A pretty face can hide an evil mind

I would like to thank my readers for their lovely reviews!
Several of them were quite helpful!
I hope you enjoy the next part of my fic.

Chapter warnings: Slight language, slight gore/death AKA the usual.


Chapter – 1 “Family…”

“Help me….please help me…”

Taro looked at the pitiful sight before him, not sure whether to help or to simply turn around.
So, being the ingenuitive boy that he is, he took the easy way out and just stared.

“Please….help me?”

A bloodied knife lay on the floor next to the sofa.
His aunt was reaching out to him, or at least attempted to as more blood spilled from the gaping wound on her chest.

Help her? Why would he want to do that? Because it was the humane thing to do?
Help the woman that had hurt him so many times before?

Taro walked to the dining room and grabbed a chair, he placed it in front of the sofa….and just watched. Help her? No way. Not after everything she had done to him. Evil people like her should just die… He wished all of them would just die, it would make the world a far better place. Wouldn’t it?

The outstretched hand lowered to the sofa as the lack of blood started to have it’s toll on the slowly dying woman. Had she done this to herself? Did her daughter finally get her revenge?
He didn’t care. Not really.

Her breathing became erratic as if struggling to hold onto life for just those few minutes more.
It was useless though. It was over for her.
What good was she anyways…
He had always been the one to take care of everything. Cooking, cleaning, paying bills.
What had she ever done? He wouldn’t miss her when she was gone, neither would anyone else…

“Y-you are an e-evil child…A devil’s child…”

A look of hatred was etched on her hardening face as suddenly her breathing slowed down before coming to a halt altogether. So this is what it looked like when a person died?
Taro almost wished he could bring her back from death to ask her the questions that had been plaguing his mind for so long.
An evil child? How was he evil?
She had been the one to make him hate her like this.
Make him hate her enough to let her die…This wasn’t his fault. It was her. All her doing.
He didn’t know how long it was that he sat there, just looking at her, but by the time he got up the body had turned cold. He would need to get rid of it and fast.
The thought of calling an ambulance did cross his mind, but that would only mean he’d end up in an orphanage or at some other relatives place, most likely not much of an improvement compared to the situation he had been in for the past several years.
If he buried her somewhere in the forest, no one would ever find her.
After her little ‘outburst’ several years ago, social workers stopped visiting.
The woman – no, dead thing had no friends or relatives that cared enough for her to check up on her.
He could just simply take care of himself…right?

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*Four years later*

A handsome dark haired youth whistled as he walked across the forest to the place where he had agreed to meet with his childhood friend Raito.
A young woman had disappeared about one week ago, making it the ‘kidnappers’ twentieth victim. The police had stumbled upon the bodies of the two young children about two years ago. Their hands had been cut off, giving the old woman, who had originally discovered the bodies, the fright of her life.
What had happened to the hacked of limbs no one knew. According to Raito’s father the serial killer collected them like trophies. Apparently it wasn’t unheard of for a killer to keep a thing or two that used to belong to his victims.
It didn’t take long for the police to find the other bodies…
And each and every single one of them was found as maimed as the first ones, the now fourteen year old Taro wondered where the man kept the severed hands though.

“Taro. Over here.”

The raven haired teen turned to his left only to gaze upon Raito struggling with several heavy looking bags. He smirked as several books dropped to the ground.

“I still don’t understand why you read so much. That’s what we have movies for…”
“Funny…Rather then being an illiterate smart-ass, mind lending me a hand?”
“Why should I? You’re the one that hijacked a library Yagami-kun, not me.”
“Fine. If you’re going to be like that.”
“Look, I’m just joking.”
Taro picked up a book with an impish grin on his face and placed it in one of the bags, the change in weight caused Raito to lose his balance as several more books plummeted downwards.

“See? I helped.”

It was a good thing the two had been friends for several years now, otherwise he wouldn’t have expected the near fatal encounter with the book that was launched in his general direction. The raven haired youth started to help pick up some of the fallen books, all the while laughing at poor Raito’s predicament.

“So did you manage to find some new leads?”
He said in hope to lighten up Raito’s foul mood.
Raito and Taro had been investigating the serial killer for several months now. After Raito’s father refused to listen to advice from a little kid – even though said kid was his own son – Raito had stubbornly decided to run his own investigation on the matter. Taro was dragged along as usual. Not that he really minded. He had always had an interest in stuff like this.

