A week or two later after MM had filed a case against the orphanage, a secret intelligence agent was sent to spy on the orphanage due to the rumors that had been erupting from around that town. He was kinda young, so he was a perfect act for an underaged orphan.

He didn't have to do thorough investigation to know that the kids were going through hell. It clearly displayed itself from the moment he was rudely invited into the orphanage by the worst of the nuns. Dimitri. She was popularly known for mistreating us through both physical and emotional means. She made the orphanage feel like nothing less than a prison. The place we were supposed to call home, was a duplicate of hell just without the exaggerated burning sulphur.

The orphanage was one day ambushed and all the nuns locked behind bars, but Dimitri. She vanished and never to be seen nor heard of again. 

All the kids were taken to different homes, and sponsored by the government to different school in the country.

Later on, Cole received a scholarship to our school and had been there for over a month. The voluminous number of students made it hard for him to know that I was there, and he also hadn't a clue either that I was there. Unlucky for him he had just met his death. Hugging out with me was suicide. I was then to start counting hours for him before he was butchered.

He was not yet dead during lunchtime. How delighted I was to see him once again. I guessed he couldn't get murdered in public, not in a school with such a vast number of students partitioning themselves in every corner of the school compound.

He sat with us around the same table to tell us more stories. Actually, I was the one requesting for them. They brought back some of the only glowing memories I had in the orphanage.

Plus I wanted to see him as many times as I could before, well, I really prayed for it not to happen but I knew it would and I was helpless against it.

I felt bad when one of his friends borrowed him from us for a second. They didn't even walk far. Just a few steps away and murmured whatever they wanted to say.

My ears were accidentally eavesdropping on them. They were talking about some things to do with a school project.

"T, I think I have an idea," I didn't like the tone nor the sayer, Isabella. The intonation and volume sounded nothing but evil.

"Mhh"

"We should use him as beit."

I was about to open my mouth and ask who but her eying on Cole answered my question. A second before an arguing thought struck, she added, "he sure will die you know."

I had been trying to fight that thought away for the whole day but Isabella amplified it, making me feel exposed.

Sometimes sacrifices are worth it. I really wished that sacrifice would be included in the 'sometimes' list.

"How?" Camilla enquired in my place.

°*°

We convinced him to keep us company during detention time, and he accepted. He said that he needed some extra time to do some research on his projects, so he borrowed some books from the library.

That week's detention class teacher was a little strict, so even though Cole sat next to me we didn't talk. I had a lot to share with him, but the old lady behind huge eye glasses seated in front of the class occasionally eyed us. At least I felt Cole's warmth besides me, and I knew that he was still alive.

He placed a book in his desk, and presumingly it was a book to do with his project. He opened it at the page of content the tip of his index finger grazing up and down the page to a specific point. He then riffled the book open.

I pretended like I was reading my own book, but I was spying on him not necessarily knowing why. I traced every slight move he made hiding half of my face behind the book I was holding.

"Up side down," he whispered.

"What?"

"You are holding your book up side down__" he then noticed the ugly lady frowning at him.

I gave him a ghostly genuine smile in embarrassment rotation my book to its rightful angle. What was even worse was the fact that I was reading a maths book. How can one read calculus? How stupid of me? I would have slammed my forehead hard with the butt of my hand if not for the fact that Cole was seated besides me.

Across the aisle, Gwen and her clique were not acting fishy at all. For the first time in a hundred years Gwen was seriously digging into a book, or at least that was what I could make at my point of view. No, that itself was fishy.

Cole sighed rubbing his forehead and flapped the book close with a short groan. He then shoved out a book from the loads of books he had placed on one side of his desk.

The book had a lot of texts and random sketches on its brownish cover, which reminded me that we shared a common hobby. Sketching. We both shared a common behaviour of sketching and writing texts on the book covers of our sketch books so indubitably it was his sketch book.

I was quick to shove mine out and hand it to him signing that we should inter change.

I was dying to see what his sketches were all about. He smiled stretching his hand forward and handed me his.

I landed the book on my desk eyeing on the book cover which had a bold writing of his name 'Cole J Moon' on a sticker in the middle of it. It was fairly sketched with random drafts on it, like he was practicing to draw using the cover then he would do the actual drawing in the book. There were also some scribbled words some faint and some fresh but they were just random texts to express a sketch's opinion, just like my book.

