Roman pressed his thumb on the pusher of the lighter for the flame to appear. He held one side of the paper above the flame, and soon one end of the paper caught fire before the whole burnt itself, leaving behind residue of ashes on the floor. He brought his fingers to his mouth, running his tongue over the burn as he stared at the ashes. 

His eyes burned brighter than the flame, remembering the question that Julie had asked him in the letter. 

Did she see the cemetery that night? Students, who had previously gone wandering over the restricted area of the forest, but no one ever spoke about it as their memory was instantly erased.

Roman’s eyes narrowed that Julie had ignored his words. He picked the other letters that had their conversations and burned them until there were none of it. He couldn’t believe that even after he had warned her, she had questioned her pen pal about it. At times, Julie had written her reply in the same letter as him, which played advantage to him as he got back the letters he sent her. 

He doubted she would be able to stay alive if she were to bring this up with anyone.

Tearing a page, he wrote down—

‘Cemetery? I don’t think I remember anyone mentioning seeing the nearby cemeteries around the campus. Do cemeteries intrigue you? 

By the way, what are you doing with my letters? Saving them like a nerd?’

Julie was lucky that the person she had asked and the person she had been writing to were the same. Roman’s lips twisted in displeasure because if the word was to fall upon Evans or anyone else’s ears, they would question her last and instead first drag her to the underground dungeon.

When the letter reached Julie, she wrote back to him—

‘Why would I be interested in coffins? I wasn’t a zombie in my previous life, though my friend Conner is more interested in it because of his Halloween costume. I must have mistaken it for something else. 

I would have saved it if it was my lover, but you are a letter kidnapper >.> Your letters? I tear them into tiny pieces, which have been going to the trash every day.’

So it seemed like no one knew about the cemetery, thought Julie in her mind. For now, she decided not to question it, but that didn’t mean the curiosity about it reduced in her mind. 

Days were quick to pass by where Julie got busy with her classwork, practising for the annual play, and she continued to exchange letters with the mysterious letter thief. And then finally came the day before Halloween, where everyone was eager to wear their costumes. 

Julie noticed the campus being prepped and ready to celebrate Halloween, which many of them called it Hallow. Pumpkins had been carved to represent many emotions on it, and skeletons were being placed all around the campus with other things like statues of spooky-looking witches. Banners had been placed all around the campus, including the front of the lunchroom that had read ‘Happy Hallow’. 

All everyone could speak about was about tomorrow and what they were going to wear. 

After having their lunch, Julie and Melanie had decided to take a walk around the campus before heading back to their dorms. Noticing a student splashing red liquid on the walls, Julie asked, 

“I didn’t know Veteris was so into Halloween.”

Melanie turned to look in the direction and saw the red liquid dripping down from the wall. “Hallow in Veteris is one of the notable celebration days and they like to go hardcore on this one. I think the other things that they like to enjoy are the annual week celebration, including the football matches.”

Julie, who was still staring at the stained walls, asked, “How are they going to scrub that out? It looks more tedious to remove the stains compared to taking out the decorative items.”

“I think they bring the cleaners. They did it the last two years I have been here,” replied Melanie, and Julie nodded her head. “Thankfully Mr. Borrell doesn’t ask us students to clean it as another form of punishment. It would be terrible.”

“I can imagine that,” smiled Julie, continuing to walk with Melanie. She said, “I am surprised that they don’t have a curfew time tomorrow.”

“Right? I think Ms. Dante and the other teachers decided to extend the time knowing how hard we have been working on our grades. We all need a break and I guess with the curfew time being extended to two in the night, everyone is eagerly waiting to let off some steam,” responded Melanie, bringing up the fruit juice near her mouth and slurping it from the straw. 

Julie carried a coke can in her hand. Curious if it tasted different, she bought it from the lunchroom after being heavily advertised by Roman, who always kept drinking it. She wondered if he didn’t care about his dental health, not that he cared about anything with the way he did things. She always found him carrying a can and drinking it as if it was water. But after drinking, the drink tasted the same as before. Maybe he just liked it a lot, she thought in her hand. 

