REMEMBER HOLLY JACKSON? - CHAPTER THREE

Chapter Three

Megan's loud scream rang down the dormitory echoing down the hallways and bouncing off the walls.

Several girls stepped out of their dorm rooms to find out what was going on and they gasped with shock horror when they saw the dead rat. Two of them walked over.

"Who did this?" one of them asked Megan and her friends.

Megan, Melody, and Tyler shook their heads.

"We don't know," Tyler replied flatly. He felt a chill at the back of his neck. He turned around and glanced up and saw the CCTV camera up in the corner on. "Guys, look," he pointed out the camera to them. "Perhaps it captured whoever left it here."

Melody and Megan looked at each other.

"Shouldn't we call the police?" Melody asked.

"There's no need," said a sharp female voice behind them.

They all turned around and saw the dormitory manager walking towards them from the back office with a black security guard.

"There's no need to call the police. It's just someone playing a practical joke," the manager told them. She turned to the guard, "get rid of it and get it as far as away from the college as possible."

"Yes, mam," the guard replied. He picked up the box with the dead rat inside and hurried away.

"I suggest you leave the dormitory, Mr Hale," she turned to Tyler with coldness in her blue eyes. She was a tall and slender woman in her late fifties with strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes.

"Yeah, I better go, see you at the party tonight," Tyler turned to Melody and kissed her on the lips before going down the staircase.

Melody turned to the manager. "Is it possible the security camera couldn've recorded who put the box at our door?" she asked.

"May have done," the manager replied, and then with a quick turn of the heel walked away.

"I know who could've done it," Megan said to Melody in a low voice.

"Who?" Melody asked.

"Jake."

"Jake? Are you serious?"

Megan nodded. "He's known as a practical joker. He'd totally pull a stunt like this," she said with anger. Megan turned on her heel dashed down the stairs and out of the dormitory and over to the football field with Melody running after her.

They saw Jake Logan on the football field throwing the ball to another player. He glanced over at them and saw Megan look so mad and beautiful at the same time. His head snapped away to the side when she slapped him grabbing the attention of the other players who gathered around them.

"How dare you, Jake Logan!" she said furiously.

"What the hell was that for?!" he yelled.

"You put that dead rat at Melody and I's dorm room for me, didn't you?!" Megan accused angrily with her blue eyes flashing.

Jake stared back in shock confusion. "What the hell are you talking about? I never left a dead rat for you!" he defended himself.

Melody got a feeling that Jake was telling the truth and he was being sincere. "If you didn't send the dead rat, then who did?" she asked aloud.

"What made you so sure it was me?" Jake demanded Megan.

Megan gulped nervously as she folded her arms across her chest. "Because you always play jokes," she replied.

"Megan, I swear, I didn't send you that."

"If you didn't send it then, who did? And who is H?" Megan asked, turning to Melody who shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't know," Melody replied, deep in thought. "But I'm curious as to find out who," she said to her friends.



They breathed heavily through the mouth hole of the scary mask they wore covering their face as they watched the TV monitors of the CCTV footage around campus. They had their black boots up on the table and lifted up the mask to bite into a rosy red apple. They were their favourite.

They stood up and moved swiftly across the creaking floorboards of the abandoned house they stayed in opposite the college. They went over to the drawer in the kitchen humming a haunting melody, and pulled out a carving knife and sliced it across their left arm. They cried with a bit of pain as blood dripped onto the table. They then took out some paper from the drawer and wrote in their blood on the paper.


YOU CAN NEVER FORGET H.J

YOU CAN NEVER ERASE HER FROM YOUR MIND

BE AWARE

SHE'S EVERYWHERE!



They folded up the paper and then pulled out a white envelope out of the desk drawer with a bit of dark human hair inside as they continued to hum that haunting melody tune. On the front of the envelope, they wrote in blood 'MELODY MURPHY & CO'. They placed a first class stamp on the envelope.

Afterwards, the stalker bandaged their arm up and then sat back down in the chair and finished off their apple as they watched the CCTV footage. They pulled down their mask once they'd finished eating the apple and tossed it into the bin that was at the far end of the room. They pressed the rewind button on the keyboard over and over again throwing back their head with amusement as Megan screamed out at seeing the dead rat and then slapping Jake.

Who were they? Why were they attacking Melody and her friends?