"It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data"~ Arthur Conan Doyle
Rowan
I quickly averted my eyes as I looked into her green ones. This girl is weird; she didn't panic and just behaves like everything is normal. Why did she even look at me like that? Like she knew something I didn't? I stood up and tried to shake off the feeling of unease I felt when she looked at me.
I was walking to my next class of the day when I heard the speakers saying we should go back to our dorms until further notice. Good for me then. More time to rest and properly analyze what I saw last night. As I closed my bedroom door with a soft click and sat on the bed, I started thinking. There was movement outside from what I saw from my window, a figure slipping past the perimeter. I didn't see a face, just presence. I saw someone leave. No one else noticed. Then I came to school this morning and heard that the most respectable and high-ranking police official is dead. Kael Rylan is dead. Someone left campus, and someone died. That is not a coincidence.
I stand up to remove my shirt and turn around, only for me to sense the feeling of someone watching me, the response to external stimuli, which is weird because I know my dorm is always locked, so who could have gotten in? Also, someone should explain to me why I was so fixated on this corner of the wall? As if something is there? Looking at me through that little corner? Watching my every movement? With every step I take? I look at the corner intensely again until I stop and continue removing my clothes, shaking off the weird feeling of paranoia I just got.
I walk to my bathroom and let warm water cascade over my back as steam clears my mind. My thoughts return to Vesper. She was calm—too calm—unlike the others. Everyone else whispers, scared and shaken, fixated on Kael's death, but not her. She just minds her own business. Vesper isn't surprised. Not even a shadow of agitation or fear crosses her face.
I leave the bathroom, change into nightwear, and lie on my bed, my mind still reeling. The silhouette I saw, the timing, Vesper's behavior, that eye contact—all align perfectly. I have no proof, but my gut tells me something is terribly wrong with that girl. A feeling is better than being totally blind, isn't it?
I silently make the decision to neither confront her nor report her; instead, I will watch her, mainly because I do not trust the authorities, and I need to understand Vesper first. If Vesper is involved in the death of Kael Rylan. I will find out.