Thursday, 2:00 AM
Liam was still wide awake on his bed. And as to why? His mind was occupied with thoughts about one of the school's oldest tales—about a being known as the Man-Hunter.
The Man-Hunter was speculated to be a spirit who went around midnight from hostel to hostel, doing strange things to students. By "strange," they meant probably sexual assault. It was said that the Man-Hunter would caress the butts of students, and during the encounter, the student would be unable to move or make a sound. In some cases, it even went beyond caressing—something more.
However, in reality, it was probably a human. A student, to be precise.
From Liam's speculation, there were two reasons why the victims wouldn't react. First, they probably knew the person, and perhaps it was already planned beforehand. Second, they probably thought the tale was real, and the fear would likely paralyze them—or they wouldn't even bother trying to move since they all knew the rumors.
Well, as for why people still thought the Man-Hunter was a spirit and not actually a human—it had existed as long as they could remember and had probably acted at least once in every section since then. Of course, it could also be that "they" were just being replaced by others. Who knows?
Secondly, during one section, the Man-Hunter had been caught and chased by many students. Even the fastest student in the set wasn't able to catch him, meaning he probably wasn't a student. And no staff member would be faster than the fastest student, so it was speculated to be a spirit.
And as for why Liam was currently having these thoughts? You could say it was because tonight, he witnessed one in action. And to be honest, he had no idea why he didn't interrupt the person—especially when it was someone he knew.
He had suddenly woken up in the middle of the night and saw someone walking toward the bed of a student. As to what he was doing there, there was probably no need to guess.
The reason why he didn't sleep normally was that, unlike things he could control or follow from the original timeline, sleeping and when to wake up was not a constant variable that would follow the original timeline. So he had decided to sleep as early as 6:00 PM and woke up at midnight.
Just as he was thinking, he suddenly saw someone standing up from his bed as carefully as possible.
And as to who it was?
Anthony.
There was no need to even try to guess—it was the same as in the original timeline. The posture, the walking steps—even though everywhere was dark, he could still make out his figure.
Anthony walked to the First Apartment. After a few minutes, he came back. Instead of getting back to his bed, he went toward the bed of another junior.
And as to who the junior student was?
Felix.
Of course, Liam couldn't make out what exactly Anthony was doing, but he could tell. What other reason would he be there at this time of night?
In the original timeline, Liam had hesitated to make any move. He'd had several thoughts—like calling Anthony's name, or calling Senior Joseph, or more—but in the end, he just stood motionlessly on his bed, unsure of what to do.
However, this time around, he decided to do something.
Of course, he didn't do anything directly. He just wanted to put pressure on Anthony.
Liam got down from his bed, stretching as if he'd just woken up from sleep. He paused, looking toward Anthony's direction and staring for a little over ten seconds. He was sure that he'd given Anthony—and perhaps Felix—quite a fright. But he had no intention of actually approaching them. It might cause an unknown variable later on.
He decided to walk to the First Apartment before heading toward the bathroom from the door. Taking his time to urinate, he made sure to spend at least a minute in there to see if Anthony would quickly return to his bed out of fear.
Just as he expected, when he returned, he saw Anthony pretending to be asleep in his bed—even going as far as snoring subtly.
"What a fool," Liam said softly as he walked past, just loud enough to make sure he was heard by Anthony.
Of course, that wouldn't change much. The only thing that might happen would be Anthony thinking that perhaps Liam knew—but even still, he would never be sure.
Liam climbed back into his bed, covering himself with his blanket.
Anthony was a rather toxic person, and nobody knew him better than Liam. After all, even in the original timeline, this was one of the secrets he knew that nobody else knew. Apart from being the Man-Hunter, Anthony was also a thief—a rather renowned one, at that.
Well, of course, not everyone was perfect. Even Liam had done rather questionable things in the original timeline—and they were things he would also repeat when the time came.
But for now, he would let nature take its course.