Chapter 115

KATHERINE.

I immediately scrolled to Chelsea’s page on the website and my brows snapped together at what I saw as her cause of death. ‘Death by dehydration.’ That was… I didn't want to say impossible because it was, but I absolutely did ‘not’ believe that was how she died. I went to the pages of the other students that had gone missing with her and they all had the same cause of death. Also, their deaths had been ruled as accidental, and anger bubbled up within me when I saw that. “What the hell?!” I burst out before sliding my gaze to Theo to find him watching me and I moved over to show him my phone’s screen. “They’ve released the cause of death of the missing students.”

“I know. Dehydration.”

“You know that’s bullshit, right?” I said, moving my phone away from his face as I remembered Isabella Grantham whose cause of death was said to be drowning while her spirit haunted the school’s old clinic. Theo grunted in response before I realized that we could just ask Isabella what happened to her to find out who the killer was. The dark magic book that Theo was currently going through had spells to talk to the dead, so I asked, “Can we talk to dead students? The ones that went missing.”

He heaved a sigh and set the book in his hand on the table. “I’ve tried, but I can’t reach out to them,” he muttered, drawing his brows together. “There’s just… a void there. It seems like they don’t have a ghost.”

I frowned at the description, wondering how that was possible. “I saw Isabella’s ghost.”

His brows shot up. “Grantham?” he asked and I nodded. “Are you sure? When? Where?”

“Yes, I’m sure. It was in the old clinic during CMES training. She was under a bed,” I replied before Theo blinked at me, processing the information I just gave him. “Her body was found at the beach. They said she drowned.”

“I know.” He looked like he couldn’t quite understand something now and I clasped my hands behind me as I lowered my face to his eye level.

“What’s that look for? What’s going through your mind?”

He gave me a thoughtful look at that before getting to his feet. “Wait here.”

“Where are you going?” I asked, standing upright once more as he grabbed his jacket from the table and began to put it on, and he didn’t respond. My brows tugged together. “The old clinic?” No response from him again, so I assumed that was where he was going and that he was going to try to talk to Isabella’s ghost, and I also grabbed my jacket. “I’m coming with you.”

He finally responded. “No.”

“Oh, come on. It’s just tame and violent spirits. I can handle those,” I said but he didn’t relent, shaking his head sideways, and I frowned. “You can’t go by yourself, Theo. You need someone to watch your back.” He snorted, the corner of his mouth quirking up, and when he lifted his gaze from his backpack, he raised a brow at me. I rolled my eyes. “Okay, you don’t need someone to watch your back, but I’m not letting you go alone.”

He frowned at that and I folded my arms across my chest, pinning him with my gaze till he let out a harsh breath. “Fine. But you have to stay close to me. If you don’t stay close, I swear I’ll–”

“Spank me?” The words were out of my mouth before I fully processed them and Theo’s brows lifted while my cheeks heated. “Uh, in a non-sexual way, of course.” What the hell?! That was even worse!

Theo’s face flushed while mine grew hotter and I repeatedly cleared my throat as if something was stuck there. Perhaps it was my dignity. “Not another word from you,” he said and I supported that. I mimed zipping my lips shut before he slung his backpack on his shoulder and I followed him out of the clubhouse. We took one of the UTVs and throughout the ride, neither of us said a word, but by the time we reached the old clinic, it felt so unnatural to be walking beside him and not speaking. He was right there, but he might as well be a million miles away.

“So…” I started after we walked into the clinic’s lobby and I turned on my flashlight. “How was the mini vacation?”

“Sorry?”

“Going home. Did you have fun?” I asked and he muttered an ‘oh’ before shrugging.

“I guess.”

“You guess?” I replied, giving him a small smile, and he shrugged again while we made our way over to the stairwell. Eerie noises came from all around us as we walked, but strangely, I didn’t feel scared because Theo was with me and I usually felt scared in haunted buildings even though I had a partner.

“Our families want to transfer us to Dumein,” he revealed and I immediately came to a stop. I frowned before his words replayed in my head, and my heart jumped.

“Oh!” I blurted out and he shushed me, not wanting our presence to be made known to the several ghosts here since we hadn’t seen any, but I didn’t even react. When the dean had said that the CMES club would be disbanded, I didn’t care much since the school would be handling the ghosts, I’d already found my mate, and I could hang out with Theo at the library, but if their families moved them to Dumein, my friends would be miles away. I’d be alone here… and I won’t see Theo again.

“You’re leaving?” I asked just as he said, “Keep moving Katherine,” reminding me that I’d stopped, and I resumed walking up the stairs before he answered my question.

“We’re fighting it, but they seem pretty set on it–”

“So you’re leaving?” I repeated, my heart beating fast in my chest, and he paused to face me. He blinked at me, not saying anything for several moments, and when he finally spoke, my heart calmed.

