Page 146 of A Dead Man's B-Side
Chapter Twenty-seven
Alexandr Miroslav
1982
Everything afterwards was a blur. The slow and anxious wait as the investigation for the disappearance of the Kensington twins dragged on. It was rather quick once they’d found the letters. They were both eighteen, and even the highest level of police couldn’t continue a search of majors unless the family went private.
The detectives assigned the case had caused a commotion on campus when they began peeking their heads into classes or shuffling about the student lounge. They may have pulled aside some students, ones particularly close to the twins, but those were only rumors, Rain assured.
However, Thaddeus, after congratulating us, promised to handle anything on that end.
We may have passed one test, but we didn’t have the law enforcement in our pockets, unlike Thaddeus, to pass another. Besides, he only assigned this task to prove our devotion to the Society and the board.
A week into December, life seemed to finally return to normal. As normal as we could pretend it was, at least.
Classes paused for reading week, but the gossip didn’t. Students whispered about the twins until something fresh and juicy filled their vicious tongues. That happened to be the arranged marriage between Ivania Mikhaylov and a member of the Novikov family. I hadn’t paid the future wedding much attention, having my studies high on my priority list.
Exams were coming up, and I was damned if I got anything less than a ninety percent in LAW 400; Mr Browne would be all too proud to tell me it was because of the classes I had missed.
By the second week of December, I was practically married to the library, though it seemed I wasn’t the only one. Assignments were closing in on their due dates and essays had to be handed in.
I was glad that Callum had postponed my joining the Queens Club until January, because I didn’t know how I’d find the time. I also wouldn’t put it past him to take up as much of it as possible just to sabotage my studies.
“There you are.” Wolf’s voice sounded from around the bookshelf he rounded. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”
“I’ve been here every day for the past week. Why would you look anywhere else?” I replied without lifting my head from the biography I was copying notes from.
Wolf chuckled. “That’s true. Who knew you could be such an academic?”
“I could be if you weren’t distracting me.” I fixed him with a stare before flipping to the next page.
He pulled an empty chair out from under the table I was occupying in the back of the second floor and sat down across from me. “I wanted to ask you something.”
I hummed and waited for him to do just that. My eyes were drifting over the words in front of me, searching for a point similar to mine that I could provide as a suitable source in my research paper on how one could identify inflation in developing countries before it leads to inevitable economic collapse. Because this was Castle Hill, I also had to come up with methods to resolve such inflation.
I wanted to bang my head against the table.
Dragging my attention away from my academic challenges, I heard the hesitation in Wolf’s voice and felt it radiating off of him, affecting my focused mind. “I can feel you thinking. It’s making my skin itch.”
He snorted. “Want to talk about this in my dorm, actually?”
I snorted in turn, knowing there wasn’t a chance he would let anyone into his dorm. I’d been so distracted with one thing or another that I hadn’t found the time to actually break in.
At his responding silence, I whirled at him, anticipation suddenly finding me, biography forgotten. “Are you being serious?”
A slow smile stretched across his lips and he nodded. “Yes, but if you would rather I leave you to study–”
“No!” I blurted out, collecting my books as quickly as humanly possible. “I was finishing up anyway. Let’s go.”
He laughed and stood alongside me.
When we reached his dorm, in record time because of how fast I was walking, I was practically bursting with agonizing curiosity.
What was he hiding in there? A dead body? A pet? An assortment of clothes he designs in his free time?
When he unlocked his door and opened Pandora's box, the only feeling I could describe was extraterrestrial. It was as though I’d stepped onto another planet, or perhaps it was the long-awaited reveal that made me feel that way.
He ushered us inside and closed his door, but I could only watch from the entrance.
