Page 72 of The Cruelty of Thorns

“There was another murder last night. The girl was found behind Melrose’s. Raped and throat ravaged, a rose on her chest.”

Renee held up her phone, where the story was pulled up on a local news site. The fact that it happened behind Melrose’s sent goosebumps over my flesh. Julianus and I had passed right by there last night on our way back to the campus. Was the girl already dead then, I wondered.

The story didn’t give many details, other than what Carly had already provided. No name or any other identifying information, so there was no way of knowing if the victim was a student, though that seemed likely. Most of the people who frequented the bars on this end of town were from the college.

“Looks like Toby was right,” Kristin said.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“It’s a serial killer.” She turned to me and grabbed my hand. “You can’t go out at night.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Someone is out there killing women. You can’t go wandering around town at night.”

“I wasn’t wandering around town,” I insisted. “I told you, I was with someone.”

Carly and Renee were following our exchange with interest. “What’s going on?” Renee asked.

“Myra went out to dinner last night with some mysterious new man.”

Oh my god, now I’d never hear the end of this. “He isn’t mysterious.”

“He is to me,” Kristin replied.

“Well, contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to know everything,” I snapped, getting up and slinging my backpack over my shoulder. “I’ve got to get to class.”

“Myra, wait,” Kristin called after me. “I’m sorry.”

I kept going, shutting out her pleas as I slammed through the exit. The girl was impossible. She wouldn’t stop until she knew everything about everyone, like she had some self-appointed entitlement to being the sole source of news at the school.

I was still angry when I got to my first class, barely comprehending anything the professor said, and in fact, didn’t really calm down until I had blown through three classes and was sitting in the library trying to make sense of my humanities assignment. It was lunch time, and under normal circumstances I’d be in the cafeteria eating, but I didn’t want to chance running into my roommate again. I should have known better than to mention anything about Julianus to her.

I don’t know why I was so adverse to talking about him. He was a secret I wanted to keep to myself, though I didn’t know why. It’s not like I was ashamed or embarrassed by him. I just wanted something that was mine. Something no one else could take away.

That’s how my relationship with Poe had started out. We met in secret, not that anyone would have cared. We were both considered freaks in school; the weird goth kids. But the secrecy lent an edge of excitement to our relationship. Like we had something no one else had. Even when I started bringing him home, my father gave us our privacy, not objecting when we’d sit for long hours in the basement listening to music and reading books or discussing philosophy. My father told me he was just glad I had found a friend. He was the only one who knew how hard Poe’s death was for me.

Not that Julianus was Poe, but I felt a certain familiar possessiveness about him. The way we’d first met, that soul-shattering connection between our eyes at the bar, the way I could always feel when he was near–there was something special about it. Something that went beyond explanation. It was as if we were destined for each other. How could I explain that to anyone else, especially someone like Kristin, who wanted to turn everything into her next viral Instagram post? Just like the kids in my old school, she would find a way to cheapen it for her own purposes.

I could be making more of this thing with Julianus than it deserved. While he seemed to be as enamored with me as I was him, it could just be a phase with him. Every time I looked at him, I had to ask myself why a man like that would be interested in someone like me. But there was something about him–was it simply loneliness? I’d never seen him with anyone else. Was it because he was so far from his home? He’d said there was nothing left for him there anymore, but what did that mean? Had he lost someone? Was he running away from his past?

I didn’t know the answers to any of this, but I did know he seemed to be as obsessive about his privacy as I was, and I could respect that. Whatever this thing was that we had, I knew instinctively that he didn’t want it broadcast. It was nobody’s business but ours.

He occupied my mind for the rest of the afternoon, and when my last class was over for the day, I slipped back up to my room and dropped off my backpack before Kristin returned, then found a bench outside in the quad where I could wait for him away from the prying eyes of my roommate.

I didn’t know what I was going to do about Kristin. Fighting with her was exhausting, but she seemed determined to stick her nose in my business, and I just couldn’t tolerate that. I thought we’d come to an understanding this morning, but I guess Kristin didn’t see it that way. If she ever focused her powers of deduction on something positive, she’d make a good detective or a reporter. I just didn’t want to be the subject of her scrutiny.

Because the days were getting shorter, it was full-on nightfall by five o’clock, which meant I was sitting out alone in the dark. I should have been worried, or at least more cautious, but I felt safe with all the extra security patrols on campus. Plus there were still students making their way around the quad, either going to dinner or to friends’ rooms to study or socialize. I watched them move about, recognizing some from my classes, though thankfully no one I actually knew. The last thing I needed was to answer more questions about my presence, especially since whatever I would say would get back to Kristin, thus giving her more fodder for her crusade to dig up every last scrap of information about my life.

I was lost in my own thoughts when I felt the hairs on my arms stand up and a deep voice caressed my ear.

“What are you doing out here like this?”

I breathed in his musky scent and smiled to myself. “Waiting for you,” I murmured.

He pressed a kiss to the top of my head and reached down to take my hand, pulling me to my feet. “It’s dangerous out here.”

“I know. There was another murder last night.”

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