“Yeah. I finally managed to hack into my fathers computer last night. I printed out the stuff they’ve gathered so far. It’s just like I said. All they can do is sit around and wait for the guy to mess up.”

It had taken Raito several weeks of trying to get into his fathers computer without even as much as leaving a trace. It would have taken a lot longer for anyone else, but Yagami Raito was considered to be one of the brightest young students in school to say the least.
The teachers absolutely adored him, pretty much like everyone else.
Taro smirked.
If there was one thing his friend was good at, it was playing a crowd.
He was strangely pleased about the fact that he was one of the very few people that knew Yagami Raito for who he really was.
A clever, but cold and manipulative young man.
The brunet abhorred large crowds, physical contact and most of all the unintelligent masses.
Not that it was noticeable. The boy had a skill that was not shared by many a person.
The capability to lie with ones eyes. Raito was capable of making up entire stories, captivating his audience in a world of lies and deceit without a single trace of guilt on his beautiful face.
Oh yes. The boy was beautiful.
The nearly blond hair gracefully framed his a handsome face, his warm inviting eyes, smooth voice…

Raito had quickly managed to become popular with the girls. Not that young Yagami cared about any of that, he would much rather spend his time with his friend. Yet another fact Taro was pleased about. So many had tried to catch the young mans attention, yet he only had eyes for his one true friend…

“What are you smiling about?”

He was smiling?

“Knock it off, it gives me the creeps.”
“Since when do you ‘get the creeps’ anyways.”
“Since now. Let’s just hurry up in case it rains or something.”
“Not likely.” But Taro ‘hurried up’ nonetheless…

“So her hands were cut off with a jagged knife. Judging by the messy way these cuts were made. The autopsy report states the same thing. They also add to the fact that she was most likely still alive when the killer started and then slowly bled to death.”

Taro studied the pictures before him intently, his gaze falling upon some strange markings on the young woman’s body.

“Wait a second. These are rope marks right?”

The killer had tied her down? Some of the markings looked pretty vicious. The poor woman must have been struggling really hard…

The picture showed no sign of blood though other then a few drops here and then.
“The killer probably moved the body. I mean where else could the blood go?”
So Ratio had noticed the same thing…
Taro sighed.
“I agree. Still. This doesn’t really get us anywhere.”
“It’s most likely a male. Athletic too.”
The raven-haired young man looked up at his best friend.
“Wait a second. What?”
“The body must have been really heavy but since there are no signs of it having been dragged or something, he must have carried it.”
“So what. Chicks can be really strong if they want to. I don’t see how it has to be a guy.”
“The victim that was found before this one was severely over weighted and that one didn’t show signs of being dragged either. You’d need a lot of muscles to move that guy. Since I don’t know of any behemoth-like women living here, it’s safe to say the killer is male.”
“You think the killer’s stupid enough to live in this area?”
“Yes. The bodies are very well-hidden, several of them in places that aren’t shown on maps outside of this city, or at least not on the more recent ones. You would need to have lived here for a long time to know the locations of these places.”
So they were looking for an athletic guy…
“The last map which showed these specific locations was sold about 32 years ago, so he’s most likely middle-aged.”
“Wow…”
“Also, all of the victims were in some way connected to our school.”
“You’re joking right?”
“No. The first two people who went missing were students there. The third one was a teacher at the time and so on.”
“Wait a second. What about the eleventh one? He had no connection to our school whatsoever. Or the ninth one? He was like 90 years old.”

“The ninth one was a former teacher at the school for a short period of time. He was offered a job at another school and moved there with his family. The wife died about eight years ago, right after he moved back to this city to ‘live out his retirement’ or something like that.
As for the eleventh one. He was a silent partner on the schools board of directors.
The guy was making a small fortune by selling of our school equipment to several rival schools. The other victims are mostly students or retired teachers.”

“And your father wouldn’t listen to you? How in the world can the police not know these things?”
“It’s because the victims are so different from each other.
The police doesn’t think there’s a connection to any of this. Even if they did, there wouldn’t be much they could do with it. The killer has no evident reason to kill these people, therefore they simply wrote it off as a freak coincidence…”
“Still. All these people having something to do with our school…It’s really twisted…”
Raito looked pensive for a moment, almost reluctant to say, whatever it was he was thinking, out loud.

