The Technique

Chapter 19: Blackmail

I craned my neck over and watched Greg as he breezed into the office. He looked around until his eyes reached me. "I knew you're here." 

"Yea!" I shouted. I picked the papers out and walked out of the monitoring room. "Do you think you'd scare me?" 

He smirked. "Don't you?" He looked over his shoulder and then at the floor. "Well, I'll be needing a conspirator's help tonight." 

"What?" 

I put the papers down. My brows furrowed as I thought about what he had just said. Of course, he would be needing me to do his weekly technique. "Where do you get the balls to even ask me to do that thing again. And are you not afraid of cameras in this office? Mr. David can find out you were here and not doing your own business." 

His jaws clenched. "I'm done with my task. And there are no cameras here." 

That was when strangeness came inside my stomach. I looked around, top to bottom, to the ceiling. There were no cameras. "No way," I whispered. Why wouldn't they mount some cameras in here? It was strange. 

"I can sense you're a bit scared," he said in a cold voice. He started walking around and touching things. He even looked at the trophies in the cabinet. "Do you think I would stab you with these sharp trophies?" He turned to me. "I guess, yes, because I can." 

I clenched my fist. The picture of him doing that to me was disturbing. Of course, I was a hundred percent sure he could do such a thing to anyone without having second thoughts. He was an evil disguised as a human. "So you're trying to scare the hell out of me to force me to follow you? Are you going to put me in that root cellar along with those dead people you bumped off?" I almost shouted. I thought I jump scared him as I shouted those words. 

He looked behind him and checked whether anyone was there listening. He stepped forward with his sharp eyes. "Look, you know you're dead if anyone hears you." 

I also stepped forward so that we were inches away. "Yea, I know. And you're double dead if that happens for sure." 

He pulled my collar. "There would be three teachers tonight to get those answer keys. So come tonight if you don't want to lose this world too soon." 

I shook my head and pushed him off. "You're crazy! Why would you do that? Again! You're killing people just to ace a little test! That's not worth their lives!" 

"Lower your voice," he whispered. He looked behind again and back at me. "This is for us as far as I know." 

"No, this is only for you. I don't care about your life and what you do. Just go on alone and let yourself be banged up. Don't involve me in this," I rejected. 

I wished Mr. David would come here in the middle of our conversation for him to find out the truth. But as I looked past Greg, the door was still closed. No one would come in a minute. 

He nodded and pulled a corner of his mouth in annoyance. He was starting to show his real identity now. "So you really want your friends to die?" 

"What? Don't bring them up in this!" My heart began to pump fast. 

He said it so seriously that I totally believed he would do that. I knew he could. But this was just too stressful. He was blackmailing me. He was using his ultimatum again. He laughed for two seconds. 

"You don't want them to die, do you? So choose, come tonight or watch your friends dying." 

I inhaled and exhaled too fast as though I ran ten miles. "Greg, look, this test is super small, and it's not going to affect your grade as a whole. So please stop. You're exaggerating." 

"But I need to!" he said. 

I didn't know why he was doing this in the first place. I was wondering how he could do such things only to ace a small test. I didn't know his goal. I didn't know his motivation. I didn't even know if he had a family. Right now, I could see him as a black hole. 

"Stop! Just stop!" I shouted. 

I walked quickly past him and almost reached the door when I heard him. 

"Okay! So you better call your friends' parents to at least bid their farewell to their children." 

"No!" I turned around, but now I was completely exhausted from his blackmailing. "You know, you're done for! I'm going to call the director or Mr. David or catch everyone's attention right now. I don't care about being investigated by the police. I will turn myself in! Your reason is just unjustifiable. And there's no any justifiable reason to kill innocent people!" 

I saw his teeth clenching. He pulled something out of his pocket, a small sharp knife. "Do that, then. You might not be able to hear your friends' voice a minute later." 

I was taken aback when I saw the knife in his hand. He was serious. I wished that someone would open the door behind me so that I could shout and get Greg to the policemen. But I waited and waited and didn't even hear some footsteps. 

I had no choice. I had to decide now. 

He stared at me while the corner of his mouth trembled. He gripped the knife, and at any point in time. it seemed like he was ready to stab it on anyone's body. 

"Fine!" I shouted. I looked back at the door with the remaining hope that someone would interrupt this tension. "I'm coming." I came around to. 

He smirked, took a deep breath, and put the knife back in his pocket. 

I imagined how many lives that knife could take. I wanted to forget the night when he slit those teachers' necks. But now, it was all coming back again, along with those other people he killed that I witnessed. Their adversity. I couldn't imagine how those people in the root cellar had felt when they encountered the last second of their lives. I was certain they were not expecting to end up in a stink root cellar. 

"You made the right decision." He walked toward me and looked straight into my eyes as if he was piercing me. "At seven tonight. I'm expecting you at the same spot." 

I slowly closed my eyes when he walked out the office door. I didn't realize that I'd been holding my breath half the time he was here. I wondered how many innocent people would walk across that corridor, and their life would be taken away a minute later. I could've told this to the authority, but I felt so weak. I had no power. I was a smart guy and a nobody at the same time. I wasn't expecting, as well, to be someone's dog when I first stepped my feet into this school. I just wanted to see my dad, that was all. But I never knew it was going to be this difficult. 

I stood in my place for as long as I could remember. Until Mr. David found me standing there and staring blankly. The papers were gone from his hand. He might have given them to the director already. If I could only beg and ask him for the answer key, I guessed I could save those innocent people's lives that would be gone tonight. 

But then, I was weak.