Ren woke with a start. He had dreamed of skeletons coming to life from the pages of the manuscript, a bony hand reaching out for him and scratching at his chest.

He groaned as he reached over to check his phone, it was already nearly ten thirty. There was a text from Aurora saying she would meet him at lunch in the quad after morning lectures. She had also sent links to various news reports about a death at the Institute but no further details had been released.

Ren mentally ran though his schedule as he got dressed and carefully placed the manuscript back into the folder and shouldered his backpack. He didn’t personally have any lectures with Jabari on Tuesdays but he knew the Professor would be taking a postgrad class on Latin Paleography at eleven.

Ren sped along Millman Street. It was still blisteringly hot today despite only being April. Even so, there were goose bumps forming on the back of his neck, it felt like someone was following him. Every time Ren turned around, however, it was just the usual crowds, odd pockets of students and a couple of joggers.

The campus seemed back to normal today as Ren hurried through the back entrance, a small engraved archway with medieval grotesques embedded in the stone, their tongues lolling out at him. He checked his watch before quickening his pace further and entering one of the history blocks.

“Cancelled? I woke up for nothing!”

Ren drew to a halt in the corridor as he saw two girls up ahead gesturing at a notice on the lecture theatre door.

“Hey,” Ren called out, “is this Latin Paleography with Professor Ayman?”

“It was meant to be,” the red headed girl shrugged, “but this note says he’s off sick and will put the notes up on Papiro instead.”

‘Papiro’, the Italian for ‘papyrus’ was the Institute’s online learning platform where lecturers could upload important information and students could submit essays.

The girls carried on talking as they walked away, leaving Ren to frown at the note. In the two years Ren had been at the Institute, Jabari had never missed a class or taken a sick day. A feeling of dread that something might have happened to the professor began to trickle down Ren’s spine. He made up his mind to go straight to Jabari’s office to see if he could find out more. He decided to take a shortcut through the lecture hall, knowing that the door on the far side would lead him out across from the building he wanted.

The lecture hall was a large one and the lights flickered dimly on as Ren’s movement triggered their sensors. He weaved his way up the stacked auditorium to the large metal door and pushed against it but it wouldn’t seem to budge.

“Well, shit,” Ren swore, realizing it must have been locked from the outside today. Ren’s phone buzzed in his pocket and he sighed, drawing it out as the lights flicked back off, evidently taking his standing still as the lecture hall having returned to empty.

He had a text from Aurora filled with bored emojis. Ren smiled, knowing she was in a Greek history class right now, which had the reputation of being somewhat dry. Ren slid down against the door to crouch on the floor to text Aurora back.

-Stop complaining, you don’t even have an exam for that class, you can choose your essay topic right?

Suddenly, the lights overhead buzzed back into life, causing Ren to flick his eyes up. He could hear movement from the front of the lecture hall.

“It’s cancelled,” he called out, assuming more students had showed up. “Professor Ayman’s sick.”

There was no reply, so Ren stretched up to peer over the back row of seats. He frowned as he saw a dark, solitary figure weaving between the seats before disappearing again from view.

“Hey, who’s there?” Ren asked, standing up straight now and tucking his phone back in his pocket. He could feel it buzz with a reply from Aurora but he was too busy still scanning the hall for signs of the mysterious figure.

Moments later the lights went back out.

“What the fuck?” Ren muttered, starting to feel a creeping sensation down the back of his neck again. He waved up his hands to try to get them to switch back on, it took some jumping up and down but eventually they did. Ren looked back down only to let out a loud shout and stumble backwards.

The figure was standing only a few metres away from him now, further down the theatre steps. They had their hood up and were wearing a black mask across their face. Ren gasped as the figure suddenly lunged for him, sprinting up the steps between them. Ren swerved to one side, avoiding their grasp, he raced across the aisles towards the far wall. Ren could hear the thud of footsteps in hot pursuit.

He hurdled over the flap down seats, his palms slicing against their rough plastic. He was only a few rows from the bottom when a hand clasped around his throat and hurled him backwards.

Ren cried out in shock and pain as he crumpled against the chairs with a clatter. The figure was on him now and strong arms were twisting him round to yank his backpack away.

