CHAPTER 21

I watched her as she yawned and closed her eyes.

How does a murderer act like?

I sighed.

Damn, I wish I could google it right now.

"Fatima, look at Leena." Hajera laughed beside me.

I turned around. Leena was dancing on the table.

"Crazy." I muttered as I turned around but, then something

caught my eye and I immediately turned around.

I saw a girl. Lean and a little shorter than I was. Her eyes

hidden behind spectacles but, the deep and dark eye circles

prominent through them.

Who's that?

She looked familiar.

I scoffed mentally. These days I had plenty of people around

me who looked familiar. I had lost fragments of my memory.

So, I turned around focusing back on Nadeefa.

"How did she suffer from a concussion again?"

Hajera groaned.

"I told you. She fell off the stairs."

"Just that. How can a person have suffered from a concussion

by just falling off the stairs?"

"Well, she did. And, isn't she, our friend? You should be

supporting her not doubting her." she sounded offended.

I ignored her slight anger.

"So, did she lose her memory too?"

"For a day. Eventually she regained it back. But she doesn't

remember any details of the incident."

"That's absurd. Is she faking it or something?"

"Fatima." she turned to me; her face held an annoyed

expression.

"You suffered from a concussion too. You regained your

memory back expect of that incident and when you get to

know that Nadeefa has gone through the same thing you think

that she's faking it. You can fake things too, right?" she spat.

"What?"

"No, you're getting me wrong. I've reports that prove that my

concussion is real." I defended myself.

"She has them too." she defended Nadifa.

"I haven't gained back all of my memory. Some parts of it are

still missing form my brain's memory card. I can't remember

them."

"Well, she does too. She doesn't remember the incident."

"But I don't remember the incident and some more incidents.

Don't you think it's too fake? Like forgetting a single memory

and remembering the rest."

"I am done." she got up and walked out.

"Hey. Wait. I'm sorry." I yelled after her.

"So, how do you sing a song then?" I asked my junior. This girl

two years younger than me had interrupted my song. I was

singing a song for Hajera. I was trying to apologize.

She grinned and glanced at her friends. They stifled a laugh.

Were they ragging their senior or something?

She cleared her throat.

"Firstly, you don't sing in that attire." she pointed towards my

abaya and Hijab.

I narrowed my eyes at her.

"You should buy a nice dress. Yellow to be precise. It would

really suit you." She started walking around me.

"But I hate yellow."

"But it would suit you. Trust me." she nodded.

"Also, you can't sing in a foul tone like that. Your voice should

be the sweetest. What was the lyric again?" she glanced back

at me.

"To die by your side is a heavenly way to die." I muttered

solemnly.

"Yeah." she smiled then she kept her one hand on my ear and

her other on her ear.

"To die by your side is a heavenly way to die." she sang

terribly, and we all burst out laughing.

"I'll make sure to take singing lessons from you. What's your

name again?" I asked her after sobering up.

"You can find me here tomorrow morning." she smiled.

I nodded and walked back to my class.

There was a lot of commotion going on near the staircase. I

stopped and peeked over the shoulders of everyone gathered

around. There was blood all over the wall. Not too much but,

enough to churn people's stomach. A cat was lying on the

stairs. Dead cat. Its neck was cut open.

The sight of blood and dead cat was doing things to me. I had

never been scared of blood. It was really normal to me. But

today as I saw it splashed across the wall. Covering ¼ of the

wall I felt nauseous. It was like I had seen so much blood

before. But, in reality I had never seen too much of blood. I

held my hand over my mouth. And, the cat. The poor cat. I

grimaced at the sight. The innocent creature was dead.

Someone had killed it. It wasn't an accident. I looked away

when I had enough. Then I heard voices of the guards.

"What's wrong?" officer Badr Al-Din walked out of his room.

"There's blood."

He made a disgusting face and searched his pockets for

something. Then he glanced around and looked at me. I

immediately looked away.

Please don't blame me for this one, officer.

I was not even here.

"Get back inside. Clean up this mess." he barked his orders to

everyone around.

I felt extremely nauseous so, I ran back to the washroom

stalls.

I kept my hand on my chest to calm myself down. I was just

feeling too much nauseous. The feeling wouldn't go away.

I sat in a secluded place in my class.

I was sick.

Nauseous. Feverish. Headache. Dizzy. Everything.

It was pouring outside. Quite heavily. Rain in December was

not expected. Rain in Jeddah was not expected too. Rain was

rare.

"Are we going to have a sleepover at school again?" Hajera

chirped.

I rolled my eyes.

"I wish we could watch movies all night." she sighed dreamily.

"I want to go home and snuggle under my blanket." I traced

the writings on the wall.

"Girls. Attention."

We all got up at the voice of HM. She walked inside with our

class teacher.

"The rain hasn't stopped. And, according to the reports of

weather forecast it won't stop raining any time soon now. We

are expecting a rainstorm later today."

I looked at Hajera and she looked back at me.

"So, the authorities have warned us not to disperse students

back to their homes. You'll be staying here as long as the

storm continues. Pray that it ends soon. The arrangements for

your stay will be made of course."

"I don't like this blanket." I removed it off me for the

umpteenth time.

I glanced around the room and the window without curtains

made me a little nervous. I wanted to go to the washroom.

But, the thought of going downstairs all alone at such an

ungodly hour was stupid. I glanced at my watch.

1:00 am.

After midnight. I gulped nervously.

"Hajera." I whispered. She was sleeping peacefully.

"Hajera." I slapped her lightly.

She muttered something that was inaudible and went back to

sleep.

Should I go all alone?

I got up, wore my shoes and walked out. The door creaked

loudly. I walked out of the corridor slowly. There was no one

around. All the guards were outside the building. I still

suspected Nadifa. There was something really off about her.

She was unusually quiet, always sat in a corner, a little bit

rude. The thing that I hated the most about her these days was

her getting mad even for the pettiest of reasons. But, Hajera

had shrugged it off saying she has always been like that. My

head still pained whenever I would get flashbacks. Flashbacks

were of dark rooms, blood everywhere and that dream of the

forest.

I was still lost in my musings when I heard footsteps. I

stopped walking. I heard no voice other than the noise of

crickets outside.

Who's could it be?

I started walking again and I heard footsteps behind me.

Someone was walking behind me but, at a distance. I stopped

again and the footsteps stopped too.

What was happening?

I started walking again slowly this time. I heard the footsteps

again. I was going to descend the stairs but, then I changed

my mind and walked to the next corridor. Only, to find out

who it was. I didn't look back. It wasn't exactly dark. All of the

lights were switched off instead of one above the stairs. I

walked inside the next corridor and peeked over my shoulder.

There was no one.

I turned around fully. There was no one. The corridor was

clear. The staircase was clear. I was the probably the only

person roaming around the corridors at night. I should just go

down. But, what about the footsteps?