The Art of the Demon Chapter 3

"Who's she?" Matthew asked Kate as he looks at a pretty girl walking while they were eating in the canteen.

"Well, I don't expect you to know her. But she is Alynna, cheerleader of St. Patrice University's pep squad." Kate answered as she finished her lunch. "I know her because she's popular and I've been searching for things in this university."

"Ah yeah. Of course. That beauty of hers, I'm not surprised at all why she became a cheerleader, not at all--"

"Hey, can we seat here? We can't find any other vacant seats.." a girl in glasses asked, she was with a tall guy in glasses too. They both looked genius.

"Sure!" Kate replied cheerfully.

"Thanks!" the girl in glasses said. "I'm Marissa by the way."

"Hi, I'm Kate. He is Matthew, my friend." Kate said and introduced Matthew to them, Matthew merely smiled, quite shy.

"He's Jake, my friend too." Marissa said, introducing a tall guy in glasses.

The rest of the lunch developed into a new group of friends. Matthew didn't find anything bad to dislike Marissa and Jake. They were both humble and intelligent. Both of them take Political Science course and were blockmates. Kate also admires them. Matthew starts feeling comfortable now with two new friends in the university. "I'm finally getting used here." he thought while walking home.

***

3 days later, a university-wide breaking news spread. The Patrician, what the students of St. Patrice University call themselves, were aroused. The popular girl and cheerleader Alynna San Miguel was missing. Some students say she was killed and burned so that her body wouldn't be find etcetera, others say she was kidnapped, a few people claim that they saw her running away with her boyfriend probably to live together. However, the truth is yet to be revealed. All of these rumors are just rumors. Besides, according to Alynna's closest friends, she has no boyfriend. The rumor spreaders are just making up stories according to them.

"Have you heard the latest news?" Marissa asked her friends in a low voice as she settle in their table while eating their lunch at the canteen. Matthew looked skeptical, Jake and Kate looked at Marissa like they're silently saying "What?".

"That Osama bin Laden's dead?" Kate said, quite amused to herself.

"No, not that. Of course, you didn't know." Marissa said. "The popular girl, Alynna has been missing for 3 days!"

"What?" Matthew said, surprised. "I mean, I just first saw her three days ago. And she's gone missing also three days ago?"

"Looks like you admire her." Jake said then chuckled.

"And that makes you a suspect." Kate said, chuckling harder. "Kidding."

"Anyway, who told you about this story?" Matthew asked Marissa, ignoring Kate and Jake.

"It's all over the school. Actually, I was being sarcastic when I said that 'of course, you guys didn't know.' It actually makes me wonder why you guys didn't know."

"Is it in the school papers already?" Kate asked.

"Nah, not yet. Maybe if Alynna will not be found in the next couple of days, it'll be in the school papers, even in Manila times or other popular broadsheets."

"So sad.." Matthew muttered to himself and frowned.

Alynna's disappearance continues to be the hottest topic in the school. Everyone's wondering, some people continue to speculate, others are happy because they're envying Alynna so bad that they want her gone, others are sad..and the members of the pep squad are eying the 'cheerleader' position.

Kate bid goodbye to Matthew, Marissa, and Jake. It was already 4pm and their classes already ended. Among the four of them, she's the only one who uses gate four. Matthew, Marissa, and Jake enter and exit at the gate one because it's nearer to their places.

But before exiting the school, Kate decided to drop by at the nearest comfort room to pee and to fix herself. She entered the women's C.R, then she tried to push open all the first four cubicle doors one by one, but all of the doors were locked. So she ended up using the fifth and the last cubicle. As she sits in the toilet, she heard slight thumping in the rest of four cubicles. She wondered what are they doing in there. Are they using the toilet or 'partying partying fun fun fun'. "It's not weekend yet." Kate thought and chucled slightly at her own joke, remembering Rebecca Black's viral music video 'Friday'.

After a few minutes, Kate went out of the cubicle, the slight thumpings stopped making her wonder. She ducked down and peek at the other cubicles from the bottom to find out what are they doing. She saw there's no one inside all four cubicles after peeking.

She then ignored it. She went to take a glance at herself in the mirror then applied face power and combed her hair, when suddenly, the thumpings in all five cubicles started and now stronger. Kate turned to look at the doors, flabbergasted.

"Is this some kind of a prank or what?" Kate said, her tone shaky, though she's not expecting a reply.

The thumpings continued and got stronger and stronger and stronger.

BLAG BLAG BLAG. It didn't stop. Kate thought of running out of the comfort room but she can't. She stood there frozen because of the terror she's feeling.

Then..

The door creaks open. Her Science professor entered.

"Ms. ahmmm.. Ms. Kate, what's the matter? Are you okay?" Prof. Perez asked.

"Yes ma'am." Kate responded, her voice still shaky.

Kate walked out of the room. Prof. Perez looked at her suspiciously as she walks.

What was the thumpings all about? Who or what thing on earth made those sounds? Kate wondered as she walks to exit the building. Her knees are weakened and shaky. She's never been that scared before. At the time, it's the creepiest thing that happened to her.

-PandemiC-

Watch out for the next chapters of The Art of the Demon during Mondays and Fridays at 7:00PM (Philippine Time) and 4:00AM (Washington, USA time)