Am Ende des letzten Schuljahres hat die Klasse 9b, damals 8b, im Englisch-Unterricht mit Herrn Schuster ein creative-writing-Projekt durchgeführt. Dabei sind einige ganz hervorragende Geschichten entstanden. Neun dieser Geschichten liegen nun getippt und überarbeitet vor. Diese Geschichten werden im Februar in kleiner Auflage gedruckt und zum Selbstkostenpreis von ca. 5 Euro in einem gut 30 Seiten starken Band verkauft. Interessierte Eltern, Schüler.innen und Lehrkräfte können den Band per Email bei Herrn Schuster vorbestellen (hr.schuster@pgherne.de).
Nachstehend ist die erste Geschichte zu lesen.
Moritz Schuster
Only a Trip Needed to Reveal the Murderer
by Njomza Zumeri
“No, Shawn, stop!” Madlyn shouted as I threw her into the lake. I laughed at her. “Too late.” “Idiot.” “I‘ve heard that.” “Oh, sorry. That really wasn‘t my intention,” she said ironically. I always loved her sense of humor. Her sarcastic comments. It was kinda cute. “They‘re so cute together, aren‘t they?” Lexa told Leonardo and Justin. “Yeah…Even a blind person would see that they are in love with each other, but they still don‘t admit it,” Leonardo answered.
Leonardo has always been that kind of guy you hate and love at the same time. Especially as a girl. I mean, he could be really friendly, nice and cute sometimes but in the next second his ‘real‘ face still showed up – the jerk in him. There weren‘t only bad qualities, he also had some good ones. Pretty surprising, right? If Leo really liked someone he would have done anything for that person. He made you feel like the most important human being to him. He protected and defended you, cared about your health, was honest to you and never lied. I think there was no one who hated deceit more than Leonardo. You could be sure that he would always be on your side, no matter what.
“I still don‘t know if it was a good idea coming here. I mean, it‘s illegal and we‘re not safe. Nobody knows where we really are,” Justin complained. Maddie came up to us totally wet. “Come on Justin! Don‘t be a spoilsport. Nothing‘s gonna happen. It was two years ago, the serial killer‘s not here anymore. Do you think he‘s waiting for you with a cup of tea and magazines, or what?” “Okay, okay. If anything happens it‘s not my fault, just sayin’.”
We actually lived in Toronto, Canada. It was summer holidays and we decided to go to Caledonia Island which was like 3 hours away. It was a private island at the lake Rosseau. Two years ago a serial killer killed a family who owned the island. He murdered one member of the Baldwin family everyday. The strange thing was that he didn‘t steal anything. Everyone knew how rich the Baldwins were. Why else would you kill a rich family? They called him ‘The Caledonia Stranger‘ because nobody knew who he was. He had to be intelligent, I mean he murdered a whole billionaire family within five days, without leaving any proof or mistakes. Somehow it seemed like he planned it his entire life. The police still tried to find him (or her ?) but they didn‘t find anything for two years.
Anyways, the island was taboo for everyone since the massacre happened on August 8th to August 12th, 2015. Why didn‘t he kill all of them at the same time? He killed one member a day for five days at exactly 8:08 pm. My theory was that he wanted the Baldwins to suffer. First the three kids were murdered, followed by the mother and last one was the father. As I thought, nobody believed me. Okay, it was just a theory but it wasn‘t unrealistic.
Leonardo’s parents had a boat so we asked them if we could borrow it to go camping at the Boyne Valley Provincial Park. We couldn‘t tell them we were going to a murderer’s island, could we? At this moment, while writing my story down, I wish we would have told them. Life‘s not perfect, I guess.
“Who‘s gonna help me with the tents?” Leo asked. “Justin and Shawn!!!” Lexa answered as fast as a flash, looking at Madlyn.
Lexa. You could never hate her. Like, really never. She was kind, lovely, polite (mostly) and beautiful. Some people thought she was Californian because of her long wavy blonde hair with some gold tones, her pretty ocean blue eyes and her model figure. But don‘t underestimate her, she might seem weak, naive and sensitive but she wasn‘t. If someone was strong and powerful then it was definitely her.
Both went down to the shore and sat down on the rocks, watching the beautiful dark blue water move. My eyes followed them walking down and I wondered what they were talking about. Meanwhile Justin and Leo struggled with the tents. “Do you like Shawn?” Lexa quietly said. “Yeah. He‘s caring. He‘s cute. He‘s gentle. And especially funny. How could someone not like him? To be honest, he‘s really jealous but that‘s cute. He could date every girl for sure. Everyone in school has a crush on him. I think I‘m just one of them.” “He likes you, too. You‘re not ‘just one of them‘. I see how happy you are when you‘re with him, like, he makes you smile within two seconds. And the way he looks at you with his beautiful bright hazel eyes is just breathtaking. Take advantage of it as long it‘s not too late.” “I know I should…” Maddie answered, unsure. “He‘s just amazing. The best for you, to be honest. Shawn‘s handsome, tall, has the cutest smile and a really good heart.” “Aaaand he‘s hot,” Maddie smiled widely and Lexa laughed sweetly. As we went back to our place, Justin said with a sarcastic undertone, “Done with your girl conversation?” “Stop being like that!!!” Madlyn cursed.
