Crimson Serial Killer

1.2

tw/ blood and shit.This whole book is a fucking trigger warning, so im not going to write this every chapter. just assume there's going to be blood and death and gore, okay?

I don't remember how i got back to my dorm, but somehow it happened. PJ was also sleeping soundly in his bed. I try to retrace my steps last night to figure out how I got back, which normally isn't a hard task for me to do, as i'm a relatively "good" drunk. But my mind was in a complete haze, and my head hurt too badly  to dwell on it.

I walked over to PJ and gently shook his shoulder, his eyes opened slowly and tentatively, probably because of the hangover.

"Hmm?" he groaned, rubbing his eyes.

"I'm headed to get coffee for this massive hangover, do you want to come with me?" I said quietly.

"uhhh sure, it can't hurt." He more or less rolled out of bed and put slippers on before waiting for me at the door.

"you're serious?" I started "slippers? and your bed head is outrageous." he just shrugged and open the door for me, following close behind as I walked towards the stairs.

"elevators exist, Phil." PJ said exasperatedly.

"So does heart disease and obesity."

"That was just rude." PJ said crossing his arms.

"Just being truthful." I said back, and headed down the stairs. it was only 2 flights, a total of 34 stairs, I think our able bodies could handle it.

I could hear PJ clambering down the stairs loudly behind me. It brought a smile to my face, he probably looked so grumpy. I waited for him to join me before opening the door to the cold wind of the morning.

"Holy shit." PJ muttered wrapping his arms around himself. I just chuckled and walked quietly beside him, staring at the sidewalk.

we had only been walking a few moments when PJ stopped suddenly, inhaling sharply. I looked up quickly to see what had him so upset.

Police. Everywhere. Yellow tape... a body bag?

"Maybe we should go back inside." I offered, getting squeamish at the thought of being close to a dead person. PJ didn't hear me. He slowly made his way through the growing crowd, his eyes locked on something hanging from a tree branch. I followed after him silently, trying to listen to all the whispers of the crowd.

"That's the third one in two weeks!"

"What a brutal way to die."

"She was such a sweet girl."

By the last comment, my eyes were watering, and not from the cold. I caught up to PJ at the front of the line of tape. "PJ let's go." I pleaded, not wanting to look at the scene.

"She sat behind me in Sports Lit." He said, sadness washed over his features. "Her brother gave her that necklace." He pointed to the shiny piece of jewelry hanging in the tree. The tree was stained red. The grass under the tree had red puddles, not yet dried because of the morning dew. The smell alone was enough to make me puke, but the sight of all the blood wasn't helping at all.

"That's sad. Really. And we can mourn elsewhere. Please PJ lets just go back to the dorm." I grabbed his hand and pulled him behind me the entire 20 steps to the building. I felt my stomach twist and I barley had enough time to turn away from PJ before i puked my guts out. I felt a hand rubbing my back as I grabbed the nearest object, which happened to be a trashcan. I kept spitting the hot saliva in the trash can, the puddles of blood flashing through my mind. "Oh god, PJ, that poor girl." suddenly i was sobbing over a trashcan,  with my best friend awkwardly rubbing my back for comfort.

It took a few minutes, but eventually I collected myself and had nothing left in my stomach to hurl out. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. "Okay... I'm fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine. I'm just a bit worked up." PJ answered, keeping his hand on my back as we walked back upstairs to our dorm. He unlocked the door and waited for me to lay down before closing the door and opening the curtain, and watching the commotion from a safer distance. "I think this goes without saying that classes are canceled again." He sighed, letting the curtain fall back into place. He sat down crosslegged on his bed, getting his laptop out. "That gives me an extra day to work on my way overdue Psychology paper." He tried laughing but I could tell he was forcing it.

"I think I'm going back to bed." I said quietly, turning away from him and pulling the covers over my head. A few minutes passed, the only sound being that of PJ typing softly on his keyboard.  

I can't say the exact moment I fell asleep, but it was somewhere between PJ muttering "fuck this class." and then him sniffling quietly.