The Campus Killings {#LGBTQ #HORROR #FRIGHT}

Chapter Twenty Three

"I'm not allowing this to happen." Raleigh assured as Jake finished telling him what happened in Dean Douglas' office.

There was grit and determination in his voice, with an edge of desperation as he grabbed Jake's hand tightly.

"I'm not sure there's much I can do." Jake replied, a little defeated, "She didn't even let me show her the knife.  Whatever Petrović said..."

He broke off.

Raleigh looked at him, confused, "Why would Petrović have it out for you?"

"That's not for me to tell." Jake answered, "But I have a feeling that he might have had something to do with Laura.  I don't trust him."

Raleigh set his jaw, clearly a little frustrated with Jake once again keeping a secret from him, "Well, I'm not letting you get kicked out of here." his demeanour softened, "I don't want to lose you too."

Jake's mouth twitched in a small smile as he remarked, "You're too sweet."

"It's a flaw," Raleigh retorted, "Now, I need to call the others."

***

Eilidh laid on her bed, staring up at the ceiling as her stomach twisted in knots from replaying the image she'd walked in on repeatedly in her head.

After all the pain Maxwell had caused her, caused her brother, how could he just go back to being friends with him?

She looked over at the photograph from Tenerife, now on her side table and scowled at it, her eyes stinging with tears.

She should've known.

Even when situations were dire, when she needed her twin, the other half of her soul, she was on her own.   She always had been, and always would be.

Of course he could forgive a thing like that, to him it wasn't as life-altering.

Naive, treacherous bastard.

They had been born minutes apart, one of the first things she had laid eyes on when she came into the world was her brother and so he meant everything to her.  It was why she had tried protecting him from the killer.

It all seemed so pointless now, especially since it was clear that her thoughts and feelings meant so little to him.

Her phone pinged and she lifted her head, knocking off her headphones, the sound of X-Ray Spex's The Day the World Turned Day Glo becoming quieter and distant.

With a heavy sigh, she rubbed her eyes, dragging a trail of makeup down her cheek as she checked the message, dreading the possibility of it being her brother — thankfully, it was Raleigh, though that in of itself brought about concern.

Raleigh hardly ever texted her unless it was an emergency, though he was one of the only ones from her brother's friend group she actually truly liked — there had been a time when she was seventeen when she had developed a crush on him, but now, her feeling were purely platonic, at least, she tried to convince herself to quell the slight flutter in her chest.

He had been kind to her, trying to involve her instead of pretending she didn't exist and during her darkest moments, at least attempted to help her out.

Eilidh read the message and her heart skipped, this time in shock and dread at Raleigh's very particular wording, far less jovial than usual.

Meeting, my dorm.  ASAP.

***

Disconcerting atmosphere permeated the room as soon as Eilidh came strutting in about ten minutes later, smelling of marijuana as she took in her friends' puzzled looks — everyone was sat around her brother and Raleigh's dorm room with the exception of Willa, of which she didn't blame her, considering the horrible events that had occurred.