‘Being like that,‘ what did she mean with that? Justin was the intelligent one in our clique. He could be annoying but without him our clique wouldn‘t be the same. Like almost no one of us, he was the wise, shy and decent guy. Often he‘s just there, you don‘t realize him immediately.
“You‘ve managed setting up the tent without completely destroying it. A miracle,” Mad said provocatively. Leonardo gave her a stupid look, “How funny.”
A beautiful Sunday late summer evening. Justin started the bonfire and we ate some Marshmellows. We made ourselves cozy and comfortable with rugs. Maddie forgot hers so we shared one. Everyone of us was still wet because we swam in the lake earlier. When I threw Mad in the lake back then she had her clothes on and they weren‘t going to dry soon so I gave her my hoodie. Damn, oversized hoodies looked so good on her. “Does anyone want some food?” Lexa asked smiling with her clear ocean blue eyes. Everyone agreed with that and she handed all canned food. “Really? Canned food? That‘s all you got?” Leo complained. “You can eat something else if you want to. The earth on the ground looks fresh and tasty, doesn‘t it, Leonardo?” I smiled snootily.
We laughed a bit, had deep conversations and fooled around as we decided to go to sleep. Everyone fell asleep already, except me. I looked at Maddie, who was lying next to me because she forgot her blanket and her pillow. God, she was pretty even when she slept. I stroked her beautiful brown hair and suddenly she woke up and stared directly into my eyes. “Oh my God, you scared me.” “S-sorry. I didn‘t want this, sorry.” “Never mind. Why are you still up?” she asked caringly. “I can‘t sleep.” “Are you scared?” “No. It‘s not that. I‘m just not tired.” The air blew against her long, straight hair. It was pretty dark but the stars were shining in the sky. And if you moved a little you could also see the moon. The moonlight reflected in the water. I always loved the nature, the late summer nights when the sun went down and the moon showed up. It made me feel happy. It made me see the beautiful side of life. “Stand up,” she requested. “What?” She reached out for my hand. “Come with me.”
Madlyn, the mysterious girl with tons of secrets. She could pull anyone under her spell. Hard and strong on the outside, soft on the inside. People found her really interesting and attractive but that‘s not hard when you look like her, to be honest with you. If you met her once you wanted to know everything about her but she didn‘t open up quickly. You would never know everything about her, she loved secrets too much for that. Maddie was very reserved, she didn‘t trust anyone because she learnt in her past that it doesn‘t turn out good if you do. She really didn‘t like to tie herself to people, she was more of an introvert.
I think she was afraid of closeness because nobody ever showed loyalty to her. When she was with me, she was truly being herself and that‘s not usual for someone like her. That made me feel special. We walked around the shore, breathing the fresh air which was blowing.
Out of nowhere a piece of paper blew right in front of us. That was the moment when all the drama started. Mad picked it up and it showed a photo of two people. It looked pretty old. “Who‘s that?” Maddie asked me confusedly. “I don‘t know. It looks old.” I told her, taking the picture out of her hands and looking at its back. “It‘s from 1987 and it also has initials on it. Who could be S. M.?” “I would google it but we don‘t have reception here.” “I wonder why it is on this island. There was only one family living here and none of them were born in 1987 as far as I know,” I whispered while I pointed at the baby you could barely see. The one holding it must have been the mother. “Isn‘t that weird? A photo of 1987 just blew in front of us at 2 am on a completely lonely island in the middle of nowhere.” “It‘s just a picture. Nothing special, don‘t worry. We‘re not in a horror movie or something like that. You shouldn‘t watch horror movies that often,” I smiled lightly at her. “But I love horror movies!!!” Well, in one point I was right – it wasn‘t a horror movie. It was even worse. We went back to our tents through the shore. She lied down and pushed me down, too. Then she lied her head on my chest without saying a word. I was just staring at the sky, stroking her hair again. I never had feelings for someone like that. Because of her I felt safe. I felt alive. When I looked at her my life felt worth living. Was that being in love? If yes, I never wanted to leave it. I fell asleep under the stars with her in my arms.
