Kevin Romero

A week has passed by since the murder of John Tulip, officers have been on the case since then. The murder has been taking the city of Batavia, New York by storm. Daniel Collins, a seventeen year old Caucasian boy has been obsessed with the John Tulip murder. At any giving moment, Daniel would look up articles and articles related to the killing. It wasn't just the John Tulip murder, he's obsessed with any kind of serial killing, Ted Bundy, The Zodiac, Holmes, you name it.

Daniel lazily got up from his twin sized bed, wiped off the dried up drool from last night, grabbed his glasses and went to the bathroom to fix his monstrous looking face. Brushed his teeth, combed his hair and dressed himself in his school uniform, a pair of black khakis, a blue shirt and a typical black clip-on tie. It was hideous and definitely not something Daniel would normally wear but if he blended in with the rest of the crowd in school so he didn't mind it too much. Daniel grabs his bookbag and exits through his back door.

Daniel was making his way to school, making a stop at his best friend's house, Michael Hulls. He knocks on the old, stained, dirty door and Michael opens the door almost immediately.

"Good morning?" Daniel asks. He enters the house.

"Shoes off please." Michael says. Michael goes back to the bathroom to finish doing his hair. "You know Claire would kill me if they saw one crumb of dirt in the house."

"Yes I am aware that your adoptive mother is a neat freak. Now I know where you get your perfectionist personality from." Daniel let's out.

"Just sit tight. I'll be done in a second. And for the upteenth time, that woman is not my real mom." Michael manages to say with a mouth full of toothpaste.

Daniel shakes his head and lets out a sigh, it's always the same thing with Michael. He always takes forever to get ready. Daniel begins to walk around the home and enters Michael's room. He observes his work desk and notices the frame picture that had both his parents back when they were still alive. Not much is known about the two, other than the fact they disappeared one day and their bodies were found three weeks later with rope burns around their neck.

"Yo, let's go." Michael says applying gel to his hair.

"You are aware we're going to school not church right?" Daniel sarcastically says.

"I am aware of that, Mr. Collins. But it never hurts anyone to look good, right?" Michael says, running his fingers through his hair. He brushes off his dress shirt and grabs his recently cleaned Backpack.

"Bro, we're late. Always late." Daniel said angrily.

"Listen Dan, I don't understand why you care so much about school. Ever since the murder of John happened everyone and their grandmother has been talking about it." Michael looks at his reflection.

"What's your point?"

"My point is, the only reason you want to go to school so feverishly now is because you wanna show off your knowledge and talk about your theories to everyone. Damn I look good." Michael puts on his shoes and walks with Daniel out the front door.

"That is not true at all." Daniel says, defending himself. "Sure I might talk about it but you're making it seem like it's the only thing I talk about nowadays."

"Can you blame me? We're talking about it right now."

"You brought it up!"

"Sshh, let's agree to disagree."

Michael and Daniel begin their late walk to school, walking by the pizzeria and the crime scene while they're at it. Multiple police cars and sprinkled around the area, their blinking siren lights light up the grim looking and now closed pizzeria. Even the sheriff was there speaking with the managers of the establishment. Daniel's eyes widened, Michael couldn't care less.

"So I found out that the weapon used for John's death was a Global G-2 Chef's knife. Officers theorized that would explain how the knife could pierce the skin of John's neck so easily." Daniel says pointing at the scene.

Michael rolls his eyes and lets out a disappointed sigh. "Dan, what makes you think that I want to know about this?"

"Who wouldn't. Personally I thought the killer used a boning knife, it's lighter and could pierce any limb from the bones. Which is what the killer might've wanted to do since he did stab John's ankles." Daniel says.

Michael shakes his head in embarrassment.

Daniel observes the crime scene some more. He could still see the leftover trail of blood on the gray sidewalk; now dried up and looking more like dried up car oil. It was now brown.

"Ooh look at that! You know who that is?" Daniel points at Walter Tulip.

Walter Tulip is at the scene crying while the female employee from the pizzeria comforts him.

"No. Should I know who that is?" Michael says bluntly.

"That's Walter Tulip, the father of John, he feels responsible for the loss of his son."

"Wow, that's great Dan, maybe you can ask for his autograph." Michael begins to walk away.

Daniel shakes his head and catches up with Michael.

"Dude what's up."

