It was silent on the other side of the door. As if the person in there had collapsed. Sasha leant her ear against the door but she could hear the person still breathing. Relief flooded through her.

"Why don't you tell me what happened?" She asked.

"I don't know where to begin." The person replied sadly.

----------------------------------

Shit, shit, shit.

Sasha couldn't breathe. "Sasha, are you okay?" Jaide asked, her voice barely audible above the sound of Sasha hyperventilating. The voice in her head mocking her, telling her she doesn't have enough oxygen, she's going to die. It's all her fault.

It's all her fault.
In some twisted sense, it was right.

No. It couldn't be. It had to be a coincidence. This was University, there were roughly 35,000 students who came from all over, at least half of them were probably American. But Brooklyn? Specifically Brooklyn? Surely that was too much of a coincidence.

Jaide directed her over to the chair. "Sit and breathe." She instructed, her voice kind, almost soothing. "You're no use to anyone if you can't breathe."

"What's wrong?" Roscoe asked her, he was studying the photo carefully, as if examining it for clues to explain Sasha's lack of oxygen. "Is it something to do with Brooklyn?"

The word felt strange in his mouth, as if he'd never said if before. He probably hadn't, given that he was from Spain and had the accent to match. Sasha gulped down a mouthful of air. She shook her head and tried to breathe, the way her therapist had taught her. In through the nose, hold for five, out through the mouth, hold for five. It was no use.

"She can't answer you." Jaide told Roscoe, "Look at her." She motioned to Sasha.

"Talking helps." Roscoe shrugged.

"Not in that state it doesn't." Lennie's voice piped up, she'd just been sitting there, silently watching.

"Do we carry on?" Roscoe asked.

Riley was staring at Sasha. She couldn't shake his eyes off her, why was he staring at her like that? Like he knew something. He couldn't possibly know anything. Could he?

Sasha remembered when she first talked to Riley, he was in the kitchen alone, and had grinned at her as she walked in. "Hi!" He'd grinned jovially. "I'm Riley."

"Sasha." She replied, and at the mention of his name, his whole face seemed to light up.

"What are you studying, Sasha?" He'd asked.

Despite never liking small talk, she'd answered truthfully, "Journalism."

"Me too!" He'd grinned, and then they were talking about the news and what they liked to do in their free time. Before Sasha knew it she'd met Lennie and the three of them had decided to check out the University bar together.

She also remembered his question. "I love your accent, where's it from?"

And the way she'd skimmed over it like it was nothing. "America. Where are you from?"

"London," Riley replied. "Just South of Lewisham." His accent didn't sound like the other London accents that Sasha had heard, but maybe that was just because he was from a different part of London. Sasha didn't ask.

Sasha's breathing had slowed, returned to normal. She glanced up at the girl leaning against the counter, the girl who waved her hand and grinned, blood dripping down her mouth as if to say something, but before she could get the words out, she vanished. Sasha shook her head, her eyes wide.

"I think I'll go back to my room." She said, surprising even herself. "I'll see you guys later. Okay? I just need a minute." She looked around for confirmation. Jaide and Roscoe nodded, Lennie looked away, and Riley just stared. Always staring, with those big eyes full of wandering curiosity.

She pushed herself to her feet and walked out of the kitchen, turning the corner and walking toward the big heavy fire door that blocked her from her room. She fumbled in her pocket for her keys, and then unlocking the door, she pushed it open and slid inside.

Her laptop was closed on her bedroom desk, and she walked over to it. She dropped into the office chair and spun around so she was facing her laptop where she prized the lid open.

She clicked onto Google and typed in something she'd never really researched before: The Brooklyn Tragedy.

--

"Hey?" Lennie was sitting at the table in the kitchen. She was typing on her iPad, as Sasha walked over to the cupboard and tugged the door open, she reached inside for her tin of chilli chicken and emptied it into her saucepan. "Do you feel better?" Lennie asked.

"Yes. Thanks." Sasha smiled, "much better."

"Good." Lennie grinned, "can I ask? Are you prone to panic attacks? I've never seen you freak out like that before."

"Not usually." Sasha replied, what she didn't say was that she'd never had panic attacks before the Brooklyn Tragedy. They appeared then and there while she was on the way to the hospital, and they've haunted her since. The move to Britain was supposed to end them, but the death of Emily Manhurst had only made them worse.

"Maybe you should speak to the counsellor?" Lennie suggested. "It could be helpful."

"I'm fine." Sasha lied, a little too quickly.

Lennie regarded her for a minute then shrugged and turned back to her iPad. "Look." She said after a while, "I found this, a conversation between Emily and someone else. The conversation takes place over Reddit, so I can't see past their usernames but... I'll send it to you." Her fingers tapped the screen and a couple of seconds later, Sasha's phone pinged.

She pulled it out and unlocked the screen. She clicked onto the link that Lennie had sent and read.

EmMan45: The University is holding a ball for the new SU students. I was given your number, perhaps we should get together and discuss?

MeeMaw63: That sounds good. When? Tonight?

EmMan45: I can't do it tonight, I'm going to the library to do some work.

MeeMaw63: Ofc! Enjoy. I think I'm also going to the library tonight lol.

@/EmMan45 Has gone offline.

Sasha glanced up at Lennie who was studying her carefully. A small smile lifted Lennie's lips. "Coincidence?" She asked.

