Requiem

Just Another Typical School Day

At the end of the following school day, I stayed behind in the classroom until everyone else had left. The school wasn't that big considering that there weren't that many students, but there were enough to open up two classes in each grade— classes A and B. Akito and Hizumi just so ended up in the B class whilst I was put in 12-A. A few of the younger students were messing about in the hallway, tackling one another and giggling wholeheartedly. A pang of envy hit me momentarily, but faded just as soon as it came. Do they know what's happening in Rimona right now? Do they? I distracted myself from the scorn by wandering into one of the empty classrooms.

“Thalia?” I said, recognizing the girl that stood by the window with her back to me. Slowly, she turned around, her face expressionless as it usually was. “Are you waiting for Hizumi and K?” I recalled that she and K were in the same class, but I haven't seen the other girl since yesterday. Not that I was disappointed at the very least.

Thalia didn't reply, or even look at me in the eye to provide an answer of sorts. Instead, she headed to the front of the classroom, standing on her toes to reach the shelf beside the teacher's desk. She pulled out a thick file, a card slotted inside the plastic pocket.

9-A. 2011.

It looked like a roster from three years ago. Bringing to mind what Hizumi had told me the day before about the girl from this class committing suicide that very year, I nodded at Thalia in understanding. She laid the black file on the table, and flipped it open, revealing photographs of smiling students arranged neatly in rows. I studied each photograph carefully, taking the pieces of paper by the corner and turning the pages only by the corner. No Anneke. Just as I was about to give up and take the message, Thalia pointed to a number at the bottom of the page.

Numbers which indicated the order of which the pages were printed.

1, 2, 3, 5... I went over each one again, clenching my jaw as I saw it. Page 4 was taken out. For what reason? I couldn't figure it out. Perhaps some were so distraught that the girl had died, and decided to erase the memory altogether. That, or they wanted to hide a murder. I swallowed, the silence suddenly getting at my nerves. It would be better if Thalia actually talked to me... I put the folder back, and my interest sparked into a new area. I pulled out this year's roster, and started rummaging through it.

“...?” Thalia shot me a questioning glare, holding my wrist as I was about to flip over the page of photographs.

“K,” I replied, flashing her a quick grin. It was just harmless curiosity and nothing more, I wasn't even planning to use K's name against her. Either way, Thalia snatched the folder from me and shoved her bony elbow into my rib.

Right in the spot that shouldn't have been elbowed.

I sighed and tolerated the pain, waiting for it to pass. After that I saw no reason to linger in the ninth-grade classroom anymore, and headed over to Akito's.

“Aki — Ah, Sage!” Hizumi was in the room, sitting on the table at the very back corner. “Seen Akito?”

“I could ask you the same question,” I replied. He sighed, kicking his heels against the desk's metal legs. “What was it you were going to talk about anyway?”

“The corpse, for one.” The way of which he said it blandly sent a shiver down my spine. “And Anneke.”

“The rosters...”

His eyes widened for a moment, as if he were surprised that I had seen it. Then, the spark in his green eyes faded, returning to their usual subtlety. “Yeah, I know. If the page wasn't taken out, you'd probably have seen that I was in her class three years ago. So was Aki.”