"Sasha, I swear to God, let me out of here, or I'll!"

"You'll what?" Sasha asked, she leant against the wall and took another sip of her coffee.

"You don't want to know!"

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

Sasha wasn't sure how to feel. Her heart was pounding in her chest, and tears prickled at the backs of her eyes despite not knowing Emily that well. It wasn't Emily that Sasha was thinking about, not at all. She had only ever heard someone telling her that someone was dead before once, and hearing it again now brought back those awful feelings.

Everyone is staring at her, though, like they used to be best friends, and it unnerves Sasha. How is she supposed to feel? To react at this moment?

"How?" She asks.

"She was found dead in the library." Riley explains, "I don't know the full details yet; no one does. But it's all over Reddit and Snapchat."

"I don't know her." Sasha shrugs, "I spoke to her a few times, but we weren't friends or anything."

There's a collective pause, broken only by the sound of Lennie pushing herself to her feet and running over to the sink, where she vomits. She leans back with a groan, pushing her palm flat against her clammy forehead.

Sasha reaches into her pocket for her phone, but a hand falls onto hers; Roscoe speaks, shaking his head. "Don't look. You won't like what you see."

"The security guard was found dead, too." Jaide recounts, "he was casually slung over the back of a chair like a discarded coat, his throat slit, and a huge gaping hole in his chest." She's deathly white as well, and Sasha wonders if she, too, is going to be sick.

"Shit," Sasha swears. "How do you mean, a huge gaping hole?"

"Like someone carved into him pulled his heart out." She adds quietly, her gaze dropping to the floor. "This whole thing is so messed up."

"It's all over Reddit," Riley says. "We don't know the source, don't know who could've done this, but whoever it was, they're proud of their work."

"They're sicko's." Roscoe growls, "and everyone reposting and sharing are sickos as well. This isn't some movie. We aren't some characters in a morbid novel; this is real life." He sounds genuinely angry, pissed off, Sasha didn't think he knew Emily.

"I... I can't..." Jaide runs a hand through her hair, and then she turns and heads for the door, slipping out of it and letting it close softly behind her.

"I should-" Roscoe cuts himself off, motioning after his girlfriend before shaking his head and leaving as well.

Lennie turns to the sink and throws up again, vomit and lumps of chopped carrot splashing the silver basin green, catching in the drain cover, yellow and acidic. Sasha shudders, and she turns to Riley. She opens her mouth, but no words come out. With a sigh, Sasha pushes herself to her feet.

"Our lesson has been cancelled," Riley tells her, his voice low. "Obviously, it would be weird to study journalism when someone's dead." He groans, "Jaide is right, this is super messed up."

University was supposed to be a welcoming relief from the drama, not summon its own.

She nods and walks back to her room. She's caught off guard by a glimpse of herself in the mirror as she turns to close the door. Her own skin looks oddly pale, her eyes wide, her hair frazzled. She should've stayed in bed and should've nursed her hangover with a glass of water and paracetamol. She's sober now, of course; it's surprising how quickly finding out someone in your University has been brutally slaughtered to death makes your hangover just vanish.

She reaches out, her fingers hovering just above the glass, but she can't bring herself to touch it. Her reflection feels distant, like a stranger staring back at her. She can't do it. She can't just stand by and let another person die. Not again.

Her breath catches as the thought lingers. Her pulse spikes and the room seems to close in around her. She wants to turn away, but she's rooted to the spot, unable to escape. Not again.

Blood.

The thought spreads across her mind, leaving a dark stain across her thoughts. She sees it, feels it - blood pouring from every orifice, mouth, eyes, nose, ears - eyes wide open, staring at nothing, at everything. Her stomach churns. She presses her palms to her eyes, trying to push the images away, but they just grow sharper, clearer.

A flash of Madelyn's face in the coffee shop, laughing, warm, alive. Then the scene fractures, splintering into jagged memories of blood polling on the floor, the suffocating silence, the paralysing terror.

