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The sound of his heart hammering against the walls of his chest could be heard faintly beneath his harsh breathing. His eyes darted from one corner of the room to the other as the hairs on his skin stood on end in maddening fear while he remained crouched in the same position he had been all night long till the break of dawn.

The pounding on the door made his heart leap painfully with a gasp escaping his lips. There were words being rained from the other side of the room but his mind could make no meaning out of it as he was lost in his current dilemma, this cascade of unbearable insanity which clouded his soul.

"I don't know what's wrong with him," a female voice said from the other end of the door in a worried note, "he's been this way since he returned."

"He'll come out of it," the masculine voice replied to her, pulling her close to himself and away from the locked door which her eyes remained fixed on all the while.

Hot salty tears rolled down his sweaty cheeks as he frailly crawled to the center of the room against his will. His weary legs pulled close to his chest as he rocked back and forth, mumbling something, the words becoming indecipherable as tears and gentle sobs joined his plea to be freed from the insanity of moving figures at the corner of his eye and the absurd words replaying in his head.

In his mind's ear, he had heard a movement behind which caused a sharp gasp of shock to be expelled from his exhausted lungs followed by a heave. The shadow of a masculine figure slowly appeared in front of him and he knew the time had come. The darkness he experienced as his tear filled eyes shut was nothing compared to the cold shiver that ran down his spine when a pale, frail hand wrapped around his mouth from behind him.

~

"He was right," Henry started, "li'ann 'ujrat alkhatiat hi mawt. That's Arabic for 'The wages of sin is death'."

"Right, so how does an Arabian translate bible passages?" Chris asked with his hands crossed over his chest.

"He's got Egyptian roots, remember? Arabic is the country's official language," Professor Parker said.

Chris let out a long heave and then shook his head as if trying to arrange every piece of the puzzle to make sense. The computer chimed causing the three of them to give a quick glance at one another, their eyes, full of hope.

They all hurried over to the table on which the computer sat, being displayed on the screen was an invite to a video call from an unknown user. Professor Parker hesitated for a moment before finally accepting the call.

There was a moment of nothingness on the screen before Detective Maloney's face came on, his hair was all in a mess and he looked quite in a rush.

"Were you able get what we asked for?" Professor Parker was first to speak as he sat in front of the computer, Henry and Chris staying by his side.

"Yes," he replied with a sigh, "enough to cost me my job so this better be worth it. And I still can't make out what you need a dead guy's bio for."

"What've you got?"

"Jones Adib-"

"A.K.A The devil," Chris interrupted.

"Jones Adib," Maloney started again, "born a Muslim but got converted later in his life, there are no records of him ever getting married and there's zero to nothing about any family member-or at least, not alive."

"This guy's been ghosting since day one," Chris added, "not even a cat as next of kin?"

"His death, the M2 Murder, what do you have on it?" Henry repositioned his stance.

"Well, I think Professor Wells must've suspected something when I asked because he was reluctant about this part."

"Well?"

"I was able to dig this up," Maloney said as he clicked on his computer, "took a whole lot of effort to get this, looks like someone was trying to cover their ass."

"What's this?" Professor Parker asked, opening the attachment to the new message that popped up on the screen of the computer. After he went through the content for a moment, he didn't need an explanation after all.

"I knew there was something up with that bald headed old man," Chris said, his voice filled with surprise.

"This was never published anywhere," Henry said, referring to the statement made by a witness of the M2 murder case whose side of the story was never mentioned anywhere and it came totally as a shocker to everyone.

"I know, and I think I know why." Maloney hit a few keys again and a new message popped up on the screen. Four pictures appeared on the screen when the attachment was opened.

"Who're these?" Professor Parker asked.

"Felic Malfoy, the one who was reportedly assaulted by Mr. Jones. Then there's his brother, Stuart Malfoy. The other two are Hayden Quin and Peter Westgreen," Maloney said. "The Malfoys are the Deputy Mayor's sons and former residents at Hostel M2," he paused, "precisely your room."

"Explains a lot," Chris blurted. "And did you say former?"

"Felic went missing then a few months later, his brother's death was talk of the entire campus," Professor Parker answered, the words being heavy to be spoken. "He was found dead in his hostel room, suicide."

Time seemed to remain still for a moment as Professor Parker's words knocked the two friends off their guard. For some reason, the librarian's words happened to find its way into Henry's head again: Strange things have been happening in Hostel M2 since then.

"It might interest you to know that Peter Westgreen died a year later; reports say he was involved in some experimental accident."

"Who's the other kid?" Professor Parker muttered.

"We don't know yet."

"I do," Henry said subtly, gaining everyone's attention. "He's the kid who died recently. We were right all along, this really is a personal vendetta and dead guy's been ticking off names from his death row."

"There's still the security guard," Chris said.

"The false witness," Professor Parker replied, taking off his glasses, his palms were all sweaty and his temple creased like he had a migraine. He thanked Detective Maloney for his assistance before disconnecting the call.

"I can't believe this." Chris walked over to the board where Henry had written out a few clues earlier, "our life's all crumbling, Lord knows who's next."

Henry's phone beeped, he excused himself when he pulled it out of his pocket to see an incoming call from Kendrick. His hands trembled as a lump found its way down his throat by the time he returned into the room a few minutes later.

"Kendrick's dead," he muttered to Chris.

It took a moment for Chris to understand what had been said. He remained silent when the words finally registered in his head.

"What happened to him?" Professor Parker asked astounded at the news.

Henry shook his head, "his parents say he had been acting strange since he returned home. He was found dead in his room earlier today."

"Ghost sickness," Professor Parker mumbled, his lungs seemed to have become tight that breathing seemed impossible. "He had his mind manipulated by dead guy, torture far beyond what you could possibly think."

"Do you know what this means?" Chris muttered as a sigh escaped his lips. He fell into the closest seat, clutching his hands into one another. "It's inevitable, we just got ourselves in Mr. Jones' timeline and our end seems certain."

**I'm not particularly proud of this part but oh well, we'll do with it for now till it gets edited. Please bear with me **

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