I looked at the pair of girls who seemed very concerned about me. When I thought about Helena’s expression just now, I grew hesitant once more.

For some reason, I chose not to tell Sybille what happened to me today. Usually, I would tell her anything I had on my mind.

Due to my condition, I did not want to stress about it any longer. After taking a shower, I went back to my bed and prepared to settle in for the night.

I ended up tossing and turning in bed. When I grabbed my phone to text Job, I noticed I received a bank transfer to my account.

Sybille had just transferred five hundred dollars to me, even though she only had a thousand and two hundred dollars for her monthly allowance.

I texted her about it and received an instant reply.

[My mom wanted me to remind you to make sure you eat. If you need any help, they have your back. They are your godparents, after all.]

It was then I remembered her mother had a chronic disease, which she needed long-term physical therapy to recover from.

Since she could not work, her father was the only breadwinner in the family, despite only being a common salaried worker.

Five hundred dollars was a significant sum for their family.

I suddenly felt a sharp sting run up my nose and had the urge to cry. I told her everything that happened today, paying careful attention to omit the part where I spoke to Job.

Sybille typed a reply for several minutes before she finally clicked sent.

[Listen, Geneva. I’m not trying to badmouth Helena intentionally, but I have heard some things.]

[Anette told me that a few times when you were away and she was doing revision in the dormitory, Helena would go through your things and mix something in your skincare products. Then, she would go and threaten Anette to keep her mouth shut. Anette told me about this privately and wanted me to relay this to you.]

So, Helena was the reason my skin was breaking out.

She had also hammered nails into my shoes.

I was skeptical. [I did suspect her, but her reaction back there made me second-guess myself.]

[Don't forget that she was part of the theater club. She could have been acting back there.]

[Do you think there’s a chance she deliberately used that as a convenient excuse to distract you so you wouldn’t suspect her?]

However, I found the entire thing difficult to believe. My head started to ache from all the thinking, and it felt like a cloud of fog had nested deep in my skull.

I decided there was no point thinking about it in this state. I would worry about it after I got some rest.

With that, I closed my eyes.

...

I’m not sure how long I slept, but the sound of a rooster crowing awakened me.

I woke up in a dazed state to realize I could not move my body.

The bed in the dormitory was small, with hardly any room to stretch. I would always have episodes of what was known as sleep paralysis.

However, what was happening now felt completely different.

It was as if someone was sitting on top of my chest, pinning me with their whole weight so I could not breathe.

I opened my eyes, only to be greeted by complete darkness. The whole world was void.

This was not my first time experiencing sleep paralysis. I forced myself to calm down and focused on regaining control. Then I started by trying to twitch my finger.

No matter what, my body would not obey my mind. I grew anxious and started to sweat profusely.

While I was still panicking, I seemed to hear the muffled voices of my dorm mates filtering through the curtain. I could not catch what they were saying, but I prayed desperately that one of them would come and wake me up.

After some time passed, I noticed a sliver of light spilling through the cracks of the curtains. It was certainly not nighttime anymore.

In that case, why couldn’t I see anything just now?

Completely thrown off by this, I looked around and glanced above me.

That was when I noticed a rotten face with its grotesque skin peeling off hovering right above me. Its coarse and mottled hair draped right over my eyelids like curtains.

I closed my eyes and screamed, horrified.

Suddenly, I snapped out of my state and shot straight out of bed.

I parted the privacy curtain and recognized Sybille sitting by herself on a chair opposite me. She had turned the reading light on and was in the middle of a book.

I immediately sprang out of bed and told her about the nightmare I just had all in one exhaustive breath.

She regarded me with a vacant expression before murmuring, “You mean this face?”

I blinked a few times before noticing that Helena and Anette had poked their heads out of their bed. Both of their faces were rotten and had skin peeling off like the chipped face of the bark of a tree.

I snapped awake again. This time, I was truly awake.

I found Helena standing below my bunk bed with an annoyed expression.

“Do you have cancer or some mental illness? Quit screaming in your sleep, it’s annoying!”

I took a moment to gather my breath before turning to her. “Why are you by my bed?”

