After breathing so hard Damon rushed to me asking what was wrong but I couldn't say a word all I could do was quiver in fear. Soon he took my phone from me and read the anonymous text, I couldn't even think I just wrapped my arms around him as warm tears rolled down my cheek profusely. The door without a warning blew open revealing the rest of my dorm mates. They all looked drained of energy. I quickly left the embrace of Damon who looked at me rather surprised.
"What happened here?" Gabe shot looking at the broken bowl and cereals that messed up the floor
"Um-- I fell it when I learned about the news" Natalie dashed off to her room looking really upset, Rebecca with the usual frown followed Natalie steps
Riley walked to me sobbing deeply "Veronika" she said dryly hugging me tightly as though her intent were to choke me to death "it was soo horrible" I led her away into her room to try to get her to rest. Once I shut the wooden door behind me I walked her to her bed
"It was horrible" she stated her eyes not moving as she stared at the wall blankly
"What was horrible?" I needed to know what got her like this
"Caitlin. She looked horrible. I found her dead body" Damon never told me that Riley was the one who spotted Caitlin's body
"She was slashed open, her blood-- her blood was everywhere" her tears continued to fall down her porcelain white cheeks. It was so weird to watch Riley cry this much, she never cried she usually said 'crying was a total waste of time and it never changes any thing'. Even when her cat moxie had to be put down because she had trouble breathing, although she tried to stop her mom from making that decision she never cried even the slightest, so seeing the crazy girl who dared me to do a lot of crazy things breaking down in front of me wasn't a sight I was used to
"How did you feel?" She asked looking at me teary eyes
"I was devastated when I found Candice body I--"
"No Nikki" I was stopped "I meant when you were little and you saw a dead body for the first time?" I only felt comfortable talking about this topic with Riley she always knew how to make me feel better
"I was broken. I felt dead inside looking face to face at my mom corpse. But more dead inside when I looked around to find everyone around me dead" I whimpered softly as I felt Riley's hands stroke my back
"I'm sorry for making you relive your childhood trauma" I met the eyes of my best friend
"Thanks Riles, you need to get some rest" I laid her down and covered her with her blanket
"Jason story is true" she confessed
"Which story" I asked even though I had a hint on the story she referred to
"The story of the red ghoul. The mark of a crescent moon with thorns were etched on her forehead" yeah I just remembered the same mark was placed on Candice's forehead so it is the same killer responsible
"I think the red ghoul is back to kill us all" what she said along with the message I got inspired fear in me. But it also gave me an idea. Jason knows so much about the story of the first red ghoul maybe he could tell me more about what happened
"Rest Riley you need it" I closed the door of her room to return back to clean up the mess I made on the floor but it was already taken care off
"Don't worry Nikki, I cleaned it up for you" Charlie emerged from behind me with a tight smile hooked on his face
"Oh thank you Charlie, but you shouldn't have bothered" my blood went cold when I heard a snicker coming from the living room, we both instinctively turned around to catch Gabe lying on the couch casting us a watchful eye
"Don't mention it. I guess it also in my nature to help others" he placed his hands into his back pocket "and hey nik, don't let anyone make you feel like it was your fault stuff like this happens" I smiled at his kind words but again the mocking laughter of Gabe caught my ears, I turned to him who just smiled at me but his smile wasn't the good friendly kind it looked like the kind which an chess player would have on when his opponent have been checked mate. I rolled my eyes at him and left.
"Hey Veronika where are you going?" I saw Damon his sad looking face looked tired
"I have an idea" I whispered "I'm going to ask Jonas some questions about the red ghoul. I think it is all connected"
"Okay do you need me to come with you"
"No. You don't need to come I can handle this" I assured him ultimately sure I could handle this.
I reached Jason dorm where Dave and Sophie also stay, I just hope I wouldn't run into any of them. I knocked on the door and heard someone say "come in" in a sing song manner.
