Written in the Stars

Chapter 17: "Stop and Stare"

(Chapter 17)
"Stop and Stare"

Thursday, February 28th
11:10pm

Jillian stared at the all too familiar scene.

Another girl's lifeless body lay on the floor of her dorm room.
Her clothes were ripped off, and her throat was slit.
Everyone backed away slowly and averted their eyes.

"What?! Who is it?" Darren demanded.

"... Daniella," Jillian said softly.

Responding to the screams, campus police arrived on the scene shortly after.

"Everyone back up further," Trevor ordered.

Trevor turned to Damien
"Call the police, paramedics, and alert the dean."

Damien turned to go make the calls.

Shortly after, everyone heard Dean Martin on the loudspeaker.

"Attention Bates University, until further notice, this entire campus is under lockdown. No one enters, no one leaves, everyone stays in their dorms."

"All of you, in dorm 213, now," Damien turned to everyone.

"There's seven of us," Sarah protested.

"NOW!"

Everyone quickly piled into the dorm room and locked the door behind them.

"What the fuck happened?!" Shae demanded.

"I thought you were all together at the party," Jillian accused.

"We were!" Brielle defended.

"We really were! We never let each other out of our sight, the four of us were within arms length the entire night," Sarah insisted.

"Then what happened?!" Shae asked again.

"Around 10, Daniella got tired and decided to go back to the dorm," Emma started.

"We offered to go with her, but she said to stay and enjoy the rest of the night, that she'd be fine," Sarah continued.

"She would have only been there an hour before all of us came back, we didn't think anything would happen."

"Well, where was everyone else? Where were the guys?" Shae questioned.

The three girls traded glances.

"We... we were so focused on each other, we weren't keeping track of anyone else," Emma admitted.

"Our only main concern was keeping us four together, none of us separated, so the other guys could've been anywhere. We weren't paying attention to them," Sarah explained.

"Yeah, any one of them could have slipped out," Emma said.

"How long do you think this lockdown will be?" Sarah asked.

"I'm guessing we'll be locked in here at least until morning," Shae sighed.

They all dropped to the floor.

"Jillian?" Darren turned to her.

Jillian realised she hasn't said anything.

"I can't believe it... We were in the same class together for the last six months. She was my friend," she said softly.

"I feel terrible," Emma rubbed her head.

"We shouldn't have let her go off on her own," Brielle sighed.

"Her voice is just echoing in my head now," Sarah said.

"She was so happy to be here. She was working on becoming her own person; she wanted to finally become independent and successful on her own. And now..." Jillian muttered.