Harlienne was walking alone the third floor corridor. She had just been down to the library doing her homework in History. Dean Delos Santos was a very strict Professor. He had given them a five pages essay about North Korea… of course Harlienne has no problem with that but she wanted to make sure that she’d done it properly.
Flipping the browning pages of the book she had borrowed from the library, a paper dropped. Harlienne studied the neat handwriting on the paper. It was a letter…
June 20, 1998
Dearest Dad,
Good Day. I hope my letter reach you soon. When are you going to visit me in the dormitory? I missed you and mama. When will you be back from Cerritos?
I’m bored here dad. The professors are all right but they are not as smart as they should be. They teach me things I already know. Geography should be an interesting course but my instructors bore me. This is a small university unlike where I came from, so little air to breath here.
If you ask me about my grades, it’s fine. I get good grades. I have also met a lot of friends. They are all nice to me even though I came form Mexico. Dad, consider what I had already told you, come back here to teach. This university needs a mind like yours.
Dad, when you visit me, I will introduce Haley to you. She is the girl I’m telling you in my last letter. She is really eager to meet you.
Your Loving Son,
George
Lost in thought, she walked up the stairs; she walked up another flight of stairs until she was far off the girls’ dormitory. She walked the last steps when she felt a fickle in her hairs. She was having goosebumps.
The alleyway was impossibly dark, darker that it is usually. Few dim lights were flickering along the way casting weird shadows on the walls.
Harlienne walked hurriedly… she could have been imagining things… but everything is so creepy…
Now, her heart was jamming, beating hard inside her chest. She can feel butterflies roaming in her stomach.
Then, the air went still…
Harlienne tried to step a foot but her body went rigid…
She was just imagining it…
Her heart begun to drum hard into her ears but she can still hear the rustling of a cloak…
“Who’s there?” she asked. Her voice echoed through the dark alleyway. Why wasn’t anyone in there? She would certainly feel happy if the dormitory’s caretaker would catch her sneaking through the night.
She heard a clanging of chains…
“I said who’s there?” she snapped but still there is no answer.
Harlienne felt a wet hand grabbed her waist. She was shocked but she tried to grab at her augmenter. She tried to scream but another wet hand came into her mouth. Her oppressor was strong; however she tried to pull free from his grip, it went tighter.
She was now grasping for air… her mouth and nose was covered… her eyes watery… her hand in pain… her toes was beginning to feel numb… she never fainted in her whole life then she remembered… she hadn’t got anything in her stomach since lunch that day…
Harlienne opened her eyes, it was all dark… she felt the softness behind her back. She was in a surprisingly comfortable bed. She was like lying in an airbed back at home. Her pillow is equally soft and beside her is a large chocolate colored teddy bear. “A teddy bear?” Harlienne heart raced… she was not in her own room back at home nor in the girls’ dormitory. She was suddenly awake, she sat up and heard a sob.
At the corner of the room lurked a figure clad in pajamas. He was sitting in the corner with arms resting in his knees and his face hidden from it. She could make out the dark hair that hides the face but she could hear him sob with the occasional wince of the broad shoulder.
It couldn’t have been her abductor, she felt his tight grip and she wrestled with him but of no luck.
Harlienne stepped towards the man. “Who are you?” she asked barely hearing herself. She received no answer. “Is he deaf? Is he mute” she asked herself. She noticed again the broad shoulder.
“I’ll… I’ll just go now,” Harlienne said stammering. She walked away but a powerful hand snatched her wrist. She was pulled down by a force that she didn’t know where he got. She found herself seated on his thighs with his head resting on her shoulder.
She was so shocked when she heard a hoarse voice came from him saying, “Please don’t leave me again.”
“Who are you? What do you want from me?” she asked her abductor.
“You don’t know me anymore?” he said in a sad voice. “I always look down at you in the garden from that window. You don’t see me ‘cause I am here. I missed you so much.”
“Me?! I don’t know you. I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“You had forgotten poor George Delos Santos. Everybody had forgot his greatness.”
