CHAPTER 53
Main hallway - 9:00 pm
"I had no idea that Nicholas would be that annoying. Really."
Brittany pursed her lips and chuckled as she walked with Alicia down the main hallway. The two of them had just spent their evening hours in the library and were about to head back to their rooms for the night.
"What did you expect? Nicholas is a perfectionist, you know," Alicia said simply. "And me... a rambunctious girl like me would suit him?" She ended her sentence with a bitter smile; it sounded pessimistic.
Brittany just rolled her eyes lazily and scowled. "Not Nicholas, not with Ace." She shuddered lazily. "I think you should date Manu Rios or Justin Bieber instead," she said sarcastically. "You seem very picky too, Alicia."
Alicia chuckled amusedly, unable to contain herself from Brittany's ridiculous joke.
Until suddenly, Amanda and Selena appeared from opposite directions and blocked their way. No one made a sound, until Selena decided to clear her throat;breaking the atmosphere. "Alicia, Noel is calling you."
Brittany frowned suspiciously. "What's the matter?"
Selena immediately shrugged indifferently. "I heard she was going to be questioned about Jake." She glanced at Amanda before turning back to Alicia and Brittany. "Come on, Britt. We've been summoned to the CEO's office, I hear Mr. Wilson really needs us."
Brittany snorted rudely--as if she couldn't believe what Selena was saying. "What is it again?!"
Selena seemed unable to contain her irritation any longer. She girded her loins and glared at the police officer's son. "Will you shut your mouth and just do it?! You're pissing me off," she snapped angrily and turned away.
Not wanting to linger in an argument with Selena, Brittany quickly walked after Selena towards the CEO's office. Meanwhile, Alicia was still in her place, staring intently at Amanda's movements.
"Come on!" Amanda invited suddenly.
"With you?" There was a hint of surprise in the midst of Alicia's question just now. But she quickly brushed it off when Amanda gave her a sardonic glare and said, "Okay."
Before they knew it, they arrived at the main hall. The classical-style room with a Greek concept and replica paintings of world painters was still neatly displayed in its place. However, something odd immediately bothered Alicia.
There was no one in the room but her and Amanda. All of the hall's doors and windows were closed. Plus, Alicia found a lot of papers scattered around the room. What was going on?
"Where's Noel?" asked Alicia, as soon as they got inside.
But Amanda didn't answer. Instead, she stood behind the door after closing it and looked at Alicia straight on.
"Why did you close the door?" Alicia sounded worried. "Where is Noel? Where's the investigation going on?"
Amanda grinned faintly and immediately disappeared as Alicia began to look at her warily. "Why did you leave me, Alicia?" Amanda's tone was calm, but all of her words were able to pierce Alicia's chest.
Alicia was stunned for a while, until something finally occurred to her. "So... this is all your doing?"
A fragment of memory about the past.
"Why did you let mom and dad die?!" Amanda exclaimed;sounding more like a heartbreaking moan.
"Amanda."
"Why did you just leave me and walk away?!" Amanda exclaimed louder. This time, her body began to tremble. And a knife in her hand--which had been hidden under her jacket--was pointed directly at Alicia.
Alicia gasped and hurriedly exclaimed, "It's not like that, Amanda!" because she knew Amanda was an expert at throwing knives.
"They took me and made me suffer all this time!" Amanda screeched without lowering the knife from the air. "All they wanted was you, Alicia! But why me, why was I tortured all this time?!" The brunette girl laughed bitterly. "You must pay for all your sins, Alicia."
Alicia took a deep breath before finally shaking her head. "They deserve to die, Amanda."
And her words just now stunned Amanda. She stared at Alicia in disbelief, but couldn't get anything out of her mouth.
"It was your parents who harmed my biological parents. My memories slowly surfaced every time you scolded me, Amanda. One by one and I knew the truth," she said slowly. "I remember that night... I saw Dad go into the garage and damage the car engine. Unfortunately, I was too young and scared to prevent my parents from going to San Antonia after someone I always called dad and mom sabotaged their vehicle."
Amanda's laughter broke out instantly, breaking the echo of the main hall. "You're so ungrateful, aren't you. My parents adopted you as their daughter and now what?" Amanda shook her head in disbelief. "You're accusing them of killing your biological parents after saving you before you became a hobo?"
"They were mobsters, Amanda!" Alicia tried to tell her.
"And your parents were con artists!"
Alicia's eyes rounded quickly, her cheeks heating up as her hands clenched at her sides. Hearing the word 'con artist' thrown around by Amanda just now, made Alicia's chest tighten; she couldn't take it.
