chapter 3

Warning ⚠ Blood

---

Crimson Ridge High – Monday Morning, 7:02 AM

The first students to arrive didn't make it past the gate.

They froze. Then one screamed.

Another dropped their backpack and ran.

And then phones came out—shaking hands, capturing the horror displayed at the school's front gate:

A human heart, nailed to the centre like a warning. Blood is still dripping.

An eyeball, swinging from fishing wire like a twisted ornament.

An ear, pinned beside a note written in deep red:

> "You thought I was a toy. Now you're a message."

Laid out on the steps just beyond, slouched like a puppet with strings cut—

Kelvin's corpse.

His mouth stitched shut with black thread.

His body was cold, pale, and crumpled.

His eyes and heart are missing.

His phone was still in his pocket — but turned off.

Within minutes, the school was surrounded by police, EMTs, detectives, and reporters.

Students sobbed. Teachers screamed. Parents flooded in.

The chaos had begun.

---

Bella's House – 7:15 AM

Bella sat at the kitchen table, legs crossed, eating cereal.

Her phone buzzed beside her—group chats, exploding with fear and confusion.

Her mother, brushing her hair, glanced at the TV where a live report played:

> "A gruesome discovery outside Crimson Ridge High has shocked the city…"

"The victim has been identified as 17-year-old Kelvin…"

Bella sipped her orange juice. Her face was blank. Peaceful.

"Did you know him well?" her mom asked.

Bella looked up with the softest expression.

"Not really," she said. "He was just…" popular."

She smiled faintly.

10AM

The school was locked down. Police flooded the halls. Grief counsellors were stationed in the gym.

Detectives questioned students one by one.

Bella cried when asked about Kelvin. She gave her best broken voice. "I saw him last week... I don't know who would do something like this..."

No one doubted her.

She was sweet. She was soft-spoken.

She was perfectly invisible.

All eyes were looking for a monster.

No one expected the girl sitting quietly in the third row of English class, doodling hearts in the margins of her notebook.

---

That Night

Bella sat cross-legged on her bed.

The room was spotless. It's lit by a soft pink lamp. Posters on the wall. Teddy bear at the foot of the bed.

She pulled a small lockbox from beneath her dresser. Opened it.

Inside: three sealed jars.

One with an eye.

One with an ear.

Her trophies.

She held them up to the light. Admired them.

Online, the world burned.

Two Days After the Murder

The school halls were silent, like a graveyard.

No one laughed. No one ran. Students walked in clusters, speaking in hushed tones. Armed officers still patrolled the perimeter. Cameras were everywhere.

And then it started.

The rumor.

It was whispered between lockers, during lunch, in the bathrooms. It crawled through the school like smoke under a locked door:

> "I heard Bella did it."

"You mean prom Bella?"

"Kelvin rejected her, right? After she asked him?"

"She flipped. I heard she has a basement... and knives."

"He said he was just using her, and then... this? Come on."

At first, Bella smiled through it. Let them whisper.

She even cried once in the hallway—perfect, timed, theatrical.

But she felt it.

The shift.

The eyes.

The tension in the air.

Even her teachers glanced twice. Even her friends were growing quiet.

Lunchtime

Bella sat alone.

She stirred her soup slowly, listening without looking.

At the next table, Kelvin's friends leaned in close, talking low—but not low enough.

> "The cops need to look at her harder."

"She was obsessed with him."

"He told me she said, 'You'll regret laughing at me.'"

One of them—Nate, Kelvin's closest friend—stood up and shouted across the room.

"Hey, Bella."

She looked up calmly.

"You sleep okay the night they found his body?"

The entire cafeteria went still.

Bella blinked. Tilted her head.

"Better than he did," she whispered. Just loud enough for Nate to hear.

He flinched.

---

SPolice Station – That Evening

Detectives sat around a board full of photos, maps, and strings. And on it, for the first time:

A sticky note with Bella's name.

"She was the last to talk to him at prom."

"She asked him out."

"She has no alibi past midnight."

They didn't have proof.

But now they had a suspect.

---

That Night

Bella sat in the dark, staring at the jars.

The heart.

The ear.

The eye.

She traced her finger down the glass. Thought of Kelvin's friends.

How they were getting loud.

Getting brave.

She smiled to herself.

Maybe it was time for a second message.

One that would shut them up...

Forever.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***