"Definitely not." Sasha agreed. She pushed her phone back into her pocket and turned the gas off. Picking the pan up she spooned the chilli chicken onto her plate. "But, how do we find MeeMaw63?"

"That's the million dollar question."

Sasha tipped the chilli chicken from the saucepan to her plate, and carried it over to the table where she set it down and dropped into her seat. She stabbed a chunk of chicken with her fork and raised it to her mouth. "We could ask Roscoe." She suggested as she chewed.

"Because he's studying cyber security?" Lennie checked, Sasha nodded. "I mean, we could."

"But?" Sasha prompted.

"Ugh, look," Lennie groaned. "I don't want to be a telltale, that's as far from what I'm trying to do as you can get. But Roscoe and Jaide they were talking about maybe kicking you out of the investigation."

Sasha's cheeks burned. "What?"

"I told them it's not fair." She crossed her arms across her chest. "I told them this whole thing was your idea, and that to suddenly not involve you is just mean... but they had a point Sasha."

"What point was that?" Sasha asked defiantly, she speared another chunk of chicken and chewed on it with a fierce determination, anger billowing through her. This whole thing had been her idea, to get justice in the name of Emily, if they were going to kick her off the investigation, she'd just do it alone.

"About your panic attacks." Lennie sighed, "Jaide said that you're no good to the investigation if you're going to keep hyperventilating like that."

"Are you still on the investigation?" Sasha asked, avoiding any mention of her panic attack earlier.

"Yeah... but I was thinking of leaving."

"Don't." She warned. "Since you're still with them, send the link to Roscoe, get him to find out who it is. Don't mention me, then we'll go together, okay?"

"Sure, alright." Lennie nodded. She tapped the screen of her iPad a couple of times and then smiled. "Done."

Sasha nodded at her appreciatively. She picked her bowl up and decided to eat the rest of her dinner in her room. She carried it out of the kitchen and froze, the door shutting slowly behind her.

Roscoe was around the corner, talking to someone in Spanish. She could hear him pacing, and then she heard the creak of his door opening followed by a loud thud, and his voice was muffled.

She reached into her pocket and pulled her phone out. She unlocked the screen and tapped on to the voice recorder. Everyone was a suspect. She walked over to his bedroom door and put her phone leaning against the wall beside it. It wasn't the most inconspicuous, but Roscoe probably wouldn't leave his room for a while and she'd have grabbed her phone back by then.

She walked back to her room, her door shutting behind her. She frowned, her laptop had been left open, but she definitely hadn't turned the webcam on. She walked over to the laptop and studied the small flashing green light. She swiped the mouse pad to turn the screen on and clicked on to her webcam app.

Sure enough, there she was. Her face was pressed into the camera, her brown hair tied back into a ponytail. She reached up and camera her moved too. "Who's there?" She asked, but there was no reply. "Hello?"

There was a small rustling noise. But no other sound. Sasha swallowed past the lump in her throat. Who would have the knowledge to set up a webcam like that? Someone studying cyber security, surely?

"Roscoe?" She asked. "Is that you?" A car screeched outside, making Sasha swear and jump. She slipped her finger across the mousepad and turned the webcam off.

She sat there in silence for a minute, not daring to do anything. After a minute that felt more like an eternity, she looked into the webcam. The green light was gone.

Sasha clicked onto her assignment and stared at the document. She'd hardly written anything other than her name and the assignment title. She tried typing the first sentence, but it didn't feel right. Her assignment was due tomorrow, and as she deleted the first sentence she gave up any hope of passing this assignment.

Despite having done no work, she saved the document and dropped the lid of her laptop. Pushing herself away from the desk, she stood up, yawned and walked out of her bedroom round the corner to the kitchen.

Roscoe was in there, washing up a mug in the sink. Lennie had previously bought a grey bucket for the sink, and everyone used it to wash up in. "Sasha." Roscoe nodded as Sasha walked inside.

"Ross." She smiled, knowing how much he hated being called that. He frowned at her.

"I hope you're feeling better." He lied, he probably didn't care that she was feeling better. From what Lennie had told her, Sasha was surprised that Roscoe was even still talking to her.

She didn't mention that though, instead she just nodded and smiled. "Much better, thanks."

They fell into an uneasy silence as Sasha grabbed her mug from the Cupboard and walked over to the fridge, she tugged the door open and pulled out the milk bottle. Milk pooled in the bottom of her mug and slowly ascended up the sides, she watched it studiously and then she tilted the bottle back and slipped it back into the fridge. She lifted the mug to her lips and took a sip of creamy milk as she watched Roscoe fill the mug with cold water from the tap.

Sasha felt her pockets, checking for her phone. It wasn't in there, she remembered putting her phone outside Roscoe's door and she glanced at him. "Looking for something?" He asked, smiling innocently.

"What?" Sasha frowned. "No, I'm not."

He nodded slowly and downed his mug of water. Then he reached into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out her phone, "I thought you might want this?" He smiled, holding it out to her.

Her breath hitched in her throat. She grabbed her phone from him and carried her mug with her back to her room, silently. She sat back down at her desk and prized the lid of her laptop open again. The webcam was thankfully still turned off, and she clicked into her document to stare at the blank page again. Twenty minutes of writing and deleting later, her finger slid over the mouse pad and opened Spotify, she put some music on. Her favourite type of indie pop music, and she once again started typing.