“Get off me!” Ren shouted desperately, pawing at the floor around him for purchase. His attacker grunted in annoyance as Ren jabbed his elbow backwards, connecting with ribs. Ren gasped as a large hand pushed his head roughly down, his lip splitting open against the metal bars fixing the chairs to the floor.

“Hey!” a voice shouted loudly across the theatre as Ren felt his heart swoop with relief, someone else had arrived. “What the hell are you doing?”

Suddenly the hand was gone and Ren wrenched round, looking about wildly. His attacker was sprinting away, Ren’s backpack across his shoulder.

“Look out!” Ren cried in warning to the other person who had found them. His attacker, however, acrobatically leapfrogged over the last chairs and raced through the auditorium doors.

“Ren?”

Ren frowned, clambering awkwardly to his feet and hissing in pain.

“Ren is that you? Do you remember me?”

Ren felt an arm loop around his waist supporting him.

“Oskar?” Ren said, realizing it was the handsome, blonde German boy he had given directions to last week.

“Jesus you’re bleeding,” Oskar reached forward to dab at Ren’s lip with his sleeve. “Who was that?”

“I don’t know,” Ren sniffed, he realised with horror that he felt dangerously close to tears.

“Hey – hey it’s okay, look at me,” Oskar steadied him and flipped down two of the seats for them to sit. “I’m going to call an ambulance okay?”

“Yeah,” Ren nodded gratefully, “thanks.”

Oskar kept his arm around Ren even though they were sitting down now and Ren felt himself lean into the other boy’s warmth.

“Do you have any idea why that person attacked you?” Oskar asked.

“I think he wanted my bag,” Ren replied, swallowing thickly, his mouth felt horribly dry and he could really do with the bottle of water that had been in his rucksack right about now.

“Ach du scheiße - was your laptop in there?”

“No,” Ren sat up slightly and rubbed at his forehead, he could already feel a bruise forming. Before he could explain further, the door was swung open by a security guard followed by two paramedics.

Oskar had insisted on coming with Ren in the ambulance, smiling supportively as the paramedics asked questions and did their best to patch Ren up. The other boy even stayed as Ren sat cross legged on a hospital bed, holding an ice pack to his busted lip. Oskar was wearing pale denim jeans with rips at the knees and a faded lilac tee, his skin was pale and smooth looking like Grecian marble.

“Hey do you want a tea or something?” Oskar asked, rising to his feet and gesturing that he was going to go down the hall. “I noticed there’s a coffee shop in the reception.”

“Could you grab me any kind of soft drink?” Ren swallowed, “my card was in my bag but I’ll pay you back when Aurora gets here.”

“It’s on me,” Oskar smiled kindly as he pulled back the curtain.

Ren had a few moments of silence before the curtain was wrenched open again.

“Oh fuck not you,” Ren groaned as he looked up to see Gabriel and his partner Williams standing at the foot of the bed.

“Expecting someone else?” Gabriel asked, his face grim and hard as he eyed Ren’s lip.

“Seems a coincidence doesn’t it?” Williams smiled tightly. “You being in our station yesterday and then getting mugged this morning.”

“I’ve got shitty luck,” Ren shrugged, “probably from when I accidentally broke that curse tablet last semester.”

“People don’t get mugged in lecture halls,” Gabriel stated, folding his arms and fixing Ren with a stern look like he was schooling a wayward child. “What aren’t you telling us?”

“I,” Ren began before wincing at having reopened his lip.

“You okay?” Gabriel frowned, moving forwards and reaching out towards Ren as if he was going to touch him.

“Ren?” Oskar’s voice came from behind them as the other boy reappeared. He was carrying a bottle of Sprite. “What’s going on?”

“These are the police,” Ren replied miserably.

“Why are you here?” Gabriel asked suddenly, turning round to Oskar with a look of surprise.

“I’m the one who found Ren,” Oskar replied calmly. “It’s a pleasure to see you again Inspector Malzieu, Inspector Williams.”

“Wait you know them?” Ren frowned, all pain from his lip momentarily forgotten.

Gabriel looked back round at Ren like he was being a complete idiot. “This is Oskar Möller, the deceased’s grandson.”

