Killing Of The Intellectuals

 

Killing Of The Intellectuals

By Paul McCann

 

Ten was working as night security around the council chambers building and public library , schools and churches in a large inner suburb of the city .

He did his rounds each night making sure no windows or doors were left open as well as ensuring suspicious looking characters were moved on and preventing  possible break in’s from happening . .

Something caught Tin’s attention in the library and immediately he went in to investigate .  He thought there was someone sitting there at desk in the middle of the library but when he investigated there was no one there one except for an open book left open on one of the desks . He automatically closed the book without thinking and after he did thorough check around the library, he shrugged off the incident as him being over worked and tired . He thought he must have just imagined seeing someone sitting in there .

After turning back on the alarm, he locked up the library and continued with his   rounds checking the university campus and around the other two high schools and finishing his shift checking the church grounds  in the area.

He opened the boom gate at the university and parked his car near the quadrant area on the campus where the students had their lunch breaks during the day .

Then as he was checking the windows and doors, he saw the distant figure of someone in the basketball court  as he made his way over there, he screamed in  fright at what he saw . Rushing over as fast as he could he shone his torch at the person there .In shock he found the lifeless body of the chancellor of the college hanging from a rope strung around the basketball hoop . The chancellor who was.

Known to Ten was dressed as a clown with some balloons tied to his wrists  .

Ten immediately called the emergency number and the police and ambulance were on the way . On their arrival ,  Ten gave a handover of as the chancellors dead body of was taken down and brought in the ambulance for an autopsy .

No news of the chancellors death was given to the media and the investigation was continuing . Ten was allowed to continue with his job as a night time security guard .

.During the week Ten was at the library again checking the doors and windows and again he thought he saw someone sitting at a desk in the library and proceeded to  enter the building using the code he had been given for the for the lock . After switching off he went into the library and straight to the desk to find no one there .

There was an open book on the desk and as he took a look at the book he was intrigued and shocked by what he saw and read .

The pages of the book contained a hand written text with the author owns words running through his head and he got a cold shiver in the process .

Slowly and surely,  he looked at the words that were there on the pages of the book and he had this eerie feeling that some unknown presence was with him there .

He silently read aloud some of the words on the page in front of him .

His voice whispered with an echo in the night through the empty void of people or and noise .    

 

Authors Foreword

“Here write I with pen in hand ,

ghostly words you’ll understand .

The chancellor has bowed his head ,

all his wise words have been said .

Some think that the dead cannot write ,

with words of wisdom gone from sight ,

but here do I hauntingly come ,

a ghost writer with my wisdom .

for all the world to see and hear

and also, for many to fear .

I am just a shadow in flight ,

unworldly passing in the night 

visiting as they are asleep.

to put them in graves dark and deep ,

Those intellectuals by fame ,

 I will account each by their name ,

As I kill them all one by one

and then my story will be done .“

 

List of Chapters ,

 

Chapter 1 – The Chancellor Hangs Up His Hat 

 

Chapter 2 -  The Principal Caught The Bus

 

Chapter 3 -  The Head Master’s Last Lunch

 

Chapter 4 -  The Tutor Lost His Head

 

Chapter 5 -  The Boarding School Massacre

 

Chapter 6 -  Farewell To The Staff

 

Chapter 7 – Ghost Of The Old School     

 

With shaking hands, the security guard turned the page to find the first chapter was already written and the second chapter was void of words .

The guard nervously put the book under his arm and left the library .

Only when he got outside did he see an open window . He had the thought that someone had been in the library and ran out leaving that spooky hand written book behind.

Ten handed the book over to the police but now went back to do his rounds .

While he was checking around the high school, he noticed that the school bus was missing from its usual parking place . Then as wandered around the school grounds he saw the school bus was on the football oval . It had been overturned and lying on its side totally burned out . After further inspection he saw the crispy remains of some poor person on the floor inside the charred interior of the bus .

He rang the police and fire brigade who rushed to the scene .

The police created a crime scene and after their investigations , later in the week the dead person that was found inside the burnt-out bus was identified as the school principal .

The security guard was traumatised and tried to tell the police about the book he had read in the library but when  the police called to the library no such book was found .

On further questioning the police asked the details about the book and if the security guard could remember any of the other listed title chapters but as hard as he tried nothing came to his mind . It was as if all the information was erased from his memory and now the security guard was put on two weeks compassionate leave for what he had experienced .

During his leave , there had been two other suspicious deaths in schools .

