3 Chapter Three

Adriel felt rays of sunlight on her face.

Her eyes fluttered open as she slowly woke up.

"What happened?" Adriel groaned, rubbing her eyes.

Her roommates were very much awake and ready for class. Adriel rubbed her eyes, trying to stay awake.

"Hey sleepyhead, you're gonna be late for class." Becky chirped facing the mirror.

She was applying the last touches of her make up.

"What happened last night?" Adriel asked again. Static filled her ears and she could feel a headache coming on.

"That I'd like to know babe," Victoria said looking at her like she's just lost her marbles. She looked at Adriel's wild mane of hair and shook her head with a sigh before going back to what she was doing.

"You were mumbling the weirdest sh*t last night before passing out on your bed," Lucky said from her bed distracted yet again by her phone.

Adriel saw that Lucky's outfit entailed the usual jean jacket and trousers.

Becky loved gowns a lot and Victoria loved her designer tops and assorted trousers. Brown was her favourite colour.

"Never seen anything like it. Where were you last night?" Becky asked getting her bag from her bed, her bed was in disarray as it always was before class.

And at that very important question, she tried to rack her head for an answer but could find none. It was as if all her memories from last night were wiped clean.

"God, I can't remember. It's like I have a massive hangover, but I wasn't at any party, at least not at anyone I can remember." It was so strange.

Why couldn't she remember? All she saw was their sympathetic looks. Victoria tsked,

"You've gotta be careful hon. Call us when you need to. Don't wander off on an adventure on your own. These parts of the campus aren't safe."

Adriel nodded before starting off in thought.

Why did it feel like she's heard those words before?

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Adriel only stared on at the board, not listening to a word the lecturer said. Her mind had been a jumbled mess, since that morning.

She chewed absentmindedly on her lower lip trying to remember what she didn't even remember forgetting.

The lecturer dismissed them and she hurriedly packed her books and went in search of Cassey, maybe she'll have an idea about what happened last night. But Adriel looked everywhere and still couldn't find her. She was nowhere to be found.

She called her cell but she still wouldn't pick up. Adriel sighed. Great.

She would have to go to her dorm. Tulip it is.

She walked on the slightly longer path to the dorm just a few meters away from hers.

She needed to hurry through. There would be a curfew that day. A fresher had been found dead in the woods early that morning. Adriel shivered.

Hearing about death had always had that effect on her.

There had been a few cases of murder on campus in the past but the culprits still hadn't been caught, even till now.

She didn't have all the details but she'd heard that the murder had been done inhumanely. Blood had been everywhere and the girl had barely been identified.

Another shiver went up her spine.

Knowing there was a killer on the loose made everyone on edge. She saw police cars everywhere, officers questioning anyone and everyone.

A sickly feeling entered into her just then and it didn't let up even as she entered Tulip.

She felt that sickly feeling of being watched again and she felt goosebs rising up her arms.

She saw some officers questioning some of the students in the common room.

The feeling didn't let up as she walked past the officers and it definitely didn't let up when she saw Cassey's roommates. She was perplexed to see them in tears. The girls had mascara running down their faces as they cried.

The sickly feeling intensified a thousand times over and the knots tightened more in her stomach.

What was going on?

"Where's Cassey?" There was an unmistakable tremor in her voice.

Everyone looked like they already knew the answer she didn't. Electricity flickered through her chest.

"What's wrong you guys? Where's Cassey?" She tried to remember the last time she'd seen her friend and her blood ran cold when she found that she couldn't. There was silence.

"Why won't anyone tell me where my friend is?" She saw pity in their eyes and somehow she knew. Tears prickled her eyes.

An officer came up the hallway noticing the tension between them.

"Ma'am I'm afraid we have some bad news." Adriel looked at the officer and she wanted to cry.

"What bad news?" She choked.

"It's about your friend. She was murdered last night." He said. She stared blankly at the police officer as she tried to comprehend his words.

You know when your mind is trying to comprehend something that seems so incomprehensible that you momentarily shut down and then reboot? That was how she felt.

"What?" The realization of what he'd just said hit her like a train, unforgiving.

She couldn't breathe.

She didn't notice the alarmed look on everyone's' face as her eyes drooped.

Her vision blurred and the last thing she saw was the blurry form of the police officer as she fell over, fainting.

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Someone was chasing her and she didn't know who for the life of her. So many arms were reaching for her from the shadows and they nearly succeeded. She screamed when a hand grabbed her and dragged her in front of a fire.

The back of her knees was kicked from beneath her making her fall to her knees.

She heard loud inhuman shrieks in the darkness.

Animalistic growls and snarls. On instinct. She gripped the small crucifix around her neck and said His name. The growls became strangled and the most inhuman voice shrieked right beside her.

Adriel! Her whole being shook.

"Adriel." Adriel gasped awake panting. She was sweating buckets. She looked around her in a frenzy. She was in a hospital? She felt a hand touch her hand and she quickly redrew it screaming.

"Adriel, relax. It's me." Her eyes widened. Concerned green eyes stared at her own brown ones.

"Jayden?" He smiled softly.

