Page 17 of Bloody Valentine

Our dear St. Valentine’s legacy will continue through his bloodline. His dearest of friends have all had hands in this school. We only hope it doesn’t crumble like the bones beneath it.

St. Valentine University is said to be one of the country’s most prestigious and sought-after universities!

St. Valentine has perished. He had one request in his will, later to be scrawled on his tombstone at the mausoleum built to house the fourteen founders.

“Sepulcrum meum ubi vita mea coepit. Sanguis meus est sanguis tuus. Ego sum Divinus.”

“Bury me where my life began. My blood is your blood. I am Divine.”

An offhand site led me to a personal blog of some podcaster where I listened to the news report.

“Every year since that old dead dude built the school, there have been multiple missing females. They are all about the same age range, and they all recently arrived at the school. Get this! They all go missing on the same day. Yep, you guessed it—Valentine’s Day. I may not be a cop, but that, to me, reads suspicious. Maybe if St. Valentine’s University didn’t have so much money pulling in every brick of the fucking castle that it is, there would be some more time put into finding out where all these girls magically disappeared to. If you ask me, I think it’s a cult…”

My eyes widened as I read the words. ‘A cult…’

I knew of the darkness that seemed to surround this place. It was hard not to see, but was it a cult? That seemed a bit much. I needed to do some more research into this. One thing I now knew for sure was that my ancestor was definitely murdered right here…so I guess those rumors were more than just ghost stories.

Did they build this school on the bones of their dead wives?

Something wasn’t adding up. I searched for my last name.

I saw a line of people from all walks of life. My lineage was filled with bastards galore because none of my ancestors could keep it in their damn pants. I couldn’t tell how far apart our history was, but that douche-hole Maddox and I were somehow distantly related.

Isn’t he my fourth cousin, according to this information?

That made what he did to me even more fucked up. Who humiliates their own distant relative?

Run child…The hunt approaches.

I jumped in my seat, knocking off the papers of notes I had written since my investigation had begun.

“Dammit! Listen, if you really are my dead great, great, great, great grandmother, can you please stop scaring me? I don’t respond to riddles! Just be more direct, for fuck’s sake!”

The window across from me rattled, and the blinds flew up. I screamed as the moonlight poured in from outside.

The wind stopped, and the air became silent. Apparently, my ancestor was pissed and now throwing a tantrum. I squinted my eyes and saw figures outside the window. They were cloaked in black hoodies, bags on their shoulders, and conversing on the creepy bridge that led to the dorms.

I hid under the window, peering through from the safety at the bottom. I couldn’t see shit about them, but there was a menacing air to the way they stood.

Those stupid hoodies blocked their faces, and I tried to see if they would face me, allowing themselves to be seen in the streetlamp above them.

The college was surrounded by them. It was all a creepy gothic castle. St. Valentine’s was beautiful but definitely belonged in a horror film.

I lifted the window slightly and craned my neck to hear the rushed words from outside.

“Why are you late? You always bitch at me about being punctual, but then you stroll up thirty minutes after our set time?”

The other figure smacked the talking one upside the head and sighed. “I was—you know what? Shut the fuck up. I am here now.”

A woman from the dorms across the way walked outside. I recognized her from the art class. She was not my biggest fan and glared at me for existing. Her name was Charli. The two figures scrambled away from the light and into the shadows.

Well, if that isn’t sketchy as fuck.

I got the absolute worst feeling, sinking deep into my gut.

The hunt begins…

I ignored my ghost ancestor and instead made my way to the library doors, being careful to sneak out and stay out of sight.

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