The students were becoming extremely worried after Mr Joseph had not come back for the past two hours. Ben stood outside the building with some fellow students, waiting impatiently for Mr Joseph to arrive.
Tricia ran out of the mansion to get meet him. "Remember what I told you? Mr Joseph has abandoned us", she whispered to him.
"I'm afraid you're right", Ben whispered back.
"I don't still quite understand what he meant when he said he won't completely abandon us", Tricia looked round and saw people behaving miserably over Mr Joseph not coming back.
"Whatever he meant, it's of no good. We need to all leave this place", he said, "But how do we convince everyone to leave?", he asked her. Tricia thought about it for a while.
* * *
They successfully assembled everyone outside the house. "Tricia you know how to talk to the crowd. You're the assistant school prefect", Ben whispered and stepped aside.
Tricia cleared her throat before she began. "I know the person behind the deaths of both the driver and that JS2 dude", she said. This statement put every single person in suspense. They demanded for her to tell them who that person was.
"It's our very own Mr Joseph", she stated. A lot of people immediately thrusted aside what she said. This created a noisy atmosphere.
"Calm down everyone! I'm 100% sure of what I'm talking about", she raised her voice so she could be heard.
"Then prove it to us!", exclaimed a girl.
"I saw him with my very own eyes", she argued. They all kept quiet and paid attention to what she had to say. "Let's think about it critically guys! We have been the only school losing a fellow student each day. No other school reported a death case of their students, only Mr Joseph's High School had a student dying each day", she said to them. They all kept quiet, knowing she had made a point.
"He has brought us out here so he could continue his demonic deeds. Two people dead in just a few hours I'd say", Ben added.
"I'm with them", Mark stepped out of the audience and stood by Tricia. "Last night we saw what confirmed the suspicion", he said.
"I got a question", a girl interrupted him, raising up her hand, "How was Mr Joseph sneaking into homes and killing the students?"
"He doesn't need to do that", Mark answered, "Last night, we caught Mr Joseph sneaking out of the house", Mark indicated the three of them, "We followed him up and saw him having a cult meeting with some strange people. He's definitely into black magic", he explained. The audience could not believe their ears.
"I overheard him having a phone conversation early in the morning before some fellers walked passed me into his room to inform him of the death of that boy", Tricia continued.
"There's no network here. How's that possible?", a boy checked his phone, doubting if she told the truth.
"I saw him making a call. I was one of the students that went into his room to inform him of the death", a JS3 girl concurred with Tricia.
"I'm also a witness to that", her classmate added.
"He told the person over the phone he was going to leave us here", Tricia revealed to them.
"And as you can see, he hasn't showed up till now", Ben concluded.
"We have to leave this place right away", Tricia advised, much to the disapproval of the audience.
"If he's left us, don't you think we're now safe?", a boy amongst the audience asked her. The rest supported him.
"Mr Joseph won't just leave us here, he certainly has evil intentions for abandoning us here", she tried convincing them but they were not willing to agree with what she said.
"This is going to be hard like we thought", Ben whispered to her. Three of them were worried because they did not know how to convince the adamant noisy audience.
* * *
Dominic, Mr Donald and Rita went into the station, looking for the Chief Constable. Dominic walked up to a colleague of his.
"Is the Chief Constable in his office?", he asked his colleague. The colleague could see the Chief Constable not far away behind him, looking unhappy.
"He's already behind you", he inclined his head forward. Dominic turned behind and could see the unhappiness in the Chief Constable's eyes.
"Good morning Sir", Dominic greeted, hiding his nervousness with a smile.
"It's afternoon Dominic", he replied vaguely. Mr Donald and Rita quickly joined them. They both greeted him and he responded to them.
"You called to see me Sir", Dominic reminded him.
"Let's talk in my office", he replied and began to walk away. Dominic was hard on the Chief Constable's heels.
"Come along Donald and Rita", Chief Constable called on them. They immediately followed them behind.
