12 Midnight Murders

How unfortunate for the only one to witness this murder. Of course, no one would believe the infamous liar, Jacklyn. What made things worse was that the so-called culprit was the person least likely to do it: Charlotte Toussaint. The sweetest girl amongst the group of friends, and if she were a candy, you’d probably get diabetes just by looking at her sweet smile, if not already. So everybody, as usual, thought it was just another one of Jacklyn’s pranks.

“I swear! It’s not a joke this time!” she fumed.

“That’s exactly what you’d say if you were joking.” Louis crossed his arms.

“If what you’re saying is true, then that would mean this would be the 11th murder this month.” Timothy typed on his laptop.

It wasn’t unusual for the news of a murder to be brought up. After their school trip to Paris one month ago, one by one, their classmates got killed. But no one could get used to seeing the corpses of their friends. A horrible sight indeed. This time, there was no body to be found, not even evidence that there was a killing in the first place. The only thing the students noticed was that their friend, Gabriel, was missing. The boy had a croissant addiction, so when it was time to clean the cafe the other week, he volunteered to “clean” the kitchen. Nobody has seen him since. After failing to convince her friends, she dragged her cousin, Oliver, who managed to solve the mystery of the insane girl who claimed there were ghosts in her house. He was ecstatic when he learned he was going to help solve another mystery. 

“So, what we know so far is that these murders all happen at midnight, correct?” he asked.

“Yep. So if we were to wait at midnight tonight, perhaps we might see the murderer in action.” she declared.

They continued talking about what they learned so far until Jacklyn realized that might affect their investigation. 

“I-If I’m the only one who witnessed the murder, don’t you think I’ll be the next target?” she looked around to make sure the murderer wasn’t listening.

“It is a possibility, but if we were to investigate in a larger group I think we’ll be safe from the Midnight Murderer.”

Jacklyn took out her phone and tried calling Louis. No answer. She looked at the clock. It was ten minutes until midnight when the murderer would usually strike. The two looked at each other in fear. They quickly ran back to where they all had their meeting. Everybody else was there except for Louis. The group began their search for their friend. There were no clues of where he disappeared until they suddenly heard a loud thud and a scream coming from outside. A bunch of people surrounded where the noise came from, and there he was. Like an egg that was dropped on the floor was his body, blood splattered all over the concrete sidewalk. Oliver noticed that Louis’s head was very swollen, although it appeared that he had landed on the ground on his back. The killer must have knocked him out and then dropped him off the roof to finish the job. He thought. Jacklyn stood in shock. She couldn’t believe that this truly was her class president’s fate. He was the one that helped us keep going, even after the past few murders. Tears flowed down her face as she could hear the ambulance’s siren off into the distance. Nobody noticed the shadow of a person from the rooftop, chuckling to themself in the dark abyss. Of course, nobody would believe Jacklyn since Charlotte was at the crime scene with them. If she was the murderer, she would have been on the rooftop. But even then, there could be an accomplice or some trick only a genius could do.

“Stop lying to yourself, Jacklyn. Charlotte isn’t the murderer.” Timothy sighed.

“Then who?! For a straight-A student, you’re acting like a clueless idiot right now!” Jacklyn screamed.

“I think we should start investigating the rooftop before the murderer gets rid of all the evidence,” Oliver suggested while dragging Jacklyn back into the cafe.

“I’m coming too! I don’t wanna die before I get my master’s degree!!!” Timothy ran after them.

The cafe had a mini apartment where all of them stayed until their school trip was over. They all thought it would have ended after the first murder, but boy were they wrong. Jacklyn and Oliver decided to use the stairs while Timothy used the elevator, to make sure the killer wouldn’t escape. But to their surprise, the elevator was tampered with, causing Timothy to get stuck inside. They could hear him banging on the doors, screaming like a girl even though he was the only one in there. After climbing the last flight of stairs, they searched for as much evidence they could, careful not to have the same fate as Louis. Thankfully, the murderer wasn’t very thorough with getting rid of the evidence, but it still didn’t give them enough to find out who killed their friend. Everybody was at the crime scene, or well, everybody who hasn’t been killed. There was still a possibility that there could be an accomplice they didn’t know about. Jacklyn noticed a button that belonged to a uniform from Saint-Denis International School. No one she knew attended that school, but the clue wasn’t useless. Oliver took a closer look at the button. 

“The only person I know who hangs out with a student at this school is Charlotte,” he exclaimed. 

“So that obviously means that she’s the killer, right??” Jacklyn asked.

“Well, well, well. We truly have a Sherlock among us. Just as I expected.” a voice from behind them said.

It was just as Jacklyn said. The culprit was Charlotte. But this Charlotte was different from the sweet, goody two shoes that they knew. She had a psychotic smile on her face, with a pistol in her hands, most likely loaded. 

“W-Why did you do this?! They were your friends!” Jacklyn sobbed.

“Friends, you say? FRIENDS?! You fool! I was nothing but a tool to them!!!” Charlotte screamed.

“What do you mean? You weren’t a tool to us.” Oliver explained.

“That’s what you think. But all these years, I was nothing but a cheat sheet. A tool just for you idiots to ‘succeed’. But I’ve had ENOUGH!”

Charlotte’s finger hovered over the trigger of the pistol, but instead of aiming at the two, she aimed at her head. 

“After the 12th murder, I’ve finally avenged myself. I can finally go in peace,” she whispered.

Within seconds Jacklyn sprinted towards Charlotte, slapping the gun out of her hands. She tackled her as she tried reaching for the pistol. Oliver ran and tossed it off the roof. 

“Just let me die!!! So I can finally get my eternal rest and I’ll never be used again! NOT EVER!” Charlotte wept.

Suddenly a figure appeared from the other side of the building. The accomplice and boyfriend of Charlotte, Paul. With his terrifying strength, he tossed aside Jacklyn, causing her to nearly fall off the rooftop until Oliver caught her just in time. The two disappeared into the darkness as Jacklyn and Oliver stood there in shock while they caught their breath. Thankfully the police arrived before the murderer and assistant could successfully escape. They were going to be in jail for a long time, all thanks to the crime-solving master, Oliver, and his just as good cousin, Jacklyn. 

One hour later….

“HEY! Is anybody there?! I really need to use the bathroom!” Timothy yelled, banging on the elevator doors.

“Oops, I nearly forgot!” Jacklyn exclaimed.

“Or maybe you left him there on purpose, right?” Oliver sighed.

“Perhaps…” she snickered.