Chapter 2
"Room 507, open up. This is the police." A voice sounded from outside.
Peeking through the peephole and seeing it really was the police, I finally relaxed and opened the door.
Two police officers stood outside the door, then took a look around inside. "Which one of you is Ms. Sanchez?"
I stepped forward. "I am."
"You're the one who called in about someone with a knife trying to get in?" the cop asked.
"Yeah," I said.
The cop glanced down the empty hallway. "So, where's the attacker?"
I stepped out, scanning the corridor, but didn't see anyone suspicious. "Looks like whoever it was has already run off."
That was literally the only thing that popped into my head.
Jessica covered her mouth, pointed right at me, and told the cops, "She's always been paranoid. Seriously, it's not the first time she's pulled this kind of stunt."
Right away, both officers gave me that look as they'd already decided I was wasting their time.
I shot Jessica a glare. "What nonsense are you spouting?"
Jessica ignored me and kept talking to the cops. "She's a repeat offender when it comes to this stuff. I suggest you bring her in and talk some sense into her."
The two officers exchanged a look and nodded in agreement.
Before leaving, I turned back one last time to warn Jessica and Grace. "Seriously, if you hear knocking again, especially if it's Emily's voice, don't open that door."
"Yeah, run along to the police station and mind your own business. We don't need you here." Jessica looked at me with a smug, gloating grin, then whipped out her iPhone and snapped a crystal-clear photo of me getting hauled off by the cops.
*****
Once I got to the police station, I checked my social media and saw that Jessica had posted that photo of me being taken away by the cops.
She captioned it: [Sophie, I trust you. You're not like that.]
The comments section blew up. Tons of classmates, even my advisor, were all asking what happened.
But Jessica didn't bother to reply to any of them.
I was so fed up. It was disgusting to end up with roommates like this.
I scrolled through the comments, and one stopped me cold.
Emily: [Jessica, I'm at the door. Hurry up and let me in.]
The memory of Emily's pale, bluish face flashed in my mind, making me jump to my feet, startled.
A landline phone sat on the desk in front of me. Just then, the phone started ringing, the sound cutting through the silence like a knife.
A male officer picked up the receiver. "Who's calling?"
I watched his face closely.
Whatever the person on the other end said, the officer's brow furrowed visibly.
He glanced at me with an unreadable expression and said, "You're all from the same dorm. Figures, looks like you all have a case of paranoia."
At the cop's words, I snapped to attention, grabbed the receiver from his hand, and yelled into the phone, "You opened the door, didn't you?"
"Sophie?" Grace's sobs echoed through the line. "J-Jessica got stabbed."
The receiver dropped from my hand, and I slumped back into the chair, completely numb.
As I expected, they never believed me. Jessica brought this to herself. No matter how many times I warned her, she never listened. That was how it was meant to be for Jessica.
Jessica was dead, and Emily was still missing. Out of the four of us in the dorm, only Grace and I were left.
The killer came prepared. The knife stuck in Jessica's chest didn't have a single fingerprint on it.
As the only witness at the scene, Grace was also brought to the police station.
Two officers were questioning her. "Grace, what exactly happened that night?"
Grace was trembling, her lips quivering for a long time before she finally managed to speak. "Not long after you took Sophie away, the knocking started again."
From Grace's account, it was Jessica who, not buying it, went and opened the door.
The moment the door swung open, a blood-curdling scream ripped through the air.
By the time Grace got to the door, all she saw was Jessica with a knife jammed in her chest.
The other cop paused, and then asked, "Did you see who the killer was?"
At his words, Grace's face went pale, her eyes darting nervously.
After a moment, she squinted a little and nodded at the officer. "It was Emily Lopez, one of my roommates."
The officer closed his notebook and looked up at Grace and me. "Alright, you two can go back for now. But until we find Emily, you're still under suspicion. Don't leave Roliwand."
*****
Grace and I left the police station together.
On the way back to campus, Grace was totally spaced out. She even walked past our dorm without realizing.
"Grace?" When I called out from behind, she flinched, my voice making her shudder. "Hey, you're totally spaced out. We live in Building 10, not 11."
Grace suddenly whipped around and yelled at me, "Jessica's dead. Isn't that normal for me to be out of it?"
With that, she hurried over to Building 10 and rushed up the stairs. I watched her disappear and realized that something about her felt off.