I felt the urge to cheer her up. Even, I not being the kind of guy that knows how to do that.

One thing was certain. I hated to see her crying. I didn't know Sarah at all to feel empathy for her. But, women crying always made me feel terrible inside.

"Listen! There is nothing to state that Luciano is dead. Remember, he managed to survive so far, even being an incautious individual. What you experienced was the abrupt feedback when the link between you too got severed. Not more than that. That can be painful and it is very dangerous to non-telepaths.",

She looked at me, her eyes all wet and red tinted all around their orbits. The tears washed down the blood to her blouse and shirt below it. Her chin was with a pink tone. Small red spots appeared were the tears failed to clean. Indicating that something red was there before.

Sarah was in a synaptic shock.

Feeling dizzy, weak and fighting to hold her delicate body.

Such sudden feedback, like the one she experienced, must have messed up her nervous system. In time she would recover her full mobility and balance.

What she was experiencing made me feel more angry with Luciano or whatever name he had. How thoughtless of him. To use her, an innocent teenage girl with no mental power or shield at all as his "bug" to spy my investigation. The fool knew that he was a target, and that feedback could happen anytime. I wondered how selfish was that guy, no matter if he was alive or not. And he seemed to not care about the consequences of his acts, since he did the same with the doctor, me and my partner.

I helped Sarah get in her own feet. She was still sobbing and her body gave some involuntary hiccups. While she held my shoulders, I applied some magic to help she control her breath.

I had to visit some natural source of potable water soon. I didn't realize that I would need my full power to this case. Yet, there we were, targets to some powerful and violent sorcerer. One that had the great advantage of being unknown.

When we crawled our way out to the corridor her legs danced and she almost fell back to the ground. Then she broke the silence again:

"Thank you for helping him. I still think that you are mean, I would never Tweet about him, but I am sure now that you are not a bad person at all."

I laughed:

"Oh you heard it, he hehe. That was only my way to paying him back for invading my mind before. I m sorry you got offended yourself. But let's be clear, that guy did put you in harm's way. Not that I want to make him look bad to you. But this kind of reckless and unthought behavior left me a lot more upset with him for real. Not to the point of not helping him anymore, of course."

That if he could still be helped, I thought.

She gave me a half smile:

"I always knew that he is selfish, somehow. Yes, I heard everything you two said to each other. He lied to me about a lot of things. Yet, I can't feel angry with him. I am very worried because I heard him screaming when I fell.

"A psychic scream could mean that he was suffering; but it could also mean he was trying to alert you and, maybe, me. What bothers me for real is that he didn't think about helping everyone here or ask for help. He was, sorry about the harsh word: a coward. The only thing he attempted to do was leave. Make you and some of his acquaintances get out of here before something bad happened. He never told anybody, that I am aware, about what is happening here."

She was getting more tranquil as we spoke about her boyfriend.

"If I had not seen what he is able to do with my own eyes. I would never believe in any of this magic "mumbo jumbo". I think he is afraid and feeling powerless. I am feeling a great sadness inside of me."

I supported her weight and we moved to the next door. We had to loiter each step.

"Pull yourself together, we need to get out of here. Crying won't help him. What we need to do Is take you to a safe place. If this mage knows about me it is obvious that he knows about you too now."

She nodded.

We were moving out of the laboratory corridor and about to reach the stairs, that would take us to the ground floor when the lights flickered. Everything switched from dark to light, for a brief moment.

Sarah got spooked and held me closer, her arms gripping me with more pressure. I could also feel the sudden touch of her chest in my arm when she pulled me back to her.

The teacher that brought Sarah was waiting for her by the other side of the stairs that we climbed. She was resting back in one of the pillars of the handrail. Right above us.

We arrived to the ground floor.

Then the fat teacher saw that Sarah was with blood in her uniform. Her face changed from concern to anger. She rushed towards us, with all the speed that her voluminous body could allow. She cornered me and addressed me with a furious look in her face; like I was a savage animal.

"What have you done to that poor girl?", she pulled Sarah off my hands. Then she caressed her face.

