And All My Devotion Turns Violent

Chapter Five

A search has begun for a nineteen-year-old Saint Julian University student named Regan Norris. She was reported missing at 9:00 AM on Thursday morning and as it stands, no one has seen her since Tuesday night, where she was seen with friends on a night out before going home alone. Norris is a 5'7" Hispanic female with long black hair, a piercing on right nostril. She was last seen wearing black jeans and a red shirt with white writing on it and a charm bracelet on her right wrist. Any information about her disappearance should be reported to Hennepin County Police ASAP.

I clicked off my phone, closing the article as my head pounded... It'd been weird that she'd gone out on Tuesday night to begin with, normally she stayed home, but she'd said she had a Tinder date or something... I wasn't paying much attention because I honestly hadn't cared, I'd just been happy to have the dorm to myself to watch some shows and do homework.

I was halfway through an episode of Love Island before I'd even realized how late it was... and it wasn't like I hadn't checked in with her, I'd sent texts over the past few days, but... Nothing. Nothing.

Her friends had come by the dorm asking after her, and that had gotten rid of me hoping she was just crashing over somewhere... It really shouldn't bother me, we weren't close... But the proximity.

The fact that she was missing now, after I'd reported her to the administration for how she'd been acting... It made me feel like maybe it was my fault... I don't know, maybe she heard that she was being put under some kind of review and drowned herself in the river or something... it could happen.

"Can't believe she's missing... I'm sorry, Habibi." Callie mumbled, fiddling with the strings of my hoodie as she pulled me a little closer. I swallowed heavily, trying to ignore how intoxicating her scent really was... I needed to be clear headed right now, because I don't feel clear headed.

I feel like maybe I did something I don't even remember... Who else would do it? What could've happened to her? There can't be another killer on campus... Maybe she just got kidnapped in uptown, that happens too from what I've read.

"Yeah, it's crazy." I took a deep breath, closing my eyes as I worked through that night in my head... It couldn't have been me, I was home in bed when she texted me, I never even left the dorm that night, so how could it possibly be me, right? But still... "She said she was going out to get a drink with some friends and she just... Never came back. She even texted me when she left the bar that she was on her way home, and then just... Nothing." I said, and Beth cleared her throat on my other side, lowering her book as she tucked her pencil behind her ear, giving us both a curious look.

"That's creepy though." I raised an eyebrow... Was it creepy that she was missing? Of course, it had me looking over my shoulder at all times, but was that why Bethany thought so? Maybe there was something that I was missing. She shrugged, wrapping her arms around her knees as she did. "I mean... Two murders in a little over a month?" She asked, and Callie let out a noise of discontent lifting her head to give Bethany an annoyed look.

That's what they'd become - they annoyed each other, but the hostility had all but died down... Good.

"We don't know that she's been murdered." She reasoned, which earned her a look right back as Bethany drummed her hands on her legs, rocking back and forth with a grimace.

She was just as stressed as anyone else, I could tell... She just showed it in a weird way. She'd always had an interest in true crime, it must've been interesting to be living through a true crime case.

"Well, they also haven't said that she hasn't been." Bethany responded, which was fair, but it made me grimace... I don't want her to be dead, she was a creep and she maybe had a crush on me, but she was mostly harmless. Honestly, we probably could've talked out the shit that she was doing without me going to administration, I'd just been fed up...