Chapter 4
All day, the entire campus talked about the murder in our dorm.
The victim was a freshman girl from the literature department. Rumor said her roommates had woken up and found her in bed with a horrible head wound. Police cars were parked outside the building, and the room was sealed off.
As the day went on, the rumors grew more and more grotesque. Everyone seemed to have a different version, and each one was worse than the last.
By evening, Jessica, Reilly, and I were eating dinner in the cafeteria when a tray suddenly slammed down onto our table.
I looked up.
Madison stood there, smiling brightly.
“Jess, Riley, Emma. Long time no see.”
The three of us froze, but Madison seemed not to notice our reaction. She sat down and started chatting cheerfully while eating.
“It’s because the foreign language department is so far from your building,” she said. “Since I moved out, I haven’t seen you guys. How have you been?”
None of us answered.
Finally, I could not help interrupting. “Maddie… have you been dreaming about cutting watermelons lately?”
Madison paused. “No. Lately I’ve been dreaming about eating rice noodle rolls. Why? Why are you asking?”
I did not know how to answer.
At that exact moment, the girls at the next table started gossiping loudly enough for all of us to hear.
“Did you hear about that murder in the girls’ dorm?”
“They said whoever did it was super strong. The head wound was so clean, it looked like someone cut a watermelon.”
Madison heard them too.
The color drained from her face as she slowly looked back at us.
“You… you think I killed that literature girl?”
None of us spoke.
Madison’s eyes filled with tears.
“Is that what you think of me?” she said. “I told you there are no sharp objects in my room. I lock my door every day. I check it every morning. Don’t you trust me at all?”
Jessica immediately looked guilty. “Maddie, we didn’t mean—”
But Madison was already crying. She stood up and ran away.
The three of us lost our appetites.