“Miss Darcy. Please do not attend my lectures if you’re not interested.” Sighing, Darcy did not bother retorting and simply left the room. The professor herself seemed surprised, but made no further comment. Once in the hallway, Darcy was confused at the commotion happening outside. She asked a girl with huge sunglasses what was going on.

“Oh, well, I came later, but you know Quinn? That girly guy, anyway, he was fighting with someone I don’t know why, then this other dude he was fighting started running after an old man, and Quinn followed after them.” Then, realizing how confusing she must have sounded, she added, chuckling: “I am not making any sense, am I?”

“Which way did they go?” Darcy inquired further. That totally did not make sense, but somehow, she knew it was important. She instantly ran towards the direction the girl pointed to, and used for guidance people’s whispers. Wherever there was commotion, there was Quinn. As she ran, Darcy hoped he was okay. She finally arrived to a classroom, in front of which a bunch of people gathered. She pushed herself in, earning several cusses and ‘hey!’s. Once inside the classroom, Darcy froze, mouth a gape. The classroom had three windows next to one another. A man’s body hung from the pane of the third window to the left. Holding onto him was none other than Joe, who was also being pulled back by Quinn. The scene was comic at best; Darcy was beyond bewildered.

“Quinn.”

The way she uttered his name made his already Adrenaline-fueled heart beat even faster. While still holding onto Joe’s jacket, he turned towards her. In his eyes relief and fear moved like the ebb and flow of the seas.

“Care to explain what the fuck is going on?” Then, averting her eyes towards Joe, she added: “And you Joe?” Hearing the familiarity with which she addressed him, Quinn gasped. So they knew each other?

The detective gave one strong pull at the man stuck on the window pane, leading to the three of them falling stacked one above the other, with Quinn supporting the two of them.

“Get off, dickheads!” He exclaimed pushing them away. “You’re crushing my balls.”

Darcy heard the crowd at the door laugh. Paying them no mind, her hazel eyes fixed on the stranger who was struggling to get up. He seemed to be an old janitor, with a scarred face and a balding head. The moment he looked at her, she knew: It was him. Darcy’s heart beat so loudly she could hear it echo in her ears.

“It’s him!! He’s the one who was following me!”

Both Quinn and Joe seemed surprised at this, and without the need for words, cooperated to render the said man incapable of moving. They sat him on his knees, and restricted his arms behind his back.

“Are you sure?” Joe asked calmly. Darcy nodded, feeling her entire body tremble. Quinn gazed at her with concern. With his other hand, for his right one was holding the old man’s wrists together, he took out a badge from his jacket.

“It’s the police.” He addressed himself to the gathering crowd, reassuring them that whatever was happening was legal. He then pulled the man to his feet and pushed him out of the classroom. Seeing him exit and the people disperse gave Darcy the impression of Moses parting the Red Sea. She stepped forward to follow him, but was held back by Quinn’s hand grabbing onto her wrist.

“Wait, Darcy.” She turned to him, annoyed. “What do you want?”

“We... we need to talk. Why didn’t you tell me you contacted the cops about this?”

Darcy seemed confused by his question, and violently pulled her arm away. Quinn flinched in response.

“Excuse me? I don’t recall us being close enough for me to tell you about everything I do.”

“If you’re saying this because I avoided you, I had no fucking choice, okay? You won’t even let me apologize.”

“Whatever, I don’t care anyway.” She knew that she would regret this later on, but she was really through with Quinn’s inconsistency. This push and pull technique of his extremely annoyed her. “Just leave me alone please, and focus on finding your friend.” She then walked out, finding Joe waiting for her. She flashed him a grateful weak smile then walked behind him, not wanting to make any eye contact with the man at the front.

They arrived to an office, which was freed for them by the college personnel after being shown Joe’s badge. Once inside, he took out his handcuffs and handcuffed the man. He then threw him on a couch. The latter groaned meekly.

“Can you do that?” She asked him.

“No, but everyone thinks I am a cop. So I guess they expect the violence.” He whispered in her ear. “The badge’s fake too.”

“I see...” Interesting fact, Darcy thought to herself. She should add a private detective to her E.G.G.. Joe sat next to the man and placed his arm on his shoulder as though they were friends. Darcy politely sat across from them.

“Now then, sir. Mind telling me why you’re following this poor girl?” The old man looked at her, and she flinched. What a sinister face.

“Cuz she’s next.” He replied, startling both of them. His voice was hoarse, and he was missing a couple of teeth.

