Chapter 68 - 3.17

Hannah tries to call Joseph, but he is stubborn and does not take calls from her at all. He has been acting like a jerk lately, and the girl realizes that this is related to the Solar case. He is trying to conceal the truth at all costs, even trying blackmail, just to get Hannah to let go.

What really happened at Horace Mann? How big a connection to the girl's suicide does Joseph have?

The brunette throws the phone on the mattress and rests her back comfortably against the pillow. She puts her hand to her forehead and sighs deeply.

— What should I do next? Should I read it to the end? — she asks herself, but to her surprise, she gets an answer from the appearing phantom.

— Since you have started to do this, I beg you not to give up. Learn the truth regarding my death. I want you to know what happened to me. I want to warn you not to continue making this mistake and disconnect from them while you have the chance!

Observes Solar, noticing the despondency on her face. She recalls the words of Irene, who mentioned to her that the suicidal woman had mental problems, which is why the students believed that the tenants were left possessed by her and thus also went crazy.

— I will read your diary and decide for myself whether I am making a mistake, do you understand? You won't decide for me whether I should disconnect from my boyfriend and friends! — Hannah turns to her in a raised voice, noticing the darkness on her face.

— Already after these few entries, you should have noticed that your beloved is a monster. And don't even think about the fact that you somehow managed to change him. He is probably just pretending in front of you. He's a player type.

After saying these words, he disappears, and Hannah pulls the diary out from under the pillow. For a moment, she looks at a single spot on the wall, wondering if she is doing the right thing.

Eventually, she turns the pages and with her eyes begins to trace the fifth entry.

My roommate has found a friend who matches her looks. They stick together because they both go with schoolmarms. Well... Mariah seems from her face a perfidious bitch, and she probably is. The fact that she picks her nose when walking down the hallway is testament to her. This was to be expected because Jimmy has a taste for girls with such looks. Anyway... any handsome schoolboy will choose a beautiful maiden to fulfill a perfect picture with him, even if he has no common themes with her and her only interest is walking around the mall.

Sixth entry.

It seems to me that Halsey is trying to suck up to me. It's not that I don't like her because towards me, she's really nice, and lately, we've been talking to each other about deeper topics, but it bothers me that she's in a relationship with a former friend of mine.

What if they laugh at me behind my back?

I know, I'm over-sensitive about it, but popular students seem fake to me....

The school party is fast approaching, and she offered to make me a deity. Well, yes. Probably in her eyes I look like a gray mouse, without makeup and dressed in modest clothes.

What does she intend? I don't possess the face of her to bring everyone to their knees. I'm average, I have ordinary beauty, but maybe she will actually be able to turn me into a princess, just this once? Should I trust her?

Seventh entry.

Tonight was a wonderful evening. Halsey made me an entirely different person thanks to her! I... looked beautiful. Gorgeous. My roommate has magic hands, she can work wonders. She made several guys pay attention to me. It's just too bad it wasn't the one I cared about the most.

I didn't think a duckling could turn into a swan. I thought it only existed in fairy tales, but that one evening was like a beautiful story to me. It's just a shame that I was not Cinderella, and he was not the prince who would have fallen in love with me at first sight.

Eighth entry.

Today something amazing happened! When I returned to the room, I found Joseph in it. This was the first time he had spoken to me since he started ignoring me. The wonderful thing is that he knows that I secretly sigh for his friend. However, could it be that he is surreptitiously watching me? After all, no one knows about it! Even Halsey didn't mention anything about it....

It made my heart warm when he offered to help me seduce Jin in exchange for sharing a room with him. He may have been thinking of himself at that moment, but I believe that some part of him, wants to do it for me as well.

Should I trust him? He is the only chance that I can get closer to his friend....

Hannah is putting the diary under her pillow when the sound of the door opening reaches her ears. Her first thought is of Joseph, who may have decided to talk to her. Her face this when she spots Mariah in the living room. Just behind her stands a smiling Bella, rustling up beer commercials.

— We stopped by to heal you. The little hag dragged me out of the house on the phone, though that's odd since I try to ignore calls from chicks I don't like. — Mariah puts her arm around her lower friend's shoulder. — But she was like a chip on her ass, and it was all about you, so I agreed.

They have been treating each other this way since the beginning of their acquaintance. Hannah believes that in time they will bond as friends.

Maybe...

— Since the results came out okay, and it's the stress that's killing you, drinking alcohol will help you cope, Bella says, in her mind probably comparing herself to a genius.

The brunette smiles, as their presence can always lift her spirits.

— It's good to see you guys...

— Us, always good to see — Bella replies jokingly, shrugging her shoulders. — What is it? — He adds after a moment, seeing her concerned face.

— I have Solar's diary. I started reading it... — She notices a gleam in her older friend's eye. — I want to share her entries with you and, after reading all the content, also find out from you Mariah what you know about it. I think then it will be easier for me to understand and link it all together.

