Nethania

Chapter 28: Yellow Strings

HANNAH

NETHANIA is having a great time killing people and putting our lives on the verge of darkness. Yet, I wasn't afraid nor terrified of her. She was just a loser psychopath who thought of herself as an entity that everyone had to be afraid of. Well, I don't care if she was the devil incarnate, as Avia said, because I have my own demons to deal with and they are the top priority on my list.

All I have to do is to sit back and watch everyone die in this place, and make sure that nothing bad will happen to me. I wanted to be safe and saving myself was my permanent goal. I still love my life and it's a game over for me if I lose it. Accepting Hilary's escape plan was a fib. I didn't want to die, but I wanted a thrill. I just like how Nethania kills people and somehow she impressed me.

Sometimes, I came to think of Nethania. She was quite familiar to me. As someone—second to Vino—who knew everything about this school, she wasn't that out of my reach. Her name was familiar, and what about seeing her face? Maybe, I'll recognize her.

We were sitting at a table in the cafeteria. It's lunch time and we have no class after this. We had already finished our lunch and we were just spending our free time sitting and sinking ourselves into deep thoughts until we were tired of thinking about it.

Nico's head was resting on my shoulder while closing her eyes. Jamsen was on his phone, tapping aggressively. Vino was consuming a bag of chips. Austin was reading something, probably a book or a notebook or whatever, I don't care. Hilary and Avia were talking to each other.

I was browsing my favorite online shop to find another set of branded cosmetics and products. I rolled my eyes when I found nothing useful and they didn't fit my taste. I closed the app and turned off my phone. I was losing my time looking at something I didn't like. I took out a lipstick from my bag and since I forgot to bring my mirror, I used my phone instead to check my face while applying a lipstick. Avia oftentimes reprimanded me about this habit of mine, but I didn't want to change it. It's my life and definitely didn't own me.

I pursed my lips and popped them when I finished applying my lipstick. I was planning on retouching my mascara and eyeliner too, but I saw they were still good, so I changed my mind. I put my lipstick back in my bag and I saw Avia typing on her phone.

I suddenly remembered the Butler who approached us in front of our door, holding an elegant paper bag when we were approaching our dorm. He came just to deliver the two phones, one for Avia and one for Austin. I didn't know why Austin was involved, it was just weird for me.

I glanced at her and smiled. "Good thing you have your new phone now," I said, looking at her flagship phone.

She nodded and chuckled. "Yeah it was unexpected. I never thought Dad would deliver this to our dorm and I was surprised that he brought Austin one too," she replied.

"You're really his princess," I said.

Her smile faded and she looked down. "Well, not really. Avelyn was her princess, I'm not," she replied, looking at me. "He was just treating me like this because of my mom," her voice lowered.

"Oh, sorry to hear that," I sympathized.

She gave me a small smile. "It's okay. But how I wish Avelyn wasn't killed."

Avelyn? Who's that? Oh, was she her sister? I wonder what happened.

"So wh—"

"Guys, I guess we will expect more deaths."

I wasn't able to continue my statement when Austin spoke, lifting up his head from being buried in his book. He closed it and eyed us one by one, interlacing his fingers on the table.

Avia eyed me before staring at him. "Why?" She asked.

He sighed. "Alexandra told me that Clara, the student who died in the storage room in the gymnasium, had a Read 101 app on her phone—"

"And she had the story in her library, right?" I butted in, cutting off his words short.

"Yes, exactly." He nodded.

Expect more deaths? What was he saying?

Avia spread out her arms and looked at us with furrowed eyebrows. "Then why are we expecting more deaths? Like...geez...Does the app really connect to the murder?" she asked.

"We should expect it because the reads have doubled," Jamsen uncertainly commented, holding his phone. "Meaning, many people have read it."

Nico laughed and pinched his nose. "That's really absurd, dude."

