Chapter 40
FORTY
I fucking hate the bastard. My mind’s still reeling, even hours later. Avalon’s asleep, her soft snores the only thing I can hear over the rapid beating of my heart. It all hurts so fucking much, and I don’t know how to handle all of the emotions that are swirling inside of me.
It’s pain, it’s anger, and most of all, it’s disappointment. I’m disappointed in myself for believing the sweet lies that he told me, all the promises that now sound so unreachable.
I put my hands over my face, trembling and trying my best not to cry my soul out. I don’t want to wake Avalon up, but I need an outlet. I can’t continue holding all of this inside of me; it’s getting too difficult to breathe properly.
I suck in a sharp intake of breath, trying to calm myself down. My cheeks are damp, and even the pillow has some wetness to it that wasn’t there before. I slowly sit up, flip the pillow over, and as I’m about to lay back down, my phone starts ringing.
I quickly take the call so Avalon doesn’t wake up. It’s just after midnight, and I’m not sure why Grace’s calling me. The phone is to my ear, and I keep my voice as low as possible.
“Hello?”
“You’re not asleep, good,” Grace sighs. “Put your shoes on and come outside.”
“Outside, where?” I whisper.
“Outside your dorm.”
“It’s late,” I whisper-yell. “What do you want?”
“Just come outside before you wake Avalon up.”
Grace doesn’t wait for my response and hangs up as soon as she finishes her sentence. With a sigh, I silently push my feet off the bed, slide into my home slippers, and throw on my robe. I tie it around my waist, tiptoe towards the door, and silently exit the dorm.
Grace is leaning against the wall, in her pitch-black, silk pajamas. Her hair is messy, but what’s in her hands makes me pause. The door closes softly behind me, and I step fully into the hallway, feeling slight chills running down my body.
“So? What is it?”
Grace grins widely, dangling the keys in front of my face. It’s one massive chain with at least fifty keys on it. My eyes flick up from the chain to her face, lifting a curious brow.
“What’s that?”
“Master keys to all the dorms,” she explains, her voice filled with excitement. “Astrid hasn’t checked into the dorms tonight. So, I’m guessing it’s empty.”
“Do I want to know how you even got these?” I ask, taking it from her hand and inspecting it thoroughly. “And even if she’s not in her dorm, she has a roommate. We’ll get caught.”
“Nope,” she beams. “She requested a single dorm after coming back. I’m guessing Mrs. Sloane wants all the privacy now.”
A frown etches on my face.
It’s possible to request a single-bed dorm, but no one does it willingly.
It’s a very small room, with barely the bed, dresser, and a single desk fitting inside.
It’s the only kind of dorm that doesn’t have a bathroom attached to it, so it’s beyond my understanding why anyone would demote from a private bathroom to one that anyone could use.
“Where is it?”
Grace motions with her head down the hall, and I silently start following behind her. The hallways are poorly lit, with only a couple of lamps on the walls. All other lights go out past ten in the evening, but something’s still gleaning at me.
The security cameras.
“What if we’re caught?”
Grace scoffs. “Don’t forget, this was all your idea. I just helped you bring it to reality.”
“Uh-huh,” I roll my eyes. “Doesn’t matter, I can’t be worried about the consequences.”
Grace waves off my worries with a dismissal of her hand. “You’re worrying too much.”
She stops in front of a door, then finds the key that matches.
Luckily, it’s very organized, and each key has a dorm room number written on it.
Astrid’s dorm is number 11, and since it’s also categorized in order, Grace finds the key with ease.
She glances around, making sure no one is around, unlocks the door, and steps inside.
I follow suit, closing the door behind me, and patting the wall until I feel a switch under my fingers. The lights turn on, and for a moment, I’m absolutely freaked out.
“This is fucking creepy,” Grace says, voice laced with disbelief.
The entirety of this room is a copy of mine. From the sheets, duvet, and the kind of pillow I’m using, to the curtains, same photo frames, and even the perfume collection on the small dresser.
“Fucking hell,” I mutter, taking a step further into the room. The first thing I start looking for is hidden cameras, just in case. If Astrid has anything incriminating in the dorm, she’ll want to know if someone’s snooping around.
There’s a mask on the dresser, resembling a doll’s face. It’s plastic, with detailed drawings all around. If it weren’t so creepy, it’d be a cute Halloween costume.
“Where do we start?” Grace asks.
“You start with her drawers, but be careful to return everything just as you found it.”
Grace nods. “Let’s hurry up. We don’t know when she might return.”
With a sigh, I start rummaging through the bags that are hanging on the wall.
Aside from some receipts, notes from class, and a little bit of makeup, there’s nothing useful.
She has a lot of fucking bags, and I’m just thankful not everyone is the same as my own, because that would’ve been too fucking creepy.
I sit on the floor, pushing the duvet up. It’s covering the bottom part of the bed, and somehow, I have a hunch there could potentially be something worth finding underneath.
My hand searches for anything underneath, and when I stretch further, I finally reach something. Slowly, I pull it out, only to be met with a small wooden box. Grace stops searching when she spots the box in my hands and sits on the floor next to me.
