9 Layers Down (Twice)

Chapter 20 - Soul Murder

"Confining life to an eternal present is an insidious form of soul murder." ~ Cornel West

He asked for them to gather at the yard, under the big tree. They did as he instructed and there, they found blocks of chairs with notebooks and pen on its desks, arranged as if he's gonna teach a class. There was even a white board and a monitor.

"What the hell is this?" Jihyo questioned.

"Man, I'm not in the mood for math class today. Can I skip?" Momo tried to go back but he stopped her.

"Sit down, Momo. And everyone, please?" He gestured them to take a seat but Tzuyu just regarded him with devil stare.

"You do remember I don't give a damn about your stupid math class, right?"

"I very well do, Tzuyu. But this is not just any other class. This is Criminal Mind 101. This is one of the main purposes of your stay in my protective custody." He stated, receiving glances of disapproval from everyone.

"Uh teacher, don't you mean, in your prison?" Jeongyeon sarcastically said.

"I prefer my word for it, Jeongyeon, thank you, now please? Take a seat."

"Such a weirdo." She said, rolling her eyes.

"Just sit the fuck down." Jihyo impatiently asked.

"Are we really gonna listen to a psychopath's blabber about being a murderer?" Jeongyeon scolded.

"Do you prefer being gunned down?" Jihyo gave her a sharp look.

"This is so stupid." 

"And bullshit." Chaeyoung added as she rock the chair back and forth.

"Can everyone settle down?!"

He tried to make them listen by pleading but of course, his patience isn't that long so he had to take a gun and shoot, aiming into nothing in particular just to make them stop talking.

"Now that I got your attention, shall we start the lessons?"

He started talking about how he killed for the first time and the satisfaction it brought.

"I went for the messiest and bloodiest kill. What can I say? It was my first. I was 15 then. But I can say I was a little smarter than the police. I only had to rearrange some stuff and stage the crime scene as self defense. And they believed me."

"Well, that's impressive. I gotta give you that." Chaeryoung scoffed.

"How did that feel though? Killing for the first time?" Mina asked in curiousity with a great amount of interest in her eyes.

"Mina? Seriously? Are you listening to this?" Jeongyeon questioned. 

"What? It's interesting."

"Do you plan to top this class too?" Jihyo rolled her eyes.

"I might." Mina joked.

"Killing for the first time. It's satisfying. Sure, there's a great amount of fear and confusion but after you get over that, there's just this kind of happiness you never felt before. Like even more than that of buying the things that you have been dying to have. Or maybe winning a gold at the sports event. It's incomparable to anything, really. And when you get that, it's like drugs. It's very addicting. You'll be locked away in euphoria and you wouldn't know when or how to stop."

Hearing his statement made some of them recoil, thinking how terrible of a person he is.

"Are you gonna give practical exams for this?" Sana asked, receiving what-the-fuck looks from the others.