THE SECRET OF DEATH

ten

"It's okay, you can have it if you want!" said Sean Thompson from behind his book, who didn't even glance at Michel, who was smiling brightly in the doorway with Jardes who was tuning his guitar.

 Michel closed his dorm door and walked over to Jardes who was tuning the guitar, he placed a medium sized box on a wooden table and sat beside Jardes. Michel, with his body taking a swing by stretching his ten fingers and then bending his head left and right, he was warming up to be more precise.

 Jardes strummed the guitar he had been tuning and smiled broadly and then placed the guitar beside his chair glancing at the box on the table and then glanced at Michel. He raised an eyebrow "actually it's yours or him?" asked Jardes.

 Michel shrugged after the warm up was over, "I don't know but I guess it's my part again." Michel answered casually. Then Michel's hand opened the lid of the box on the table and smiled brightly when he saw the contents of the box. "Sean, you really let me have it?" Michel asked once again even though he really didn't expect Sean to say no, even if Sean changed his mind he would still be determined to have it.

 Sean just cleared his throat in response to Michel's question to him.

 Michel poked the cake that was in the box with satisfaction, one thing he was grateful for from his friendship with Sean, namely that every time Sean got it, it belonged to him. For example, this delicious cake, Sean should be the one who said thank you to the giver and ate this cake but Michel himself did it.

 Sometimes Michel wonders why Sean is so indifferent to the people who admire him and why the girls still admire Sean's figure even though they have received thousands of vicious rejections directly from Sean's figure. But somehow it also became positive in him.

 "Wow," Michel muttered between his bites, then he handed a piece of cake in front of Jardes who looked at him in disgust. "eat, food can not be refused." Michel said without getting a reply from Jardes.

 Jardes smiled amusedly when he found that Michel, who was about to turn fat because of the gifts for Sean, was turning to him soon. "Man, I think you should learn to diet!" he rubbed Michel's back worriedly, then he wiped the corners of Michel's smudged lips.

 "Hey, how are you?" Michel shook off Jardes' hand that was stroking his lips.

 "Don't worry, I'm not interested in you." Jardes said casually then he spooned the cake in front of him and put it in his mouth. "Delicious, who is it this time?" asked Jardes.

 "I'm warning you, don't ever be attracted to me okay! I have a girlfriend!" Michel asked Jardes which amused him.

 "Won't." Interjected Jardes quickly.

"The cake you ate was from Agnes."

 "Really?"

 Michel nodded.

 "Unfortunately she didn't come in."

 "At first she wanted to go in, but when she saw you she discouraged."

 Jardes laughed at Michel's explanation about Agnes not barging into Sean's room, "She's a really weird girl, even though I was just kidding at the time."

 "Okay..okay.. you are the same as Sean, but you are more disgusting."

 Sean frowned when he heard his name being mentioned, moreover he heard that he was compared to Jardes, who was an installment.

 "Ops, it's not like that.." Michel said when he saw the change in Sean's expression and knew what that expression meant. "Sorry!"

 Sean put his book on the small table and then he walked over to his two friends. Then he sat down on the carpeted floor in front of his two friends, he glanced at the cake in the box slowly but when he found out it was Agnes he immediately frowned. He grabbed a can of fruit juice that Jardes had bought a few hours ago and he drank it. Feeling the drink flow down his throat which felt dry from reading the words from the book he was reading earlier.

 "May I say something?" Jardes spoke up as the atmosphere felt awkward.

 "You usually talk without excuse me," Michel pointed out. Meanwhile, Sean glanced at Jardes as he placed his drink can on the table.

 Jardes held his breath for a moment then exhaled, after which he glanced alternately at his friends. And smiled amused at the thought of something.

 Michel stopped eating and looked at Jardes suspiciously, "could it be.."

 Jardes immediately shook when he heard Michel speak up, he was afraid if Michel the leaky bucket said something that made him awkward. "It's not like that, I can explain..."

 "Explain what?" asked Sean then.

 "Yes, explain what?" Michel.

 "What do you want to say?"

 "I thought you wanted to say, that you've been secretly watching dirty movies again lately."

 Jardes snorted in annoyance when he heard Michel's statement that was so clear, "Gosh, I thought you knew but it turns out that your statement was wrong. As long as you know I'm already in a vacuum with that activity."

 "Then what do you want to say?" asked Michel curiously, then handed the cake to Sean who had been glancing at the cake in the box secretly, "if you want to take it, seeing you like that makes me feel sorry."

 "no thanks. I was just looking at it." His alibi, even though Sean felt the same way as Michel about the cake, but since it was a gift from Agnes, he couldn't help but have to refrain from tasting the cake that tasted so tempting, "I don't want that cake, but I just want to make sure you can finish it in a minute or not."

 "If you want, just say it. You really can't lie." Interrupted Michel relaxed and pulled the piece of cake earlier. "Then what did you want to say?" the lyrics to Jardes.

 Jardes leaned his back on the chair, and glanced alternately at his friends. "I think I like Alexa Brown."

 I think I like Alexa Brown.