“Open it,” she urges, impatiently tapping her fingers against her thigh.
I take the lid off, tossing it aside, and start pulling the contents of the box out. It’s filled with letters, and a photo album. Grace reaches for the letters, and I start opening the album, flipping through the images.
The first couple of pages are with images of Astrid and Soren, dating from when they were kids, as early as five years old, up until a year ago. My heart aches at the sight of Soren, but I swallow a thick knot that forms in my throat and flip to the next page.
My heart sinks to my feet when I see all the pictures of Sawyer and Astrid.
Some are very private, which I immediately skip.
No one wants to see their brother in such a state.
Then, there are photos from their dates, and in each one, they seem genuinely happy.
They’re smiling, hugging, and kissing. From the outsider's perspective, they look like a picture-perfect couple.
I slam the photo album shut, setting it aside. “Anything on your end?”
“These are from Sawyer if you want to read,” Grace says, skimming through the contents of the letters.
“No, thanks,” I mutter.
“Alright then, it’s nothing important, really. Just him proclaiming his undying love for her,” she says with an exasperated, overly dramatic sigh. With a chuckle, I dig through the box a little more, spotting an envelope that’s different from the ones that have the letters.
With a frown, I pull the contents out, and it’s a bunch of sticky notes.
“What’s that?”
“I don’t know,” I roll my eyes. “Let me read, will you?”
She scoffs. “Hurry the fuck up, then.”
“Oh.”
All of the sticky notes are brief, with a date and time. There’s nothing else written on them, and even when I flip them over, nothing. Grace takes the one at the bottom of the pile, and it’s the only different one.
“Look,” she points toward the small message written in cursive letters.
“Meet me in the room,” I read out loud. “What room?”
“Fuck if I know,” she shrugs. “But the handwriting matches the rest. Since this one was at the bottom, we can assume it was the first note Astrid received. But from whom?”
“Well, she’s a part of the Sinners and Saints crew,” I turn to look at Grace. “It could be from one of them?”
“And the first note was for her to know where to meet them,” Grace concludes. “But what room?”
“Wait,” I frown. “At the beginning of the school year, when I was called into Colton’s office to discuss all of that cheating scandal, he told me the school tried taking down the site multiple times, but it always popped back up. And that the IP address always traced back to the campus.”
Grace tilts her head to the side, deep in thought. “That means that somewhere on campus, there’s a room specifically for Sinners and Saints. It could be an unused dorm, one of the old labs in the basement that no one’s visiting, or even a part of the church behind the academy.”
I nod. “They have a place where they’re gathering, and it’s here. It’s somewhere no one will ever look, and they either keep everything in that room, or they’re using it as some sort of headquarters.”
“Oh, I’m getting the chills from excitement,” Grace squeals. “Okay, okay, so how do we find this room?”
“I don’t know,” I groan. “The latest note Astrid got was for tonight, so that means she’s already there.”
“Is there a pattern?”
Grace takes half of the notes, and I take the other half. They’re all at random times, random dates, and there’s nothing that could indicate a clear pattern. Sometimes, they would gather multiple times a week, then there would be a break, and they’d meet once a month.
“This is getting on my nerves,” I bite the inside of my cheek. “Hold on.”
Grace pauses, looking at me with a raised brow. “What?”
“If Astrid’s getting these, then we can assume all the other members are getting them, too.”
“Yes,” Grace drawls out. “We’ve been over that. What’s the point?”
“The point is that if they’re all gathering, Astrid knows who they are. It’s possible she even knows who’s behind the site as a whole.”
Grace’s eyes widen as realization dawns on her. “My God! I always thought it was one person, then we figured it was multiple, but I thought at best it would be three or four. We could be dealing with an entire team of nosy cunts.”
I laugh. “Yeah, so how do we get the information out of Astrid?”
“You can always beat her up again,” she offers with a casual shrug.
“I highly doubt it. I got lucky because I was angry, and adrenaline was pumping in my veins. I don’t think I’d be able to get her down again without the shock factor, and I assure you, she’s definitely being careful now.”
“We’ll figure it out,” Grace says, determined. “I want to know who’s so fucking nosy, and who’s behind it all.”
“We just have to figure out how.”
My phone rings, and Grace’s buzzes at the same time. We exchange a look of disbelief, then glance down at the devices. A small frown is on my face when I unlock it and open the message.
“I’m always one step ahead, bitches. Catch me if you can.”
And the next thing that comes through is the attached image of Grace and me, taken not even a minute ago, inside of Astrid’s room.
Chills run down my body, and I take a deep breath. Grace and I silently stare at each other, then slowly turn around. On the desk behind us is a photo frame with the image of Astrid, Soren, Nina, and their parents. And one of the decorative gems flicker.
“Fucking hell,” Grace sighs. “I guess we got caught.”
“Let’s get the hell out of here.”
“Wait,” Grace pauses, taking her phone out, and when I glance over to see what she’s looking at, my entire face pales a couple of shades.
No one’s supposed to have those images, and now, they’re all over Sinners and Saints.