“George?” Harlienne asked remembering the letter that she had been reading earlier.
“Yes. You remember me now, Haley?” he said. Harlienne could only make out the sparkle in the corner of his eyes but she couldn’t see any better.
“No… I don’t know you…” she said.
“Please don’t be like that, Haley.” He pleaded.
“I’m not Haley, my name is Harlienne.” She pulled herself away. Now, she got the better view of the guy that was holding her. He must have handsome face once when he was not yet skin and bones. But his eyes, they were blood-stricken. Harlienne pulled up. She looked at his bloody eyes with fear. She ran into the door leaving him sprawled in the floor pleading her to come back.
THREE DAYS LATER…
“I promised to avenge the death of Harlienne… I will do everything in my power to do so. I will see to it that her murderer will see no light in his prison cell.” Jessica told Martin with her eyes full of tears. She had been mourning the death of her best friend since the day they found her body lying on the grounds of the university. It was such an awful picture. Harlienne lying on her back, her body sprawled on the ground like she was trying to run away when a bullet hit her straight in the skull. The brains from her deformed head splashed on the once immaculately clean lawn.
Jessica cried a lot when she saw the body and called Harlienne’s parents immediately. It came as a shock to them all. Her brothers came with her mother limping and crying in their arms. Jessica saw the way Harlienne’s mother cried all over the body. Harleinne is the only girl in the family and the youngest of all four children to top it all. It poured hard on the family to lost a precious child like her.
Jessica had a hint that Harlienne’s death has something to do with the story the latter told her about the guy hidden in the room behind the trap door in the sixth floor. The connection was very vivid; the guy was obviously out of his mind. He is strong. He, who kidnap girls whom he thinks is his girlfriend is roaming in the dark corridors of the school. Why would the school nurture such an individual if they know how dangerous he is? Where did he got that gun? Why is he inside the school ground? George Delos Santos… he is the fist suspect but Jessica didn’t told the police about this.
Jessica was never as busy before, without Harlienne to take over when she was busy in the library and all the commotion about her friend’s death was taking into her nerves. Jessica and Harlienne were the only student assistants in their library; they had an access to the student’s library file and every single detail in the library. They had to follow a strict schedule since they are also studying.
Jessica had visit the trapdoor Harlienne told her but it was not there. She wanted to ask Dean Delos Santos if he knew about the trapdoor but thought otherwise. She didn’t know why but she’s uncomfortable talking to Dean Delos Santos, he is always angry lately. She thought that the police and reporters heated him. Jessica found something about George Delos Santos and Haley Benitez, they were couples for a short time but it stopped easily.
The faculty was doubly strict those days. Curfew was set and hall monitors are everywhere carrying woods and other weapons. “As if the weapons will do wonders against guns” Jessica told herself. Jessica found a very well cover up, she and Martin were both hall monitors that night so they can roam around the university grounds. She decided to visit the trapdoor again…
Martin took as a watcher while she went to the sixth floor. Walking alone, she felt uneasy; the dim lights on the corridors add harassment to her embarrassed soul. She never went out alone in the dark before even if she was assigned as hall monitor.
The vividness of Harlienne’s story was lingering in her mind.
Her heart drummed inside and her knees trembled in fear. It was dark and scary… a hand touched her arms. Her body shook. She tried to scream but a hand went to her mouth.
“What the hell are you doing?” a voice came from behind her. Her shaking body stopped. She sighed heavily. Martin was besides her scowling. “One minute I was just being a look out with you on my side and the next thing I know, you are already gone. Do you know how dangerous it is to go alone?”
“Sorry, I thought we understand each other that you will act as a look out and I’ll go find the trapdoor.”
“Am I stupid to let you do that alone?” Martin whispered.
“Sorry… but I admit, this task is a little scary.”
“A little scary? You are walking alone inside the school ground with a live criminal who had just killed your bestfriend!” he said enraged.
