The ceiling of the room meets the eyes of the young girl lying on her bed, staring silently, hardly able to believe what happened a few minutes ago with her father.
"my father has gotten himself into something bigger than himself," she muttered to herself, only to be met with silence, leaving her in her deep thoughts without an answer.
With a squirm, she moved her body to the side to open her phone and without much thought searched her father's forum, "The Black File." The screen's light reflected in her eyes, showing pictures of different victims, blood, and protruding limbs from each body in different positions. The coldness of her extremities increased with each picture until it fell on white eyes without charred pupils that seemed to be looking towards her.
"Oh my God!!! This is worse than I thought!" she gasped, the phone falling from her trembling hand. She clutched her mouth, almost feeling like she was going to vomit..
"This is insane, it's like he took the picture in the minutes before they died!!"
A sharp headache gripped her in those moments, and the pain throughout her body intensified. In that instant, she felt something soft ...licking her cheek; it was the black cat with the green eyes again... wide-eyed, gazing at Elizabeth.
She gasped in disbelief and muttered, "Kitty!! How did you get here!!" before she grabbed her with both hands, a familiar warmth washing over her. Unable to resist, she hugged her tightly. "Oh, you always come when I need you."
Kitty meows, resting her head on the young girl's forehead, her bright green eyes widening even more with greater brilliance.
"I don't know why I feel that every time I see you something terrible has to happen," Elizabeth whispers, petting her, before the cat rubs its head against the bruises around her arms, which are like circles all over her arms.
"A stupid nightmare," she says, examining her arms somewhat as if every bruise is in the same place where the needle was from her nightmare.
"Unbelievable" is what she says when she feels redness and burning pain.
She stood up quickly to see her reflection in the mirror. Her back was covered with bruises, running down her spine, and even her legs were filled with a pale bluish color, as if she had really broken her ribs. Then, the reflection of Kitty appeared, standing on the window behind her, it face tilted.
"Kitty," whispers, turning to the window to find that it has disappeared. Only the cold wind remains, leaving a slight chill on the fragile body of the young girl.
The minutes dragged on slowly, back and forth, until the sunlight announced the beginning of the new day...
Elizabeth couldn't sleep at all all night. She didn't want to admit it, but she was afraid of what she might see once she lost consciousness.
She sighs lazily when the alarm clock rings, then falls out of bed, moving unsteadily as she stands and washes herself. She puts on her school uniform :
"I just want to get out of this house," she mutters these thoughts as she takes her bag. It seems that Henry has already left for work.
Before going any further, she recklessly decided to enter her father's office, wandering around a place where, as usual, everything was very organized except for the smell of ink that stained the carpet. Only now did she notice that a few drops were also staining the wall, as if someone had thrown the ink can forcefully against the wall.
"He must have been very angry."
...A message from Emma snapped her out of her thoughts, and so she left everything to run outside. She remembered the school matter.
The cold hits her face all the way through the forest-lined path; it seems winter is approaching. Finally, she arrives at the gate of her huge school... Someone is waving to her from afar; it's Emma.
"Elizabeth!! Here, here!!" she shouts at her before taking her into her arms.
"I was worried about you," she whispers, squeezing her inside her arms, and continues, "You won't believe what I found!"
"What?!" she asks with complete curiosity as they walk inside. There are strange looks and whispers around them increasing from students, some saying, "Oh, isn't this the girl whose mother was killed?" and others saying, "I'm very scared. Could someone be holding a grudge against her family? It's better if we stay away from her."
The whispers never stop, deafening the young girl who is clasping her hands. Her heartbeats increase and almost burst out from their intensity. Their looks burn her from head to toe with many unpleasant feelings. She almost feels their looks piercing her back... until she sat down in her seat.
"I found the address of the ballet place where Mrs. Mary used to dance."
Emma says, sticking close to her, leaning in to whisper to her, "Ignore them, they're idiots," while frowning and sending burning looks to the other students.
This relieves some of the tension in Elizabeth's shoulder, making her smile slightly. Before she and Emma can laugh at what's happening, a voice interrupts them from behind... It's a young man with soft brown eyes and a smug smile, saying:
"Are you the girl everyone's talking about?" He placed both hands on his desk, a kind of stupid smile drawing his face.
"Who is this idiot!" Elizabeth whispers, raising an eyebrow, to which her friend replies, "I don't know, let's ignore him."
"I can hear you both, you know!! I have a name, by the way, it's Lucas," he says in a voice full of arrogance as he leans back in his chair.
Elizabeth had already ignored him, while Emma's eyes rolled indifferently as well. Somehow, the whispers around them seemed to have suddenly stopped as soon as someone entered quietly through the door. It was a student with distinctive features, gloomy expressions, and dark circles under his eyes...
All eyes were on him.
"Strange," she muttered, to which Emma immediately agreed; it was the first time she had seen this student as well.
"Don't you know him?!" Lucas commented behind them again, adding, "He's a new student... you could say he's disliked by everyone."
This really catches their attention. This idiot seems to be of some use. They look towards him for him to continue, and indeed he says, leaning towards them so that no one else can hear him:
"There are some rumors about him because of his family, especially his uncle. They say he's involved in illegal activities... There are also rumors about his sister." He looks at them, saying, "They say she's addicted to something bad. Because of this, everyone calls him 'miserable ' His name is... Noah!!" Crunch__He says , while taking some potato chips out of his pocket.
Elizabeth raises an eyebrow in disbelief, saying, "Since when have you had this in your pocket?!" On the other side, Emma, who looks terrified, stammers, "Really?!" Her focus is on the new student (Noah)... her eyes meet his without warning, and she freezes in place ,she held her breath in shock.
"His uncle...you say?" Elizabeth asks with even greater disbelief before a loud scream from outside the school hits everyone's ears, causing confusion everywhere. "Calm down, calm down," the teacher shouts .
Then the door opens and a student comes running in, screaming loudly and with a completely pale face, in a voice that almost cuts his vocal cords, "THERE IS A DEAD PERSON IN THE FOREST. "