The Campus Killings {#LGBTQ #HORROR #FRIGHT}

Chapter Twenty Nine

Jake wasn't sure when exactly he peeled himself away from Raleigh's embrace — it felt like he'd been there for hours, shattering over and over whilst the other man tried to offer him comfort.

Unbearable guilt and sorrow burned through him.

"I'm sorry." he wiped his eyes with his sleeve, "You just lost another friend and here I am—"

Raleigh shook his head and cupped his cheek gently, soothing, "Hey. It's okay." there was a pause, "I guess that's been building for some time?"

"Years." Jake admitted, "Is it weird I don't feel any better?"

Raleigh replied, "You tell me."

"I've wanted to stand up to him, to curse him out for so long for what he did to mum." Jake's voice trembled as he spoke, "But now that I've done it, I just... I can't help but feel bad." He huffed, leaning forward to press his face into Raleigh's shoulder and mumbled, "You must think I'm bloody ridiculous."

Jake felt the other man smile against the crown of his head, his thumb rubbing the base of his neck, close to his scar tissue, "Never."

"You're too good to me." Jake pulled away, taking the other man's hands in his and kissing them gently.

Raleigh pressed their foreheads together softly, though before they could close the distance between their faces, the door beside them opened, with Petrović stepping out.

"They want to talk to you now, Mr. Uwera," he told Raleigh flatly, though his gaze held on Jake.

Raleigh seemed to notice this, turning to his boyfriend, "I don't have to go in if you don't want me to."

"Yes, you do." Petrović glared at him pointedly.

Jake shivered at the man's tone, then turned to Raleigh, "It's okay."

"You sure?" Raleigh asked, his eyes quickly darting to Petrović then back.

Jake nodded, "I'm gonna go get Amrit. I'm sure he's torturing himself over all this."

"Okay, well, I'll meet you after, okay?" Raleigh pecked his lips, "Stay safe, okay?"

Jake smiled, kissing Raleigh once again, a little deeper this time before mumbling against his mouth, "I will, I promise."

As he pulled away, he couldn't help but notice that Petrović had fled the scene, leaving the pair almost alone, with the exception of the open door behind them.

***

Meanwhile across campus, Amrit was sitting in the clock tower, his eyes red as he stared into the flickering flame of the candle he had lit.

He had just finished reading a Hindu prayer, his jaap maala clasped in his hand as he held it over the box of photographs before him — it had been some time, perhaps too long since his last appeal to the gods, to Vishnu and Brahma, and doing it above an abandoned Catholic Church felt ill-fitting, but he was growing ever desperate as the bodies began to pile up.

If only he'd have stopped Eilidh from leaving, perhaps she'd have still been alive.

It's not that they were close, hell, due to Mali's influence, he'd spent a good amount of time hating her, but the past few days had truly made him see a new side of her.

It's what made him so angry seeing Raleigh and Jake together — everyone around them was suffering and they had the audacity to traipse around in harmony.

It disgusted him, to be perfectly honest.

Why would anyone fall in love in a time like this? Ever since Mali's death, he had been clutching on to the recesses of life, grasping and begging for a meaning.