Do you remember me?

I sat in the lobby surrounded by my classmates and many of the other girls whose faces I didn’t recognize. I was shaking and someone threw a blanket around me. I stared at the floor intensely so that my stare could probably crack the tiles. The police escorted her out in handcuffs; I only know this because I recognized her shoes. I couldn’t look at her, her smiling face and piercing eyes. She could have done to me what she did to her or maybe I was next. Once she was out people around me moved to make room for the police officer. She had bent down to my eye level, her eyes were comforting. She placed her hand on mine and squeezed it.

“I know what you saw was

terrible but I… I mean we need you to come to the station”

All I could do was shake my

head, the words dead in my throat.

“If it is alright with you

I would like to accompany her until her parents arrive. She is already in

shock. As the caretaker of this hostel building I need to make sure she is

safe” that was Hannah. She’s just a little older than us but she’s warm.

“Yes that would be best in

this situation” this time it was a man who answered. He had a deeper voice and

his posture was more masculine than the female cop.

Hannah put her arm around

my shoulder and the female police officer led us to the car. As we left I got

to see a glimpse of her, she was looking at me with that smiling face. 

From the hostel they took us straight to the station. Police escorted her out

first and then led us to the waiting room.

I didn’t look up the entire

time we waited; Hannah would speak to me from time to time but her voice always

felt like it was coming from a distance. By the time I was taken in for

questioning I had stopped shaking, things seemed to make sense and my mind started

to piece together what had actually happened.

“Hi Cecelia, How are you

holding up?...” the same female police officer said “…so this is Officer David,

he and I would like to ask you a few questions. But if you like to wait till

your parents arrive we will understand.”

I raised my head enough for

them to see my red swollen eyes. “It’s alright I… I can answer your questions'

' those were my first words in the last couple of hours.

“You can stop us whenever

you feel like. You are not forced to answer any questions that make you

uncomfortable. Start from the beginning, how you met Nora Banks and what lead

to tonight’s events”  

“It started about two

months ago, that’s when I met Nora….”

(Continue in a Flashback)

Nora had transferred to my

boarding school but we still had a week before school would actually start. My

family was contacted by the school board. They wanted to know if we could house

a new transfer for a week because they needed to prepare the hostels for our

arrival by the end of the week. My parents had no objects and Nora arrived at

our house that night. Nora stayed in the room across from mine and since we

were the same age friendship just seemed inevitable. For the next couple of

days we did everything together, we talked about our secrets, our future and we

were looking forward to school. We went for drives, to malls, to the beach and

everywhere. Nora was like part of our family, she just fit

perfectly.   

The day we were to leave

mom cooked her special cake, one for me and one for Nora. Daniel, my brother,

brought our suitcases down and placed them in front of the door. I spent the

last few hours with my parents but Nora stayed in her room. That’s what we all

thought but when I went to get her she was sitting on the floor in my room just

staring into nothing.

“Nora!! Come on we need to

leave” I didn’t think much of it and called her out. For the first time I saw

her hollow eyes and that smile when she turned. But that was just for a few

nanoseconds and then life was back in her eyes.

We came to school an hour

before the actual arrival time and at the reception Hannah handed us our room

keys. We were in different rooms, it didn’t matter to me much but Nora looked

heartbroken. I consoled her and told her everything would be fine. I only

thought she was sad because I was her only friend. I went to my assigned room

but Nora remained at the reception.

“I’ll head over to my room

in a bit. CeCe you go ahead.” After that Hannah and Nora talked for a bit.

(End of Flashback)

“What did Hannah and Nora

talk about?” Officer David interpreted.

“I don’t know but

afterwards Nora told me she convinced Hannah and the rooms were switched. But

I’m not sure about the details” I had finally loosen up a bit to the officers.

“Ok. Continue”

(Continue Flashback)

 Nora and I shared the

room with Ara. Ara and I have been roommates the previous year and with Nora

there I just left that everything this year would be great. Ara and Nora got

along together pretty well, more than half of their classes were the same.

Then about a week later

Nora’s things went missing, it started with a few pens. That’s when I noticed

how observant Nora was about everything. She knew where everything exactly was,

her things mine and Ara’s. The situation escalated even more when more than

pens started to disappear, Nora blamed Ara and on Sunday of the second week

they had a major fight.

