Mr Roland and the Constables stopped running when they realized there were no more ants chasing after them. They checked behind them to be sure nothing was coming to attack them.
"Where could they have diverted into?", asked a Constable, trying to catch his breath.
"As long as we've lost them, who cares?", replied another.
"I think we should all stay put. There's no need continuing this search in the dark...We'll continue once the sun rises tomorrow", requested Mr Roland. They all agreed to what he said and two Constables volunteered to go fetch firewood for fire. One Constable was receiving some instructions from Chief Constable Roland.
The only Constable who was doing nothing but to cuddle himself as he sat on the ground, was the one most hurt by the death of Simon. He was the one stopped from going to save Simon while being consumed by ants.
The scene of Simon being swallowed up by ants kept on playing occasionally in his mind as he felt extremely guilty for not helping his late friend. Mr Roland and the Constable he was giving some instructions to observed his pale and sad situation and began to feel bad over everything.
* * *
Tricia made all the students go inside the building with her to go sleep. All of them were terrified and hell shocked about the death of another person amongst them, mainly because they felt no dark supernatural forces could find them outside the black magic land. His mates were shedding tears, especially the girls. Rita, Mr Donald, the farmers and Dominic remained outside. Even the Constables and the principal had gone inside with Tricia to go comfort the children.
"I'm still finding it difficult to believe that boy was killed by something dark and supernatural", said the female farmer, gazing at the body which was wrapped and laid on the ground not far away.
"Then what else could have killed him?", asked Dominic with a flat expression, "He died exactly how those students have been dying in the city, neck inflicted with deep cuts after being strangled by something with sharp nails", he said.
"Probably Father Christmas as usual, taking another life", added Rita.
"Your sister told my wife about them being chased out of the house by Father Christmas", the male farmer said to Dominic, "She said it was invoked by Mr Joseph. But usually, black magic don't work anywhere in our community except for the black magic land because of the consecration done by our forefathers."
"Then what else could kill that boy in such a way here if not something of the black arts?", Dominic raised his voice, tired of the farmers argument. The couple kept quiet, having nothing else to say for a while.
"We need to leave this place as soon as the sun rises", said Rita.
"We'll then have to go through the land of black magic again", replied Mr Donald, who swallowed dryly.
"You don't need to go through that land. There's another way", uttered the woman, "And it's way shorter", she emphasized.
"As a student's life was taken this night outside the land of black magic by probably Father Christmas, is there a difference between the road we know and the road they know?", argued Dominic.
"It's not called the land of black magic for nothing", Mr Donald intervened, "And besides, she said her way is shorter so I'd say we give it a try", he said.
"Fine then! At sunrise, we get out of here", said Dominic. He glanced at the wrapped dead body and got more annoyed, before heading into the house.
Mr Donald heaved a sigh over everything and gestured at Rita for them to go inside. They both went inside, leaving only the couple outside alone. They watched the body, so astonished by the intrusion of black magic into their area.
* * *
Dominic invited his fellow Detective, Rita, the Lieutenant Chief Constable, Mr Donald and the principal of Joe's High School for a discussion on how they could defeat Mr Joseph tomorrow.
"Mr Joseph has surely performed the Invisibility ritual and has been staying close to the children without them knowing so that Father Christmas will continue to take their lives one after the other", he revealed to them in a low tone, "I read it from that Book of Black Magic", he said.
"So Mr Joseph really performs black magic and is using it on these poor students", the principal thought, shaking his head in regret.
"Mr Joseph could be anywhere in the living room listening to what we're saying", said Rita, looking round the room as though she saw someone.
"He's definitely not since a life has been taken tonight. He'll surely come back tomorrow though to continue taking lives", replied Dominic.
"So what's the plan? That's the reason we're here", asked Mr Donald, trying so hard to overcome sleep.
"There's a ritual we need to perform to counteract the Invisibility ritual", began Dominic.
"You want us to perform black magic?", Rita expressed her surprise.
"We have no other way of beating a man of black arts rather than performing the rituals also", he explained. Rita only sighed in return, letting him continue talking.
"Mr Joseph was only able to make use of his power outside the land of black magic because he collected a rope of tiny skulls and crossed over the boundaries with it."
"What's a rope of tiny skulls?", asked Mr Donald, feeling lost.
"It's something we saw encircling trees mostly at the borders of the land of black magic", said the principal, "and land of - no - black magic", he stuttered as he thought of what to say.
"I didn't see that", stated Mr Donald.
"It's not so big for one to easily notice", Rita replied.
"If we're able to get one of those things, we'll be able to interfer with his black magic powers", said Dominic.
"I don't understand a single thing from what you said actually", Donald stared at him weirdly.
"When black magic meets black magic in a land where they normally aren't expected to be, they cancel out each other's effect", replied Dominic.