Martin held her hand in his and walked slowly without talking. He lighted their path with his flashlight because the dim lights were not so much of help.
Jessica and Martin walked hand in hand in the dark corridor. Martin extended his hand to touch the wall on his left side. He could feel the smooth surface of the wall but no sign of the trap door. In the morning, the corridor is dim except from the small amount of sunshine that came from two small windows at the top of the stairs that connect the sixth and the fifth floor. A person walking on the corridor would be able to make out the smooth surface of the two walls separated by three meter wide floor. The right wall is adorned by simple dim lights. Few paintings were hanging on the wall to break the monotony of the flesh-colored walls.
But in the night, one will not be able to make out the outstanding classic painting nor the immaculately clean wall except for a few shadows of the paintings that the dim lights reached.
“I think we should go now.” Martin said.
“You go, I’ll find the trapdoor myself.” Jessica replied.
“Do you think I will let you do that? You are threading on dangerous waters. You don’t know what awaits you.” Martin said in an as a matter of fact voice. His hands came in contact with the wall;
“Leave me alone, Martin. I can do this alone. I have to do this for the sake of my best friend.”
“You are hardheaded.” Martin snapped. “Why don’t you just tell the cops what you know and let them do their thing?”
“I can’t. I don’t know why. Maybe it is just my intuition.” Jessica told Martin. “You are Dean Delos Santos’ student assistant, right.”
“Yes. Why?” he answered with his hands still on the wall.
“Do you know if he has a younger relative who became a student in this school?”
“He has a son who became a student her. They said his son was a very intelligent but he never finished his course here.”
“What happened to his son?” Jessica asked. Her heart beat faster.
“No one knows.”
Martin stopped dead on his tracks. He looked overhead and saw straight from the dim light the reflection of a nun patting a dark colored dog framed in an intricate Barocco painting.
“I think I found the trapdoor.” He whispered under his breath.
“Let us…” Jessica started saying when she heard a rustling of cloak. “What was that?” she asked Martin.
“What?” Martin asked back.
Jessica silenced Martin with her hands. “I hear rustling of a cloak,” she whispered.
Martin listened very intently. He held Jessica’s hand into him. She was shaking. They felt cold air came into the corridor. Every thing went silent. The silence was deafening.
Heavy foot was approaching their way, clinging with him is the night air, cold and withdrawn.
Martin pushed the trapdoor, he pulled Jessica inside. Inside, they could hear the foot and cloak walking away.
The room was dark; Jessica adjusted her eyes on the dark and made out small features of the room. Small amount of light entered the window on the opposite side of the room. The moon’s light illuminated the bed. The room was empty except for the bed, a study table and few cabinets adorned by a young boy’s things.
It seemed that the occupant of the room was no where in sight.
“What are you doing pulling me inside this trapdoor?” Jessica snapped.
“What else can we do? What if that’s the killer?” Martin answered.
“What if the killer is here?”
“Oh yeah…” he said shrugging his shoulders. “I’m naïve sometimes.”
“Good for you to know,” Jessica said studying the silent room.
The two of them spread out. They look at the cabinets beside the door. They looked for clues that might tell them if the man occupying the room was Harlienne’s killer.
Martin stopped on the study table. Jessica joined him in.
It was empty except for some scratched books and a drawing. Marin lighted his flash light on the paper. Very vivid was a picture of a boy surrounded by five large headed monsters. From each of them oozed red blood. Sharp claws were trying to reach the boy. He was trying to escape but he was surrounded.
“What are you doing with my drawing?” a hoarse voice exclaimed beyond them.
Jessica jumped in shock. She and Martin stared at the grave appearance of the guy clad in matching pajamas. He was walking towards them from the opposite side of the room which they haven’t checked yet.
The man could have been handsome once but now he is almost skin and bones. His hands were free but his foot was tied to a chain that extended at the foot of the bed. The chain allowed the man only to roam around the room until through the door.
