The Killer

"Student of Rushmore university murdered."

The headlines of the news had shaken almost everyone in the Rushmore university. Everyone except Hayden, Nathaniel and Connor. Clarice was devastated beyond anything, and even the friends of Nick who never took Nick's abrupt disappearance seriously had joined Clarice to mourn their lost friend.

Hayden on the other hand was pissed. How on earth did someone manage to dig up Nick? Was it Nathaniel? That seemed highly unlikely. Why would he dig up Nick now when they already have a huge problem at hand. Especially when he just managed to get Hayden on his side.

Is it possible that the police found him this far away from Campus? Or was it Conrad, who somehow figured out that digging up Nick's body would be the perfect way to mess with Hayden's work. Hayden wondered. Meanwhile, as he headed to the auditorium he knew that he needed to give a some sort of eulogy.

As the director in charge of the entire university, he had a role to play. It was not only important, but essential that he say some words regarding the boy who was killed. The boy whom he had killed.

One may wonder why the director was incharge taking classes. Many students believed it was because Professor Rushmore had a keen interest in teaching. Others believed that he wanted to keep a close eye on the candidates taking admission and ensure their academic growth to maintain the prestige of this university. While Hayden simply wanted to keep an eye on potential dangers for him to hunt.

As he stood in the auditorium, he stared at the crowd. "To the principal, my fellow teachers and my dear students. Today we have been informed of a major loss that we have suffered, something that is quite hard for us to recover from. Of all the ways one can imagine death, what our student had suffered was one of cruelest ways to die. No one deserves that.

Let us give him the honor he deserved, and observe a few moments of silence in the name of Nick Dorian Hortons, the 2nd year student, psychology major." He declared and with that everyone who was sitting stood up. They lowered their heads and remained quiet as it was asked. Meanwhile, even in the silence some flicker of quiet sobs could be made out.

The rest of the eulogy went quite peacefully. After the entire eulogy, Hayden headed back to his office late, and closed the doors behind him knowing well enough that he was not the only one in there. Turning around he almost snarled, "Care to explain the situation we are in right now?" Hayden asked.

"I am just as confused as you are" Nathaniel lied. "I am guessing that the discovery of Nick's body is completely unrelated to our task at hand."

"There is no way this is arbitrary. I am not that sloppy. If someone dug out his body, there must be a reason as to why". Hayden snapped.

"Are you suspecting Conrad?" Nathaniel asked wryly.

"I am suspecting everyone, but he is pretty high on the list," Hayden shrugged. "Don't worry, you're right next to him. Followed by the little girl who kept sticking lost posters around the campus". Hayden scoffed.

"I am glad to find out that you trust me so much." Nathaniel remarked sarcastically.

"Don't worry, you have clearly earned that trust". Hayden played along with his own sarcasm. "Why are you here today? If it's about the pristine witch and/ or warlock, I can't deal with that today, unless of course you have identified someone useful. In case you didn't notice, I am quite busy doing some damage control here." He mumbled and took a seat.

"I understand that." Nathaniel scowled. "That was some impressive eulogy you gave for someone who happened to be the murderer."

Hayden stopped his writing, and his entire body went still for a moment before he looked at Nathaniel, "If killing a murderer makes me a murderer then yes, I am one." Hayden smirked.

"And how do you know that Nick was a killer?" Nathaniel asked.

"Just like I know you are one". Hayden tilted his head with a lopsided grin. "Why? Do you deny it? That you have never killed someone ever?"

"I am a killer by my nature," Nathaniel declared in a lower voice, "it's my most primary instinct. To feed on people. Why on earth would I deny killing someone ever." He scoffed.

"And now you know why I want to kill you". Hayden shrugged. "It's my basic instinct." He added in a mocking voice.

Nathaniel scoffed and walked out of the room. He knew that at this very moment talking with Hayden was pointless, but there was someone he needed to talk to. He looked around a little bit for that person until he spotted the person whom he was looking for in the library.

Entering the library, Nathaniel realized that at around this time it was quite empty wondering why on earth was Conner still around. Even the librarian was snoring peacefully on her chair. It didn't take Connor long to detect Nathaniel's presence in the room. Connor at first thought to ignore Nathaniel, but changed his mind pretty soon. He got up, and decided to confront him instead, "What are you doing here? Looking to kill someone else?" Connor scoffed.

"I don't kill in plain sight", Nathaniel scoffed. "I ain't an amateur like you".

"Right, you kill and bury victims miles away so that they can't be discovered." Connor pointed out coyly.

Nathaniel let out a snarl and huffed, "Stop acting like a f**king child and try to use that big brain of yours. If the real killer finds out you're the one who dug out those bodies, let alone what you are… you're dead meat." Nathaniel huffed.

"Are you threatening to kill me"? Connor pursed his lips.

"I would have killed you the night we met if I wanted to". Nathaniel scoffed. "I don't like wasting my time threatening my prey".

Before their arguments could proceed further, all the lights in the room went out. As if that wasn't enough a high pitched scream followed that was enough to alarm and alert both Nathaniel and Connor as they assumed a fighting stance. "What's going on"? Connor mumbled.

Thinking about it for a minute, Nathaniel declared, "I think we have a visitor".