The Power Enthusiast

MINERVO 09: The Uncovered Lie

"So when are you going to sit in my chair? Hurry up, I know you must have been forced to come here because of Olivia's coercion, right? Don't worry, I'll silence Olivia. So, get the fuck out of my house right now, asshole."

All of Paul's friends were shocked to hear his words, which seemed very rude to his own guests. Some of them have faces of shock, sadness and ordinary, while some are compact to put on an angry expression towards Paul. Olivia belongs to the sad-faced group, she can't help but be saddened by Paul's two banishment.

Seeing her son treating his guests disrespectfully, making the mother feel embarrassed and disappointed, the woman moved out of her chair and ordered Olivia to return to her seat, after which, he walked over to his son who was still standing in the doorway.

Plaque!

And the woman slapped her son in front of the guests, leaving Olivia and her other friends stunned to see him. They never thought that his mother Paul would slap his own son in front of them, even Olivia to close her mouth so shocked. Really surprising.

Paul's head fell to the side, because it was hit by a hard slap from his own mother. Both of Paul's eyes glared, not expecting something like this to happen to him. Moreover, the mother slapped him in front of his friends, after he tried to drive them out of his house, making Paul so embarrassed. His pride seemed to be dropped just like that by his mother.

"Close your mouth! You're making your mother ashamed! Paul!" The mother looked at her own son's eyes very sharply. "They didn't come here to ridicule you or humiliate you! Instead, they intend to visit you! Because they know you got kicked out of school! You should not-"

"Mom doesn't know anything about my life at school. So stop acting like you know everything. And also, I don't need to be visited by them! I'm not sick! After all, I know the thoughts of them, the point is that they want to see how pitiful I am that has been expelled from school! After that, I'm sure, they'll laugh at me after coming home! I can guess their cunning plan! Because I've memorized how my friends behave, because I've been in class with them for two years!"

Silent in a few seconds, the mother's face appeared blank, not displaying any expression, perhaps from the shock of hearing her son's words. Anyone would be amazed to see Paul speak while showing such intense emotions earlier, let alone the boy's tears to the point of clumping on his eyelids while speaking. Even Olivia was wide-eyed, as this was the first time the girl had seen Paul's tears. Although Paul's tears had not yet been shed, it seemed to make anyone who saw it would be shocked.

"Certainly that?" The woman, with her cold tone and horror face, turned to her classmates Paul. "Is what Paul said true? The kids?"

Olivia turns her face to her friends' faces, she wants to know how the reaction of those who always bother Paul. This time Olivia did not argue, because the reality was that, so she wanted to let her friends respond to the question.

"W-We never ridicule or laugh at Paul, Auntie!"

"Yes! That'sthat's true! Auntie! In fact, we always defended Paul when he was ridiculed by students from other classes!"

"I didn't think you were that bad to us, Paul! To accuse us of that! I'm disappointed in you!"

"Friends! Don't say that, maybe Paul is still exhausted, because he just came home, so it's only natural that his memory is a bit fuzzy. Take it easy, we still want to be your friends! Paul!"

"Yes! Worry not! Paul's! Even if you accuse us of this, we will accept you as our friend!"

Phoniness. That was what Olivia was currently seeing from the expressions as well as the words of her friends. They still don't dare to be honest, even though this is a good opportunity to get an apology from Paul, according to Olivia. But unfortunately, they instead wasted the opportunity and prefer to continue to hide their respective rot. They are really good at lying.

Tired of hearing the lies her friends kept telling her, Olivia stood up from her chair, making every pair of eyes look at her, then the girl took something out of her pocket.

It turned out to be his cell phone.

What would Olivia do in such a hot situation? Paul, who was about to curse his friends, stopped because he saw Olivia's strange behavior. His mother Paul just raised an eyebrow watching Olivia, wondering what the girl was going to do. While the other children were confused watching Olivia suddenly stand up and show her cell phone.

"I'm sorry, but it's better that Auntie don't entrust their words, because..," Olivia directly pressed a button on her phone screen, she said, then he held his phone up high so that everyone in the room could hear it. And a voice of laughter from some people began to be heard from Olivia's phone. His voice is not foreign.

"Haha! I really can't believe Paul got kicked out of school!"

"That's right! I'm shocked too!"

"It's a pity, yes, a person as reliable as him was expelled from school! If there's no one in the class, who should we laugh at?"

"Hey! Oye! Do you remember Paul's mother's face when he came to school!?"

"Oh yes, I remember! Her mother's face is like a crocodile, huh? Or is it more like a pig?"

"Haha! Holy hooch! You're this! Don't be so with your friends' parents!"

"But that's the truth!? Ahhhhhhh!"

"Forget over that! Hear that! I have a plan!"

"What plan?"

"How about after school we visit Paul's house?"

"Eh!? Wh-wh-what for? Isn't Paul's house ugly, huh? Even he said his family doesn't have a car, it's very poor, right!?"

"Listen to me first! So look, my plan is not just to see Paul's idiot face! But, something more interesting than that!"

"Quick tell us! What's that something!?"

"How about we burn the house down."

"Wahaha! So crazy of you! This is too crazy!"

"Hmm, I don't think it's very interesting if only the house is burned! Why don't we just burn his mother?"