"My poor child, I should never let you alone with this violent man."

I stood in front of her with my hands pressed against my chest, in a defensive way:

"I didn't do anything. She collapsed on the floor. It was not my fault. Being a wife of Christ you should not jump to conclusions, about people like that."

My contempt was evident in the way that I spoke to the teacher.

Sarah defended me:

"He is telling the truth, sister Maria. I fell on the floor and he helped me. I am still very shaken because of everything that is happening."

Maria didn't seem that convinced. Her fat face was staring at me. Still upset. But, she didn't want to continue the fight.

"I apologize, Mr. Roger. I got very disturbed when I saw her face in that state. And all that blood."

"It is ok, sister, I would have done the same. That only shows how concerned you are about your student. And how lucky she is, to have you taking care of her."

That seemed to calm the beast inside her:

"Can you please take her back to the girl's room and please give her something to eat."

Then I added to Sarah:

 "After all you've been through it was not wise to skip your lunch, young lady."

Sarah looked at me, understanding right away what I was doing. We didn't need words. That complicity stare was enough for both of us.

They moved to the double doors that led to the entrance hall of the main building.

Before entering the door, Sarah's head turned to look at me again.

"Thank you very much, Mr. Roger. For being so gallant and brave coming to my rescue like that.", she smiled and waved goodbye.

I smiled in reply:

"It was my pleasure. Now go back to your room and stay there until you hear from me."

I looked to sister Maria that was halfway across the opened door and added'

"No one should get out of the dormitories until I get in contact with you. Please spread this to all the other sisters. No students or members of the staff can go out alone until further notice."

She looked scared, but she gave me a nod.

"We have a dangerous individual lurking in the school, I need you to help me keep everyone safe. I need you to help maintain the order in the girl's room."

She said while making the cross sign:

"May the Lord helps us, Mr. Roger. I will ask the sisters to take all the girls back to their dorms."

She left with Sarah that was already being able to walk without the need for support.

As they got away from me, I rested my body in one of the angels at the end of the handrail that led to the upper floor.

I thought about what I could do next, about the case.

For starters, I could look for Father Thomas. See if he could add more information about Luciano and the case.

But, there was a thing thousand times more important to do. Sadly, the only person that could help me with that, was that moron ex-military douche bag. Sérgio Whult was the only one able to set a contingency plan to safeguard everyone inside the school. He had authority and power to take everyone to a safe place and send guards to protect the remnant symbols. The ones that were not violated by the killer yet.

Maybe, the doctor could reach him and, that way, I didn't have to deal with the arrogant head of the school's security.

I grabbed my phone to dial the number that the doctor gave me. The lights above the ceiling flickered again.

This time they blinked three times and then went dead. The enormous room didn't get all dark because of the late afternoon light, that entered from above.

I moved to one side of the room and I pressed the light switch on and off several times.

Nothing happened.

I moved towards to same double doors that Sarah and the fat teacher went through a few minutes before.

I grabbed my phone again to call the doctor.

To my surprise, it didn't turn on.

It was also dead.

Did I forget to charge it? I thought to myself.

It had to last for at least half a day by my account. I charged it while we packed our things, back in São Paulo. I knew that I used it to control the drone, but most of the time the phone remained in my pocket with the screen off.

I was also pretty sure of having turned Wifi off since I was not using my internet connection.

Could it be that what was happening with the lights and my phone were related?

My answer came in the form of a loud thump. Followed by the crackling sound and the impact of heavy pieces of wood on the ground.

The double door exploded in sharped broken fragments in front of me.

By instinct, I jumped back away from the impact, landing in my feet a few inches away from the fragments.

Startled by the sound, I didn't have time to recover.

When I looked back, I saw the enormous and menacing green creature advancing towards me.

All I could do was run. And I rushed back to the stairs that lead up.

The thing moved so fast after me that all I could see was a green blur getting more and more close.

As I reached the stairs and started to climb I thought to myself:

"That damned killer seems to not like leaving any loose ends..."