The Masqueraded

11

Ru didn't feel good about invading the new guy's privacy. However, she found herself following him at a safe distance out of the College building that evening.

It has been two days and Stefan had not been successful in finding what he had promised them he would about the person they were looking for and they were desperate. The threatening emails kept coming and Alan Reveira had found his house trashed by someone when he came home from work the evening before.
Nothing was stolen but the place was a mess.

His China were shattered to bits, his home appliances were thrown on to the ground, or kicked down, by the looks of it. His glass cupboards in smithereens. The police had found footmarks but it was a pair of casual Adidas sneakers and were of no use. No fingerprints. No clue whatsoever. No one saw what happened, since it was a working day. He had no CCTV cameras at his apartment.

Being an unmarried man with no known living family, the Head of the Faculty for Undergraduates at the Frederique College and being fairly young for his profession, Alan Reveira was most certainly a workaholic. All he had was his one bedroom tiny apartment close to the Campus and his work ethic.

Or so was the profile to everyone who knew him. There was no gossip about his life, he was silent and serious but knew a lot of people.
Ru was now watching Vaughn cross the road and enter the same alleyway they had the other day. She stood there hesitantly.

Okay, that's not safe.

However, her feet seemed carry her forwards. She stepped into the alleyway. Vaughn had gone a considerable number of steps forwards so she quickened her step in his direction.

Suddenly without warning, someone clapped a black gloved hand over her mouth and grabbed her from the waist, very tightly. She froze in shock before anything and started wriggling against the grip.

'Shh' the person whispered in her ear as he dragged her backwards. She started thrashing and groaning as violently as she could, trying to break away.

It wasn't working. Vaughn was almost disappearing down the alleyway now. She had to do something!
She bared her teeth and bit down hard on the gloved hand. The person's hand twitched and pulled back, more in surprise than in pain.

'Vaughn!' she shouted with all her might, the moment the hand pulled back a millimeter.
She saw the guy stop in his tracks and turn back. The person behind her swore as he grabbed her and dragged her away more violently now.

It took a moment for Vaughn to realize what was happening. His mouth dropped open.

Ru watched with wide eyes as he broke into a sprint and came running back down the alleyway towards where she was standing, struggling to push off the person who's grip tightened so severely around her waist she thought her bones might crack.

Suddenly she felt something sharp and painful dig into the side of her neck right above her collarbone.
'Shut up or I'll kill you!' the voice said, 'you take one step forward I'll cut her throat with this!'
Vaughn stopped a few feet away from them.

'Let her go and we can talk about this', Vaughn said, looking sharply at the black clad figure. His face was covered in an ash-black mask of sorts. He pushed the pocketknife a bit more into the point above her collarbone.
Ru gasped in pain.

To her utmost surprise, Vaughn bent down and picked up a fist sized stone from the ground,
'You think you can pull that bullshit with me, bro?' Vaughn said, much to Ru's surprise. The knife dug in a bit more. She gave a sharp but muffled cry of pain. Blood trickled down her collarbone.

He drew blood.

Vaughn's eyes glimmered in anger as he narrowed his eyes at her assailant. Then, without any warning, he threw the stone in their direction.