Nethania

Chapter 37: Wait, what?

AUSTIN

WAKING up with new people around me seemed weird, since I was used to being with Tyrone and Nico. This morning had a typical solemn morning with the people that I met a few days ago.

This is the last day of staying in our dorm and waiting for our classes to return. I missed going to class and took notes of every lesson for the entire day. And tomorrow we will finally have our classes back, and I felt joy upon knowing the confirmation of that.

"What are we gonna do today?" I halfway turned my head sideways when Devon, one of my new roommates, spoke behind me. I was facing the kitchen counter and he was sitting on a chair at the table, brewing a cup of coffee. It was a nice morning then, but I still missed my old roommates.

"Probably go out to meet some beautiful ladies," Serfy responded. I smiled a bit when I remembered something upon hearing Serfy words.

"Nah! That's common, Serfy. It doesn't even get to level one of the thriller meter. Think of something more thrilling!"

"I can't think of something else. Flirting with random girls is quite thrilling for me."

"Nah! I can't believe you're fond of flirting with girls when you have lenses on your eyes!"

"Wearing functional accesories doesn't define who you are, Devon."

I sighed. They were quite loud and fond of story-telling, but I could tolerate it anyway. Since they came here, I needed to adjust to their noise and familiarize myself with their names when I could only say their first names or nicknames, but pinning down their full names may be convenient for future use.

"Jon Devon Fyles, the bulky guy with a tatoo, and Serfy Kenly, the flirty kid who wears eyeglasses," I whispered to myself while stirring the contents of my cup.

"Are you saying something, Austin?" Devon asked.

I turned around and faced them with a small smile. "Just memorizing some notes," I said, lifting my cup and walking over to the table, where I joined them. I placed my cup on the table and sat down. We don't have classes anyway, so nothing could make us skedaddle to the kitchen and prepare for school.

"This school just got so weird lately, have you noticed? Ever since my first day of school here, I've never experienced the kind of event that happened yesterday," Serfy began to share when none of us talked. We were busy sipping our cups of coffee.

Actually, I didn't like talking to people, especially about some futile topics. Yet, with an exception, when someone starts a conversation that is so deep and could awaken my curiosity.

Devon took a glimpse at Serfy and sipped his coffee. He placed his cup on the table and stared at me. "There are rumors that we heard weeks ago that some students here were killed. What the fudge? Was that even real?" he said with a mocking face. I abruptly twitched my eyes towards him after his words sank into my mind. I almost choked with my coffee when I realized what he just said.

I sat up straight and focused my eyes on him. "Are you saying that all the killings that happened in this academy are just "rumors" like what you said?" I asked, interlacing my fingers. My peripheral vision caught Serfy's glance. He glanced at me like he was agreeing with my question.

Devon shook his head with a smile. I found it weird because all the happenings that happened here weren't mere rumors, they were all real!

"Nah! Of course, I believe them all. I am a student here and I witnessed most of the dead students that were killed by an unknown killer. I am not that ignorant," he defended himself.

I caressed my chin while still pinning my gaze on him. "If that is so, why did you say they were all rumors when you believed they were real at all? Huh," I replied, leaning closer to him.

He shook his head, leaned against the chair and looked down. I took a second to look at Serfy and caught him looking at me with worried eyes. I pinned my gaze back on him when he sighed.

"Of course, at first I didn't believe them and thought of them as rumors until I witnessed the third kill of the killer, and there, I started to believe that they weren't rumors. Is it clear now?" he asked and moved his chair closer to the table. "Why are you two looking at me like you're suspecting me?" his eyes stared at us one by one with furrowed eyebrows.

"Nothing." Serfy cleared his throat and looked away, leaving his seat. He almost slammed his body when he tripped over with his own feet while trying to get out of the awkward situation.

"Coward," I scoffed.

"So why are you so stimulated when I say rumors?" Devon turned to me and sipped his coffee. His stare was enough to take me to the fact that he was also threatened by what I reacted to his statement.

I beamed. "Is it wrong to ask an elaboration? Don't overthink my reaction. It's natural for me to react whenever someone says something weird," I responded with a calm tone and smiled.

He laughed. "I won't take it seriously because it was just your natural reaction, I guess."

