The Dormmates Who Ostracized Me Died

I was a familiar face in the police station. I often got into fights and would frequently be thrown into a detention cell. One day, while I was gaming in an arcade, Captain Zimmer showed up again. I was stunned for a few seconds. “Did I beat someone up again? I don’t remember, though.” Captain Zimmer merely took his handcuffs out and put them on me. “Mindy Fawkes, you’re under arrest on suspicion of killing your dormmates.” Chapter 1 I went back to the police station, and I moved around it with familiar ease, like I was in my own house. I slumped down against the interrogation chair and asked Captain Zimmer cheerily, “What am I having for lunch today? Takeout again?” Captain Zimmer was a level-headed person. He did not even look at me as he continued preparing the interrogation. Meanwhile, Watson Xanders—Captain Zimmer’s partner—glared at me sternly and slammed his hands on the table. “Watch your tone, Mindy Fawkes! Why would we arrest you without proof? Just tell us. Why did you kill them?” I shrugged. “And who did I kill?” “Your dormmates! They were about to transfer to universities from the community college, but you ruined their futures!” “That’s such a huge pity! I find it regrettable that those three good girls died, but why would I kill them?” “Because you—” “Ahem.” Captain Zimmer interrupted Watson by clearing his throat. What a pity. I did not manage to fish out what they thought was my murder motive. “Mindy, what were you doing on the eleventh of March? Please tell us in detail. Don’t leave anything out.” Captain Zimmer’s voice remained as steady and calm as usual. I narrowed my eyes as I recalled what I had been doing yesterday. “Going to classes, duh. I have this habit where I can’t sleep in bed and can only sleep when I’m in class.” Captain Zimmer wrote in his notebook. “Did you sleep for the entire day?” “No. I woke up at around 2 or 3 p.m. before leaving. My girls asked me to help settle some scores, and I can’t just say no to that, can I? “It’s a pity that we didn’t manage to fight in the end, and I ended up only having a bowl of noodles instead of the barbecue they had promised me. They didn’t even buy me a bottle of beer. Tsk.” Captain Zimmer did not look up and continued writing in his notebook. “What time did you finish eating the noodles, and what did you do after that?” “After 9 p.m. Once I was done, I went to a cybercafe to spend the night—” Suddenly, Captain Zimmer whipped his head up and stopped writing. “Didn’t you miss something?” I stopped talking for a brief moment. Then, as if I had just remembered something, I said, “I must still be feeling dizzy from sleeping so much. “You need money to go into a cybercafe, right? So, I went back to the dorm to get it. Why are you staring at me like that? It’s not a crime to grab my money, you know? “Hang on. Did those three lovely girls get killed right when I went back? How did they die? Was it bad? Do you have any photos?” My devil-may-care attitude made Watson shout, “Mindy, is this really how you’re supposed to act when the dormmates who have been living with you for so long died?!” I snickered. “How should I be acting, then? Scared or sad? I’m a thug, and those three are good babies. We don’t belong in the same world. You just brought me here because I get into fights, am good-for-nothing, and look like a suspect, isn’t that right?” Chapter 2 I could not even remember all their names. I only remembered that the prettiest one was Samantha. She dated a rich boy who was older than her by a couple of years. He always came over in a BMW to pick her up for dates, and it looked really cool. Aside from this, I knew nothing about them. Because whenever they were in the dorm, I did not even have the right to go back and be in the same space as them. To the others, I was a troublemaker who only knew how to fight and spit in the face of the law. To them, I was trash. “Please move out. We need to study, and we don’t want people like you bothering us.” “Hasn’t Samantha given you a warning? Why are you back?” “Heh. You can just sleep with some random man to get a place to stay. Haven’t you been doing that for a long time?” I did not get on their bad side. I was a pretty bad person myself, but I wanted them to have a good time, because I wanted to know what I would be like if I had been born in a normal family, like them. However, they could not accept me, so we ended up fighting. In the end, Samantha’s rich boyfriend hired some thugs to kidnap and beat me up. From that moment on, I lost the right to enter my own dorm whenever I wanted. “Captain Zimmer, if I’m not mistaken, when I went back to grab my money, I only stayed in my dorm for a few minutes, right? I was the only person in my dorm during that time. How could I have possibly killed them? “If you want a scapegoat, just tell me what to say, and I’ll admit it. You don’t need to interrogate me anymore. But you don’t mind ordering an extra drumstick for my lunch today, right?” Watson shot to his feet with a slam