"My parents are not fraudsters," Alicia said, trying to calm down. "They are innocent. Just like our friends in this dormitory, your victim...," Alicia hung her sentence in the air and stared at Amanda's gaze. "They're innocent."
But Amanda chuckled scornfully. "Innocent, you say?" She crossed her arms over her chest and raised one eyebrow. "James, he owes me a lot of money for a stack of cocaine and insults me when I can't pay him. Don't I have a right to be angry? Oh, and Elena, she scolded me in public just because she lost her hairpin, does that make sense?" Amanda took one step forward from her position. "And lastly Jake, I thought he would take my side after all the freedom I gave him. But what?"
Alicia wrinkled her forehead deeply. "But that doesn't mean you have the right to take their lives." The blue-eyed girl backed away slowly, trying to get closer to the row of world paintings behind her without being noticed by Amanda. "They deserve a chance, just like you," she said firmly.
Again Amanda laughed, this time bitterly. "Just like you said for my parents, they deserved to die, Alicia!" she exclaimed irritably. "And so do you!" Amanda pointed her knife in the air, ready to throw it at Alicia.
But Alicia managed to grab one of the paintings behind her and when the knife came towards her, it stuck straight into the painting.
"Damn you, Alicia!" Amanda screamed angrily.
Alicia hurriedly ran to the other side of the hall, while Amanda was busy removing the knife from the painting before going back after Alicia. But there was no escape for her as this was all planned. Alicia's back collided with the hall door as Amanda stood right in front of her, looking at her with a triumphant grin.
"Amanda, why are you taking it out on me? What did I do to you?" Alicia tried to buy some time as they were now only inches apart.
"You're still asking, what did you do wrong?" Amanda pointed the knife in her hand at Alicia again. "You have everything I have. You took it from me and I'm going to take it back," she said coldly.
"Amanda, it's not like that--"
Alicia's voice was suddenly cut off as Amanda threw the knife at Alicia. The thick red liquid slowly flowed from it. It soaked some of Alicia's bright white clothes.
Their eyes clashed before Amanda returned with a satisfied grin with a lighter in her hand and said,
.
.
.
"You deserve to die, Alicia." and the lighted lighter instantly struck the pile of papers around Alicia that had been doused with gasoline earlier. []
CHAPTER 54"They died in horrible ways. Hans was killed with silver metal in his chest and Julia died of poisoning.""What now? Can't you go any faster, Nic?!" said Ace anxiously.Meanwhile, Luke sat in the back seat holding on tightly to his seatbelt as Nicholas drove the car at high speed. Several times the detective ran red lights and overtook vehicles that were bigger than the car. Luke seemed to be frightened by it. "I could die if he does that, Ace," Luke said nervously."Alicia is in danger. We have to find her soon!" said Ace impatiently.Before Nicholas could respond, Luke's cell phone broke the silence."Pick it up, Luke!" ordered Ace, still in a high-pitched voice.Luke sighed rudely and pulled his harness tight, before reaching into his pants pocket to retrieve his cell phone. "Who's calling me at this crucial time, anyway? Just watch out if it's not important." That complaint suddenly vanished when Brittany's name appeared on the screen. She hurriedly picked up the call.
