Nethania

Chapter 32: And Jamsen

AVIA

I FLIPPED my hair and looked at Hilary, who was pouring water into a glass. She placed the pitcher in the refrigerator and went back to leaning against the countertop.

"Let's give her a glass of water," Hilary said, breaking the silence between us.

When she was about to turn back to me, I grabbed her arms. She almost let go of the glass in her hand. The floor went wet. I grabbed a rag and wiped off the spilled water.

"It spilled," she murmured, placing the glass of water back on the countertop.

"Sorry."

She looked at me with furrowed eyebrows. "What is it?"

"Do you think Nico is missing?" I asked, letting go of her arm.

It's been 14 hours of him being missing in action. We shouldn't have worried about him if he messaged us or called us to tell us where he was going. But on the contrary, he left us without any trace of him.

She shrugged and went to the refrigerator again and took out a pitcher of cold water. "I don't know. Austin estimated he left at four a.m., so it's been 14 hours since he went missing. We still have to wait 10 hours for us to report his disappearance." She poured cold water into the glass until it was full.

She held the glass and walked cautiously out of the kitchen. I left the countertop and followed her. I sighed and bit my lips and sighed again. I felt pity for Hannah. The person who was so affected by this situation was her. His boyfriend left without any trace or message telling us where he was going. I knew she had been overreacting, but I couldn't blame her. We didn't know what was going on in her emotions and mind, we didn't know how affected she was.

Looking at a distance, thinking so deeply and I could barely blink. She was hugging her folded knees in front of her like everything had fallen down around her and her chin was resting on top of her knees. Hilary placed the glass on the coffee table and sat on the couch beside Hannah. I sat on the couch at their side.

She didn't bother to look at us nor glance at the glass of water in front of her. Her gaze was fixed at the window.

I eyed Hilary and she stared back. She sighed and held the glass of water. She lifted it up and tried to give it to Hannah, but she just shook her head without glancing at it.

Until dinnertime came, it had been 16 hours, we didn't receive a call or text from Nico. We had our dinner with Hannah. At first she didn't want to eat, but we insisted, yet she could barely touch her food and all she did was stare aloof. Since we couldn't force her to eat, we let her do what she wanted. Our phone batteries had been drained due to the constant calls to Nico. Hannah was so worried and she wanted us not to lose contact with him.

We've been worried about her. For the whole day, her eyes were drooping, her shoulders slumped and each step was grievous. I've never felt this kind of feeling before, but she's different, she's so fragile.

I heard my phone ringing in our bedroom. I excused myself and left the couch. It was charging, so I had to carry my body quickly toward the room. I saw Austin's name on the screen and answered his call.

"So how's it?"

[I had already contacted all his friends that I knew. But all responses were negative. They haven't seen Nico anywhere.]

I slumped my shoulders upon hearing his statement. I closed my eyes and sighed. I tucked my loose hair behind my ear and stared at the window.

"We called his phone for the nth time but we haven't received any response," I answered.

I heard a long sigh from the other line. I could feel the disappointment in his tone.

"So how are you there? Are you ok? You're all alone in your dorm."

[Don't worry, I've got this. I'm used to sleeping alone in a room, but I miss my friends here. I suddenly felt alone and sad.]

"Don't worry, we'll find Nico sooner or later."

[We're hoping so. Bye. I'll tell you immediately if he contacted me.]

"Ok bye."

I ended the call and placed the phone on the side table. I saw Hilary peeking at the doorway, checking on me. I nodded my head to let her come in. She entered the room and sat on the bed.

"Was that Austin who called you?" she whispered, looking at me.

I nodded. "Yes, and there was no one among his friends who ever saw him."

Hilary looked down and sighed. "That's sad and bad for Hannah. Better not to tell her about this. She might get worse in her situation."

"Yeah, I agree. We should go to sleep now." I glanced at her. "Tomorrow is the day that we will report Nico's disappearance."

"We should get Hannah in bed first."

"Yeah, let's go."

We stood and strode quietly out of the bedroom. Without changing her position, Hannah was still looking at the window. Good thing she was already in her pajamas.

Hilary touched her shoulder and looked at her eyes. "Hannah, let's go to sleep," she whispered.

