I S A A C

The Sunday service started every week at eight o'clock, and there was a forty-five minutes' walk from the front gates of the Berrington University to the double doors of the church.

    Every time Isaac used to walk through those doors, a sense of calm welcomed him home. But ever since the death of Nancy Green, all the peace seemed to have been banished from his scarred soul, and not even God could help him conquer his old nightmares this time.

    Almost every night Isaac woke up with a start, sweat running down his forehead and the air hardly reaching his lungs.

    It was Billy again. He had begun to haunt Isaac, both in dream and in consciousness.

    Every time Isaac closed his eyes, he would see Billy again. He would see heaving rivers and oceans, with a small boat gushing against the wild and merciless waters. He would hear the screams, louder and louder each time.

    The voices only ceased whenever he was in church, listening to the peaceful sound of the hymns. Today was just the same. Near the end of the service, everyone was asked to stand to their feet to sing the psalms.

    But just then, Isaac stopped singing when he suddenly felt someone tap him on the shoulder. Turning his head to look over his shoulder, Isaac became even more surprised when he saw that Nicholas, Shawn, Luca, and Arthur were all standing there on the row behind him, pretending to be reading the psalms.

   "What are you lot doing here?" Isaac whispered at them with wide eyes, still in shock.

    "We need to speak with you," Nicholas said quietly, looking extremely distressed. "It's urgent."

    Seeing the old lady beside him give them a glare, Isaac said, "We'll talk after the service," before returning to his psalms.

    "It can't wait that long," Arthur said slightly louder, which caused the lady to give them another warning look.

    "Shush!" Isaac said without even turning his head this time, though he couldn't help but wonder why they'd come all this way to speak with him.

What could've been so important that even Arthur had come to the church?

    "Isaac, this is important," Luca said in a carefully quiet tone.

    "Later!" Isaac hissed at them.

    Shawn let out a frustrated huff before suddenly blurting out, "Nancy Green was murdered."

    "WHAT?" Isaac bellowed uncontrollably as he gaped back at them in terror, causing a few heads to turn at his direction.

    After sending the people around him an apologetic look, Isaac finally placed his psalm paper down on the chair and quietly followed the four boys out of the church.

***

"Where are we even going?" Isaac asked them with the frustration building up in him when he saw that they weren't headed for the West Residency Hall, back at Berrington. To his surprise, they were leading him into the girls' dormitory building.

    "Almost there," Nicholas said as they sneaked inside the building, watching out for any sign of Mrs. Hester. No boys were allowed at this part of the building. They stopped when they reached a certain door.

    "You sure this is her dorm?" Arthur asked Nicholas as he knocked.

    "Yes." Nicholas nodded, and it was just then when the door swung open, a girl with long blonde hair standing behind it. Isaac recognized her almost immediately; she was Nancy Green's old roommate whom they had tried to interview weeks ago.

Eve Winters.

    "Oh, good. You're finally here," said the girl, and Isaac took aback when he realized she was speaking directly to him. She then stood aside and gestured them all inside.

    Isaac followed his friends into the girls' dorm, getting more and more confused by each passing second. The room was half empty. He assumed that Nancy's parents had come to collect her belongings after her death.

    "Can someone just tell me what on earth is going on here?" Isaac asked hastily as soon as Shawn closed the door behind them.

    It was Nicholas who finally broke the eerie silence. "Eve showed up at my dorm earlier this morning. She... she found something that made us think that Nancy's death wasn't a suicide. It might've been a murder, but we can't be sure yet. And maybe you could help."

    "Me?" Isaac questioned, gulping. "Why me?"

    "Two days before Nancy died, she borrowed one of my school books, and she never gave it back to me," Eve began to explain. "After she died, I tried looking for the book, because I needed it for my class, but I couldn't find it anywhere, and I thought that her mother had taken it along with her other belongings."

    Isaac couldn't see where this story was going, but he didn't speak a word, letting her go on.

    "But that was until last night," Eve continued, her voice wavering weakly. She then walked toward her nightstand, where an old-looking book was placed, and she picked it up. "I was looking for something in my trunk last night, and under all of my clothes and at the bottom of my trunk, I found the book that I had lent her; Nancy must've put it there. But then, a note slipped out of the book and fell to the floor."

    Eve opened the book and picked up a small piece of paper from between its pages. "It's written in Latin," she said, handing the note to Isaac. "I could understand it a little, but I couldn't be sure. Nicholas had told me that you study Latin, so I was hoping you could tell us what it means. I really hope I was wrong in translating it."