“What’s wrong?”
“I think it’s a school-employee or something…”
The killer was working at their school? Taro didn’t know if he should be thrilled about the idea of being around a real killer or be worried about it…
“I wish I had a way of finding out which employees went to this school when they were younger…Perhaps a gym-teacher?”

“Why not hack into the school-computer? Perhaps they hold some of the data…”
“No, they won’t…”
“Why wouldn’t they?”
“Schools only keep records for a certain amount of time. All of the files beyond a certain ‘expiration-date’ are moved to a record archive in the city-hall. It would be dangerous and damn well near impossible to hack into those. Especially since a large part of it isn’t even digitalised.”

So they were stuck again.

It still amazed Taro how intelligent Raito really was though. To be able to make such a thorough deduction at such a young age without even putting effort in it. Not that Taro was even remotely stupid. Quite the opposite. He was a very bright young man for his age. It was just that Yagami-kun was in a league of his own…

All of a sudden Raito got up.
“I have an idea…come on.”
Taro silently wondered what his friend was up to…

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“So could you? For me?”
“Of course! For you anything Raito-kun!”

Taro relaxed against a wall, hearing most of the conversation but not really caring.
Raito had once again managed to effectively use his charms to get what he wanted.

“Thank you so much Sakura-chan. I owe you.”

Next there would be a dazzling smile, she would either blush, giggle, or both…

“Tee-hee! Don’t mention it!”

‘Yup. Both…’

He cringed as Raito kissed the girls cheek, reducing her to mere putty in his hands.
‘It’s all for the plan…it’s all for the plan….’
Said plan – courtesy of Raito – involved persuading the head-editor of the school-newspaper to place their little….quiz.

Together, he and Raito would be interviewing the teachers one by one, all the while making people believe it was for a column in the school-newspaper.
This way the killer wouldn’t get suspicious about them…
It was a brilliant plan really….but did he have to kiss her?

“Kagami-kun? What are you standing around for? Weren’t you supposed to be helping with clean-up duty?”

“Tanaka-sensei?”
“Well? Hop to it! It’s not nice to make your classmates wait!”

He turned to look at Raito who was still busy sweet-talking the girl.
Somehow he doubted he would even be missed…

“Hai…”

“Irresponsible children these days. When I was your age-”
Taro tuned out the rest of the conversation until they reached the classroom.
“This is Spencer-sensei’s classroom. I expect the boards to be wiped clean when I come back to check on your progress.”

The man turned, pulling the door closed with a loud bang.
Why the teacher seemed to hate him so much, he didn’t know.
Or rather he did.

After his aunt ‘mysteriously vanished’, he no longer felt that strange pressure of staying in the background. The peers that had been bullying him before quickly noticed he was no longer the ‘quiet boy in the back’.

Unfortunately the teachers noticed as well.

He was no longer a stranger to the word ‘detention’.
Quite frankly, most teacher believed him to be a bad influence on their star pupil ‘Yagami-kun’. More then once one of the teachers had tried to discourage Raito in his decision to remain friends with Taro.

They had always proven ineffective though…

As clever and popular Raito was, there was no way he could live without Taro.
He had made sure of that.

Raito needed someone to talk to, someone to share his problems with. An outlet of some sort.
It was a problem commonly found in people of the genius sort. Not having anyone around to share your insights with. Basically because they wouldn’t understand it even if you told them.
This is why others that offered him their shallow meaning of the word ‘friendship’ couldn’t even hope to compare. Raito was far too mature to spend his time discussing trading cards or the latest video-games. Yet his age got in the way of communicating with those older then him. Because he was considered a ‘mere boy’, adults tended to not take him seriously.
Much to Raito’s aggravation.

Taro knew exactly what it was that Raito needed and used that to keep him close.
And made sure Raito never found out of course.

Somehow he doubted Raito would appreciate being manipulated like this.
Or perhaps he would respect it.
Who could tell really, with that guarded personality of his.
Taro would rather not find out.

Having wiped the board clean, he started on the awful task of taking out the trash.
He already knew he’d encounter chewing-gum no matter what way he looked at the trash bag.
Especially in Spencer’s classroom.