Vino eyed him and nodded, smirking. "Yeah, I agree. Who the s**t would die just by reading it? I've already told you this before. Austin was really thinking it was absurd, especially those people in the Campus Police who thought that an app could take one's life. You're making me laugh, Austin."

Yeah. I, too, was thinking about the app connectivity to the murder cases. I sighed. What's more important is our safety, my safety. I don't care about other people out there.

Austin eyed Vino seriously. "Did you hear me telling you that this app can surely kill? I just told you it might be connected to the person who was murdered."

Austin didn't move his eyes away from Vino. The man he was staring at accepted his stare, and the longer they glared at each other, the more the tension was rising.

"Think about it, guys," Hilary said, breaking the tension in our circle. Vino cleared his throat and Austin simply looked away. "The reads have doubled and the victims who died were, I guess, less than twenty or fifteen. It clearly shows that only chosen people were killed and not all the readers who viewed the story."

"Hilary has a point," Jamsen agreed, placing his arms on the table. "Only the chosen people died when they viewed the story."

Vino slammed his hand on the table while shaking his head. "I still didn't believe you, but if that's the case, how did Nethania know that a certain person viewed or read that story?"

I agree. How did she know who the people were who read the story.

"Are you saying that Nethania and the story are connected to each other?" Avia asked, staring at Vino.

Wait, if the story and Nethania were connected to each other, there was a possibility that Nethania wrote the story, or not.

Vino tilted his head sideways and raised her eyebrows. "We've been talking about that s**t the last few weeks. The killer is Nethania. Someone who died had that app and that story was in their phones. What else are you expecting? That they were not connected?"

"You are presumably saying that Nethania is the killer and it is connected to the app. Now, is Nethania the author of the story? Answer that," I asked, and leaned back in my chair.

If Nethania was the author, then there was a huge connection between her and the story; if not, then the app had nothing to do with her.

They eyed each other with puzzlement in their eyes. Vino touched his chin and Jamsen just combed his hair with his fingers backwards.

"Let's put that this way. We have no sure evidence that Nethania is the author. But now we have to presume that she is. She is the killer, and every time there is a murder, that story is on their phones. Why? Because every time the Campus Police checked their phones, the first thing that would pop up is the library of the app Read101, and the first book on the list is The Angel's Misery," Austin explained with hand gestures.

We just stared at him and said nothing. I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms across my chest. Avia flipped her hair beside me.

"Okay, okay, since we didn't know what the real truth behind it was, we will presume that she is the author, for now. But I felt she wasn't. She was just using that app to play people around, and because it' was booming to the readers," I surrendered.

Nethania was just using the app and the story. That's what I believe in. How come a killer could write a story when she's busy killing people?

Austin nodded. "So back to Vino's question."

I sighed. Presumption is all we can do now. "She, maybe, is a hacker? That can see and manipulate the system illegally and control it like a pro?" I suggested.

"I don't think so, Hannah," Austin said, "But that is possible."

I felt Avia touch my shoulder. "Wait, you have that app, right?" She looked at me with widened eyes.

I nodded. "Yes."

"Did you read the story?"

"No." I shook my head. "After I heard about this creepy thing, I changed my mind not to read the story. It's not that I'm afraid, but I was making sure if that is really the reason people are dying," I replied.

And that was true. I was a little bit frightened about the app and the story thingy, so I changed my mind about not reading the story.

Silence enveloped our whole circle. No one talked and we just moved our eyes toward one another.

"Okay." Avia sighed, closing her eyes and opened it again. "As long as we haven't figured this out yet, no one is allowed to read that story," she commanded, eyeing us one by one.

I nodded and tightened my ponytail. I agreed that we shouldn't read the story until it is proven innocent.

"So this means... I'll die?" We all turned to Vino, who spoke like he was joking. He furrowed his eyebrows like he had innocently done what he was forbidden to do.

Avia rolled her eyes and scratched her head annoyingly. "What?" she asked.

"I already finished it," Vino replied.

Gosh! He replied like he was not frightened at all! He didn't know what would happen to him. He just finished the story.

