FDD 17

Luca tried to move a huge container of ethanol using a wheeled shelf as a makeshift cart. However, Noah deemed it cumbersome and easily lifted it, thus relieving Luca of the burden. Noah held two containers of ethanol in his hands, while Luca stuffed his pockets full of condoms.

“I’m disappointed.”

Noah said as he pointed to the containers of ethanol. Luca felt embarrassed that his hands were so light and tried to reach into his pockets. However, his pockets were already full of condoms, so he simply put his hands behind his back and asked, “What?”

“Because I can’t hold your hand while carrying these.”

In response to Noah’s words, Luca placed his hand on Noah’s elbow. When he felt Luca’s warmth on his arm, Noah replied, “I’m a little less disappointed now.”

Although it was a situation where they should have been on edge, the two, radiating a pink aura that felt completely out of place, froze when they heard knocking from the left wall of the hallway as they walked past it. There was a room there, and the sound was coming from inside. The two stopped, tense, when the window of the room opened slightly.

“Luca! Noah! Ah, I’m saved. I was terrified to death being all alone!”

A familiar voice came from the narrow gap in the window. It was Chloe. There was a clattering sound from inside, and then the door burst open. Chloe gestured for them to come in quickly, and Luca and Noah scurried inside. [Read on]It seemed Chloe had locked the door and blocked it with furniture, as the furniture inside was a mess.

“This is the first time in my life I’ve been this happy to see someone.”

Chloe suddenly hugged Luca. The latter was startled by the sudden embrace, but empathizing with how difficult it must have been for Chloe to be alone, he patted her back. As Chloe held Luca, she finally noticed the containers Noah was holding.

“By the way, Noah, what’s in those containers?”

“Ethanol.”

Noah set the ethanol containers down on the floor and answered, then he gently pulled Luca back. As a result, Luca and Chloe, who had been hugging, separated.

“Are you going to disinfect the school?”

Seemingly relieved, Chloe cracked an uncharacteristic joke, prompting Luca to breathe a sigh of relief.

“You look fine, Chloe.”

“It aches all over, but seeing how you look, I can’t say anything because it would seem like I’m exaggerating. You really are a mess right now.”

Luca looked embarrassed at Chloe’s words. Then, Noah, who had been left out of the conversation, suddenly chimed in.

“I was thinking of burning something with this. I heard there might be fireworks around here, so I was looking for them.”

“Fireworks around here?”

Chloe asked back in surprise.

“Yeah, you know that kid who caused a ruckus during last year’s Hanukkah? He brought them.”

At Luca’s words, Chloe thought for a moment, then let out an “Ah!” and nodded.

“Weren’t they all confiscated back then?”

“He brought a whole bunch and hid some of them.”

Chloe asked again, and this time Noah answered. Chloe’s expression brightened considerably.

“What a useful psycho.”

Both Luca and Noah agreed with Chloe’s remark. The place Noah had heard the fireworks were was the fire hydrant across from the choir room.

“He hid them in such an obvious place?”

“I guess he was preventing potential fires…”

Chloe muttered, and Luca mumbled back. They were able to reach the vicinity of the choir room without much difficulty. Instead of Noah, who was holding ethanol in both hands, Luca, whose hands were free, opened the fire hydrant. Fortunately, there were fireworks inside, just as the rumor had said. There were even more than Noah had heard.  It was so full that they couldn’t even see the gaps in the fire hydrant.

” …Is it legally allowed for one person to possess this many fireworks [Read on]? And in a fire hydrant too?”

“They probably wouldn’t even allow bringing back a serial killer who died 30 years ago.”

Luca muttered while staring at the fireworks, and Chloe responded. There were various types of fireworks, but the most numerous were the long, thin ones. Luca picked up one of them and examined it.

“What should we do with this?”

“…Let’s try using it on that bastard coming here.”

Chloe pointed, she had become so accustomed to the sound of footsteps that she was actually a little glad to hear them. Soon after, as they turned the corner, the boy appeared. Although they had run away at first because he was unfamiliar, the three of them now knew that this boy was not much of a threat. The boy was alone, tattered and missing a shoulder, but Luca, Noah, and Chloe together carried a significant amount of fireworks and ethanol.