She breathes heavily, trying to steady herself. This is different. Emily is different. She can't let herself go down this path again, not after everything she's already lost. But the memories - those dark, relentless memories - are starting to pull her back.

She opens her eyes, staring at her reflection once more. This time, she meets her own gaze. She can't ignore the truth. Not now. Not when Emily's death is hanging in the air, and she can already feel the weight of it. Sasha swallows hard, forcing herself to take a step back from the mirror. She has to do something.

For Emily.

Sasha pushes the thought away, she can't take it. She was supposed to leave them thoughts behind in America, they weren't supposed to follow her to England. She reaches into her pocket for her phone and calls Madelyn.

"Sorry, the number you have called is unrecognised, please redial and try again." The automatic voice says. She hangs up and tries another number.

"Hey, Sweetie?" Her Nan picks up almost instantly. "I've been making apple pie." She says.

Sasha closes her eyes, for a second, she's right back there in her Nan's kitchen, breathing in the scent of apple pie and listening to her Grandad working in the field. The dog barks at her and she trembles, she's right back in her room again, alone. "I miss you Nan." She says.

"I miss you too, Sweet." Her Nan sighs. "But you can come back in the holidays, you are coming back, aren't you?"

"I don't know."

"Things have calmed down spectacularly since you've left. I think if you came back-"

"Does she still hate me?" Sasha asks, "I need to know."

"Who, dear?"

"Madelyn. Does she still hate me?"

There's a pause, followed by silence that seems to stretch for eternity. "Hate is a strong word, Sasha." Her Nan says, in a way that means yes. "But I don't think she likes you, we'll leave it at that."

"I tried to call her." Sasha groans, dropping her head into her hands. "She didn't pick up."

"She's probably changed her number since... then." Her Nan says, "this is a fresh start for all, without..." She cuts herself off, and Sasha thinks, you can say her name, please say her name, no one ever says her name. "It's a fresh start for all." She sighs, "how is Uni treating you?"

"Someone's dead." The words are out before she can stop them. "Someone died, in the library. Well, they were slaughtered." She opens the lid to her laptop, and clicks onto Google, then onto Reddit. She gasps.

"How do you mean, Dear?"

"Sorry, Nan. I've got to go." She hangs up the call before her Nan can say any more to her. She makes the picture bigger, focuses on the brown boots, with their rusty look, the material pulling away from the base. She recognises those boots, she's seen them before.

She picks up her phone, and types; House meeting, now @ kitchen. Then she drops her phone and adverts her gaze back to the boots.

They all gather in the kitchen, Lennie setting about making hot drinks, taking an order for coffee from Roscoe and an order for hot chocolate from Jaide, as if it was just any other morning.

"What did you wanna call the meeting about?" Roscoe asked. "Is this about Emily?"

"More about the killer." Sasha replies, "I think I might know who they are." She pulls the picture up on her phone and zooms in on the boots. "I recognise them."

Everyone crowds around her phone, their attention suddenly piqued. "They just look like pretty standard boots to me." Roscoe shrugs. "A bit torn and frayed, but pretty normal."

"Yeah, those boots are almost as common as Timberland." Jaide adds.

Sasha feels her eyes roll, why are some people so dismissive? She slides her phone back into her pocket. "I think I know who killed Emily." She folds her arms across her chest.

"Well, spit it out then." Riley groans after a minute of silence. "Who killed Emily?"

"I think it was Charlie."

"Mayhew?" Roscoe's eyes widen. "No way, those two were best friends."

"Best friends fall out." Sasha thought of a girl in a cafe, blonde hair and blue eyes, blood. A lot of blood. Best friends fall out.

"Not those two." Jaide agrees, "those two were inseparable."

"Even friends who are inseparable fall out." Sasha shrugged, "Look, all I'm saying is we should talk to Charlie."

"And say what?" Riley frowns, "Excuse me, did you kill your best friend that we barely knew?" He mocks.

"I agree, we barely knew Emily." Roscoe adds, "I don't see why this has anything to do with us."

"Don't you want to find justice for Emily?" Sasha asks incrediously. "Find out who did this, make them pay?"

