User: CraZCanuck

I wake up in the middle of the night, in a cold sweat. Like I have every night since getting to this school. Dreams plague my every minute since hearing the news of the death at the school. 'Why is this happening now? I thought my life was turning around, and now... a murder? At my last hope for a better life?'

I think back to.... I look at the clock. Two days ago. I recall the day I arrived at the school. Every little detail comes back to me in flashes. It's something I've been able to do since before I can remember. Photographic memory, they call it. And until now, it's always been a curse to me. I've lost friends over things they've said that I've remembered to be lies. I've been shamed before, at my old school, which is why I came here. And now the camera-like workings of my brain are toying with me.

I hear the scream as I tour the hall, alone. I remember running down the hall. And I think back. I look through every visual representation that I have of the minutes around the time of the death. 'Who was there?' I think to myself.

But shockingly, it's foggy. There was so much panic and anxiety in me that I was barely able to look around, see the scene clearly. I can only remember the body, bent backwards at awkward, inhuman angles. Blood spilling forth where flesh gave way to concrete, bone cracked against stone. It chills my blood to think that there was a reason that boy died. It was no accident. Someone deliberately pushed Nicholi out of that tree, to his death.

That thought echoes through my mind as I get out of bed. To do something I've done at every school I've ever been to. The one thing I'm good at. Study.

I slowly leave my room, looking at my roommate, Leonidas, who's sleeping without a hitch. 'Lucky boy. He probably has nothing to worry about except the upcoming classes.'

But I can't get my mind off this murder. The word sounds horrible as I roll it off my tongue. 'Murder...'

* * *

The halls reverberate with every step I take, and I slowly creep down the hallway, wondering if this school is very strict on security. And eventually, I reach the library. I slowly turn the handle. 'Hmm... Locked.' I slowly take the paperclip out of my stack of research that I had written for my old school's work. Work that I never got the credit I deserved for it. My face turns to a hateful scowl as I recall Mrs. Foulds, my old teacher.

* * *

"You're a cheat! A dirty cheat, and a snake! You haven't gotten an answer wrong all semester! You've cheated my tests somehow, I just know it!"

"But-"

"You used the definition of molecular compounds, and knew the exact weight of Carbon, to four decimal places! There isn't the slightest possibility that you're not cheating!!!"

"Professor, I've never been dishonest in my life. I'm good at this stuff...."

"LIES! You're going to the office! And we'll be calling your parents!"

"NO! Please! I swear I never cheated!"

"The words of liars mean nothing to me! The evidence is all here! And we have enough to expel you from this school!" She paces around the room, a smug smirk on her face. "I've been wondering how you've been doing so well for quite some time now. To finally..... have you for it. I'll have you expelled."

* * *

The lock is picked in seconds. I slowly head into the library, and immediately head for the 900 section. History. And I come across a book of history. 'Carter Hollow. The school; The students; The history.'

I delve into the book, reading page after page in mere seconds. Flip the page, and it's burned permanently into my brain, stored away like clothes in a shelf. Stored.... forever. But there's nothing there about any sort of past murders. After an hour of straight reading, my eyes are sore and tired. It's spotless. Nothing like this on the record at all. It almost seems.... too clean, too perfect. I close the book, and slowly back out of the library, wiping my fingerprints off the door handle as I leave. 'Just in case.'

I am about to head back to my dorm, when I hear a sudden sound.

"Hello?" I call out. "Who's there?" No reply. I slowly eye the stairs to the roof. I head up, opening the door to the roof, and stare down, like a sentry looking for something.

That's when I see something that chills my blood. I can't see who it is, nor what they look like, but I see something that makes me freeze in my tracks and suck in a heavy gasp. I watch someone knock a petite-looking girl to the ground, where the light is dim and if my eyes weren't adjusted to the dark, I'd swear I was seeing things.

But it's not a vision. I watch as a knife is pulled. It don't see what happens, but soon, the girl is left there, dying and unmoving. I slowly head down the stairs, and rush outside, getting closer to the body.

And I make a horrible mistake. I slowly take a hand, and brush her hair from her face. I see the slit, covered with blood, and see the pool of blood around the girl. Immediately after doing so, I realize my mistake and withdraw it. I rush back to my dorm without a word, terrified beyond belief. 'I just witnessed a murder.'

But I don't go to see the superintendent. Not yet. 'I need to find out more about this murderer. Or I'll be slain for saying something.' Sleep doesn't come to me for the rest of the night either.

* * *

I wake up early the next morning, and, as I suspected, word has travelled quickly. The cadavre has been discovered. And I worry now that I'll be questioned... Because I touched the girl moments after she died.

"Think!!!" I shout, looking at the ceiling. "Who was it!!!" But the silhouette is just that. I can't recall any face, any features. Not even a gender. I sigh, and fall back asleep. 'Not a good start to this year.