Blythe Tatum expected her freshman year at university to be nerve-wracking, though nothing out of the ordinary. The beginning of her school year starts off as averagely as possible, though Blythe soon finds herself caught up in an unexpected and ine...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Breaking into the English department is easier than I had anticipated it would be.
One of the side doors had been left unlocked overnight. The lights are still on in the hallway inside of the building, making the job of entering quietly significantly easier. No alarms go off when I tug open the metal door. My footsteps echo on the linoleum floors as I head for the journalism sector.
Zach follows behind me curiously, his confusion evident. He doesn't ask questions as we weave our way through the dimly lit building, soon coming to a stop when I reach Jonah's office—the head of the school newspaper, where everything for the weekly paper is kept. I enter the room quickly, heading to his desk placed in the center of the small room and taking a seat on the leather chair set in front of a blank desktop.
"Want to tell me what we're doing now?" Zach asks as he keeps watch by the doorway, glancing at me over his shoulder.
I ignore him for a moment, pulling a flash drive out of my pocket as I move the mouse around on the tabletop to turn the desktop on. Jonah's wallpaper lights up the screen, so I press the enter key to unlock his computer. I curse under my breath when I find his desktop is password protected. It takes a few tries for me to be able to get in—the password had been coffee.
I insert the flash drive to the correct outlet, waiting for the computer to download the necessary information. I glance up at Zach while I'm waiting.
"I wrote an article," I admit, "for the school newspaper. About Jacob. And what he did."
"I thought you didn't write for the paper?" Zach questions, turning to glance behind him to make sure the coast is clear before returning his attention to me.
"I don't," I explain. "I mean, I wanted to. But I—That doesn't matter. I want everyone to know what Jacob did. Going to the police isn't enough. So I'm switching out this week's paper with my article. So that when it's printed, my exposé will be on the front cover."
Zach shakes his head as he studies me, features breaking out into a faint smile. "You're something else, Blythe Tatum."
I spend a few minutes longer entering my article into the outline for the paper, removing the front cover to replace it with what I wrote. The paper will be printed and put out for everyone to read the day after tomorrow. The timing couldn't have been more perfect.
I am careful to remove any traces of myself when I go to exit Jonah's office. I remove the flash drive from the desktop, shutting down the computer before rolling the desk chair back to the position it had been before I tampered with it. I exit the room with Zach by my side, his hand in mine as we emerge into the darkness, heading to the police department to turn in a killer.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