Jessica eyed the man. His face was sweaty and tear drenched. His eyes which could have been gray were blood-stricken. Large eye bags could be seen under his eyes. His cheekbones are prominent from the thin of his cheeks.
The man walked through them.
Jessica didn’t bulge. Her body became solid. Martin tried to move her but with no luck. Her eyes were affixed on the guy’s eyes. She was trying pear into his soul.
Martin tried to cover Jessica with his body but the man shoved him away like a weightless lift.
The man toughed Jessica’s face… he held her eyes in his… his face cam into hers… his lips neared hers…
Jessica was suddenly awake. Martin had smacked the man right into the face. Martin drag Jessica with him. They ran into the trapdoor.
“Haley, please don’t leave me.” The man sprawled on the floor pleaded. “The monsters… they would get me!”
Jessica and Martin looked back. They saw the guy illuminated by the moon’s light from the window. He was tossing and turning on the floor. He clutched the wood panel of the bed. He scratched his nails on the cement on the floor. The guy stared at nothingness. His bloody eyes were bulging with fear. He growled at the window and then into them. The man ran into them, his eyes raging in hatred. He was tearing with his fingers into his way as if trying to grab at somebody.
Martin held Jessica’s hand and they ran outside the trapdoor.
The guy inside tried to rip open the door from inside. Martin and Jessica secured the door holding it transferring their weight into the door. They could hear the chain clanging and banging inside.
“What are you doing staring at him like that?” Martin asked under his breath.
“I don’t know… I felt hypnotized…” Jessica answered putting all her strength on the door.
“Well, well, well…” a baritone voice came from behind. The noise inside eased out. Jessica and Martin looked at their back.
“Professor Delos Santos!?” Martin exclaimed.
“What do two hall monitors doing in this side of the dormitory without a faculty member?” he inquired.
“Well… we just wanted…” Jessica started to stammer.
“We found a trap door where the lunatic is hidden!” Martin exclaimed to Jessica’s horror.
“So you had met my son.” Dean Delos Santos said.
Both of them stared at the Dean.
“Your friend was naïve walking down this corridor late that night. She heard me walking in here and got afraid. She asked me who I am then my son heard her. He was thrilled to have a visitors especially if she resembles Haley. Of course, she found out about my son so I killed her when she inquired about him.”
“You… you…” Jessica stammered.
“I did, so will I do to you. You too are nosy. I could have left you alone if you had left my son alone, but you didn’t.” Dean Delos Santos said. He pulled a gun with a silencer from inside his coat.
“You can’t!” Jessica exclaimed.
“Oh, I’ve done it before, with the girl named Haley and the your bestfriend, Harlienne. She’s quite has some brains, I must say, too bad she’s got to go so are you two. Martin would be a great loss, too being my student assistant.” He said.
“Professor…” Martin stammered.
“Don’t worry son, your parents will be proud of you.”
Martin gathered all his strength and pushed the Dean away giving the two of them just enough time to run away.
The two of them ran to the foot of the stairs of the roof top… the door was locked… they are trapped…
“Nowhere to go now…” Dean Delos Santos said at their back. He pointed his gun on Martin.
Jessica held on to Martin. He was blocking her with his body. His body rigid against her shaking body.
Dean Delos Santos was near into pulling the trigger… the time seemed to slow down… near… very near… very very near…
“FREEZE!” a solid voice shouted at the back of the Dean. Jessica could only make out several guns pointed at the Dean’s back. “Put down your gun. Hands in the air. You are coming with us to the station. You have the right to remain silent.” The officer in charge exclaimed.
Jessica visited Harlienne’s funeral early the day after the incident happened. Martin was with her. She was the star witness on the case filed against Dean Delos Santos. Gerald Delos Santos was brought to the hospital for mental therapy. He had been hidden in that room behind the trapdoor for so long due to the pride of his father. He was kept a secret after Dean Delos Santos killed his own wife by means of suffocation and claimed that she died of heart attack. Gerald’s father was accused of four heinous crimes.#