on the table in the face of my mocking words, only for Captain Zimmer to stop him. Then, he sighed as he stared at me. “Mindy, we didn’t arrest you because of your previous records. We’re not biased against you.” I laughed even louder at that. “Is that so? Then, why was I detained this morning, right after those three ‘good girls’ died last night? Yet when Samantha’s boyfriend hired those thugs to kidnap and humiliate me, you never gave me any sort of closure, even after a whole year passed!” Finally, there was a flicker of emotion in Captain Zimmer’s calm eyes, and he rapped his knuckles against the table quietly. Watson explained the situation on behalf of Captain Zimmer, “There’s no evidence pointing to Luther Stone hiring those thugs. “Also, Mindy, stop making yourself out to be the victim. We’ve been doing things professionally and haven’t done you any wrong. “Plus, you’re all studying at the same community college. So why are they the ones working hard to secure a place in universities, while you gave up on yourself to be hated by everyone? Samantha only asked someone to beat you up, and you killed them all for revenge?” The moment he finished speaking, the interrogation room sank into dead silence. I stared at Watson emotionlessly, while he returned my gaze with anger and scrutiny, but after a little over ten seconds, he felt guilty and looked away. Then, he sat down while rubbing his nose. He wanted to stir me up so that I would lose control and blurt out my confession. He failed. This made me realize that they might have evidence pointing toward me, but they could not secure a conviction. Otherwise, they would not be using such a method. “So, you listed me as a suspect just because I have a murder motive? Officers, you said it yourself. “Samantha only asked her boyfriend to hire someone to teach me a lesson. If I had started killing people because of something so minor, I would have ended up killing dozens of people. I met so many horrible people after I decided to give up on living a proper life, you know? I wouldn’t be able to kill them all.” Watson was about to say something else when Captain Zimmer suddenly stopped him and brought him out. A few minutes later, someone delivered fast food to me. I devoured it. Whenever I came here, I could fill my stomach. It was great. Chapter 3 I was sent to the police station three years ago, and I was the one beaten up to the point that I was bleeding from my head. I also happened to be the only student among the two groups of gangsters. After he took my testimony, Captain Zimmer stared at my record and frowned. “Why are you mingling with these people instead of studying? Stay away from them.” Then, Captain Zimmer called my mother, since it was listed in my record, and asked her to pick me up. My mother was busy playing cards and snapped, “I no longer have anything to do with her.” She was right. My father had full custody of me. When my father died, he left behind a whole mountain of debt from gambling; however, my life without him still became better. At the very least, I did not need to get hit anymore. I begged my relatives to lend me some money, and I finally got a chance to continue going to school. Everyone told me that I could only change my fate by studying, but with my ability, I could only get into a community college. I thought that my darkest hour had already passed, that if I just worked a little harder, I could have a proper future for myself. Once I finished talking about my past, Captain Zimmer led me out and asked me why I still mingled with that crowd even though I knew what I wanted to do. Back then, I blinked in confusion. “I didn’t know what they were doing. I just heard that if I worked for them, I could get some money, so I went with them.” My stomach growled, and Captain Zimmer ordered takeout for me. Back then, I still felt grateful, scared, and reserved. It had been a few years since then. I grew into a shameless, horrible, rotten egg and became a regular in the police station. Even Captain Zimmer thought that there was no saving me. Over the next forty hours or so, I was interrogated more than ten times back-to-back. My casual, arrogant, and “to-hell-with-it” attitude caused them to make no progress in their investigation. During the final interrogation, Captain Zimmer sat in front of me alone. “Mindy, it doesn’t matter whether you admit it or not now. The security footage showed that aside from the three victims, you were the only one who went into that dorm over the past week. We also found traces that haven’t been wiped clean from the victims’ glasses. You’re the only one who can possibly be the murderer.” I was exhausted by then, and I could no longer think straight. Even so, I grinned. “Glasses? So, they died from poisoning? You suspect I poisoned them, huh? Alright. I admit it. I poisoned them with arsenic. You can close the case and submit your report now.” Suddenly, Captain Zimmer snapped, “Where did you get the poison?” “I don’t know. From the floor? In any case, there’s no