I woke to the sound of muffled sobs the next morning, Amaia seemingly crying quietly as I was asleep.

"Amaia, you okay?" I ask, turning to face her bed.

"Hazel," she responded, seemingly surprised I'd woken up. "Hey. Good morning."

I looked across the room and found her sitting on the edge of her bed, tissue in hand, staring at the floor. Our dormitory was one of the better ones in the girls' building, the two of us sharing one room with a large window boasting views of the town down the hill. White wood panelled the walls, and we each had our own desk, bed and chest of drawers. Amaia's side was closest to the window, mine closest to the door.

"I'm fine by the way." She says, sensing my unconvinced stare. "It's just the whole like last night thing you know? Anyway it doesn't really matter. We're forgetting it ever happened, isn't that what you told me?"

I roll my eyes, and then scan her figure, attempting to find anything abnormal in her frame. Out of concern I ask, "Is your arm okay?"

She smiles, "Much better."

God she's such a liar.

"Good." I respond, picking out an outfit from my drawers. "Gonna have a shower." I signal towards the bathroom. Amaia nods.

Entering my shared bathroom, I find my bloodstained clothes scattered on the floor. Clearly I had enough consciousness to change into pyjamas last night. Glancing into the mirror I realise my face is still splattered with remnants of blood, and so I use water to clean anything else that remains. As happy as I can be with my appearance, I decide to take a shower, to wash off any reminders of the experiences we'd encountered mere hours before.

As the warm water rushes down my back, I find I am remarkably calm about the near death experience I had faced the night before. The lifeless head of Markus Raz plagued my dreams, but in such an unnightmarishly way that I don't feel so fazed by it. If anyone had glanced my way, they wouldn't have known what I had witnessed mere hours previously.

The bathroom is filled with steam as I get out, courtesy of the lack of fans in the older building. Cracking open the small window above the toilet, I stare into my reflection in the mirror above the sink. What happened last night?

I can recall moments, snippets in time in which the events of the night previous float in my vision, a black staircase, heavy metal music, an extremely painful headache. The blue hair of Markus Raz, the gash on Amaia's arm, the befuddled look on Collin's face as he took us in.

We had left after Amaia was content, sipping on her iced tea and smirking smugly at her cousin. We promised to fill Collin in later, seeing as we had to sneak back in the school, and the security cameras were almost always cut off exclusively at three am.

Snapping back to reality, I got dressed and ready for the day, pushing the memories of the previous night so far back in my mind, that I'd almost forgotten them. If anyone found out we snuck out, went to a literal murder scene, almost died, we'd be in deep shit.

𓆙

Eyes follow me as I make my way to breakfast, something that doesn't immediately strike me as weird, seeing as my school has a terrible staring problem. Amaia insisted on coming later, as she needed to 'get her bearings' or whatever the fuck that means. The dining hall is filled with the sounds of cutlery and conversation, students huddled around circular tables eating their respective meals.

I make my way to where the food is, and pile up my plate with toast and bacon and eggs.I find Khoi at a small table near the windows at the back of the hall, staring blankly at the view of the lake.

"Morning." I greet him, sliding my plate across the table, and sitting in the seat to his left.

"Morning." He responds, snapping out of the trance he seemed to be in, bringing his gaze back to his food.

"You alright?" I ask, unused to seeing him in a state like this, not when he always looks so put together.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Is Amaia alright?"

I nod, mouth full of food. "She needs to 'get her bearings' apparently."

"God. Anyone would think she's the English nerd, not us."

"I don't think she's picked up a single book in the four years I've known her."

"Couldn't be me."

Our conversation gets interrupted when a random girl sits across from me. She glares at us from under her cherry red wispy bangs, her brown eyes staring daggers into my soul. Still glaring, she picks up her fork, and stabs it into her egg, taking a bite.

My eyebrows shoot right up, and I send an unimpressed glance to Khoi who has to suppress his laughter, turning it into some sort of unconvincing fake smile.

"Hi!" Khoi turns to greet her.

"Where's the other girl?"

"Who?" Khoi asks.

"The one you're always with, you know? Curly black hair, big eyes, looks super scary but also like a supermodel at the same time?"

"Amaia?" I ask. Who is this girl? What the fuck does she want from Amaia?

"Mhm, that one."

"What do you want from Amaia?"

"The real question," the girl says, fork in hand, swirling her egg around her plate, "is what I want from all of you."

I roll my eyes. Who the fuck is this girl?

I spot Amaia from across the hall, and Khoi seemingly does too, gesturing wildly at her to 'come here NOW' and 'hurry up'. Amaia takes her place beside me, and stares at our company.

"Hi guys." She smiles. "Sorry if I interrupted anything."

Cherry red hair girl smiles. "You didn't interrupt anything, don't worry. I was actually just waiting to talk to you."

Amaia, confused as ever, fakes a smile, "Of course. It's Faye right? What did you want to talk to me about."

"Well I would like to talk to all of you about what happened last night." She says, her emphasis on 'all' making me want to kill myself. Caan't she get to the point already?