 On that Sunday Ara

and I were in the room we shared and were talking and working on our assignment

when Nora entered. We could see she was angry, her face was red from furry and

as soon as she entered she started to throw her things here and there.

“Nora!!! What happened? Why

are you angry?” I said, trying to go near her.

“What’s wrong!!!? Like you

don’t know CeCe. She…” Nora pointed at Ara “…is a backstabber”

“What the hell are you

talking about?” Ara came to her own defense.

“You presented my research

paper as your own in front of Dr. Simon and made it look like I plagiarized

your work. How dare you” Nora jumped at Ara and tried to strangle her. I tried

to pull Nora off Ara but she was too strong for me. Some of our neighboring

girls had come to help and we were able to pull Nora off Ara. I held my

grip on Nora as she shouted at Ara over and over again.

“You’re a cheater,

backstabber and a thief. Let me go!!!! How dare you take advantage of me”

Nora shouted over and over again. Hannah had to drag her away to the nurse’s

office to have her sedated. After Nora was dragged away Ara broke down into a

sob, she confessed she might have taken a few pens but that was unintentional

but she never copied her research paper. From then on Nora and Arab barely

talked and Nora started to spend her time alone. This went on until last week,

I tried to spend as much time with as possible but she had changed.

(Flashback interpreted)

“What do you mean she

changed?” Officer David asked.

“She would stay alone,

never talk to anyone. She never smiled and I constantly saw her hollow eyes

like she was void of any feelings or emotions. There were times when she would

not return to the room. I would ask Ara if she saw Nora in class but she always

said Nora was MIA'' I explained.

“Did you see her hanging

with people who… hmmm… might be bad influences?”

“No, she was mostly alone”

“Ok, let’s skip to what

happened tonight”

I nodded and then continued.

(Continue Flashback)

Today was the first time I

saw Nora sleeping in her bed when I woke up. I knew Ara didn’t have a morning

class today which meant neither did Nora. I was getting late so I left while

they were sleeping. I made sure Hannah knew and that she would call me if

anything happened. The day went by uneventfully and Hannah didn’t call either.

So I thought either Ara or Nora left before the other woke up.

I didn’t return to my room

until 8 after dinner. When I got to the room, it was dark and quiet. I turned

on the lights and saw Nora sitting on the floor staring outside the window. I

called out to her but she didn’t respond. I called her out again but no

response, that’s when I moved to face her. She sat cross legged and she had a

knife in her hand.

She looked up at me with

her hollow eyes and said “How could you leave me for her? She took you away

from me. YOU WERE MINE!!!!”. She ran towards me trying to attack me with the

knife.   

“Nora clam down!!! I don’t

know what you’re talking about” I was on the ground and Nora towered over me.

“Yes you do. From day one

Ara tried to keep us apart. But don’t worry I took care of her. LOOK.” I looked

at where Nora was pointing and saw Ara’s lifeless eyes staring at me. Blood was

seeping through her neck. I looked from Ara’s lifeless eyes to Nora’s sinister

grin and I could feel my throat hurt and my ears couldn’t hear anything but a

loud scream.

(Flashback ended)

“I’m not sure how I ended

up in the lobby after that” the female police officer handed me a tissue; I

didn’t realize I was crying.

Officer David was about to

say something when someone knocked on the door and then my parents entered. Mom

held me in her arms like I was a baby and the police officers left us alone.

Once alone I explained to mom and dad what had happened and they were

speechless when I finished.

Over the next couple of

weeks more evidence was found against Nora and she was finally sent to prison

for 50 years. I switched schools to stay close to my family and eventually I

got over the events of Nora and Ara.

(10 years after the

incident)

I was seated at the bar in

a fancy restaurant and I waited for my colleagues. A waiter brought me my

favorite drink with a card.

“A woman ordered it for you

and left this card,” he said.

“Ahhh…thank you” I said and

took the card from his hand.

I opened the card and there

was a picture of Ara, Nora and I and Ara was crossed out. There was only one

question on the card “Do you remember me?”

--The End--