IT WAS THE NIGHT OF Fourteenth February, Twenty-Thirteen. I was running late on my way to the St. Valentine's Ball being hosted in my school when I got a text message from my friend Sabrina. It was an SOS asking me to urgently meet her near the school's reservoir. Her message set off warning bells ringing inside my head. I asked my chauffeur to change the destination and to take me there. If he wondered why I had asked him to do so, he didn't voice it.

On my way, I contemplated why she would have asked me to meet her there of all places. The Ball had to have started about almost an hour ago and she should've been inside the ballroom with her boyfriend, enjoying herself and dancing the night away. Besides, we weren't even that close as friends that I could trust myself to be alone with her in a place like as eerie as the school's reservoir.

That text message raised so many unanswered questions. It made the drive to the school campus feel painstakingly slow.

Outside the campus gates, there were at least five police patrolling vans. Their count didn't faze me as much as it should have. Those vans probably carried the whole of the only police department that the island had. I simply assumed them to have been called in by the school authorities because of the misbehaving paparazzi like every other year.

But then, there was a knock on my window. I pulled the glass down.

"Are you a student at Elite's Preparatory?" An officer asked me in Russian. He was young and fair. His lack of experience in his duty was very evident in his conduct.

"Yes, I am," I replied as calmly as possible.

"I will need to see your ID proof, ma'am."

A smile spilled on my lips and I cocked my eyebrow at him – "How long have you been here? Not for too long, I assume."

He seemed to have been taken aback by my response, "I have been newly recruited here. This is my first assignment but I don't understand how it matters."

"It matters because the only residents of Isle Land are the students and staffs of Elite's," I informed.

He looked embarrassed but nevertheless, he persisted on seeing my ID proof, much to my annoyance. Luckily enough for me, his senior showed up in no time when he noticed that the officer was taking too long to give me the pass. He was a familiar face although I couldn't match a name to it. I was pretty sure he knew me quite well, so I said to him –

"Next time, before getting a new officer recruited to work in this area, you better familiarize them with the people who live here so that they don't have to go and get themselves embarrassed asking around for an ID."

The senior bowed his head – "Yes, Ms. Gosselin."

Standing beside him, his junior's eyes went wide upon realizing who I really was. I couldn't resist the smirk on my face.

"Great, now go and open those gates," I demanded and rolled up the glass.

As my chauffeur drove the car inside the campus gates, I was baffled seeing policemen all over the place along with air paramedics. There was an air ambulance parked right in the middle of the vast lawn of Elite's.

"Drive faster, would you?" I asked my chauffeur in concern. I was convinced that the Ball, for which I had originally come, never started in the first place.

The school's reservoir was behind the main premises about a few meters into the dense woods. The car stopped as soon as the road did. I would have to walk for the rest of the distance. So, I drew in a deep breath and unlocked the car door. It was brutally cold outside and I had to hug my fur shawl tighter around me. Jonathon, my chauffeur, helped me out of the car.

"Wait for me here," I instructed him and stepped into the woods. The sirens of the police vans rang in my ears in an unrelenting loop. I grabbed a fistful of my skirt and lifted it up to ease the walk for me but there was nothing I could do about the eight-inch Louboutins I had on.

Eventually, I came to a clearing where not just Sabrina but all the rest of my friends were gathered along with our school's Headmistress and the Head of School's Security. I watched them as they watched three police officers crack the ice and plunge into the cold water with searchlights. It didn't take too long for them to resurface and announce –

"We found the body!"

Those words made me doubt my proficiency in Russian for a moment. I was convinced that I must have misinterpreted those words. A dead body in my school's reservoir was simply beyond my scope of understanding.

I watched from the distance Andra break down in Sam's embrace. Her shriek was so terrifyingly loud that one could've sworn that she knew whose dead body had the police uncover. It made me take a step back without watching. That was a huge mistake on my part because I hit my head hard on the trunk of a tree. The groan that escaped my lips alerted every one of my presence.

"Roxana?" Sabrina called out, "How long have you been out there?"

"I just came." I responded, throwing a cautious look at the police officers and Headmistress Bloomington, "I got your text."

No one said anything as I joined them. I stood between Sabrina and Delilah.

The paramedics gathered near the ice with a body bag. They discussed with the police of a way to get the body out from the bottom of the lake. They used words like 'dismembered' and 'decaying'. It made me squirm in discomfort.

"What text were you talking about?" Sabrina whispered in my ear. I looked up at her with an incredulous look on my face.

"Are you trying to be funny?" I asked her.

"I haven't seen my phone all day. So, I am definitely serious."

"This isn't funny." I told her with all seriousness, "I got a text from your number like twenty minutes ago, asking me to meet you here. Are you telling me that you didn't send it?"

"I didn't." She shook her head and I shot her a blank stare.

"Okay, so let us gather a team of six. The first three will dive in and try to gather as much of the body as possible. The second three will be on standby in case a rescue is required. In case, the first three fails to collect the whole body, the second three will finish the job while the first three will be on standby in case a rescue is required. Have I made myself clear?" An officer spoke loudly with his team. His question was followed by a loud 'Yes, sir' from the rest of the team members.

