A What?

I adore this grand irony, AJ commented as Alex was turning his wallet inside out. Son of the wealthiest bastards in England and you can't scrape together enough money to catch a train. Maybe you should try hitchhiking.  

"Shut it," Alex muttered as he managed to extract the last coin stuck in his wallet's change pocket. That combined with the other coins he managed to find still left him about five pounds short of what he needed for the train ticket. 

He could just use the credit card tucked behind his ID. He only ever touched it for groceries, and the few times Jack dragged him to Brighton for a day trip. But his mother was already going to be upset about him coming home without warning. Without permission. He didn't want to risk pissing her off even more by using her money to do it. The change he did have was leftover birthday money from his aunt Claire, all the way back in April. She had given him so much, and he bought things so infrequently that it lasted a long time. 

Not long enough, AJ said. Shouldn't have bought that overpriced coffee when Jack made you go to Paris.  

"You know what? You can-" Alex was about to tell himself to do something extremely crude and anatomically impossible, but stopped himself when he heard Matthew's door open. Alex shut his mouth and tried to think of more places to check for money as his flatmate emerged. He was fully dressed for the day, his backpack slung over one of his shoulders, looking like he was ready to walk out the door. But he didn't right away. He just watched Alex as he fruitlessly checked his wallet again. 

Alex brushed past him with a quiet "excuse me" to get back to his room and check his pockets for change. When he came back empty-handed, Matthew was still there. He was standing by the table where Alex had left the train schedule and his insufficient funds. He was looking down at them like he was putting together pieces of a jigsaw puzzle in his head. Before Alex could say anything, Matthew wordlessly took a faded wallet from his trousers pocket. While still looking at the table, he reached in, pulled out a five-pound note, and held it towards Alex. The motion was casual but looked strange since Matthew still wouldn't look at him. 

"Are you..." Alex started to ask after a bit of silence. He didn't finish, because he convinced himself he knew the answer before he could finish the question. No, Matthew Montoya was not lending him a fiver. 

"Take it," Matthew said, still not looking at him. 

Alex blinked more slowly than normal, expecting him to admit he was joking. Or to just wake up. When neither of those things happened, Alex shook his head. 

"Oh no," he said. "I couldn't-" 

"Pita," Matthew muttered, sounding like he was unsure if he was saying the word right. "That's what you called that man yesterday. On the phone. It means dad, right? Ellie calls hers that too." Matthew finally turned his head. His expression was hard to read. Angry? Empathetic? Uncomfortable? All of the above, maybe. "You want to go visit your dad? So, take it." 

Alex hesitated for a moment longer. Matthew kept his hand outstretched and stared him down. Before he could talk himself out of it, he crossed the room and took the money. As soon as his fingers made contact, Matthew let go of it so quickly Alex almost dropped it. 

"I'll pay you back," he said as soon as he had it in his grip, but he wasn't sure if Matthew even heard him. He was out the front door by the time Alex finished speaking. 

Alex looked down at the note. The Queen of England stared back at him as he vowed in his head to pay Matthew back double. He put all the money back in his wallet and rushed to get ready for his classes. 

On his way down to the lobby, Alex debated with himself about leaving right then. He doubted he would be able to focus much on his classes anyway. If his mother was home when he arrived, she would be pissed, but chances were she wasn't. She spent most of her days flitting from one family enterprise to the next. Real estate offices, manufacturing companies, and shipyards. Her most recent obsession was the investment firm in London they just bought out. She spent so much time there that Alex might even be able to get away with going unnoticed all weekend. He still needed to take Jack, though. His father bringing up his name had unsettled him. 

He's dead, Utkarsh's voice repeated in his mind. He's dead and they'll do nothing!  

Yeah, Jack needed to come with him. And they needed to leave as soon as possible. Should he tell Jack why? He didn't want to scare him. And Alex probably shouldn't tell his friend that Utkarsh prophesized his death when he wasn't even sure that's what his father saw. Jack probably didn't even need a lot of explaining to be convinced to ditch. Still, Alex would have to tell him something. 

Alex reached the lobby before he could decide, but was jostled out of his thoughts when he was greeted by a very strange scene. The usually empty floor was filled with idling students. Some were lounging on furniture looking bored, but most were standing in a chattering crowd. They formed a circle around one of the coffee tables, which was acting as a stage for a very dishevelled, exhausted, but also slightly intimidating Warren. He looked like he was arguing with about half the crowd at once, but the volume made it all sound like incoherent noise to Alex. 