The girl nods her head.

Bella sets the mood, starting by handing the girls each a can of beer. Hannah reads aloud the first entries with which she has managed to familiarize herself. The moment there's a mention of Mariah, there's not much to make a girl choke on her beer.

— What did she call me!

— Why are you surprised? From your face you look like a perfidious bitch, and it's true that you mess with your nose....

Sparks fly in Bella's direction, but Hannah does not pay attention to this, she focuses solely on the diary. The girls are always cruelly honest with each other.

Ninth entry.

I wouldn't have guessed that Joseph could move so quickly to execute a plan. As I walked down the main corridor, he made me land in Jin's arms. It may have been rude of him since he planted his foot on me, but I think it was effective nonetheless.

I realize that I reddened up to my ears, but the chills I felt on my body.... that feeling is indescribable.

I wanted him to never let me out of his arms again.

— She was indeed sick in the mind. I got the impression that she was obsessed with Jin. — Mariah unequivocally curls her finger near her forehead. — After hearing the words she wrote in that diary, I have no doubt about it.

— You are exaggerating. Most girls in love describe their feelings this way, but how could a perfidious bitch understand that? — Bella gets in her face from the pillow, at which Hannah shakes her head.

They are just getting to know each other, but in time they will form quite a bond.

Tenth entry.

Is this a java or a dream? I can't believe he squatted in the cafeteria with me today, ignoring the stares of the students who whispered among themselves about us. It even bounced around my ears that his girlfriend is a "cold bitch" who oppresses people, and it's a matter of time when she gets me.

— These are just rumors. I hope so — he said.

When he looked at me and didn't take his eyes off me for a long time, I thought then that I was in heaven. My heart was beating like crazy, and I couldn't swallow anything out of nerves. A thrill of excitement ran through my body when he finally spoke his first words to me:

"Popularity is great, but it brings with it a shadow of darkness, so since you have made up your mind, I will give you what you want, at my friend's request."

He rose from his chair, leaned over the table and kissed me on the lips! I got the impression that I was running amok, especially when the whole room went quiet, as if someone had cast a spell of silence on the students.

At that moment, my body died of happiness, and I am writing this, being only present in spirit.

Hannah lifts her face and looks at the stupefied faces of her friends.

— I remember that — Mariah speaks up, putting the can down on the table. — Everyone in the cafeteria rubbed their eyes in surprise, wondering what Jin was playing at.

— How did Joseph convince him to take an interest in Solar? — This remains a great mystery to Hannah. — Jin's behavior was strange. Reading this, I get the impression that Solar is talking about someone entirely different here.

— Forgive me, Hannah, for saying this, but you don't know him well, even though you have been friends with him for many years.... The real Jin is the one Solar describes. Before the tragedy, there were times when he could be more emotionless than Joseph. No, I put it wrong. Your guy has a heart and can show it, despite his strange moods, and Jin? Inside, he's as cold as ice, and showing concern is the mask he's put on his face since he contributed to Solar's death. Didn't you ever wonder how he could be in a relationship with a bitch like your sister?

Hannah crinkles her eyebrows.

— What are you talking about? Saying that Jin is cold as ice is like saying that Tom has a dark soul — Bella interjects jokingly.

— Jin played games with me from beginning to end regarding the accident and about my sister. He played with me, which he admitted to himself. Also... I still can't forget the moment when an innocent girl was killed instead of Danielle, and I saw Jin looking at it and smiling diabolically.... When I asked him about it, he denied controlling his feelings. Well, that's right... this was the moment when he showed his real face....

— Stop it! — Bella jumps up on the couch, looking terrified. — He's our buddy, for goodness's sake! You tell about him in such a way that I feel like I'm participating in some horror movie. — The girl thunders them with her eyes. — After all, you claimed that at school you had better contact with him than with your boyfriend, so how can you say such things? — she turns to Mariah.

— I had a good contact with him, so I noticed what he is really like. He may try to be good, towards us, he is fine, but the truth is that his heart is as cold as ice.

— Danielle confessed to me that she doesn't like boring people, so Jin couldn't be a good boyfriend since she was interested in him. She, so far, has no intention of letting him go.

— The only thing missing is for a ghost to appear here! Horror brick! — shouts Bella pretentiously, not realizing that Hannah is looking right above her head at the apparition behind the couch.

Solar is sad. She doesn't like the fact that Hannah reads aloud her diary entries, especially in front of a girl she doesn't like. She thinks she is setting up a mockery of her in this way.

— You were right. You are not the same as me. You match them, visually as well as in character. I wonder if you'll still have such a great time when I'm the one who starts arranging pranks on you — she speaks in an exasperated voice. — I will no longer try to warn you, now it is I who will do everything to make you join me in suffering!

Hannah opens her eyes wider, with frightened eyes watching one point. She now realizes that Solar is the main demon who will bring suffering to her and her friends, in the name of sick revenge.