"Hey, Dri." She sat up and realized that he was looking at her chest. She found herself looking down as well. She was holding her necklace, it was in the shape of a cross. She was holding it so tightly that her knuckles had turned white. She gasped releasing the necklace.

"You were having a nightmare." He said holding her hand. She looked at him. His eyes were filled with concern. He was flawless as always and her heart raced again at the sight of his beauty. The last time she saw him was at the grocery shop with his friends two days ago.

"I-I don't remember." She said referring to the nightmare. She couldn't remember what she'd dreamt of for the life of her. Adriel's eyes widened as the event of that day came crashing forcefully down on, her.

"Oh God. Cassey. She's-" Adriel choked. She stood up as fast as she could and ran to the bathroom and threw up in the toilet.

She heard footsteps coming into the bathroom behind her and she felt the hair on her arms and neck prickle as he came closer. She didn't like how her body always seemed to react to him.

"Hey, easy. It's okay." She felt his hands hold her hair up. He was closer than expected.

"Adriel I'm so sorry. I didn't know your friend but I know she meant a lot to you. I came running as soon as I heard." He said.

Her stomach constricted again and she held the toilet tighter as she emptied the remaining contents in her stomach and once that was gone she began dry heaving.

"They said she was murdered Jayden. I should have been there. I should have-" Her voice hitched again and she began sobbing.

She felt Jayden's arms around her. He didn't say anything, he just held her and she was grateful.

He helped her rest against the bathroom wall. She exhaled closing her eyes. Suddenly she felt dizzy.

She felt his palm on her forehead.

"You're burning up." She heard him mutter.

By the time her eyes fluttered open, he'd gone to get her some water and some wet towel.

"Thanks." She said as she rinsed her mouth and flushed the toilet.

She was silent for a while watching him as he dabbed her forehead with a towel. His green eyes were trained on her. He looked very worried.

She didn't want to deal with the effects his eyes had on her so she closed her eyes.

"She was my friend. I should have been there." She whispered. Her lower lip shook as she tried not to remember Cassey but she failed woefully. Who could have done such a thing? What did she ever do to them?

"It's okay Adriel. I'm right here. I've got you." She heard him say.

"I'm not going anywhere." He whispered. She felt his arms come around her and she held on for dear life.

And she wished more than anything that everything would be okay, that she would be okay.

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The past seventeen hours had felt like a haze. Policemen came in and out of the dorm and now they were in the hospital.

Everyone was a suspect and apparently she was the last person to see Cassey alive.

"I-I can't remember." Adriel stuttered. The policemen sighed for the tenth time.

"How can you not know where you were last night?" One of them asked tiredly. Adriel fidgeted in her bed.

"I-I don't know officer. I only remember waking up this morning."

"I remember feeling upset about something but I didn't know what. I wanted to talk to her about it. I called her and she didn't pick up. I mean she always picks up." She was panicking.

The officers exchanged unsure looks.

"For how long are you going to keep her here? She doesn't know anything. She's barely holding on as it is." She faintly heard Jayden's voice on the other side of the door as he argued with an officer. He was demanding her release.

Just then another police officer walked into the room with a note pad in hand.

"The time checks out. She was in her dorm before the murder." The policeman said. Adriel released the breath she didn't even know she'd been holding.

"She's been through enough. She's still recovering for Christ's sake." She heard Jayden's angry voice say.

"That would be all Miss Dawson." The officers left the room and she saw her roommates troop in all scared out of their mind.

She was feeling dizzy again. She tried to keep her eyes open. The stress of the day had finally caught up to her and she felt anxious. She was about to have one of her flashbacks.

She was breathing hard and the all too familiar fear engulfed her.

Adriel's grip on the sheets tightened and she seemed to have closed in on herself. Everything else faded out. Jayden's eyes widened when he saw her dazed state.

"Adriel! Adriel!" But she couldn't hear him. The images seemed to hit her all at once-

There was a crash.

Luke!

She closed her eyes gasping.

She felt weightless as the car somersaulted five times into the air before landing on its side. She'd flown out the door while her brother had remained unconscious in the car and one spark was all it took.

Then all she saw was red and orange.

Adriel...

Adriel!

Adriel, look at me!

She blinked and light green eyes came back into focus. Adriel felt his hand on her cheek and felt him wipe her tears away. She didn't know she'd been crying.

Adriel was shaking and she held unto him and didn't let go.

"It's okay Adriel. You're okay, you're okay. I'm here." He whispered wrapping his arms around her. She didn't know how long she sat there with his arms around her.

He held her till the haze left her. She discovered he was whispering some things into her ear. She didn't know what they were but it relaxed her.

She'd been having the flashbacks since that horrible day and it hadn't stopped since then. They called it post-traumatic stress. Well, she was already stressed enough as it is.

Adriel noticed her roommates in the room and his friends that had now gathered around them in concern.

She was glad. She didn't want to be alone right now.

"Please don't leave." She whispered and she felt him tighten his hold on her. He made her feel safe.

"I'm right here Dri. I'm not going anywhere." He whispered into her ear.