She hazarded a look behind her and choked. They were coming for her. Red coats dark in the night like wine, like blood. Jasper there in front. Their faces alight, nostrils flaring. The scent of the kill.
She was the kill.
She stumbled and could not risk another look back
She had thought they were boys but no, now they were hunters, no trace of boy
Where were the ones that were drinking and laughing with her catching her ankles as she ran down a table
oh god could they catch her ankles and send her sprawling on stone
the boys they were hunting
hunting her they were hunting her
“help,” she cried out
but her breath was gone her voice would not come
please oh please help
help me run help me hide
they are hunting the fox i am the fox
heart thump blood in her ears breath sharp blood in her mouth blood in a bowl drinking the blood they were drinking the blood they would drink the blood her blood
run run run run run run run
run
“SECRET SOCIETY” EMBROILED IN MISSING STUDENT CASE
By Olivia Farquhar and Mus Khan
Why were nine of our University’s wealthiest students running through town, dressed for a fox hunt, on the night Emma Curran disappeared? And why do all of them claim to have had no idea she’d been in a room with them that very night?
There has been rising anger in the student body at the lack of progress in Emma Curran’s case. We reported on Jasper Balfour’s questioning—and subsequent release—by police, in the days after she disappeared. New information has since come to light that Balfour was part of a wider group: a clandestine society for the wealthiest and most powerful male students, whose existence has been concealed by the University. They, it seems, coaxed Ms. Curran to a private party that night. This was revealed in a brave statement to the press last month by party witness Julia Colefax-Lee.
But the University administration has chosen not to answer these claims. Instead, they heaped praise on “The Turnbull Society,” as we now know them to be called, in a press conference at the Senate House.
(Image above, L–R: Piers Popwell, Richard Wellesley-Jones, Francis Carr, Eddie Spencer, Philip Cranbottom, Guy Cavendish, Atticus Tremaine, Rory Clarke, Jasper Balfour)
Standing by their side, the University chancellor came out with strong support for the boys: “I deplore the cruel disruption to their studies, the harm to their reputations from these baseless, discriminatory rumors. What happened to Emma Curranwas a tragedy, as the young men next to me have expressed. Evidence suggests she must have met an unknown assailant while walking home alone. Sadly, inebriation was a factor. It is unfortunate but true that criminals target those that make themselves vulnerable. We urge all female students to take sensible precautions: perhaps stay home rather than travel after dark; limit your alcohol consumption; and refrain from wearing headphones, which offer such an invitation to predators.”
The press conference encountered a bombshell: Student Venetia Kent interrupted proceedings to harangue the young men, revealing photographs of Emma Curran from the night of her disappearance (pictured, inset). Many show Emma in conversation with Jasper Balfour, Piers Popwell, and others—despite the young men claiming they had not seen her that night.
“We were training for a charity race,” said Popwell, explaining the evening’s activities, in which the group ran from pub to pub in hunting gear. “The girls were there to support. If Emma was around, nobody told us. I don’t recognize those photos. They’ve clearly been doctored.”
Jasper Balfour declined to answer questions. His family later released a statement, repeating that Balfour had “little to no relationship with Emma Curran,” and was “entirely uninvolved with her disappearance.”
And in the absence of new leads—or perhaps, of police and University energy to pursue them—the case appears to be slowing to a halt. It is months since Emma Curran’s disappearance. And we are no closer to knowing what really happened to her that night.
The horn blew jaunty blasts through the night air.
“Fox! It’s the fox!”
She hazarded a look behind her, and choked.
