The Rooftop Mystery

"Hey?" Wika patted Jerico's arm a little, who was daydreaming instead of entering the class.

Jerico turned his face towards Wika and then smiled awkwardly again. Jerico and Wika finally entered the classroom together. Once again, Jerico looked towards the end of the corridor, and the female student he saw just now was no longer there. Wika went straight to her seat after entering the class, while Jerico stood in front of the class with Ms. Kinanti.

The class leader stood up and gave a signal to greet Mrs. Kinanti and pray. After all the students had returned to their seats, Ms. Kinanti began to introduce Jerico.

"Good morning everyone. Today we have a new student and at the same time a new friend for you." Said Ms. Kinanti.

Every student's attention was centered on Jerico from the moment he entered the class. And it definitely made Jerico feel a little awkward. But he confidently began to introduce himself on the instructions of Ms. Kinanti.

"Hi everyone. My name is Jerico Jones, I moved from a school in America. Thank you." Jerico was actually confused about how to introduce himself. But by mentioning his name and previous school, it didn't seem so bad.

"All right, now please have Jerico sit next to Doni, okay?" Ms. Kinanti pointed to the seat at the back where the student named Doni was sitting. Jerico went straight to his seat, and that's when class started.

"Hi, I'm Doni." Doni said in a lowered voice for fear of disturbing the lesson that had started. Jerico replied to Doni's words for a few moments because after that they returned to pay attention to Ms. Kinanti who was explaining the subject matter.

After class was over, Ms. Kinanti left the class. Then the students began to gather around Jerico to get to know him.

"Hi Jerico, I'm Wahyu."

"Jerico, I'm Nisa."

"I'm Bella."

"Jerico …"

"Jerico …"

They all said each other's names and extended their hands. They looked very excited because they had new friends. Jerico was overwhelmed, but he was also so happy that he took their hands and shook hands.

After shaking hands with all his friends, Jerico saw two of them nudging each other as if they had something to say, but reluctant to do so told each other to talk.

The two people realized that Jerico and the other friends were now staring at them, finally one of them gave in and started the conversation.

"Jerico, do you believe in ghosts?" This classmate known as Lena spoke hesitantly.

"Ghost?" Jerico raised an eyebrow then changed his sitting position. "I don't believe in ghosts. Why do you ask?"

The look on his friend's face looked very disappointed. "You really don't believe it?" Asked Alam—one of his classmates—

Jerico shook his head, "What's the matter?"

"Jerico, believe it or not, what you should know is that we live side by side with 'them'." A girl with long hair and bangs that went past her eyebrows came out of nowhere and said something that Jerico thought was utter nonsense.

The girl then continued her sentence, "Even in this school, 'they' are also here. Because it's not just us who live here, we have to watch our attitude and don't do things that annoy them."

Jerico just kept silent and was busy with his own thoughts. How could his friends believe such superstitions? Jerico really didn't believe and would never believe in the ghost they mentioned.

However, because he tried to respect the opinions of his friends, he also responded to the girl's words. "For example?"

"Hah?" The girl didn't seem to understand Jerico's question.

"What are examples of disturbing things?"

"Oh. For example, don't go to the rooftop every Monday."

Look, what kind of prohibition was this? How was Monday different from any other day? Jerico still couldn't stop thinking about this rule. He recalled what the security guard said earlier. Was this what the rules meant by following them if you want to survive?

"Why is that so?" Jerico asked.

**

Jerico was currently in the toilet. He recalled the words of his friend, known as Aluna. Really, if Aluna took part in the story telling competition, then she would be the winner. The girl was very deep into the story she was telling, so that everyone who heard it got lost in the story.

Before leaving the toilet, Jerico washed his hands first. When he was going back to his class, Jerico met again with the student he saw at the end of the corridor. She stood stiffly in front of the women's toilet door as if staring blankly at the wall in front of her.

The girl had shoulder-length hair that looked a little disheveled, her clothes were shabby and if you looked closely, her skin was very pale as if there was no blood flowing in her body. The girl remained silent without moving at all. She didn't seem to notice Jerico's presence behind her. Jerico kept looking at her as if it was very difficult to take his eyes off the girl.

A moment later, the student's face turned slightly to the side as if she had just felt Jerico's gaze on her. As soon as she started to turn around, her pale arm that looked normal at first turned out to be covered in bruises and several cuts. Jerico had bad instincts towards the girl so he tried to back away slowly. Before the girl could turn around completely, suddenly a small ball covered in red liquid from the student's hand rolled and stopped right at Jerico's feet.

Without thinking long, Jerico picked up the ball, but when he started looking up from his squat he could see the girl's feet suddenly standing in front of him. Without saying anything she just kept quiet as if waiting for Jerico to stand parallel to her.

Don't know what possessed Jerico, but he started to feel afraid of this student. Slowly, he got up and saw the girl's body gradually. Until finally when he was about to see the student's face, a hand tapped his shoulder.

Deg.

"Jerico!"

Jerico turned his body towards the person who called him.

"You can just call me casually, Don. You don't have to tap me on the shoulder. It hurts." Jerico breathed a sigh of relief because really, he was a little panicked earlier.

"I've called you many times, Jer. But you were daydreaming. I was afraid you were stuck. What were you watching anyway?"

Really? Didn't Doni just call him once?

"Oh, I was looking—" Jerico stopped his words when he realized that the student earlier had disappeared. Jerico frowned, then he looked at his empty palm. Even though Jerico was very sure that earlier he was holding that small object. Without realizing it, his body was covered in sweat and his face looked a little pale.

Was I hallucinating? Thought Jerico.

"What are you doing, how come you are sweating like this? Your face is also very pale, you really have cramps, don't you, Jer?" Doni asked something that was difficult for Jerico to understand.

"I saw nothing and I'm okay. Let's go back to class." Jerico tried to forget the strange incident he experienced, and thought that he was only hallucinating because his subconscious was still affected by the horror story that Aluna told during class earlier.