“I’m not leaving.” He didn’t look like he was saying that to get me to stop asking; he looked like he meant it, so I nodded and we resumed walking again. The moment we stepped into the hallway of the floor I’d seen Isabella, a ghost stepped out of one of the rooms and Theo immediately pushed me back into the stairwell, absent-mindedly pressing me up against the wall, and my heart rate picked up for an entirely different reason while he peeked into the hallway. Moments later, when I felt like I was about to combust, he spoke, “Okay, she’s gone.” Then he glanced down at me, his face only inches from mine, and I feared that my heart would actually stop. “...Why’d you kiss me that day?”

The question came out of nowhere and my eyes widened as I spluttered for a moment, before I finally got out, “Why’d you kiss me back?”

He regarded me silently for a moment before he heaved a sigh and I swallowed when his breath fanned the side of my face. “It’s bad manners to answer a question with a question.”

“Is that so?”

He tsked and the corner of his mouth twitched. Then he seemed to steel himself as he moved away from me and he glanced into the hallway. By the time he returned his attention to me, that familiar, inscrutable expression was firmly in place. “I don’t have a reason,” he answered. “That night was… It was a mistake. Nerves from the events of the night. That’s all it was,” he added and my shoulders sagged.

‘Oh…’ If he’d said this that night, I would have agreed because I’d felt it would be best to forget it ever happened and move on, but I didn’t feel that way now. I’d wanted to kiss him and for him to kiss me back… The corner of my mouth twitched at the thought. I couldn’t bring myself to call it a mistake even though it would be best to agree with him in this situation, so I just slipped into the hallway and began to make my way over to the room I’d seen Isabella in. “She was scared.”

“Grantham?” Theo asked behind me and I couldn’t bring myself to glance over my shoulder because I was afraid he’d say something stupid.

“Yes. She was ‘hiding’ under the bed.”

He didn’t say anything after that and a little while later, I led him into the room where I'd seen her. Then I lowered myself to my knees to look under the bed, and there she was… hiding with that same terrified expression on her face, and behind me, Theo muttered, “Oh my God.”

At that, I glanced at him, narrowing my eyes because disbelief had been evident in his voice. “You didn't believe me?” I asked.

“I believed you were mistaken,” he replied and I sneered at him before returning my attention to her just as she clasped her hands over her mouth, her eyes widening even more. It was like she heard or saw something we couldn't. “Is she… Are these the moments before she died?”

“I think so,” Theo replied, his brows furrowed, and as he opened his mouth to speak to her, a voice came from behind us, starling me.

“Now. What are you two doing here?”

I glanced over my shoulder to see Professor Faringray standing in the doorway, her arms folded across her shoulders while she gave us a stern look. “Oh, Professor Faringray.” I flashed her a nervous smile. “Hi.”

“You didn't answer my question,” she stated before her gaze flicked over to Theo.

“We were just messing around. We miss ghost hunting.”

“Haunted buildings are off limits.”

“Sorry, Prof.,” Theo said and her gaze bounced between us.

“Leave. Now.” With that, she walked out and a moment later, several people walked past the room, following her.

“What are they doing here?” I asked after the last person walked past and Theo bent his head to look under the bed once more.

“Getting a feel of it. They’re going through– She’s gone.”

“Huh?”

“Grantham’s gone,” he said before I also looked under the bed to see it was empty.

“Ah… Do you think she’ll be coming soon?”

Theo heaved a sigh as he straightened himself. “Probably in a couple of minutes, but–”

“Now, Theodore!” came Professor Faringray’s voice from the hall and he set his mouth in a hard line before gesturing for me to get to my feet as he did so. After that, we headed out of the room, and on our way out of the building, I saw a couple of people on the first floor too. They had red, yellow, and green flags with them and some of them were sticking yellow flags to doors while some people were outside the building, waiting in cars.

“You didn’t tell Professor Faringray why we came here,” I said to Theo after we got into the UTV and he shrugged. I was grateful that he didn’t because I didn’t trust the school, and I wanted to know if he felt the same way.

“I don’t tell a lot of people a lot of things.”

“But this is important.”

“My point still stands,” he replied and the corner of my mouth turned up because his behavior told me he ‘definitely’ felt the same way.

“You don’t trust the school too.”

“I don’t trust most people.”

“Why’d you keep telling me they were trying to find the missing students then?” I asked, ignoring his response, and he drew his brows together as he started the UTV.

“I didn’t say that.”

“You said they were handling it.”

“That doesn’t mean ‘trying to find’.”

I shot him a look, slightly annoyed by how he was avoiding my questions. “You’re really annoying, you know that?”

“That’s the pot calling the kettle black,” he replied, drawing a smile from me before I shook my head at him. As he reversed, my gaze slid back to the people waiting in the cars.

“What are they doing?”

“Marking the building. They’re going to start getting rid of the ghosts in Blackwood soon,” he said and my eyes widened because ‘they could do that?’. I didn’t know what I was expecting when the dean said they were going to take care of the presence in the haunted buildings, but it definitely wasn’t this.

“When are you coming back?” I asked since we needed to talk to Isabella before ‘that’ happened.

“This night. Wanna join me?”

I smiled at the fact that he’d included me. “Definitely.”