"What happened last night?" Khoi asks. The message is clear: play innocent.

"You know, whatever ended in you all splashed in blood." Faye replies, smiling as if this is a conversation she has daily.

"Oh, the shark attack?" Amaia inquires, and I slap her leg, and glare at her. What the fuck is she thinking?

"Oh, but it wasn't a shark attack was it?" Faye smiles knowingly, with an infuriating passive aggressive tone. I want to slap the smug, knowing smile right off her face.

"Tell us what you want, and scram." Does anyone else besides this girl know about our little expedition? I need them out of my way as soon as possible, so we can do damage control, work out some sort of story, and avoid being known witnesses, and on some accounts potential suspects for some murder.

"Did you see who killed Markus?" She asks.

"What are you talking about?" I say, as sweetly as I can muster.

At the same time, Khoi responds, "No."

"Why do you want to know?" Amaia asks. I kick her leg under the table. 'What?' She mouths. I roll my eyes.

"My uncle died a week ago. Nobody knew how or why he died." She pauses for a moment, and then glares into my eyes, her eye contact intense, and unnerving."It's like one moment he was alive, the next he'd died. My auntie had ducked out to the shops to get bread, and when she came back her husband was on the couch, blood staining the pastel blue red."

"Sorry to hear that. But why are you bringing this up?" I inquire, confused as to where her story is leading.

"Well I have a theory." Faye responds. "I think the murders are connected."

"Okay." I responded. "Let us know who did it when you find out." I stand up, and take my plate with me, fully intent on leaving.

Khoi grabs my arm as I start to move out of my chair, confining me to the table. "How do you think they're connected?"

Faye looks down. "It's not much to go on, but they're both ex-Woodbridge students, maybe there's something there?"

"Maybe." Khoi responds, in thought. "Tell us if you find anything else out."

"Aright." She answers. "I'll be in the library tomorrow night if you want to do some research."

"I'll be there." Khoi responds.

I stand up, and start to walk off, throwing a hasty "Bye." Over my shoulder.

𓆙

"What the fuck was that Hazel?" Khoi asks me as we exit the dining hall, and make our way across the lawn to our favourite tree.

"I'm sorry I don't want to be a part of some pointless fake detective stunt. We have more pressing matters to attend to." I throw my hands up in the air, gesturing innocence.

"Hazel's right." Amaia turns to Khoi. "Nothing good is going to come out of following a wannabe detective. This isn't one of your murder mysteries."

"Exactly." I responded. "This is real life. Some crazy dude probably stabbed Markus, and Faye's uncle died like coughing up blood or something. Boom! Case solved."

"But what if it actually is connected though?" Khoi replies. "We could stop a murderer, solve an actual crime. You're good at Cluedo, you're a valuable asset in this investigation." Khoi's dark eyes were alight, so engrossed and passionate about the topic.

"This isn't Cluedo though Khoi. This is real life. And, if you haven't noticed, people know that we were at a crime scene last night. People have seen us with blood on our bodies, late at night, last night. I think our most pressing problem is not getting expelled."

"Or like getting arrested. Or dying." Amaia adds.

"I'd rather get expelled than not know who is behind this. What if they get one of us next?"

"If you get expelled you'd probably be their next victim." Amaia says, shrugging when we stare at her with wide eyes. "Faye said the 'killer' is targeting ex Woodbridge students. If you get expelled you're- hypothetically, gonna have the biggest target on your back."

"And then we can catch them! I'll get expelled, the killer will come after me, and you guys can stop them."

"Nope." I respond. "I'd rather you die than me be present at another murder."

Khoi puts a hand on his heart, in mock offence. "You'd just let me die? God Hazel what has our friendship become?"

I roll my eyes, Khoi's dramatics as present as ever. Laying my head against the trunk of the tree, I glance around the lawn. The lake is shimmering at this time in the day, early morning leaving the sun casting a golden glow across the campus. Students walk around, chatting in small groups on the lawn, tossing a basketball around on the outside courts.

People watching is one of my greatest pleasures. It's how I know that those two girls in year nine stopped being friends after they tried to get with the same guy, how I know that one year twelve is probably a drug dealer, and how I know that my friends and I are in deep shit right now.

Amaia and Khoi are having a heated discussion next to me, something or other about a new controversial netflix show. Looking over their heads, I see a group of girls staring at us, whispering feverishly after they spot my eyes on them. I'm about to notify the others when a voice calls out from behind me.

"Khoi, Amaia, Hazel."

I turn to face the owner of the voice. Mr. Raz stands there, as imposing as ever, hands settled on his hips, face set firmly. His suit is crisp, and pretty much unsuitable for this sweltering day, yet he doesn't seem to care. His curls are perfectly styled, set in dark ringlets on top of his face. He glares at us from under his round wire glasses. The epitome of a principal. The very same principal who's son's murder we were present at. I share a glance with Amaia and Khoi.

We're fucked.

𓆙