Carl replied almost right away to the message I sent from Bryan's phone. I asked where he was, and he said he was hanging out at GLU-net. I headed there at once, while he still had no idea what had happened to his friend.
When I arrived I recognized him immediately. Only five students were still using the computers, and a sixth person, a working student, had started putting things away and cleaning up. It looked like GLU-net was about to close.
I went inside and turned on one of the PCs. While I sat there my bag rested on my lap. After a moment a girl came over to me. She was the working student assigned to the place. She told me she would be closing around 5:00 p.m. I said nothing and only nodded.
I had taken a seat in the very last row of computers, so I had a clear view of Carl's back as he focused completely on the screen in front of him. One by one the other four students left, until only the three of us remained, including the working student.
"Guys, I'm just going to the restroom for a bit," the working student said softly. I watched her until she was completely out of the room. From the uniform she wore it seemed she belonged to the Teacher's College department.
Neither Carl nor I answered her. I made sure she was truly gone before I began my plan. I had to be careful. Carl was a member of the taekwondo club. If I fought him face to face I was certain I would be at a disadvantage.
I took a piece of paper and tore it into scraps while staring at Carl's back. How could he act as if nothing had happened? Why was it so easy for people like them to hurt others without the law ever making them pay?
I stood up, took the wire I had picked up in the abandoned room, and began walking carefully toward him. Once I was right behind him I quickly looped the wire around his neck. He started to struggle at once. His kicks and attempts to grab me knocked over the chair he was sitting on, and both of us fell to the floor. We rolled around while I tightened the wire even more around his neck.
He could not scream. No sound came from his mouth because of the strangling, and his tongue was almost sticking out. We were on the floor, me still behind him, the wire wrapped tightly around his neck. No matter how hard he tried to reach me he could not.
When I noticed he was growing weaker I pulled the knife from my pocket without letting go of the wire. I stabbed him several times in quick succession, from his right shoulder down to his chest. Blood sprayed and poured from Carl's body. I only stopped when he no longer moved at all.
I stood up and wiped the blood on my hands onto my black jacket, to get rid of the slickness. Then I righted the chair Carl was sitting in and lifted him up, then sat him back down even though it was hard for me. With his lifeless body slumped forward I placed his right hand on the mouse, making it look as if he were still using the computer
I left GLU-net right away and almost ran into the working student on her way back. Because her eyes were fixed on her phone screen she did not notice the blood on my face or the stains on my clothes. I had not gone far when I heard her scream. She must have seen the state Carl was in.
I went to the restroom, washed my hands quickly, and rinsed my face. I did not take off the jacket I was wearing. It was already growing dark, so the bloodstains were harder to notice. Still breathing hard, I pulled Bryan's phone from my pocket again and typed a message.
Not far away I stood waiting for Joseph to come out of his last class of the day. I watched his classmates leave one by one until only he remained inside the room, busy scrolling on his phone. At the same time Bryan's phone in my hand began to vibrate.
I smiled before I rejected Joseph's call. Luckily the phone was on silent and only vibrated for incoming calls or messages. Joseph shook his head and put his phone back in his pocket when I did not answer the call meant for Bryan. In the text I had sent earlier I had simply told him that Carl and I were already on our way to the building where his last class was.
Joseph stepped out of the room and glanced briefly at the floor, frowning at the scattered scraps of torn paper. I was positioned a little distance away, yet I could still see every move he made. I sent him another text. I said Carl and I had gone to the restroom first and told him to follow us so we could all head together to a computer shop across from the university, the one where they often played DOTA.
After he replied "okay" I hurried to the restroom on the second floor, just as I had told him. Luckily there were not many students left at that hour. Besides the approaching darkness the sky had grown cloudy and a light drizzle had begun. I knew that by then chaos must already be spreading around the places where Bryan's and Carl's bodies were, so I had to finish this before the news reached Joseph.
When I saw him approaching the men's restroom, still focused on his phone screen, I stepped out to meet him. I pointed the gun at him, and his shock only grew when he realized it was me standing in front of him.
"Try to move and I'll pull the trigger," I told him in a serious voice. He slowly raised his hands, trembling, and took a small step backward.
"A-Anthony, w-wait. Calm down first. Let's talk about this." I could feel the fear in his voice and hear how hard he was breathing. Well, I was not there to negotiate with him.
"I have good news for you," I said with a smile while holding up Bryan's phone.
"Your two friends are gone. I already killed them. And whether you like it or not, you're next," I said, laughing. He shook his head at what he heard, as if he couldn't believe it. He was still lucky I had given him a chance to speak, the same way I had with Bryan, unlike Carl whose last words I never even heard. And just like Bryan, nothing but please came out of his mouth, yet they did not reach me. The cruelty they had done to us still weighed far heavier.
Holding him by the back of the collar I dragged him toward the restroom. Because everything happened so fast I did not immediately notice that we had entered the ladies' room, which was right across from the men's. Once inside I was relieved to find it empty. I kicked open the farthest cubicle and ordered him to go in, but he seemed unable to move and only stared at the open door.
"Didn't you hear what I said?" I asked as anger began to rise in me again.
"W-what are you gonna do?" he asked. I did not answer. In my irritation I struck him on the head with the gun I was holding, and he lost consciousness at once.
It made me think that I might actually be stronger than him. That night when he hit me and struck my head, I felt intense pain, but I didn't lose consciousness right away, unlike him now. I put the gun back in my bag and, while he was still unconscious, I dragged his body into the cubicle.
I slammed his head against the toilet bowl, and with just one blow blood began to pour. He should be grateful that he wouldn't feel the pain of me killing him slowly, since he just looked like he was sleeping. I slammed his head several more times. I stopped only when his forehead was no longer recognizable. All of it was for what he had done to Serenity.
I heard girls approaching. I grabbed some tissue as I stood up. They were still laughing and only stopped when they met me at the restroom door while I wiped the blood from my hands with the tissue. They watched me as I walked out with a serious expression, as if I had done nothing at all.
I no longer knew, nor did I hear, what their reaction was when they saw Joseph's body inside the open cubicle, since I was already rushing to get away. When I reached the ground floor there were already many police officers and groups of panicked students because of the bodies of Bryan and Carl that had been found. No one inside the university was being allowed to leave. In the middle of the chaos, I still managed to slip away without being noticed and rode home at once on the bicycle Misaki and I used to share.