The man could be a total jerk when it came to applying school policy.
No cell-phones, no baseball-caps and most of all no chewing gum.
According to rumour the guy held a gum-check at least once a month by turning the desks upside down. Anyone who got caught chewing gum in class would then have the honour of scraping of every single piece of chewing gum present on those desks.

Without gloves.

Taro for one was glad he didn’t have the guy for a teacher.
He would be absolutely mortified of the idea of having to touch used gum before depositing them in a bucket. He didn’t like getting his hands dirty at all in fact.

He grimaced as he pulled out the first bag and tossed it into the cart that was present. It was probably abandoned there by his supposed ‘cleaning buddies’. Why did the teacher come and find him while the two others that were supposed to be accounted for were still running around the building somewhere?

It wasn’t fair.

‘Not nice to make your classmates wait my ass…’

Over thirty minutes gone by and still no sign of Raito. He probably got weaselled into a date by that girl in the hallway.

“God damn it!”

A disgusting looking piece of chewing gum got stuck to his hand.
The biggest damper on all of this? Clean up duty lasted an entire week.
And this was just day one.

He walked out of the classroom and headed for the nearest bathroom, determined to wash his hands after touching the used gum.

When he turned around the corner he noticed Raito talking to a group of people.

“Why do you hang around with that freak anyways? You’d be better of without him!”
“Yeah, he’s just a little fag with a crush on you! I mean did you hear what Kira-chan read from his journal?”
“Dude, it’s a diary, not a journal! I wouldn’t be surprised if he wrote down Mrs. Yagami somewhere!”

Those were some of their classmates, Taro recognized them as the star-athletes of the swimming club. They were all the same to him though. Arrogant, pompous and ignorant.
Raito seemed genuinely upset by what they were saying.

“I keep him around because he’s useful, not because I appreciate his company.”

Taro froze.

“And stop talking about fags. It makes me feel sick through my stomach.”

“Atta boy! We knew you’d see it our way!”
“Hey guys! Check it out! There’s the little freak right now!”
“Hey Kagami! I hear you like to take it up the ass!”

Taro wanted to get away from here.
He didn’t want to see the look on Raito’s face.
There was no way he meant what he was said right?

Raito slowly turned.
He was expecting a remorseful look at least, some form of regret in those warm eyes.

There was no such thing though.

And it hurt.

It turned out the other students that were supposed to be helping him had skipped out and waited for him to get stuck with Tanaka-sensei. They had been planning this all along.
I guess the girls could only take so much rejection at a time before doing something drastic.
Being turned down one time after another could be quite damaging to ones ego, especially if the reason is a ‘freaky little fag’ as the boys surrounding Raito had so eloquently stated.

Why would someone like Raito understand the way he felt about him?
Better yet, why would someone as naturally perfect as Raito pay attention to him in the first place? Let alone be his friend.

He could only watch as Raito turned and started to walk away.
“Let’s go. I’ve got better things to do then spend my time here.”
That last statement and the groups laughter didn’t even register…
He only had eyes for his friends retreating back.

So that was it?

Forgetting completely about his reason for being in the hallway, he returned to the classroom.
Taro tried to keep his mind focussed on the chores at hand.
It hurt too much to think.

“Kagami Taro?”
He turned to look at the person standing in the door-opening.
“I’m miss Hannah, I would like to have a word with you.”

Could this day get any better?


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“Now do you see why I think you should get help?”

He nodded absently, not really paying attention to what she was talking about.
He was good at that…

“It’s not natural Taro-kun. You should be glad your classmates brought this to attention before it got out of hand.”

He nodded again. Thankful? In the same way he should have been thankful to his aunts way of raising children? He thanked whatever god was out there that he didn’t write anything about her in his ‘diary’. As if it wasn’t bad enough that pretty much the entire school was now aware of his…obsession with Yagami Raito.

“Now I want you to see the school-psychiatrist once a week. I’ll make an appointment for you as soon as I can. Now, I will have to write a letter to your aunt about this. Make sure she signs it before returning it.”

Another nod.
It looked like he would have to copy her autograph again.

The counsellor got up and opened the door.
Not wanting to spend another minute in the woman’s office, he grabbed his bag and prepared to leave. A hand on his shoulder stopped him.

“Just remember we’re there for you.”