"Sometimes you're weird."

"Nah, you found me weird because we haven't gotten to know each other well yet."

"You're right." I laughed. I stood up and turned my back to him. I washed my cup in the sink and put it in the cabinet.

"Enjoy your cup of coffee, Devon. What a nice morning chitchat with you," I said, smiling, and left him at the table. He smiled back at me like we were just casually having a normal conversation. But I thought our conversation was serious enough that someone should be caught in their own words. But I guess my hunch wasn't right.

"How's Devon?" Serfy asked when he approached me at the doorway of our room.

"He's good, nothing to worry about," I replied. "Why are you so afraid of him?"

He shook his head and looked away. "No, I wasn't that afraid of him. I don't want to get into trouble, you know."

I moved my body to face him. "Is he a leader of a gang or something?" I asked.

"No."

"So nothing to be afraid of."

He nodded and I patted his shoulder. I proceeded to enter our bedroom and went straight to my side table, where my phone lay on my black notebook. I picked it up to check some notifications and I found one. A text message from Hannah. She was telling me to meet them at the benches because we had something to talk about.

I sighed and closed my phone. I walked into our walk-in closet to get dressed. I wore my complete uniform. The administration mandated the students to wear their complete uniforms when going out, to avoid inappropriate fashion styles, as Hilary said. I picked up my phone and pocketed my wallet as I strode toward the door.

"Meeting someone?" Devon asked. He was leaning against the door frame of the kitchen, crossing his arms across his puffy chest.

"Yeah, my friends," I scarcely replied and held the doorknob then turned it over. I went out without waiting for his response. He was just being nosy and I don't have a plan to give out some information to him.

I closed the door behind me and strode along the hallway. Looking below and hands into my pockets, I'm thinking about the sudden departure of Avia. She didn't tell us anything or any of the reasons behind it, yet she was abducted immediately without prior notice.

I sighed. I looked ahead, looking at the wide empty field around me. Well, it's 6:25 in the morning and the breakfast would be available at 7:00 o'clock later.

My phone rang and Hannah's name flashed on its screen.

"Hello?"

[Can you hurry up? Avia has arrived, and she is in a state of panic!]

My eyes widened and I felt my body was fueled up to sprint down the pavement. I dashed through the wind while I was still on my phone. I could feel my hair dancing along the wind and its coldness creeping onto my skin.

I inhaled. "She's there?" I breathe out hard. "Since when?" I asked. I was panting and unable to breathe. I wasn't used to do cardio activities like what I'm doing right now.

[A few minutes ago!]

My lips automatically curved upwards when I saw them on the benches. I ran faster just to get there in no time.

Upon my arrival, I stooped down and placed my hands on my knees as I recovered my circulatory system to get back to normal. I inhaled and exhaled deeply. I felt my chest moving up and down. I felt like I was going to pass out.

"Why did you run? We're not that busy for you to rush down," Avia said calmly.

I stiffened when realization struck me. Though I wasn't totally recovered yet, I stood up straight and combed my hair backwards. My orbs stared directly at Hannah, who was smiling like an i***t while looking at me as if she had gotten her great revenge.

"What's the matter with you, Hannah?" I fumed. I breathed deeply and heaved a hard blow.

Crap..

I almost ran out of oxygen because of her.

"Nothi—"

"Geez! What's this?" Avia stood, staring at us one by one. She was also wearing our complete uniform. "Did Hannah do you wrong?" she asked.

I sighed. "She called me, telling me that you were here and panicking," I reported, emphasizing the word panicking. I stared at them.

"Fine, I want you to get here immediately so that we can have our breakfast early this morning."

"Crap, what a brat," I cursed. She is the meanest girl I've ever met.

"We wanted Austin to be here as soon as possible, but tell him in a nice way, Hannah," Avia reproved her.

The brat just rolled her eyes and looked away. "Fine, I won't do that again."

I sighed and sat on a bench in front of them. "Why are you here? The classes will start tomorrow, not today. And you're not staying here anymore, right?" I queried, "And how did you get here?"

