into a good college. That’s why even now, he was more determined to sweep the subject under the rug. “I couldn’t really tell if it was blood or not”. 

Derrick scoffed. “Why? Are you scared of her?”

“I’m not!”. Caleb replied abruptly. 

“Then why aren’t you in your room with her?”

“We had a fall out. Nothing serious. Now can you just shut it?”. Caleb questioned harshly turning his attention back to his physics textbook. 

“Do you know?”. Came Derrick’s voice. “If we were complete, Phil, Monica, Sasha and Bree would have stayed in this room”. 

“Why did you go adding Monica, Bree and Sasha?”. Caleb muttered under his breathe. They weren’t even sure if those girls still decided to come or not but from the look of things and how bad the rain was, one could easily conclude that they’d decided to stay away. 

“Think about it carefully, nerd”. Derrick says slowly. “Why is it that since morning till now, we still haven’t seen Phil?”. 

 Caleb shrugged. “That’s none of my business”. 

Derrick laughed, heartedly. “You can’t even act to save your life. I can literally see the curiousity eating right through your veins”. 

Caleb harshly shut his textbook close. “And what if I’m curious? Do I walk up to her and say ‘Hey, I think you are a weird girl who walked out but didn’t come back with her boyfriend and was covered up in blood Infront of the park. Tell me, did you kill him? I’m asking because I wish to be murdered next’ “.

Derrick scoffed lightly. “Why don’t you and I do something more fun?”. 

“More fun than reading?”

“Yes. More fun than that dumb ass book you’ve been carrying all morning”. 

“And what’s that?”

“Let’s get to the root of all our curiousity”

“You mean we should confront Kira straight up? Pass. How is dying fun?”

“No you dumbass. That’s not what I mean.”

“Then, what?”

“Let’s follow her. Watch whatever she goes, says, eat and all. No one is perfect. Even serial killers are bound to make mistakes”. 

“And what happens next? If maybe at all she really has something to do with Phil’s disappearance”. 

“Then….we keep the truth to ourselves”

Caleb scowled. “What?. Then what’s the point of risking our lives following her?”

Derrick shrugged. “We get to satisfy our curiousity, isn’t that what you wanted?”

“So are you in or not?”. Derrick questioned as Caleb stared at him long and hard before replying. “I’d rather just read”.