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Chapter 7

The car turns to the right at the corner before the sight of a house greets him. A sense of relief slips into Khaiser's heart, knowing that he is closed to getting his rest. Everyone in the car is sleeping at the moment except for him and his mother, still spent from the holiday party. It is not an issue for him as he already had his rest when his father was driving earlier. Besides, he prefers driving in silence.

Khaiser slows down and carefully drives into the garage. As usual, everyone automatically wakes up as soon as he stops and parks the car, just a brief moment before the engine turns silent. The sound of Lukas taking a deep breath and yawning fills the empty silence in the car. He then wipes the drowsiness from his face.

"Ah, we've arrived. Thank you Khaiser." Lukas gently opens the door and gets out of the car, followed shortly after by his wife. His father's gratitude given to him is left unanswered. Khaiser stays in his seat for a while, relaxing and waiting for his parents to pick up their stuff and get inside the house first. The twin sisters are still leaning against each other in the backseat with their eyes closed. They are not showing any sign that they want to leave the car just yet.

"Don't forget to lock the car and the front door later, okay?" Nadya reminds her son as she arranges her steps to the front door, following her husband. Once again, Khaiser does not give any answer. He begins to move slowly to get out of the car as both his sisters start squirming in their seats. The sisters then slowly make their way out of the car and go to the car boot, where their brother is waiting. All three of them are too tired and sleepy to speak. The only thing they can see in their mind is their bed. They pick up their belongings and step to the front door. His mother's reminders echoes in Khaiser's mind. He lets his sisters leave the garage and enter the house first as he needs to finish everything that his mother told him to. After he is done, he heads straight to his room.

***

Khaiser drops his backpack on the floor next to the wardrobe before throwing himself on the bed. He stares blankly at the ceiling, not knowing what to do. He is tired from driving earlier but still does not want to sleep yet.

A few minutes of wandering brings Khaiser's mind to the mystery book that he found at his grandparent's house a few days ago. He glances at his backpack for a moment before getting off of the bed. The backpack is opened and his hand reaches inside it before pulling out the black book. He returns to his comfy bed, leaning against the bedpost and begins reading to feed his curiosity.

***

A cold night breeze envelops her body. Even though she is covered in a blanket, it is still not enough to stop it from reaching her skin and bones. Her whole body is shaking but she still refuses to move from her bed. She is determined to continue her slumber as it is still too early to get up and start the day.

Unfortunately, the cold breeze is as determined and stubborn as she is, if not more. No matter how hard she tries, she just cannot return to her sleep. After almost an hour of fighting, she finally decides to give up. She opens her eyes and stares blankly at the bunk bed above her. Quiet. Only the sound of spinning ceiling fans is filling the dorm room.

Her eyes finally adapt to the dark surrounding inside the room after a few minutes of a blank stare and picturing scenarios in her mind. She looks around. It seems like she is the only one who is awake. Her roommates are still sleeping peacefully on their beds. A slight confusion rises inside her mind. Is she the only one who can feel the freezing night breeze? None of her roommates seems to be bothered by it. Some of them do not even have a blanket that covers them.

She rolls to her side slightly to get a better view of the room. All the windows and the door are shut. There is no other way that the outside wind can enter the room. Is the cold breeze coming from the ceiling fans? She gazes at them. They are spinning at normal speed. It should not be too cold.