"Let's pray that the special suit and harness helps them," Delilah muttered as she eyed the officers put on their waterproof suit over their uniforms.

The paramedics stayed prepared near the reservoir with the body bag as the first three officers jumped in while the other three were on standby.

Moments later, one of those three officers came on surface. He said – "We got the whole body. It wasn't perfectly mutilated. They were just hanging loosely."

"God, I feel so nauseous." Sohana from the far left muttered as she watched them place the body above the ice, "I can't stand to be here for too long."

"Have you noticed how the face of the victim is badly gashed?" Sabrina pointed out, looking over the body smeared with blood.

"Yeah, and so is the rest of the body, Sabrina. What is your point?" Sarah asked.

"Her point is that killer defaced the victim on purpose—to prevent its identification," I explained in tone as cold as I felt at that moment.

"Andra!" We heard Sam exclaim and turned to look at her. Andra had retched all over her ball gown before fainting in Sohana's arms.

"Okay, this is definitely time for us to leave." Sohana hissed, "And can someone help me with her? She is heavy."

In that very moment, Headmistress Bloomington came up to us. Her all-peering sapphire blue eyes looked through our souls as she spoke in a low voice – "You girls need to leave."

"We were about to," I said, turning to leave with the girls

"Wait, Ms. Gosselin," she stopped me, "I am afraid you girls cannot return back to your private residence tonight. You will have to spend the night in your dorms."

"No, we won't." I objected, "We haven't been to our dorms for months now. And if it is because of safety reasons, then I think we would be safer in our residence with our personal security team."

"I am afraid you girls don't have a say in this, Ms. Gosselin," She threw me a pointed look, "not when your parents agree with me. It is just too dangerous for just the seven of you to be living out of the campus when a killer is on loose."

I was surprised, "When did you speak with our parents?"

"Roxana, why are you not coming with us?" Sarah called out from a distance.

"You should head back to your friends now, Ms. Gosselin," Bloomington suggested, "and also do not forget to notify them about the minor changes made in their accommodation."

I threw her a glare before turning away and joining Sarah, who stayed back for me.

"What were you and Headmistress Bloomington talking about?" She asked as we fell into synchronized steps.

"Where are the rest of the girls?" I asked instead.

"Delilah and Sohana are waiting for you near the fountain. Sabrina is dropping Sam and Andra to their homes." She informed and I shook my head.

"Ask them to come back."

"What?"

"Bloomington told me that we are supposed to spend the night in our dorms."

Sarah snorted – "And since when did we start listening to her?"

"She spoke to our parents, Sarah. I don't think we have a choice but to listen to her." I rolled my eyes.

"That bi—" I shot her a pointed look and she resigned with a sigh, "Fine let me call them."

It wasn't too hard to get Sabrina, Sam and Andra back in the campus because they never left in the first place. The school security at the campus gates didn't let them leave because had received explicit instruction from Headmistress to not allow any student outside the campus for the next forty-eight at any cost. I realized that Bloomington was just being polite earlier by giving us a heads up.

It was decided that we would walk all the way to the dorm building. It wasn't the wisest choice we had made, owing to the terrible weather and an unconscious girl in our arms. Sabrina flung Andra's left arm around her shoulder and Sam grabbed her right arm.

As we made our way to the dorm building, we watched the paramedics take the body bag to the air ambulance.

"I still can't believe that they found a dead body in our school's reservoir." Sohana murmured as we watched the helicopter take off.

"This isn't the right time to discuss it." Sam spoke abruptly, "We need to go to our dorms and freshen up. We can talk about it in the morning."

We all silently agreed.

Quietly, we made our way inside the dorm building. In the reception, we collected our room keys and parted.

I wasn't particularly looking forward to spending the whole night alone in a place where I hadn't been in months. At least back at home, if I failed to fall asleep, I could take a walk around the house like a wandering ghost instead of being confined to a small box. Besides, I trusted my home security more than the security in the school's campus. After all, the dead body was found in the school's reservoir, not in my house's backyard.

So, I went inside my dorm room and the first thing I did was to turn on the lights. One could mutually agree that the size of my dorm was way larger than any regular dorm. It was like a single bedroom penthouse. But despite the large area, the place never failed to make me feel claustrophobic for some reason.

I placed my purse in the nightstand and sat down in front of the vanity mirror. I looked deathly pale because of the time I was out in the cold. I took off my ruby earrings and necklace that matched with the color of my ball gown. They were a gift from my mother. She was just ecstatic that she had finally managed to convince her daughter to attend St. Valentine's Ball for the first time ever. I can only imagine how she must have felt like when she got to know that the Ball she was so looking forward to never happened.

Before calling the day off, I took a warm shower with my bathroom door unlocked. When I walked out in my bathrobe, I found my phone was buzzing endlessly inside my purse. I had tons of messages in my inbox. Most of them were from my mother and some were from my assistant. They wanted to know if I was okay or not after the whole incident. But, there was that one message that caught my attention. It was from a private number.

I know your secret, Roxana. Or should I say Tricia?

~ Your nightmare