Nethania

Chapter 33: Her Name Her

AUSTIN

THE SITUATION was getting worse and more confusing. Two of my friends were kidn*pped, and we had no idea where they were or who kidn*pped them. But our person of interest was Nethania. She was the most likely suspect in this case. Aside from killing people, she entered into the k********g scheme that would make her an infamous killer.

We decided not to report Nico's disappearance yesterday because we wanted to wait much longer for his response. And since Jamsen was missing too, we waited for another 24 hours for him to contact us, but no trace or notice came to us from him.

This is the day where we will report their sudden disappearance.

Leaning against the railing and thinking deep thoughts, I was enjoying the morning breeze at six-fifty a.m. I placed my elbows on top of the railing and looked ahead. I adjusted the position of my bag behind my back and stood straight. I didn't want to enter the classroom yet because I was all alone there.

Should we get frightened or be brave more than we are now? Our group had been attacked by the killer, and she was gradually taking us away, and no one knew where she brought her victims.

I was all alone in my dorm. When Tyrone died, I and Nico felt so sad. Our one friend had passed away. It was like one branch of our friendship tree was cut off and burned, eventually, wind flew its ashes away. And when Nico disappeared, I felt so sad and lonely. I was worried not for myself but for Nico. Until this time, no reports came to us. It was like they had just vanished into thin air.

This is getting worse than ever.

In my peripheral vision, I saw three ladies approaching my spot. I turned my head and saw Avia, Hannah in the middle, and Hilary beside her. I stood up straight and faced my body in their direction. I smiled when I saw Hannah walking, holding her chin up. She was much better than the last few days.

"Good morning, ladies. Good thing you attend our classes," I greeted them when they stopped in front of me.

Avia smiled at me. Hilary gave me a small smile and looked below. Hannah raised her eyebrows at me.

"You're early, Austin. Any news to spill?" Avia asked, leaning her back against the railing. Hilary leaned beside Avia and Hannah remained standing while her hand were on her hips. Hannah was forcing herself to be good and fine, but it obviously wasn't. Even her heavy cosmetics couldn't conceal the pain she was bearing. Her eyes were drooping with tiredness, and even though she was smiling and acting like a brat, sadness was clear in her eyes.

I grinned. "I'm always early, Avia. And about the news, no updates until now."

Hannah sighed and looked away. "We should report this incident as soon as possible," she said monotonously.

I eyed Avia and furrowed my eyebrows. How the crap would Hannah say this? I mean, I didn't expect her to say that when she was so hurt about Nico's disappearance.

She nodded. "Hannah already knew what happened to Jamsen. We knew it would be hard but she accepted the fact."

I inserted my hands into my pocket and exhaled deeply. "Okay, that's good. Everything will be fine, Hannah," I uttered when I looked at her.

She glanced at me with her arms folded across her chest. "We don't know when things will be fine, Austin," she stated and raised her eyebrows.

"You're right." I sighed. "Let's go inside."

I walked toward the door and held the knob, turning it over. I opened the door and stood to one side, allowing them to enter the room first, then following behind.

We settled on our seats and zipped our mouths. I took a glimpse beside me and suddenly I remembered Nico. I miss his jokes, his laugher, and the way he annoys me. I lost two friends in just a glimpse of the day and now Jamsen, who I considered my friend too, was gone.

I felt Vino sat behind me. He was panting and breathing so heavily. Why does this man love running more than walking? I sighed. I should focus on the ongoing problem that we have now.

My classmates flooded the classroom as the clock hit seven a.m.

Our teacher came inside. She called on Alexandra, who closed her notebook and went to the teacher's side. Our teacher whispered something to her, and she gave a piece of paper to Alex. Alex nodded and walked in front, facing us. The noise started to dissolve as our president stood at the center.

"My dear classmates, have you seen

Flinn Jon Lioner, Jamsen Kyle Fuentes, Nico Smith and Kyliee Mar Jones?" She asked. "Our teachers have been wondering why they are absent from all of our subjects. They didn't send an excuse letter or a notice that may have informed the teachers of their absences. May I know what's their reason, perhaps from their close friends?"

Our school was strict when it came to student attendance. You are obligated to send an excuse letter if you don't want to attend a class.

Our classmates began to whisper to their seatmates. Indistinct voices hovered across the room.

"Actually, Nico has been missing since Tuesday and Jamsen since yesterday. They are my friends. We didn't know where they were and they went missing during nighttime." It turned my head behind when I heard Avia's voice.

At the opposite side, I saw Clinton Kinestre shyly raising his hand. He was moving so slow, like he was in doubt. "Uhm...Flinn Jon Lioner is my roommate and a friend. He didn't come back home on Tuesday afternoon. I thought he was going for an appointment, but until now he had been out of sight," he confessed.

