CHAPTER ONE

“Ayen, here!”

I immediately turned my head to look for the owner of the voice. It was crowded, and the auditorium is packed with students, that’s why it was hard to look for my friend who reserved me a seat. College orientations sure are tough, not to mention today was the last day. I was so excited until I saw the massive crowd.

     “Girl, our promised meeting time was like twenty minutes ago,” she snarks.

     “Sorry, Ali. I got stranded at the entrance,” I smiled apologetically at her, and sat down on the chair, wiping the dripping sweat off my forehead.

Thank goodness, the venue is air-conditioned.

     “For the whole twenty minutes?” Alison asked, making sure to check facts, and I can’t help but roll my eyes at her detail-orientedness.

     “Fine,” I give up, “I woke up late”

     “Fix that habit! We are not in high school anymore.”

Alison and I enrolled in different courses, so we had to split up after the meeting at the auditorium. I took Social Science, BS Psychology. Alison took up accounting. Technically speaking, when classes start, we’ll be far from each other. I had to get used to being alone and maybe start making new friends.

     “One lemonade, please. Thank you.”

It was so hot outside, and I was around the campus the whole day. When Alison texted me she wasn’t done checking her classes yet, I just went straight to a café I saw near me. I leisurely sat on the vacant chair and put my earphones on to un-hear all the unpleasant noise around me. 

Lately, I’ve been too lax. I mean, sucky? I’ve been trying to find some local indie bands I could join, but to no avail, I found none. Battle of the bands ended recently too, and I got a list of names I could try to audition, but I couldn’t get in touch with any of them.

Alison also kept nagging me to prioritize my college life before worrying about music-making. Seriously, she’s noisier than my mom. She even hid all of my personal piece arrangements to stop me from approaching my drum set at her house.

I removed my earphones off my ear when a waiter placed a tray with my lemonade on it on my table. I mutter a quiet thanks and give him a smile, which he returned. He looks cute.

I’m no stranger when it comes to flirting or relationships. If that cute waiter gives me even one sign that he’s slightly interested in me, I would hit it off with him. Though I’m pretty sure it was just simply a generous gesture, that smile, I mean.

     “Are you serious? Those kinds of cases actually happen in real life?” I overheard the students from the other table talking.

     “God, they must be seriously sick in the head to do something cruel like that,” another voice says in an exasperated voice.

What are they talking about? I’m not eavesdropping, they’re just talking pretty loud, and it’s just us here inside. Me and the four of them.

     “I know right? Who knows what kind of things they’d do after they get bored with the cats?”

My eyebrows furrowed in curiosity. Cats? What cats? 

Man, at this point, because of my boredom, it can be a case of eavesdropping. What can I do, though? 

     “I just can’t believe that someone can swallow the guilt of mass killing innocent animals like that. Aren’t they just psychos? And the fact that they live among us too! It’s revolting,” she shuddered, and I did along with her.

An animal mass killer around the neighborhood? Damn, that sounds crazy and scary. I want to join their circle and confirm if what they were talking about was true, but after I got back walking around the campus, I noticed that almost everyone was talking about that. It must be true, then. I just got goosebumps.

     “Shiny babies,” I commented and touched the rim of the snare drums.

In the desperation of getting the cat killer issue on my mind, my feet drifted in the music room. Worth it, though. If only I have my drumsticks with me, I wouldn’t have wasted a breath and played the drums already. They have such nice equipment, although this is for the orchestra and not for acoustic bands. 

My hand trailed to the fall board of the piano and gently opened it. 

     “Ta, ta, ta,” I sang along the keys.

I’m not very skilled when it comes to the other musical instruments, but I have general knowledge of them, so I can play a little. 

The stage was covered with a curtain, and I couldn’t see past it. Maybe someone would enter here soon, or someone came here earlier and just went out. Otherwise, they won’t leave the practice hall wide open like this, especially with the expensive instruments just sitting around here so exposed.

I continued to inspect the instruments, though. I don’t have any bad objective in mind.

Alison texted me, so I decided to leave the hall, but before I could even take another step out of the huge door, I heard a guitar amplifier turning on. I stopped in my tracks, and stared at the covered stage, hoping to see a person on it.

