Chapter 33: Making A Mountain Out Of A Molehill
275 4 13
X
Reading Options
Font Size
A- 15px A+
Width
Reset
X
Table of Contents
Loading... please wait.
Fun fact: cats bring their owners dead animals because they think the human is bad at being a cat

Confronting a Karen is not for the faint of heart. Only those who stand with a firm foundation and resolve are able to handle to the hurricane. The 'HurriKaren,' if you will. Due to working many jobs, I have encountered many Karens. I have never been good at dealing with them, but I have backup now. I can handle this. Deciding that this was a very delicate matter, Sister Clementine took us to the vacant rose garden to explain. I sit at one of the tables with Alexis and Astrid standing behind me as if they were my bodyguards. We waited for Sister Clementine to arrive with Karen.

Karen is nothing like I was expecting her to be. She is underserving of her name. First of all, she looks exactly like my neighbour Katherine. Since they're in the same year, it's likely that they are identical twins. It's always good to be able to differentiate between identical twins, so I look for an identifying feature. Her short, wavy bobbed hair was the exact same dark brown as her sister's, but her bangs covered her left eye instead of her right.. She also clutched a small notebook to her chest as if it were her life. Turns out the two were easily distinguishable. Contrary to what her name suggested, she was extremely flustered and scared; terrified to the point that it looked like she could start crying or hyperventilating at any moment. Sister Clementine interrogated her in the same manner as she did with me, but despite her demeanour, Karen was still quivering in her seat.

Karen opened her notebook to an empty page and scribbled furiously onto it. After she finished writing, she held the notebook up for us to read what she wrote and cowered behind it. Covering the entire page were the words 'I DIDN'T SEND THE EMAIL! I'M INNOCENT!!' We all blankly stare at the page. I think the four of us are all thinking the same thing.

"Why don't you speak?" I ask her out of genuine curiosity. Sister Clementine answered me in her stead.

"Karen here has aphonia. She can't speak, so she communicates through writing." Oh, so she's a mute. I guess I was the only one wandering why she wouldn't speak. I haven't really looked into mutism much, so I don't know much about it. I'll have to go down a rabbit hole and do some extra research. My ignorance aside, I have another question I'd like to ask.

"Wouldn't knowing sign language be easier than carrying around a notebook all day?" I ask Karen directly. Karen peeks her little head out from behind her book. She slowly placed her book and pen in front of her on the table. She raised her eyebrows and pointed at me. Then she squished her fingers together and tapped her temple twice. Then she pointed out her two index fingers horizontally and started moving them in a circle towards her. "Yeah," I nod. I don't know why, but she seems very happy with my answer. There isn't a trace of stress or fear left on her face; there's just a big, happy smile across her face. How cute. She begins signing like crazy, telling me her side of the story

"Huh..." I show her I'm understanding her by nodding and occasionally making noise. "Uh huh... Yeah... What? Just out in the open? …You shouldn't do that. Someone could steal it... Yeah I know that, but it's just a good habit to have after you graduate. People in the outside world aren't going to be as kind as they are here... Mhm... Yeah... Yeah, I know, I believe you... Yeah." After Karen finishes signing, I give Sister Clementine an abridged version of what she told me. "Karen leaves her phone out on her desk a lot. Someone must've sent the message when she went to the bathroom. Is that right?" I turn back to Karen for confirmation. She nods enthusiastically. 

"Why do you know sign language?" Alexis asks me in astonishment.

"Um... Just in case." I didn't have a reason for learning it. It was easy, I was bored, and I could. Why wouldn't I learn it? You never know when it could come in handy.

"You learned an entire language 'just in case?'"

"Um... Yeah, pretty much."

"Can we focus on the main topic?" Sister Clementine brings everyone's attention back to the investigation. "The message must have just been someone playing a prank."

"But who would do such a thing?" Astrid asks her. She fell into thought. 

"Are there only three different classes in the second year, Sister Clementine?"

"Yes," she tells me. 

Now to deduce the culprit of this most heinous crime. The offender was most likely someone in class A, since only those students should know about Karen's habit of leaving her phone unattended. It's not class B, since they were all the victims, and, while still a possibility, it's highly unlikely that someone from class C could be the culprit. The only person I can think of who would want to get me in trouble would be Luna. She's not in class C, because that's the class I'm in. I'd know if she were in my class. She's not in class B, because that's the class Chloe and Sapphire are in, and I haven't seen her in that class with them. So with the simple process of elimination, we can determine Luna is in class A. She had the motive and opportunity to pull off this stunt, but I had no proof it was her. This is all just wild speculation, but I'm fairly sure she's the one. 

"As for who would do this..." Sister Clementine continues, answering Alexis' question. "I don't know. But I would advise not searching for the one responsible."

"But-" Astrid starts to speak up against Sister Clementine, but she wouldn't have it.

"He's the only boy at a girls' school," Sister Clementine explains. "It's natural some girls would feel inclined to play a prank. I don't think there's any reason to scold someone over something so trivial. Unless you are simply determined to find the culprit, Seraph."

"No, it's fine," I tell Sister Clementine. I'm satisfied with the conclusion I've come to. There's no need to make a mountain out of a molehill. 

"I knew you were a healthy young man," Sister Clementine smiled brightly, as if she were a goddess. "You enjoyed yourself quite a bit, I imagine."

. . .

"...What?" I utter with a voice crack, weak and pathetic. Sister Clementine faced the two behind me.

"Did he see them while they were changing?"

"He had a clear view of them," Alexis says. "We were standing right behind him at the time." 

Sister Clementine smiled back down at me. "Then it was to your benefit as well."

The weight of what I had done had finally dawned on me. Honestly... Now that I think about that scene... I did enjoy it. Before I know it, I'm starting to lust after that sight once more. There was so much... eroticism in one room.

. . .

"I enjoyed it... Those girls were all terrified... horrified... and I enjoyed it...? I exploited their weak and terror-stricken state to satisfy my libido... I'm a monster... a disgusting fucking parasite..."

"Seraph, it's not that serious..." I hear Sister Clementine's voice, but I don't pay any attention to it. My mind is drawn to Karen's ballpoint pen that's on the table. I snatch it as fast as I can and take off the lid.

"Seraph, what are you doing?" I hear Astrid's voice, but I don't listen to it.

"Scum..." I tilt my head back and force my right eye - my only functioning eye - open with my thumb and index finger. "Do not deserve sight..." I hold the point of the pen straight above my eye and slowly lower it, trying to be as accurate as possible.

"SERAPH!" I hear Alexis cry, but I ignore it. Before I manage to stab out my eye, my entire upper body is restrained by four pairs of hands. I'm not giving up that easily, though. "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

"Vision is a privilege I don't deserve..." I'm trying as hard as I can, but I'm making little to no progress. These hands are strong. One of the pairs of hands is trying to pry my hand open, but I keep it shut tight with a death grip.

"KAREN, BACK OFF, IT'S DANGEROUS! CLEMENTINE, HURRY AND GET THE OTHER GUARDIENNE, HE'S TOO STONG! ALEXIS, WE NEED TO PIN HIM DOWN ON THE GROUND - BE ROUGH IF YOU NEED TO! SERAPH, FOR FUCK'S SAKE, DROP THE PEN!"

"NOT UNTIL I SET THINGS RIGHT! AN EYE FOR AN EYE!"

13