Alex stepped out of the elevator and noticed Matthew standing right next to it, leaning on the wall to the side of the call button. He was looking at the scene with a mix of annoyance and amusement. He glanced at Alex when he walked out, but otherwise didn't acknowledge him. Alex slowly started to wade through the crowd, until he could start to make out what Warren was saying. 

"-just need to stay here until campus security shows up," Warren was saying. "They'll have answers for you... Maybe." 

"Who died and made you boss?" someone Alex couldn't discern called out. Warren rolled his eyes. 

"Why are you even upset, Kaylee? You drag your feet getting to class every day." 

"Well, I've gone through the trouble of getting ready already. If you wanted to try your hand at playing dictator, you should have started before I did my makeup." 

"You're just worried this means you won't get your morning snog session with Liam," Alex heard Hannah's voice comment. 

Alex pushed through the crowd enough to see that Warren's old friend group was arguing with him the most. He figured it was because they were feeling spiteful that Warren had been ignoring them since he started hanging out with Connor. They all stood at the front of the crowd with matching frowns, aside from Hannah and Isaac. Hannah looked like she couldn't care less, and Isaac just looked at his cousin like someone who was watching their friend poke a sleeping bear. 

"Kaylee!" the twin that must have been Norah shouted. "You promised you would keep your hands off him!" 

"Thanks, Hannah," Kaylee said, giving a pointed look to a still indifferent-looking Hannah. "Look, if you weren't going to make a move at least one of us should have. If you want you can take my place for a couple of days." 

The twins started arguing with themselves rather than with Warren, but he was still fielding questions and grievances from other kids. He was in the middle of trying to reason with a year twelve girl when he locked eyes with Alex. He abandoned his argument and hopped down from the table to approach him. 

"Thank god," he breathed out, gently leading Alex over to a less crowded area of the lobby. "Can you help me keep them from leaving?" 

"I'm flattered that you think they would listen to me any more than they would you," Alex said, "but it's an unfounded faith. What's going on?" 

Warren sighed and glanced around, checking to see if anyone was listening. Luckily, most people had stopped paying attention to him. They were either watching the twins argue or discussing amongst themselves if they should follow Warren's instructions. 

"Mary brought her little cousin Charlotte to my room this morning," Warren started, so close his breath tickled Alex's face. "You know her, right?" 

"She's a year seven, yeah?" Alex guessed. 

"Yes. The girl was in hysterics. Mary shares a flat with her, and said she went out for a morning jog and came back like that. Couldn't get her to stop. Why she thought I would be able to help, I've no idea. Took me ten minutes and a whole box of tissues to get her to calm down. And then only long enough to say... To say she found a body in the courtyard." 

"A what?" Alex said too loudly. A couple of students gave him strange looks as Warren pushed Alex further away from them. 

"Shh! Careful, Alexander." 

"Who's the body?" Please, not Jack.  

"I don't know. After she said that she went back to sobbing! When I kept asking, she just kept getting more and more upset. So, I had Mary keep her in my room and called your uncle. Well, I tried to. I got his secretary. She told me Headmaster Conrad was going to investigate, and that campus security would be here soon. In the meantime, she asked me to keep people from leaving but not to tell them why!" 

"How long have you been doing that?" 

"Five minutes, maybe. Luckily, it's still early; not sure how long I can keep this up. I'd say so far, I've got an 80/20 success rate." 

"I'll go get Jack," Alex said while his mind raced. He's fine, AJ said, sounding utterly panicked. He's up in his room. Whatever this is, it's not why your dad was freaking out. "They'll listen to him." 

"Thanks," Warren said as Alex spun around to get back to the elevator. Just as he was figuring it might be faster to take the stairs, he noticed the space formerly occupied by Matthew Montoya was empty. Alex turned and scanned the room just in time to see him walk out the front door. 

"Matthew, wait!" Alex shouted, but he either didn't hear or didn't care to listen and kept on going right out the door. Warren noticed and let out a defeated sigh. 

"Guess it's 79/21 now," he muttered. 

"Could you go get Jack?" Alex said. As much as he wanted to make sure his friend was okay, his anxiety level rose the further away Matthew got. "I need to-" 

"Yeah, go," Warren said, pressing the elevator call button. "Wouldn't want him getting in trouble." 

Alex nodded in thanks and rushed out the door. He ran to catch up once he was outside, calling Matthew's name and asking him to wait. He didn't stop, but he didn't speed up either. He may have even slowed down a little bit. 

"We should stay at the dorm," Alex breathed out when he caught up. "Warren said we need to-" 

"Why?" Matthew interrupted. 

"I don't know, but-" 

"You'd think you would know better than to try and lie at this point." 