“Professor Möller was the grandfather you were visiting in London?” Ren exclaimed in surprise as Oskar nodded.

“Yes, Walter Möller was my grandfather, although we hadn’t spoken in a while. I came especially to London to see him.”

“Well your friend here was the last person to see your grandfather alive,” Williams replied, gesturing to Ren.

“Oh?” Oskar’s eyes widened as he looked over at Ren.

“I-“ Ren stammered, “I’m so sorry for your loss, Oskar.”

“Thank you,” Oskar nodded, “my grandfather and I were not very close. He had a falling out with my father many years ago.

“So you also happen to be friends with the victim’s grandson?” Williams shook his head, sending a scathingly disbelieving look Ren’s way.

“Is that a problem?” Oskar enquired with a good natured smile before Ren could answer and explain that in actuality they barely knew each other. The other boy reached out to hand Ren the soda, his cold fingers brushing against Ren’s.

“Seems a bit coincidental,” Gabriel huffed, his eyes narrowing at where Oskar had now moved to help Ren balance both the ice pack and take a grateful gulp of his drink.

“Are you finished with Ren now?” Oskar asked. “Only the doctor says he can be discharged and I’ve already called my driver.”

“You have a driver?” Ren coughed, choking slightly on his drink.

“Why, don’t you?” Gabriel asked, schooling his face into an, innocent expression but simultaneously rolling his eyes.

“I’d be happy to take you home,” Oskar continued, ignoring the detective and instead addressing Ren.

“Yeah, I’m sure a lot of people would,” Gabriel interjected with a bored look, “but we aren’t done asking questions. In fact, Ren needs to come down to the station again and give a statement.”

“Surely you can do that here?” Oskar frowned, his face was almost elfin like and ethereal, as if he was made from ice. “Some uniformed officers already interviewed Ren earlier.”

“Renzo!” Aurora came barreling in through the plastic curtains, making everyone jump. “Cazzo di merda, they hurt you?” she screeched furiously, pushing the inspectors out of the way and immediately cradling Ren’s face in her hand, making him wince.

“Rory, it’s fine I promise, you know I bruise badly,” Ren mumbled as she squished his cheeks.

“Like a fucking peach,” Aurora tutted, jerking Ren’s chin about so she could better inspect the damage. “You said they took your rucksack?”

“Yeah ,” Ren swallowed, glancing over to the two waiting inspectors awkwardly. “It’s all in my statement I gave the other officers,” he added for their benefit.

“Sure, it’s completely normal for masked attackers to assault students for a bag full of text books,” Williams grunted.

“Clearly someone doesn’t know how much textbooks cost,” Aurora rolled her eyes, “but you’ll find the fucker right? Shouldn’t you be out there looking for him? The entire campus has CCTV you know?”

“Thank you Miss Bonello, we are aware,” Gabriel replied with a sigh. “But it looks like the guy was a professional, he hasn’t left much of a trace and it would help us to understand what he was after.”

“Maybe he just really wanted your number,” Ren muttered petulantly at Gabriel, regretting it as Williams’ eyebrows rose comically up his forehead.

“Your contact card –“ Ren hastily explained, “it was in my rucksack with my books.”

“You know,” Gabriel grinned, his teeth hooking over his lower lip, “if you were worried about losing my number you could have just asked for a replacement.” The other man fished an identical card from his wallet and handed it over to Ren.

Ren scowled, refusing to move as Aurora huffed and snatched the card instead. “Look I’m sure if my friend remembers anything he’ll give you a call, okay Inspector Malzieu?”

“Hey,” Ren called out weakly as the two men made to leave the cubicle under Aurora’s withering glare. “Does my dad know about this?”

“Commander Harper was informed, yes,” Gabriel replied.

“I’m sure he’s just busy Ren…” Aurora began when Ren cleared his throat loudly.

“No, it’s fine, I know that,” Ren turned to Oskar, “Um, do you think your driver would mind dropping me off home now?”

“It would be my pleasure,” Oskar replied kindly, his piercing blue eyes fixing on Ren’s grey ones.

By the time Ren glanced back up the curtain had already fallen closed and the inspectors had gone.