"Like I said, that John murder is all you are talking about. We walk past the pizzeria and you act like you're witnessing the ninth wonder of the world."

"I just want to know more about it. Sure I might be interested in it but-"

"You mean obsessed. You are very obsessed with that case. You're starting to scare me with it." Michael interrupts.

As they continue their walk Daniel feels a drop fall onto his shoulder. He looks up and sees that the sky has been consumed by smoke-like clouds.

"We should hurry up. It's starting to rain." Daniel warns Michael.

"Oh great, of course it rains after I spend nearly thirty minutes perfecting my hair." Michael complains. "Hurry up, I can't let this gorgeous tuft of hair get all frizzy."

"Do you talk about anything else besides your looks?" Daniel says sarcastically.

"Do you talk about anything besides the murders?" Michael says back sharply. "And besides, I'm gonna be an actor so I must look good."

The two friends manage to make their way to school before the rain gets worse, they still see a couple of students out in front of the building. Everyone was there in their own personalized groups. Everybody was put into the category. The popular students, the social media addicts, the jocks and many more. Daniel and Michael were in a group called "The leftovers" a group where anyone who didn't fit in a category resides in. Two more friends walk towards Daniel and Michael. Nancy Denver and Tommy Carter.

"Good morning gentlemen." Nancy says positively. "Daniel I'm assuming you're gonna keep talking about John Tulip?"

"We saw his dad at the scene this morning." Daniel says.

"As expected, thanks Daniel." Nancy gives a smile.

"Do you talk about anything else besides that?" Tommy says. "If I hear another thing about this case I'm gonna staple my ears shut."

"Woah, chill out Tommy. No need to be violent." Nancy says.

"Hey, have any of you seen Kevin?" Michael says. He looks around the school yard and doesn't see his friend. Kevin was more out-going than the others but he still wouldn't leave his friend group.

"No, we've been looking for him all morning." Nancy says.

"I tried messaging him but he never answered." Tommy adds in, showing his messages.

Daniel tries looking for his friend amongst the sea of teenagers. Turns out Daniel was looking in the wrong areas, Kevin was seen talking to the popular students. Kevin was the fifth member of "The Leftovers" so seeing him talking and laughing with bullies was suspicious. Five members make up the popular group. Tyler; the leader of the pack, Gianna; Tyler's girlfriend, Dianne; the queen of the school, Justin; the egotistical athlete and finally Devin; the bully. Seeing Kevin there was ood, he changed his look. His long brown hair was cut short, he removed his glasses and he was wearing lots of jewelry. Daniel grows skeptical and walks towards Kevin and the popular students. Michael follows along.

"I just need to take a break from those guys. Daniel is driving me crazy with the constant talk of John Tulip." Kevin says laughing with his new formed friends.

"I mean, you are friends with a Leftover. You should've known what you were getting into." a student named Tyler said.

"Were, friends." Kevin corrects Tyler. "And don't get me started on Michael, that guy has tunnel vision and all he cares about are his looks."

Daniel and Michael walk behind Kevin and poke him on the shoulder. Kevin turns around and his smile immediately fades away. The popular students begin to laugh the minute Michael and Daniel show up.

"Tunnel vision?" Michael says.

"Excuse me guys." Kevin says to the popular kids. "My loser ex friends want to speak with me."

"Okay Kev, watch out, you might bring back a severe case of virginity!" Tyler yells out.

Daniel and Michael pulled Kevin aside. Both of them give Kevin a cold stare. The trio have been friends since the third grade and one of them has betrayed them both.

"Why are you talking negativity about us behind our backs? That's not like you!" Daniel yells out. "Why would you do that?"

"Okay, I know it looks bad and-" Kevin begins before getting interrupted.

"Bad is an understatement." Michael says.

"But I just want to be… you know, cool. And the popular students aren't really fond of you guys, and I don't blame them" Kevin says.

"So just because you want to fit in you decide to talk crap about your real friends?" Daniel spits out.

"I mean, we can still be friends after school, it's only here where I have to act differently." Kevin ignorantly says. "Tell you what, after school we can all go bowling. What do you say?"

"I say go to hell." Daniel says before turning around and walking away.

"Ditto." Michael adds, he follows Daniel.

Kevin could care less. He rolled his eyes and went back to his new and improved friend group. "Sorry about that, those guys are just upset."

"It's Ight, those punkholes are idiots." Tyler wraps his arm around his girlfriend, Gianna.