I would have been a lot more convincing hadn’t she flinched upon smiling at him.
It truly was an interesting fact. He had learned this once from Raito a long time ago. When people smile sincerely they would use both sides of their facial muscles. When faking one, only the left side tensed.
It was a small gesture, only seen for a short amount of time, but enough to establish whether a person was lying or not. Funny, how something that insignificant would cross his mind today of all days.

Taro stepped out of the office and made his way to the school exit.
He pretended not to notice the people around him pointing at him and laughing behind his back. After all, he had gotten used to it having to endure it for several years.

As expected, Raito wasn’t waiting for him at the bus-stop.

How was he going to get home?
It wasn’t as if there were other busses around to take him home. The school bus left over twenty minutes ago. He had no other choice but to walk home…

Not that he cared. He didn’t need anybody. Even though he deluded himself for four years now, the truth was he would be fine on his own. What was the reason he tolerated Raito around again?

The walk home was a blurry one. He didn’t even remember when he opened the front door or when he took of his shoes. The raven-haired teen took of his clothes and turned on the shower. He would feel better after taking a nice long shower….he would….

You are an e-evil child…A devil’s child…

Perhaps he was…

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It was odd how the days seemed to crawl by when you were on your own.
It hadn’t always been like this, the days had never passed this slowly before.
Or had they? He couldn’t remember even if he tried.

Raito hadn’t even as much as looked at him these past few days.
Not that everyone else wouldn’t make up for it…
Even the bus driver that normally just wouldn’t shut up remained silent, as if terrified of being in the same room with him.

He was going to start some sort of therapy next week. He was to report at the front desk and wait for some guy to come pick him up for a ‘nice little chat’. Hadn’t it been for his cleanup duties, he probably would have started this very week…

Taro opened a window and clapped the erasers, nearly suffocating as the chalk-residue filled the air. He was thankful that today would be the last day he’d have to do this.

Again there was no sign of the other students that were supposed to have cleanup duty as well. The teachers probably didn’t want them around him or something. Not that he could blame them, he was evil wasn’t he? He would probably be a bad influence.

The depressed teen walked towards the trashcans and started to empty them.
Hopeful that he wouldn’t run into any stray pieces of gum this time.

‘What’s this?’

Something colourful lay amongst the trash.
Upon closer examination it turned out to be a doll wearing a cheerful looking dress.

Why would this be in the trash? Did a student bring it to school? He doubted it belonged to a teacher. It probably got confiscated or something. Taro reached for it, but as he lifted it from beneath the piles of used paper, he noticed something odd.

The doll was missing it’s hands.

Loud footsteps were approaching rapidly. Taro stuffed the doll under his shirt, grimacing at the thought of it having been in the trash.

“Ah, Kagami-kun. I was wondering if the trash had been taken out yet.”
“Yeah, it has. Most of it was gone when I got here. Why? Did you lose something sir?’
“No, nothing of importance. Cary on.”

It looked like Raito wasn’t the only one with a private investigation….
Not anymore.

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It had taken a lot to keep up with his teacher. The guy must have been in top-physical condition to keep walking at that pace and not get tired.

‘Athletic male, check. Middle-aged. Check. School employee, check.’

But still. He would have never suspected this guy as a murderer.
True, he wasn’t certain this was the guy, but something told him it was.
Like a gut-instinct or something…

Taro brushed away his pitch black locks as he peered through the window, it had been about two hours since he first arrived here. The teacher walked towards the refrigerator and opened the door. From his rather uncomfortable position at the windowsill he couldn’t see what the guy was doing though…

‘Come on, hurry up!’

He had heard Tanaka-sensei mutter something about a staff-meeting that was to be held today.
He only hoped this guy was supposed to join them.

As the teacher walked out of sight, he lowered himself by the drainpipe to the ground and hid amongst the bushes. He heard a door open, close and being locked.
The familiar pattern of footsteps soon accompanied them.

After waiting for several minutes, Taro climbed back up the drain pipe and opened the window, his back-pack nearly getting stuck.
As he walked towards the direction of the refrigerator the teacher had been so obsessed with, a rather vulgar but distinctive smell seemed to linger in the air. When he opened the refrigerator door, the smell became stronger…

As he gazed upon his newly acquired trophy he smirked.

They were his now…

TBC