In front of me, a boyish girl, Devie Ghin, raised her hand. "Kyliee Mar Jones is my best friend and I found out from her roommates that she didn't come back to their dorm after buying some drinks on Wednesday morning."

Alexandra looked at our teacher and she just nodded to her. I thought only Nico and Jamsen went missing, but two of my classmates went missing in action too. That was the reason why I didn't see them yesterday.

Alex stared at the paper she was holding. "And I also heard about students' unnoticed absences from the other sections. They are Janjan Jino Shinlee SHS SEC B, Claire Remrese SHS SEC C and Elesa Maykel SHS SEC C. I don't know if they just wanted to be absent three to five straight days from their classes, and there's no problem with it. It's their lives anyway—"

"Excuse me. I'll be right back," Our teacher cut Alex's words short and excused herself, walking toward the door and went out.

Alex peeked at our teacher if she was totally gone and out of earshot. She faced us. "But what I'm wondering is that, their roommates told us that they didn't come back after going out. How was that?" she asked.

I raised my hand. She nodded to permit me to talk. "Our two friends left their dorms and never came back without any reason. They never sent us messages, they just vanished. We suspected that the killer did this," I said. Everyone nailed their glances at me, and voices began to hover in the air again.

Alexandra looked at me. "So are you saying that the killer abducted our classmates and schoolmates?"

I nodded. "Yeah, we presumed."

She looked around while eyeing our classmates. "So what are we going to do, if ever that's the case?"

"That's not an if-ever situation, Alexandra," Hannah said over everyone else's mumbling. All eyes stared at her when she stood. "I'm sure that Nethania did this abduction."

Oh, crap. Did she just say the killer's name in public? This may cause terror and could add to the anxiety in our classmates' emotional state. I eyed Avia. I nodded and shook my head subtly while looking intently at her, telling her through my stare that she should stop Hannah right now. She received my signal and nodded. She grabbed Hannah's wrist and tried to pull her down, but Hannah glared at her and shook her hand instead of obeying it.

"Did you say Nethania?" Alex asked, furrowing her brows. She was gripping tightly onto the chair while looking at Hannah. "You mean the killer?"

Hannah folded her arms across her chest. She rolled her eyes. "Yes, are you deaf? Nethania is the killer's name and you should know that," she yelled.

I widened my eyes at Avia, firmly commanding her to stop Hannah's revealing scene. I wanted to stop her, but I didn't want to create a scene here. She was carried away by the events, so she forgot to restrain herself from exposing the truth.

Students began to panic. Others screamed, and a few of them cried. I roamed my gaze and when I looked at them, I felt a sudden burst of curiosity. Why are they acting so weird? Some of them were wondering what was happening around them.

I glanced at Avia and finally she got Hannah settled in her seat. She was whispering to her and Hilary was joining the conversation too.

"What the freak?" Alex eyed me with squinted eyes. "I thought you were just fabricating her name when I heard that from you. No one knew her name. How did you know that?"

I opened my mouth to respond, but...

"We're not liars, Alexandra," Hannah yelled from behind. "Nethania is her real name and it's not fabricated. She told—"

Avia quickly covered Hannah's mouth and made her lean back in her chair. Hannah squirmed, but Avia whispered something to her so she stopped moving violently. Avia tried to restrain her, but she was too late to stop her. But she did stop Hannah from exposing the last crucial sentence. Though Hannah already yelled the killer's name, at least Avia was quick to stop her from exposing the source.

Alexandra looked down while touching her forehead. She was furrowing her eyebrows and she was showing extreme puzzlement upon hearing Hannah's revelation.

I leaned closer to her, trying to look at her eyes. "Why? Is there something wrong?"

Their behavior triggered my curiosity. This is strange. Just by hearing the word Nethania, they freaked out.

She shook her head. "No, no. This is nothing. I am shocked to know her real name."

"I think we should report this straightway," I said. "They are missing for more than 24 hours without any notice from them. This is bad, Alex. The administration should know this and not just consider this a mere absence."

"Yeah, I agree. Let's go." Alex nodded.

I stood and nodded my head towards her, signaling her to follow me. She faced her palm toward me and began walking to the other side of the classroom. She whispered something to one of our classmates, our vice president to be exact, and went back to my spot. Henry, our vice president, lifted up his body from his chair and stood.

"Dear classmates, please don't panic! Everything will be set in place. Don't be afraid!" He shouted with a thundering voice. Our classmates hushed their mouths, and they felt relieved a bit.

Alex stood beside me. "Where are we going first? At the administration head office, or at the campus police office?" she whispered.

"Precisely at the administration office," I replied, "Go outside first, and I'll tell my friends."

She strode outside the classroom. I spun around and touched Vino's shoulders. When he turned to me with knitted eyebrows, I subtly moved my head sideways, telling him we had to go outside. He left his chair as soon as he got my signal.