Chloe picked up a few short, cylindrical fireworks. Even though the three were standing there silently, the boy ran toward Luca and Noah without questioning it. He tried to bite the three of them. However, he couldn’t reach them because Chloe blocked him with her foot. And since Noah twisted the boy’s arm behind him and pushed him against the wall, he was forced to struggle against Noah.

Perhaps they got used to this crazy situation after being there for a while, as the three of them discussed things in a very relaxed manner right in front of him. In the meantime, Chloe, interrupted by the boy’s sounds that was neither groans nor roars, spoke irritably.

“Isn’t there anything to gag him?”

Luca rummaged through his pockets, but there were only condoms.

“……”

“What do you mean, are you suggesting we have sex with him or something? And why do you even have that many?”

Chloe laughed as Luca froze with several condoms in his hand. Embarrassed, he started rambling nonsense.

“… Put it on his head? Maybe that would gag him?”

“Hmm, I don’t want to. Luca, you try it.”

Chloe snorted in disbelief, and Luca tore open a condom wrapper. He wondered if such a narrow condom would even fit on that head. Luca gave Noah a pleading look for help, but even to Noah, what Luca had said was ridiculous. Abandoned even by Noah, Luca threw the condom to the floor and pointed at the fireworks Chloe was holding.

“Just gag him with that. stolen content Let’s shove the fireworks in his mouth, light it, and run away.”

“Hmm, Luca, I think you’ve been in this situation for too long. You’ve changed a lot. That’s cruel, but kind of good.”

Chloe held out the fireworks to Noah, who put it into the boy’s mouth. The boy’s one remaining arm flailed, but it was easily held by Noah, leaving him no choice but to stay still. As the boy tried to spit it out because there was still space in his mouth, Chloe brought out more fireworks and stuffed them into the remaining gap. As if his jaw had been dislocated, the boy’s jaw continued to create space. Then Noah took the lighter Luca handed him, lit it, and shouted, “Run!”

The three of them ran away from the boy as fast as they could. Noah remained remarkably steady, despite having run while carrying two containers of ethanol. As they ran, the three stopped and turned around only when they heard loud bangs behind them. Colorful fireworks exploded from the boy’s head.

Bang!

Bang!

Pop!

Bang!

“Do you know that Katy Perry ‘Firework’ music video?”

Pop!

Boom!

“Yeah.”

“I know.”

Pop!

With the sound of exploding fireworks in the background, Chloe asked, and Luca and Noah answered at the same time.

“This feels like a really cheap, tacky, and gory version of that.”

Pow!

At Chloe’s muttering, both Luca and Noah recalled the scene from the music video. In the music video, sparkling lights emanated from the chest of a beautifully dressed Katy Perry, but now, in front of the three of them, a boy missing an arm was spitting out fireworks with his head blown off and fireworks shoved into his mouth.

However, the sparks were beautiful and needlessly romantic. The three of them had become so accustomed to the situation that they had become numb to the fact that a head was exploding. They simply rejoiced as they watched the bursting fireworks.

***

A single light flickered out from the boy’s body and exploded, then disappeared completely. It seemed all the fireworks had exploded. The three of them waited a moment and then approached the boy again. Although his head sported a gaping hole and his entire face had practically been blown away, the boy was still moving.

“…Let’s cremate him.”

Chloe suggested, perhaps because she felt sorry for the boy’s appearance, and Luka and Noah agreed. First, the three of them checked to make sure the embers on the boy’s body were completely extinguished, then Noah sprayed ethanol on him, making sure it didn’t get on himself. The boy squirmed as the cold ethanol fell on him.

After pouring an entire container of ethanol, the three of them stepped back a considerable distance to prevent the fire from spreading, and Noah lit a firework and threw it at the boy. As the ember ignited his body, the entire boy quickly burst into flames. Immediately afterward, the firework exploded.

Bang!

Pop!

Colorful sparks burst out. Since there was only one firework this time, the light was small.

“Rest in peace.”

Although that boy was the root of all the trouble, the three of them held a small funeral out of human decency. It was modest, yet somewhat splendid.

There was enough ethanol that even as his body burned black, the fire continued to blaze. The boy, who had been struggling just minutes ago, was now motionless. Eternal sleep had finally found him.

