The Distant Past

The eyes of all the students were on suddenly glued on Eli's face, impatiently waiting for him to explain what he meant by "not necessarily." Eli stared back at them blankly, yet internally his thoughts were running wild.

'Dammit, I didn't mean say that out loud.' Eli thought to himself while biting his lip in frustration. 'That's not quite the right thing to say when there's a dead student in the classroom, is it?' Eli rushed to compose his thoughts and opened his mouth to give a response, but Omesh spoke up first.

"Not necessarily Eli?" Omesh asked with disbelief in his voice. "Are you serious man? We're at the possibility of being accused of murder! Murder! And you're now telling us that we don't 'necessarily' have to do anything?"

The eyes of Eli's classmates darkened as they heard Omesh's point. Eli gulped. He originally wanted ignore Omesh altogether and just stay silent to avoid further attention, but it was too late now. If he wanted to salvage this situation and not look like an absolute fool, then he would need to prove his point.

"Yes." Eli tried to say as confidently as possible, his hands jittering on his lap. "I don't necessarily think we have to take action in this situation."

"What?!" Omesh blurted out angrily. "Whadya mean we don-"

"Let me explain my point." Eli politely interrupted. "Did anyone hear what he muttered when he left the classroom?" Eli asked towards the entire classroom.

"H-he said 'not again' like three times or s-somethin' like that." A white girl with short black hair replied, still trying to stiffle her sobs without much success.

"Thank you Ella. So what do you think that means?" Eli asked again.

Omesh snorted in irritation.

"What a dumb question. How am I supposed to kno-" Omesh stopped speaking, his eyes lighting up in understanding. "Wait! Are you suggesting that Mr. Evans killed a student in the past?"

Eli nodded his head.

"Yes, I believe that he killed a student in the past, most likely in a similar situation to this murder. So let me ask you a question. If he's teaching at this school now, what does that mean?"

"Well...according to your line of thought...he must have gotten away with the murder the first time, or else he wouldn't be allowed to teach at this school now." Omesh responded.

"Exactly. So if this is the case, does it make sense for him to tattle-tale to the police about this?" Eli asked rhetorically. "Of course not! The police would check his record and he would be busted! Next thing you know it, and he'll be straight into jail!"

The tension in the classroom lessened as the students nodded their heads in understanding after hearing Eli's explanation. However, Omesh was not convinced.

"So you're saying we do nothing." Omesh confirmed.

"Yes." Eli answered confidently. "The best thing to do is nothing."

"I don't agree." Omesh retorted. "You're really stretching your point. Just because he said 'not again', it doesn't mean that he murdered a student in the past. And either way, it's smarter to be safe and stop him before he can tell the police."

"How?" Eli asked in response. "None of us have the money to bribe. Everyone at this school is dirt poor. So how else would you stop him?"

Omesh and his friends Jamie and Ollie let out a chuckle hearing Eli's response.

"This isn't preschool anymore Eli. This is the real world. Kill him and the problem is solved."

"Really?" Eli said in disbelief. "We are no different to Mr. Evans if we resolve to murder."

Omesh and his friends laughed even louder after hearing that response.

"You are delusional Eli! I couldn't give two shits about morality or justice!" Omesh stated brashly. "All that matters for me is that I survive and I will take any route to make sure that happens, even its murder!"

Few kids lowered their heads towards the floor anxiously after hearing Omesh's verdict. They certainly wanted to take care the murder, but it was clear that they against the prospect of silencing the teacher through murder. Seeing this, Eli opened his mouth to dispute Omesh's point, but then stopped. Eli was still vehemently against even the thought of murder, but deep down he knew Omesh was not wrong. What did morality and justice mean in this down-trodden, impoverished neighbourhood? Nothing. You could not survive in the alleys of the Bronx while trying to grasp onto these virtues. The only way to survive in this place was to follow no rules and create your own future. Only you mattered.