Alex had been keeping pace with Matthew, so he sped up and got in front of him. Matthew tried to go around, so Alex walked backwards to keep from being ignored. 

"I don't know what's going on," Alex insisted. It wasn't a complete lie. "But they usually only keep us indoors when there's some kind of threat to safety. Maybe.... maybe someone dangerous snuck onto campus. Or maybe even a wild animal." 

"Good thing I'm Doctor-fucking-Dolittle then." 

"But-" 

"I'm not staying cramped in a room full of spoiled brats if no one is going to bother to tell me why." 

"Then go to McAvoy," Alex suggested. The direction they were going in would take them straight to the courtyard. Toward whatever Charlotte Somers saw. Whoever. McAvoy would steer them in the opposite direction. "Go wait with your friends." 

"Oh, you know what's going on." 

"I don't!" 

"There's something in the quad, isn't there?" 

Alex wanted to say no, but he had a feeling he wouldn't sound very convincing. Unfortunately, Matthew took his silence as a 'yes'. He shook his head and sped up so much that Alex tripped over himself getting out of the way. 

"Look, if I were you, I would use the fact that something is going on to see if you can sneak off campus now," Matthew said as Alex chased after him. "Your old man sounded like he needs you sooner rather than later." 

"I... I can't go yet." 

"You want to see what's going on too, don't you?" Again, Alex's silence screamed yes. "Then just shut up and come with me." 

Alex wanted to argue further, but he couldn't think of anything to say. Because Matthew was right. Alex needed to see what Charlotte had seen. He needed to know if he left Jack asleep in his room or if he was on his way to see him lying in the quad. So, he followed after Matthew without further protest. 

They entered the quad from the north end, and at a distance saw a small bunch of students near the entrance of the building on the south end. Matthew sped up when he spotted them but slowed down when he realized a girl was sitting on the ground by the central oak tree. She had her knees pulled up to her chest, and she was silently sobbing. Alex didn't know her name, but she was a year eight girl. He was pretty sure her family was from Mexico. 

Matthew diverted himself from the crowd to slowly approach her. "Hey kid," he said, his voice gentle. It should have sounded funny, him calling her 'kid' when he was only a couple of years older than her. But it didn't. As he crouched next to her, he suddenly seemed much older, and she seemed much younger. "Are you alright?" 

The girl didn't pick her head up, but she stuttered out something in Spanish that Alex couldn't understand. Matthew couldn't either. 

"Lo siento, niña. No entiendo. ¿Te lastimaste?" 

Alex heard her mumble 'no' a couple of times, but she didn't raise her head. She said a few other things, but her voice was so muffled and strained from crying. There was only one word Alex could discern. Sangre. Blood. 

Matthew tried to coax some more information out of her, but Alex couldn't hear anything past the ringing in his ears. He suddenly wanted to run back to the dorms. To the train station, even. Far away from that little congregation of students and whatever they were looking at. But the only thing that scared him more than the thought of walking up there and finding Jack, was the thought of him lying there while Alex just ran away. 

Alex shuffled past Matthew and the younger girl, towards the group of students. He vaguely registered that a couple of other girls broke off from the group and rushed past him, calling what must have been that crying girl's name. They looked distraught as well, but that only pushed Alex to keep going. When he reached the crowd, he heard someone shouting "Conrad" from behind him, but he didn't fully register that they were calling him. He only turned his head to the voice when he realized it was Matthew's voice shouting. The girls who had passed Alex were consoling the girl by the tree, so he had left her to follow him. 

"Conrad, wait!" he called, but Alex didn't need to slow down much for him to catch up. "What the hell is going on?" 

Instead of answering, Alex started pressing through the crowd, not bothering to mumble out any apologies along the way. There were maybe a couple dozen kids there, and most of them scooted out of his way. He felt a hand grab at the fabric of his shirt. When he glanced back, he saw it was Matthew wearing a grim expression, trying to get through a crowd that was less mindful of him. Without thinking Alex grabbed his hand and pulled him along. Matthew looked surprised, maybe even put off, but he didn't let go. Alex dragged him along until he reached the front of the crowd. Where the walkway of the quad led up to the steps of one of the buildings. Where Alex saw what had driven Charlotte Somers and that girl under the oak to hysterics. 

The first thing Alex saw was the blood. Still liquid, but no longer flowing from its source. It had seeped into the cracks of the pavement and pooled in a distorted halo around the body it was born from. The body. The dead body. Alex didn't see any discernable features at first. He was too focused on the red. On the smell, it was giving off. But he forced himself to look past it, and then he only saw one thing. 

