The heartstopper

Chapter 27

Nick and Charlie were rudely woken up by Tao and Elle who had entered the room. They didn't mean to wake them up but Tao was too busy complaining to Elle about something to notice his increasing pitch. Being woken up didn't disturb them, although it did scare them.

Charlie was in the midst of having a nightmare where in place of the girl's body in the elevator, it was one of his friends, it was Tao Xu. This time, in his dreams he saw the murder happen, he saw a man wearing a red shirt and blue jeans kill him with a knife. The worst part of this nightmare was that Charlie couldn't move. He was frozen in place and could do nothing but watch as it happened. To make things worse, he was alone. Nick was nowhere to be seen, it was just him, the man in a red shirt and the dead body of his friend.

So, when Charlie had woken up with a fright, he was relieved to see that it was Tao standing in front of him, alive and unharmed. He was also glad to see Nick right beside him and Elle next to Tao.

Nick was having a similar dream. His was also of the night before except in the place of the girl's body was Charlie's, and instead of being already dead, Charlie was still alive, just barley, and he spoke to Nick, he pleaded that he'd help him but he couldn't do anything but stand there and watch in horror as his boyfriend died slowly. He woke up with his heart racing, realizing that it was all a nightmare.

"I should have made you sign that contract," Tao muttered.

"Tao!" Charlie exclaimed after a moment, realizing that this particular contract was the one Tao had came up with to stop them from having sex in this shared hotel room.

"We were sleeping," Charlie defended, face going red.

"Mhm," Tao hummed.

"Just sleeping, until you woke us up,"

"You're the ones red faced and sweating," Tao raised his arms in defense.

"You scared us," It was true, his heart was still pounding as proof.

"Tao, leave them alone," Elle rolled her eyes. "We just came to find you two,"

"Oh, well we must have fallen asleep," Nick stretched his limbs as he climbed out of bed. Charlie followed his lead.

"So, how was talking with Mr. Ajayi and Mr. Farouq?" Tao asked.

"Fine," Charlie shrugged.

"When you two were gone, they sent out another Email," Elle informed them, pulling out her phone from the back pocket of her jeans.

The Email read;

Students,
We have some updates, the hotel security will be updated, they'll send out new regulations for us to follow by tomorrow morning. Although we said before to 'stick in pairs', we ask that beginning tomorrow you stay with your designated roommates at all times. We've been in continuous contact with people from back at home and will be leaving France the moment we get permission to leave. Another student of ours has been murdered, the body was found last night. These are our updates for now, keep an eye out for updates from the hotel and get some rest. Email us to talk.

Your teachers,
Mr. Ajayi and Mr. Farouq.

"It's odd how it's only our two schools who've been affected, isn't it?" Elle questioned.

"It could just be a coincidence, I mean we're teenagers, most people staying in the hotel are adults, maybe the target is age based?" Charlie offered, it seemed like an odd accusation but it wasn't impossible, there are many murder cases that are based on things like age or of a person's sex.

"Or, it could all be a dream and we'll wake up and be sitting in some French Cafe with a croissant in hand," Tao claimed, changing the mood.

"I think I'd prefer it if we just woke up and we're at home," Elle responded, she'd much rather be enjoying her summer break.

"Me too," Charlie piped in, Nick nodding in agreement. The nightmare was still fresh on his mind, Tao was bleeding but now Tao is standing right in front of him, alive.

"What have you guys been doing?" Nick asked, ignoring his shaky legs as he stood.

"Well we were enjoying our time in the restaurant, we were sitting at the table and playing pictionary, but then the Email got sent out. There weren't many people from our schools in the restaurant but those who were, started causing a scene," Elle explained, crossing her arms in annoyance.

Their classmates had completely lost it, at the news of another of them dying, they started yelling and passing the blame onto each other. They still didn't know who it was but there were rumors spreading.

"Do they know anything else of the murder?" Charlie questioned his two friends.

"No... you and Nick, last night when you guys got back late..." Elle began.

"No, if what you're insinuating is what I think, no," Nick rushed to answer.

"So you guys didn't see anything?" Tao gave them a worried look. They'd put two and two together to figure out that it was Nick and Charlie who came across the dead body. It would explain the haunting looks in their eyes that he'd seen when they arrived back the night before.

"We just... lost track of time," Charlie mumbled.

"Until midnight?" Elle spoke in a pointed tone.

"I don't think it was midnight," Nick said while rubbing the back of his neck.

Elle then presided to pull out her phone and read off a message;

Yesterday
[Tao 🐧: THEY'RE BAKC]
(sent at 12:07am)

"In addition to that, you two look exhausted," She pointed out.

"We were sleeping before you woke us up," Charlie reminded her.

"An hour of sleep isn't going to fix those eyebags,"

"It was four hours,"

It was only for three hours that Mr. Ajayi and Mr. Farouq went to sleep. Youssef had been woken up from his unsteady sleep first. He'd jolted awake before he noticed his surroundings, he was still in Nathan's bed, Nathan was asleep right next to him, they were almost touching. Nathan Ajayi slept with his face scrunched, it was apparent that he wasn't having a good sleep.

He'd woken up after roughly fifteen minutes of Youssef being awake. After waking up, Youseff had moved himself from next to his coworker to being in his separate bed.

From there on, they had spent their time preparing an Email for their students. They were still drowsy and granted, they needed more sleep, but they pushed through it even when they felt like crashing.