Magdalene hummed a song as she took the tray that contained both their food to the dining room. She kept it gently on the table. She was about heading back to the kitchen when she heard footsteps down the stairs. She knew it was obviously Joseph.
She waited for him to come down, ready to welcome with a magnetic smile. When he descended the stairs, she could see him in an alarming state. She ran over to him for support, helping him to have a seat.
"What's going on?", she questioned, feeling so anxious.
"Just a pain I feel anytime I'm extremely hungry", he lied.
"Seriously?", she got surprised, "Are you sure you aren't hiding a secret from me?", she gawped at him.
"Just get me some food to eat; we'll talk about this later", he panted dramatically. Magdalene gave him his plate of food quickly, feeling extremely worried. She watched him have his food slowly. "Thanks a lot", he said to her, still in pains.
He got up and Magdalene tried to make him sit back down, but he adamantly refused. "Don't worry. I'm okay", he forced a smile.
She attentively watched him walk up to where the fried chicken was on a big plate. He picked up the knife by the plate and began to cut out a part from the chicken for himself.
Magdalene went to him, standing really close to him and asked;"Are you willing to tell me what really happened to you?"
"There's something I need to be having from time to time so I won't die", he replied vaguely.
"Please what is that?", she felt both curious and worried.
Joseph turned to her, staying silent for a while. She stared at him with her probing eyes. "I'm sorry", he said to her feeling moody.
"Sorry for what?", Magdalene felt nervous.
Joseph thrusted at her neck with a knife and cut deeply into her throat. He watched Magdalene go to ground gradually as she used her hand to stop blood from gushing out of her neck.
Joseph ended her life abruptly when he stabbed her once smack at the belly. He took away her hands from her neck and licked up a little blood with his tongue.
"I'm so sorry for what I did. If I don't taste blood for some days, I'll die", he shedded tears as he caressed Magdalene's hair.
He looked up at a wall clock and saw it was almost 8 o'clock. "I better clean up this mess and get some blood for Master before the workers start coming", he said inwardly.
He quickly lifted up Magdalene's corpse and carried her up the stairs. "This is why I don't have a family", he said; he felt guilty for what he did. He was back to normal, not suffering from any stomach pains anymore.
* * *
"Your daughter was ruthlessly murdered last night with a boy inside the forest just along the highway close by", Rita informed the girl's parents.
Mum and Dad glimpsed at each other as they were taken aback. "How sure are you it was my daughter?", Mum asked.
"We asked people around; they directed us to this place", Dominic explained.
"We need to see the proof first before we believe what you're saying", Dad spoke in disbelief.
"Are you really sure you'd want to see this?", Dominic brought out a picture from his pocket, expressing concern for them.
Dad collected the picture from him. Both he and Mum checked out what was in the picture. What they saw really frightened them that Dad threw the picture away.
"That's our daughter. I recognize the clothes", Mum gasped out in shock. Tears slowly rolled out of her eyes and down her cheeks. The news of her daughter's death her so hard that she was bereft of what to say.
"What is killing our children? This is how the school prefect was also killed", Dad sobbed.
"We're sorry for your loss Sir. We're making sure you get the justice you deserve", Rita felt sorry for them.
"What justice?", Dad responded angrily in a raised voice, "That ruthless killer has been killing children but hasn't been found and you sit here promising us stupid justice."
"We have found what is the cause of these mysterious deaths", Dominic defended levelly.
"What is that?", Dad asked, still lamenting.
"I'm afraid it's Father Christmas", Rita answered.
Dad wiped off his tears, totally shocked by the news. "How? Father Christmas died last year", he gazed at them with curious eyes.
"We're sure he died last year. We are talking about his ghost", Dominic replied.
"Stop telling me trash. Why would the ghost come back and be killing teenagers?", Dad got annoyed.
"We don't really know but there's somewhere we're heading to in these death cases", Dominic gestured.
"What secondary school was your daughter attending Sir?", Rita inquired of him.
"Joe's High School", he replied impersonally.