"Hey Veronika" I was greeted by Nathan as soon as I walked in "hi" I said in a inaudible voice
"What is she doing here?" My eyes darted on to Sophie who looked like she wanted to jump at me and mangle me
"I came to talk to Jason. Is he around?" I looked around for a sign of him
"Hey there, what do you want to talk about?" Jason came through the same way as Sophie
"It is about something very important" I hoped he would agree to have a chat
"yeah, sure sure why not" he simply said as he took a coat from the couch and met me
"Why don't we talk over coffee at coffee palace, my treat" he had a smug grin on his face
"Okay" I agreed wondering why he looked at me like that. We strode to the café in silence the only noise that begged to differ was the laugh he would make while smiling at me. I only wondered why he was being so weird.
Janice attended to us, I told her I only wanted black coffee and when he was asked what he wanted all he said was "whatever she wants I want it too" accompanied with a cool smug grin, why was he acting so weird. I couldn't take the silence as we waited on our order
"So I wanted to ask you some questions"
"You can ask me any question you want as long as you answer one little thing" there's the catch. I knew he didn't just became so nice for no reason
"Okay sure, I'll go first. Tell me the entire story of the red ghoul" he scoffed.
"So that's all you want to know. Okay I'll tell you a story, a story about one of the greatest serial killer to ever walk the earth" he rested his elbows on the table in between us "I'll tell the tale of the red ghoul" Janice arrived with a tray and her usual smile, she placed it down on the table and went to take the order of the customers behind us
"So it starts with what most great tales start with, a gruesome death. Jane Dillian lost her younger brother and mother in a fire accident caused by her drunk mother so she was tossed around from family to family which all rejected her because they claimed she was unusual but then her uncle did. Years later, she went to this very college with her uncle's daughter. You wouldn't guess who she was." He wiggled his brows waiting for some sort of reply but all I could give him was a shrug. He continued "Her uncle was Rodger Magnus and his daughter is Rochelle Magnus. So Jane fell in love with the first guy to ever pay her any attention Derrick Presley"
I stopped myself from taking a sip from my coffee "As in the detective Derrick Presley?" I asked my eyes wide open
"Yup, the one and only. But there was a twist he was the boyfriend of her best friend well this pissed her off now he was just another thing she couldn't have in her life and this time she wasn't going to loose" he coolly drank from his coffee cup." So after a great rejection from our detective she was pushed so much over the edge she began to kill and boy she loved it. Soon there was a first body then another then so many more. On a Halloween party there was a mass slaughter leaving only eight to tell the tale, why she spared eight people she never said but I'm sure it was for a reason everything Jane did was always for a reason."
"You speak as if she were your idol" he smiled at my words as though they were true. He couldn't actually be a fan of that killer right?
"After they surviving eight began to die, soon her best friend figured out Jane was the Lady behind the red ghoul mask so she set up a trap. She used Jane's obsession for Derrick to get her to confess. The trap was set so precisely, so perfect that even Jane wasn't the wiser. So Jane went to jail where she later died. The end" he drank from his not so steamy mug of coffee.
"Is that it?" I looked at his face which had a smirk on
"During my whole story I withheld one tiny but very crucial detail" he paused still smirking
"Spit it out Jason" I rolled my eyes
"The best friend of Jane, the girlfriend of Derrick and the one who figured out Jane's truth was your very own mother Amanda Bentley McAlister" I froze. Processing the new found information I heard. My mother was the one who exposed the red ghoul. Is that why I got that message? Could this be some sort of revenge by whoever is killing?
"Shocker right. Believe me I know it isn't"
"What do you mean by that?" I said greatly confused by what he said
"This is where you keep your end of the deal. Answer my question, did you kill Candice and Caitlin? You can trust me I won't tell anyone"
"What the hell is wrong with you? You think I killed Candice and Caitlin then I also went on to send myself that creepy messag--"
"Wait you got a message" his face began to radiate a wide grin I nodded slowly
"Wow. I can't believe it. It is all happening again and I'm so glad to be here to witness it all" he ran his hand through his coal black hair
"What do you mean?" I asked feeling chills all around me
"Your mum got a message the night of Halloween it said 'Game on' " he fucking knew what the message said without me telling him anything
"Don't worry Veronika I believe you aren't the killer because whoever runs this show you luckily are starring in has way bigger plans for you" bigger plans or is it bloody plans. I caught Janice looking at both of us from the corner of her eyes, when our eyes met she quickly looked away. Could she have heard our entire discussion, I really couldn't care less if she heard all I could care about was what next would happen in this puppet show I'm apparently a star in.