way I can create arsenic on my own. You’d have to ask chemists for that.” Captain Zimmer no longer responded to my words. He simply rubbed his bloodshot eyes and left. A few minutes later, I was released. At that point, I learned that my dormmates had indeed been poisoned. The police checked my phone and all the people who had ties with me in an attempt to find out how I got the poison, but they found nothing. That was why they could only detain me for forty-eight hours. I was no longer listed as a murder suspect, but the college still expelled me. The sun was so bright that I could not open my eyes. As I stood at the entrance with my suitcase, I did not know where to go. Tons of people stared at me and talked about me behind my back. Suddenly, a motorcycle stopped in front of me. Two thugs with dyed hair whistled at me. “Since you’re already expelled, stop pretending to be good! It’s not like you haven’t sold your body before! Clean yourself up and earn quick money with us!” I sneered and spat at them. For that, I was hit in the back of my head so hard that I started bleeding. No cheap motel dared to take me in, and I could not afford to go to the hospital, so I could only drag my body to an abandoned factory in the suburbs. I was already being really cautious, yet Captain Zimmer still managed to follow me. Just as I was about to pass out, he showed up in front of me. “Is this your secret base? Do you insist on saying that you’re not the murderer, Mindy?” Chapter 4 Captain Zimmer held a flashlight as he took photos as evidence in the dark, messy room. I gritted my teeth as I watched. I felt chills all over my body. There were three photos on the wall, along with some scrap paper. Those photos were of the three dormmates, and there were red “X” marks on them. The scrap papers detailed their daily habits and where they usually went. Underneath the photos was a table, and on it were sedatives, wire ropes, and a knife. No matter what, I had a plan to kill them. Once he finished taking the photos, Captain Zimmer came to me and took out the handcuffs again. In his eyes were disappointment and disgust. “Mindy, I really hoped that you weren’t the murderer and that you could still be saved. But… Heh.” He laughed wryly and put the handcuffs on me. However, I shoved him away. With messy hair and a face full of blood, I glared at him. “You’re laughing at me? Why?!” When I was younger, my father beat me up so badly that I could not get up; I only gritted my teeth to endure it. I never broke down. I did not collapse either when I was saddled with a debt of tens of thousands of dollars and was somewhat forced to use my body to pay back the debt. Even when I was chased out of the dorm, could only move into this abandoned factory like a pathetic loser, and was humiliated by the thugs Luther sent, I did not crack. Yet, for some reason, when Captain Zimmer laughed at me, I had a meltdown. I could not control it. “You look down on me, don’t you? You think I’m rotten and can’t be saved, too, huh? You already think that I’m the murderer, right? But I never managed to do it. They were poisoned. Take a good look. Is there any poison here?” My crazed behavior made Captain Zimmer even more wary. The moment he saw a chance, he charged forward and pinned me down. Once he was sure that I was no longer a threat, he said stoically, “Yes. I look down on you. Mindy, if you took the wrong path because you were desperate, I would have helped you. “But you chose to kill your dormmates for revenge, and that means there’s no hope in you anymore. There’s no poison here, yes, but I’ll find your supplier and get the evidence. Then, I’ll send you to court.” He would not be able to do it because I had not killed them. Or rather, I had not managed to do it in time. I had already calmed down by the time I was brought back. No matter how they asked, I only repeated myself, “I’m not the killer.” Even them finding the abandoned factory did not matter. Those things could only prove that I wanted to kill. “Captain Zimmer, I’m horrible and unsalvageable, sure. I did dream about killing them, but I was planning to use a knife to deliver my personal judgment on them. I wouldn’t have used poison. That would be far too easy on them!” To Captain Zimmer, I had already completely lost my mind. He did not even order takeout for me anymore. All that was left in his eyes was disgust for murderers. “You have no right to judge them. Samantha has indeed hurt you before, but if you hadn’t interrupted their studies, why would they argue with you and chase you out? Mindy, if you’re a horrible person, then so be it. Why did you have to drag everyone into your mess?” Heh. To everyone, Samantha and the other two were motivated, “good” girls, and I was a piece of trash. But what if the truth was not what it seemed and was a completely different story from my point of view? I could act fearlessly while Captain Zimmer had yet to find the abandoned factory. But since we had come to this, I could no longer hide certain things anymore.