11 Torn Pages (Part Two)

-CEDRIC-

After a few moments of walking with Kylie, we finally arrived at the dormitory building that's only exclusive for Alpha Students only. On the first floor is where the girls' rooms can be found, while the boys' section is on the second floor.

Since she said earlier that the box, which she received from Mr. Cruz earlier is in her room, that is also the reason why we're here in the first place. And we do hope that those things found in the box will be enough to solve this mystery behind those two missing students in the yearbook.

"We're here." I heard Kylie said when we finally arrived in front of her room.

As I watched her open the door of her room, I also can't help but notice the two numbers 06 embossed on top of the door which was in gold plates. Under it is where Kylie's full name is printed as the owner of this room.

When she was able to open it, I suddenly felt conscious. You know, it's awkward for me to go inside of a person's room whom I'm not even close with, let alone if it is a girl's room.

"Well… maybe I'll have to wait here--" Before I could finish off my sentence, Kylie held my right hand and dragged me inside all of a sudden.

"Aww, quit the modesty. We're only here to solve the mystery case, that's all," she said, chuckling to herself as she dragged me to her study table and closing the door behind her.

As soon as she was able to let go of my hand, I watched her walk towards the right corner of her room and saw her pulling a medium-sized box beside her bookshelf. When she was able to pull it out of its place, she carried it with both of her hands and took several steps again until she reached her bed.

"There," she said as she placed the box on top of her bed. "These are the things of Jay Abella, one of the missing students in the yearbook."

I slightly gaped in awe as I marveled at the box in front of me. When I was able to go near to it, I was able to see the things inside the box, which consists of a notebook, a red varsity jacket which has the logo of our school in it, two books by John Green, one strawberry-shaped keychain, and a pair of thick-framed glasses.

"Ohh… I guess Jay likes to read books." I suddenly blurted out. If he's indeed my relative, then I'm opposed to him. I don't like to read books, at all.

"Are you sure he's your relative? I've never seen you read books." Kylie teased while chuckling. I laughed along with her.

Anyway, kidding aside, Kylie started to pick up things inside the box one by one, starting from John Green's books. As she held those in her hands, I watched her shut her eyes and tried to concentrate her thoughts on that particular thing.

"Jay was able to purchase these books from his savings." Kylie recited. Then she dropped those beside the box and picked another one.

"This notebook is Jay's assignment notebook with his terror teacher in math," she stated as she held Jay's notebook.

I asked the notebook from her, which she willingly gave it to me before picking another object from the box. As I scan the notebook, all I can see are hand-written equations and on top of every page is where the assignment number is written.

I know for a fact that I'm also not smart with math, so reading this only gives me a sudden headache.

"This was given by the school in his 2nd week in school," Kylie commented as she held the jacket in her hands. I remember owning that kind of jacket also and it's in my closet.

"This keychain was given to him by a girl that's closest to his heart since she knows that Jay loves strawberries…" I saw Kylie smiled at the thought. "...although I can't clearly see what the girl looks like in my vision."

She then set aside the keychain and picked the last object from the box.

"And these pairs of glasses were given to him by his mother on his 15th birthday.���

After her last statement, I carefully watched her as she took off her glasses and replaced it with Jay's glasses then wore the varsity jacket from earlier. Moments later, she walked near a full-length size mirror that stood beside her closet and watched her reflection from there.

My brows furrowed together when I saw her flinched upon seeing her reflection from there like she had seen an actual ghost just now.

"Kylie? Is there something wrong?" I asked. Concern is evident in my tone right now.

"I can see Jay's reflection looking back at me right now," she responded, which got me confused and surprised at the same time.

As she started to travel around her gaze and examined every corner of her room, I saw her face lit up, like she just discovered something.

"This room was once owned by that other missing female student on the yearbook. I can see them hanging out often here while having a movie marathon on the girl's laptop together there," she stated with her right index finger pointing to where I stand right now.

"However, I can't seem to clearly perceive what this girl looks like. Maybe having one or two of her things can help me do so." she quickly added.

"Yeah, if only we have her things." I agreed.

Eventually, I saw Kylie walking towards the door without a warning. By then I hurriedly moved and tried to catch up with her.

When we finally outside of her room once more, Kylie kept walking until I saw her making her way towards the second floor of this building. I even saw her stepping one foot to her right, like she was avoiding someone that's only visible to her.

"What are we even doing in the boys' section?" I asked but Kylie chose to ignore me and kept walking.