"I ran. Imagine how tiring it was. I just absconded from our mansion." She flipped her hair and crossed her legs. "Anyway, when I got home yesterday, my feet instinctively carried me to our old library in the south wing. Look what I found," Avia informed us, and took her handbag behind her. I leaned closer to her so that I wouldn't miss the view she wanted us to know.

"I'm here," Vino announced his arrival and sat beside Hannah.

Where did this man come from? I just nevermind. He was spoiling the thrill.

She took out a magazine. I gasped when I fully recognized it. It was the magazine that I thought only one copy had ever been produced. I couldn't take my eyes off the magazine. I grabbed it from Avia's grip.

"Geez, can't you wait?" she hissed.

"Sorry, I was too excited," I replied without looking at her. I was too occupied with the thing I was holding right now. I couldn't believe that she found this.

I didn't think twice about opening the magazine straight to the page where the headline was written. I turned the page rapidly as if I had only one second to find the treasure that was missing for decades.

My eyes broadened when I saw the full article of the headline with no cut, clean and out of creases.

"Hey? Do we even exist here or not?" I heard Hannah complain, but I ignored her.

I proceeded to read the article and there I discovered the whole story behind Nethania and started to nod my head while caressing my chin. I totally understood the whole context of this side of the story, but many questions popped out in my mind. If Nethania died, why is she here killing us? Did she recede from committing suicide and didn't die at all? Then why was the article telling us that she died after committing suicide? Was the article a lie? And how is the letter related to her death? It's all weird and these questions are going to haunt me even in my dreams.

"Okay! I guess that's enough for you, Austin. We also have our curiosity to feed!" Hannah quickly grabbed the magazine off my hand. They gathered around and looked at the magazine.

I was reading for the second time when she took it away from me. I looked down and placed my elbows on my knees as I contemplated what I had read. I just couldn't believe that her real and whole name was revealed in the magazine. The worst situation was that the authorities just disregarded the case, and settled it as a mere suicide case and no further investigation was administered.

"So Nethania did not die?" Hilary inquired. Her eyes were full of fear and puzzlement.

Vino borrowed the magazine from Hannah and read it again.

I stared at Avia. "The time when she brought us to the back of the storage room validated our hunch that Nethania wasn't a ghost," I shared.

"Are you thinking that Nethania was a ghost? How bizarre." Hannah scoffed.

"We saw her in the mirror, felt her creepy presence and I saw her in an abandoned room alone with a ghastly appearance, Hannah. Austin and I can only tell if she's a ghost or not. And she also told me that she escaped from killing herself."

"Uhm...why did she hang up her neck to commit suicide if she didn't want to die in the first place? Does anyone of you have thought about it?" asked Hilary.

"That's exactly what I heard from her back when she brought us to the back of the storage building. She said like this, Do you really... think I died.... from I think hanging and stabbing... myself with a pen? Wait, I hardly remember the conversation that time. And I recalled that she added, You serious? What if I escaped? That is what I remembered."

I sighed. "She said she escaped from death, so the article was a lie?" I asked what made them turn their heads towards me.

"That's a mind-cracking question that I'm thinking about also," Hilary answered, "They wouldn't publish any articles if they hadn't found them to be real or true."

"Honestly, I don't know what to answer about this," Avia commented, "I'm too confused about the situation we are into."

I just nodded. Even I didn't know how to answer the situation since all of our knowledge about the case was vague and blurred.

"You didn't recognize what she said? She revealed the clue that time and it was several weeks passed! We could have known it earlier if you had just pondered it thoroughly," Hannah thundered, pointing her finger to Avia.

"Geez!" Avia rolled her eyes. "A lot of pressure was on my shoulders during that time. I wasn't able to recognize what she said because I thought first of Austin's condition and after that I forgot about it."

"Avia is correct, Hannah. I owe her my life. What if she processed first the information Nethania gave her rather than thinking about my critical situation?"

"She did what she had to do, Hannah," Vino seconded.

"Whatever you say." The cosmetic brat just rolled her eyes, looked away and crossed her arms across her chest.

I stood up and put my hands inside my pockets and began kicking the grass lightly below the ground.

"So if Nethania escaped or receded from her own suicide act, that means..." I glanced at Hilary when she said something.

"She didn't want to end her life, yet someone murdered her," I seriously muttured.

"Wait, what?"