"All the death cases we're studying, the victims were all attending Joe's High School. There's something wrong somewhere that has been hidden from everyone", Dominic uttered. Curiousness gripped him.
"We know about that", Dad replied, "Since the day we heard of the school prefect's death, we told our daughter not to go to that school again. We felt it would take her out of a possible curse but it did not", he said to them.
"Why would Father Christmas be killing only students of Joe's High School?", Rita wondered.
"I bet Mr Joseph has something to do with all these happenings and I promise to find out the truth behind everything", Dominic vowed.
Rita noticed the bereaved Mum still silent, with tears still rolling out of her eyes. "Ma!", Rita called her. She looked up at Rita in response.
"I'm sorry for the loss", Rita said to her sympathetically. She looked away, not saying anything to Rita. The bereaved Dad sighed and looked downwards; he was extremely heartbroken. Dominic and Rita glimpsed at each other, before watching the parents again in their broken state. They felt pity for them.
* * *
Joseph attended another meeting with his cult members. The Master revealed something very important for Joseph to make use of.
"Your school management is to embark on a traditional tour with the chosen students in a few days time", he said to Joseph.
"They are worried about the mysterious deaths of their students so, some people suggested the tour be cancelled", replied Joseph.
"If you take with you some students to that old house of mine, Father Christmas will pay you all a visit there. Gather a reasonable number of students that will do for the rest of this month. Father Christmas will devour them and once December is over, the menace will end and no student will die again until the next December", he instructed.
"How sure are you Father Christmas would leave the other students and go after the ones I'd be with?", Joseph became curious.
"It's wish is to devour you...that's why it will come after you. But with that necklace", he gestured, "it won't get you. When it can't get you, it will surely attack people around you to frighten you", he replied.
"Frighten me?", Joseph laughed over it, "I'll stand still and watch him end their lives", he said.
"Then as the Director of that school, make the tour happen", Master said to him.
"That's a breeze. I know what to do", he smiled mischievously.
* * *
"Sir! Do you think this tour would be a nice thing to embark on when our students are dying everyday?", the principal gazed at Joseph with surprise.
"People die everyday. Why do you behave surprised at that?", Joseph replied vaguely.
The principal stared at him, completely startled. He was beginning to impeach Joseph's motives. "Don't you clearly know that the deaths are all mysterious, happening everyday from the same school?", he hissed.
"So not embarking on a tour will end the menace right?", Joseph muttered.
"We should focus on finding out the root cause of all these deaths", the principal argued desperately.
"Fine! You work on that while I take the students on a tour of fun as the school's DIRECTOR", he gazed straight at the principal with eyes wide open.
The principal sighed with disappointment, shaking his head. "Well...you know I'm not the only one to try and convince. You'll have to talk to the Board of Students' Welfare", he shrugged off his shoulders.
"That's not a problem too much for me to handle", Joseph gave a sly smile.
* * *
"Attention everyone!", Joseph squeaked at the noisy audience. The noise remained persistent, so he squeaked louder;"Attention everyone! Please!" Everywhere became as silent as a graveyard.
"That's good", Joseph smiled faintly, "Cancelling the tour won't stop the mysterious deaths from happening", he argued.
"But let's deal with one thing at a time", someone in the audience suggested. There was murmur amongst the audience, in support of what the person suggested.
"You all can stay here and find out the cause of the unusual deaths while I only can go on a tour with the chosen students", he argued again, "You know cancelling the tour could anger some of our students", he gestured.
"What the students need doesn't matter at this moment", another person argued which also gained some support from the rest.
"What they want matters. We need to make them feel loved", he smiled cheekily. Everyone kicked against what he said. He managed to hush everyone and urged them;"Let me go with the students. Driving them out of this area could even save them from the possible curse." The members of the Board of Students'Welfare whispered amongst themselves to discuss on what to decide.
Joseph turned to the principal, who was standing some distance away from him on the same podium he was. He gestured to Joseph that he had nothing to do with anything that was to happen. Joseph only responded with a nod of the head and a knowing smile. He turned back to the audience, awaiting their decision, hoping it would go his way.