Delia

10 Basement Discoveries

"Shit," I cursed under my breath while avoiding eye contact. "But your roommate is...Azriel right?" I asked, referring to the fact that I only entered Warren's room not Neo's. He scoffed and knelt down in front of me. "Yes klutz, he's the one who saw you on the ledge and getting inside," he explained.

I grabbed his wrist and yanked him outside and to the back of the school near the stone corner. We could not speak of Friday's events inside with the school monitoring our every move. He removed his hand from mine and held it up. "Are you insane?" He exasperated and rolled his eyes. "No, I have an explanation for everything but I don't think I can tell you..."

"Expect me to be a tad bit concerned when you climb into my room from the fucking window Cruz" He almost raised his voice but collected himself soon after. "Well don't leave your bedroom window open in the middle of a storm?" I argued back. "I wasn't expecting some random girl to climb in? Seriously, what are you up to?" he stared at me. I couldn't believe my ears,Neo was the last person I'd want involved but what other choice did I have.

"Whatever, if I tell you now you either won't believe me or go running off to your mum" I folded my arms. I tried to make up excuses but something about his presence made me so anxious about choosing the wrong move. My mind was drawing a blank. "My mum? Don't be daft if it makes sense I'll believe you until proven otherwise" he tilted his head but I couldn't make out his expression in the darkness as the clouds covered the crescent moon.

"I was using your room to escape from Warren's room" I lowered my head. "Wow, you know you've been strange ever since you got here but this is another level of insane Cruz" he scoffed. "Insane? Your best friend is the one sleeping with a fucking gun under his mattress" I almost burst into anger and pointed at him. He took a step back and turned around with a hand on his forehead. "What are you talking about? A gun really?" He sighed.

"See you don't believe me, just know that I wasn't stalking your room or anything like that okay" I rolled my eyes and attempted to walk off before he pulled me back by my wrist. "No...I didn't think it would sound like that, continue I wanna know the rest" I soon came to the conclusion that Neo didn't intend to sound sarcastic, his current tone was even regretful.

There wasn't any other choice. He was well aware something extreme was going on here and I had a feeling he wouldn't let it go. So I backed up into the corner and pulled him by his sleeves, to centimeters away from me. "Don't be weird.." he glanced upwards. I quickly shushed him and began whispering in his ear, telling him everything. From the night of the party to the discovery of the journal.

When I was done he stumbled away from me. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Wait...so what you're saying is, you three wanna solve this by yourselves? And you have possession of a dead girl's diary" he whispered in a frustrated tone. "First of all, it wasn't on purpose, but what do you think will happen to Lilian's case with the police, do you think your mother would let something as serious as murder be exposed? This case will be forgotten in less than a month" I stepped forward. "Do you have any idea what you're getting yourself into?" He leaned down to look me dead in the eyes.

Before he could continue, footsteps quickly approached us which caused me to jerk forward. "What are we interrupting Dee?" Macy questioned in utter shock. Thalia and Macy stood in front of us trying to understand the scene presented. I was well aware of our closeness, but didn't think about what it would look like without context. Being huddled together in a corner near curfew hours.

I shoved him away and turned my full attention to the girls. "Either way you're not gonna like it" I admitted. I rushed my words together trying to explain that I had told Neo everything. Macy scoffed and Thalia couldn't even speak as she turned to her side.

"Out of all people? It had to be him? This is bullshit. What are we going to do now that he knows?" Macy gestured towards him. "Why couldn't he just stay out of it." She continued putting the blame on Mikaelson and frankly we didn't have the time for a blame game. "Okay it's my fault, I'm the one who started all this right, curse at me, whatever, what's done is done we need to focus on the current task" I stopped the commotion before things got out of hand. I did not need to be provoked.

"You're right we need to get to the basement" Thalia finally spoke. "Come along if you'd like Neo but we're not responsible if you see anything you can't handle" I waved a dismissive hand at him and we proceeded back into the dorms.

While slowly heading to the basement door, someone stood leaning against the wall. None other than Azriel. "And where are you four going after hours?" Azriel raised an eyebrow. "Nothing that concerns you" Thalia stared at him up and down. "Oh but it does-" I immediately cut him off. Every word that came out of someone's mouth further raised my temper, but I wasn't going to let that get the best of me right now.

"Come along, who cares, you'll find out eventually anyways, do what you want" I bit the inside of my cheek and hurried down the stairs to the basement. Everyone rushed behind me and the last person closed the door. The walls down here had old burgundy floral wallpaper with golden lining.

Macy pulled out the picture of the door and we tried to identify the exact door while walking down the halls. The basement seemed to be never ending, with only the few electrical wall lamps lighting our way. I shivered and pulled the sleeves of my sweater up to my fingertips as we passed the vents. "They still haven't fixed the ventilation down here huh" Azriel commented.

Traveling down the twisting halls, the lights got dimmer and the atmosphere darkened with it. Finally we stood in front of the exact door. My chest tightened and I couldn't hide my trembling hands. "Thalia, unlock it," Macy spoke just above a whisper. She retrieved her hairpin but hesitated in turning the handle.

As soon as she pushed open the door I bit down hard on my tongue, drawing blood. Our eyes looked forward and we were met with streaks of dried blood and at the end of it all, was the limp, pale body of Lilian Jiang. Her once lively, doll-like face, now expressionless and bruised.

Her arms were covered in blue and black marks, but the main attraction was the large red stain on her school blouse. With a hole, giving us a clear view of her opened wound, which looked recent. My legs became numb, I couldn't even force words to come out of my mouth, all I could do was stare. Suddenly a hand reached over and covered my eyes. "We need to call the police," Neo stated and grabbed my wrist as we quickly left.

The night ended with the students being awoken by sirens. The dorms had never been this loud and heavy with emotions. Everyone became frantic, crying and screaming as a stretcher came up the stairs, passing by with the body of our well known student. Teachers running around trying to calm them down, with the five of us in the middle.