“No, it wasn‘t me!” I heard Leonardo swearing. Lexa looked really angry, ‘Then tell me where the food is!” “I don‘t know, Lexa!” Leo defended himself. Maddie rolled her eyes. “Leonardo, give up. It‘s not funny.” What a beautiful conversation to wake up to, right? “I‘m not joking ! I swear!” Leo told us convincingly. “Maybe it was an animal or something,” Justin speculated. I stood up. “We have to get some new food, let‘s take the –where is the boat?!?” I was shocked. “What the hell,” Leo looked at me with an empty and confused look. “Maybe it was an animal,” Maddie repeated with an ironic tone. Right after that Justin replied “That‘s not funny, Madlyn! We‘re not alone.”
The photo came to my mind and I took it out of my pocket. Does this photo belong to the one who robbed us? All kinds of questions went through my head and I wanted to know more. I showed it Lexa, Justin and Leonardo. “We should find something to eat or we‘re going to starve. Maybe we’ll find something in the forest,” I mentioned. Lexa asked almost crying “Are you kidding me? You wanna go out there without any weapons while the murderer‘s probably there?!?” “You wanna die here without even trying to fight?” “I hate you.” We took some branches and we sharpened them so we could use them to defend us. “Guys watch out, he could be near,” Leo warned us.
With our sharpened wooden sticks we entered the forest. Leonardo and me were at the front, Justin at the end. Lexa and Madlyn were in middle because we had to be sure that the girls didn‘t get hurt if anything happened. Miles and miles we walked.. but did we find anything? No. “Guys, stop,” I whispered, “There‘s a house.” ‘That‘s the house of the Baldwins, I think,” Justin added. “Let‘s see what‘s in it. There may be some food or something else we need, but watch out. Stay together!” I made sure they understood. “You know that five people were murdered there, right?” Lexa asked confusedly. “I don‘t want this, either, but there‘s no other option. I‘m sure you don‘t want to starve, do you?” We all were scared as hell.
Slowly we climbed the stairs of the veranda and opened the door. The house was made of wood so the floor made weird noises which were kinda scaring. As we entered the corridor we went to the room that was the nearest. Leo pressed the handle down – but the door was locked. “Shit,” he swore. “Get out of the way,” Lexa told him. She took a start and ran against the door and the door opened. “Woah,” Leo looked suprised at her. “Never underestimate the power of women,” she laughed. The room was completely covered with newspaper articles, pictures and notes. And every piece of it had something to do with the murders. “Are we actually in the murderer‘s hideout?!?” Justin asked, shaking. “I think so.” Maddie answered. An idea came up and I told our clique “Seek as much information as possible, let‘s go.”
Without a word we all started looking for some important information. We got to know the murderer. His name was Samuel McNeill, he was 25 years old and his parents were killed when he was 8. “Oh my god!” “Everything makes sense now!” I shouted. Leo looked bewildered, “WTF?”. “He murdered them because Mr. Baldwin incited a contract killer on his parents when he was little. It was exactly at 8:08 pm, August 8th 1998. He wanted to take revenge and let the father suffer! Guys, we have to tell the police!” “Crazy shit,” came out of Justin‘s mouth. “Too bad that we don‘t have reception on this damn island,” Lexa said frustratedly. “Let‘s start a fire so someone can see us,” Maddie told us. “The house. Let‘s take the proof and bugger off,” she added.
We searched for a lighter and gas, we poured the gas over the wood and threw the lighter on it. It spread quickly so we ran away. Lexa, Madlyn, Leonardo, Justin and me ran and ran and ran. I‘m sure we ran for like five minutes straight. When we arrived at our tents there was he. The Caledonia Stranger in person. Who would have thought he would be right in front of us someday? His look was cold like ice. As he saw us, he pointed his gun at us. “No, please don‘t, we won‘t tell anyone,” Lexa lied, trying to save our lives. “I‘m not stupid, bitch,” he replied angrily.
I heard a shot and McNeill lay on the ground. When the shot was fired, it felt like slow motion. I saw every movement. The police jumped from the bushes and trees. They must have seen our fire. You could never imagine how lucky we were at that moment. One of the police officers asked us why we were there, informed our parents and brought us back home. “We will get in such trouble,” Justin said while we were flying back home with a helicopter. “Oh yeees,” Maddie agreed with him.
When we were back in Toronto they interrogated us, they said we would get letters later because we visited a forbidden place. At least there was one positive point about the whole thing – we revealed the murderer. “Sick,” Leonardo said when we were at the police station. “We just solved a murder, we‘re heroes,” Maddie laughed. “Now we have a cool story to tell, haha. Okay, we almost died but let‘s just blend that out,” Lexa mentioned smiling with her beautiful eyes. The police officers let us finally go home and we left the police station.
We said goodbye and made our way home. But one thing came to my mind, I followed her quickly. “Madlyn?” I asked and she turned around. “Yeah, Shawn?” “I love you,” I told her shyly. “I love you, too,” Madlyn admitted and kissed me.
