Braxten High

Chapter 9

Scarlett's POV:

I was currently staring at a cold slice of pizza and a still half full iced coffee. The fact that I'd let my pizza go cold was a straight indicator of the seriousness of the situation.

We were seated at a small cafe/diner around the corner near our school named 'Salty Beans' since someone switched the fire alarm on in the chaos that ensued less than 10 seconds of us opening the school cafeteria door.

We had seen a dead body. Hanging from the damn ceiling in the middle of the empty hall. Bloody, bruised and gaunt, it had a letter attached to its foot.

And the body was of a sophomore of our school, Jenny. She and I were really good friends, as she was the freshman I partnered with last year at some welcoming thing and then at the science fair.

The moment was so surreal. Everything was pin-drop silent and then we heard a scream that broke the dream-like spell. And then all the students went crazy, screaming and running around and I think I was led out of the school, I'm unsure.

Between the time we found Jenny and that heavy silence at Salty Beans, not much had happened. We all were too stunned to speak and I was personally in denial. Like how someone managed to kill a 16-year old, someone as sweet and naive as Jenny, was beyond me.

Ayden had his arm wrapped around me as an attempt to comfort me. "Do you want me to drive you home? We can get this packed," he said, pulling me closer to him and rubbing small circles on my back.

I felt like a dementor had sucked the soul out of me and I had no idea what to do or say, so I just leaned into him a little.

Zara and Azriel were sitting opposite of us and looked at me with concern."You should go home and rest for a while Scar." Zara said as she reached for my hand across the table. I sighed.

"I'm okay guys, stop looking at me like I'm a maimed animal. I can't go home, I need to do something about this. I will not let another murder go unnoticed," I said, finally lifting my eyes to look at Zara to reassure her that I was fine.

''No one's doing that Scarlett, we just want you to be fine. We'll work on it once you've gotten some rest. I promise." Ayden said calmly. I glared at him. "I do not want to rest."

Azriel sighed in frustration. "Fucking fine. What do you want to do then?" he said with a roll of his eyes while 'casually' putting an arm around Zara, who along with Ayden, gave him a look. He just shrugged. "What? She clearly won't listen to us."

I nodded. "Exactly. So now what I was thinking is-" I started while leaning forward determinedly when Zara cut me off.

"You're not thinking anything. We're going home and you're resting. And besides, the last time you 'thought' we ended up crashing a party at Halloween and got arrested for being in an underage party with drugs and alcohol.''

Azriel chuckled. "Oh that was you? Thank you for that, I was able to get away while you threw a drunk pandemonium with the police," he laughed. "He dragged me to this party along with him,'' Ayden said, joining Azriel.

I blushed and reached forward to pinch him, making him curse. "Shut up. Anyway, I think Gabriel and Jenny's murder is related. And it is related to our Headmaster or maybe the school because they were both students of Braxten High and were liked by the faculty."

"That makes sense, but it leads us nowhere. Let's assume the murders were connected, but where do we start? It could've been literally anyone," Zara said, still looking exasperated by me disagreeing to rest.

"I'm willing to bet it is not a student because in both the cases it was during school timings, so we can rule out the possibility of a jealous, misled student," Azriel said, looking very bored and very interested in my best friend. We have to talk about that later, I thought to myself.

"Maybe we can start by gathering information about Jenny and try finding the similarities between Gabriel and her murder. I hope this would give us a lead," Ayden added.

"It has to be someone old and it is someone with some kind of enmity with our school. I say we break into the school and get the student records of Jenny and Gabriel, and the list of students that have attended our school and are in the age range capable of killing," I said excitedly.

"Nancy Drew much?" Azriel chuckled, making Zara elbow him in the ribs.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Keep talking and I will hang you from the ceiling," I threatened in a low voice, making Zara laugh. He scowled. "I dislike you."

Ayden rolled his eyes at Azriel and said, "You can help us by keeping your mouth shut. Also, we can't break into school until tomorrow because the police are doing their work. Scarlett and I can skip school tomorrow and research and you guys can update us about what happens at school. And I'm pretty sure the day after tomorrow is going to be off."

"So we can break into school together the day after tomorrow, and tomorrow Zara and Azriel can inform us if there's something odd at school. Ayden and I can research at the penthouse. Sounds good?"

-zoie and dawn