Bad Boy by Night

♱ Chapter 10 ♱

𝓟𝓸𝓻𝓽𝓮𝓻
𝟷𝟶: 𝙼𝚊𝚕𝚗𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚒𝚜𝚑𝚎𝚍 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚂𝚎𝚍𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍

All we had left to retrieve was my old school exercise book that was formed the contents of the box.

That was my thought as my gaze racked over the article that had been published regarding the discovery of Samuel's body in the forest of The Woods. My second thought was why were they fucking dragging my name into this mess when I was clearly innocent with his disappearance, and why imply that my parents had bought my freedom? Frankly, it was accurate, but it was hushed up from the media and only to be said as speculation.

SAMUEL BENNETT, PREVIOUSLY REPORTED MISSING, FOUND UNCONSCIOUS IN THE WOODS
Samuel Bennett was reported missing five days ago and for the entirety, the police admitted to possessing no leads of evidence to pinpoint the culprit, despite the staggering situation that left Samuel beaten to an inch of his life almost a month ago when Porter Ryan, a business student at Grovesville College, was arrested. The charges were subsequently dropped, but it was miraculous what money could do... of course, that has never been proven, but it's firmly believable.
A search party had been held across the entirety of Grovesville to establish new clues or locate new evidence, but instead as the forest was searched in The Woods, Samuel's almost lifeless form was discovered. The person who discovered the body would prefer to stay anonymous, but they did firmly state that they never believed they would ever think something like this would transpire.
The police were alerted and Samuel Bennett was carted off in an ambulance where he is due to have surgery in two days to undergo hand tendon repair from a recent accident, but no other details have been stated.
The doctors at Grovesville Hospital believe that Samuel can make a full recovery and still undergo his surgery safely. His early diagnosis was that he was severely malnourished and had been drugged to keep him unconscious, but there was no proof of what drug had sedated him. Hopefully more light will be shed on this crime and Samuel will be able to recover in order to confess the cause for his disappearance.

With the way the detective was mentioning the surgery to me, it had crossed my mind numerous times as to whether I had inflicted so much damage to his hand that he necessitated the surgery—though at the time I didn't realise it was for his hand. I distinctly remembered stamping my foot vehemently on his hand while he was on the ground... did I really damage his hand that severely?

As soon as I finished perusing the article, I composed a message to Adelaide in the hopes that she would realise what I was implying. Despite texting through insecure means, it meant that I was paranoid and searching for flaws in my messages because these would be extracted during a download of a phone, but the messages between my friends and I regarding business in the secure application would fail to be extracted. It just left me a little unsettled sometimes to know someone could be so invasive and idly scroll through these texts so fucking easily.

Porter: I think we're in the clear

It had also crossed my mind that the person who discovered Samuel's body could possibly—most likely—be NAMELESS, and they were fabricating the "I never thought something like this would ever happen to me" bullshit.

Before I could close off the article, I distinctly heard a small clink emanate from the kitchen of my apartment.

Senses alert, I locked my phone and slid it into my pocket, tiptoeing to my bedroom door. I'd not long been in my apartment, but the door was locked when I entered, so someone must have already been inside. With my nerves igniting and fervently endeavouring to block out the pounding of my blood in my ears, I marginally cracked open the bedroom door so I could peek through.