I made my way to the spot where Avia, Hilary, and Hannah were. As I bent my body towards Avia's ear, the scent of her perfume reached my nostrils and lingered inside it. She flinched when she felt my presence, immediately turning around, facing me.

Oh, crap. I leaned backwards and smiled sheepishly when Hannah and Hilary finally noticed my presence.

"What?" Avia firmly whispered.

I bent forward again, but not too close to her this time. "Alex and I had decided to report the students' disappearance now."

She stood and moved her body around to face me. Hannah and Hilary eyed us one by one.

"What's this?" Hilary asked and glanced at Hannah."

"We need to go outside, guys, there's something we need to settle," Avia answered.

Hilary nodded and Hannah parted her lips when they got our message. We eyed each other. I nodded and walked first to the door. I sighed before opening the door. I let the ladies go out first and I followed. I closed the door behind me.

"So, where are we going?" Avia asked, flipping her hair.

"To the adminstration office," Alex replied, fixing her side swept bangs.

"Ah okay."

I was about to step off when someone from behind spoke.

"Why there? We should go to the Campus Police office instead," Hannah argued, stopping us from leaving the spot.

I faced her. "The Campus Police is under the command of the Administration. They take orders from them and only from them. Telling the head first before telling the limbs is much better," I stated.

She rolled her eyes and began stomping her feet away from us. We looked at each other and shrugged. We strode our way down the hallway. We reached the first floor and stepped onto the pavement, heading to the administration office.

I felt something vibrated in my pocket. I slowed down my pace and took out my phone out of my pocket. My eyes widened when I saw Nico's name flashed on the screen.

When I looked at them, I noticed that they were all staring at me ahead of them. I walked closer to them while holding my phone.

"I—"

"Guys, I have an update," Vino interrupted my words while looking at Jamsen's phone. We told him to always carry it with him, and if ever Jamsen contacted his phone, we might find him. Crap, I felt we received the same message.

We all eyed Vino, who was creasing his forehead. "What is it, Vino?" Avia asked.

"Someone sent a text message on Jamsen's phone," he replied, lifting his gaze to us.

"What does it say?" I stepped closer to him to see the message and to confirm my presumption.

I looked at Jamsen's phone and looked at mine. I mouthed the word 'crap' when I saw the same message on both phones.

"Hey, what's that? You two are acting weird," Avia said, walking to us and peeked at the phone. Even Hilary and Hannah peeked at it too.

"Tremendous bombshell is my present to everyone. Tommorow is the party you'll never forget," Avia recited.

We eyed each other. Our stares meant only one thing: this message was from Nethania. Only her could do this, and we wouldn't be wrong.

"It's from her, right?" Hilary asked, her eyes gleaming with terror. I nodded and she looked down, getting close to Avia and wrapped her arms around Avia's.

"We could use this number to trace her location. We should report this immediately," I said and began walking.

"If only she wouldn't take off the sim she used and throw it away before they could even trace it," Vino spoke behind me.

We were walking down the pavement heading to the administration office.

"At least we reported it," Alex said.

We reached the administration in no time. I pointed my finger at the door, telling Alex she'd be the one who entered first. She eyed me like she was saying 'why me?' to us. I pushed her closer to the door. She clicked her tongue and held the doorknob, turning it over. She pushed the door and entered.

I looked at the people behind me. "Let's go." I said.

"Good morning, Ms. Nichole," Alex greeted her.

"Good morning, Ma'am," we said in chorus.

Ms. Nichole was sitting in her recliner and busy writing some documents. Her hair was pulled up into a kempt bun and she wore light makeup. She smiled at us when she noticed our presence.

"Good morning students. What brought you here?" she asked, leaning in her recliner.

Alexandra stepped forward. "Uhm.. We would like to inform you that seven students were missing. Some of them have been missing since Tuesday."

She sighed and placed her elbows on the table, looking at us intently. "I'm sorry to hear that, but there are reports coming to me about the sudden disappearance of some students."

Upon hearing her response, we eyed each other. Some students were missing? I thought only the students on our list were missing.

I stepped forward and stood beside Alex. "You mean aside from what we have reported, there are other students who went missing?"

"Yes." She nodded. "Teachers had reported to me about their students who were absent from their classes without a prior notice."

"Is that so?" Alex mumbled, glancing at me.

She sat up straight and "Is that only your concern? Maybe there's something else?"

"That's all, Ma'am," I responded.

"Okay then, give me the list of the names of allegedly missing students."

"Here." Alex handed her the paper which contained the names of our classmates and schoolmates. She accepted it and placed it at the table next to me.

"Thank you, Ms. Nichole. We're looking forward to the results," Alexandra said.

"Rest assured, students. You may take your leave."