The Strange Case of Dr. Meadows and Kyle

SEARCH FOR KYLE

That evening Melanie came home to her over packed dorm room. She promptly kicked her dorm mate out, poured herself a cup of straight black Colombian roast, and devoured a protein bar. She opened up the lid of her laptop and began to search through Dr. Meadows' social media accounts. Two weeks earlier, near the end of September, Dr. Meadows was tagged in a series of posts by an account simply named 'Kyle'. Then he was tagged in a mass of posts the previous night up until three in the morning, the time when the people at the frat party died.

The posts were mostly pictures of energy drinks, people with logo tattoos, switchblades, and links to 'How-To drywall repair' sites. A few posts included embeds of ragecore music and dirt bike stunt videos. The remaining posts were photos of Kyle at parties with all the tagged individuals, except for Dr. Meadows who, despite being tagged in all the posts, was notably missing. Even more strange was the fact that Kyle listed his home location as "Hawkins Science Lab" which is where Dr. Meadows worked.

The next morning Melanie set out to a quaint café just outside of campus where Dr. Nylon, another chemistry professor, spent her time before classes. If anyone knows Dr. Meadows' dirty secrets, it's Dr. Nylon, she thought.

The café smelled of freshly ground coffee beans, lightly browned toast, and unkept dreadlocks. Some tables had salt and pepper. Some tables had sugar. Other tables had a mix, but there were no fully stocked tables as though the condiments were moved from table to table when needed. Dr. Nylon was in her regular seat, alone in the corner of the café, smoking a cigarette. Melanie walked slightly past Dr. Nylon, then quickly backtracked. "Oh my gosh, Professor Nylon," she said. "What a surprise to see you here."

"Melanie, doll," Dr. Nylon said with a low, raspy voice. "So good to see you. Come sit down."

"Since I've got you here," Melanie said, sitting down and retrieving a notebook from her pack. "You know Dr. Meadows better than anyone, and I was hoping you could tell me some things about him."

"Sorry dear, but unless your question is about his theories I couldn't tell you anything else."

"That's funny because," Melanie said, as she flipped through her notebook, and landed on a particular page, "I was working on expose about science department energy use at the end of last year, and I happened to see you going down on him."

Dr. Nylon leered, then put her cigarette out on the table. "Alright, what do you want you little bitch?"

"Do you know a friend of his named Kyle?"

"Dr. Meadows isn't really the kinda' guy who has friends. And, I don't know any Kyle."

The lack of information burdened Melanie the rest of the day. All she could think about was who Kyle was, and what he knew about the frat massacre. It's not possible all those guys died while Kyle lived, she thought. Even if it went down like he said, by poisoning, how was he the only one to live, and why were they poisoned in the first place? And what about him is so hot?

Melanie waited at the science lab the next day, opting to miss her classes, hoping to get a glimpse of the elusive Kyle. She hid inside of a closet on the first floor of the building, near the main entrance, where she could see the door and inside of the main lab room. She watched the back entrance via an app on her phone, which was connected to a hidden camera on the other side of the building.

Morning passed, then the afternoon passed, and eventually it was night; the entire day passed until finally, when she was ready to leave, she heard blaring music muffled through earphones and the sounds of hands drumming on the walls. The sounds bounced around the empty halls as if her was right in front of the closet, yet a person was nowhere to be seen. Then she heard footsteps nearing Dr. Meadows' classroom.

She peaked her head ever so slightly out of the closet to see who was coming, even though deep down she knew exactly what type of person was walking through the building. He was shredded, wearing sunglasses in the darkness of night, hair spiked haphazardly; it was her man. She jumped out of the closet when he was near and yelled, "KYLE!"

Kyle swung his fist toward the Melanie, and she ducked just in time. His fist went right through the closet door, he ripped it back out, then he repeated the process four more times until there was a large hole in the center of the door.

"Kyle, stop!" she cried, "It's me, Melanie."

He yanked his earphones out, placed his sunglasses on his head, and turned the music off on his phone to cut out the echo. He shadowboxed Melanie a few times then asked, "How do you know my name?"

"We met outside of the massacre when you left the ambulance. You broke my camera..."

"I break lots of stuff, so what?"

"You broke my camera then paid me from Dr. Meadows' account, and now you're about to go into his classroom."

"The professor isn't here right now."

"I don't care about Dr. Meadows," Melanie said, biting her lip. "I'm here to talk about you."

"Look, free White Claws," Kyle shouted, unlocked the lab door, then disappeared without making any more noise other than the jingling of his keys.

There was something so peculiar about Kyle that Melanie was left to ponder just what made him so special. He looked like a Chad, but not as wealthy or plain-faced, and far more muscular. He had the temperament of a rampaging elephant and a permanently furrowed brow to match. But his eyes were a dark forest green with a soft look that gave the impression he was a good soul wandering a broken world and in need of protection. Melanie wanted to know what he was doing the night of the massacre; she wanted to know how he appeared out of nowhere and had such a strong connection to Dr. Meadows; but most of all, she felt the need to stalk him because that man might have been the love of her life.

Melanie walked up to the second floor of the science building where Dr. Meadows' personal office was located. The front wall of the office was a large window with a series of pull-down blinds which enshrouded the interior. The door was made of glass with wood trimming. A single lamp, turned on at its lowest intensity, provided a faint glow with which to see through the blinds.

"Dr. Meadows, open up!" Melanie yelled, banging on the office door until a gorilla wearing dress pants and a vest arrived.

"Harambe, where is Dr. Meadows?" Melanie asked.

"I have not seen him in quite some time," Harambe answered, offering Melanie a seat inside of the office.

"I never saw him leave the building," Melanie said, taking a seat in front of the desk. "And I never saw Kyle enter the building, yet he was walking down the hall into Meadows' main lab."

"Kyle is allowed to come and go as he pleases. Sometimes he makes his own entrances and exits."

"Why would the professor trust him in the lab?"

"The boy is careful around the laboratory instruments. I would be far more terrified if he were allowed in here or Dr. Meadows' home."

"Alright Harambe, you have a good night."

"Likewise, Miss Melanie. See you on the news."

Melanie went back to her dorm, completely defeated by the thought of her stakeout failure. What if Meadows was involved in the massacre and he and Kyle are just covering it up. What if the are involved in some deep government conspiracy? Or worse, what if they are gay together? It would explain why he doesn't remember me or want to get to know me I guess.