"Tyler, not now." Gianna removes Tyler's arm off of her.

"Whatever." Tyler spits on the ground. He looks over the ocean of students and stares at Daniel. Tyler and Daniel have always clashed, they despised one another.

The school bell rang, all the students made their way to their scheduled classrooms. The popular kids stay back and watch as all the other kids push one another aside. Daniel attempted to make his way to the homeroom only for him to get shoved into a nearby garbage can. Daniel looks at the person who did it; Tyler. Kevin walks by Daniel not looking and seemingly not caring that his former friend is lying on the ground with empty bottles of water and wrappers sprinkled all over him.

"Hold up, I'll catch up with you guys later." Kevin says, walking his way to the bathroom. "I'm gonna go take a leak."

"Alright dude, don't be late or whatever I can care less." Tyler replies back.

Kevin walks down the now vacant hallway. He still notices Daniel on the ground cleaning himself up. Daniel looks up and hatred builds inside him.

He cleans his hair, removing the dust particles. "Jerk."

Kevin entered the men's restroom and was surprised that it was empty. The tiles on the floor were cracked, the wall was basically the school's canvas, mirrors were filled with fingerprints. It was disgusting, Kevin always felt uneasy every time he had to use the bathroom in his dreaded school.

He always felt uncomfortable using the urinals, those were almost never cleaned, he much prefers using the stalls. Kevin digs inside his book bag and pulls out a lighter and a box of cigarettes. The bathrooms always smelled horribly so a quick smoke would probably make the bathrooms smell a bit better honestly.

He places the cigarette in between his lips and lights it up. He inhales and exhales, the cigarette helps Kevin forget his earlier falling out with both Daniel and Michael.

"Hello." A familiar raspy voice said.

Kevin gets startled, nearly choking on his recent inhale. He begins to cough.

"I'm very sorry that I alarmed you." the man said, sounding very sincere. "I just wanted to see if you would be so polite to share a cigarette with me."

Kevin couldn't respond. He was caught by surprise, what's worse is that now someone knows his dirty little secret. He looked down and noticed a black glove pearing from the bottom of the stall.

"If you don't want to share, I completely understand and respect your decision to be selfish!" He yelled out in rage. The voice echoed throughout the bathroom.

Kevin, by instinct threw his items back in the bag, chucked the lit cigarette in the toilet and left the bathroom stall. One of the bathroom stall's doors swung open immediately, Kevin looked back and there he was. The two-faced man, wearing his Sunday best. The man was holding his knife in one hand, still noticeably stained from the previous murder.

"Two-Faced!" the man lunged at Kevin. Pinning him to the dirty, graffitied wall. Kevin grunted on impact. He could barely breathe, the two-faced man had pinned him tightly against the wall.

Kevin's eyes began to tear up. He pleaded with his life. "No, wait! Please stop!"

He attempted to fight back, kicking and scratching but to no avail. He tried to push the man back; the man didn't budge.

Kevin felt a sharp pain starting in his right rib cage and it later made its way throughout his body. He gasped, the knife left his body and a cold feeling ran throughout the right side of his shoulder.

Two-Face chucked Kevin to the dirty ground. "Friends or popularity Kevin, you can't have both and you don't deserve either!" the man taunted. He slowly watched as Kevin desperately tried to get back up. Kevin failed.

Kevin slowly and weakly crawled towards the door. Blood began to rain down from his wound. He began to sweat profusely, his caramel complexion began to gray out. Two-Face swung his foot back and kicked Kevin's injured rib cage with all the strength he had. Kevin gasped sharply and pressed his face in a puddle of his own sweat; coughing in response.

"HELP!" Kevin cried, still attempting to crawl to the door.

The knife entered Kevin's back. Two-Face repeatedly impaled and butchered Kevin as if he were a farm animal.

"Shut Up!" Two-Face continually repeated the onslaught of knife piercings. Every time he raised his knife back up a string of Kevin's blood would sprinkle upwards, staining the ceiling.

Kevin twitched until his body was no longer moving. He laid there, in a pool of his own blood. His skin was completely pale, his eyes were drained of life; it looked like plastic.

Two-Face rinsed his knife and placed his knife in a ziplock bag. He opened the bathroom window to attempt his escape. He looked back to admire his work.

"I honor the living." Two-Face said in a metallic voice.

He descended and ran away from the scene.