Nevermore

Chapter 18

L U C A

The six of them strolled underneath the night sky, which was cloaked in somber clouds of grey. Nobody spoke a word for a while, all probably wondering if any of this was a good idea, or if the price of justice was worth walking down a path with an unclear end.

    However, there was always one person who never let silence take over for too long before breaking it, and Luca was thankful for that.

    Shawn heaved a miserable sigh. "This is starting to make me feel uncomfortable."

    "Well, we are trying to catch someone's murderer singlehandedly, while the whole university and the police are convinced that it was suicide," said Arthur.

    "No, not that. I was talking about your outfit," Shawn said with a sneer, looking Arthur up and down. Arthur threw a glare at him, while the others tried their best to suppress their sniggers.

    At last, time for departure arrived; Nicholas and Eve left for the university's post office, Arthur and Isaac went to the locker rooms, and Luca and Shawn made their way down to the Berrington Hall.

    Silence reigned the walls of the large building as Luca and Shawn walked through the empty hallways. Luca had never been in the Berrington Hall after midnight, where the loudest sound that could be heard was the sound of their footsteps and their nervous breathings.

    "This way," Luca whispered to Shawn, leading him down a dim corridor and toward a staircase down the hall. The only light that was coming to their aid was the moonlight, beaming through the tall windows.

    "How much longer?" Shawn groaned impatiently.

    "We're almost there. It's on the last floor," said Luca.

    There was an uneasy batter in his chest, and Luca could not tell whether it was because they weren't allowed to be here at this hour, or if the reason to his pounding heart was Shawn Anderson.

    When they finally reached the fifth floor, the two boys descended into the music room, grievously afraid of what the night might old.

    "I'd never been here before," Shawn said in a quiet tone, looking around him in amusement.

    "Well, let's start searching. The sooner we get this over with, the better," Luca said without even glancing at Shawn, making his way over the teacher's desk to look through its drawers.

    "Why? Have you got somewhere better to be?" Shawn grinned, walking toward Luca.

    Luca tried to keep searching, pretending as if he couldn't feel Shawn's presence right beside him. As if he couldn't smell his sharp cologne from where he was standing.

    "Not me. But I'm sure you have to get to your late-night rendezvous with Betty," Luca said jokingly, but there was a certain bitterness to his voice that he could not hide away.

    "Actually, I broke it off with her the day after my last rugby game," Shawn said with a careless shrug, looking through the music sheet that laid everywhere on the desk, in hopes of finding one of the red envelopes among them.

    Just then, Shawn stretched out his arm across the desk to pick up another large pile of music sheet that his hand gently brushed against Luca's. Startled at the shiver that Shawn's mere touch sent down his spine,

Luca moved away from him in a quick motion, briskly walking toward the wooden shelves on the other side of the room and pretending to search for the envelopes there. He was terrified of the power Shawn had over him.