Chapter One

It was a dim May evening in Carter College, a sprawling university nine miles south from the outskirts of Seattle. The weather had been unseasonably dry so far that month, as if the warmth and long stretch of the evenings associated with summer had come early and given the often inclement area a pleasant easy tranquility. Carter College was without much exception a monetarily exclusive school catering to the children of the wealthy and the affluent, but not one which was known to boast of producing either the most devoted students or the most deserving graduates, and thus it was reasonable for one to not have heard of it. Students here had not necessarily studied hard enough to find themselves in Harvard or Stanford, and with parents unwilling to pay for a new library or sports centre- a degree from Carter was their next best bet.

Jennifer Bell was in many ways a quality example of such a student. In her second year of an English literature degree, Jennifer was firmly in the swing of enjoying her time in college with very little exception made for studying, or reading the course material, or even showing up for classes. She had made it through her first year by the skin of her teeth and now with a GPA of 2.9 she was nightly gaming out the possibility of selling her parents on allowing her to drop out and take a year to backpack around Europe. Jennifer's father Miles Bell was the CEO of a venture capitalist firm operating out of Seattle, while her mother was a pharmaceutical lobbyist employed by several of the largest pharma companies in America. That is all to say- while they had high expectations of their daughter, they also did not always have the most time for her.

On this particular evening, Jennifer had been hanging out with her friend Casey over at her dorm until Casey's boyfriend Ezra had come over at around seven o'clock. Jennifer had decided against going back to her own dorm after classes had ended at four, a common occurrence due to what she knew was waiting for her back at her dorm. At the beginning of the fall semester the previous year, Jennifer had been assigned a new roommate, a girl named Sarah Webber. Although she was likewise a student of English literature, it was there that the similarities between the two girls ended. While Jennifer was loud, aloof, and fun-loving, Sarah was by contrast studious, quiet and almost without exception alone, something she would tell you that was by choice. Even in appearance the girls could not have been more different. While Jennifer was tall, thin and fair-skinned with long blonde hair and green eyes- Sarah was noticeably shorter with pale skin, mousy brown hair and blue eyes. Very quickly upon their first meeting Jennifer had formed the opinion that Sarah was stuck-up, self-serious and boring- and though Sarah had never ventured to share her opinion about Jennifer with anyone, Jennifer often felt she could sense her roommates unspoken contempt. And thus, she usually found any excuse she could to avoid going back to her dorm room too early, knowing that she was to be faced with Sarah silently reading on her bed, her pale blue eyes peaking over the top of her book to send silent daggers Jennifer's way.

It was as she walked back from Casey's dorm that Jennifer pictured those blue eyes and imagined having to deal with them and that awful silence for the rest of the night. Ideally she would have stayed with Casey until much later, but with Ezra's arrival she had gotten the clear indication that three was a crowd and decided to do the tactful thing and leave. What a good friend she was, she thought to herself as she turned a corner around the Arts building and headed down the long tree-lined laneway to her own dorm. Sarah did not know what she was missing out on, she had decided. Indeed she knew by reputation and rumour that Sarah had no friends at all and very little social life to speak of, so if she chose to be rude and standoffish to Jennifer, then Jennifer felt it was her own fault.

"Maybe I could help her…" she thought idly, more out of curiosity than any real impulse of kindness.

"I could teach her to be a human being, like Jane with Tarzan." Jennifer said to herself with a small chuckle. Jennifer's class had been assigned Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw to read last year. Jennifer had not read it.

Approaching her dorms entrance, Jennifer entered the usual four digit code into the key panel on the side of the door and awaited the mechanical buzz which indicated the mechanism of the lock had slid backwards. Seconds later it came and with a sigh she pulled the heavy door open and crossed the foyer to the buildings elevator. Nearly eight o'clock, she thought as she glanced up idly at the clock on the wall while waiting for the elevator to arrive. How early could she reasonably go to bed, she wondered.

Stewing on this thought as the elevator brought her up to the fourth floor, she stepped out and walked as slowly as possible the remaining twenty feet until she found herself in front of her dorm room. Reaching into her jacket pocket, she groped around inside for her key before swearing and beginning to check her other pockets, and then her bag. Damn, she said at last, she must have lost her key, given that she distinctly remembered having it with her when she left in the morning.

This would mean having to knock on the door, which would mean of course having to interact with Sarah. She could already picture her roommates withering stare as she cracked open the door and silently judged Jennifer for having lost her keys, and for a few seconds that alone was enough to make Jennifer want to turn on her heel and leave. But she knew in doing so she would only be delaying the inevitable, and so with a final sigh she raised her arm and knocked curtly on the door. She had expected to hear instant movement on the other side, but in the intervening silence she began to wonder if against all odds Sarah was out, as unlikely at that seemed to her. Suddenly she remembered that the campus's building supervisor, a pleasant but unremarkable man named Craig had a copy of every room key, and so padding softly down the stairs she knocked on his door, and after a moment it opened and he appeared, his plain thirty-something features looking distinctly unimpressed at being disturbed in the evening.