In the end, I kept my questions to myself until I saw her stopped in front of a room….which is my room to be exact.

"This is Jay's room," she stated as she points her right index finger on the number 10 embossed in gold plates. But in my vision, I can also see the same number, only with my name printed under it.

I somehow gasped upon hearing Kylie's words. So this is also Jay's room back then.

I hurriedly fished the keys out of the pocket of my brown trousers and inserted it on the door's keyhole. When we both finally entered my room, I noticed Kylie tilted her head from left to right, as if examining the whole place.

"I can see Jay's also fond of drawing in this study table. He likes to doodle in a blank piece of bond paper using the name of the other missing student whose name is Mae Cortez," she uttered.

Oh, I see. I also love to draw and doodle using my friends' names. I think that's one characteristic that is true to both me and the missing student whom we suspect to be my relative.

"Maybe it has to do with his property…" Kylie said the same words that I was about to say also.

There was a moment of silence when I heard my classmate chuckled all of a sudden.

"Jay is also lazy to study, just like you." she teased. That made me frown at her. Wow, she is really observant, I must say.

Suddenly, Kylie stopped laughing then I heard her groan in pain as she placed one hand on her forehead. Oh, no...maybe she already reached her limit.

"Kylie? Are you okay? If you want we can stop this now so that you can rest." I suggested with a hint of concern in my tone.

Even though her face clearly says that she's in pain right now, Kylie managed to give me a reassuring smile.

"No. I'm fine. I think I can still manage until we finally solve this case for tonight," she replied. "So don't worry about me."

I was still quite hesitant to continue what we're doing right now but then I saw her again walking towards the door without a warning. I can't do anything else but to trail from behind… and make sure she's alright.

At the moment we are now making our way downstairs and out of this dormitory building. My forehead puckered as I asked myself where we were heading to this time. But then I chose to remain silent and continue to follow my classmate from here.

Instead of bombarding Kylie with questions, I decided to focus my attention on the path that we are heading to right now. If I remember it correctly, this path will lead us to where the Science and Technology department building is.

And I was actually right. As we arrived in the mentioned building, I now saw Kylie stopped by in front of the Science Laboratory. She tried to twist the doorknob but it was locked, unfortunately.

"The door's locked," she stated the obvious.

I tried to find ways to open this door. I can somehow say that I'm kinda expert in terms of lock picking, and right now I just need to have a thing to use to unlock this door.

As I roamed around my gaze to find that thing that we could use, I eventually smiled when I saw Kylie's hairpins fastened in her hair.

"Kylie, can I have your hairpins?" Then I saw her arching one eyebrow. "I'm not gay, alright? I'll just need those for lock picking purposes."

"Oh. Okay," she said and started to remove her hairpins one by one and gave it to me.

With these pins, I tried to insert them in the keyhole one by one. However, we stood frozen in our places when we suddenly heard loud footsteps echoing throughout the building and seemed to be heading our way.

"Cedric...I think someone is coming." Kylie warned.

I tried to ignore it and focused my gaze on unlocking this freaking door if we don't want to be caught loitering around the campus past our curfew.

My heartbeat was more rapid than its usual rate as I hastily tried all the pins that Kylie gave to me. With one last remaining pin in my hand that is still not bent yet, I almost screamed in rejoice as we heard that loud click from the other side of the door, indicating that we had successfully unlocked it.

Without wasting any more time, Kylie and I quickly entered the Science Lab while locking the door behind us once again. After that, we tried to look for a good spot to hide in case the owner of those footsteps would enter here.

"Duck your head. I bet there are CCTV cameras somewhere around here." I warned Kylie which she willingly followed.

As I kept on looking for a good hiding spot, I saw a large wooden cabinet placed on the far end corner of the lab. Alright, that should be a nice blindspot for the CCTV cameras and for the person who's about to come here.

"Quick! Let's go hide there." I said, almost in a whisper.

Kylie and I hastily walked behind that enormous cabinet. Kylie placed herself with her back leaning against the wooden cabinet while I, on the other hand, stood in front of her while trying to make some distance between us.

Both of our eyes widened when we heard a faint creaking sound coming from the door. Kylie tried to prevent herself from making any unnecessary noises by covering her mouth.

*Click clack...click clack...click clack*

Every step that this mysterious persona is making is like a ticking time bomb for both of us.

We both knew that if this person continued to walk its way here... then we are doomed.

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