Sean and Michel exchanged glances, both of them digesting Jardes' statement that he suddenly said he likes a girl. Normally Jardes would only use that statement when really serious, and perhaps Jardes was serious this time and wasn't just a game anymore like he had been with some of the girls before.

 "You are crazy!!" Michel screamed without thinking anymore, "you're crazy, really crazy. Where do you feel that intention, you know that she's a crazy and weird girl."

 "Honestly, I thought that way at first, but after a few times meeting her and talking to her I think it's all over. She's a warm and cheerful girl, you guys don't know. And I heard she got good grades in all subjects and better than him," Jardes glanced at Sean who was still staring at him confused after he finished his words.

 "Wait, you said that she beat me? And you met her several times?" he asked.

 "Such is reality." Jardes replied, "yes, a few times."

 Sean grew more curious about Jardes' statement, "When exactly?"

 "Starting last week," Jardes casually replied, "why? you don't look like her?"

 "No, that's fine. I'm just asking, because you're really crazy."

 "Yeah, you can say that after I've been with her"

 "Yes, you should think about it. It's better that way." he looked at Jardes seriously and intently but Jardes didn't know it. Then he stood up from his seat and slowly walked towards the door.

 "Where are you going?" asked Jardes.

 Sean answered without turning around, "toilet!" then he disappeared from behind the door.

 Michel looked back at Jardes, "you two are really crazy. Moreover, I think this room's toilet is fine."

 Jardes shrugged, "he's always like that when he disagrees with me. But I don't care, because I mean what I say."

 "Like Alexa Brown?"

 Again Jardes nodded, "yes." Short answer.

 "Man you really have weird tastes. But if I'm being honest she is beautiful and smart but somehow when I once caught her talking to herself I started to feel like she was out of her mind."

 "Man, maybe because he's crazy I like her." Jardes added reasons why he likes Alexa Brown.

 "And you want to make her your girlfriend?"

 "I'm scared.."

 "Scared?"

 "Yes, after being rejected by Agnes, it's as if I don't have any more confidence."

 Michel drank the mineral water in front of him until he left half, then he put down the drink bottle and said in his heart, "that girl is really wrong."

 *****

Sean walked down the school corridor in the middle of the night while enjoying the cold air, especially since this afternoon the heavy rain hasn't shown any signs of letting up. Lightly dressed for some reason he decided to get out of his room and didn't care about the dorm rules regarding students not being allowed to roam around in the middle of the night. After he heard Jardes' statement about him liking Alexa Brown, for some reason his heart felt agitated and it was as if his heart felt something he shouldn't be feeling.

 The corridor, which was only lit by dim lights, didn't upset him at all, especially since he left his room he had seen astral figures staring at him several times. He could have strangled the creature but since he was in a strange mood he just let them stare at him.

 A few steps after he passed the steps of the boys' dormitory, Sean stopped in his tracks. Something he hadn't felt in a few years ago somehow felt again, that strange feeling coursing through his skin to the point that it made the hairs on his neck prickle but he wasn't afraid. As he gazed at this dimly lit corridor and down the last stair, his ears could clearly pick up on the sounds that filled this lonely corridor.

 He walked with the courage he had, he could not tell whether he heard the screams of people or astral beings. He couldn't decide on one or the other, the thing that made him like that was something that had confused him earlier.

 Sean exhaled for a moment and stepped on his feet looking for the source while making his curiosity buried, the more he left the stairs of his dormitory the clearer the sound became until a few minutes later the screams that only he could hear began to fade into sobs.

 Sean stopped from his steps when he believed the source of the sound came from the girl beside the big old statue who was now sitting on the cold floor of the castle, the girl sat down as if she saw something strange. Then the sobbing girl backed away until the girl didn't realize that she hit someone's leg behind her. It didn't stop there, the girl who had suppressed her screams now screamed in fear when she felt she bumped into something.

 Slowly she raised his head and looked at someone standing stiffly behind her back. The girl sobbed again when she found the person she hit was someone she recognized.

 Sean, looked at the source that made this girl scared, then he frowned and his eyes started to get round then his eyes shifted back to the girl at his feet, he squatted for a while pulling the girl to stand up.

 "Are you all right?" Sean asked anxiously.

 The girl tried to answer but her sobs wouldn't subside so she stuttered.

 "Why are you here?" he asked again.

 The girl looked into Sean's brown eyes, "I don't want to die." The girl's voice suddenly, as she lowered her head. Saying that made her feel no shame anymore and she probably didn't care if it was Sean who she was talking to, someone who made her uncomfortable.

 Sean exhaled, then held Alexa's shoulders which were trembling with fear. "Let me show you to your room, and why are you hanging around in the middle of the night like this and wearing a uniform?" Sean explored Alexa who was wearing a uniform.

 Alexa raised her face quickly and backed away from Sean's presence so that Sean's hand on her shoulder was far away, "I don't want to go there!" Ask Alexa quickly.

 Sean stepped closer to Alexa, "why?"

 "She's there, and I don't want to go there."

 Sean, feeling shocked and sorry at the same time, he couldn't believe that the terror really happened to Alexa, who didn't know anything, so what would he do the next.

                                             ****