A Conversation in The Back Alley

"I think it's best if I get out of your hair since this seems like something serious. I might come back to have another conversation with you later on, so please try not to waste my time when that happens. Thanks."

The investigator gave a quick thank you to Francesca before she left with the rest of the police officers, and even before they closed the door, they could already hear Francesca's angry voice echo through the hallway as she started to offload her anger on the two students!

…

The vice-headmistress's anger didn't cool down until much later in the afternoon. Both Azrael and Maddison had been forced to go through more than three hours of sex-ed taught by Francesca herself, and they were then made to write out a letter to their guardians explaining what they had been caught doing in school.

Throughout all this, Maddison still had a blush on her face, but Azrael wasn't even putting effort into his actions. Azrael allowed his body to go through the motions of writing and listening to Francesca's lectures, while inside him, he tried to piece together a reason for what Maddison had just done.

Why did she cover for him?

Azrael honestly thought that he had covered all of his bases yesterday to make sure that no one found out about the killings, but he now knew that he hadn't been as thorough as he thought. For some reason, Maddison knew what he had done. And not only did she know, she was making sure to prevent others from finding out about it.

Azrael turned slightly to glance at the girl sitting beside him, and he flinched as Francesca hit him in the head with a ruler while telling him to focus on his essay!

It wasn't until they were done with the essay that Francesca told them both to leave and go back to class, but she told Azrael that he was to come to her office later for the rest of his punishment because he had missed his meeting with her yesterday.

The two students walked out of the office, and no words were said as they headed back to class. As Maddison was about to go into B Class, she heard Azrael speak up.

"Meet me in the alley behind the dorm during break."

Azrael didn't bother to wait for an answer as he just continued walking to A Class, and Maddison glanced at his retreating figure for a moment before she entered her own class.

Throughout the rest of the morning class, Azrael was spaced out. They had language class as well as history that morning, and since Azrael already missed most of the class during his stay in Francesca's office, he decided he was just going to ignore the rest of it as well and download the recording later.

Why did she do it?

This was the one thought that was constantly passing through Azrael's mind. Azrael wanted to understand why Maddison covered for him the way she did, but no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't come up with any reason for her to do it. There were possibilities in his head, but all of them were so outlandish that Azrael didn't take them very seriously. The possibility that Maddison did it for any of those reasons was very low!

Once the class ended and break time started, Azrael watched as the rest of the class stood and started to make their way down to the cafeteria for their lunch. In front of the class, Jane turned around and gave Azrael a look before she started to head out also, and Azrael knew that she was going to be going up to the roof to wait for him. But Azrael didn't even bother to tell her anything as he grabbed his things and also headed out of the class.

…

The alleyway behind the dorm was one of the most secluded places in the school. It was the same place where Azrael had been beaten up by Francis and his two lackeys, and as Maddison walked into the secluded narrow pathway, she noticed that there was no one around.

All the students had left to go and eat, and Maddison had to sneak past most of them to get there without being seen. She looked down at her phone and frowned when she saw that it was already ten minutes into lunch. Was she going to make it back for a meal?

Grab!

"Mmh!!"

A hand suddenly grabbed Maddison from behind, and she screamed in fright! A hand covered her mouth and muffled the scream before she was suddenly pressed into the wall behind her!

The tip of a sword pointed directly at her eyes, and Maddison felt her heart rate rise to unhealthy degrees! She looked to the left to glance at Azrael, and she could feel even more fear creeping into her heart! Azrael had the eyes of a killer!

"I'm only going to ask you this once, and your answer will determine what I do next. Why did you cover for me?"

Azrael moved his hand away from Maddison's mouth, and Maddison took in deep breaths while trying to lean away from the sword that was almost poking her eye.

"Wait. Wait, please! Just take the sword away and we can talk."

"That's not what I asked."

"I can't think straight like this!"

Azrael narrowed his eyes at Maddison as he saw sweat pooling on her forehead. She was staring at the sword that was terribly close to poking her eye out with a horrified look, and she wasn't able to even stammer out a proper answer because of the fear. Azrael finally decided to give her some space, and he took steps back and allowed her to walk away from the wall. But his sword was still positioned directly at her heart, and a single move from him would be enough to impale her against the wall.

Azrael only spoke one word.

"Talk."

Maddison folded her hands across her chest and stared at the dark blade in Azrael's hand. Maddison hadn't even heard Azrael walking up to her, and she knew that if not for the fact that Azrael wanted to talk to her, he could have killed her without her ever knowing!

Maddison swallowed and looked into the fiery eyes of her classmate.

"I know you did it. I could tell once I saw the news today. You were the only person that Francis really hated in the school, and when I was leaving the gym yesterday, I ran into Francis and his two friends talking. They were heading to the dorms, and they were saying how they enjoyed beating someone up earlier. I knew it was you, and I... I went to search for you because I thought you were in trouble. But I couldn't find you, and then today, I heard that the three of them were killed around the same time. It wasn't hard to piece things together."

Maddison looked at Azrael like it was an obvious deduction she had made. Azrael hummed and tilted his head to one side emotionlessly. Maddison's story checked out because Azrael knew that she had also left the gym late yesterday. Azrael didn't see her at all, so she must've gone to different places looking for him and they missed each other on the road.