I flipped the book open.

The first page was astonishing. It had a drawing of a blue lotus flower floating on water. Every shadow well shaded making it feel real. "Wow," I admired his incredible art skills. If you didn't know better you would have thought that it was a printed picture. Every corner and inch well curved one flowing into another marching perfectly.

I took to the second page after ages of admiration of the first page. The second page had a popularly known movie super hero. Every corner of his biceps well curved not a corner misdirected an inch. It also felt real. I felt like I was in a theater with my cinema glasses on, and I was watching a movie of him. Just that he was inanimate and stuck at one angle. I could have taken photographs of his astonishing art work but my phone was laying on a tray with other phones at the front of the class. Next to them a timid old lady.

I took a look at each and every sketch admiring every inch, curve, edge, angle, and corner of them, until I met this drawing. It looked exactly like our house but the window to my room was coloured red. No. Maybe I was just being paranoid. I was quick to flick that thought off before I had begun over thinking it.

Suddenly sculptured within one of the door rails in pale red I noticed some wordings. From Wade to you. My heart dropped leaving a hallow in the left side of my chest. The blood cuddling text was written in the same sinister manner as the book we had found in the so called ugly families house, just but it seemed hidden and small in font.

Panic drew itself at each and every edge of my body. No it can't be. I tried to convince myself my eyes widened in disbelief rereading the text again and again wishing that I was hallucinating and nothing was written at the spot, but I wasn't.

My eyes darted to the red-brown bricked alleyway outside the house and noticed another text.  Turn to page 21. I was swift to glance at Cole who was smiling at my sketch book, as if he was enjoying it, to make sure that he didn't notice the rapid switch of behavior.

I slid a little further from him to make sure he wouldn't notice my absurd ruffling of his sketch book, and hid behind it.

The fact that wade had already gained access to his book and scribbled the words, meant that he was indubitably a target.

I sluggishly riffled to page 21 keeping a low profile. It had a drawing that I had already seen. It was some sort of a country side astonishing morning sun rise display, but with words in different colors scribbled around the sun in the horizon. The mixture of colors made it more beautiful, so kaleidoscopic that you could not suspect that it had a hidden text in it.

The first time I had gone through it I didn't notice anything peculiar even after reading each and every wording.

The usual color used was red so I scribbled down the words written in red on another book. Zip, to, 5, him, about, I'm, up. The words didn't make any sense until I started ironing them out. Like a puzzle game I put the words together to see the series of texts that would make sense.

My heart racing, my body hyperventilating, my brain working to its extreme velocity, my fingers fumbling with the words to save a friend, and the irking detention teacher guffawing for a reason I didn't care.

I'm about to zip him up 5. Were words that made perfect sense. What was it on five. It just didn't fit in. Or 5 I'm about to zip him up. Then where was 4, 3, 2, and 1.

Turning out even after trying to shade away the thought that my orphanage best friend would be a target, it didn't change the fact that he would.

Habitually, the next page to turn to was scribbled at the bottom so my eyes quickly shuffled to the bottom of the page.

There was a blood red rose flower.

I fixed my gauze at it and noticed some texts hidden behind its well curved petal edged, like crime behind the beauty. I squinted to get a better view of them. Turn 69. The number was a little indistinct, I wasn't sure whether it was page 69 or 96. The itty-bitty handwriting made it somehow disfigured.

Mastering every page I was navigated to turn to, I started by page 69. Which was the closest. It was a picture of a cat. Well, it was more animalistic than a cat, but it was a sneaky clean art work picture. The only thing that was almost red on it was its tongue. Even squinting at it at each corner, curve, and inch in all awkward angles, there didn't seem to be any wordings.

Turning to page 96, I noticed a series of disarranged numbers. The red ones were. 4132.

What could that be, I thought for a second, my eyes darting randomly at different directions looking for answers. 1, 2, 3, 4. Clearly the digits were following each other.

It was a count down. 5, from the previous text, 4, 3, 2, 1. My heart stopped. Peering my head out of the book I was hiding behind, Cole was gone only my book left on his desk.

"Psst," Isabella cued.

It was time.