Chapter Seven

Lucianne backed away from the piano in shock. Why were there fresh finger marks? She was also certain that she had heard someone playing the piano earlier, just as she was certain that she had locked the tower door. Fear pushed its way into the front of her mind as her heart thudded in her ears.

Step. Step. Step.

She jumped where she stood, her head turning back to the stairwell. Someone was ascending the stairs! She waited as panic set in before she turned to the window and saw the same vine slapping against the window frame. Sighing, she walked over and pulled the window shut after she pushed the vine out of the way. The vine was still swinging around outside the window and -

There was someone in the reflection of the mirror!

She gasped, her body spinning around in a split second. But nobody was there. And the piano was the only thing behind her, sitting still and not making even one sound.

Freaked out, she ran into her room and locked it tightly behind her. Running to her bed, she climbed onto it and huddled around her sheets, covering them up to her neck. She closed her eyes and muttered some lines of prayer, and it wasn't long before sleep overtook her.

She awoke the next morning to the piercing morning bell. She washed up quickly and was walking down the tower stairs when the bell for breakfast rang too. Brisk walking to the food hall, she fetched some food before joining her friends at their usual table.

"Don't speak of him! Death is near whenever you speak those words…" Abbie hissed at Harper.

"Jeez," Harper said.

"What are we talking about?"

"It's the middle of October, Lucianne," Jonas said. "November is coming."

"What about November?"

"I guess you haven't heard. November is when the Hex Beast comes out of hiding. It's when students start disappearing from campus and turning up brutally murdered."

"Isn't it just a myth?" Lucianne said. She couldn't fathom why everyone in Crestfall was so enraptured by this. "Students drop out all the time."

"Oh, they didn't drop out alright," Harper said. "They disappeared. Under very weird circumstances."

"How?"

Harper started to say something but Jonas held a finger up at her. "Let me say it," he said. "There once was a female student, a real pretty girl, everyone liked her because she was kind. But one day, she fell asleep at the library and when she woke up, it was already night. She decided to go to the toilet before heading back to the dormitory. But when she reached, something happened."

"What?" Lucianne asked.

"You know how the toilet doors for each cubicle are quite short, right?" Harper said.

"Yeah," Lucianne said.

"The girl saw two legs in one cubicle, but they were dressed in pants. A male student was there, but it was the ladies. She knocked on the door, asking him what he was up to in the female toilet and to leave, but he did not answer. Afraid, she didn't use any of the other empty toilets and decided to leave."

"Good choice," Lucianne said.

"And that was when she heard the creak of the toilet door opening. She turned around, looked at who was in the cubicle. But she saw something so terrifying that she dropped dead on the spot, the horror on her face permanently etched on her face."

"It sounds like it was something created by the female students to keep male students from peeping on them," Lucianne said, shrugging.

"Oh, wait till you hear this story," Abbie said. "You may not know about this, but our school used to have an elevator shaft in the old building which is now abandoned. A boy broke into that place on a dare by his friends and he was surprised to find the elevator still working. In fact, it was the only sign of life there."

"And?"

"He took the elevator, and hit the button for the top floor, level 10. And the number on the metre rose and rose, until it went above level 10, reaching up to 11, 12. Then to 13."

A chill touched Lucianne's skin.

"When it was the 13th level, a level that wasn't supposed to exist, the elevator doors opened and he was greeted by darkness. Nothing happened for a solid minute until out of the blue, he heard loud footsteps, someone running towards him. An emaciated man appeared from the other side of the darkness, hands extended towards the elevator, screaming for him to hold the doors!"

Jonas slammed his fist on the table and Lucianne jumped.

"The boy quickly hit the close button repeatedly and just when the man was about to reach the elevator, the doors closed. The elevator slowly went down and down, until finally it reached the bottom level. But when the doors opened, the boy was gone."

"These are all just stories," Lucianne said.

"November is coming, Lucianne," Abbie said. "And the students are at the mercy of the Hex Beast. He will claim their souls."

"He? Isn't it an animal?"

"That's what they tell you," Abbie said.

"I'm sure nothing will happen," Lucianne said.

"There is not one November where there haven't been any deaths," Abbie said forlornly. "It is said that the Hex Beast hides in plain sight, among the students. It is one of us."

"What are you saying?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Abbie said.

Lucianne waited for her to continue.

"I'm saying that there is a murderer on campus."