"No." Roscoe frowns, "not really."

"What are you?" Jaide asks, "some sort of policewoman? Leave this to the authorities, we have our own problems to deal with."

Sasha glances at Lennie and Riley for help, they'd been oddly quiet. Lennie just shook her head, not saying anything. It was Riley that spoke. "Did you know Emily?" He asks.

"Not really," Sasha replies truthfully.

"Then why do you care?" He asks, he doesn't sound mean, more genuinely curious.

She wanted to scream at him, Because I refuse to see another person die and do nothing to help. I can't keep standing by and pretending this whole thing isn't my fault! Instead she just sighed and ran a hand through her hair, "I just think we could help, that's all."

"I really don't think we should get involved." Riley sighed, but he looked at her and his expression softened. "But if you're really doing this, I'm not letting you do it alone."

She grinned at him. "Fine, if Riley's doing it then I guess I am." Roscoe said, "he isn't the only man here."

Jaide stared at Roscoe like he had gone round the bend, but she relented too, "I guess I'm in." She turned to Roscoe, "Someone has to protect you."

Everyone turned round to look at Lennie who just shrugged, "I was in from the very beginning." She said.

Riley clapped his hands together. "So, we're doing this?"

"We're doing this." Everyone agreed.

"But where do we start?" Sasha asked, and everyone turned to look at Jaide. She was studying criminology, so she must have had some kind of knowledge of how detective cases go. Jaide looked around at everyone staring at her, and sighed as she fell backwards to lean on the counter.

"Okay, we can't get to the library, obviously. So we can't go snooping around looking for clues or prints, which the Police would be doing anyway." She closed her eyes for a second, trying to recount what she'd learnt. "I think the next best thing, which we could do. Would be to scour social media. Providing Emily had social media-"

"She did." Riley cut in. "She was always taking photos."

"Then, there could be some clue as to who she is or why anyone would want to do this, on her social media."

"How far do we go back?" Roscoe asked, already pulling his phone out of his pocket and unlocking the screen. Sasha and Lennie did the same.

"As far back as you can." Jaide told him. "This could be a recent event that has made someone want to do this, or it could be revenge for something that happened in the past. We can't rule anything out at this stage."

"I'll make some coffee." Lennie said, pushing herself off the table. "Then we can get to work." Sasha watched her go, she could murder a coffee. She thought about being back home, in Brooklyn. Her and her friends would always get a coffee after school, and sometimes even before school, and they'd sit in the coffee shop laughing and talking.

But the memory is ruined, by that last time she was in the coffee shop. Blood dripping onto the oak table, Sasha screaming, running, pounding her fists on the locked door. She shook the memory away. She watched Lennie make coffee, and then she clicked onto Instagram.

"I think each of us should take a social media platform." Roscoe suggested, "I'll do Facebook."

"Instagram!" Sasha called out, already typing Emily's name into the search bar.

"Okay, I can do TikTok?" Lennie asked, "if that'll be helpful."

"Yeah, and I can do Snapchat." Riley said.

"Okay." Jaide grinned. "Then, I'll do Twitter."

"I don't think you'll find much on there." Roscoe told her. "Nobody with half a brain really posts on Twitter anymore."

"I post on Twitter." She turned on him, but he just laughed her off and pulled her in for a kiss.

"I love you, you know." He told her, kissing her loudly.

"I love you too." She murmured.

"Okay, lovebirds!" Riley clapped his hands, pulling their attention away from each other and onto him. "Are you guys helping?"

They kissed one last time, just to annoy Riley and then checked their phones.

"I've got something." Lennie said half an hour later. Sasha was standing by the fridge drinking milk from the bottle. Riley and Jaide were drinking coffee that Lennie had made for them, and Roscoe was drinking a glass of Pepsi.

Lennie was holding her phone up, and everyone shuffled around it to gather around. "What is it?" Jaide frowned.

"It's a photo from a year ago." Lennie explained. "She was in Brooklyn. She's from America."

Sasha's heart stopped beating.