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“Whatever made you drag me to the library and keep me here long past closing.”
“Shit. The library’s closed? I have no idea what time it is.”
“It’s been closed for about half an hour now, and it’s getting pretty late. So, do you want to talk about it?”
“You knew something was going on?”
Malia shrugs. “You seemed pretty keen to come here, so I just made excuses to stay.”
“You did that for me?”
“Of course.” She blinks at me. “Why wouldn’t I?”
She doesn’t seem to get what a big deal that is to me, even though I know it must also be a huge deal for her.
She thinks I’m staying in the library because I’m upset about something, so she’s come up with excuses to stay with me. I shake my head, unable to believe her kindness.
“Was it what happened earlier…you know, in the woods?”
I hesitate. “Sort of,” I reluctantly admit. I have to tell her something. “There’s a couple of girls that have gone missing on campus lately and it’s shaken me, I guess.”
“You know I won’t be one of them, right? You don’t have to stick by my side. I’ll be fine.”
“You disappeared before,” I tell her, unable to point out how out of our minds we all were when she vanished.
“I was sick, not missing. And I came back.”
“I just don’t want anything bad to happen to you like—”
“Like what?”
“Like murders, and now disappearances. At least before they were found.”
She gives a sharp intake of breath. “Do you think these missing girls are dead?”
“I don’t know. There’s people out looking for bodies as we speak.”
“Bodies not people? You think they’re dead, not missing.”
“Not necessarily.”
“You’re talking like they’re dead!”
I wince at how loud her voice is, even though we’re here alone. I told Betsy when she came back from her break that we had this handled, and she gave me the keys to lock up with a stern lecture about not defiling the sanctity of the library.
“Shit. I guess I am. Sorry. It’s just, there have been so many lately and this sort of thing never usually happens.”
“It’s odd how the place isn’t crawling with police and curfews and things, isn’t it?”
I can’t tell her why that is. But I can nod along and play dumb.
“So why are we stuck here?”
“One of the missing girls was in our class and the other, well, the one I think is missing is in your dorm.”
“I know them?”
“Do you know many people in your dorm and on our course?”
