STAINED SOULS

Prologue 2

The school principal was just lying there, quiet and not moving.

This was the head of the school, and now he was just quiet, he wasn’t running his mouth like he had been doing earlier.

And that somehow gave Patrick some sense of satisfaction. He could no longer talk ill about him and his friends, he wasn’t going to touch his girl again.

He wasn’t the only one that seemed pleased with the silence.

Tina, she was just glad that he wasn’t going to have his way with her anymore, Evan was glad that he wouldn’t call him a wannabe ever again, Christian, well, he could care less, but Paul, he was glad no one would talk about his family again and the misfortunes it carries.

This was just a thought that each one of them were having in the back of their mind, because like every human, the evil side of them did wish the school principal was quiet for good.

They didn’t even want to think what that would mean to them.

The few seconds of relief is what both of them were living at the moment.

But reality sank in the moment Tina saw the blood flow from the principal’s lifeless body, when she saw her boyfriend’s bloodstained hands.

He was dead and Patrick, the love of her life had done it, he had killed the principal with his bare hands.

“Pa?” she called, but he didn’t want to look at her direction.

He had messed up.

He had acted on impulse for her sake and now he might end up in jail for murder.

This was what the thing called love had done to him. It had made him a murderer. He should have known falling for this innocent girl would land him trouble one of these fine days.

He did it for her, right?

He kept telling himself that.

He came into this office because he felt she was in trouble.

I mean isn’t that what a noble boyfriend would do if their girlfriend was in the principal’s office just the two of them past prep time?

The after-prep bell had rung and when he went to her class to check on her, because she always loved to study past study hours, she was the dedicated type. He didn’t find her, then her desk mate said the head of the school had requested to see her.

He didn’t want to think too much into it, but he had remembered a conversation they had had earlier with her, it started as a joke on who was the worse teacher in the school.

Everyone would mention the teacher they thought was the meanest, all of them landed on Mrs. Juma, the deputy headmistress, she was the one who scared the both of them, she was so strict and used to discipline them.

But somehow, Tina stuck on claiming the head principal was the meanest, how she talked with so much bitterness, meant there was more to be known, but when they asked why, she just brushed it off.

Later on, that evening, Pat gave her her first kiss behind the dormitories, then he noticed something weird, when he tried to move his hand under her school shirt, she quickly slapped his arm away and took a step back. That was the end of their make out session.

He tried to understand why she had reacted that way, but she didn’t tell him a single thing.

And every time he would try to touch her, he would get the same negative response ever since.

He tried to convince himself maybe it was because she had never been touched before, but come on, they were both in love. It’s not like he would do anything she wouldn’t want.

He was coming to check on her alone, but his group of friends thought he was into some mischief, so they wanted to join in. What they didn’t expect was to find the principal trying to r**e Patrick’s girlfriend.

But this was their fault too. They knew how Patrick got when he was angry, but yet they didn’t try to hold him back when he tried to punch the principal, maybe because deep down they wanted him to do that.

Tina was the precious jewel of their group, they all adored her, and now the school principal had crossed the line.

“Pa? Babe?” Tina called him again and when he lifted his eyes to look at her tear-stricken eyes, he could tell that she would no longer view him the same.

He moved a finger behind the now quiet body to check on the impulse, he already knew what he would find, but he just wanted to confirm.

It was just a lifeless body.

He turned to look at his buddies who were scared but they tried not to show it.

“Get her out of here.” He ordered.

He didn’t want her to be a part of this.

He still saw her as his innocent girl. It didn’t matter if what the principal had said earlier was true, he still wanted the best for her, and safety was a priority. This was his mess and he was going to deal with it. His friends would help, but he wanted his girl out of it all.

Christian walked to where she was and when he tried to reach for her, she slapped his arm away.

“Don’t touch me!” she warned.

“Tina, you can’t be here.”

What did he even mean by that? She started this and there was no way she was going to let him take the cross for her.

“I’m not going anywhere, not without you.” She said with clarity.

Patrick could see how much she loved him, she was willing to go down the drain with him, he didn’t like it but he knew they were going to need her to testify when the cops showed up.

“Fine, then well have to call the cops.” He said as he stood up from the body.

“What? We can’t do that?” Paul who was very quiet chipped in.

The tone he used got everyone worried that they both turned to look at him surprised.

What was he talking about?

“What do you mean?” Evan asked.

“We need to cover it up.”

Evan looked at him not believing a single word he said, he knew Paul was always the quiet one in the group so him suggesting they cover up a murder was the last thing he would expect.

“Are you crazy, we can’t do that?” He told him.

“Fine then, I hope you are all ready to spend not less than thirty years in prison, because trust me, if the cops come, none of us is getting out of this, and with this country, not even the government will have pity on us.”

Paul came from a family of lawyers, so he knew what he was saying. He knew there was no way they would escape this one if the cops found out.