CHAPTER 55Golden Hospital, New York. 3 years later.The sound of the hemodynamic monitor in the hospital's VVIP room seemed to be a humming of hope for the young man. The graph on the monitor screen showing the changes in the waves rising and falling was the only sign that - at least - his father was still alive.His father being declared alive was enough for Ace Blake.For the past week, Mr. Wilson Blake (Ace's father) had been hospitalized in a coma due to a sudden heart attack. This is said to have happened because his business had declined drastically.The old body lay weakly on a white-clothed bed. At the same time, his nose was protected by a breathing apparatus to supply oxygen. As far as the eye could see, Ace could see that the old body was surrounded by several other medical devices - such as a yring pump, a heart rate recorder and even a suction machine - to keep his condition stable."How is he now?"Ace Blake, was finally asked to replace his father as CEO of several lar
CHAPTER 56Golden University, New York.The hurried footsteps of someone who seemed to be in a hurry sounded faint to Alicia's ears. But her hunch was never wrong. Alicia finally decided to pause as soon as she reached the campus gate to remove the earphones that had been clogging her ears.She turned around and found Brittany (her best friend) there.Brittany Scoots, the blonde-haired girl who was wearing a white jumpsuit and black ankle boots that afternoon, looked out of breath when she reached Alicia. Her temples were covered in sweat and her mouth was open, seemingly trying to suck in the oxygen around her."Britt?"Brittany and Alicia had been friends for the past two years and they had both chosen the same college to continue their education. Although both of them were not in the same major concentration. Alicia chose criminology and Brittany returned to her passion for design."Oh my, Alicia!" Brittany's breathing was still labored, making it sound strange now. "I called you e
CHAPTER 57Golden University, New York"So today, we're going to get to know the four basic human traits."Alicia sat pensively in her chair in the corner of the classroom. Her eyes were facing straight ahead, but her mind was wandering all over the place. She had been losing her focus lately."A theory says, humans have four basic characters. They are the leader choleric, the peace-loving plegmatic, the sociable saguinis and the always-planned melancholic."Since talking to Nicholas yesterday, her feelings had become uncomfortable. The girl was forced to refuse detective Nicholas' request just because she felt bad for her boyfriend, Ace. Her relationship with Ace was like something tied up. She always felt like she was cheating on him just by talking to the opposite sex.Alicia knew very well that Ace wouldn't like it if he found out that Alicia was helping Nicholas in another murder case even though her feelings continued to be plagued by curiosity and guilt. All those deaths always
CHAPTER 58Golden Hospital, New York."The victim was pronounced dead due to suffocation and heart failure."Nicholas was now staring at the body, which was almost completely covered by the white cloth in front of him, in distress. The forensic doctor had performed the autopsy and explained all the results to Noel before he arrived."Could she have suffocated to death?"And Noel nodded. "The doctor suspects that the perpetrator may have strangled the victim using something elastic with great force," he added. "The ligature marks on her neck also suggest that she was strangled repeatedly until all her organs stopped functioning and she eventually suffered heart failure."Noel's statement made Nicholas shake his head. "The criminal didn't just want to see the victim die, he wanted more." His bright brown eyes looked at Noel straight on. "He wants to see his victims suffer before they die."Suddenly, Noel shuddered in horror. "Those words sound even more horrifying when you say them, det
CHAPTER 59New York City police station.Nicholas took a deep breath and exhaled heavily. He did not get much information from his four witnesses. Now, there was only one witness left in front of him. Nicholas really expected a lot from that girl.But this time, he would not be interrogating her alone. Alicia had arrived and was now sitting with him in the white dominated room."So, how do you know Natalie?" Nicholas began."I don't really know her," said Christina, the last witness Nicholas had. "I asked her out because I thought she was friendly enough with the other participants.""Was there anything suspicious about her while you were talking?"Then Christina shook her head. "But...," she frowned; appearing to be thinking. "Our conversation was interrupted when I told her that I had a serious illness and had been admitted to Golden Hospital for a long time." Christina looked at Nicholas and then Alicia in turn. "She suddenly raised her tone and left me. She really disliked that ho
CHAPTER 60For two days Alicia couldn't stop thinking about the cases Nicholas was handling. The way the perpetrators killed their victims reminded her of memories from her past. Couldn't what was happening now be related to those bad times?Alicia is currently sitting on a bench in the campus park alone, contemplating everything. The absence of the lecturer in her last class gives her more time to think about it all in peace.But the series of murders in the past, Alicia can no longer avoid.The first victim, Natalie Heele, manages to remind her of a male student named James Portman who was killed on the first day of her move. The second victim, Rich Greek, was treated the same way as Elena Sanders who died from cyanide poisoning. The names of the victims in her past and how they died before Alicia's eyes, made her almost lose her mind now.Was it Amanda again?"No way," she thought. The girl named Amanda who was determined to be the mastermind of all the murders in her past was now
CHAPTER 61New York City police station.Now Nicholas sat in his room with Noel. The two young detectives are like the envelope and the glue that cannot be separated these days. Plus, their age difference of only two years makes them quite balanced in communication. Nicholas is a leader who is able to help everyone, while Noel is an obedient and loyal partner. He is a loyal dog to a generous and warm-hearted owner. They were like a complete pair when it came to work.But the two of them in Nicholas's office that afternoon were not there to chat between men. Rather, it was to investigate the murders that had occurred over the past week."So what did you find out?" Nicholas leaned his back against the chair. While Noel began to take out his journal from his pants pocket. Noel was busy going through the personal notes he had written on the sheets of paper. "I heard you guys have already checked the theater."Noel nodded quickly. "But we didn't find anything suspicious there, Detective. W