Chapter 5 The First Body

POV: Annabelle

Dante pulled his shirt over his mouth, kicked the bottom section of the door three times until the latch snapped off, and pulled me out into the hallway just as police sirens started echoing outside the building.

"We need to get out of here right now before the cops enter the basement," Dante said, dragging me through the back exit toward his car while I tried to stop coughing from the gas.

"Why aren't we talking to the police?" I asked, grabbing his arm as we reached the parking lot. "Someone just tried to trap us in a room and poison us, so why can't we just report it to the officers arriving at the front?"

"Because someone inside the department is protecting the people who set that trap, Annabelle," Dante said, looking down at me while he opened the passenger door. "If you tell them what we saw on that computer, those files will be completely deleted before you even finish filing your statement, so you either trust me and work with me from now on, or you let them bury the truth about your father."

I looked back at the main building, took a deep breath, and finally looked back at Dante, nodding my head because I knew he was right about the cover-up.

"Fine, I will work with you," I said, getting into the car while he closed the door behind me.

By the next day, we acted like nothing happened, walking back onto campus together, and while I still didn't want to depend on him for everything, our relationship shifted enough that I let him walk me directly to my morning lectures and wait for me outside the hall when class finished.

"You don't have to stand right by the door, Dante," I told him as I walked out of my second class into the hallway, where a group of guys from the fraternity were staring at us. "People are already talking about us enough as it is."

"Let them talk," Dante said, stepping closer to me as one of the guys from the group tried to push past us and intentionally bumped into my shoulder.

"Watch where you're going, sweetheart," the guy sneered, turning around to look at me.

Before I could even answer, Dante grabbed the guy by his jacket collar, slammed him back against the locker bank, and looked him straight in the eyes without even raising his voice.

"Touch her again or speak to her like that, and you won't be walking to your next class," Dante said quietly, holding the guy there until he nodded fast and stumbled away down the hall.

"I can handle myself, Dante," I said, pulling on his sleeve so he would walk with me toward the main plaza. "You don't need to threaten every student who steps near me."

"I do if they keep testing you," Dante replied, but before we could reach the quad, three campus security cars drove past us with their lights on, speeding directly toward the old swimming facility near the sports field.

Students were already running over to see what was happening, and as we followed the crowd, a girl standing near the fence turned around with her phone in her hand.

"They just found a body in the pool building," she told us, her voice shaking as she looked at her friend. "It's Marcus from the student council, and everyone is saying he took his own life."

"Marcus wouldn't do that," I said, stepping past the yellow tape while the police officers were busy talking to the rector near the ambulance, allowing me to sneak around to the side of the stretcher where the body was laid out before they covered it up completely.

I looked down at his arm, noticing something small that the officers had completely missed in the dim light, which was a tiny circle symbol cut directly into the skin of his right wrist.

"Dante, look at his arm," I whispered, pointing down at the mark. "It's the same symbol from the ring in that photo."

Then my eyes moved to his neck, and my heart stopped completely when I saw a silver chain resting against his collarbone, holding a small pendant that was identical to the one my father was wearing in the last family picture taken before his death. I reached out quickly, touching the small latch on the side of the pendant until it clicked open, revealing a tiny folded piece of paper tucked inside the metal frame.

I pulled the paper out, unfolded it with trembling fingers, and read the three words printed in dark black ink: SHE IS NEXT.

I looked up immediately, catching Dante's eyes across the police barricade where he was standing, but his face didn't show any confusion at all.

Instead, he looked completely terrified, and before the officers could notice what I was holding, Dante pushed right through the crowd, ducked under the tape, and grabbed my wrist firmly.

"We're leaving right now," Dante said, pulling me away from the body toward his car.

"Why are you pulling me away, Dante?" I asked, looking at the note still clutched in my fingers. "What does this message mean?"

His jaw tightened, and he leaned down close to my ear, his voice barely audible over the crowd.

"Because your father's killer just announced his next victim, and it's you."