“He is right.” That was Patrick.

Tina turned to look at him surprised. She wouldn’t believe he would agree with that crap.

“What?”

“We need to find another solution.”

Everyone in that room except Paul was in shock with what the two of them were suggesting.

I mean, how were they even going to cover up that?

There was blood everywhere.

Blood meant evidence.

Not forgetting the body lying at their feet. That was evidence enough of murder. What the hell were they supposed to do with that body?

“Well okay, let’s say we agree with your stupid thoughts, how the hell are we even supposed to get rid of the body?” That was Christian, he was the last person Tina expected would agree with them.

“Are you guys even listening to yourselves? You’re all thinking like some serial killers.” Tina tried to stop them from committing a crime worse than murder, covering up one.

“Do you have a better idea?” Paul asked her feeling a little irritated with her.

This was all her fault and now she was calling them some serial killers. Of all the guys in the group, Paul wasn’t her favorite. She always felt like he didn’t like her for some reason. He would pretend to at times, especially when the other guys were around, but when it was just the two of them, it would be so clear that he didn’t like her.

She always felt maybe it was because he thought she didn’t fit with their group. She was just some chic Pat dragged into the group and forced them to like her just because he had fallen for her.

She chose to stay quiet instead. She wasn’t going to argue with anything they were going to say.

“Good, now that we have that out of the way, Christian, find a bucket and a mop, make sure there’s enough soap to clean the blood, Evan find a plastic bag and rope, Tina be on the watch out that no one is around, Pat, you and I will find a means of getting this body out of here.” Paul gave commands like he was the leader of the group.

Funny how everyone listened and rushed swiftly to their given tasks.

Tina was the hesitant one, she still felt like this was a bad idea, but after a short battle, she went to wait outside the door.

A few moments later, everyone was back and they got down to the business of cleaning the evidence. In about half an hour, the office was sparkling clean with no evidence of blood except for the body in the bag.

They had both done it so clean like they had done it before.

“Then what?” That was Evan, he was still tensed about the whole thing but they were his friends, he would do anything for them.

“We need a means to get this body out of here, and out of the school compound.” Tina’s eyes shoot wide open. That was impossible. How were they even supposed to leave the school compound at such a time? Leave alone with a body?

“How are we going to do that?” Evan asked.

Pat was just quiet; he already knew what Paul meant by that. He needed to make a phone call.

“I’ll call Sorcha.” Everyone was surprised by that, but Tina was pissed. She didn’t want Sorcha involved in this, the mere fact that the two of them didn’t get along should be reason enough.

Sorcha had graduated a year back, she was in their group of friends but didn’t like Tina, well given Tina took her then boyfriend Pat, she had made it a mission to make her life miserable till she left the school.

And boy did she do her best in achieving that.

Pat turned to look at his girl and he could tell she was uncomfortable with the idea. He also didn’t like Sorcha anywhere close to Tina, but she was out of school and had a car, she was the only one that could help them.

“Babe, we have to do this.” He said as he reached for her palm which was so cold, he could tell from how her lips had turned blue that she was very cold, I mean she was still in the dress with nothing to protect her from the cold. He couldn’t offer her his jacket because it had blood on it and they were going to burn it. The only guy with a jacket on was Paul and he doubted if he would give it to her.

“Paul can I borrow your jacket?” he decided to try his luck.

Paul looked at the both of them and shook his head.

“I’m not letting her have my jacket.’ He said with so much clarity.

“Come on man, she’s cold.”

After a short battle with his conscience he gave it to her, with a strict warning of her returning it the next day cleaned and dried.

It was now time for Patrick to make the call.

***

Thirty minutes later, the phone rang.

Sorcha was outside the school compound, now they just had to figure out how to get the body to the fence without anyone seeing them.

And the group of teenagers did an excellent job at getting the body there, they were sure that no one had seen them. Sorcha told them not to leave the school compounds so as not to be suspected, she would take care of the body.

They both trusted her, except for Tina.

There was nothing about Sorcha to be trusted, if her innocent beauty looking face was fooling everyone, it wasn’t going to fool her. But since she had been opposing everything from the beginning, she didn’t want to do it this time. She was going to trust Patrick instead and hope when everything was over, life would get back to normal, or the closest to normal that it could get.

She was still shaken as they walked to the dormitories. Patrick was holding her tightly and she didn’t want to be in anyone else’s arms, but his.

When they got to the entrance of the girls’ dormitory section, Pat stopped and made her look at him.

The other guys had left for the boys’ section. He held her face in his hands just to try and keep her warm.

“Babe, everything will be okay, I promise.” He pulled her into a hug.

She closed her eyes fighting he tears, then when she opened them, she saw someone, she was a distance from them but was giving them the eye that was piercing through them.

It was the principal’s young daughter, Tina didn’t know what she was doing there, but she didn’t like the look she was giving her. It was a scary one.

Like she knew something.

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