Blonde hair. Curly blonde hair. No black. Not Jack and his stupid horse mane. Curly blonde hair. 

Alex had the nerve to let out a sigh of relief, but the feeling didn't last long. He felt Matthew's hand slip out of his own, and then he was standing beside Alex. Trembling beside him. Alex looked away from the red and the blonde and glanced at Matthew. His eyes were wide and filled with about a dozen different emotions. Disbelief. Fear. Grief, most of all. 

"No," Matthew whispered. His eyes were fixed on the ground. On the body. "No." 

Alex looked back, for a second too long still confused. He couldn't see who it was. He couldn't see if they were a student, a staff member, a teacher or a stranger. All he could see was that they weren't Jack. So, he forced himself to see the details. Curly blonde hair. A small, now broken, frame. A crooked nose. Freckle-painted cheeks. Bright blue eyes, still open towards the grey sky. Dressed in a navy-blue sweater, grey joggers, and dirt-caked trainers. As if he had just been on a morning run. 

Baptiste. 

Matthew made a move like he was going to walk forward, and Alex shot out a hand to stop him. He was pretty sure getting closer wasn't a good idea. 

"Wait," he said, catching Matthew by his wrist. Matthew's entire body tensed and froze from the contact. Once again, he didn't pull away. Of course, Alex wasn't exactly sure what to do next. Luckily, he didn't have to figure it out. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the crowd was parting, making ample room for a group of three people. Alex turned his head fully to see his uncle flanked by two security guards. 

Thomas had a mostly annoyed expression on his face like he had ordered food that was taking too long to arrive at his table. It shifted to something else entirely when he was done parting the crowd and saw what everyone had gathered for. His own blue eyes flashed with something Alex had never seen from him before. Panic. He almost looked as frightened and clueless about what to do as Alex felt. 

He recovered quickly, though, and Alex wondered if any of the other kids had noticed he faltered. "This campus is now on lockdown," he announced in a steady voice. "All students are to report to their flats and remain there until informed otherwise." None of the other students moved. Thomas frowned and raised his voice. "Immediately!" 

That caused most of the kids to scatter, but Matthew didn't even flinch. Alex had a feeling he hadn't heard a single word Thomas said. He was still staring at Baptiste in disbelief fear and grief. 

"That means you as well, Mr. Montoya," Thomas said. Matthew still didn't move. Thomas's frown deepened and he took a step towards him. "Mr. Montoya, I said-" 

Alex held up a hand to signal his uncle to shut up. By some miracle, he did, but he looked like he wanted to smack Alex again. Alex ignored him and squeezed Matthew's hand. 

"Matthew," he said gently, using his other hand to also squeeze Matthew's shoulder. "We have to go back to the dorm." 

Matthew stared down at Baptiste for a second longer before looking Alex in the eye. A new emotion was there, mixed in with shock, fear and grief. Anger. Loathing. Like Alex was the reason Baptiste was lying there. It unsettled Alex so much he reflexively pulled his hands away from Matthew. He was sure his flatmate was about to hit him, but he didn't. He backed away from Alex like he was going to head back the way they came. But he suddenly darted to his left, towards and iron trashcan by the walkway. He doubled over once he reached it and proceeded to vomit. 

Alex saw Thomas roll his eyes, like this child should be taking seeing the bloody and broken corpse of his friend much better than this. Alex rushed behind Matthew and pulled some of the longer strands of hair away from his face, like he had done for Jack every time he drank too much over a weekend. Matthew was shaking even harder now, and once his stomach was empty, he kept dry heaving and coughing. 

"Take him to the nurse, then," Thomas said, again sounding annoyed. "Quickly. You two, have the others made it to the dormitories yet?" 

Thomas diverted his attention to the security guards, and Alex heard brief mentions of calling the local police. It was like he and Matthew had been forgotten. When it sounded like Matthew was done heaving, Alex let go of his hair and put a gentle hand on his back. 

"You can lie down in one of the exam rooms," he said. "I don't know if you've met nurse Clara, but-" 

Alex cut himself off when Matthew stood upright and started to wander off. He was going on shaky legs and seemed to realize fairly quickly that he didn't know where to go. He stopped and stood still long enough for Alex to figure out that he was waiting for him. 

"It's right this way," Alex said, walking in front of him to lead the way. Matthew followed behind, still shaking and unsteady. He wrapped his arms around himself, to stop his shaking or from the cold Alex couldn't tell. He was just glad he did it. It gave Alex an excuse to not touch him. To not try to take his hand again, no matter how much he wanted to.