A head master had died from food poisoning at his school and there had been an accident in the craft building when a guillotine that cut rolls of had jammed and while the master of the craft programs was trying to fix the problem the blade accidently fallen and beheaded the teacher in front of all his class ,

The traumatic accident had left everyone in shock and counselling had to be given to all concerned .

It was time for the security guard to return back to work and as he was making his way to start the shift the police had closed off all the roads around a catholic boarding school where a lone gunman had gone on a rampage . The news had reported twelve school teachers had been killed , the stranger thing was that no students were killed or injured . It looked as if only the teaching staff had been selected and targeted by the killer .

When the security guard finally got to work it was late and he was running behind for his usual rounds so he skipped the library and went on to check the grounds of the local catholic church . There had been some break ins recently during the night and the intruder had taken some items of no value and destroyed some of the statues that were inside the building .

When the security arrived at the car park of the church it was very late at night and when he saw someone standing outside the front door he called out .

“Stop what you’re doing and stand still “

Suddenly that person vanished right before his eyes .

He went over to the door and noticed it was open so he went inside the church to find hundreds of candles were lit . They were all over the floor and on window sills ,

Up the aisles and then on the pews there were farewell booklets left  with photos and names of all the teachers who had been killed at the boarding school massacre ...

This was very strange as none of the victims’ names had yet been announced by the media but somehow someone knew all of those we had died in the shooting ,

The farewell booklet was a message for all who were killed.

A lifetime of learning gone and then.

what did it gain for the learned  men ...
who questioned the reasons while they slapped  
then became the fly the spider zapped .

Farewell to you all know that you’re dead .’

From ghost writers of the books unread

to the teachers with something to learn ,

about a true vocation in life

and being a living sacrifice .

for you never knew what lay in store

intellectuals you are no more .’

He called the police who were there in minutes to the church building . Some of the brothers and the head priest  were informed and were there inside the church to inspect and evaluate the scene there . All those who were had no knowledge of who brought those farewell booklets .  

The police gathered everything as evidence on their ongoing investigation intro school shootings that had occurred . A military rifle had just been found dumped in a skip in the car park at the church which was held as evidence .

There seemed to be some kind of motive that began to present  itself  with the recent killings and the police were starting to unravel the case .

They assumed all the killings of teachers could be the act of a serial killer bent on revenge for being abused as a child at school.     

The police were on the right track as detectives on the case started to look through some of the punishment books that were kept in the school archives and there was one particular student who seemed to always show up as being misbehaved and ended up the wrong end of the teachers bamboo stick  .

Then just by chance that same name showed up on some old police reports of children who sought action by the police in various accounts against his school teachers who he had accused of abusing him at school . There was a lack of  evidence and the case was dismissed in the court however reports were still kept of the incidents .

The detective began to do some further research on this person who left school and went to university . He showed some potential as a writer but after speaking to some of the students in his class they had mentioned how angry he was at some of the remarks some of the teachers had made about ha book he had written ,

The chancellor himself had read the novel but instead of supporting the student he dissected the work chapter  by chapter leaving nothing to but destructive criticism about the novel.

The student quit college and was able to secure a position as a librarian at the local library . Now the parts of the puzzle all began to make sense .

Everything in the investigation was going well until they tried to find out where he suspects lived and then there was a problem because he left his parents’ home and became homeless . With no fixed abode he could be anywhere in the city .

There was some evidence mounting but the police needed to find the suspect .

Just by chance one night in a  local bar the detective leading the investigation walked into a poetry slam where anyone could take the microphone and share some poetry with the people in the bar .

The next person who approached the mic was introduced by the host as the Ghost Writer . Immediately the detective was interest in this guy .

 When the poet took the microphone, he read a poem about victims. He took the microphone and read to the crowd .

 

Victims of life are frightened to trust.
They have been broken and beaten.
They have been driven insane.

Victims of life have been abused.
They are twisted and warped.
This side up please they are fragile and lame.

Victims of life are sorry and sore and yet so strong.
Victims of circumstance...
Victims with no name

Victims of life are hurt and ashamed.
They are torn apart and left to carry on.
Who is to blame?

Victims of victims the educated and wise

their nightmare had come.

and now they’ve fallen asleep .

Victims of victims How cruel and how blind

was the only way left to find an answer for me to keep .,  

   

The detective arrested the poet on suspicion of murder and the fingerprints and blood samples all matched those that had been left on some of the victims and on the rifle used in the mass shooting.

There was a trial and he was found guilty of the recent murders and sentenced to a total of 400 years in prison .   .

 

‘The End