A few days had passed by. The investigation was going quite slow, unlike what everyone had expected. Life was returning to normal and everyone slowly forgot that any tragedy had occurred at all.

The final few files of task 2 still needed to be sorted and details had to be filled in the database. Now that there was restriction to their freedom, everyone remained in campus and work could be completed faster. Anya, Michael, Mark and Sia sat in the lab, filling in the details. While Michael helped Anya, Sia flirted with Mark.

“We’ll be taking a break,” said Sia as she stood up and left with Mark. Michael watched them leave the room. “Whom are they trying to fool?” he scoffed.
Anya gave him an awkward smile as she went through the file in her hand.

“Why are we even friends with her? She is clearly cheating on James,” Michael said as he opened a fresh file.
“Sia and James aren’t exactly in a relationship. He knows everything about her,” she replied.

“But won’t it hurt the group dynamics?” asked Michael, “She used to hit on me relentlessly at one point.”
“Even Grace had asked me out many times, remember? Those were the initial days before anything was solid among us,” said Anya.

“What?” Michael raised his head from the file, and looked at her, “Exactly how manytimes did he ask you out?”
“Multiple times!” said Anya.
“Do others know about this?” asked Michael, to which she merely shrugged her shoulders.
“Then, why did you not date him?” asked Michael.

Anya said hesitantly, “Because I thought we were a thing. I thought something could happen between us.”

Michael just watched her fidgeting with the keyboard keys. Then she turned to him, placed her hand on his knee and said, “Michael, you do know you can tell me anything.”
Michael just nodded with a small smile. She returned his smile and continued her work again.

This girl is head over heels in love with me. He thought. But why? He wondered.
‘The question is, how do you feel about her?’
There was silence. He felt his mind go blank.

“Isn’t your birthday coming up?” she asked him.
“Yeah. Tomorrow. April 2nd,” he replied.
“Do you plan on going home?”
“I don’t think we are allowed to leave the campus yet,” he replied.
Not that I want to either. He thought.

“How are things between you and Thomas?” she asked suddenly. Michael just shrugged. “Okay,” Anya decided to not bring up the obvious distance the two have been keeping.

“It's so tragic, isn’t it? He was quite close to his mother. To lose your mom so suddenly. His family must have been devastated. How was growing up for you Michael, without your mom?” she asked him.

Upon receiving silence from him, she took off her eyes from the screen and looked at him. He looked angry and frustrated.
“Michael,” she called him and placed her hand on his. To her horror, he slapped it away.
“If you want to continue being my friend, do not bring up this topic. Ever!” Mouth agape, she watched him yell at her and then storm out.


Frustrated and angry, he threw his bag to a side and fell onto his bed. Covering his eyes with one arm, he ignored everyone who stared at him. Internally he cursed everyone who brought the topic of Thomas or his mother into a conversation.

He was frustrated how Anya also had to bring up Thomas as a topic when it was clear that he wasn’t very keen on discussing about it. His mind flashbacked to the first time he had met Thomas, Anya and the others, how different life had been in the beginning.

A dimly lit room. Translucent glass windows. Faded yellow curtains. Old furniture. He sat up as he saw the woman sitting by the foot of his bed. She wore old grey clothes. They were dirty. Like the ones he was wearing. When she realized that he was up, she turned to him. She looked very familiar. Raising her hand, she delicately touched his cheek. He gave in to the touch as he rested his little head in her big palm.
Suddenly she retracted her arm. Due to the unexpected movement from her, he fell sideways onto the bed. He was confused and tried to sit up and see her. That’s when he felt a touch on his shoulder. But then it slowly moved to his neck. Before he could understand what was happening, the hand had gotten a hold of his neck and had started choking him. His little hands tried their best to escape from her big ones. As he sneaked a peak onto her face, he was terrified to see her expression. She was angry, determined and not in pain. His arms and legs flailed as he gasped for air. He felt his eyes might pop out of his head any moment.

‘Michael.’

He felt a sound call him afar.

‘Michael?’

Was it just in his head? He wondered.

“Michael! Wake up!”
He took a deep breath as his eyes shot open and he woke from his dream. James was leaning over him, shaking him awake.

“Hey man! Are you okay?” he asked extremely worried.
Michael looked around and found himself in the dorm, on his bed. He slowly raised himself and sat on his bed.
“You looked like you were having a nightmare,” said James.
“I was. Thanks for waking me up,” said Michael as he grabbed his bottle of water by the bed.

“We were just really worried about you. So, I thought I’ll come check up on you.”
Michael just nodded as he gulped some water and caught his breath.
“By the way, there is news,” James moved closer to Michael and whispered, “We found out who was murdered.”

Michael was least interested to know. However, he asked, “Who?”
“Ariel. The girl who liked Thomas.”

Ariel is dead? He thought.

“Are you sure? How do you know?” he asked further.

“There was one person whose details we couldn’t collect for the database. We later found out it was her. She had been missing! Look,” James took out his tab and showed him her file page, “So we went to her old files to fill in her details.”

Michael read the page and said, “But this says-“

“Pam Arielle. I know. She went by her last name Arielle. It was ‘Arielle’ with an ‘e’, not ‘Ariel’ the fish like we thought. And her parents, NA-‘Not applicable’. She was adopted. Now we know why she was so socially awkward,” said James.

Michael ignored James’s ignorance. He, however, recollected seeing ‘P.A’ scribbled on Ariel’s note the other day. Seeing Michael get lost in thoughts yet again, James stood up and said, “I’m going to go now. Call me or Anya if you need anything.”

After James left, Michael sat thinking.

Ariel is dead? He couldn’t believe it. But something else bothered him.

Pam Arielle. The name sounds so familiar. He thought.

Then it hit him. The book.