He made it very clear he did not want to be here.
But it was the similarities between his sister and me that made Ethan so interested. When we first met last year after Oscar had attacked me, I’d learned his sister had also been raped, then passed away shortly after. Ethan didn’t go into the details about his sister, but wanted to know every aspect of my traumatic past. I didn’t mind, either. If it helped him come to an understanding about what happened to his sister, I’d do whatever I could to help.
A strong scent of death drifted up to my nose upon entering my dorm room, and I quickly covered my nose with my hand as my door closed behind me. I tossed my new notebook over my desk before following the source.
The unbearable smell curdled my senses, and bile burned the back of my throat in warning. Crouching down, I pulled out the rolling cart under my bed. The sight before me sent me back on my hands, crawling away until my back slammed against the desk. A scream belted from my throat, and my eyes bulged at what I was seeing.
A dead, mutilated animal laid in the cart.
The color of red and fur mixed with my clothes.
Crawling to my trashcan, I leaned over right as the contents in my stomach came up.
“Mia?! What in God’s name…” I heard before hands gripped my shoulders.
I recoiled at the sudden touch and twisted around, pressing myself closer to the wall. Once I noticed the hands belonged to Ethan, my arms flung around his neck, and I cried into his shirt collar. Ethan’s body went stiff for a moment before he relaxed and pulled me in closer. His hands grasped the back of my head.
“Who would do this?” I cried out.
Ethan’s hold around my waist tightened as his hand moved over the back of my head, “Some sick fuck,” he muttered through an exhale. “Come on. I have to get you out of here and call this in.”
Ethan shielded my eyes from what waited for me on my pull-out cart and walked me just outside the door in the corridor. He led me against the wall as I tried shaking the image out of my head. His blue eyes stayed on mine while he unclipped the radio from his belt and talked into it.
“Yes, wing four…” he repeated into the radio. Ethan clipped the radio back over his belt and hunched over with two hands on my shoulders. “Has anything like this happened before?”
Shaking my head, I tried to control my trembling hands.
“Has anyone threatened you?”
Shaking my head again, I said, “No one. It’s been quiet all summer.”
Another tear fell down my cheek, and Ethan reached out to capture it but paused before contact could be made. He sighed and dropped his hand and head at once.
“Ethan … ” My voice broke and I let his name hang in the air as both a plea and a question. I wanted to tell him to make this go away—to find a way to erase the last ten minutes, but I could no longer speak. I bit the inside of my cheek to avoid showing emotion and fight back any more tears from escaping.
Ethan lifted his head and held my face with one hand. “Stay here while I look around?”
I nodded, and he took off.
My back fell against the wall and I slid down until my bottom met the ground.
“So, where are you going to be staying now?” Jake asked over the running water of the showerhead.
No matter how long I stayed under the water, the visions of the dead cat wouldn’t disappear. Scrubbing my body until it turned pink, I replayed the last couple of weeks over and over, trying to find a flicker of a hint as to why someone would do something like that—nothing. “Take a wild guess,” I said through a sigh.
“Please don’t tell me a different wing.”
“No, Officer Scott wouldn’t allow it,” I said low, hoping he didn’t latch onto the comment or make something of it. No one knew the friendship Ethan and I shared, not even Bria. My friendship with Ethan stayed hidden in the middle of the night and far away from everyone else. It was all mine, and something I cherished. Up until the dead animal was found in my room, he had the ability to separate work and me. It was only a matter of time before his two worlds collided, and I wondered how this would change things between us.
“Then, where?”
I turned under the water and tilted my head back, massaging my fingers into my scalp. “Ollie’s old room.” The room where we had first kissed. The room I’d slowly fallen in love with him. The room we’d made love on countless occasions.
“No way,” I heard Jake laugh from the opposite side of the wall separating us, “Oh, you poor thing. That’s pure torture right there.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Do they know who did it?”