"If they aren't expected to be there, why do they even have effects there?", questioned the principal.
"Was just about to ask that", gestured Rita.
Dominic soughed, not happy with the questions he was receiving. "From what I read in that book, I found out the inhabitants of this village don't know what their ancestors did pertaining to carving out a portion of their community and calling it the land of black magic", he began with his explanation.
"The land of black magic is the only area in this community where the effect of black magic will be felt or seen right?", Mr Donald expressed his certainty.
"No!", Dominic replied straight away, "I know the secret behind the name - The Land of Black Magic - The people of this community don't even know it", he revealed. The rest stared at intently in wait for him to disclose the information.
"Tell us then", the principal became curious.
"The Book of Black Magic revealed to me that there was once a time a group of people collided to join the Illuminati so that they'd be stronger in magic than the elders of the community. This is where the name - black magic - came into existence in this community", he began.
"Why were they interested in power?", asked Rita, now very much interested in the discussion.
"The elders were against them when they wanted using their magical powers against a community over a large plot of fertile land. The elders preferred dialogue and they thrashed those young men when they used their powers on the defenceless people of that community", he answered, "For the sake of greed, they joined the Illuminati so they could defeat their elders and win over the plot of land by force, wiping out the existence of their rival community", he added.
"Why were our ancestors fighting over a plot of land?", asked Donald with a grimace on his face.
"Civilization didn't exist in most of them those days. Maybe?", Rita replied casually, shrugging off her shoulders.
"And you know the effect of the devil", he gestured, "The extra power they had went into their heads and they began to torment their fellow villagers with it. The elders found it very difficult to stop them so...they came up with an idea", he said, waiting for someone to ask him to reveal the idea to them.
"And what did they do?", asked Rita.
"They joined forces and were able to limit their area of effect in their community", he answered.
"Why didn't they wipe out their existence?", asked the principal.
"It's impossible to completely wipe out black magic from the community once it has started. That's why they chose to restrict them in an area of land as small as they could", Dominic replied, "That's now where they call the land of Black Magic", he said.
"Restricting their area of effect means if they ever cross that boundary in this community, they won't be able to perform black magic right?", asked Rita.
Dominic returned a smile at first. "Not really. It means the black magicians will then experience things unusual outside the land of black magic", he replied, "They can't make use of their black magic if more than one person are found outside the area of land. They will counteract each other's effect as long as they possess black magic items or one wants to make use of black magic and the other is simply possessing a witchcraft item but not making use of it - provided more than one person is outside the land of black magic in this community, any of the two conditions won't be favourable to them a single bit", he disclosed, giving them to assimilate what he said before he continued.
"They could as well plan that only one person could go across and cause some damage but", he paused, "That person only has 10 minutes to do so. If the person goes back to the land of black magic on time, only that person can go back in there after twelve hours", he pointed to Rita, "That's why I told you Mr Joseph won't be here to listen to us."
"Woah!", reacted the principal with a shake of the head, "Never knew this happened in my very own village", he said.
"So what's your plan against Joseph tomorrow?", Mr Donald inquired of him.
"We get a rope of tiny of skulls which is a black magic item. While Mr Joseph is about to make use of his black magic, possessing that item will make us counteract each other's effect", he replied.
"What's the effect of the rope of tiny skulls?", asked Rita.
"Consecrating a place", Dominic shrugged, "Annulling its effect means it can't be used to consecrate a place again unless it's taken back to the black magic land", he explained.
"This makes a lot of sense now", she said with a nod of the head.
"The restrictions really controlled those black magicians", said Donald. Sleep had completely left him at the moment.
"Just as the book disclosed, when I heard the farmers strongly arguing that boy didn't die over supernatural causes, I knew immediately what was going on", he paused, "The later generations after the elders believed there's no possibility of witnessing black magic outside the restricted area because they have never experienced it", he said.
"But according to what that book said, if Mr Joseph doesn't offer Father Christmas a life for the rest of his death month, Father Christmas will torment him more and more", Rita said in remembrance, "That means he'll surely come back tomorrow to stop us from leaving", she stated.
"Exactly!", Dominic exclaimed, "That's why we must get a rope of tiny skulls tomorrow."
"The time he'd use in finding us, won't 10 minutes he up?", asked the principal.
"He's a black magician so teleporting right to where we are is very possible", he replied, "But remember, he's invisible at the moment so we need to hide the rope of tiny skulls so he won't see it, if not he'll not make use of any black magic and we won't be able to find him", he warned.
"If we find him, what next?", asked Rita.
"We'll take off that his necklace so he'd be roughandled by Father Christmas. His soul will then rest in peace and all this madness will end", answered Dominic.
"We better be ready for tomorrow then", Mr Donald felt happy with Dominic's plan.
"Hopefully, tomorrow will be the day all this will end", said Dominic, feeling very ready.