Tattenbrooke House

Chapter Fourteen

Sebastian doesn't say anything as he looks around the room with his hands stuffed into the pockets of his jeans. For a moment it scares me as I watch how eerily calm he is and how his eyes are glinting with curiosity and possibility. Then I see the clench of his jaw and I quickly realise that his hands are in his pockets to stop them from shaking. Sebastian walks over to the window and kneels down to inspect something on the floor. He peers at it quizzically and I stare at it and him with wide eyes.

"Interesting." He mutters more to himself than to me.

"OH GOD! I think it might be blood." I whisper-shout pointing to the red puddle on the floor that he's inspecting.

He just nods, standing up and ruffling his hair with a deep frown.

"This is not what I had planned for 1AM on a Saturday night." Niamh says pacing the floor, the sound of her heels becoming seriously annoying.

Her, Franny and Theo had arrived twenty minutes after Sebastian and I got to the room and I had spent the entire twenty minutes freaking out and having Sebastian roll his eyes at me whilst we waited for them.

"Looks like she fought back." Theo says looking around the room.

Her room is a mess, much like my own room had been except for the blood and the almost hole in the wall. Theo doesn't touch anything he just looks at everything so quickly that it doesn't even seem like he's taking anything in.

"Who had this room? Do we know her?" I ask looking for a picture or something that showed who the person was.

"Malia is the name on the door." Niamh tells me. "I've never spoken to her before."

Franny gasps. "Malia Woods? She's on my synchronized skating team."

I pause. "Synchronized skating is a thing?"

"That's besides the point. My teammate is missing." Franny points out and I nod.

"Do we tell someone?"

"This has been happening for years, the school is definitely involved in it somehow." Sebastian mutters. "I just haven't figured out how."

"I bet I'll figure it out before you do." Theo smiles manically at him and Sebastian rolls his eyes.

"Is this a game to you?"

"Of course not. Don't be an idiot Bash." Theo winks at him. "The games only just begun."

"We probably shouldn't be here anymore." Franny says and I nod in agreement.

"Yeah we should probably go." I tug on Theo's arm, leading him towards the door. "They might be coming back or something."

"Are we not gonna call the police or something?" Niamh asks from the doorway, gazing at the room.

"We could but then whoever did this would know we were here." Sebastian points out.

Niamh chews her lip in thought and nods her head, leaving the room with Fran following closely behind her.

As we leave the room for a split second I think I feel Sebastian's fingers graze my wrist but when I look up at his face, its stone cold and blank. I turn to Theo and he smiles down at me leaving a small kiss on my forehead.

"Don't worry." He whispers. "Bash and I would die before we let something happen to you."

I smile back but don't say anything as I follow the others towards into the boys' room. Theo quickly notices the junk food and pizza box and turns swiftly to his brother raising an eyebrow at him. He looks at his brother, then to me and repeats the process.

"Since when do you suddenly eat junk food?" Theo asks Sebastian with a smirk.

"I don't." Sebastian mutters, picking up the trash and exiting the room.

Theo turns back to me and steps towards me with his head tilted ever so slightly. "So it was you?"

"Yeah, I came over. Is that a problem?" I ask him and he shrugs.

"I thought you wanted to be alone." Niamh nudges me, dragging me to sit next to her on Sebastian's bed. "Or did you just want the time alone with a Chen brother?"

"Yeah did you just want the time alone with a Chen brother?" Theo wriggles his brows, eyes gleaming.

I roll my eyes but don't say anything and they laugh. They laugh harder when Sebastian re enters the room and he scowls.

"What's happening?" He says standing awkwardly beside the door.

I laugh at him and he scowls harder, as he approaches the bed. I move upwards on the bed so that he can sit next to me and he pauses for a second before he does. I smile at him and he rolls his eyes. The others play the movie that's on my laptop and no one talks about what we just saw upstairs.

"Are you okay?" Sebastian says to me, his eyes focused on the screen.

I smile at him. "Are you worried about me, Sebastian Chen?"

"I hate you." He whispers, looking at me.

"You love me." I smirk.

His frown falters for a moment before deepening. "I hate you."