The first victim was a menace that no one truly felt sorry about.
He would play tricks to the teachers and though he gets punished, he always manages to get away with it like a sly fox. He was so terrible that they tried to bring him back to the tribe, but the child returned simply because he liked how there was more food to eat at school.
Which wasn't true. There was just more food to eat for him because he bullies other children into giving their ration to him.
The Science teacher was a kind man, but he had snapped at this kid before. The troublemaker did shut up when he yelled at him. He even seemed to feel embarrassed from being told off by a bone thin and bookish white man.
This caused him to try and pull a trick on the teacher by destroying his collection of pinned-up butterflies mounted on the wall of his office.
That was the final straw. The next day, the boy was found naked with his limbs stretched like the Vitruvian man, and he was pinned up to the school walls using nails. He seemed to have died of suffocation prior to being displayed like this.
Of course, they would least expect someone as kind as the Science teacher to do such a heinous thing. Just for a few butterflies? And the kid had many enemies, both teachers and fellow native students alike. So the murder was ruled off as the fault of one of their kind.
But others soon followed. All have deep red marks on their necks. Made no doubt by fingers gripping hard on to them.
The boys always died at nighttime, killed in their beds. An investigation was made but it was hard to determine a suspect in a school such as this. And there were many other problems anyway like the shortage of food and supply, the increase of the sick children and faculty alike, and the coming winter that will make things even more complicated.
When winter came, that was when only Blank figured out who the murderer was.
Both of them knew this certain spot in the woods where they could go and be alone. It was a sort of clearing that nobody really visits, near a creek.
That spot was where the Teacher found him, and when he revealed his real name to him. So this spot was special.
Ahanu found himself wondering if he would be victimized next by this unknown serial killer. Besides stripping the bodies, the murderer only suffocates them and sometimes vandalizes the body like that with the mean troublemaker. But that first one was actually the worst.
The rest just had their breaths taken out of them along with their clothes. No sign of other assault, and they were sometimes even placed on their beds like how you would place someone in your funeral. Tucked in with a blanket.
Blank doesn't know for sure why the clothes get taken, but he knew the importance of clothes from the dead. Their tribe buries the dead in their best clothes and with their possessions with them, and the family receives the rest.
One day, he was at the spot ruminating about the events. When will his turn come? Will he ever learn the perpetrators identity before he dies, or do the kids get knocked out before they are suffocated?
Suddenly, he heard the sound of slow and heavy footsteps.
"Oh. Ahchuchwahauhhatohapit, you're here."
His teacher was there, carrying a large bag. Blank stood up, wondering what he was doing in their spot.
"What is it you are carrying, Sir Satie?" He said, finally calling his name.
The man just set down the bag, sighing. "What are you doing here? Did you skip your tasks again?"
Blank shook his head. "No, I have finished them all. I am simply here to watch the first snowfall of the year."
The man, who's named Erik Satie, patted his head.
"Good lad. You should hurry back, then. They do not like seeing the boys out of their rooms for so long after class, after the events that transpired recently."
Blank frowned. "But aren't those boys slayed in their rooms?"
Erik wore a small smile at this. "That is true. But is it not more dangerous outside than in the school? At the very least, there is a chance that the murderer will be caught as he does the murders within the premises where many could hear the children scream for help. In the outside world, you have wild animals, stray bullets of hunters and accidents to worry about."
"If both outside and inside are not safe, then there is no place that is safe for me in this world, Sir Satie." Blank answered.
The man looked at him for a long time, both of them locked in an intense staring contest. They just sat there, not saying a word to each other for a while as they observed the snow.
Eventually, it was Erik who broke that thin ice of silence.
"You remind me of myself." He said. "Many mistake my outgoing nature as a sign of an optimistic disposition. But that is far from the truth. I am aware of the terrors of this world, and the ugliness that pervades every corner indiscriminately."
Blank turned to him, and that was the moment he knew. Not because of the large bag, or him getting there.
It was these words that cemented the fact that this man was the one who murdered those children. The man that he and many others looked up to.
"There is no safe place in this world. Safety and comfort is simply an illusion. A home….. A loving family.... You will lose them, whether you like it or not. And you must keep on sheltering yourself from the dangers all over again, yet you already bear the knowledge that it will be taken from you."
He puts his hand on Blank's shoulder. "And the worst thing is….. The worst danger is always inside us, not anywhere else."
Blank took his hand, which he remembered was quite rough. It must be all his efforts in taxidermy, not just with insects and butterflies, but even with animals as well.
Blank had always found Erik's hobby something akin to an art. He was creating art out of the dead, carving and sculpting their insides so they may not decompose, and preserving their outside appearance forever.
It was later learned that the reason the boys were naked was because their bodies were taxidermied. It took the people so long to figure it out because of the skill and craftsmanship, and the fact that the local police who barely investigated the crimes had no idea how this works.
Only when a hunter who enjoyed mounting moose heads examined the bodies did they figure it out, and Erik Satie was found guilty.
But before they could take his life, he went into that spot in the woods, and took a rope with him. He wasn't aware that a student had followed after him…..
And was planning to die with him.
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