"No," she replied, shaking her head.

I positioned myself in front of her and caught her stare. "It's getting late. We should go to bed."

She stared at me, still silent. "No! I'll kill you, Nethania. I'll kill you. You already took away all I had and now you took my boyfriend. You're a f*****g killer, Nethania. I'll kill you," she yelled. I leaned backward while looking at her. She exploded after our eyes met.

She went silent again and stared again at the window. She began biting her nails. I wanted to reprimand her about her behavior. She was overreacting and this was too much. We haven't yet made sure if Nico was officially missing or not. But she acted like Nico was dead.

Hilary looked at me. Her stare was telling me to calm down. I sighed and calmed my nerves. She needed us right now and understanding her was the best thing we could do. "Let's go. You need to rest," I said.

Without any word from her mouth, she held my hand and stood. I looked at Hilary. She was holding Hannah's other hand while guiding her the way.

"I wanted to see him. Where is he? I needed to see him," Hannah kept mumbling until she went off to bed.

"Ssshhhh ... Just rest yourself, Hannah."

WE FELT last night that Hannah was emotionally exhausted. Hilary and I decided not to let her go to our classes today. She kept telling us that she would kill Nethania. She knew Nethania had taken Nico to frighten her.

Why was she blaming Nethania? Was Nethania capable of k********g someone? In my view, of course she does. But I have noticed that she was attacking, let's say, my friends when there were so many students here.

Is there something we need to know?

It was seven o'clock in the morning, and we were sitting in our chairs, minding our own business.

"Avia, why is Hannah absent? I thought she was coming," Austin asked as soon as he sat down on a chair owned by Hannah.

"No, we didn't let her attend classes today, and she didn't want to either. She was emotionally worn out. We let her rest," I replied, glancing at him and flipping my hair.

He sighed. "Better she's not here. We will report Nico's disapperance later and it's so hard for her to accept that fact."

"You're correct, Austin, that's why we just let her rest for awhile," Hilary added.

I closed my notebook and placed the pen on top of it. I began tapping my arm chair with my fingers while looking around the classroom.

"Guys, we have a double problem."

I turned my head toward Vino, who was running toward our spot. Hilary and Austin also turned their heads towards him. He was sweating badly, obviously went on a sprint heading up to here.

He bent forward and panted heavily. He grabbed a chair and dropped his body into it, leaning his back while inhaling deeply. He even made his hand into a fan just to supply himself with air.

"What is it?" I asked.

I hope this wasn't a major one. Nico was still a pending problem we haven't solved yet.

He leaned in front of us, eyeing us one by one. "Jamsen didn't come home."

"What?" I gasped. Hilary covered her mouth while her eyes were widened in surprise. Austin knitted his brows and looked at Vino with puzzlement.

Vino was moving his eyes toward us. His face was out of kidding aura.

"How come?" Austin asked.

"Don't prank us, Vino!" I exclaimed, breathing heavily. "Nico was still missing, and don't add Jamsen!"

He clicked his tongue and looked away. He returned his gaze to us and jerked his thumb across his chest. "What do you think of me? A liar? I told you nothing but the truth only. It was seven in the evening last night when I requested him to bring the trash outside but he didn't come back. I started to worry when the clock hit eight p.m. and even more worried when ten p.m. came. I tried to call you but you're all unattended," he explained in a deep tone.

We eyed each other with knitting eyebrows. How come this happened?

"Did he bring his phone with him?" I asked, taking out my phone, ready to dial his number.

Vino shook his head. "No, he left it on the coffee table before taking the trash out. We can't call him."

"What's this? It is difficult for us to contact him," I mumbled. "After killing several people, she started k********g her victims?"

"Are you sure it was Nethania?" Vino inquired, looking at me.

I flipped my hair and raised my eyebrow. "Who do you think would do this? Only Nethania can do this. She's the killer and a killer would do anything to satisfy her bloody desire."

"What we will do next?" Hilary leaned closer to us.

Austin sighed and opened his notebook. He began writing something on it. "Jamsen went missing for thirteen hours and Nico went missing for one day and three hours. We must report Nico's disappearance and when Jamsen wouldn't came back at seven p.m. this evening, he will be reported too."

We eyed each other and nodded.