The brother and sister corpses were taken away by the police for further investigation. Their Mum just cuddled herself on a couch in the parlour, totally dumbfounded and shivering with fear.
The two detectives went to speak with her. "Ma'am!", the male called but she gave out no notion at his call. The detectives looked at each other, feeling extremely sorry for the woman.
The female detective sat beside her. "Ma'am", she called calmly, placing her hand on the woman's shoulder. The woman shook suddenly in fear and the detective removed her hand, who also got slightly afraid by the woman's reaction.
"Calm down Ma! It's just us", the male spoke softly, "My name is Detective Dominic and my partner here is Detective Rita", he introduced themselves to her.
The bereaved Mum stared at both of them, still shivering. "I'll never forgive myself. I was asleep all along the time my kids were being killed", she said sadly.
Detective Rita hugged the woman by the side to herself to give her some comfort. Detective Dominic sat on the armrest. "Just like the previous cases, we still could not find any trace of evidence", Rita said to Dominic.
"There's a guess on my mind but I know for now it could be baseless", Dominic replied. Rita signalled for him to say his mind. "Well", he soughed, "All the kids were attending the same school, Joe's High School", he revealed.
"That thought got into my mind yesterday. You think Mr Joseph is the one behind this?", she gestured.
"Or someone else that wants his downfall...an enemy probably", he replied. Rita nodded her head, taking what he said into consideration. Dominic changed his view back to the bereaved mother. "I promise to find out which is doing all these; your kids deserve justice, you'll get the justice you deserve", he promised her using comforting words.
* * *
Early in the morning the next day at school, just after the morning assembly, Tricia was heading for the classroom, accompanied by Ben and another boy whose name was Godwin. On their way, Godwin sighted Mr Joseph and their principal being interrogated by a man. He looked at them intently, recognizing the interrogator to be Tricia's elder brother. He gasped with surprise which both Tricia and Ben heard.
"Why the gasp Godwin?", Tricia questioned.
"What's your brother doing with Mr Joseph and the principal?", Godwin asked her.
Tricia got surprised to see her brother in her school. "What did Mr Joseph and the principal do wrong?", she felt curious.
"Your brother is in the Police Force?", Ben asked her.
"Yeah! He's a detective actually", she answered.
Her brother Dominic finally saw them, especially his sister who stared at them with probing eyes. He secretly signalled to Tricia to go away.
"It could be based on the murder of John", Ben stressed out.
"Come on mates! My brother just signalled to me that we should go away. So...", she paused to look at her brother again. Ben and Godwin looked at Dominic and he signalled to them using his head movement secretly, to go away. The three of them slowly headed to their classroom. He then focused his gaze back at the two men.
"How about an enemy? You have a rival...someone that really hates you?", he asked Mr Joseph.
"Uhmmm...", he thought for a while, "I don't think so, unless there's a secret enemy", he replied.
"Hmmm...", Dominic struck a thinking pose, stroking his beards.
"We can't hurt our students...at least think about the financial loss we'd experience", argued the principal.
"Well...probably", he said vaguely, "Investigation's still on though", he gazed at them intently as though he was a lie detector. He checked for the time on his wrist watch and said;"I need to go now. I have something important to attend to."
"It's okay. If you ever feel we'd be useful to you, just make your request. We'll be glad to help you find this brutal murderer", Mr Joseph said to him with a smile and they shook hands. Dominic then had a handshake with the principal before he turned and walked away.
"We better get down to the bottom of this very quickly", said the principal. Mr Joseph only sighed of slight fear in return.
* * *
In Samuel's classroom, they were talking about the upcoming school tour that would be taking place next week.
"This is the first time I'd probably experience a tour if I'd be picked", said Samuel enthusiastically.
"They may pick me because I'm the class prefect of this class", Jonathan boasted.
"The school doesn't tell their students how or why they are picked", Jane smirked at him.
"Being a class prefect's probably among their hidden reasons", Jonathan simpered.
"I don't think so, I feel it's being a good class prefect that would probably be a reason", Samuel giggled, "Look at the people under your custody", he teased Jonathan.
Jonathan realized everywhere was rowdy and got up, feeling upset. "Keep quiet everyone!!", he yelled. There was graveyard silence at once.
"Now everyone should put things back in order, if not, I tell on you when a teacher comes in", he ordered. Everyone cleaned up his or her corner at once and he sat back on his chair.
"Now...how about this?", he smirked at both of them.
"Not bad Jonathan! Not bad!", Jane simpered and looked at Samuel who had this dramatic smile on her face.
* * *
Mr Joseph had just collected a couple of bundles of cash from the corpse hidden in his wardrobe. He looked up at his wall clock. "It's just past 2, still got three hours before the meeting", he said inwardly.
He heard a surprise knock on his bathroom's door. He turned in surprise. The knock on the door came violently the second time. He swallowed hardly and kept the money he was holding on his divan.
"Who's there? And how did you get into my bathroom?", he crept towards the door. He quickly opened the door to take the person inside by surprise. "Huh?", he reacted on seeing no one. As he slowly went in further, he felt a gentle breeze just before he heard the door being shut with a thud. He gasped and looked backwards, very much afraid now.
He quietly and slowly walked towards the door. He glimpsed at the big mirror at the wall and saw Father Christmas standing behind him with an angry look, blooding flowing out of his chest. Before he could turn, he saw Father Christmas slowly approaching him and sped out of the bathroom.
He was about approaching the door when a servant of his opened the door and walked in with a cup of tea on a saucer. Joseph hid behind his servant trembling in fear. On the other hand, the servant was utmost confused with what was going on.
"There's someone that wants to kill me in the bathroom", Joseph stammered, peeping just above his servant's shoulder.
The servant calmly kept the cup of tea on Joseph's bedside drawer. "Who's the someone Sir?", he asked, making his way to the bathroom. He peeped into the bathroom but saw no single thing. He shook his head and said to Joseph;"There's no one here Sir."
"I'm telling you the truth. I saw the person with my very own eyes", he stammered.
"But the person isn't here Sir", he replied, observing the awry room. Joseph kept silent, not knowing what to say as his mind raced with various wild thoughts.
"What was the person like?", the servant asked, feeling concerned. Joseph though, gave no reply again.
* * *
Joseph made a complaint when he attended the meeting of his fellow cult members. He gave out the niggle to their leader specifically. "He probably would have killed me if a servant of mine hadn't walked into my bedroom", he said.
"It can't harm you. It only frightened you", the leader replied calmly.
"When I was given this necklace", he showed it to the leader, "You told me it was going to frighten me as it did today", he complained.
"This is the month of Christmas...it shouldn't look unusual. It can't kill you but can just frighten you. Since you've got no family again, it's attacking your students one after the other. But don't worry about it though, after thus month, everything will go back to normal", the leader assured him.
"But what about the innocent children dying?", Joseph asked, feeling guilty.
"When did you begin to develop feelings for innocent people after you've already killed every member of your family for money and protection", one of his fellow members teased him.
"Is it not your nephew's corpse in your wardrobe or is it someone else?", another member ridiculed him.
"Decorum!", the leader ordered. He then cleared his throat and instructed Joseph;"The next time you'll be embarking on a tour with some of your students, take them to my old house."
"As you wish Master", Joseph bowed his head.
"Over there, there will be a special package waiting for them. I'll tell you how everything should go", he added.
"As you wish Master", Joseph bowed his head again.
"Don't forget to bring some human blood tomorrow for sacrifice", he demanded of everyone, "It's been long I tasted blood", he joked. They all agreed to do as he instructed them. "That's good", he commended them.