* * *
"In all my years as Chief Constable Roland, my district has never left a case unresolved for more than a week. What's going on this time around?", he felt concerned.
"We've been dealing with something supernatural", Dominic replied.
Mr Roland became curious to know. "What's the supernatural stuff?", he probed Dominic.
"The serial killer of Joe's High School students is no other than Father Christmas", he spoke in a low tone.
"Father Christmas that's dead?", he gawked at them, "Or you're talking about his ghost?", he leaned in his chair.
"That's exactly what we mean Sir", Mr Donald said to him.
Mr Roland tried to understand what they informed him about. "Explain this to me. I don't understand why Father Christmas is hunting his best friend's students", he said casually with a shrug.
Dominic's phone began to ring. He saw it was Sandra and he begged to pick up the call. "Tell them the Chief Constable would need to see you, that you've for some information", he told Sandra over the phone.
"Who do I need to see?", Mr Roland looked at Dominic strangely.
"Sandra - the ex wife-to-be of Father Christmas. She has helped in this case", he said.
A Constable soon opened the door and informed the Chief Constable he had a visitor. "Let her in!", Mr Roland granted permission. Sandra walked in and he offered her the fourth seat left.
"Good afternoon Sir", she greeted.
Mr Roland nodded his head in response to the greeting, while he observed her very closely, squinting his eyes. "I was just told you have some information to give to me", he leaned back in his swivel chair.
"Yes Sir! Anything to make sure Mr Joseph is exposed", she responded.
"Why would Father Christmas haunt Mr Joseph's students. Weren't they best friends before his demise?", Mr Roland inquired of her. She looked at the rest, not knowing how to begin. "You don't know what to say?", he gazed at her.
"Well...", she began, "Joseph envied him because I chose to marry Father Christmas and not him", she said.
"Father Christmas never knew about this envy?", he asked a second question.
"Yes! I never wanted a childhood friendship coming to an abrupt and", she replied.
"Mmm...", he thought about her response, "I feel it would have been better letting him know", he suggested.
"I never felt the envy was anything serious, that it won't lead to anything I'd end up regretting", she gave her reason.
"Was it just because of love or there was a reason behind you choosing to marry Father Christmas instead of Joseph?", Mr Roland interrogated further.
"Because Joseph is into black magic", she revealed, "Though I also did love Father Christmas", she emphasized.
The Chief Constable had already sat up as soon as he heard about Mr Joseph being into black magic. "Now that makes sense to me!", he exclaimed, "Father Christmas passed away while he was in his room, with the tight security everywhere right?" Before Sandra could say a word, he concluded;"He was surely killed with black magic and from what I'm hearing, I strongly feel Mr Joseph was behind it."
"That's what we haven't yet confirmed", she stressed.
"That's certain. No need to confirm. This case should have been solved a long time ago", he said dramatically.
"Then how about the missing students? We still need to find them", Donald reminded him, knowing he had forgotten.
"Oh!", he reacted, "Haven't you guys begun something on that?", he asked them, seeking for immediate answers.
"We had a thorough search inside Mr Joseph's home but we only found a dead body in his wardrobe and this book", Dominic raised it up so the Chief Constable could see.
"You're talking about the money making human thing they do?", Mr Roland asked casually. Dominic nodded his head to confirm.
"Joseph had money making human in his wardrobe?", Sandra shivered slightly in disgust.
"I need to study this book because I feel I'll get some answers from it", Dominic glimpsed at it.
"What book is that?", Mr Roland felt curious.
"A book of black magic", Dominic showed it to him again.
"Is that going to help you find out the location the missing children are?", Mr Roland stared at him in surprise.
"I have a way of finding out their location", he replied confidently, "This book will help me get ready for all of Joseph's black magic tricks - There are defences for every trick in this book", he said. What he said surprised everyone.
"You want to be involved in black magic as well?", Rita gawped at him.
"Not like I got a choice", he shrugged, "I need to be able to defeat him. I'm sure God understands", he said. He folded his fists, looking so determined.