The Nemesis

CHAPTER THREE: RATS IN THE POOL

In the serene, gray quiet of dawn, Eve is bolted awake by a bone-chilling, low-pitched "Aaaaaahhhhhhh", that suddenly throws peace out the window, making it pop at the touch of air, like a bubble.

Another spine-chilling "Ahhhhhhhhhh", followed by babies' distressed cries, wrecks the upstairs hallway, abruptly waking a few others in the bedrooms. Once Eve comes out of her bedroom, she sees that Butt Virgin, Timothee, Hairspray, Anwar, Bella, Pip, Olivia, Dylan, Carys, Rudy, had already gathered in the hallway, huddled together as they listen to the continuing scream.

Eve asks, "What's going on?", in anxiousness as she states down the dark hallway that is only barely lit with flickering lion-head-shaped night-light scones lining the wall.

Timothée slowly shakes his head as he answers, "I don't know...".

Dylan walks back into his room, where Amelia is soothing her upset babies with soft kisses, and cuddles one baby with much fatherly affection as if it were his own and reassuringly strokes its red cheeks as he whispers sweetness into its ears.

In the hallway, more people start to come out of their bedroom or timidly peek from behind the mahogany doors as another ear-piercing scream tears the air to shreds.

"Do we call the police?", ponders Finneas, worriedly clutching his phone.

"No, I'll check it out", offers Eve and walks down the hallway as she flashes her phone flashlight into the murky unknown.

As Eve takes cautious steps of vigilance, a bathroom door, that is open slightly ajar, at the end of the hall with yellow light flooding out of it, catches Eve's attention like a candescent ray of sun at the end of the tunnel.

Eve jogs to the bathroom and an unimaginably gruesome sight pushes her down to the ground and she lets out a terrifying guttural scream with her eyes fixated onto the horror in front of her.

Timothée runs a few feet down the hallway and calls out, "Eve, what's going on!"

The scream of unnerving silence troubles Timothee's heart with concern and plunges the others into a pulsating suspense, making them huddle more closely to each other, feeling as if their hearts are on a racing track.

More friends come out of their bedrooms, with their hands clasped onto their phones and pupils dilated in fight or flight response as wariness of what macabre misfortune might inevitably befall on them, casts a grim shadow above their heads.

Ominously sibylline darkness sinks its sadistic fangs into Timothee's lucid fear, making him breathlessly sprint further down the hallway and shouts, "Eve! What's going on?!".

Dead silence tortures Timothee's suffocating oblivion until Eve's conspicuously loud but composed voice alerts everyone that their worst nightmare just became a reality, "Lennon suicided!".

The crowd of friends flock over to the bathroom like desert foxes to an oasis, most out of morbid curiosity and by the urge to check Eve's credulity.

Iris responsibly covers Rudy and Carys' ears and sternly grabs onto their wrists, as she rushes them into Dylan and Amelia's room, then shuts the door tightly, blocking out the forthcoming uproar of horrid chaos.

Upon arriving in front of the bathroom, the friends' breaths are suctioned right out of their lungs at the sight of Ghostface Lennon lifelessly suspended from the bathroom vent and catatonic, red-eyed Earl and calm Eve sat in front of the unbearable horror, with their faces as pale as ghosts and necks frightfully tensed.

Alistair swiftly grabs hold of a petrified Pip's waist and turns her around, pulling her into a protective hug, shielding her from having to stare at the harrowing scene.