'Shit. Omesh is right.'

Justice was worthless. Only survival mattered.

Yet despite this knowledge, Eli still felt an strong urge to advocate for justice. At first, Eli thought that this drive was just the residue of a childish dream, a dream that was tattered and ripped apart by the agonising pain of reality. But deep down Eli knew that it was more than. It was much more than that.

'Why do I still hold onto justice as if its something important?' Eli asked himself. 'What value does it hold for me?'

Eli asked himself these questions, yet subconsciously he already knew the answer. Against his will, a long-forgotten and repressed memory returned from the depths of his soul to the forefront of his mind. A deep and dark memory that would only return at the most unexpected of times and then fade away as quickly as it had come. Eli could not remember how he had gotten there, or why he was there at all, but he could still remember the burnt smell in air while the winter frost froze his shivering body. He could still remember looking up from the cracked pavement to see a callused hand reaching towards him. The hand that marked a new beginning.

The hand that marked salvation.

'...'

"I cannot tell you what to do." Eli finally spoke up, directing his response towards Omesh. "And I have no control over your own choices. But I have control over my own choices and I will not stand for your decision."

"Why not?" Omesh interjected. "Tell me using logic why I should not murder Mr. Evans."

Eli shivered as he heard Omesh's request. Almost subconsciously, words from the old and dusty memory began relaying within Eli's conscience.

"What are you doing here little boy?" An elderly voice whispered quietly. "This isn't a place for little boy like you to be."

Eli ignored the voice. Seeing Omesh's impatience, he fixed his eyes tightly onto his face and erased all expression from his face.

"So you think murder is the solution?"

"Yes." Omesh answered confidently. "I do."

Eli continued glaring at Omesh throughout his response. Yet beneath the surface, the words echoing in his mind continued to conflict him.

"Is it your parents that are dying from the fire?" The elderly man from the memory asked with a tinge of pity in his voice. "What a poor fate for a young boy. No matter how much they deserved to die, a innocent child never deserves to lose his parents that way."

Eli tried to cover up the internal agitation by glaring at Omesh even harder, accidently conjuring a stare with pure menace, sending shivers down Omesh's spine.

"Listen to me Omesh. Murder solves nothing." Eli stated expressionlessly. "Murder only creates more problems. One day, no matter how soon or how far, your choices will bite you in back and send you to your ultimate demise."

"They tried to solve their problems through murder, but all they did was create more problems." The elderly man said gently with subtle touch of disappointment in his voice. "Perhaps one day you will be a testament to that mistake."

Eli continued his prolonged stare at Omesh, his insides churning at the sound of the elderly man's voice. Eli's gut told him that memory meant something, something monumental, yet all Eli could feel was a mountain of unexplained pain. The memory made him feel lost, but he did not know why. For all Eli knew, his life began on that snowy street with that elderly man. Beyond that memory, Eli remembered nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

"Fine." Omesh responded with sweat beads inconspicuously falling down his face, stopping Eli's train of thought. "We'll do nothing. We don't want to make this bigger problem than it actually is."

The class nodded in agreement as they heard Omesh with Eli. After all, they didn't want to resort to murder either. Almost immediately, The tense atmosphere within the classroom faded away. Whether the decision was right or wrong, agreement was always better than division, and everyone knew that here.

Eli nodded slowly, his thoughts still caught up in the newly retrieved memory.

"Good. Hide the body in the ceiling and use tissues to clean up the blood on the floor." Eli advised simply. "We'll figure out how to hide it properly when school isn't on."

The students expected Eli to say more, but when he moved his eyes back to his phone, they realised that he was done talking. Taking heed to his advice, the students removed a tile from the cheap dropped ceiling and hoisted up the dead girl, hiding her the crevice between the ceiling and the next floor. A sigh of relief echoed across the classroom as the ceiling tile latched back on.

The dead body was hidden for now.

Only time would tell how long it would stay hidden for.