Putting on her most charming smile, Jennifer said "Hiii Craig, how are you doing?".

And being momentarily disarmed by her friendliness, and (she assumed), receiving attention from a beautiful young girl- Craig seem stupefied and took a moment to answer before replying "Oh, hi Jenny…".

Imperceptibly, Jennifer was annoyed at the shortening of her name, but only smiled all the more sweetly as he continued "I'm good, I was just watching a movie…" he said, gesturing vaguely back into his room.

"Oh awesome, what movie?!" She asked, pretending to care.

"Silence of the Lambs- you seen it?" He asked innocently.

"Seen it, I love it!". Jennifer had in fact seen the movie once, but had not really enjoyed it.

All the same this made Craig smile all the wider, but before he could ask another question Jennifer cut in. "-listen Craig, I can't get into my dorm and I think my rooomate is out, can you give me a hand?".

Nodding almost immediately, Craig turned around a grabbed a large bundle of keys on loop from a peg on his wall and tucked his feet into a pair of ratty slippers before stepping out into the hallway.

Jennifer followed after him as he lumbered up the stairwell to the fourth floor, already visualising the joy she would feel when she could wish him a good night and slam the door in his face once her got her inside her room. It was when they approached the fourth floor that the access door from the third floor hallway to the stairwell swung open and Rina Sato walked through.

Rina was a veterinary science student in her third year, and perhaps one of the only people at Carter that Jennifer knew Sarah would call a friend. The Japanese-American girl was likewise to Sarah a devoted student, but did not take herself as seriously, and to Jennifer seemed to have a sense of humour and instant likability that Sarah lacked. Right now though she seemed a little lost, and when she finally locked eyes with Jennifer a look of recognition and hope flashed across her face. "Jennifer- hi!"

She said breathlessly, before continuing "-have you seen Sarah?".

Jennifer shrugged and said "not since this morning, why?".

She noticed Rina's face was flushed as if she had run a great distance, and when Rina replied "She was meant to meet me for dinner tonight, but she never showed- I called her like five times but she's not answering…"

Jennifer's curiosity was peaked. Gesturing to Craig, she said "Well I'm about to get into our dorm, maybe she left a note or something."

And so their group became three as Craig, Jennifer and Rina walked up to the fourth floor, and to Jennifer's door. As Craig fumbled with his keys for a few seconds, Jennifer for the first time noticed that she could see under the door that the lights were on in the room. In the next moment though when the lock clicked and Craig swung open the door, everything changed.

Rina screamed first, a blood-curdling ear-piercing shriek which echoed down the hall. Craig wordlessly dropped his keys, which thudded softly on the carpet below. Jennifer's reaction was only one of complete stunned horror as she saw the room she had come to know so well transformed into a vision from hell.

Sarah Webber's body sat perfectly upright on her bed, which had been dragged to the centre of the room. Gouts of blood had flowed down her pale cheeks and soaked into the vest she was wearing from her eyes, which had been gouged out. The sheets of the bed were soaked through with blood, filling the room with a pungent coppery smell that made Jennifer want to vomit. On each wall a single black straw doll was nailed in place, but it was below the doll on the back wall that a long string of letters and numbers were scrawled in what they could only assume was more of Sarah's crimson blood.

5468652066756e206e6576657220656e64732c207269676874204c3f20596f757220667269656e642c204242


Near awoke to the sound of his cell phones plaintive buzz on the other side of his hotel room. His brain beat against the walls of his skull in pain as he stumbled out of bed, stretching his now tall and thin frame and running his hands through his white hair. While crossing the room he managed to knock into the room's coffee table, scattering the small empty bottles of liquor he had raided from the room's minibar the night before. When he finally found his phone sat nestled amongst his discarded clothes he neglected to instantly answer, opting instead to take three aspirin from a pill bottle on floor and chug down a whole bottle of complimentary water. All the while the phone continued to ring. Vaguely Near wondered just how long he could keep Roger waiting before he would give up, but knowing then that with complete assurance that that would never happen, Near flipped open the phones front and raised it to his ear.

"Yes Watari?" He said to Roger, attempting to sound as composed and aloof as he could.

"L- a situation has developed in a college outside Seattle which I believe justifies your involvement. I'm sending you a picture which was sent to our secure mailbox by local law enforcement".

Moments later his phone beeped at the image came through. Staring at the grizzle crime scene photo, Near took only a few moments to recognise elements of the modus operandi, and then to decipher the code inscribed on the back wall.

"Ok," he said, "charter a flight."