    Isaac could feel his heart throbbing as he looked down at the note, where two short sentences were written in rushed cursive handwriting.

adiuva me obsecro!
occidet me

    Isaac's mind went blank as he read it, his whole body going numb. He read it again and again, hoping that he had understood it wrong the first time. But there was no mistaking it.

    "Well?" Shawn said impatiently. "What does it say?"

    "It says..." Isaac gulped, taking a small breath before continuing, "Please help me. He is going to kill me."

***

Later that day, the boys left the building and made their way down to the lake on campus, where they usually spent their afternoons together. Isaac hated going there, but he never said so out loud.

    "I always had a feeling that it couldn't have been suicide," said Arthur as they were all sitting down on the grass, facing the lake.

    Shawn rolled his eyes. "How could you have possibly known?" He was the only one standing, picking up little stones from the grown and skipping them on the water's surface.

    "Come on, think about it!" said Arthur, as though it should've been obvious. "The night she died, when they had found her on the ground, she was wearing a fancy dress, her hair was made, and from what I think I saw, she was wearing makeup."

    "So?" Shawn shrugged.

    Arthur gave him a look. "Why would someone get ready for a party if they were planning on ending their life that same night?"

    Shawn didn't reply to that. Instead, he picked up another stone and threw it across the water, his eyebrows knitted together in distress.

    "Are we even sure it was Nancy's handwriting, though?" Shawn spoke again after moments of silence. "What are the chances that Eve wrote that herself?" 

    Nicholas frowned, turning his head to look up at him. "What are you suggesting, exactly?"

    "I'm not suggesting anything," Shawn retorted. "Just saying that it's a possibility. Maybe Eve's just a weirdo who wants attention or is lonely, so she wrote the note herself to get us involved in some sick game. Or maybe, she's the one who killed Nancy, and she gave us that note to make sure we wouldn't think of her as a suspect."

    "Why the heck would she do that?" Nicholas snapped.

    "I don't know. I don't know what this girl would or wouldn't do. Because I don't know her. And neither do you, Niko!"

    "I know her well enough to know that she would never do such a thing!"

    "How? How could you possibly know her? How many times have you actually talked to this girl? You're too trusting for your own good!"

    Nicholas couldn't bring himself to reply, and merely threw his gaze away from Shawn, afraid that he would say something out of anger and regret it later. And so, they all sat there for what felt like an eternity, eyes steady on the lake before them. They let the silence take over, as though all words had lost their meaning.

    Isaac had ceased to speak ever since they'd left Eve's room. His soul felt heavy with grief. He had never known Nancy, but even the thought of her was like torture to him. Or perhaps it was just because of this place.

   He hated being here by the lake. He hated that every time he looked down at it, it took him back in time, to a bright summer day in 1942.

    Isaac and his three sisters had worn their best clothes that day and had been waiting for their mother to return home with their two new guests, who were going to stay with them during the war.

    Isaac, being a little boy of seven at the time, could not contain his excitement as he remained by their house's window all day long, looking outside keenly with wonder in his eyes, turning his head at any sign of movement outside.

    He could see the swans swimming in the creek that ran outside their garden, and the early roses that were blooming in the bushes. Their furry, white cat was laying outside on the grass and among the dandelions, purring in joy underneath the warm sunlight.

Inside the house, Agnes — who was two years older than Isaac — was braiding the twin girls' hair with pink ribbons. The twins, Daisy and Dorothy, were born only a year after Isaac, but he never got along with them.

   "They're here! They're finally here!" Isaac suddenly cried out when from the window he saw their old, red car coming to sight.

    On cue, he and his three sisters ran out of their little cottage and stood in line beside each other in the garden just as their mother had taught them, waiting impatiently to meet their new guests.

    They eagerly watched as Mrs. Crew parked the car before getting out and opening the car's back-door for their guests. Isaac went on his tiptoes and craned his neck to get a better view, seeing a four-year-old girl and a little boy of three get out of the car. Mrs. Crew then led the two kids forward, holding their hands in a motherly way that made them feel more welcome.

    "Kids, I want you to meet our new guests. They will be staying with us for a while, and I want you to make them feel at home," Mrs. Crew told her children with a warm smile. "This is Bonnie, and this little boy here is Billy."

    Isaac had to bite the inside of his cheeks to stop himself from smiling so hard. He'd always wanted a younger brother.

    Suddenly that summer day felt much more beautiful; the sun shone brighter, the lilacs in their garden smelled better, and the breeze that swept by was like the breath of God.

But now, every breeze made Isaac fear that a hurricane was coming. Every lilac made his heart clench. And every lake, every river, every ocean... it all reminded him of Billy.