“When did you say the celebration starts again?” asked Julie because even though the university was celebrating Halloween tomorrow, classes would still go on as usual. 

“Probably around six or seven in the evening. But I don’t think people are going to be attending it, everyone is going to start to dress up depending on their costumes and the make up,” answered Melanie. “Do you have your study session tomorrow with Roman? Is Satan going to drag you to the library?” she joked with a smile.

Julie shook her head before looking around to make sure Roman wasn’t anywhere near them, “He told me he was going to be busy tomorrow.” When a sigh escaped her lips, Melanie turned to look at her curiously.

“Is everything alright?” 

“I think so. I don’t know, a few days ago, Roman seemed really angry at me. It is like his mood keeps on getting worse, though it doesn’t affect the studies directly, it is distracting,” replied Julie remembering how she had felt his continuous glare at her when she had been looking at her book. 

“Did something happen in the play practice room? Did you forget your lines with him on the stage?” Melanie’s eyebrows subtly raised in doubt.

“Not that I can think of anything,” said Julie. “I don’t know, sometimes he’s just strange.” After that day of bumping heads with each other, he hadn’t tried to intimidate her again. Maybe he was angry about the same matter? She asked in her mind. 

But the truth was that Roman was annoyed because Julie had tried to expose herself even after he had warned her. That particular day, he had drilled holes at her. 

“I think if it was related to you, there would have been a close call of murder by now. Roman Moltenore and his anger issues. Maybe it was for someone else, else why would he even bother to take his precious time to teach you?” asked Melanie. Julie realized her friend had a point. “I think he tolerates you. I mean, there are only a few people whom he can tolerate and those are usually his friends.” He did? 

Melanie then continued, “You doubt it,” she smiled. 

“Did I say it out loud?” 

“No, but it was written on your face. Not only does he give you special lessons, but he also came with his friends to have lunch with us. I don’t think their group ever does that with anyone.”

“Oh, that. You heard Maximus say about the play, I am sure they felt bad for the way people spoke about me when I was on the stage that day,” Julie waved her hand, forgetting she had the coke can in her hand, and some of it spilt on her hand and the ground. “Also it might be because of Dennis.”

“Hm? But I thought Dennis didn’t like them to be friends with,” murmured Melanie. 

“I believe they both don’t like each other. Yes, that would be more right to say,” explained Julie, remembering how Roman had got her to stay in the same place at the table while Dennis had shifted farther away from her. She raised her hand, “It is a topper versus the person who comes second.”

As they made their way towards their Dormitorium, Julie noticed the helpers of Veteris, who were usually involved in cleaning and other maintenance duty, now were on the lawn outside their Dormitorium. They had placed a random headstone in the corner, and next to it was a large looking scary head with hands as if it was trying to come out from the ground. 

Getting back inside the Dormitorium, which was decorated with cobwebs, spiders and with some other scary things, Julie walked through the corridor before heading back to her dorm. 

Tomorrow wasn’t just the celebration of Hallow, but it was also the time where she was finally going to meet the letter thief. Somewhere she was nervous about what was going to happen. Would she recognize him from the rest of the crowd? 

What if the mystery thief was Mateo Jackson? She had seen the looks he had passed at her along with another person, and it worried her. What if this was just a trap, and he was going to do something worse? 

But then his words lately had turned nice, and she had started to look forward to his replies. 

Julie bit into her bottom lip in thought while trying to remember which place the letter thief had mentioned in one of his letters to meet him. She had torn all the letters into small pieces and had thrown them in the trash.

“Was it seventeen? Or was it eighteen?” Julie muttered to herself. 

Julie didn’t know where exactly the postings were located in the forest, and she didn’t want to walk from one posting to another looking for someone, whom she had no idea how the person looked. 

When she asked him in the letter, she had received the reply at night with—

‘Why didn’t you write it down? Considering how this might be the last time I get to make you run an errand before handing the first half of the letter back to you, try to remember or look around. Now don’t forget, there’s terms and conditions. 

If you fail to be there, your precious letter continues to stay with me. I will meet you at 00.31, in your mummy costume. I look forward to meeting you tomorrow, Julianne Winters.’