Chapter 39: The Truth [Part 1]
Thump!
Investigator Angelia slammed her way into Sister Agnes’s room on the ground floor. The entire floor was given to the matron, while the upper floors were distributed among the teachers.
Angelia did not wait for her colleagues and walked straight to the room from where she could hear the faint crackling sound.
"She was here." She said this while touching the still warm cup of tea. "There were three others too."
"You cannot use your power again today, so we will have to find her the old-fashioned way." Officer Chen reminded her before he started looking around the room to search for clues.
"The tea must have been drugged. She did not run away... she is preparing to kill again!" Angelia glanced at the cups on the ground once more and said in a voice cold as steel that cut through the air. "We have to find these three people before they are killed."
"I will use my power to see if we know who they are." Mr. Acosta transformed instantly and channeled the energy through his eyes and looked around.
"It’s that boy again..."
Hearing the words of her partner, Angelia instantly understood who he was talking about.
"This boy really has some affinity with chaos. Can’t he just stay out of trouble for once?" Shaking her head, she also joined the three in search of the room. "First he becomes the suspect, and now he is the victim?"
"Who? Jinn?" The officer, Chen, stopped his search and looked at the woman in doubt. "How is that possible? Something does not make sense here."
"You already said that."
"No, no." Officer Chen shook his head and stepped closer to her. "You might not know this, but the matron has a special relationship with this boy, Jinn. She cares about him like her own family. How can she harm him?"
Angelia did not seem to see his point and said, "it does not matter whether they seem close or not. You cannot always know what someone is really thinking, especially the criminals."
She paused and looked at him seriously while saying, "If you want to help him, hurry and find something that will tell us where she took us."
Acosta, who had disappeared at some point, reappeared in the room. Angelia turned her attention to the man and asked, "anything?"
"No, they are not here. I do not know anything about the other two who are missing."
"Tch. since the teachers are still here, it has to be one of the students. We need to check the dorm and see who’s missing, but I’m not sure we have time." Angelia grimaced, her hands curling up into a fist.
"I will check if there are any secret escapes in this place." Officer Chen activated his "Eye of Truth." Angelia nodded and turned to look at her other partner, "you should reach out to the man who is managing the dorms; I will help here."
***
While the whole place was being turned upside down to look for Jinn and the rest, the boy was having a headache.
’Why did this happen...’ He groaned inwardly, watching the matron stare at the pentagram she had drawn on the ground.
Currently, Jinn was sitting on the ground, leaning against a wooden pillar. He was tied to the pillar with a flimsy rope. Looking around, Jinn realized that he was in a dark room where several old wares, including some old armor, were kept.
And he was not alone in this place as a prisoner. Beside him there were Sally and Kyle, who were also tied to different pillars, but their knots were well made, and even their hands were tied, unlike his.
As he swept his gaze around the room, he saw another person.
Jinn blinked several times when he saw Geralt lying on the ground, unconscious and tied like the other two as well.
Taking a deep breath, Jinn returned his focus on Sister Agnes. "Sister..."
Hearing his voice, the crouching woman flinched, and her golden robes fluttered. She slowly turned her head and saw Jinn sitting the way she left her.
But there was a calm smile on his face and not a hint of nervousness.
"Jinn." The matron panicked. "This is not what you think. Please allow me to explain! I would never harm you."
Jinn chuckled and raised his arms under the rope, dragging it up, easily slipping out of his hold. "I know; otherwise you would have done a better job tying me."
The matron flinched seeing him getting out of his bindings. Just as she thought he would attack her or even blame her for the death of others... his action surprised her.
Jinn remained seated in the same spot, just silently staring at her with his usual calmness. He did not make attempts to escape or attack her.
"Tell me, I am here to listen." His words tore through all of the matron’s fears and anxiety, and she broke into sobs, slumping on the ground once more. "It all happened the day you awakened..."
The matron’s gaze drifted towards her chest; she slowly pulled down the cloth covering the area below her neck until it reached her cleavage, revealing a set of deep claw marks that had dried up.
"After seeing out father Augustus, I returned to check on the supplies for the next day and realized some things were missing. So I went to the Attic to look for them, and that’s when I encountered that beast in human clothing."
Her voice blazed with anger, and her eyes burned with hatred as she recalled the day she met Torus Moon in the Attic. "Never in my life have I ever felt so... negatively about a child."
...
Clank!
As she opened the door of the attic, the matron saw Torus jumping up in surprise.
Recalling the name Mrs. Walker used when she complained about the boy, she said. "Mr. Moon, what are you doing here? Didn’t you see the sign outside? Students are not allowed in this place."
Her voice was calm but stern, matching the demeanor of the overseer of the orphanage, who knew when to scold a child and when to love one.
"Sister Agnes." Torus muttered with a distant look; his eyes were already red and smudged from the sides.
The kind nun frowned when she saw his expression and stepped forward. "What is it, Mr. Moon? You can talk to me if something happened."
Torus snapped out of his daze and focused his attention on the matron. His eyes blazed with fury as he growled. "This is all your fault! Everything happened because of you!"
Sister Agnes froze up when she got caught off guard by his sudden outburst.
"All I ever wanted was to be close to you, and because of you, now I am like this. This is all your fault!" With an enraged roar, Torus pounced on the matron.