The curtains still covered the entirety of the elevated platform, but I could hear silent footsteps behind it. Then, a gentle strum of an electric guitar echoed in the hall. 

     “What…?” I quietly gasped.

That was so clean!

I could feel goosebumps from every part of my body, and I stood stone in my position, overwhelmed.

A gentle chord after chord followed in pursuit, and as I listened closely, it felt like I could discern the emotions behind the played music. 

Grief, loneliness… anger.

     “Gosh-!” 

I jumped in shock when a sudden static noise was heard from the speaker, indicating an aggressive pull of the guitar cable from the amplifier. I moved closer to the stage to take a peek, but I flinched again when I heard a grunt of frustration and heavy footsteps walking away.

I covered my mouth and ran outside the hall in a hurry.

God, did he hear me? Was I disturbing him? Is he the type to get annoyed when someone is observing them when they’re practicing? Damn, it wasn’t even intentional that I heard him play. It just so happens that I was in the hall!

I stopped running when I got a good distance away from the music hall and took a moment to let everything that happened sink in my mind.

     “He is good,” I mumbled.

Screw that, good is an understatement. He was amazing. I have very keen ears, and I could easily point out even a little off on the played note, but that earlier, it was so clean. I could sense the benign touch of his strings, as the vibrations sounded soft. Not to mention the exceptional portrayal of emotions through sound.

He reminds me of that childhood idol of mine. The similarities in tone are uncanny, though it’s been years since I heard that young idol I looked up to when I was younger. Maybe it wasn’t him, but they’re in the same caliber.

After I’m done catching my breath, I tied my hair into a high bun, and suddenly I’m already sitting on the wooden bench in the park just outside the campus gate.

Alison told me to wait for her here, so I did. I spent the entire 30 minutes awkwardly scrolling through my phone’s notes and pretending to type because I occupied the bench for too long, it was now dark. 

When I felt my butt starting to get numb from sitting too long, I decided to walk around and snap pictures of the night scenery. There weren’t that many people, just college couples waiting for the perfect chance to make out in the dark places of the park. I almost couldn’t stop myself back from making a gagging sound. There are also small families, circles of friends, and oh, cats.

A lot of cats. The rumor I was trying to bury deep down in my mind is starting to resurface now.

“Come here, kitty.” I heard a low voice coming from behind the bush in front of me.

Instinctively, I stopped in my tracks and tried to pry a look further than the shadow of the leaves. I could see a black hooded person, crouching. There were a number of cats gathering around him, and my heart pounded.

The words from earlier at the café kept echoing in my mind, and I fumbled in my pocket to take a video of what I’m seeing using my phone.

     “There you go. Would you like to go with me, hmm?” 

I shuddered at his eerie voice. My hands were shaking as I hurriedly typed my passcode and tap my camera icon. Perhaps I was just extremely unlucky because when I started to record, my camera flash turned on along with it.

     “Oh my God,” I shrieked in fear when he turned around in my direction.

I stepped back to run away, but my heel hits a stone behind me and I fell to the ground. God, I am just really unlucky, aren’t I? The chances of me dying are high, yet my clumsiness resurfaced now of all times. I started moving backward, still on the ground, when he slowly walked up to me.

He had a black cap and a mask on, a black hoodie with a white shirt underneath. He looked gigantic to me, I think he’s about five feet eleven or taller. 

     “Ba-Back off!” I stuttered. “Leave me and the cats alone, you psycho!” 

My eyes widened when he suddenly rushed to me and covered my mouth using his hand. A muffled scream dispersed in the air, and I lost all sense of hope. I froze on my spot, frightened, as I stared at his dark eyes.

     “What the hell, be quiet!” he rasps, and I obediently nodded my head in fear.

How can a mass cat killer smell sweet? Is that the smell of his cologne? Is he crazy?

      “Don’t talk about what happened here to anyone, you understand? If you do, I will come after you” he warned before retracting his hands and started jogging away from me.

I slumped completely on the ground, no strength left, as I stared at the cats meowing from a distance,

Thank goodness, the cats are safe. I’m safe.