Whether it was a misfortune or a blessing, neither the fire alarm nor the sprinklers activated. The three, who had been gazing at the fire burning like a campfire, moved on to punish the one remaining monster. That one would not even be given a funeral. That was what the three thought.

***

Luca, Noah, and Chloe had completely forgotten that Gerald was also in this school. No, they knew, but they didn’t particularly want [stolen content]to care. Even Noah, who was considered the most unbiased and nice of the three, didn’t like Gerald.

Gerald would pick a fight for no reason whenever he saw Noah, and he found Gerald’s behavior exhausting. Noah was one of the people who most wanted Gerald to graduate (and those people made up two-thirds of the school). The three of them felt at ease without the boisterous and annoying Gerald by their side. So, they didn’t feel the need to go out of their way to find him. He must be hiding somewhere on his own; if he died, well… it couldn’t be helped. Just as they were unanimously thinking this, a scream was heard from somewhere.

“Ack! Aaaah! Help!”

The three of them knew whose familiar scream that was. So, they wanted to pretend they hadn’t heard it. However, as if he knew that they were thinking that, the owner of the voice let out another scream.

“Fuck!”

“…Can we just pretend we didn’t hear that?”

Chloe whispered softly, worried that Gerald might hear. It was a tempting offer. However, unfortunately, the moral standards of the three of them – including Chloe, the very person who made the suggestion – were too high. Luca, Noah, and Chloe sighed in unison and walked toward Gerald, who continued to scream.

Chloe, whose ears ached from the screaming, even yelled, “We’re on our way, so shut up!”

Gerald was in a dark room with the curtains drawn. He was alone. Being in this situation for so long even [Read on]made them worry that he might be losing his mind. Noah, who had walked the very front, realized the reason Gerald had been screaming and muttered something unlike him.

“Shit…”

Luca and Chloe also witnessed the reason Gerald had been screaming. It was a rat.

“You screamed that loudly just because of a rat?”

“Rats are the cause of the Black Death! And they spread all sorts of diseases! What if it bites me?”

Chloe spoke through gritted teeth. However, the clueless Gerald yelled back. Luca, who had been listening to Gerald, couldn’t hold back and punched him in the face.

“Ow! Why did you hit me!”

Fortunately, the CCTV wasn’t working and the witnesses were likely to keep quiet, so Luca wouldn’t be called to the principal’s office despite committing violence on school grounds. So, without answering, Luca hit Gerald’s arm one more time, the one already cut by Baphomet’s saw.

“Ow! That fucking hurts!”

“I hit you to make you hurt, so of course it should.”

Gerald allowed Luca’s irritation and anger to overcome his morality. Luca was a person who conformed well to society’s moral education, but Gerald made him forget that. He was a formidable figure who made Noah swear and Luca resort to violence.

Noah irritably thrust an ethanol container at Gerald. The latter, who naturally assumed it would be light because Noah was holding it so easily, dropped it under the sudden gravity. The container crashed onto his feet.

“Ow!”

There was no one in that space to worry about Gerald. He suffered alone, and struggled to lift the ethanol container. Then he read the sticker on the outside.

“Ethanol? Why this?”

“To burn it with this.”

Luca pointed to the fireworks he and Chloe had brought.

“Oh! Where did you get that?”

Gerald beamed and took a thin firework from Luca’s arms. Luca snatched it back.

“An idiot like you brought it to school.”

Gerald frowned, and Luca replied, “So what?”

The three of them sat huddled together in the room. Although they had a rough sketch, they hadn’t formulated a concrete plan. Noah thought in silence for a moment before speaking.

“We’re going to create a puddle of ethanol at the end of the hallway corner, fill it with fireworks, and lure him in there. If Baphomet comes that way, throw a lit firework from a distance.”

“How do we lure him?”

At Luca’s question, Noah held out his hand to Gerald. The latter didn’t understand the meaning and grabbed [unauthorized copy]his hand, but Noah swatted it away and said curtly,

“Phone.”

Gerald held out his phone with a confused expression; it was unlocked. Then he pressed the play button on the music app widget on the home screen.

“Baby-“

“……”

“……”