“What do you mean she’s next?” Joe tightened his arm around the other’s neck, applying pressure.

“I told ya, she’s next. It’s her turn to disappear.”

“W-was it you?” She finally asked, her voice shaking. “Was it you who kidnapped Karl?”

The man looked at her with a grave face for a moment, before he broke out in an ugly and toothless laugh.

When Quinn came to that night, there was some sort of weight on top of him. When his vision cleared, he saw that a girl was riding him, her face distorted with pleasure and sweat. Who is this? The sight repulsed him beyond words. She stopped moving.

“What’s wrong?” she asked him. “You’ve gone soft. Are you not feeling good?”

“Sorry but can you get off me?” He mumbled, placing his hand on his face.

“Geez, talk about a turn off... Can I at least finish off by myself?” Her question made him realize that they were in his room, which reeked of all sorts of drugs.

“Sure, knock yourself out.” He replied, rubbing his temples. The girl moved from his lap back onto the bed, and returned to pleasing herself with her fingers. Quinn got up and put back on his pants. He hated when this happened, when he would regain his awareness in the middle of it. Then he would feel even worse, and would hate himself even more. Now inside the bathroom, he ignored the loud moans and washed his face. He looked at his exhausted reflection in disgust. The now-smudged mascara emphasized his eye bags. 

“What the hell am I doing with my life?” He asked his reflection, but the latter was just as lost as he was.

A knock on the bathroom made him turn suddenly. The moaning had stopped.

“What?”

“Your phone’s ringing. Also I am done so I’ll go now. Thanks for nothing.”

He got out to pick up the phone,  but the ringing stopped the moment the woman opened the door.

“Oh, hey there, little girl.”

Quinn’s heart jumped in horror at the realization of the situation he had placed himself in.

“You should probably try some other guy; he went limp midway... Lame, right?” She placed one sympathetic hand on Darcy’s shoulder before she walked away, her heels clicking loudly across the boys’ dorm.

Quinn could not even look up at her, and kept his head shamefully down. At first he heard nothing. But then he heard his door shut, and Darcy’s quiet footsteps going inside. His ears followed them as they walked towards the window. Then there was a cold breeze that made his bare chest shiver.

“Listen.” The sound of her voice made him hold his breath. “The guy who was following me, he has something to do with Karl.”

Oh. So that’s what she was going to say.

“When Joe asked him why he was after me,” Quinn hated how casually she said the man’s name, “he said that I am next. So then I asked him if he was the one who abducted Karl, and he started laughing hysterically. So yeah, there you have it. Joe and I already called the cops to start searching for Karl. It’s only a matter of time now.”

With his head still down, Quinn replied: “yeah, I... figured as much.”

“How?”

Now that the man in question was taken care of, Quinn guessed there would be no harm in telling her. She deserved to know, anyway.

“Two days after Karl disappeared, I received a letter without a return address. This man apparently wrote it. He told me that he kidnapped Karl, and that if I contacted the cops, he’d kill him immediately.”

“So that’s why you didn’t want to take the matter to the authorities...” Her voice was low and pensive.

“Yeah... and it also said that I couldn’t tell anyone about it or he would know. I felt he was bluffing, but I didn’t want to take that risk.”

“I see.”

“And_ it said that if I wanted to find Karl, I had to make you read his works and that you’re a detective.” Quinn heard her gasp.

“Do... do you still have the letter?”  

“Yeah. It’s in the closet over there.” It was already too late by the time Quinn remembered. As soon as Darcy opened the closet, a box of condoms fell down. Hearing the impact, he lowered his head further. He wished the ground would somehow open up and swallow him whole. A sigh from Darcy made him feel like the filthiest creature on earth.

“You don’t really have to keep your head down like that. It’s your life; I couldn’t care less if you slept around.”

Every word Darcy spoke felt like a cold knife right through his heart. He had expected as much_ he knew already that she didn’t see him that way. Yet, he had simultaneously feared and hoped that she would be angry, that she would yell at him, that she would call him disgusting. Up to this point, Quinn had never thought that indifference could hurt this much. He felt himself shattering to pieces.

Slowly, he lifted his head, and found Darcy reading the letter in front of the closet. The box of condoms was right next to her feet, and she was stepping on one.

“I had hoped it was handwritten... but yeah I guess that’d be too old-school. Of course they’d type it... Can I take this? It will be the perfect concrete proof.”

Quinn nodded. “... Sure.”