"As far as you guys are, anyway. But I think it'll be more interesting, because we can see Paul suffering watching his house and his mother burn."

"okay! I agree!"

"I'm ikuuuut!"

"I'm coming too!"

"That means we agree, yes, guys!"

Then, the voices vanished from Olivia's phone, indicating the duration of the recording had run out. And Olivia casually put her phone back in her pocket. Then Olivia turned her head, to look at the faces of her friends.

"So? What do you think, whose voice do you think are those who speak with laughter, friends?" asked Olivia in a low tone to her friends.

They all trembled, bowing their heads in unison, not daring to look Paul and his mother in the face. Someone is panicking. Someone is scared. Someone is crying. There are also those who are angry. This time, Olivia is in control of the situation, they can't lie to Paul's mother anymore. They can only give in to what will happen next. None of them were willing to dispute what Olivia showed. Nothing at all, as they were aware, the tape had become a very strong piece of evidence.

"Gruesome!" Paul's mother clenched her hands tightly, her eyes glaring completely, her voice shaking as she said this. "Devil! You're all Devils! It's hideous! It's scary! It's hideous! I can't believe the innocent faces of children like you have a very evil heart! What have you been swallowing all this time in school!? How to kill someone else? How to burn someone else's house? QUICKLY ANSWER! DEVIL'S CHILDREN!"

Paul's classmates except for Olivia, shudder to hear him, their whole bodies goosebumps. Their fear grew even more so when the woman came to them nimbly, drawing her face closer to all those who were bowing their heads. Their breaths bloomed, unable to withstand the explosive trepidation in their hearts.

This is a very scary terror for them.

Paul, who was still standing in the doorway, just shook his head. The laughter of his friends while discussing a rotten plan was still ringing in Paul's ears. They have exceeded the limit, especially to the point of wanting to burn his house to kill his biological mother, it is no longer limited to juvenile delinquency. It has entered into criminal action.

"Olivia," called her mother Paul to Olivia softly, though her eyes were still fixed on the frightened looking children. "Please, get the cops here."

Simultaneously, the heads of the children were immediately upheld, they all looked restless and agitated when they heard the police would be contacted to come here soon.

"Please! Auntie! No!"

"W-We're sorry, Auntie!"

"Olivia! Nay! I don't want to go to jail!"

"Aante! Olivia! Don't put us in jail! We are so sorry!

"Hiks! L'm... Not going to jail! Hicks! Please! Don't do that to me!"

"P-p-Paul! Help us!"

They shouted for help at the three people standing, now their faces wet with tears that kept dripping. They were all terrified, not wanting to end up in prison. The laughter they used to do together was replaced with a very heartbreaking sobbing.

"And before you laughed happily! So don't put such a pathetic face in front of me! Devils like you don't deserve to cry!"

The woman chided, cursed, and yelled at the children in a very violent manner. He was still heartbroken to hear his son laughed at, his house would be burned, until he was about to be killed by the children. According to him, it was not an act worthy of the size of a seventeen-year-old child like them. Supposedly, children their age think about their individual lessons, dreams, and future rather than planning such barbaric things.

Meanwhile, Olivia still did not dare to contact the police, because somehow, they were also her classmates. Olivia doesn't want to imprison her friends, she'd rather give them a severe punishment, than have to send her friends to a cell. According to Olivia, it was too cruel. Especially now that they are crying in fear. It was clear in Olivia's eyes that right now, they were truly regretting her actions.

Olivia tries to talk to Paul's mother.

"Tante," said Olivia stiffly.  "I think it's too much if we throw the case directly at the police, because they are currently still not doing anything. It's still just a plan, so, we better give them a waiver, what about Auntie?"

"No!" The woman resolutely rejected the advice of Olivia. "Kids like them are dangerous if left to roam freely, we don't know who will be the victims of their actions one day!"

"But, Aunt---"

"DON'T ARGUE! CALL THE POLICE! IF YOU DON'T WANT TO DO IT! JUST LET ME!" The woman immediately scolded Olivia and after that, she picked up her own phone lying on the guest table.

As his mother typed the police number on his cell phone, Paul nimbly snatched the phone from his mother's hand. Makes the mother surprised, because the object was taken by her own child.

"HOOP! RESTORE CELLPHONE! ARE YOU UNCONSCIOUS! I'LL NOW CALL THE POLICE TO JAIL YOUR BAD FRIENDS!"

Watching Paul snatch his own mother's cell phone, Olivia and the other children are shocked. For some reason, a bright light appeared in this dense darkness, which was what the children had in mind when they saw Paul's actions.

"Mom doesn't have to bother putting them in jail! Let me just punch them in the face one by one, so you better shut up! Anyways! Imprisoning people like them would not deter them! We have to give them something heavier than imprisoning them, ma'am!"

"HOOP! ENOUGH ALREADY! QUICKLY GIVE ME BACK MY PHONE!"

"Mother! Hear me! How about we spread this tape to the internet so everyone around the world can hear it! Isn't that better than imprisoning them!? Because with that, they will be exposed to the rage of the people and become public enemies! I reckon! That was so awesome! Ma!"

Hearing Paul's words made the children's faces even more tangled and frightened, even their cries became louder. As it turned out, the bright light that they thought was a hope, was apparently the light of a blaze that would drop them into a very terrible place.