Helena rolled her eyes at me.

“The student council came and told us to submit our homework. They sent me here to get you to finish our work before our group gets penalized for late submission. Did you think I’d come asking you to turn on your computer otherwise?”

All four of us were in a group for schoolwork and would routinely help each other submit our schoolwork.

This was all so sudden, but I figured what she was saying made sense.

Upon snapping out of my grogginess, I suddenly remembered that my messages were synced onto my desktop. Also, I had my conversation with Sybille pinned to the top, which meant Helena could easily find what I had said to Sybille!

Just as I expected, her expression dropped before I had time to scramble out of bed to stop her.

She shot a look at me. “I knew it. You have been badmouthing me with your best friend, haven’t you?”

I confronted her directly instead of cowering from guilt.

“I know whoever put that hex on me is in our dormitory. You’ve always had something against me, so it only makes sense that I would suspect you. If it turns out I was mistaken about you, I’ll apologize. But you’ll have to prove your innocence first!”

Helena snapped back at me, “I’m not afraid of taking accountability for what I did! Sure, I admit I was the one who tampered with your things in the past. But why would I even bother trampling over you now that your life is in the gutter?

“Besides, my family's good fortune was not something that happened overnight. Do you have any idea how hard my brother and father worked to get here? They had to attend so many business events and drink until they threw up so they could secure all these projects. You have no right to accuse me of hexing you!”

She suddenly snuck a look at bed number three before pulling a face. “I’m not the two-faced person you think I am.”

With that, she left without turning back.

I was left rooted to the spot, thinking about what she said.

It was true that Helena had the least incentive to lie to me.

Both she and I came from similar circumstances. It would not make sense for her to shoulder the risk of being ridiculed and slandered for doing something as immoral as trying to swap her fate with mine.

Then, I recalled the subtle way she darted a look at Anette’s bed just now.

Anette was convinced that furthering her education was the only way to claw her way out of the low circumstances she was born in.

Even though we were only in our sophomore year, she had already started preparing for the master's thesis.

Whenever she was not attending classes, she would be studying in the library from eight in the morning to six in the evening. At night, she worked part-time in the cafeteria.

At this hour, she should be on shift.

With this in mind, I approached her desk. She had very little belongings at her desk, only a few books and a folder containing award certificates.

After hesitating for a few seconds, I gently opened the drawer.

I found a sparse collection of stationery and some notebooks from the school. Apart from that, there was nothing suspicious inside.

I heaved a sigh of relief before feeling a sharp pang of guilt.

How could I have doubted Anette just like that?

As I was about to close the drawer, I heard something clattering inside the pencil case.

Without even thinking about it, I opened it.

It contained a gold necklace I had lost some time ago and had been searching for fruitlessly.

Anette had helped me search for it, too!

I could feel the gears in my mind overclocking and began rummaging through the other drawers.

I found some skin care products that I seldom used, as well as lipstick that I had only got to use a handful of times.

“I am not that kind of two-faced person.”

What Helena said just now thundered in my mind.

Anette claimed Helena had been going through my things. However, this entire time, she was the one who had been stealing from me!

Had she said it because Helena caught her in the middle of stealing from me? Perhaps she tried to leverage the fact that I did not get along with Helena and thought she could pin the blame on the latter instead.

I shuddered at the thought.

Around this point, I heard someone talking outside the room.

“I don't have to work part-time in the cafeteria anymore! My lecturer just told me I’m getting the national scholarship!”

Anette went on excitedly, “Also, my family’s plot of land was just reclaimed, and we got a sum as legal compensation. That’s more than enough for my father to pay off his debts and build us a new house! There’s more. My brother managed to find a long-term job in the city, so it looks like things are finally looking up for my family!”

“That’s great to hear! You have suffered long enough. It was all worth it!”

Anette fell silent for a few seconds, then opened the door while snickering, “Speaking of which, I’ll have to thank Geneva.

“If it weren't for her, I wouldn't be where I am today.”

The moment the door opened, I locked eyes with Anette.

I could recognize the trace of panic flashing across her eyes.