CURIOSITY KILLS THE CAT

Curiosity is both a blessing and a curse. It's like a beautiful fire, you watch it from afar and it seems alluring but wander too close and you'll get scorched. I chose to wander close and that I think was the biggest mistake I might've ever made. I got myself into something I couldn't get out of, but strangely, a small part of me was glad that I did.

I heard a spine chilling scream from the room next to where Kierr's party was held. The music stopped and everyone froze, and so did I. We all looked at each other, waiting for someone among us who was brave enough to see what happened. A few seconds which felt like hours came by and at last someone ran out and checked. Soon, everyone followed suit.

"You heard that too right?" an unfamiliar voice said from behind.

I looked back and there he was, the guy I saw earlier on the rooftop, and the one I made eye contact with at the party.

"Y-yeah I did"

He looked at me with a worried face and I looked back, mirroring his expression.

"THERE'S A DEAD BODY IN HERE OH MY GOD '' someone shouted.

Panic ensued.

I hurried to see what happened in the bathroom and it was terrifying. The guy followed suit and what we saw….

The body was blue, and it looked shrunken, as if everything was sucked out of him from the inside. His eyes froze in a horrified state, his jaws wide open like he was screaming for help but no one came. His torso…cut off from his body. There was blood everywhere. He looked like he drowned but he wasn't wet, not one bit.

I recognized the guy. Edmund Patton. He's in the football team, kind of a jerk but….he didn't deserve whatever happened to him.

I felt sick, I wanted to puke. I couldn't take anymore of it so I ran out there as fast as I could and vomited outside. I was used to seeing pretty fucked up shit from the internet, but seeing this…in real life—I-I didn't know how to react.

"Holy shit"

The guy said, standing beside me. We looked at each other and saw the horror in each other's eyes. We both understood that whatever we saw….was not the work of a human being.

We sat there outside for 10 minutes. And finally Mrs. Raven and the other teachers came, they told the students to go back to their dorms and to remain there until the situation was handled. A teacher that came in the bathroom to check for themselves, ran out and vomited non-stop, that's how bad this was.

"GO" Mrs. Raven yelled. And we all went back to our dorms, including me.

After a few minutes of just sitting in my bed, trying to recover from what happened, I got up and got ready for bed. I laid in my bed…still horrified from what I saw. I mean who wouldn't be? A few more minutes passed and I eventually dozed off. I thought sleep would help me, maybe I would forget about it the next day, 𝑀𝑎𝑦𝑏𝑒 𝑡ℎ-𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑎 𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚. But I guess that was just more of my wishful thinking.

SEPT. 13

I woke up, sweat all over my sheets, cold air filled the room. 𝐼𝑡'𝑠 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑛𝑜𝑤.I thought to myself, not knowing the violent waves coming up ahead. I got up and did my usual morning routine, washed my face, ate breakfast, brushed my teeth, and got dressed for school. 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑏𝑒 𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑡𝑜 𝑛𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑙, 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑏𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑎𝑦, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒 𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑦 𝑏𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒. If I came back to that moment I would punch myself in my guts.

I walked out of my room and went to my class but the students were walking away from the classroom. 𝑆𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒. I thought, usually they'd just let us continue to class whenever an incident happened and force us to pretend nothing ever went wrong….

"Mrs. Raven told us the classes are suspended for a week, and everyone at Kierra's party should report to the admin's office tomorrow… " Angel said from behind, which startled me.

"Oh…"

"What happened last night? I heard something really bad went down…you okay?"

"Uh..yeah-"

Everything just came back to Edmund's face, his mutilated body, the blood- it all just kept flashing again and again and again and- I took a deep breath.

"You know what happened…..don't you?"

I couldn't say anything so I just stared at her.

"Do you…want to talk about.it?"

"NO…I mean…no, I don't want to"

"We should head back inside…" Angel told me, with a worried look on her face.

We went back inside our dorm and she closed the door behind us. I sat in my bed, closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

"Why'd you go to that party anyway?"

"Kierra wanted me to…"

"Oh.."

"How about you? Where were you last night? I didn't see you anywhere at the party"

"I was there for a bit, then I left, it was hella boring"

"Strange"

"Strange? What do you mean "strange"?"

"I thought you were a party girl…I mean at least you've got the vibes of one"

"Well I thought you'd HATE parties"

"I do!"

"Then…why'd you go?"

"I mean…it's Kierra, how could you ever say no to them? Plus I feel like I ℎ𝑎𝑑 to go…I don't know why but it's like I don't know how say no to people"

"I feel that way too….but I'm learning not to be so…submissive, just agreeing to other people to not cause any arguments"

"Huh…its like...you and I are almost like sisters"

She giggled and so did I.

"Maybe we really are? Hmm?"

"Seriously? You're kidding…..right?"

"Obviously who's gonna believe that 𝑊𝐸 are sisters?"

"Definitely not me"

We both laughed it out. 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠…𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙𝑠 𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑒. I thought to myself. Something about being able to tell someone how you felt feels so….good, even though I didn't tell her much about me. It was nice, being understood. That's something my "friends" didn't really…do. It was always going to the next party, what things to shop, who they were dating next, I didn't really care for any of those and I just ended up feeling like a stranger whenever I hung out with them.

After a while, Angel went to the library again, she said she's gonna be there for a while, so I stayed in my room, trying to distract myself from what happened last night.

Soon, I saw the sun was slowly setting so I grabbed my phone and earphones and headed to the roof. When I got there, I saw the guy I met yesterday, standing still where he was yesterday. I sat on my usual spot—right next to him. He looked at me, I looked at him. We both didn't say a word to each other and went back to looking at the sky again.

Watching the azure sky turn into a golden pink as the sun retreats back to where it lives, and feeling the cold breeze of autumn pass by us. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and just let everything go. 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑝𝑎𝑠𝑠. More of my wishful thinking, but hey a girl can dream.

I could tell something big was happening behind the scenes, something the school doesn't want us to find out. Bellarose always had a thing for sweeping things under the rug and covering shit up just to keep their reputation but I didn't know if they could cover this up. Something more sinister was going on, I could feel it. That body, it did not look like your usual murder. Who- no what would ever have such a great amount of insanity, madness, and an unquenchable thirst for blood to commit such monstrosity. All I knew at that time was that that was not human, whatever that was was not the act of an individual. I had a terrible feeling in my gut and it's not usually my forte to dig my nose into things but if no one's going to do it, then I'll do it myself. It's not going to be a smooth process and there will be twists and turns but that's what makes a story so…enticing, thrilling even.

This, my friends, is where it all started. There was no going back now. Did I regret this decision? Maybe. But life is full of regrets, is it not? I won't guarantee you anything. That is for you to find out if you wish to tag along this journey of mine.