"Geez, Vino, why?" Avia mumbled irksomely, then motioned her hand in front of him.

"After Hannah told us before about that app, I read it straightway."

My gosh! That was the time when I told them about the app. I wasn't expecting that he would read it immediately after I told him the author's username.

"Me too, but I didn't finish it. It's boring for me," Jamsen shared, shrugging his shoulders.

"I only checked it out, but I didn't read it," Hilary added.

"I'm almost finished, but I didn't continue because you said it kills," Nico expressed.

"Geez! Haven't you realized what you have done? You read it. What if your names are on her list?" Avia preached, pointing at them one by one.

I was sure that I, Avia, and Austin hadn't read the story yet.

"So how can we stop her?" Hilary asked, her eyes went sad and her lips curved downwards.

"There's no firm plan on how to capture her," Austin replied, shaking his head. "We don't know when she will appear, and maybe you have noticed that she was attacking her victims at night."

"Oh, that's sad," Hilary said.

"But don't worry, let's just be vigilant and attentive."

We have decided to go to our classroom to prepare for our classes. After our afternoon classes, we decided to go to the cafeteria to buy snacks to reward ourselves for passing the quizzes given to us by our teachers. This afternoon was tough and it tested our minds, so that it drained our energy, so we deserve these kinds of treats.

We were choosing our preferred snacks when two not-so-pretty ladies passed behind us. We stopped talking when we heard what they were talking about.

"Have you heard? Someone died in the TLE room."

"What? Another death?"

"Yes, it's creepy, really. I heard it from someone that she was found this afternoon in their room, lifeless and filled with lacerations. I won't tell you any more because it's so gross."

"That's why I don't want to go there."

"You heard it too?"

"Yeah, when I passed by at the library."

"Let's go. Maybe there's someone who has a hatred for that person, so she was killed."

I eyed the people beside me. Our stares meant only one thing. Another murder and we have to see it. This time I wasn't that curious about it and I wanted to chill instead of going there, since I didn't care about the people around me. But because we were already involved here, we had to see and watch carefully what was happening around us.

"TLE room? What grade?" I asked. There were many TLE rooms in this academy and I didn't know where exactly the murder happened.

"The lady said she overhead the news at the library. So maybe the TLE room near the library," Austin replied.

We rushed to get our snacks and paid over the counter. We went out of the cafeteria and strode our way to the TLE room. Why are we rushing? When we were not the investigators. It was just funny to think that we had the guts to be eager to see the crime scene when we were, ourselves, possibly included in the list of the victims.

We reached the spot where the murder happened. Fewer students were gathering around. The campus police were present, as were the student council members.

Here we go again, seeing a gross and hideous scene that I bet is a bloody and brutal one.

We pushed ourselves through the crowd until the gross view inside was clearly visible to our sight.

I inhaled and exhaled deeply. I roamed my eyes inside and I saw a girl sitting on a chair in an improper way. Yellow strings that were painted red because of blood stain were scattered around her chair. Her body was straightened down and her butt was on the edge of the chair. Her hands were hanging on both sides. They were full of tiny deep lacerations that were still oozing blood that made the floor stained with fresh blood. Her feet were filled with numerous tiny deep lacerations in any direction and angle, like what her hand looked like.

Her head was held up, resting on the top rail of the chair. She was staring at the ceiling with eyes wide open and her mouth, stretched out irregularly, was full of ping-pong balls that were stuck inside it down to her throat. How do I know that it went down her throat? Because her neck was sliced open using the string, and the ping-pong balls were popping out of it along with the fresh blood.

"Another brutal death, as usual," I mumbled.

"Have you seen the note on the wall written using the blood, Hannah?" Avia asked, standing beside me.

"Yes."

"It's creepy."

I nodded while reading the words scribbled on the wall.

Even the tiniest strings can kill, so don't underestimate a person who you think so small compared to anything else. Who knows, that person might be the reason for your downfall?